Welcome to the November 15th edition of Faith & Life Lessons.
You will see this email full of tidbits from my week. My goal is simple. I hope that from how I live my life, you can find a thing or two that helps you as you try to live a life that matters. I am always trying to do one thing - make Christ-focused decisions in love, work, and life. And this was my week.
The Story Of My Week
I was fighting the flu most of the week
This is an unusual thing to say in a post COVID world. People begin to think it could be more than that.
I started thinking it could be more after I saw a couple of mosquitoes where I was staying. Just to be sure I covered all bases, I started an anti-malaria treatment
That’s one thing growing up as an African teaches you - you don’t wait until the full weight of malaria hits you before fighting with full force
Anyway, it didn’t stop me from working. After getting some rest, I was back on the work grind again.
I noticed that I had missed out on my usual physical activity regime. I’ll have to pick up on that in the new week.
God has given me a body that I need to keep in good condition so I can last the full length of time God has earmarked for me to fulfill His purpose on the earth.
I have got to reclaim the care of my body
It’s my responsibility to God
Things I Learnt
1-When Social Limits Creativity: I noticed this week that I spent more time than I ordinarily do on social media.
I guess maybe been away from home and having no friends around made me reach for social media than I usually do
But I noticed an immediate effect. I didn’t create or produce as much as I would have.
I was caught up in consuming more and creating less.
Later in the week, I listened to the interview that Jerrad Lopes of Dad Tired Podcast did with John Eldredge.
In it, they refer to a study that shows how excess exposure to social media drives up social comparison, envy, and depression. I search the internet for the study
It was clear for me - manage my social media exposure to keep my creativity and productivity up.
2-Making Work Count for Others: Now and again I get the opportunity of working with people outside of my regular team.
One of the things I try to do is train people to think. I find that most people work on auto-pilot (tell me what to do and I’ll be OK)
Doing this helps most people find answers on their own. In most cases, they already had the answers - they just didn’t pause to think through
I see my role as asking the questions that make you bring out the answers to your questions.
I did that with this lady during the week.
At the end of the task, she sent me this message “Thank you, sir. It was really great working with you“
Mission accomplished
Not because she said thank you but because she got better working with me.
That’s the bigger goal
Not just completing the task but make people better
And I guess we did both
Postscript
May the people you get to work with be grateful to God for you because you made them become better (amen)
Tata,
Tola
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