Welcome to the July 21st 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.
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The Story of My Week.
During the week, one of my kids asked me if we could play a game.
We had a choice between Ludo and Monopoly. We eventually settled for Ludo.
Why do I share this story?
Playing a game with my kid was not on my agenda when I got the request.
I had brought out my laptop ready to get some good stuff going.
I said “Yes” to this request because of the countdown clock I have running in my head for all my kids.
Once they are born, I tell myself I have 18 years with them before they fly the coop.
I have to make every day of the 18 years count.
That’s why I try to say “Yes” to as many of these interruptions as I can accommodate.
It’s time-framed perspectives.
I try to live out my time-framed perspectives in different aspects of my life.
They give me a better sense of the value of the power of a moment.
Living and Serving Everyone in between.
In the Power of a Moment.
Things I Learnt
1-Don’t Always Believe the Noise: I was speaking with someone who was considering countries to live him.
According to him, he preferred a country in Europe like Spain to the US.
His reason was interesting. He holds to conservative values and does not like all the noise on gender and sex battles.
Such battles do not exist in Europe. So, it must mean it is not a problem in Europe.
Luckily for him, I had had the pleasure of living in Europe and Spain the country in consideration.
I told him the reason there was no noise in a country like Spain is because there is no more fight. All those alternative lifestyles have already been normalized and accepted as part of their way of life.
You have the “noise” in the US because there are still a group of people fighting to not have it adopted as part of everyday living.
I told him that if he moved to a country like Spain, he would need to be more deliberate in leading his family to hold on to the values important to them.
Once upon a time, I visited Nigeria while living in Spain. A TV commercial for a perfume came up. I was waiting to see the whole thing and saw that it was over in no time.
The version of the commercial they showed in Nigeria had edited out the more suggestive aspects of the video. In Spain, you get the whole stuff - including the not-so-good-to-see for a conservative-minded person.
There is no noise because there is no fight.
Don’t let the noise confuse you.
2-Beware the Targets: I had a jaw-jaw with a senior executive during the week. I had worked with one of the company’s business teams on their 2nd half-year targets.
Eventually, we came up with a set of targets that I think was challenging enough.
The only problem was that the senior executive believed they should be delivering more.
According to him, this is an initiative that has an annual multi-billionaire naira income generation potential.
I had a sit down with him and explained that even if that was the end game, we need to get there in incremental multiplier mindsets.
The goals I had set with them required them to deliver 7x the results they delivered in the 1st half of 2024. Yes, you saw that right, 7x.
He wanted them to 12x it. Considering the short transition between the half-year, I thought that target was too high.
He has the mindset of high-expecting entrepreneurs. The problem is that when you set targets that are outside a fixed time horizon, you dampen the enthusiasm of your team to achieve them.
I love 10x thinking and goal setting. I do that for myself. I have also learnt to keep my thinking and goals while adjusting the time horizon.
There is no use burning out myself or the people who work with me.
Beware the Targets.
Postscript
May you live life fully in the power of a moment. Amen
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Tola - The Everyday Disciple
I help Christians like you who want to live intentional lives incorporate their faith into everyday life so they can make Christ focused decisions in all areas of life and truly live to make an impact and make God happy.
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