“Itirayi ni gbogbo nkan.”
— — Wole Soyinka

The above statement in Yoruba language translates to;

“The trying is all.”
— — Wole Soyinka

In his memoir, You Must Set Forth At Dawn, Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka attributed the above aphorism to his mother. According to him, his mother, whom he described as Wild Christian used to confront every “gamut of incompatible situations” with the crisp adage quoted above. Professor Wole Soyinka explained that every time he was faced with any daunting and seemingly intractable challenge, those words always float up from within to spur him on. …

10 practical steps to keep your momentum in an over distracted age.

Inertia is the tendency of an object to remain in a state of rest unless compelled by external forces that set it in motion. Once in motion, an object tends to keep moving in a straight line in the direction of the force applied to it unless compelled by other external forces acting to stop its motion. This is called momentum. These concepts learnt from early Physics lessons were as explained by Sir Isaac Newton’s laws of motion.

Any object, once in motion must have enough reserve energy…

Photo by Author

“Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men.”

~ The Holy Bible

The family devotion time has just ended on that Monday morning. Shortly afterwards, my beloved three years old godson walked in with his mum. Ever inquisitive, he has on several instances floored me with his barrage of unending questions. Repeatedly, I will be left wondering, "Where did this young man got the idea for this query that got me flunked?" He will continue rummaging the house or livening the compound with his chants and restless antics.

…

There are two main seasons in my country. None of these two, rainy season (of plenitude) or dry season (of scarcity) matters much to this hardy breed.

I’ve crossed its path on several previous encounters. Back then, all I had to do was a short dash up the flight of stairs by the side of my office building, look down and there it was. Its foliage were either still or waving with the flow of the breeze. Each time, it was as if the stationary sentinel was whispering another “Hello there” my way.

One afternoon, I was upstairs again. As…

It was two days before Christmas and the day has already ran late into the night. Willy has been engrossed mending an old big map. It was one of those fold-in maps from an old edition of the National Geographic magazine. An average adult can make a decent T-shirt from cloth size measures of two of these maps. Come any day, several old copies of the magazine are scattered all over the house.

Frequent folding and unfolding has resulted in some slashes along its edges, but the map was still in good shape. That night, Willy insisted on mending the…

Photo by Hanny Naibaho on Unsplash

Yes, I know it. You’ve already had more than your fair share of those seemingly unending tips and hacks for keeping your head above the waters in these turbulent times.

Right from our mothers’ wombs to our infant days and all through our early teens, we were all dependent on our parents and other loved loved ones for our existence.

Today, many young adults are still tied to their parents umbilical chords. Severing these chords of dependency early in life are vital towards healthy growth and self reliance.

How do you pull this off?

1. Get out of the mire of learned self helplessness.

People who have experienced stressful conditions…

No one goes through life planning to fail. But, as credited to Winston Churchill, “He who fails to plan is planning to fail”. Precise and pungent, this aphorism applies in business as well as in all areas of human endeavors. Planning is a must for success in governments, the military, and all areas of human activity.

At the personal level, many of us started the year with plans some of which we couched as New Year resolutions. Be they personal or organizational, sticking to and following through on plans could be daunting. …

Here on earth, water is most vital for the sustenance of all life. But there is a name for the unsavoury condition of anyone found neck-deep in an overabundance of water — drowning. A similar condition plays out in the world of phones, tabs and their accompanying mobile applications. All our mobile phones come pre-installed with apps. Whether pre or user-installed, most phones end up cluttered with a sea of unneeded and therefore often unused mobile applications.

Living in a world of mobile superfluity, it is possible to get drowned out in the deluge of goodies and entirely miss out…