My favourite subject in Senior Secondary School was biology.

I was great at other subjects and got comparable grades to biology, but I did not get as much of a thrill as I did with biology.

And it came down to one thing – continuous assessment.

The teacher had a discipline with continuous assessment that was unmatched.

After every topic, you were sure a test was coming. The test did not just cover the topic he just taught but all topics he had taught until the last.

The results were published with each student’s name.

There was only one way to do well in his class – continual review of lesson notes and recommended reading.

It made the exams that came at the end of the term feel unnecessary to me because it was like re-answering questions you had already mastered.

Biology was the one subject I did not need to read during exams. I understood it so well that I used the preparation time allocated to it for other subjects.

In every aspect of my life where I have taken the learning of continuous assessment and applied, I have excelled beyond my wildest dreams.

In aspects I wait for a target date in the future to assess progress, I have always fallen short of my expectations.

For what is important, I have learnt to have a continuous assessment loop to keep me grounded.

– Osasu Oviawe

Anger unmasks us and reveals parts we prefer to hide.

If you are aware of them, explore them before you are angry. Otherwise, your image in the mirror will scare you.

If you are unaware of them, capture them on a page after the anger passes and explore them.

If you like what you see, leave the parts as they are.

If you do not like what you see, change it.

– Osasu Oviawe

“Feedback is a gift that is given with the wrapping that is available to the giver.” ~ Akin Oparison

Whether the wrapping is beautiful or ugly, you will have to take it off.

If it is beautiful, you can take a picture of it and use it as inspiration for any gift you want to offer in the future.

If it is ugly, throw it in the bin.

But never reject the gift because of the wrapping.

– Osasu Oviawe

One proof that there is a devil is how quickly I sleep when I start my night prayer.

The devil just starts to blow soothing air into my ears with the words – “sleeeeeeep, sleeeeep, sleeeeeep.”

If you are having difficulties with sleeping, learn to pray. The devil will do the rest.

– Osasu Oviawe

You decide how you feel in any situation.

It is the last of our freedoms.

Do not give it away.

– – Osasu Oviawe

Feedback is neither constructive nor destructive. It is recognizable/relatable or unrecognizable/unrelatable.

Where the feedback is relatable to you, it is easier to take.

Where the feedback is unrelatable to you, it is harder to take.

Growth takes place to the degree of your openness to unrelatable feedback.

– Osasu Oviawe

Listen to what people talk about often.

It is what they struggle most with in their lives.

If you pay attention, every cross is displayed.

– Osasu Oviawe

Give it once.

If it is for them, they will get it. If it is not for them, they will not get it.

Repeating advice only makes people dig in, preferring to have their own experience than take the shortcut advice offers.

Give it once.

And then sit back and learn more about human behaviour by observing what is done with it.

In my life, advice that I have taken did not need to be repeated. Once was enough.

– Osasu Oviawe

“If you need to be proven right, learning is a challenge. If you’re eager to be proven wrong, learning is delightful.” ~ Seth Godin.

There is always tension in learning. The tension of vulnerability. But if learning occurs, that vulnerability is turned into beauty that will help those that come after will learn faster with less scars.

Embrace the possibility that you are wrong, and you will be wrong less often.

– Osasu Oviawe

Sometimes, things take longer than we expect, but they always happen at the right time.

Time is on your side, play your part and it will compound your efforts into results that will astound you.

– Osasu Oviawe