Perspective
There is a difference between “Dear Osasu” and “Osasu dear”.
Both phrases mean the same thing, but one is a greater signal of care. 
This is why I think one little change we can make around discussions on work-life balance is to flip the arrangement and start discussing life-work balance. After all, which comes first? 

Talk
The safest means of transportation has a lot more safety talk than others. 
What is the prevalent talk in your Organisation? 
What is the prevalent coffee/tea room, cafeteria, whatsapp and pre-meeting talk? 
To understand the underlying culture of an Organisation, listen to the prevailing talk.

Self sufficiency
In the bible, none of the people raised from the dead had a story worth telling in later chapters.
It has made me continually ask, what was the point in the second chance? The only answer I see, is improved credibility of the prophet involved.
However, there is a lesson in greatness with The One who raised Himself from the dead. His story has and continues to change the world in significant ways.
To truly make an impact, you cannot hinge your motivation and inspiration on external stimuli. It is an inside job. Raise yourself.

Self-Preservation
Preservatives are used to slow down deterioration and decay. They help to limit the decay, not stop the decay.
Decay is shadowed by swelling, which can be mistaken for growth. Closer inspection reveals the difference.
When an Organisation or individual goes on self-preservation mode, decay has already started.
What follows is a cocktail of arrogant, risk averse, blame throwing, responsibility avoiding, victim channeling, past looking, present boasting, future brooding, forgettable, time wasting, envious, snitching, and wry smiling cowardice.
You do not need preservatives if your rate of growth is higher than your rate of decline. 
Depending on what you invest in the present, time can either be a growth ally or a preservative promoter.

What works for you?
All nations work – either for its people or against its people.
All people work – either for themselves or against themselves.
All approaches work – either for desired results or against desired results.
Do not just work with what works, because everything works. Work with what works for you.

What are you feeding on?
You have to eat from what the world offers, digest it, absorb what is useful and throw out the rest. Just as it is important that we pay attention to what we ingest, if we plan on having a healthy life, it is also important that we are in control of what we expose our senses to. Even the best digestive system cannot take out all the junk in junk food. Your mind deserves even better attention. What you ignore is just as important as what you pay attention to.

Dense individuals
Dense individuals have less space for new learning and speak too early, because sound travels faster in denser mediums. To be enlightened, we must unburden self by challenging our biases, experience reality wholly and consciously interpret it by paying attention to how it molds our choices.

Can I ask you a question?
How many times have you met a confident individual speak with so much authority, but you can tell he is actually fronting. If you listen closely enough, all men reveal who they truly are and what they represent. Can I ask you a question? Why are you so sure of your perspective?
Flee from what or who cannot be questioned.

You are your business
Whether you are running a business or working for a business, you must realise that you are your business. Just as businesses need a balance sheet, a profit and loss assessment and cash flow statement, you need to pay attention to yours. You must plan to do better than last year, in spite of the myriad of circumstances outside your control. You must understand your customers and their incentives for choosing you. You must understand and use the levers of law, finance, security and government. You must understand your niche and build a moat of deep learning around it. You have to assess the people you let in, promote those that put more value in than they take out and let go off those that flip the script. You need to manage your external environment proactively and undertake social responsibilities that sell the image you want to project. You need to reduce inventory and free up cash for important investment decisions. You need to diversify in downturns and fully maximize upswings. You must understand sunk cost and stop the bleed. You have to outsource all distractions and focus on your core business. You are your business, you cannot outsource your core business to another business. Every business takes care of itself, first.

Great heights run deep
“No tree, it is said, can grow to heaven unless its roots reach down to hell.” – Carl Jung

– Osasu Oviawe

“A little learning is a dangerous thing; drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring: there shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, and drinking largely sobers us again.” – Alexander Pope

Sound travels faster in denser mediums. If you attend enough meetings, you will gain enough knowledge to “sound” intelligent. You will lack originality and continue to regurgitate only what you have heard, without any understanding of your own. It is easy to tell such people apart. They hate to be asked “Why?”, because they lack the required experience, sensitivity and understanding to clearly articulate their point of view. Just as they swallowed what they heard hook, line and sinker, they expect same from all. They assume their approach is smart, so fellow smart people should not ask any questions from them. They should just get it. Um, No, actually, as you learn, more questions arise, fewer answers are absolute and as the reality of how much you do not know and still need to seek hits you, humility sets in.

Just as you cannot learn how to drive by watching Formula One, or how to play football by watching La Liga Santander, or how to cook by watching Master Chef; you cannot learn how to be without doing.

Confidence is stimulating, but as you grow, you come to understand more, what Charles Darwin meant when he said, “Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.” I have come to test my confidence not by how I sound or how I look, but by how I act, especially in unrehearsed conditions. Questions are the most common unrehearsed condition.

Be worried when all your interpretation of the world is from the news, social media, books, people and other external stimuli. They help, but there is value in doing and reflecting. The experiences of life are supposed to help you pay attention, but if those experiences were never had, but only heard or read, how can you build your sensitivity. Your appreciation of reality will be remote, always requiring an external prompt.

“A man will be imprisoned in a room with a door that’s unlocked and opens inwards; as long as it does not occur to him to pull rather than push.” – Ludwig Wittgenstein

– Osasu Oviawe