Navigating Through The Noise.
“Don’t be afraid to make your own choices, even if they’re not the ones everyone else expects you to make.” — Eren Yeager
As I write this article I assure you that if it’s noise, there is a lot of it currently, thanks to the subsidy removal. PHEDC (Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company) on the other hand, has chosen to frustrate me and my work life. So here I am, writing this after being able to finally get some substantial work done, thanks to this cafe I visited. There is nothing I can offer to solve this situation I am experiencing right now, so I write because that’s my coping mechanism. After this, I can now think of how I can start generating alternate sources of power because this country will not kill me.
Growing up, I came across a story which was part of the comprehension segments of my primary school English textbook. It was the story of a man, his son and his donkey which I later got to know was based on Aesop’s fable. If you don’t know about it, this Medium story talks about it. That story is something that stuck with me and has been a guiding principle in my life.
No matter the situation you are in, people will talk. If you do good, they will talk, if you do bad they will talk. As far as the Nigerian community is concerned, this is a regular occurrence in a community-centric society like ours. This comes in the form of unsolicited advice, which sometimes is actually out of genuine concern. However there is something missing, they just aren’t you. The truth is “only the wearer knows where the shoe pinches” and more times than none, these people don’t fully understand the reality of your situation.
It is important you learn how to best filter the advice that comes to you. You are the one who is in the best position to know you, this is why Socrates said, “Man know thyself.” When such comments come in, thank them for their advice because like I said, it’s mostly because they care about you. Then you can crosscheck what was said with your reality. Is it something that works for you? What are the implications of you taking such a decision?
There’s also a noise I would like to talk about, the noise of social media. You are scrolling through your Twitter timeline, Instagram feed, Facebook page, LinkedIn etc. and boom you see that post. You act as if it is nothing but after some minutes you start to think about the post. “Isn’t this John from secondary school? So he already has a car and I don’t even know what’s next for me after I serve my father’s land.” I understand you and how you feel, it’s completely natural to feel that way. However, there are things we need to always have in the back of our minds.
Life comes in stages. I understand we may want to be at a certain stage at a certain time but omo you really can’t rush it. The best you can do is to give it the best of your capability at any point in time. If things are not working as you expect them, overthinking won’t solve it. After all, a famous philosopher once said, “…overthinking no fit solve problem...” At most, a retrospect to check out what is working and what is not working, then make adjustable plans. In the end, most times, things are beyond our control.
I believe we don’t realise that we are sometimes too hard on ourselves. As a translated proverb says, you can only know how you yourself prepared. As for someone else, you can only know what they tell you, which may be true or false. Look at your reality and know what works for you. You may be 23 years and you already know someone of that age with a car. Then to you, you are not making progress because you are yet to have your own car. You really don’t know how that person prepared and you most likely are comparing your one step to his/her one thousand steps. So cut yourself some slack, please.
Lastly is the career noise. “Ha, Mercy that just started Technical Writing some months ago is already earning in dollars oh. Shey I will not enter this Technical Writing too?” The truth of the matter is that all skills pay in as much as the amount payable differs due to role, skill, company and industry. However as you climb up into more senior positions, you find out that the gap between those roles isn’t as much as when starting out. To the best of my limited knowledge. No, I am not against role-changing because that would make me a hypocrite, and I am in support of people experimenting while young as there’s room to fail and try again. Nevertheless, if you are pivoting to a new career, let it be that you have a solid reason why and that you have adequately done your research. Never fail to ask questions and learn from the experiences of those before you.
Oh well, I hope I was able to sufficiently share my thoughts with you. Life tuff so don’t be too hard on yourself. At times, rest from the grinding and go back to the drawing board. Never fail to ask for help from your friends and also be of help to them (maybe a hint to my next piece). WAGMI 🔥🚀.
