Category: reflections

A Quarterly Round-Up…Q1 2024

Hi Hi. It has been a long minute since I last wrote. I have to admit that I have been feeling out of sorts over the past few months and once again, my mum came to the rescue. This time the message came through my best friend.

Healing

I haven’t had a heart-to-heart talk with my friend in years. She lives in the UK and we both let distance and life get in the way of our connection. On Thursday evening we took the time to have a veeeery looooong call and she told about her last conversation with my mum. It was exactly what I needed to hear and I spent Friday morning just crying my heart out because it was what I need to do. I have been feelng a lot more grounded since then. My year will get better from here on out. Thank you my friend and thank you Mummy for coming through for me from the other side.

A New Hobby

I have discovered that I actually really do enjoy photography. I was inspired by an iPhone photography influencer on Instagram. I didn’t quite realise what great pics I could take with my phone. I just have a basic iPhone 13 but the camera is still great. I am still playing around with it and I am just starting to figure out the editing apps. I am so excited! Below is just a few of my attempts. Forgive me if the collage looks extra big. I can’t seem to make it smaller.

Portrait of Shoes
A sunset from my window
Floral portrait
Floral Potrait II
Just me
Shoes
Multifaceted Me

Sink or Swim

Work has been challenging as well but I have been enjoying each new challenge that has come my way. There are days when it feels like my brain has actually expanded. I feel both exhausted yet energised. It’s so weird. I am learning a lot but I am also putting my strengths to work and I get to work with some of the best marketing minds in our business right now. I feel very blessed.

Life’s Knocks

Of course, all has not been rosy. I have gained weight instead of losing it and have been beset with aches and pains which has irritated me. I am working on sorting these issues out but until then I guess I will just have to grin and bear it. I also reconnected with another friend that I believe is like a soul mate. We connect in a way that I have never connected with anyone else before but we have disconnected again for reasons that are what they are. I do believe that we will connect again. Now is not the time though. Until then I will carry on but I will miss him dearly.

Growing and Learning

Lastly, my son’s grandfather took him and his brothers to the UK to watch Liverpool play. I am so grateful he had the experience. It also opened his eyes to the fact that there is a big wide world out there with so much to see and to do. The travel bug has now bitten him so now I will have to start saving for a trip for him and I. It’s a great problem to have!

That’s it for now. Thank you for popping by. Please feel free for any photography tips. I am eager to learn more:)

Reflections #1 – Authority

Allowing others to dictate to me in areas where I am the expert weakens my authority.

Photo by Keegan Houser on Pexels.com

Last week, I had an experience where the outcome of a presentation was not received in the way I had expected it to be. I was pretty devastated, even though I am conscious of the fact that I never have total control of the outcome. In hindsight, there were a number of reasons for this. One of the key reasons is that I allowed my superiors to dictate the methodology to me even though they are not experts in my field. The minute I did this, I weakened my authority as an expert in my field.

The realisation was a wake-up call. I began to reflect on all the other situations where I was uncomfortable with the outcome. I realised that I had done it in those situations as well.

Next, I asked myself how I can take back my authority because I have allowed this to go on for too long. I have arrived at two courses of action for myself:

  1. Seniority does not equal authority in all aspects. I must ask more and better questions to understand the stakeholder’s needs and expected outcomes to confidently design the correct study to deliver the result and not let them dictate how to do it. They honestly don’t know.
  2. I need to work on my self-belief to truly take ownership of my area of expertise.
  3. I must remind myself that failure is not the end of the world. There is a lesson in it. Learn from it and move on. Do not fear it.

Reflecting on what happened has really helped me get to grips with how to prevent this type of thing in the future.

Have you found yourself in a similar predicament? What did you do to overcome it?

Thanks for popping by. Be blessed.

“Every champion was once a contender that refused to give up.”

-Rocky Balboa

Bloganuary writing prompt
What are your favorite sports to watch and play?
View all responses

Hello again. Being the mother of a teenage son, it’s impossible to get out of watching a sport. In my case, it’s soccer. My son has always loved soccer. I used to kick the ball around with him in the evenings when he was still a preschooler. We both used to love it. We would take turns playing goalkeeper, and it killed him that we were playing on tar because he couldn’t dive for the ball. We have a foam sleeper couch in the lounge, so he used to pull that out and practice his dives on there. Naturally, his first position on a soccer team at age 7 was as a goalkeeper. He now plays defensive or midfield positions.

Next was wrestling. WWE, to be exact. I didn’t mind, as I used to love watching wrestling with my dad as a kid. I also watched boxing with my dad back then. We would be up at 3 am or so to watch a Sugar Ray Leonard or Marvelous Marvin Hagler fight in Vegas. I loved spending that time with my dad. My son and his friend used to practice their wrestling moves on that sleeper coach. Thank goodness it was just foam. It really went through the works…lol.

Next up was F1. My son discovered Drive to Survive on Netflix, and the next thing you know, we were both hooked. That was about 3 or 4 years ago. Today, we are avid Mercedes fans. I am praying that the team pulls out an amazing car this year that enables Hamilton’s 8th (or shall we say 9th because he won “that” Abu Dhabi race…). I enjoy following the various strategies and my mind is blown at the level of precision required and all of the elements that need to be managed to win a race. This year my would like to attend a race. We will have to see what the bank account says. 😅. He is already being spoilt by his grandfather and will be watching a Liverpool match at Anfield with him, so maybe we should hold off on an F1 race for another year or two.

My favourite sports to watch are athletics, swimming and tennis. I guess it is because they are individual sports, and I am in awe of the grace with which these athletes perform. These sports also have easy rules to understand. I mean, I still don’t understand the offside rule in soccer😂. Tennis was one of my mother’s favourite sports to watch, and I always watched it with her. She loved Wimbledon. She also loved watching the Comrades. Every year, without fail, she watched the race from the start until the men’s and ladies’ winners came in. Then she would check who made the silver cut-off and then watch the last half hour of the race. She would scream for those people who were limping to the finish and may not make the cut-off. That half hour is the most amazing period in the race because everyone is behind those runners who are trying to beat the gun. It doesn’t matter if you are cheering from home or the stadium; what mattered was that you were “willing” those runners to the finish line with your energy. I cannot describe the feeling.

I have done long-distance running, played netball, and swam at school, but all before puberty hit. Thereafter I lost interest in sport. I did enjoy it at the time, though.

What sports do you watch or play and why?

Thanks for popping by! Be Blessed.