So, what are you about?

It's already the second month in the new year, reminding us how quickly time flies.
If you're like me and wanted to launch out on social media this year, you most probably would have been bombarded with trends from left, right, and centre leaving you dizzy with opinions and ideas.
So, what are you about?
If you haven't done so already, it's time to define yourself.
To 'define' is a verb (so, it's an action word) that means different things given different context. However, the meaning that particularly interests me is: 'To express the essential nature of something' (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/define).
First things first, YOU CANNOT BE WHO YOU ARE NOT.
That contradicts the very meaning of the word 'define'.
I know there are thousands of trends, especially over the internet, but you must take the time to find yourself. Find your own essential nature, your basic form- without environmental influences.
Spend time with yourself. Get to know yourself; your likes and dislikes, your passion, your voice.
Why do you want to be out there? what have you got to say? it doesn't matter if someone has said it before, you say it in your own voice.
You make it uniquely you.
So, what are you about?


 

“No man is an Island” – John Donne

As we work further into the new year, another important resource that we will need to achieve our goal is the right network.

The world is growing closer to a global village and our connections are key to our relevance and impact here. Who are you connected to right now? Now just virtually, but in the real business world.

We must have at least one mentor whom we aspire to be like and who we take time to study and learn from. Simultaneously, we should be building horizontal networks for mutual support to share information and ideas.

No matter how much we read, there is always that someone who has the little piece of information that we crucially need or has a very important connection that will be helpful to us. Make your networks purposeful this year; not only to take but also to give your time, ideas and expertise. If there are networks or relationships you had last year that did not get you anywhere, now is the time to consider reviewing those relationships. They are not worth investing your time in.

Surround yourself with like minds, with people who you admire, inspire you and vice versa.

Enjoy your journey into 2018!

Your greatest resource in 2018

As the year unfolds, we have made new resolutions or renewed old ones that we are very intent on keeping.

We are hopeful, we pray for strength but we mustn’t forget to take action.

The truth of the matter is, a huge responsibility lies with us to make this year different, to make this year count.

Why?

We have the greatest resource known to mankind, and it has been given to us to manage. That resource is TIME.

Take the time to LIVE

In 2018, we all have 365.25 days (no, it’s not a leap year😊), and 24 hours in a day. How we manage our time is entirely up to us because TIME has been given to us to control. Determine to be purposeful about managing your time.

I’m a working mum, and for me, this is a lot more demanding. I think to myself sometimes that all this purposeful living is hard work!

BUT, if you are NOT satisfied with where you are right now; if the person you dream you are in your head and the person you are right now are two different people, THEN you have work to do.

Not a job, but work to do. Your job should be about your life and not the other way round!

If you work in a very demanding job, remember to take the time to LIVE your own dream. Work hard to make that dream a reality this year.

The second resource that we all have is talent, and everyone has got at least one!

Talent is a marked natural ability or skill. You’d be surprised that whistling and finger-snapping actually take skill. There are loads of books that talk about talent and time management.

I especially love Rick Warrens ‘The purpose driven life’. Read and read a lot to guide your journey this year.

In conclusion, combining time and talent equals all sorts of possibilities! Just imagine what you could do, even with time alone.

This is your year, make it purposeful, make it count.

#yearofthebutterfly

The year of the cocoon?

I read a nice story about how the Chinese came about naming their years after certain animals. It was an interesting story, and I enjoyed reading about the significance of each animal for the Chinese.

I believe in naming special events, people, phenomena. A name is a unique identity, it indicates something, and gives it significance for you.

For me, 2017 was the year of the cocoon. I didn’t begin the year with that name, but for me, it was a year when I literally wanted to crawl inside and just stay hidden.

Why?

Life.

Sometimes life gives you some seriously hard knocks that make you question every single thing about yourself. If the knocks are hard enough, then you question your core values, your beliefs, and your faith.

We all know the butterfly life cycle.  It's also one of my class' favourite stories (The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle). The Caterpillar eats so much food and then builds a cocoon around himself. If he had a human brain, I imagine that in his mind he would have a conversation like this:

"There must be a purpose for my existence. It can't be just eating and crawling all over the ground.

What am I here for? Why am I in a cocoon?"

Questions are very important if they help you find out why. If they show you a purpose or at least lead you on to something.

Everyone is born with a purpose which is why by default we all have dreams.

As we grow up, we learn to conform to the status quo, life beats us into being 'normal' and gradually we stop dreaming. We 'mature' and stop believing the possibility of the impossible.

Imagine the caterpillar on the ground admiring all those birds flying around him in circles before he ducks to hide so they don't eat him.

Then all of a sudden, instinct takes him into a cocoon.

Life does that for all of us; brings us into a period of incubation where we are forced to really think about purpose, to conceive dreams and ideas, to find our identity and most importantly to metamorphose - to change.

This change is tricky - it happens either for the better or for worse.

Difficult challenges in life can make you bitter, resentful, cynical, distrusting or they can make you humble, grounded, full of faith and gratitude.

When it is time, he breaks out of his cocoon and emerges a beautiful, colourful butterfly that can do what he only dreamed about before - FLY!

In conclusion, let your dreams be your north star. They will guide you to your true purpose. Challenges happen to everyone. Everyone is going through one process of change or the other so there's no need to go around acting like you're the only person who may be having it hard. It's simply life's way of getting you back to the basics of discovering your purpose, re-discovering your dreams and finding out your strength.

So while last year was the year of the cocoon, I am so pleased that this year is the year of the butterfly.

I have had the opportunity to question my core values and I am so grateful to have answered those questions.

I hope you do the same as you go through your process.

Happy NEW YEAR!

August, 2016: Prayer from a fearful heart

Dear Abba,

I know I always come giving thanks. That is how I should come into your presence.

But this morning, I feel like you’ve let me down.  I feel like I waited for you and you did not come through. They say it’s darkest before dawn and it is really dark now Abba. I can’t see anything beyond the wind and waves all around me threatening to sink my boat. My boat. Are you in my boat Jesus? Then you’re probably fast asleep just like you were in the gospels with the disciples.

I remember reading the story and thinking to myself, ‘why would anyone doubt when they have Jesus in the boat?’  (Especially after watching him feed 5,000+ people). Well, now I know… You would ask me the same question. ‘Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?’ (Mark 4:40)

Yes, I am afraid. My faith falters. I heard you speak, I know your promises but I took my eyes of you and I fixed it on the wind, on the waves, on the terrible storm of uncertainty… and I couldn’t see YOU anymore. It’s not that you weren’t there the whole time. I just didn’t SEE you. I want to SEE YOU.

How will I know I truly believe you if the word is not tested? The seed in me must be proven before it brings forth fruit for you. I heard you speak. Do I truly believe that you will NEVER forsake me, no matter what comes?

It is so hard Abba, and I am just looking for some hope, that mustard seed faith, just something, anything to hold on to. A drop of hope makes a difference in the sea of despair. I have prayed, I have hoped, I have confessed your promises, I have asked for a breakthrough but you are silent in my storm. I feel so insignificant, alone, poor.

I hear you gently ask me now Jesus to look closer, to SEE.

Alright, I will follow your gaze. I see… it’s a tiny flicker of light, but I see.

Now I see, that I am pressed on every side, but not crushed. I am tested but not forsaken ( 2 Corinthians 4: 8,9)…and I am not alone in this test of faith. No temptation is uncommon and you will provide with it a window of escape, you will never put more on me than I can bear. (1 Corinthians 10:13)

I SEE YOU. I feel your hope rise in me! It’s burning… it feels like… JOY!

Now I give thanks. You have not forgotten me Abba, You are with me. You are carrying me. Even to my old age you carry me. What blessed assurance.

Thank you Abba, for with you, I will get through this.

I lift up my eyes to the hills from whence comes my help. All of my help comes from The LORD (Psalm 121).

Thank you that the fear in my heart did not stop me from coming to you. Thank you that you receive me despite the fear in my heart. You receive me, and you give me peace.

The storm is still here. But now, I see you. That’s what happens when I come to you. You refocus my eyes.

And now I hear you rebuke the wind and the waves “Peace! Be still”

I will be still and rest in your loving care for me.

Your favourite girl,

Maz.

MAN...KIND

When it comes to relationships, feelings and emotional stuff, men have always been less complicated than women.
A man is a man, no matter what colour you paint him - White, Black, Yellow, Brown ... even if you painted him purple,  he'd still be a man!
As a teenager, I remember girlish discussions about what type of men were more romantic or sensitive or committed, and we based it naively on colour. The truth is, a good man is a good man, irrespective of colour and the same goes for a not so good man.
I wonder what influenced our thinking then? What made us judge men by fickle things as colour when there are more important fundamental criteria such as personal values, beliefs, faith, family.
I like a man with the right values.
In light of the racial events happening in the west,  I wonder why we still judge people by colour... when we are all just men!
Is it the media?  Could it be stereotypes? Or is it just our own intimidation?

Momma's "Mufasa Moment"

If you're a fan of the Lion King, you'll definitely remember the very dramatic and life-changing part where Mufasa comes to Simba in his prime and says to him " REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE!" ( I just love that James Earl Jones voice :) )
It was at that point where Simba really got carried away living a FUN life, but not a FULL life.
So what's momma's own moment?
Being a new mom, and fairly new wife,I'm at the point where I'm engrossed by everything about my hubby and baby... and I'm loving every moment of it.
Well, I was going over my older posts on Facebook today, like years ago... and i thought wow! Did I really write that! and why did I stop? and what happened to my mind! :)
Its really easy to get carried away by our new roles as women, wives, mothers... and somewhere in the busyness of it all we forget who we are as individuals, as persons. We forget that thing that made us uniquely who we are. I remember saying jokingly to my hubby that I was getting old! and it all makes sense now. I can't stop being ME... just me, not wife or mother, but just ME. And that is the FULL, FUN life.
Here's the catch though, we have to actually take out that time for ourselves... and that may mean longer hours :) But if we can give our quality time to every member of our family, we can give quality time to ourselves as well.
Don't forget the things that put the spring in your step or the sparkle in your eyes! Take some time off today to do them :)
Keep dreaming!