LAST ME LONGER

Some time ago, when I was still in Nigeria, I asked my mum to help me buy some things for the children because I was busy at work.

She bought oversized things, as usual. When we were growing up, this is what she and most African parents did. During the Christmas period, she will buy us shoes that you have to pack plenty of tissue in at the front before you can wear them.

I told her not to buy oversized things for my children again, as we don’t do that in this generation, and we always want our children to appear smart.

Their reasoning is that it will last you longer. But when we wear these oversized things, these are the things that happen:

1. We don’t look smart.

2. We look so disorganized because we will have to pack clothes with one hand and shoes with the other.

3. At times, the oversized shoe makes you stumble.

4. Because it’s oversized, 5 years later we are still wearing the same thing when others have changed theirs and moved on.

Why am I telling you this story? We are in the period of goal setting:

Don’t set goals that will put you under unnecessary pressure; please note the word “unnecessary.”

Set goals that will cause you to stumble by doing bad things simply because you want to achieve them by any means possible. Setting unrealistic goals is akin to wearing oversized shoes: if you’re still dragging them up and down and stuffing tissue paper into them five years later, you don’t look smart.

Don’t set a goal that will disorganize you; set smart goals that will make you look smart.

PS: This doesn’t mean you should relax in your comfort zone and go the “easy-pizzy” way all through 2023.