2018 was quite frankly the best year of my life till this year 2019, which will be even better. I started the year finding out I had a health condition. It scared the hell out of me, especially because the doctors said “Oh, there is no cure for this except you have surgery.” Strangely enough, the worry did not last, I felt peace knowing the ultimate Doctor was my father. I prayed just one prayer, “God if you love me as much as I know you do, don’t let them have to cut me.” And true to his word, like magic I was made whole and well. If only I knew the awesome plans waiting ahead for me.

Prior to that I had been hoping to get this particular job for the longest time, somehow someway when I was not expecting, this job came through. All of a sudden it looked like Rere was special, as if I knew more than my mates. During the course of the year, I kept super late nights because of work and despite Lagos not being the safest of places, I got home safe each night. At every turn, I had angels sent to help me out of every situation that seemed like a big deal. That definitely was not my doing, a superior power was watching over me.

In the same 2018, I started and completed a self-sponsored 6-months branding course, which when I started, it felt like I was wasting my time. Today I can proudly say that knowledge from that course which I applied in my business (@footwearbyrere) has yielded plenty fruits. One thing stood out, and that was the fact that I was a benefactor of God’s grace. I fell, I stood, I learnt and I grew. All I had to do was want something enough and tell him, he’ll hand it to his baby girl.

In everything I learnt to be grateful, to give thanks, no matter what. It was in the tiny things, I found my own testimony. There were some low points, times when I cried and just questioned everything in my life but the good definitely outweighed the bad. I learnt some valuable lessons in 2018, some of which include that in order to live the best out of life you need to be true to yourself. Be real to your heart, because the moment you start to lie to yourself then you deprive your soul of peace. The right people will stay, the right people will be attracted to you because you are proud of who you are. You’re not too weird, or too quiet, or too ambitious or too fiery, nobody should be allowed to make you feel like your dreams are too small. As long as you stay humble, you believe and you are not too scared to embrace your imperfections, things definitely will work for good.

My biggest lesson of the year was realizing that most of us live our lives for other people. Our state of mind and choices are based on the simple question “What Will People Say?” We make decisions as simple as the clothes we wear, the friendships we keep, and the food we eat, based on the fact that other people are watching and listening. You forget that your happiness should be the only thing that matters, your ability to make decisions and be proud of them. Choices you can stand by and defend because you know it is really what you want, not what someone else wants for you.

The goal for 2019 is to stay happy and spread happiness. Frustration, confusion, sadness, fear, all those things come into play the moment you start doing things to get approval and acceptance. When you try to tailor your choices to what the society expects of you, that’s when things start to go wrong. There are only 2 people you owe anything; the Creator who gave you life and YOU. Everybody will not approve of your choices or even your lifestyle, so why care? At the end, they are all just selfish people looking for what is in it for them, your life is yours for a reason.

2019 is for doing things that make you stand out,

It’s for embracing the fact that you are Abnormal (Above Normal),

2019 is for multiplying, being a source,

It’s the year to make life changing choices, the time to forget the meaning of the word regret,

Its 365 new opportunities, 12 new chapters and YOU are your own author.

Embrace who you are and enjoy the best out of life.

Lastly, what do you want to be remembered for in 2019?

The answer to that question lies in the decisions you make all year long.

I wish you all the best and I love you.

Cheers to 2019!!

Love, Rere.

Look who came back from her leave of absence. No more excuses, I’ll just get to it because now it’s time to find out who you are and what makes you, you!

To truly love yourself and know your worth, you have to first know yourself. Discovering and exploring yourself is truly an enlightening process that we should all take part of. Contrary to popular opinion, you don’t need someone else to tell you who you are because no one knows you better than you.

The first thing that needs to happen for you to discover yourself is getting away from your daily routine. There is something about the things you do constantly that stops you from seeing the “difference” in the actions you take. So you need to break away from your routine life, do something unusual to trigger that knowledge you need.

Happy New Year!

Lol, I am a joker right? It’s almost the end of the first month and I decided to crawl out of my hole to write something. Consistency has got to be one of the hardest things to attain in life… wow… How do you guys that gym do it? This year, I will not apologize on this particular post for staying away for so long. Why? Well because I am scared it might become a situation of me apologizing on every post. Rest assured though that this year I am going to do big things here and share them with you guys.

Later in the year by God’s grace I will be organizing a mini-conference for young entrepreneurs who have a startup and other young people who aspire to be entrepreneurs. It will be sort of like an empowerment/mentorship program for all of us to grow and become better people.

So, today I would like to talk about Peer Pressure.

Peer pressure comes as a result of intimidation by what you see others do or out of curiosity, and the desire to fit in among your peers. But I noticed that the moment you type in peer pressure on Google. Most related topics only address peer pressure as something that affects only youths and teenagers.

I don’t have a problem with that, but I personally have discovered overtime that peer pressure is common to every age and gender, it is just as much in older people as younger ones. Many of us give in to pressure because we want to belong, to be liked, to fit in, everybody is doing it, we worry other people may wonder why “your own is different.” But never forget that no matter the reason you are pressured into acting contrary to your better judgment, or common sense, you can walk away and not let other people dictate how your life goes.

What we forget is, sometimes the people you associate with or call friends may determine how far you go in life. So why not keep things clear with yourself by choosing wisely the people you associate with, they should be people with integrity and wisdom. Don’t just do things because every other person is doing it or every other person will talk if you don’t do it.  

As a country, Nigerians have that problem in common because we are aspirational beings. We want the exact thing we saw one woman in church wearing, or we want to vote for the same person Banky-W will vote for. I think it is time to start making independent decisions that will make “me” as a person happy and fulfilled.

Leave the next person to live their life that way it pleases them, not only will it help your personal growth but also our country’s progress. 

Until the next post…

iamtherere

You can choose to wait or move. At the end the Choice is Yours!!

Your New Year can start NOW! The ball is always in your court…

Peace… 

Image from pexels.com

Minutes turned to hours, hours turned to days, days turned to weeks and now we’re here. There is no excuse for this sort of procrastination, I might say I have been swamped with work and I don’t even have time to breathe. Yet every time I say No, Rerelolu you won’t stop writing, you need to continue people are waiting. It feels like I am trying to convince myself more than I’m trying to convince you guys.

A wise uncle of mine once said to me; you can alter the pace but don’t shift the goal post at every chance. And you also know what they say, a rolling stone gathers no moss. It is better to have long term goals and break them into short and medium term goals than to have short term goals that you only cook halfway.

One thing I’ve realized is that it’s so easy to want one thing but get distracted so much you forget that one thing you want. So many of us are confused about what we want, forgetting that there is a difference between a want and a need. The same mouth you use to call it labor market is the same mouth someone else calls it favor market. The difference is that they have a clear cut dream they are chasing without stopping to attend to distractions.

I have realized there is no such thing as a hopeless situation, there are only people who have hopeless attitudes. When I started this write up, I did not know where I was headed. Now I think I have a direction and that is addressing the confusion among many people (both old and young) in the world today. 

I met someone recently who has big dreams, she’s relatively young with commendable achievements for her age. The issue is that she wants to do everything, entrepreneurship she’s interested, working for others she’s also interested. If you say real estate, she will be interested, talk about farming, marketing, just name it. Don’t get me wrong, I love the zeal and I think it’s amazing how her mind works and how hard she’s willing to work for her success. But then again doesn’t it seem like maybe she might be swamping herself with every and anything just to get rich quick? Or what if that really is the way to go?

When people would ask what my career plans are, I would give a long list of everything I want to do. From owning my chain of companies to producing my TV show, to empowering young people, to public speaking, modelling and acting and definitely fashion designing. Yes you might say ahnahn, sister calm down but as my mother will say, nothing is impossible. Also many of us have allowed our families and the society cage us into believing that some things are the norm and some other things are “impossicant.”

I read somewhere that if you want to achieve greatness, you need to stop asking for permission. So my question goes to everyone who is just as confused as I sometimes get about their goals and how to achieve them.

Would you rather do all the many things you want to do at the same time or would you just take one route and see where it leads.

Share your thoughts and comments below, I look forward to reading them.