10 lessons life taught me this year - 2022

Every year I reflect on and document my life lessons and journey and here is the one for 2022:

1. Sometimes to move forward, you have to move backward. You have to pick the battles again and start all over. The truth is if you have experience, you would not wait in your current position for long before you catalyze and move on to greater things. When I finished my MSc it was as if I was starting all over again, it took me a while to understand that sometimes to move forward, one has to start again from the scratch.

2. Your journey is different from other people's journeys. Learn to focus on your core and why. It would save you a ton when it feels like others are moving forward and you are regressing. The truth is you are not regressing but growing in your area of calling. The challenge most times is recognising those little growths and progress we make every day. Pay attention to your growth. You are not doing badly as you think. Sometimes it is your head making things up.

3. Whenever you are burnt out, understand the problem and work towards fixing it. More so, find your restorative niches i.e., know when it is getting too much and when you need to take a break and bring yourself back on track.

4. Learn to choose yourself too and always consider yourself in the equation. It is good to give but also put yourself at the centre of that as well. Ensure you are giving (time, and money) sustainably without burning out. While there are people who will choose you when shifts come to shafts, many would choose themselves first when you hit rock bottom. Create a balance between choosing yourself and others.

5. Have honest and difficult conversations with yourself. It is the most uncomfortable conversation that we have with ourselves that signals areas of growth and improvement. Those conversations have saved me a ton and allowed me to reflect on what truly matters.

6. Most times we focus on what we need to do to get us to the next level but we do not think about what we need to stop doing that hinders us from getting to the next level.

7. Always take a detour and embrace new challenges and changes. It is in those changes and making those difficult choices to change what we do not like about ourselves that signal new opportunities and advancement.

8. We are an experience over time. Your previous experiences would always count. The people you meet, and the network you build would always come in handy when you need them. Always learn to build an experience. We are an experience over time.

9. Process always wins. Pay attention to the process. Preparation is part of the process, how much are you prepared and need an opportunity determines whether you will get it or not.

10. Find your way back to self and identify activities in your life that bring you back to who you are. Sometimes the people you see and an environment might want to blind your uniqueness and you may want to start thinking that you are not made for more. You are made for more. Go all out again, break barriers. Do the most challenging things. Build, learn and rebuild. You must always find your way back to who you are, your existence, and your core.

As of now, I am thinking about more lessons that life has taught me this year and hopefully, I would share them in my end-of-the-year post, if I find the courage to make one.

Hammed Kayode Alabi (c) 2022