Indelible Marks

The monster called Lagos traffic or the “enemy” called Fear

February 8, 2008 on 3:07 pm | In God-factor, Lagos life, Motivation in little things, Traffic |

It’s been about 5 weeks now since I relieved my driver of 6 months of his duties, I just got fed up with his juvenilish behaviour. This reduced me to self-drive and if you reside in Lagos, you will appreciate the situation I am currently facing better. Traffic is chaotic, maybe even more than before. The roads, No, ALL roads - Ikorodu road, Ozumba Mbadiwe, Alapere - Iyana Oworo - 3^rd mainland, are congested from A.M to P.M.  My legs ache and subsequently by extension, my whole body too on account of pressing down turtle every other minute, you all know the drill. I am trying to paint a picture here.

Yesterday morning, it (the monster called traffic, I bet you think this is what this article is about) got so bad that I started making mental plans and calculation on whether to recruit a new driver or contract a neat cab for my commute to work during the week. Apart from the fact that being chauffer-driven frees me up to catch up on my arrears of reading (mags, newspaper, books etc, story for another day), it also sets me in the right physical, psychological and mental frame of mind to work with and lead my team to achieve results. I treasure that and so do my team members.

Please stick with me, I am going somewhere.  

Last night as we neared 5pm, I started preparing myself for the drive home. I could feel myself shutting down but I didn’t quite see myself completing the process. Somewhere along the line, fear set in. The fear of running into traffic, the fear of the pain I envisaged that I would be subjected to and every other fear you can think about. Almost automatically, I stayed put on my seat, not able to move, not willing myself to, at least try, pictures of my previous bad traffic experiences played up in my mind and as at 8.30pm, yours truly was still in the office. By this time, I told myself that I was staying back to do “extra-curricular activities”.  Eventually, I hitched a ride home with a colleague. I didn’t drive myself home. Thanks to me, myself and I.

By this morning, while preparing for work and waiting for another colleague to give me a ride back to the office, I allowed myself to process activities of the day before especially as it relates to this driving issue. It occurred to me that this experience is similar to what happens to us in our lives on a bigger scale. I’ll use the job/changing jobs/changing career or switching to self-employment example. We start a job and somewhere along the line, we probably loose steam or the excitement with which we started out.  Something reminds us of what Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “what lies before us and what lies behind us are small matters compared to what lies within us. And when we bring what is within us out into the world, miracles happen”  and we are encouraged to explore new things stirring up potentials untapped.

No sooner have we done this, the thoughts start playing out in our minds, what if you don’t succeed in this new endeavour? What if the business fails? What if this, what if that? Enough “what ifs?” show up and keep you glued, glued to your present, denying you of your future and remember the future shows up as one today after the other.

The future arrives one day at a time. So if you have big plans for your future, the evidence of the reality of that future should be seen in the little achievements you see in your Now, your day-to-day, minute by minute decisions and actions.

If every hour of your day is filled with inactions and procrastination, then my friend, you are in for a big surprise, hello no future!  What if I had kicked off my car with enough courage, defying my fears and self-limiting thoughts, sought knowledge of the traffic situation from my colleagues that have left the office ahead of me, I would have discovered that the roads were actually free and I would have felt better with myself for that little achievement.

My favourite definition of Courage is the ability to act inspite of fear. Don’t think to eliminate fear before you act rather Let fear be your catalyst. Another favourite quote of mine is “We must do the things we think we can not do”. Another one says, “Act boldly and unseen forces will come to your aid”. Everyone that has achieved anything worthy has had to battle their doubts and fears to do so and guess what? So has anyone who hasn’t achieved anything. We all battle with these beliefs constantly but with different outcomes apparently. You have a big role to play in determining the outcomes. Do you move inspite of the “what ifs”? Or do you seat still paralysed to inertia?

What I do…. Watch out.

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