Auteur/autrice : marc

Day 504. Mediocrity seems to prevail these days in the world and in many aspects of our lives. Mediocre means average. However, how do we want to succeed in our lives if we aim at average? Mediocre results are nothing to be proud of, they are just average, in the middle of all others. Every step above mediocrity is an important one, because it makes mastery results closer.

Now, there’s no secret: mediocre efforts cannot lead to mastery results. To be a master of one’s craft, one has to work on it every day, relentlessly, even painfully. Even if we cannot all be master, this should be our aim, the purpose of our lives, and the devotion of our hours. All of us has something to contribute to this world. It’s an insult to humanity to accept mediocrity, only mastery should be pursued. Tough to accept, but the only way to develop pride and excellence.

Day 503. This is kind of funny, as Monday in many languages (French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Japanese, Chinese, etc.) is the Moon day! The other interesting fact is that even though it’s the first day of the week in many countries, it can be the second in others, due to the fact that in Christian, Jewish and Muslim tradition, Sunday (day of the Sun) is the first day of the week.

Its name and the link to the moon seems to come from the Romans, who named this second day of the week to celebrate the goddess of the Moon. For those whose work week starts on a Monday, this day has acquired a bad reputation. After a two-day break, one needs to back to work. While we should be happy, many are not. But whether happy or not, work has to be done, therefore better doing it with a smile than a frown. It’s Monday, smile like a full moon.

Day 502. Sometimes we feel overwhelmed by the numbers of tasks we need to do in a given day. I have learned three things to deliver results. Three simple activities to undertake to deliver what needs to deliver:

1. Plan it. If it’s not planned, it cannot be measured. If it cannot be measured, it does not exist. Take 15 minutes every day to plan your day, listing the tasks that you need to undertake and deliver.
2. Walk the plan. Planning is nothing without execution. Once it’s planned, stick to the plan. If a tasks requires more time that what you initially expect, allocate more time now, or plan it the next day. There’s no silver bullet here, but this needs to be planned again.
3. Inspect the plan. Every evening, inspect what you have done. Unfinished tasks need to be replanned for the next days. Congratulate yourself on a job well done for the one you have delivered. Learn from what you have done and from what you could have done differently.

If you create the discipline of doing those three simple things (remember thought that it’s not because it is simple that is easy), your level of achievement will jump forward big time. Enjoy!

Day 501 – Bertrand, a friend and colleague of mine, sent me a short while ago the map of Africa, displayed on the right here. If you think China or India or the USA is big, Africa is even bigger, it’s actually bigger than the sum of the three. It takes more than 8 hours to fly from Nairobi, on the East, to Dakar, on the West, with a direct flight. Much longer than to fly from New York to Los Angeles for instance.

This size gives a hint on the people who live on the continent. As it’s obvious there are differences between a New Yorker and a San Franciscan, there are even bigger differences between a Senegalese, a Nigerian and a Kenyan for instance. Even inside a single country, there are differences between people. Therefore, thinking Africa is a country and thinking all black people are alike is damn wrong.

Africa is an extraordinary diverse continent, both in terms of landscape and people. Looking at Africa as a single identity is a mistake, although there is an African culture and there are ties between all those people and culture. There’s a quote from Kwame Nkrumah, first Prime Minister of Ghana, an influential advocate of Pan Africanism and a founding member of the Organization of African Unity, that I particularly like : « I am not African because I was born in Africa but because Africa was born in me. » To understand this, you need to visit Africa, but not one country, many, to understand that Africa is diverse and Africa is unique.

It is said Africa is the future. I cannot predict what the future is. However, having visited a lot of countries in Africa and having still a lot to visit, I can say one thing: Africa is changing fast, very, very fast, and today is the best day to go there and discover a world on its own, diverse and unique.

Day 500 – The number is big. 500 days ago I started writing a daily blog posts on ideas that came through my mind on any topic from sea salt to public speaking. I wrote on the learnings of the first 365 days. I took a break trying to start other writing projects. Then I came back, skipping some days, taking a blog diet also. And two things are kind of funny and interesting:

1. When I do not write my daily post, I feel guilty (for the readers who expect it as I discovered recently)
2. When I do not write my daily post, too many ideas are coming to me and I do not have a way to channel them and keep them alive

So, I think I am cursed (positively) in writing my daily post, sometimes with a little delay, sometimes programming it to be posted automatically, sometimes longer, and sometimes shorter. Anyhow, I would love to hear from you. What topics are you interested in, what you would you read, what does inspire you. Let me know and we have another 500 days until post 1,000!