Activate Your Idle Competence.

I often come across folks who talk about their blind spots. It’s a common topic, and usually the goal is to minimise the blind spots and hopefully up our game. But how do we focus on blind spots when we can’t see them? How can you work on something that’s not in your view? It can feel like chasing after the wind, and maybe therein lies the clue. We can’t see the wind, but we can feel it and see its effects, kwanza if it’s those whirlwinds that pick up takataka and swirl it in the air.

I believe we all have blind spots that we struggle with. But Sir God, in His genius, has given those in our lives visibility over them. It’s easy for me to see in others what they struggle to see in themselves, and vice versa. In addition, we may also sense, like the wind, that something is happening within us that we need to attend to. But that’s about it. We require someone else to shine a light on our blind spot for us to become aware of it and address it.

That’s how I’ve been feeling lately. The wind of my consciousness has been breezing across my mind, and I feel like there is idle capacity (I prefer to call it idle competence) in me. Folks, do you sometimes feel like you could be doing more than you are? Like there is another level you can and should climb to, but for some reason, you can’t locate the ladder? I’ve been having that nagging feeling for weeks now. I think it comes when work is kidogo, so I have time to think and wonder about what else I could be doing.

“An idle mind is the devil’s workshop,” the childhood saying warns. What do you do when you are in a low season of your life, especially work-wise? It can get worrying and unsettling because many of us only know how to be busy. It feels like we need to keep running because if we stop to catch our breath, poverty will pounce on us like a bandit. This season reminds me of times in my ‘furious forties’ when I would be hyperventilating, wondering how I would survive and meet my obligations. I’ve labelled this decade of my life as my ‘Fortune Fifties’ and I’m guarding that jealously, especially in my mind and spirit. Ni kazi, but I’m determined.

Mental peace is important, kwanza in this month of mental wellness. Max Lucado’s wisdom comes in handy during this slow season. In his book, Anxious for Nothing, he says, “It is not God’s will that you lead a life of perpetual anxiety. It is not his will that you face every day with dread and trepidation. He made you for more than a life of breath-stealing angst and mind-splitting worry. He has a new chapter for your life. And He is ready to write it.”

As the Good Book says, “There is a time for everything.” I’m currently learning to sit with my blind spots and trying to sense where the wind of opportunity is blowing. I’m also having intentional conversations with a few folks who have meddling rights over my life, just to see where they can shine their torch. It helps when someone near and dear has sight of our blind spots because that’s how we get more self-aware and do the work. But for our blind spot to be seen, we need to allow a few people to mulika us closely. Who are those folks you have allowed to look into your life? Choose them carefully. What are they seeing? And how will you proceed from here? You need to do something about the revelations once your blind spots have been uncovered.

I’m taking this season to sharpen my skill sword so that I can chop opportunities when they eventually come. It may be time to take stock of our lives so far and finally work on those things we have put on pause. When we linger here for a while and investigate, something rises to the surface.

Folks, maybe the dawa for the slow moments of our lives is to update our skills, thinking, and even outlook on life. It can be reading a book that’s been on the back burner, going back to those flagged emails with gems that could help us, or finally test-driving an idea that has been pending for a long time. On the idea that has been pending, I’m working on an online thing to add value to my halftime/transition clients. I’m particularly excited after testing out AI and what it can do. I’m a late bloomer, I know, but I’m enjoying it. I’m even shocked to find out that my baby sharks are using it. I recently found out that they use it as their homework assistant. Wouldn’t that make them lazy? I queried. Let’s see how it goes.

Life cannot be on the fast lane all the time, folks. That can get boring too, and even lead to burnout. This may be a good time for a mid-year appraisal to see how things are going. For me, the two goals I set at the beginning of the year are still on track: the gym manenos and my bestseller, which is cooking slowly. The huge room left for detours is also filling up, especially now as I catch up on self-improvement.

Whenever my phone prompts me for an update, I often click on ‘Remind me later’. Maybe it’s time we choose to ‘Update now’. That’s how we activate competencies within us that are lying idle and eventually improve our lives. Remember that the gifts and talents you have are your gift from Sir God. What you do with them is your gift to Him and others.