Manifest.

Happy New year folks. I pray this post finds you in good health and spirit (ok let me stop here. This sounds like an application letter to a job or a loan rescheduling request hehe). How you guys all doing? I have missed being in this space and sharing my random thoughts with you all. My holiday break and personal AGM  was great. It was inward-looking and an attempt at some internal housekeeping. It is hard to order our public world when our private world is in shambles. I have high hopes and expectations for this year. This year will be lit.  I can’t explain how logically but I feel it. A quote I came across on Twitter describes my current outlook. David Bowie said, “ I don’t know where I’m going from here, but I promise it won’t be boring”. That’s it.

I have a lot of cyke for2021 because I’m convinced 2020 was preparation for this year and beyond. The training ground brought about by covid was so severe that the assignment ahead must be of very high importance and impact. But there is a flip side to this outlook. Despite the high hopes I have for 2021, I’m wondering if the year will end before I have landed squarely on my platform. 2021 is year seven since I started my transition to the next phase of my life. A life of significance, impact, and purpose. What I prefer to call my unique assignment.

During my Christmas break, I read Game Plan, a book by Bob Buford where he talks about winning strategies for the second half of life. He says that just like in the first half of our lives where we take many years to get to the top of our game there is no exception in our second half. Buford says it took him eight years to transition fully into his second half calling. From success to significance as his book says. He calls that period Dumb tax. The price you pay to be cooked and ready to be served to the world.

That was somewhat encouraging because I feel stuck sometimes. Like will I overstay in school to the point where the degree is irrelevant when graduation finally comes? The good book puts it well in Proverbs 13: 12 – “unrelenting disappointment leaves you heartsick but a sudden good break can turn life around.” I’m sure most of us endured more than our fair share of disappointment last year and all we want now is a good clean break. Well, folks allow me to be the prophet on this one and declare that good breaks will be your portion in 2021. Can I hear an amen? Let’s try and believe it despite the circumstances we find ourselves in. That will nurture positive vibes at the minimum.

As has been my tradition over the last three years, I plan to start the year with a word that will be my guiding light throughout the year. I find writing resolutions too deep for me. Like they create more pressure than resolve. This is me resisting intense and serious stuff. My word(s) last year was normal obedience. On a scale of one to ten, I feel I scored an eight. The aim was to carry out all my tasks well and to complete them to the best of my ability. I was challenging myself to be a guy of follow-through. Where when I agree to do something I deliver on it.

That will make it easier to stay put and grow my credibility as a man of my word. It would also reduce the likelihood of taking on too much leading to leaving stuff unattended or incomplete as a result. My personality doesn’t help here as I can easily be that guy who over promises so as not to disappoint. Normal obedience served me well even more during the pandemic. Growing my coaching and photography skills to the point of getting paid was a highlight of living my word of 2020

My word for 2021 is manifest. Google defines it as, ‘clear or obvious to the eye or mind’. I choose this as my word of the year because I’d like all the stuff I’ve been investing my time and brain on to start bearing visible fruit. I feel it’s time to reap some rewards from the effort of the grind over the last few years. Some things like the fact that my future is in public service have been clear to the mind. Now I desire them to be clear to the eye in 2021.

This is my seventh year in transition. Seven is the number of completion and perfection (both physical and spiritual) according to biblical scholars. One of the reasons is the creation story where God created the earth in six days and rested on the seventh day. Since then humanity has adopted the seven-day week. I’m sure there are other similar stories to emphasize seven as the number of completion.

I look forward to the year ahead despite the unknowns. We’ve often heard that we should enjoy the journey and not just focus on the destination. This year I want to enjoy the company too. We go further when we go together. And I plan to be here every Friday as usual.

I’m comforted by Robert Colier’s quote and wish it on all of you, my good readers. He says, “ I said to the man who stood at the gate of the new year: give me a light that I may tread into the unknown. And he replied: go out into the darkness and put your hand in the hand of God. That shall be to you better than a light and safer than a known way.

So what’s your word of the year good people?