Amachukwu Innocent's Blog

  Your environment shapes your life in ways you can never imagine. It defines your thought-process and influences what you conceive as possible. There are five environments that are critical. 1. The Physical. Understand when you outgrow a place and a space. Places expire when it no longer inspires. You may never know the best version of yourself till you physically remove yourself from certain places. Where your roots are planted, is where your shoots will grow. If I had stayed back as a Lecturer in Nigeria, I am not sure I would be the leading a team of "oyibo" people, bagged a PhD and a PR or even conceived that I would teach and grade oyibo students for three years straight. 2. The Mental. Life's battlefield plays out in your mind. It is almost impossible to achieve what your mind doesn't conceive. You cannot desire to be 'big' and think small. You want to land a job in a Fortune 100 company but your mind is conditioned to think minimum wage. You desire to ...

  Few years ago while I was lecturing at the university, I received an email from a student in his sophomore year. He eulogised my pedagogical skills and how he found my lectures scintillating and unmissable. In closing the email, he prayed that I would be his project supervisor when he gets to final year in two years time. I replied, "God forbid". I however thanked him for his mail and kind words. His email was without any bad intentions but the prayer was not meant for me and certainly did not align with the future I envisioned for myself. While saying amen could or couldn't have thwarted the course of my life, being intentional about affirmations to misdirectional prayer points was my calibrated strategy to avoid the stray bullet of unwanted 'blessings'. Affirming to an amen must be consistent with your destination and goal in life. Every prayer point, regardless of the good intention, if it does not align with your set goals, does not deserve your amen. If you...

  If you're enjoying the spotlight now or in a position of influence, wisdom requires that you steward it well. As eventually life will happen to everyone. I have seen mean seniors from secondary school regret the manner of their conduct to their juniors when they would meet again at an interview or under make-or-break situations. Lecturers/Professors that needed the help of the same students they suffered while under their tutelage at the university. Their sorry could not undo what they had done. I know a few men who had money but squandered it on frivolities and found themselves in the trenches. I have been chanced to meet a few people who wished they had made better use of opportunities while it sat on their lap. I have encountered some hitherto celebs whom life had now humbled, wish they were more circumspect in how they dealt with people and money. I know a former employee who interviewed her former boss in Nigeria for a position at the company she worked at in Canada. The man...

  The perpetual fear of 'what will people say' has kept many in mental, emotional and social prisons without their knowing. It has deprived many from living out their full potential and trapped many in unpleasant needless situations. 'What will people say' syndrome is allowing people's opinion, perception or belief of you to be the defining element of your existence.It conditions us to put certain opinions, values and ideologies before our wellbeing for fear of being ostracized, socially excluded or thought of 'as not doing well'. Essentially, you become what people say you are and not who you say you are. It is this fear that has kept many in incompatible social dynamics and to live a life of lies and anyhow-ness. Life is showing you 'shege' but you rather bottle up than damage your reputation. Many years ago, I was a prisoner to this syndrome. I had graduated with top honours but was without job for nearly two years. This is because I returned to m...

  Today I cast my mind on many times I had thought of quitting, taking my life or allowing depressive thoughts to snuff all the hopes and dreams I had in me. To when I hit ground zero numerous times in the past and I had fatalistic prognostications of the future. My come back did not seem obtrusive in the horizon and counted down to taking the easy way out. I was marinated in self-thoughts of shame, failure and defeat. I saw "Sapa", "Shege" and "Banza" those days and all that kept my feet from hanging off the ground was the two guys chatting outside my tiny room. One encouraged the other to have hope. They were completely oblivious of my actions. but little did they know they saved me that day. I told myself let me give myself another day. Just one more day. That one day have now turned to years and as I think back to ten years ago, I cannot but wonder how much of the good life I would have missed out if I had japaed from planet earth. Surviving that exper...