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Kehinde Fawumi

Category: Featured

Posts to feature

  • 30 small things with big impacts

    It’s often the small things in life that have the greatest impact. We tend to think that big changes require grand gestures, but that’s not always the case. In fact, some of the most meaningful changes we can make are small and simple actions that we can do every day. Here are 30 small things that can have a big impact on our lives and the world around us:

    Practice Gratitude
    Taking time each day to express gratitude can improve your mental health and overall well-being. It can help to reduce stress and improve your relationships with others.

    Take Regular Breaks
    Taking regular breaks throughout the day can improve your productivity and focus. It can also reduce stress and prevent burnout.

    Exercise Regularly
    Regular exercise is essential for good health. It can improve your physical and mental well-being, and reduce your risk of chronic diseases.

    Read More
    Reading can improve your cognitive function and overall well-being. It can improve your memory and concentration and reduce stress and anxiety.

    Listen to Music
    Listening to music can improve your mood and reduce stress and anxiety. It can also improve your cognitive function and creativity.

    Learn Something New
    Learning something new can improve your cognitive function and overall well-being. It can improve your memory and concentration and reduce stress and anxiety.

    Volunteer
    Volunteering can improve your sense of purpose and reduce stress and anxiety.

    Practice Self-Care
    Practicing self-care is essential for good mental and physical health. It can reduce stress and anxiety and improve your overall well-being.

    Declutter Your Space
    Decluttering your space can improve your mental health and overall well-being. It can reduce stress and improve your focus and productivity.

    Practice Deep Breathing
    Deep breathing can reduce stress and anxiety. It can help to calm your mind and reduce physical tension.

    Take a Cold Shower
    Taking a cold shower can improve your mood and reduce stress and anxiety. It can also improve your circulation and immune function.

    Practice Yoga
    Practicing yoga can improve your flexibility, strength, and balance and reduce stress and anxiety.

    Smile
    A smile can brighten someone’s day and improve your own mood.

    Say “thank you”
    Expressing gratitude can make someone feel appreciated and valued. Genuine compliments can boost someone’s confidence and make them feel good about themselves.

    Practice active listening
    Really paying attention when someone speaks can deepen relationships and create a sense of trust.

    Help someone in need
    Whether it’s offering to carry groceries or donating to a local charity, helping others can bring a sense of fulfillment and purpose.

    Get enough sleep
    Prioritizing sleep can improve focus, mood, and overall health.

    Stretch
    Taking a few moments to stretch can increase flexibility and reduce tension in the body.

    Practice self-care
    Engaging in activities that promote self-care, such as taking a bath or practicing yoga, can reduce stress and improve well-being.

    Take a break from social media
    Disconnecting from social media can improve mental health and provide an opportunity for introspection.

    Practice forgiveness
    Letting go of grudges and practicing forgiveness can improve relationships and reduce stress.

    Express your creativity
    Engaging in creative activities such as painting or writing can reduce stress and provide a sense of fulfillment.

    Take the stairs
    Choosing the stairs over the elevator can increase physical activity and improve cardiovascular health.

    Spend time in nature
    Spending time in nature can reduce stress and improve mental well-being.

    Learn a new language
    Learning a new language can improve cognitive function and enhance career opportunities.

    Write a gratitude list
    Focusing on what you’re grateful for can improve mood and reduce stress.

    Laugh
    Laughter can reduce stress and improve overall well-being.

    Take a dance class
    Dancing can improve physical and mental health and provide a sense of joy.

    Practice self-reflection
    Take time to reflect on your actions, thoughts, and feelings. This can help increase self-awareness and improve personal growth.

    Practice good posture
    Good posture not only improves physical health but also boosts confidence and self-esteem.

  • Reinventing Yourself For The ‘New Normal’

    Reinventing Yourself For The ‘New Normal’

    The advent of the corona virus pandemic has disheveled our habitual routines. Our comfort zones have been tampered with, reducing or almost eroding our comfort levels. Our survival instinct has been heightened – which brings us to the big question: How do we move from here?

    At a time like this, it is very important to rethink, re-strategize and reinvent one’s career so as not to just survive but also thrive. Based on research and analysis, covid-19 may stay longer than most of us had envisaged, we have already started experiencing the second wave with numbers increasing. So, here are a few tips for reinventing yourself for the new normal:  

    1. Critical Thinking: Individuals, as well as organizations, will need to rely on critical thinking to understand what information should inform decision-making. Critical thinking is the ability to think clearly and rationally, understanding the logical connection between ideas. It requires you to use your ability to reason. It is about being an active learner rather than a passive recipient of information. Critical thinkers will identify, analyse and solve problems systematically rather than by intuition or instinct.
    2. Creativity and Innovation: In a post-coronavirus world, human ingenuity to invent, dream up new products and ways of working will be needed. Human creativity is going to be essential.
    3. Emotional Intelligence: Emotional intelligence is the ability to understand and manage your own emotions, and those of the people around you. People with a high degree of emotional intelligence know what they’re feeling, what their emotions mean, and how these emotions can affect other people.
    4. Adaptability and Flexibility: Anyone that is going to succeed in a post-coronavirus-world will need to be able to adapt to evolving workspaces. Such a person must have the ability to continuously update and refresh their skills to remain relevant.

    It is obvious Covid-19, has impacted the world in ways we never imagined, the question is do we want to rise above it or complain about it, we need to be alive and safe, and also work and develop.   We all want answers to our big questions and to quell any uncertainty immediately. Take some time, be thoughtful and patient with yourself. Remember that this is a process and appreciate this time of exploration.

  • If Goal Setting Is A Game, These Are The Rules

    If Goal Setting Is A Game, These Are The Rules

    I recently shared some thoughts with an international audience about (personal) goal setting. It includes an explanation of using OKRs for setting personal goals. Watch it here.

  • Remote Work Team Canvas (Download Link)

    Remote Work Team Canvas (Download Link)

    Big thanks to my colleagues at Netlight – Cecilia Thorsén, Mario Wandpflug, Victor Birath and Sarah Rygart who came up with the initiative and created the canvas.


    Remote Team Canvas    Download

    What Is It?

    The tool is used to align a team on remote processes, culture, task management and other agreement the team would like to have. The result is a motivated and aligned team with a heightened potential for awesome deliveries!

    How Can I Use It?

    A workshop with this canvas can, for example, be conducted as follow: 

    • Introduction: Explain the setting and purpose
    • Brain Dump: Take one area at a time and let your team generate ideas (one per post-it)
    • Discussion: Group and discuss the ideas
    • Agreement: The final goal is to agree on a common picture

    Side note: For the “team members area”, let each team member generate one post-it with all the information on it. This helps to reduce the number of post-its used.

    NOTE: Remote work team canvas is built upon http://theteamcanvas.com/ by Alex Ivanov and Mitya Voloshchuk under the https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

  • 12 Things I Learnt Since I Started Thinking For Myself

    12 Things I Learnt Since I Started Thinking For Myself

    Growth is a process of learning. There is no part of life that does not contain its lessons. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned. Here are 12 things I learnt since I started thinking for myself.

    Transcript:

    01 #JustDoIt
    We learn to do a thing by doing it. There is no other way.

    02 #SelfActualizationIsLifeLong
    Self-actualization is a lifelong process. It is designed that way. “There” is just a new version of “here”. When your “there” has become a “here,” you will simply obtain another “there” that will again look better than “here”.

    03 #CreateNotCompete
    Here is how to be great. Rise above competition and be creative. Think original thoughts and bless the world with your own creations. Excellence is not being the best, it is being your best!

    04 #LeapBeforeYouLook
    Leap before you look. Doing what you fear makes your fear disappear. Face your fears.

    05 #HaveCourage
    The opposite of courage is conformity. It is the ability of a man to stay true to his own ideals, unmoved by the enticing mediocrity of commonness that truly defines courage.

    06 #ChallengeTheRules
    Rules are for the obedience of the coward and the guidance of wise men. To be able to change things, you must be ready to challenge existing rules and initiate new ones.

    07 #ExploreOtherRealities
    There is no need to be ‘right’ all the time. Seek to understand others who disagree with you on a topic. Respect ‘where they are coming from’. In doing so, you are able to learn from their perspectives and explore other realities. 

    08 #Trust
    Trust is the willingness to be vulnerable. There is no need to hold-off on trusting people until they  “earn your trust”. Asking someone to “earn your trust” often means you are asking them not to make any mistake. Trusting is a decision we must make knowing that there are no guarantees. It is signing up to work through hurt when it arises. 

    09 #YourAnswersLieInsideYou
    Look primarily to yourself for answers to your questions. The world doesn’t decide what is right or wrong for you, you do. Have absolute faith in your own perceptions of truth and act accordingly. But be sure to listen to God.

    10 #BeSuperiorToYourFears
    There is nothing noble in being superior to one’s fellow man; true nobility is being superior to one’s fears.

    11 #SeekToUnderstand
    Always seek to understand. Ask questions like: “Do you mean … [repeat what was said in your own words]”. Most conflicts arise not because of what was said, but what we thought was said. The same is true for the circumstances of our lives – not what happened, but what we thought happened.

    12 #DoNotHoldGrudge
    You hurt yourself when you keep a grudge or seek revenge. The thought of revenge is unproductive and negative. Holding a negative thought impresses negativity on your subconscious mind which affects you – you, not your offender.

  • 10 Tips & Tools – Optimizing your Organization to work remotely

    10 Tips & Tools – Optimizing your Organization to work remotely

    Disclaimer: Parts of the content of this article have been curated from different sources such as – discussions with colleagues at Netlight Consulting and MGA Blog.

    1. Choose to see the situation as an opportunity to help your teams explore new ways of working and as a learning opportunity. For example, your teams can prototype and test remote/distributed ways of working. Be mindful though, that working remotely will drive productivity for some coworkers, while others will struggle. Be available to help your teams find solutions whenever they struggle.
    2. Try out different tools that help you hold workshops, seminars, and meetings remotely. Some recommendations are: Mural as a whiteboard (https://mural.co/ ), (Collaborative/Interactive/Open tool) Menti.com, Google Docs (https://docs.google.com/), Dropbox Paper (https://paper.dropbox.com/), etc.
    3. Video conferencing/calls have never been easier than now with tools like Slack Video Calls, BlueJeans, Zoom, Amazon Chime, Google Hangouts, Skype, Facebook Live, Youtube Live, UberConference, etc. However, it is not recommended to be on a screen 8+ hours a day in video calls. So, find diverse ways to work and communicate through longer-form communication, collaborative tools, and other mechanisms.
    4. Employer or Lead: Ensure dedicated tech resources are provided to support the requirements of your teams for working remotely.
    5. Teams: Decide on a documentation structure and tool e.g. Confluence, Google Docs, Dropbox Paper or other tools for this. Find a place for your meeting notes and action points (e.g. OneNote, Confluence). Decide on what to document and how to work together with the team.
    6. It is important to recognize that working-remotely may be more challenging for functions/teams like Marketing, HR, Design, Finance, etc. However, this is not impossible. Help the teams embrace the cultures of agility, autonomy and working with these valuable tools.
    7. For specific meeting formats such as retrospectives, use https://retrotool.io/ in combination with a video conferencing tool. There is always a tool that meets your expectations.
    8. Honouring the diversity of voices is needed. Just like the dynamics of an introvert and extrovert play out in-person, the same is true of online – perhaps even more challenging as video/audio and size of calls can sometimes create barriers for participation.
    9. You might even dive deeper into books and papers from the company that says that they “invented working remotely”: https://basecamp.com/books/remote
    10. A relevant book to read is A Guide to Managing Remote Teams by Claire Lew. She’s giving it away for free!

    There are several other considerations for organizations to optimize working remotely. Please share your own tips in the comment section and let’s help our friends and colleagues work effectively despite the disruption of the #coronavirus crisis.

    For more thoughtful articles like this, check out my website – kehindefawumi.com/

  • 7 Guides for Staying Big

    7 Guides for Staying Big

    1. When little people try to drive you down, THINK BIG. You win when you refuse to fight petty people.

    2. When that thinking of ‘I am not good enough’ creeps on you, THINK BIG.

    3. LOOK IMPORTANT, it helps you THINK IMPORTANT. Your physical exterior affects your mental interior.

    4. When you feel defeated, THINK BIG. Concentrate on your assets. Think big enough to see how good you really are.

    5. When an argument or quarrel looks inevitable, THINK BIG.

    6. Regard every setback as a lesson. Use it to propel yourself forward.

    7. When you feel your progress on your job is flowing down, THINK BIG. When you think ‘I can do better’, ways of doing better will show up.

  • These 10 Behaviours Will Give You An Unpleasant Personality

    Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his ultimate goal in life, and nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude. – Thomas Jefferson

    Our attitude defines the way we approach our world and the meaning we give to the circumstances of our lives. This, in turn, determines what we get out of life. Our attitude, therefore, determines, to a good extent, our ability to achieve our goals.

    Your attitude is a combination of your values, beliefs, and expectations. If you have good values, positive beliefs, and confident expectations, you will have a positive, optimistic attitude toward yourself and the world around you.

    Your attitude determines your behaviour which in turn shapes your personality. Thus, to cultivate a pleasant personality, it is important to cherish and live with strong positive values.

    As with all things, the law of sowing and reaping comes into effect. The law says whatever you sow, you will reap. In other words, whatever you reap (personality) is what you’ve sown (attitude, values, beliefs). Interestingly, what you find is that, if you do not sow, you will still reap – but you will reap weeds. An uncultivated personality will automatically yield an unpleasing personality.

    Below are 10 behaviours (inspired by Napoleon Hill) that yield an unpleasing personality and are sure to drive people and opportunities away from you. I believe you will reckon with most of them.

    01. Indifference in listening while others are speaking. This is sure to be noticed and resented. One is always apt to learn while listening to others but one learns nothing while listening to oneself.

    02. Finding fault with the world at large. Always seeing the negative and calling out the wrong in everything. Rather, talk more about things that are right and, in speaking about things you believe are wrong, be constructive and positive.

    03. The attempt to flatter where flattery is obviously not deserved. This puts people on notice that the flatterer wants something he probably should not get.

    04. Sarcasm, expressed by insinuations and wisecracks which are not so wise

    05. Openly and directly challenging people with whom one may not agree, where there is no obvious reason to do so, except the desire to be on the opposite side.

    06. Volunteering unsolicited advice to others who have not requested or desired it. Free advice is worth just what it costs, which is nothing but the patience with which to listen to it.

    07. Speaking of one’s physical ailments, worries, and personal problems at the disinterest of others. This usually does not make one seem pleasing. Rather, talk about things of interest to those you are speaking.

    08. Endeavoring to convey the impression of superiority through the use of words and topics unfamiliar to others. Rather, learn to negotiate with others on their own level, through terms which they understand. It is nothing noble to be superior to others, true nobility is being superior to one’s fears.

    09. Envy of those who are successful. Truly great people are generous, sympathetic and joyous of the success of others.

    10. Obvious pride and vanity expressed by either words or actions. Usually expressed by passing condescending comments, monopolizing conversations or disregarding the opinions of others.

    Let me know in the comment section, which other behaviours you resent in others or you believe causes people to have an unpleasing personality.

  • Learn to listen to yourself

    Learn to listen to yourself

    “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other people’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most importantly, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” – Steve Jobs

    It is the fear instilled by our environment that mostly limits us. We are often incapacitated and discouraged by the ‘music’ of other people’s unpleasant experiences. The failures we see in others build fearful thoughts in us, causing us to unconsciously wane in our faith for success.

    However, the fact the other people failed in a thing does not mean you will fail in the same. Other people’s realities do not define your reality. To stay positive about your dreams and eventually realize them, you must learn to look primarily to yourself for answers.

    You have within yourself the source to every power and answer to every question. Listen to other people’s advice and seek to understand their perspectives, many of these provide immense value, but follow your heart in every matter of importance.

    Your world within determines your world without. We become externally as we are internally.

    Everyone thinks of light bulbs when they hear the name – Thomas Alva Edison. He is clearly one of the greatest inventive geniuses in the world, with 1093 American patented inventions to his name – a record number for one person that still stands. Like many other heroes, his story was not without a clog. Around the age of 12, Edison realized that his hearing was deteriorating, and this grew worse later in his life. He became hard of hearing, almost deaf.

    There he was, a twelve-year-old Edison largely self-taught. Teachers thought Edison was slow – one called him stupid – so he was homeschooled by his mother and read constantly. He shunned every disbelief and negative music sung by his teachers. And see how he turned out.

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    Reporters often asked him: “Mr. Edison, if you are near deaf, why have you not invented a hearing aid?”

    “I’m working on one – for others.” He replied. “As for me, I find that there are distinct advantages to being deaf. For one, it forces me to read, and reading beats the babble of ordinary conversation. For another, it helps me concentrate on my work and spend less time answering foolish questions. Deafness allowed me to work with less distraction and to sleep deeply, undisturbed by external sounds.”

    Edison saw his deafness as an asset! “To invent, you need a good imagination, a pile of junk and some deafness.” He often said.

    How is that for a powerful perspective. To invent, you need… some deafness.

    As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.

    As Thomas Edison did, we must diligently guide our hearts against the disempowering opinions of others about us. It takes courage to shun all discouragements in a bid to stay focused on our truest dreams. In order to reach our dreams, we must seek the strength to make clear decisions and to stand by them.

    This article contains excerpts from the book Liberty Dancehouse.

  • Gratitude hacks that work!

    Gratitude hacks that work!

    This article is not about how to discard or bury the pain of one’s negative experiences. No! That will be shallow. My aim here to explore why you should-, and how you can better deal with the negative emotions we feel in the midst of an unpleasant circumstance.

    So, here’s a summary for passers-by 😉

    1. Acknowledge the pains of a negative experience – don’t discard it
    2. Seek to be liberated from the chains of your negative feelings
    3. Believe that things don’t happen to us, things happen for us
    4. Strengthen the positive thoughts and meanings that could help you maintain a positive attitude in the midst of challenges
    5. Every negative situation comes with a positive message. Identify yours
    6. It is in gratitude that you truly conquer your pains.
    7. Every feeling you have, good or bad, is not based on the actual reality of life. Rather, your feelings are based on your interpretations of what things mean.

    It is natural and important to acknowledge that a painful experience has occurred and to feel the pain of it. It is normal to feel disappointed, sad and grieved when going through a difficult situation. However, you must strive to be liberated from the chains of your negative feelings and not be bound by them.

    One paradigm I have found effective is to believe that things don’t happen to us, things happen for us! If you always seek for a reason to be thankful in all situations, you can be sure you will always find one.

    Things don’t happen to us, things happen for us!

    Seeking gratitude is about strengthening the positive thoughts and meanings that could help you maintain a positive attitude in the midst of challenges. It is about trusting that everything will make sense in the end. Someone once said: you are not sad because things are bad, rather things are bad because you are sad.

    Our lives are not judged so much by what happens to us as by the attitude we display the face of what happens.

    There are endless positive reasons why an unexpected event … any unexpected event could be a blessing in disguise for our lives!

    While I admit that it is natural to feel hurt and pain when going through hard times, I also think that every negative situation comes with a positive message that we must identify. We must never limit our creativity by thinking in a unidirectional manner when we can explore other possibilities and consider the interpretations that empower us.

    In order to be able to truly overcome your pains and challenges, you should learn to be grateful for the circumstances of your life. It is in gratitude that you truly conquer your pains. Every feeling you have, good or bad, is not based on the actual reality of life. Rather, your feelings are based on your interpretations of what things mean.

    Most situations that weigh us down are not bad in themselves, and we can always identify a joyful message in the midst of the situation.

    Once you learn to perceive a situation in a positive manner, you can change how you ultimately feel about the situation. Then it becomes easy to trust that somehow, the difficulty is a blessing in disguise. That the ‘broken roads’ are part of a grander plan.

    A man who won a national title once said: “I want to thank all my obstacles, failures and adversities for making this possible!”

    This article contains excerpts from the book Liberty Dancehouse. Also, check out my website – https://kehindefawumi.com/