I have a thing for geographical places. Each place, I have visited or lived in leaves an emotion or lifelong lessons for me. Some are pleasant and some are not too pleasant but the fact is that they all come bearing something.
Lagos is one of my best cities. Sometimes she comes with a feeling of nostalgia, sometimes anger, on other times an enormous explosion of unexplainable positive energy and on somedays some sort of craziness. The good thing about her is that she has something to offer. I have a habit of staying away from places where my emotions are blank.
Lagos is a doting mother who spoils you silly like her only child if you understand her. Sometimes, I get really embarassed when people ask me how I have the time to read or write. This is because the answer usually at the tip of my tongue that I do not let out is that, "Lagos has taught me to maximize my time."
When I started working, I apparently started realising how useless sitting in traffic could make you. However, one good thing I have learnt over the years is whenever I find myself in the worst situation, I ask myself what good thing could possibly stem out of the situation.
This led me to spend my 'traffic jam time" reading or most likely writing. I conditioned my mind that every time I found myself in traffic, 'Mother Lagos' was silently whispering "Develop yourself for a few minutes or probably hours." It is fair enough to use the irony of Lagos spoiling me whereas it has thought me to maximize time.
I remember having the mindset that having a driver was a luxury however, with time I have realised that it is a necessity. This is not because you cannot drive or are lazy but because time is of the essence and you sure do not mind having a partner to share that labour with while you are maximizing your time.
Just around the emergence of the taxi cab hailing company, Uber. One of my mentors would hail a cab on her way home. When she told me about it, I dismissed it as an extravagant gesture but with time, I have come to realise that she did what was right at the time to enable her work even on her way home.
Every moment that you’re tempted to procrastinate or do something useless, you should remind yourself that this is a moment you will never get back. You have to learn to make the most of your time so that you don’t have to look back through the years with regret.
This doesn’t mean you have to be working every moment of the day. On the contrary, some of the most meaningful uses of your time are spent not being busy, but being with family and friends. Even if you’re just talking or playing games, these are the times you will remember fondly.
After all Mike Okri, one the distinguished pacesetters in the modern Nigerian highlife music left us some piece of advice
Time na money o Time na money -- Time na money hey Time na money Make you use your time well No wakawaka No gossip gossip No spoil another man Use your time well Do better thing Money no dey come from heaven Do better thing money go come Na true word I dey tell you so oo Oninado
From me to you to Jeff Bezos to Oprah Winfrey to Mark Zuckerberg. We have two things in common. We are all humans and have twenty-four hours in a day
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