Before writing this, I asked a couple of random questions on my facebook wall and this article is as a result of the few responses that I have gathered over time on some of these questions.
You see most times, we assume that we know what is best for our country, for a given situation and so on, but we never really propose solutions to make things better, rather we state the problems.
I have made the assumption while writing this article that we do sincerely care about our country, about our fellow citizens and the people around us but we do not necessarily know what to do or how to make suggestions to improve the state of affairs.
This flaw- ‘our inability to state very clearly our position on things’ has made us come out as being negative, arrogant, hateful and the like.
As you read this article, I challenge you to give serious thoughts on the suggested tips below, you will then be able to unleash the power behind them and be effective in your personal journey and in making Sierra Leone a little better.
1: Make your bed
Many articles have been written on the leadership implications of bed-making. Yes! I mean that literally: wake up in the morning and before leaving your room, making your bed, has a leadership implication. But this is not about any of those articles, this is about how you can make Sierra Leone great from your bedroom.
When you are making your bed, you have the time to think about your day, what it might be centered around, what you can do to improve yourself. Doing this actually helps you acknowledge your role in society, by doing things this way, it helps you become a better version of yourself, bit by bit.
2: Think about your family often
Most times, we think we think about our families before everything, but we actually don’t. You must have to be very intentional in thinking about your family, about their future, about how you want them to feel, about what pains you want them to overcome. Doing this helps you understand that other families around you are struggling in their own way and helps you empathise further.
3: Think about how you feel and why
We are very emotional people, the majority of our actions, are as a result of this. That’s remarkable, being emotional helps us experience ourselves and who we truly are. The downside is, even though we know when we are hurt, sad, happy etc. we never truly ask or explore where the feeling is coming from. When you establish why you feel the way you feel, you can now make decisions that are not emotionally charged, since you have to take a time-out. Doing this helps you correctly ascertain what will hurt the next person and how to avoid making them feel any negative feelings, you do not like to feel yourself.
4: Start with I think or what if ?
Criticism seems to be in our “blood” ,well to put it fondly. It is a very common practice to always want to criticise at any chance we get, whether our criticism is logical or not, it seems like it is an impulse we cannot control. So, the next time you want to criticise someone, especially when you are not clear on their reasons for doing what they do, why don’t you start your statement with “I think” or “what if”. This will give the opportunity to the person at the receiving end to be able to acknowledge that this is your view, and this is how you see things.
Accepting criticism is usually very hard and people will be as defensive as they can if you outrightly attack rather than suggesting an alternative to their solution, opinions etc.