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Monday 31 March 2008

Kujichagulia for the New Third!

Posted by Tahirah


Tomorrow is April. And I can bet that most people can agree with the sentiment that the year is “flying away” with most of us, at some point, uttering “I can’t believe it’s already [insert random date] wow!” (especially in situations when you’re frivolously chatting with a stranger/acquaintance and talking about the weather has gotten too tedious, this is another dull topic that temporarily juices a bit more moisture from your dull conversation). April, for me, is starting to feel like New Year all over again. It’s actually a third through the year, yet I’m back in that reflective mode we tend to fall into on December 31st.

You know that feeling that the year is running away? Well right now I don’t like it, because a feel a bit like I’m not running fast enough to keep up with it.

I started the year feeling revitalised, determined that I’d leave 2008 feeling like I’d accomplished a lot more than I did in 2007 (which I happen to think was a pretty unproductive year for me creatively).

In January I acknowledged that 2008 would be the year of Kujichagulia for me. This means self-determination. I can’t pronounce the word, and I had to keep going back to the official Kwanzaa site to reference it, but it just felt like the right thing for me to attach to my year. I’ve got dreams bigger than me, which will only be realised with a bout of good old-fashioned self-determination.



So since then I’ve been talking a lot about plans that I’ve got for the summer/end of year/projects…but as I haven’t been working as hard as I can to put the things in places to make sure I realise these aspirations, I begun to feel like the only thing that was moving in sync with the time was my mouth!

And that’s not sexy. So I’ve been motivated in the last couple of weeks to lose the runny-mouth syndrome and make my actions be the only things that are running – no dancing – to the beat in rhythm with time.

SO! In time with the New Third, April, I’ve made dramatic changes to my weekly routine. Like, suuuuper dramatic, I’m cutting from a routine I’ve been doing for the last 14 or so months. And I’m in a place where I will either slow down, stop, and sleep-walk straight into 2009 or I’ll go Kelly Holmes up in this BIOTCH and breeze through the next Thirds triumphantly – exceeding my own expectations and truly making this world my block.


Kelly is used as a metaphor...I'm haven't reached the point of delution where I think that I'm gonna be bussing super-speed sprints from Brixton to the Bahamas.

Wish me luck!

Some muses that inspired this post:

Iyanla Vanzant – Acts Of Faith


25/4
"Fewness of words, Greatness of deeds – Abdul Baha"

What are you waiting for? With all you say you want, there is:

A dream for you to follow;
A goal for you to set;
A plan for you to make;
A project for you to begin;
An idea for you to act on;
A possibility for you to explore;
An opportunity for you to grab;
A choice for you to make.

If not, you shouldn’t have anything to talk about.

“Today I will make it my business to say less and do more”

21/4

“I Am the only one who can limit me”

&

A wise “old man” who gave me a piece of orange paper talking about perseverance - I can’t remember the sentences verbatim, but it basically said that perseverance is the key to success: not creativity & not talent (I’m sure we all know a few wasted talented people).

Tahirah…x

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