Hard and dedicated work is never in vain

The more you do something the better you get at doing it. In fact a lot of study has gone into this and experts have come up with what is called the ten thousand hour rule which simply shows that when a person has done the same thing for up to ten thousand hours they arrive at expert status.

Two books that talk about this are Mastery by Robert Greene and the Outliers by Malcom Gladwell. From musician, to artist, to golfer or speaker, the more you do something, the more proficient you become at it. Today I want us to extend this a bit.

In my book Creative Thinking, I argued that the biggest mistake a lot of people have made is the assumption of thought.

The fact that you have something does not mean that you use it. It is possible to have hands and refuse to use your hands to do some things. Now the truth is that the fact that people have brains does not mean that they use their brains so thinking is not an automatic trait of man.

THINKING IS A CHOICE

Thinking is a choice that people make to engage their brains — just like they make choices to engage any other part of their bodies.

The greatest tragedy in the realm of thought is the assumption that thinking has taken place when in actual fact all that has happened is the revolving of fixed mindsets around the head in an attempt to consolidate and justify the mindset.

When however true thinking takes place, wonders happen.

New information comes into the brain and it is processed for results. It gives birth to ideas and just like for any other thing, the more you think the better you are at generating ideas.

There are very few people who come up with great ideas the minute they applied themselves to a line of thought. In fact, good ideas are the products of many bad ideas over time. The problem is that many people give up after their first bout of bad ideas and they allow the bad ideas to rob them of their confidence.

They allow the initial wave of bad ideas to define them.

Nigeria just had one of the most peaceful elections in Africa. A gentleman called Muhammadu Buhari emerged the new president elect.

This man had contested sixteen years ago and lost and has had three other attempts and he lost all.

To onlookers his running for the election was a bad idea and each time he lost it seemed to prove the point that it was a bad idea. On the fourth attempt the bad idea has now become a great idea and is celebrated and people who opposed him are now his greatest cheerleaders.

Never be intimidated by failure. Never allow yourself to be defined by mistakes. Those who fear being wrong reduce their chances of being right.

The more mistakes you make, the better you become at not making mistakes. Riding a bicycle involves falling down a few times but eventually you get to the point where you can do it without thinking of what you are doing.

Think of that. Walking is something we perfected after falling a few times and now we don’t think to walk. We do it unconsciously

Don’t be distracted by the times that you have failed. They are catalysts to your becoming an expert. Inspired by what happened in Nigeria, permit me to say that we should not give up on our continent yet. As a continent we have made mistakes but make no mistake about it, we are a continent on the rise.

I’ve been travelling around Africa for a while and my conclusion on my beloved continent?

Africa is simply a wonderful place and I won’t trade my Africanness for anything.

The combination of the dust, scorching heat, strong winds, a snow capped mountain, expensive Chauffeur driven 4 wheel drives with Rolex wearing CEO’s and NGO chiefs tucked behind — talking on their expensive phones, a few naked children running around without a care in the world, their bare breasted mothers sitting a few meters behind them occasionally breaking out into laughter as they enjoy their girl talk, cars having to give way to cows who apparently seem to have the right of way — Absolutely no place like Africa! Good morning Africa!

Dr Wale Akinyemi is the Chief Transformation Officer at PowerTalks Corporate and Personal Development Consultants. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @waleakinyemi