There comes a time in your life,
you will be isolated from your loved ones.

It could be scary for many people especially
if you are elderly or an extrovert.

What could bring about such isolation?

Many reasons.

You are posted out of base because of a new job assignment
before your loved ones join you eventually.

Your people have a cause to travel and you are “home alone”.
And it is the first time in your many years
of being in the company of your wife, husband, children,
and friends even your partner at work.

It can be debilitating if you depend on such individuals
for helping you out with tasks and companionship.

If this experience should arise, it would come.

I read of late where some people were relating
their sober feelings, as their long term friends —
having passed to the great beyond.

The emptiness that creeps in.

This applies more to the elderly though.
The true friends to relate with and
you find that you miss them even if you were at
loggerheads with such individuals.

Now this…

From now put it on your mind, the
possibility of being alone.

Start being active in things or relating with others  —
to engage yourself in your solitude
even if your loved ones and friends are still around.

Learn a skill, may be painting, crafting, writing,
gardening, sports, volunteering and so on.
Hobbies that you enjoy — that demand your
full attention even when your loved ones or
friends are just around the corner.

Be intentional about this…
Create that atmosphere once in a while.

Study the feelings you get, so that,
should such a separation either temporarily or
permanently occur, you will be able
to cope both physically and emotionally.

Activities you come up with during
“time-out” exercise, will enable
you to know yourself and how to cope with yourself.

Have you seen my arts and shop mart?

There are very bad people whom
you can’t threaten by wishing them dead.

You will have to wait forever,
as these unrepentant ones continue to do more damage.

They can’t be moved!

While they are aware of their evil acts and possible
repercussion of being paid back in their own coins,
some of them strongly feel nothing bad will come their way.

It is their perception of life.

So what do you do, when you find such unrepentant
and wicked people in your circle or society?

Simply treat them like a bull in a china shop!

Before they carry out more irreparable damage,
you have to avoid them or simply lure them out.

Then, isolate them.

In addition, if you can,
make them lose their nefarious power
of creating more damage.

You deserve fresh air instead of this people.

Have you seen my arts and shop mart?

Living and life is never clockwork.

Your mind is loaded.

Your focus is being distracted, here and there.

You have a schedule of goals and time frame.

But… battling distractions is becoming more difficult for you.

So, you around for solutions.

Some of these are:

• how to meet scheduled goals and start your day.
• how to avoid burn out or not becoming depressed
• how to prevent procrastination?

Wishful thinking will not boil a piece of rock
even in a pressure cooker.

You need to work.

Of course there are days you
just won’t feel like doing anything!

You don’t have to be ill or in a bad mood.

But you just can’t get yourself to do anything.

You simply want to sit down, play
or just wander in your thoughts. 

Targets and goals you had earlier mapped out
are left unattended to.

Peaceful you feel, but also feeling guilty as
you think of lost time, never to be regained.

Now, what has life taught me about this scenarios?

Hear me out…

There are many elements that control us or influence
our day to day existence.

Everybody tries.

We all try to do our best to be productive.

We are not talking about lazybones who are not
worthy of emulation here.

So what do you do if you feel lethargic?

As long as there is no threatening situation
you must attend to; let your soul flow.

I personal have developed this sweet habit.

I sit comfortably in my chair, in a quiet place,
putting my phone aside, and just allow my mind to wander.

I have a piece of paper and pen to scribble whatever.
I may sleep off or not.

I pardon myself of not meeting up with my schedule
of productivity.

But rest assured that there is a consolation.

That you can’t do your best, with a heavy mind trying

to resolve some subconscious issues.

When you are in the clear, you will know.

The mental energy resumes.

The inertia gradually comes.

Fear is reduced.

And you get back to your being focused
on fine-tuned activities.  

Let your soul speak to you.

Let your soul return the spark to your consciousness,
your mind and physical body.

Enjoy your melancholic mood.

Enjoy your wandering mind.

A subtle moment will kick you to resume your activities.

Trust me it is never a wasted period for
your productivity and mental well-being.

Your life is not lived by a list of “what to do”,
all the time.

Our essence, circumstance and elements
around us affect and influence us, whether we
are conscious or not.

Smart people ride the waves of these moods.

And it shouldn’t be frequent, though
So watch out for this.

And become focused again.

Let me hear from you as a high achiever.

How do you handle these hesitant moments
of your wandering mind and lethargy?.

Have you seen my arts and shop mart?

False Relief.

These days, we slip into our phones – as an escape –

while not giving a “timeout” and thoughts

to solve our personal problems.

It is a battle we must be aware of.

Have you seen my arts and shop mart?

When they tell you this is how we made it.

These are the steps they took until their breakthrough.

You should note them.

But wait a minute…

Remember your circumstances may be VERY different from the
speaker or writer!

Then how do you get the best from their magic wand of success?

Just look around for more thoughts, including interviews.
I love interviews more than autobiographies.
Unprepared interviews allow for honest slips and facts. 

Join the dots of recurrent thoughts from books and other media.

Hmmm.

Make your note and add them to your intuitive
and logical steps to take to hit your goals.

Of course they must be subject to your OWN situations wherever you are.

Apply them. And work towards your defined goals.

Your defined success.

Study the outcome.

Fine tune…

Note your failures and victories.  

Fine-tune again.

Look around for mentors or content in similar situations;
improve on your results.

Maybe a catalyst, these ‘successful authors’ wouldn’t tell you.

It must be discovered by you.

Or your luck could come to you.
That’s your golden nugget from the Heavens.
Keep it to yourself eternally.

Or release it, to your inner circle, the whole world or
at the time you so choose.

At your ripe old age, if it is still relevant.

Ok?

Don’t feel guilty about it.

You can only release much to the world.
I am not saying you should propagate falsehood
about your success.

No!

It is a competitive world.

Discover your path to your own goals
and define what you call your own success.

Sustain it.

Have you seen my arts and shop mart?

Have you observed quite a number of artistes and creatives
who in the past were very successful?

At subsequent interviews they granted,
they promise bigger projects they were planning into the future.

Now a shift is noted by a keen outside-observer.
Their promises were not being met and
their own expectations were fast disappearing.

They were competing against the natural course of events.

Things like tastes, trends and the unseen hand were taking over,
including the minds of some their target audience.

These artistes were disappearing into oblivion like dry leaves falling off a tree.

Yet on each opportune time to talk to the press, a few of them,
still promised of new works in the offing.

The same cocktails of their past content were displayed for a re-launch.

Many of these efforts failed in general acceptance!

But how come, a rebirth couldn’t take place?

A few things were missing.

Ignorance…

They refused or did NOT know that this life demands continuous
and critical examination.

Though, only  a few survive.

So what are the lessons?

Tastes and the realities of time change in a subtle manner.

That life is in phases;

And you must know your place in its trajectory.

Be sure of what the world is saying.

Tap into its opportunities.

You can’t be in your cocoon forever.

Of course nothing lasts forever.

You can always change your path.  

And that will be on your own terms and
not out of your own ignorance.

That would go against the stream of common sense
and the act of survival.

Have you seen my arts and shop mart?

As the year ends, you get to hear people making thanksgiving statements.

They dwell on how it is good to have completed a calendar cycle alive and not yet dead.

I want to disagree a little bit.

I think while that idea of thanksgiving is good but those who have passed on within that year
shouldn’t be seen as losers.
You could be alive for years but miserable and utterly useless to yourself and the society.

Whereas,  a few who have passed on but lived a more meaningful life
regardless of the years they were with us; old or young.

So the lesson there for our annual acts of praise is to have a rethink

about the importance of how to serve our purpose on this planet.

Everybody will go someday.

It is a purposeful lived life that matters.

Get busy.

Some have the common sense to work hard and make smart moves.

They also note the place of sheer benevolence.

However, you WILL NEVER  have ALL  the clues for success and failures in your life.

Why?

Oh Yes, because there are unseen hands that are at play.

So define your own success.

Be easy on yourself but trudge on.

Today, there is abundance of evil and stupidity,

more than the common-sense of ensuring the well-being of others.

You see them too.

And it becomes worrying to you.
“What can I do?”, you ask yourself’

At least you can do something!

Simply don’t just be infected and used by these pretenders.
But be the one who brings joy and freedom to others.

Be the one to reduce some pains within your space.

Have you seen my arts and shop mart?

You know in your mind that you are a very, very hard-working person.
But after every venture or attempt to nurse an idea into the future, what do you get?

Failure!

You ask close family members, friends or even colleagues,  “what could be going wrong”?
Some of them will proffer what they perceive to be the solution.

Some may not even understand what you are talking about.

Let me tell you, the root cause of the problem could be that

you have been telling people –especially those close to you about your idea.
And some of them may not necessarily want the best for you.

Lesson… 
A new idea is very fragile at birth.  If you can keep it away from
familiar people until it is matured, that will be wise of you.

Yes, you may ask, what about if you want somebody to critique such an idea.

I will suggest, you do that with people not too close to you.

Share your experience below about this topic.