Hello hivenaijans and hive bloggers all over. Hope you all are doing well?
You are welcome to my blog.
Ever since I was a little girl, my dad would recite this poem below to me almost every night when he was not at work. The poem goes...
Good better best
I shall never rest
Until my good is better
and my better best.
When it's time to tackle my homework, he would ask me to recite the poem first with my eyes closed. I did this because I saw my dad as my hero and I believed everything he told me without an iota of doubt.
This I did for a long time until it became a mantra on my lips.
When I got a little older, I learnt the meaning behind the poem. My dad taught me to keep working on being better at whatever I find to do.
He taught me never to relax on my last success but to strive to beat my last record.
He put it this way
Beat your last best score
I cannot express enough how that quote has helped to shape me into the woman I am today.
It built a fighting spirit in me. I tried not to do anything casually. I always made sure to put my heart into whatever task I was assigned so as to be better than my previous self.
This drove me into learning new things. I developed a passion for learning new ways of doing things, and new skills.
I can recall when I just finished my writing my O'level examinations plus JAMB and was awaiting the results. I refused to sit at home like some of my peers did, rather I ventured into the labour market (@17 years).
The first job I landed was in a shoe making factory. The company produced shoes, slippers, belts and bags all from scratch with either leather or Ankara (native) materials. I recall that we were about 2,000 people recruited for a one month training and at the end of the training only 300 people were retained of which I was among. I had no experience whatsoever on how to unlike some who were already tailors and cobblers elsewhere but my passion to improve on myself paved a way.
My finished products at my first job ever
Recently, I was faced with another opportunity to improve myself. My school decided to organize a colour day competition (which was new to me) for the students. Teachers were tasked with grooming the students in their team for presentations of different items in their colours. Four teams were picked and assigned colour codes, BLUE, GREEN, YELLOW and PINK.
I knew of inter-house sports but this was a different ball game altogether, nevertheless I decided I would do my best. I was assigned team Blue and to top it all, as a team leader aarrrggghhh! (I wished the ground would swallow me then) but my daddy's words came to heart and I took on the task courageously.
To say it was tough is an understatement, it was tougher than tough as other teams also did their best. Come to think of it how many things did I know that was in blue colour.
This was challenging but I was determined and it paid off because I became victorious. Blue team won the competition that day.
I have lived my life with this attitude, to always improve on myself and beat my last record. I am in competition with no one but myself.
The sky is my starting point and not a limit.
All images used are mine.
Thanks for reading...Shalom