How much of “IT” do you really want?

In certain climes, the business year is winding down and the countdown to another rotation of the earth round the sun beckons. Thanksgiving and Halloween globally and maybe for Nigeria, we should question the dates because the rains we see today could well have been the rains of March and April.

For many, this countdown has the sound of doom, gloom and exasperated sighs; in my part of the world, the sigh will sound like an elongated “AAAAAHHHH!” or a “YEEEEEEEEEE!! (not synonymous with “Yay”) because they are recording epic failure of goals and aspirations. For others, it may not be so dramatic, they have recorded marginal success and are content to tranship the remainder unexplored to the next cycle of the sun.

Each one of these persons will in the course of this reflection ask themselves questions, which would revolve round a Why? or What? Whatever the question, it will speak of quest, a thing, an IT that is being worked towards and I think the conclusion of this evaluation will result in a question like “How much of IT did I get”?

I met with a couple of young lawyers recently at a professional event and in the course of our conversations each one was trying to articulate an IT that was ideal and suited for them. Some said they were sure what they wanted and ready for it but just a few questions in, it was clear that the IT being articulated was either borrowed or just not a real inspiration. For others, they were sure what they wanted but could not “go and kill themselves” on account of a mere aspiration. Like is commonly said, I put a question to them and it was the above caption, How much of “IT” do you really want? How bad do you really want IT? And after that came stutters. This question was alien. After this episode, I went home and asked myself this question and it led to a lot of introspection. So, I ask you reader, what is “IT” and how much of it do you really want.

In a knowledge economy, finding content is not tough, social media has further democratised it with many of us living off borrowed quotes and cliché. What this means is that many of our aspirations, quotable quotes and smart posts do not carry the weight and the value that they should or purport to do. The end of this is frustration and that explains the uptick in unfulfilled professionals globally. People are not pursuing honest dreams which are suited to their realities and more importantly (and maybe this should be capitalised), dreams which they have not prepared for.

After my introspection, I came up with masterclass content which I shared with myself and here are five tips that I penned down for my consideration which I believe will help anyone who is either discontent or unhappy alter their status. They include:

Gauging Hunger: Sometimes, due to the speed at which we are required to work and the fact that we are sometimes jaded by the repetition of the cycle, we recline into monotony and lose hunger. Hunger in this context is the drive, for innovation, the drive that maintains energy. From time to time, we need review if our zeal is still as strong as the first day we carried the dream of professional services. Do we still maintain the same reading habits or practice input? If many of us undertake review, we will find that we have lost our hunger, we are coasting, comfortable at marginal and fading successes. Staying hungry is a cardinal principle of success. Working like one has not attained is usually the benchmark against which successes are pegged. How hungry are you?