faith

Why you need a North Star

Why you need a North Star

Years ago, my good sis Michelle told me I have the gift of communication

When she said this, I thought, “Yeah, I have a way of communicating, I can speak to others, teach, write, and use my gifts to convey big ideas”

But what I’ve also come to realise over the years is that my gift of communication fuels my curiosity about language

Hi, I’m Nina, and I’m a word nerd

I get curious when I hear or see a word that I’ve never come across before or suddenly have the urge to know where the origins of a phrase comes from

Even if I’ve heard it lots of times in the past

One such phrase is “North Star”

We often hear people talk about something being their North Star

I’ve always understood what this phrase meant as the thing that gives us purpose or fuels us towards a particular goal

Or our why

But, recently, I’ve been curious about why we say “North Star” in the first place

Here’s what Google told me:

How to build and keep momentum

How to build and keep momentum

Recently, I had the pleasure of being interviewed on the Melanted and Proud podcast. It was a great experience that allowed me to pause, sit down, and reflect on my journey so far in terms of the challenges I’ve overcome to get to where I am today

From launching The Far Above Rubies Collection in its first iteration as a blog, to then learning PR to get more eyes on it, to coaching people on PR, and, ultimately, turning it into a luxury retreat business

For example, I’ve experienced the death of family and friends, my parents have been sick (sometimes at the same time and sometimes right before a launch). I’ve also experienced health issues, depression, anxiety, and feeling unmotivated. I’ve had to navigate the loss of friendships, money being funny, limiting beliefs, and, at times, family and friends not seeing the vision

Although I didn’t get to go through everything, just talking about and looking back on some of the things I’ve achieved, I realised that I’d accomplished so much while navigating life

A question that stuck out to me was: “What kept you going, and why haven’t you given up?”

To which I answered:

Why belief is important in achieving goals

Why belief is important in achieving goals

There is a saying that goes, “Tell God your plans and watch him laugh” and if I’m being frank with you, I realised subconsciously last year that this was something I was subscribing to

E.g. when things didn’t always look 100% for Media Magic, I questioned God.

In so doing, I realised I didn’t question God’s power or ability but I did question His will and His desire towards me

In other words I didn't question if He could bless me but I did wonder if He would. Can you relate, sis?

What this really comes down to is past disappointments

As Nigerians say, life will show you "shege" (trouble or hardship), leading us to believe that what we want isn’t always in the cards

But, I think that what I came to realise is, as cliche as it may sound, delay is not denial

If you ever find yourself not wanting to engage in something or give up because you’re not sure whether it’s for you:

Why surrender is so powerful

Why surrender is so powerful

I always say that one of the ways that God speaks to me is through repetition

Which is quite fitting since “repetition is the mother of learning”

And, recently, there have been three separate occasions where God has spoken to me about the power of surrender

Here’s how 👇🏾

Why you should follow your dreams

Why you should follow your dreams

I'm so totally honoured to share that I spoke at The Rise to Millions Conference in Paris and received a Legendary Woman of Impact Award there recently 🥳🥳🥳

It was the last weekend of October to be exact

As I stood in front of the crowd, trying to find the words to express how honoured I was, I ended my speech by saying something like: “Well, this wasn’t on my bingo card, but it’s real, and it’s happening because I chose to follow my dreams...literally"

Here's what I meant by that 👇🏾

Why you need BHAGs

Why you need BHAGs

Have you ever heard of a BHAG?

(pronounced bee-hag)

According to Jim Collins and Jerry Porras, who coined the phrase, it stands for "Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal"

It can be defined as follows:

"It’s a goal that has a clear finish line so you know when you have achieved the goal. And it’s one that you have a 50 percent to 70 percent chance of achieving. It’s not something so outlandish that it’s highly unlikely that you will ever achieve it, but it’s definitely something you’ll have to stretch yourself to make happen" (Rachel Rodgers).

Although BHAGs have many benefits

Such as:

How to manifest exactly what you want

How to manifest exactly what you want

If you’ve been rocking with me for a while, you’ll know I have a background in Speech and Language Therapy, and that at the beginning of my career, I worked in Primary Schools (or Elementary Schools for my American peeps)

(I see you!)

During this time, there were periods and jobs where I’d invariably feel bored and, ultimately, like leaving. These feelings were due to bad managers, stressful work conditions, and unfair pay, which left me wishing for a new job

But complacency kept me at these unfulfilling jobs until the tide would turn, and they would do something that made me go, “Alright, enough is enough. I need to leave"

I found myself in a cycle of unpleasant and unfulfilling jobs, till I realised that the adage, "be careful what you wish for 'cause you just might get it", is true, but just not in the way we typically think…

Here’s how 👇🏾