Showing posts with label personal development. Show all posts
Showing posts with label personal development. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 10, 2019

Myself I Must Remake



Myself I must remake
Though desert sand
Bake me into clay
It won’t churn a man

Out of me
I must the Potter
And clay be
Ask help of no other

Myself I must befriend
Though mortal man
Stand by to the end
He’d only hinder
My personal progress

Myself I must remake
Or my substance will flake
And get blown away
Like scrap on judgement day

Akpan



Tuesday, May 20, 2014

When Your Ideals Are Threatened


When you crash and burn at your first attempt working a project that cost every muscle in your body to put together, same one everybody around you felt different about, you feel the white-hot glares of scorn peel through layers of your skin like sun rays through a hundred lenses incinerating an entire colony of black ants. The only difference is this beam is sucking on your faith, seeping out your very life-force. Do you marvel how fear of failure cripples the desire to venture out into strange waters? It makes us long for support from our peers. In any case, there isn't a single thread of fault with folks sharing their dreams and aspirations with other people. The principle thing is not to leave the door too wide open so a desire for companionship morphs into a ruthless dependency; a belief we are nothing without someone else's opinion.

Courtesy: Naja Niketa
The quest to achieve is an inseparable element of every mans psyche; a burden to increase and multiply. To excel in a chosen field, an area of interest. And thus, fear on any level should be kept on a tight leash. I have come to terms with my weaknesses. Not compromise. I have studied and garnered ample info from my shortcomings, and I understand the limits of my abilities and strengths. I cannot deny the fact that Im inclined to make mistakes or that the best of my pains might fall through like a castle erected on sand. Nevertheless, my calling raises me up high above all limitations and plants my feet on a pedestal of sweet possibilities. And I am persuaded to declare this privileged position in which I have found myself fortifies the essence of my zeal. Faith can stand, walk, run and fly incontestable even when evidence indicates the contrary.

I stay my course trailing my own path. Besides, shaping a life is an individual responsibility. Dexterity in the mental realm and otherwise, cannot be taken out of the equation. We are heroes of what we pursue and conquer but not before we conquer nor even before we lay pursuit. Until we tread less traveled paths, experience can only be measured by a stretch of imagination like a paradise possessed from a distance. The haunting knowingness that I might walk away from the life I was programmed to multiply agitates my creativity. I sense a threat to my very existence every time I am reminded I am surrounded by opposition.

All men are prepared to accomplish the incredible if their ideals are threatened.”—Maya Angelou.

And thats why I keep a simple creed but fire it up to get me through the heat.

Keep your pens bleeding!

Akpan


Saturday, March 8, 2014

Collected Steven Barnes Quotes on Writing, Career & Personal Development



I met Steven Barnes (online) sometime around 2007/8. It’s not that I can bet my shirt on it but dates aren’t nothing but numbers, right? Well, I can’t say I’ve not been made a better writer since my first encounter with this great writer, teacher and mentor.

The quotes which appear on this page were gleaned off a few newsletters which I’ve been more than privileged to have delivered in my inbox for close to five years. You would think I’d be something of a genius myself by now. I hope these words not only spark a flame in your heart but that you find them as timely as the young and inexperienced writer I was did way back when.














































Keep your pens bleeding!

Akpan




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