Work Mode with Brown Uzouku: Rain, Rain Go Away… Little Johnny Wants to Play

Before I hit the play button of today’s piece, pardon me to quickly make a marginal digression. Thanks.
On Saturday, 5th of November 2016 by exactly 5:05 post meridiem, I spoke at a powerful event known as Mind Shift organized for female entrepreneurs, New Haven Enugu, Nigeria. The event was a huge success and different crop of female entrepreneurs were in attendance—and we had inspirational fun! Prior to that day, I did my gorilla marketing of the event and one of the persons that got a slice of it was a tailor that works close to my office. I advised her to come and she swore she would and I believed her. Ironically, she didn’t. When I met her the next day, I asked her, “Ma’am, I didn’t see you at Mind Shift.” And she replied, “I wanted to come, but rain fell.” Geeweez!

This time, I didn’t believe her. Why? Rain only drizzled for just fifteen minutes; and that took place about forty-five minutes before the event started. So what rain was she really talking about? Well, maybe I will find out on Judgment Day or even before.

But until then, let’s just hit the play button and get on with today’s gossip.

Okay talking about rain, if you don’t mind, I’d like us to take a mental journey to our nursery and primary schools. Well, if you didn’t have one or your mind can’t vividly find its way to such a long, retrospective destination, then no sweat. You could actually join me to mine: St. Faith Nursery & Primary School. If there was one subject that was prevalent in our nursery and primary schools, it was the recitation of poems. Even though I can’t presently recall most of them, I am still (and I know you do too) familiar with the following:

“Rain, Rain, go away;
Come again another day;
Little Johnny wants to play.”

Apart from it being a regular poem like few others, it actually served as a poetic prayer asking the rain not to fall or asking it to stop falling so that we could play. Way back then, it seemed to work and we habitually deployed it. But when it didn’t, according to the flip side of the poem, we suspended our play probably to a later time.

You and I are now wise enough to truthfully know that such poetic prayer not only didn’t really work, but it was quite puerile to believe that it did. Unfortunately, many of us have left nursery and primary schools yet we still recite and live out the lyrics of this poem in the way we live our lives on a diurnal basis. How? Let me explain.

You see, we live in a challenging time. Unfortunately, things are not looking up any time soon. There are a thousand and one reason for anybody to stop producing. Therefore, there are several persons roaming the country today whose lives when you convert into a poem, read thus:

“Challenges, Challenges go away;
I hope you don’t come again another day;
I want to play.”

Okay, before you read any further, I want you to hit your pause button for a while and meticulously compare the two poems above – with the story at the first paragraph and let’s see if you could locate the gem that I am trying to show you.

It is so amusing how we humans live. In fact, some of us place our goals on hold simply because we are confronted with the challenges of recession. And then we silently hope (and even pray and fast) that these challenges would all go away so that we could now begin to live out our goals and become more productive. And if the challenges refuse to go away, we either keep waiting or we jettison our goals.

Obviously, this attitude is causing serious loss and damage to our productivity level and we really need to call ourselves to order fast! Listen friend, the space you exist in is called LIFE. And in this space, don’t even expect that challenges, like dinosaurs, would one day go into extinction. Therefore, you have to learn how to succeed (play) even in the midst of your own challenges (rain).
Don’t keep your great dreams hoping that one day all these challenges would be addressed and then you can now live out your dreams. Rather, rise up with strong faith and use the current challenges as stepping stones to attaining your great dreams.
Sure, some challenges do come with some scary, insurmountable looks, but then let your focus be drawn to the beauty of your dreams and let them inspire you to move forward towards realization. When you do that, miracles begin to happen. Trust me, it works!

As real adults, I suggest we stop running from the ‘rain’ and begin now to ‘play’ in the ‘rain’. Or what do you think, friends?

Have a great week and stay productive.

Photo Credit: Innovatedcaptlures | Dreamstime.com