I was born today close to three decades ago, Alhamdulillah but that’s not the main reason for this blog article and free mentorship write-up. Two days ago, I got an email message from Guaranty Trust Bank about the early closure of their branches nationwide to customers and this made me think if people also take some time off even if it is just some hours to audit their own achievements for the first six (6) months of the year. Many of us always write down yearly resolutions on or before January 1st every year but how many people do take time to go through those resolutions after a quarter or mid-year? As a man, I have personal development, business, career, financial, leadership, religious, social and travel goals for the year 2022…
I was born today close to three decades ago, Alhamdulillah but that’s not the main reason for this blog article. Two days ago, I got an email message from Guaranty Trust Bank about the early closure of their branches nationwide to customers and this made me think if people also take some time off even if it is just some hours to audit their own achievements for the first six (6) months of the year. Many of us always write down yearly resolutions on or before January 1st every year but how many people do take time to go through those resolutions after a quarter or mid-year? As for me, I have personal development, business, career, financial, leadership, religious, social and travel goals for the year 2022.
Official Standards
In the banking world, it is not strange that such companies have standards that must be adhered to in order to remain customer satisfactory, relevant, law abiding and over all profitable while also reducing costs. As a world-class financial analyst in training under Corporate Finance Institute (CFI), I know well now what it means to analyze past trends and forecast future performance and liquidity of a business. The question that keeps running through my head is that, ‘Are companies only the group of individuals who must ensure standards? Can people not also checkmate themselves in order to find out how their set goals are being achieved or disrupted due to the trends of their actions, outcomes and circumstances?
How Nature Comes in
We could argue that as humans, we can only predict but are not in control of what happens to us later in life. Even as this is true, that does not stop the banks from undergoing their own mid-year audits of their financial statements, so why should we hinder ourselves from such practices on the mere excuse of ‘nature happens’? On this premise, today I want to take charge of my own past 6 months by analyzing what I have been doing right and what can be done better or even abandoned for other worthy actions. You too can use this article as a guide to crosscheck your annual achievements if indeed you had some. If not, at least you can start now by checking through my own goals and setting some for yourselves.Personal Development Goals
Truth be told, I failed myself in this regard. When the year started, I had no personal development plans towards the year. You may be surprised yourself that how can I, a mentor, say or do such a thing. I am being honest here, so I just want this to be a reference point for my future self. Others years past, I would always write down the top books I wanted to read for that year, audiotapes I wanted to listen to for my private improvement and online motivational courses that I wanted to enroll into but sadly this year was different. None was penned down during New Year’s Eve. A crucial point I must make here is that if one does not actively plan for the future that does not mean the nature would not plan for you.
How Nature can Help
Nature did for me, due to my other engagements in other parts of my life, I had some nilly-willy goals to achieve during unplanned periods and as a result I got do tick some impromptu goals to be done. Career required me to become a mentor through MentorColor, so I had to develop myself through reading some self-help blog articles and listening in to & watching some mentorship YouTube videos. As you may have noticed, this approach may lead to problems for many people if they do not own their craft and focus on really good contents from top authorities on relevant subject matters off the internet. Many creators are now out there who would just develop contents for entertainment but not enlightenment. Hence, the crux of the work still lies on those who digest the contents like me to sieve through the not-so-useful ones and the productive others. The best approach is to search for key personal development coaches, contact any or relate with their self-help materials online or physically.Business Goals
I was more concerned with setting goals for my businesses than for personal development this year. Appalling again, I did not write down these plans but only knew them by heart. The issue with this strategy is that you can easily forget them, which rarely happened to me as other people too will claim but this can add unnecessary stress to your mind and worse still, anything that is not written down is really not so important to a person and for that reason may not be focused on up until completion. The fulfillment that comes when one completes a task and ticks it off is unexplainable except you experience it. Thus, during the weeks and months of the first half of the year, I started penning down these goals.
A.O.S Online Business Launch
Last year was indeed a very rough one for me and my team at our physical location in the ancient city of Ilorin, Kwara state, Nigeria. The post-pandemic period was more challenging just like the year 2020. So, we decided to let go of your company assets, sell them off and launch our business fully online in 2022. Our organizational vision statement is “to become the No. 1 Online Language and Linguistics University in not just Nigeria, Africa but the entire World.” Yet, we were still playing the local game and had to change our strategy sooner or later to fulfill if not all, but at least part of our vision. We have since moved all our services onto the web and from the looks of things, lost some team members & local clients, had to forgo some petty service offerings but have gained more nationwide and foreign clients, made more in revenue with little inventory, staff and streamlined high-productive goods and services.Career Goals
The path I feel my past 6 months had the most impact is that of my career progression. Gracefully, I wrote almost every career goals that I have achieved and more. I made sure late last year to pen down my career change plans which I have since achieved. I wanted to more or less add up to my expertise instead of changing completely. During the mid-year period, I started with taking free online courses in the tech industry, enrolled and got accepted in a data science program benefitting from a 78% scholarship offer and even practicing what I was learning by setting up and contributing weekly to a newsletter on LinkedIn where I share insights from how to start a data science career like I did.
Financial Goals
Prior to this year, I lacked many of the money privileges I enjoy now. I wrote these ones down too and I am glad I did. I remembered some of my well-meaning staff members complaining to me when we were physical how I would quickly reinvest cash made from sales back into our businesses and even gift out the retained earnings to charitable causes and tax sharks disguised as government ministries who exploit small and medium scale businesses all because they lack a network of connected VIPs and public servants. That is a story of another day. Here, I just want to point out that going online made personal funds be differentiated from business funds while still having savings, emergency and enjoyment funds.Leadership Goals
I have learnt so much this year and one of the not-so-glaring facts in my journey that I found out is that of reciprocal responsibility. If one can lead his own life and business (not necessarily corporate affairs but little impactful social media presence and engagement on LinkedIn for instance), you can get noticed by those who would better your life without begging them to do. It does require a lot of smart work but it is not that hard. The mentorship role I got from MentorColor was as a result of being active online. The other leadership-like connection (where I lead my team of world-class financial analysts) I made with most of my learning colleagues through Alx_Africa and CFI was also through LinkedIn.
Mystery Work Opportunity
Perhaps, a more worthy benefit of being active online came when I got approached by tech recruiters through LinkedIn to first of all apply for online Top US Silicon Valley type data scientist/ machine engineer posts via Turing without actively seeking the job offers. Later on, I started even referring other tech professionals to the platform for permanent full-time jobs with American companies that pay well for their services while working with them virtually from one’s home country or anywhere they are. Apart from Turing, other volunteerisms have reached out to me as well to assist them with developing AI-enhanced solutions to life-changing problems.Religious Goals
Another key area of life which I had written goals was that of my religion. I achieved some of them quite easily and others are still yet to be attained. I still long to achieve my top goal which is to become an hafiz (a memorizer of the entire Qur’an). I planned to go for I’tikaf during the last 10 days of Ramadhan and I was glad to have fulfilled that during that period. My other goal was to visit Mecca and Medina for the Hajj pilgrimage rites but I was not able to get enough finances for that now. Even though many of these goals were not attained, I am still positive of achieving them as time goes by in shaa Allah!
Social Goals
I was once regarded as a social leper; someone who was not really good at socializing with my peers physically. It’s quite the truth and that is why I don’t bother trying to since I am not the type. Instead, this year, I turned to connecting with people online. Sharing more of my work-related and travel ideas with like-minds through social media. Indeed, this has serve me right. I have met many professionals from all over the world through LinkedIn, YouTube and even Facebook, partnered with some of them on projects and work deals, increased my followings and connections significantly and even developed a healthy routine of improving my personal space and advancing my career in the process while earning to a reasonable extent from my networks. I have built more like a circle of influence around the vloggers, bloggers and internet users that I listen to, watch and learn from on a daily basis.Travel Goals
Perhaps, I saved the best for last. My major aim of relocating away from Nigeria to Canada has been intensified as a result of my new focal point. Though, I am still in Nigeria but due to my engagements this year, I am now in a better position to getting invited to apply for Canada immigration, nominated by a province and being approved by the Government of Canada to move at any point in time soon. Moreso, my experiences along this line of work have been boosted after assisting my friends and family members migrate to Canada with ease. Even with working remotely for the most part of this year, I can say affirmatively that my travel consultation expertise has leveled up as planned in comparison with my foreign counterparts. Thus, our charges will increase for sure after this day for the next half of the year.
My Free vs Paid Sessions
If you would like to carry out your own goals analysis, you can book a free one-time mentorship session with me on MentorColor to discuss how you can overcome procrastination or any other vices you are battling with in order to unleash your full potential. I am always welcome to help you also get into data science through scholarship programs or even develop your financial analyst skills via CFI’s FMVA program. And, if you would like me to teach you French language or assist with your immigration plans out of Nigeria, Africa or anywhere, you can reach out to me on my mobile @ +2348107714449 or send me an email message on admin@aosacademy.com or even visit either our company website @ aosacademy.com or our French online school @ frenchTEFcanada.com today.