Ola, Happy new year.
Welcome back to another blessed year. This is a new chapter where each one of us begins a new. It is a time where we are equal because we are turning over new leaves of our 2022 book for a fresh start. Our 2022 story is about to get written and each one of us is holding onto them, a fresh page and a fresh bottle of ink, to write down again what the year holds for them…..For the purposes of this narrative, I will let you in on little secret. That, I began writing this script last year, and it felt very odd talking about this year whilst we hadn’t gotten here yet. And because you are reading this today, means that both you and I saw this year gracefully. And we are thankful to God for allowing us to see 2022 in one piece.
In this year, I will challenge us to do just one thing. BET ON YOU. Someone could be wondering, and just how exactly do I bet on me? You will realise I used the word us, when I said, challenge us, meaning that I am not excluded from this because we are taking on this challenge all of us. Yourselves and I.
Betting on yourself is simple as it calls for you to believe in yourself. This self belief is very important as it is the drive that assures you that you are going to win. This description can only be as simple as that and all you have to do is, just do everything possible within you, to see yourself winning. I have spoken about the power of you several times, and this is just another reiteration, that you actually hold the power and the key to your own win. You bet on yourself because of the knowledge you have of yourself that there’s no one who knows you better than you. Equally, there’s no one who knows how much you can accomplish better than you and there’s no one who knows how much far they can achieve if you put your mind to it better than you. So do you see already why it is important to bet on you? Because only you knows you better than everybody else, hence the more reason to bet on you, given that self knowledge about you that you already know. Easy right?
The reason why you need to bet on yourself is that the outcome you are looking to achieve is a win for yourself that only you would be proud of ultimately. And since you are using yourself as the bait to bet on, then I believe the more reason for you to believe in yourself and on your bet that you will actually win. Betting on yourself will call for you to majorly prioritize yourself by making you and everything about you important. It is this creation of a sense of importance about you that will push you to your win all the time because who you are thinking of all the time is just you. Reason why you should take a chance and prioritise yourself is that, everything about what you are seeking to achieve will be as importance as the outcome expected. If you don’t take a chance to make yourself and what you are all about a priority, someone else will, and the saddest part of it is that, it would be on their terms. And these terms most of the time will favor them most and you the least.
So I know you could still be asking, so how exactly do I bet on myself? Let’s read on as I give a description of how. I read a couple of narratives about betting on oneself prior to writing this down just to get some more hindsights from other people over and above what i had in mind to share and I am choosing to share those insights with you and myself too, lol, hopeful they will count for something in this new year for all of us.
For starters, if you are betting on yourself, choose to dream the impossible for you. This simply means, believe that you can achieve that which is greater even when the world believes otherwise. Dreaming the impossible means that you believe you can achieve that which looks impossible. It could be writing a bestseller novel, getting the greatest promotion of your desire or even becoming a parent even where there seems to be no partner at hand because that is somehow impossible. Dreaming the impossible is having the wildest of dreams about you and your ambition which scare you whenever you get to think about achieving them. This fear is what will eventually drive you into wanting to work even harder to see that reality coming into play. And this reality is the dream come true of your impossible dreams. Dreams that you dreamt of and envisioned about when you decided to take a chance on you. Achieving the reality of your dream can only be more possible if you are ready to put your mind, heart and soul to everything that you do, and the winning will no longer be a wonder but rather a culmination of the results of your efforts. So now ask yourself, what’s that impossible thing that you might have ever thought you’d never achieve? Now dream that you are achieving it. Isn’t that a bet in itself?
Secondly, betting on yourself would call for you to keep doing what you love, not once, or twice, but regularly and continuously. If you have to, you may be required to create a timetable or even schedule it within your plans. You may also create a work around of how you intend to find time to do your craft. If you need to, create a routine for it even that will keep reminding you even on days you forget and this will be a part of your system. When do you want to work on your craft, is it every Tuesdays? Is it Every Sundays? or is it every evening? It’s that simple, set time aside for it, create a plan and regularly keep working on it. It’s going to pay off someday as long as you stick to that plan religiously. Doing something regularly and continuously will also create the discipline you need to keep working on that which you love that’s worth betting on.
Thirdly, how you can bet on yourself is by just pushing yourself to doing something even if it means going out of your way to do it. How you can push yourself is by showing up for that which you love even on those days you don’t feel like it. And why you will show up is because you placed a bet on yourself so not showing up will mean that you gave up or aren’t too committed to achieving the win after all. Sometimes you will be forced to be brutal, even if it kills you ( not literally) but you will just have to show up for yourself because winning at that point deeply relies on you. Showing up for yourself means that you are not allowing yourself to get let down, and that you will do all that it will take to work on what you need to. Now tell me, if this is not a reason to place a bet on yourself, then I don’t know what will, after all who doesn’t like winning so show up..
Moving on, how else you can bet on yourself is by taking time to invest in yourself. This you can achieve by making or creating time to learn something or by making time to be trained if you need to. For all I know is that we all don’t know everything, but there’s someone out there who does so why don’t you reach out and let them teach you what you need to know especially if that knowledge is what you are relying on so that you can win. Spare some time to read, spare some time to get some schooling, even for that one who is reading this, I believe you are way ahead of the pack by choosing to learn what I am sharing about why it’s important to bet on you.
There are a number of things you will be required to do as you undertake this self bet journey. Things like being your biggest fan. You will be required to cheer for you all the time. Clap for you and root for you always. Have your back at every beck and call. After all, didn’t you just place a bet on yourself. Cheering for you only means that you are counting on you to win. And that’s what it means, by being your biggest cheerleader. Cheering on you is the confidence boost that you need to help you succeed so don’t let your guard down on this even if you will be the only one cheering just keep cheering you owe it to yourself.
Betting on yourself will also require you to change your mindset about a couple of things like changing your thoughts from negative to positive or thinking that you will fail and start thinking about how you will succeed instead. Always remind yourself that you can do it as opposed to saying I can’t do this or I am not good at this. Using positive thoughts on yourself means that you truly believe in yourself and what you are all about that will certainly see you succeeding. You need to create positive thoughts like, I am winning this, I got this, I am the only one who can do this best. When you start being positive about yourself, you let your mind focus on the beautiful qualities within you which are useful to push you forward to your win. Another way to staying positive is by constantly recognising the little accomplishments you make. This you can do by continuously making a list of the achievements you make each time and one way to do this is by keeping an updated list of the said achievements which will be that constant reminder of the abilities within you also and what you can do. It is these abilities that will keep defining your worth to you and keep assuring you that you are capable of winning just like everybody else.
So much more that I may not be able to fully exhaust on how you can bet on you, but I believe the pointers above can help us steer towards a clear direction for this year.
Lastly as I conclude, I will urge you to not feel stuck at something that doesn’t make you happy. If you take a chance on you by betting on you, you will realise that you actually have the ability to take control over it and make things better for you. All you will probably need to do is just raise your stakes a little notch higher for a huge outcome. Take control over you career, learn something new that can move you from your current position if you are not happy or if you desire more. Also for those in business, this is a push too to take control over your business, spread out if you have to, invest more, scale up if you have to but just don’t be the same this year. Try and bet on yourself this year and see how that goes for you , we shall not regret.
I found this article interesting and thought provoking so you can read more about ways of betting on yourself.
I will end by the words from this quote which I found intriguing by Joe Balcom from the article above that can be useful to help you come out of your shell and just place a bet on you.
Rather than clocking in and out asking for permission to be you, and wasting the most capable years of your life doing work you dislike, try pursuing a life you don’t want to run from.
Joe Balcom
Wishing us all a successful 2022 full of many bets on ourselves.
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