Cameroonian Stewed Beans
I love stewed beans for their flavour and spiciness. In Cameroon, we love spicy food and we add a variety of ingredients to beans not only to make them smell good but also to taste good.
Today, I'm sharing with you one of the methods we use to stew beans in Cameroon (trust me there are many others). But this recipe won't only make your beans come out tasting so good, it will also have a very good flavour.
Honestly, I was amazed by the aroma from these beans when I cooked it and everyone kept commenting on the flavour the minute I open the pot to serve the beans. So how do we cook this kind of fine-smelling beans? Here is the recipe.
Ingredients
You'll need:
- Beans
- Tomatoes
- Onions
- Pepper (optional)
- Garlic
- Ginger
Leeks
- African nutmeg (or Deux cotés as called in Cameroon or Ehuru as called in Nigeria)
- Cutmanjo (I used dry cutmanjo leaves. You can use the fresh ones as well.)
- Seasoning cubes
- Salt
Cooking
- Wash and soak dry beans until it's well soaked and ready for cooking. Put the beans in a pot with enough water and cook.
- Start preparing ingredients when the beans are almost done. Slice tomatoes, onions and leeks. Grind garlic, ginger, pepper, African nutmeg and cutmanjo leaves. Do not mix ingredients while grinding. Grind each ingredient separately.
- When beans are well cooked and soft, drain them and rinse well with much water.
- Add some water and let it boil before adding the rest of the ingredients to the beans. Let it boil for a few more minutes before you switch off the fire.
- Serve your beans with rice or any tuber of your choice. I had mine with rice and it was superb.
Please leave your thoughts in a comment below or tell me if you would try this recipe or if you love spicy food.
Don't forget to share the recipe with your friends to help them try something new and nice.
Turning Coco Recipe (Cameroonian Cocoyam Porridge)
Easy to make yet delicious. 'Turning Coco' is one of those meals we often eat at grandma's because she cooks it best. This recipe I'm sharing with you today is a grandma's recipe for Cocoyam porridge. It needs the simplest ingredients but tastes amazing! Let's get into the recipe.
Ingredients
- Cocoyams
- Smoked fish
- Washed bitter leaves (Ndolé). If you bought them already washed, then rinse it again at home before cooking.
- Seasoning
- Palm oil
- Pepper (optional)
Cooking
- Peel and wash cocoyams
- Wash fish and add to the pot. You can open up the fish, take out the bones and cut it into smaller pieces like I did in this recipe. But in this one, I prefer to cook the fish whole.
- Add pepper, seasoning and water to the pot and boil.
- When the pot starts boiling, add some palm oil.
- Add bitter leaves to the pot when it's almost ready.
- You can add some more oil if you want it really oily and shiny like I did.
- Serve when done.
Hope this recipe is easy enough for you to follow and cook the best Cocoyam Porridge ever.
How To Cook Okro (Okra) Soup In 10mins
With the need to work harder to have a successful life, we become busier every day and it becomes more challenging to cook our own meals at home.
The good news is that some recipes take 10 minutes or less to cook, so we can still have a tasty homemade meal after a busy working day.
Today I am sharing with you the fastest way to cook Okro soup. Apart from it being my favourite, it is healthy. Here is my recipe for Okro that I want to eat in the next 10mins.
How to cook Okro soup in 10 minutes
Ingredients
- Okro
- Smoked fish
- Ginger
- Onion
- Vegetable oil
- Seasoning
Cooking
Wash and slice Okro
Peel and grind ginger and onion
Take out bones from the fish and wash
Put all ingredients in the pot with seasoning and enough water and let it boil.
Serve when Okro is ready.
I love my Okro green and not too soft so I turn it off when it is still very green and leave the pot open for it to cool because it keeps getting soft in the heat.
You can serve with garri which doesn't take much time to prepare as well.
How To Make Butter Flavored Pancakes
If you don't mind eating butter once in a while, this recipe is for you. This is a simple pancake recipe but rich in butter flavour. It's not just for the flavour but also the taste and texture.
How To Make Homemade Butter-Flavoured Pancakes
Ingredients
- Flour
- Eggs
- Butter
- Sugar
- Water
- Vegetable oil
Cooking
Mixture
- Break eggs, add sugar and butter and beat together.
- Pour some water into the mixture - enough for the number of pancakes you want to make.
- Put in some flour and mix to get a smooth mixture. The butter may not totally mix but that's fine. Just try to mix it to be as smooth as possible.
Frying
- Heat the frypan and add very little vegetable oil. Don't forget that the butter may be too oily if you add vegetable oil.
- Pour a sufficient quantity of the paste into the frypan and help it spread thin.
- Let it brown, turn the side and let it brown too.
- Fold while hot and serve.
Cocoyam Leaf Soup (Amba'a)
This meal is very common in my village and reminds me of my attachment to my culture. It's a very delicious and nourishing meal and very cheap to cook too. Hope you try cooking it.
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Ingredients:
- Cocoyam leaves
- Dry or smoked fish ('Mbonga')
- Onion
- Leeks or Shallot
- Pepper
- Red oil
- Salt and Maggi
- Cocoyams and or Sweet potatoes. The tubers may vary depending on your preference. Sweet yam is also another great option.
Preparation:
- Wash leaves very well and boil them directly in the pot (most of the time it is tied in plastic papers before boiling but realising the health risk of cooking food in plastics, I highly discourage you from doing that).
- While it's boiling, prepare the onion, leeks/shallot, and fish (by taking out the bones and breaking them into smaller pieces if large).
- When leaves are done that is when they are quite soft and won't itch, drain the water and grind it. You can let it get cold before you grind it on a grinding stone or in case you are using a machine like in my case you can grind it almost immediately. You can also decide to grind all ingredients with the leaves if you prefer.
- Pour some palm oil into the pot and let it get hot (but don't bleach).
- Put salt and Maggi.
- Add the sliced ingredients to the hot oil and let it fry.
- Put in the fish and continue frying.
- Put in the cocoyam leaf paste and stir till well mixed. Taste to make sure the seasoning is OK.
- Let it cook till it gets thicker.
- Serve with cocoyams and/or sweet potatoes.
The Best Ekwang Recipe in Cameroon
Ekwang is a very nutritious and rich delicacy from the South West Region of Cameroon. But now it's being eaten and appreciated in other parts of Cameroon and the world.
Ekwang is a delicious traditional meal and is highly appreciated by a lot of people. It may be a little time-consuming to prepare but hey, nothing good comes easy.
I can assure you that the taste is worth the time and while eating you can only feel grateful for the time you put in to prepare this meal.
Before we start, it's important to mention that our method of cooking in Cameroon and Africa in general, is based on estimations which we learn from our mothers and cooking experiences as we grow up. The quantities of the ingredients and seasoning used for the food will depend on the quantity of the food you are cooking.
That said, let's cook!
Ingredients
- Cocoyams
- Palm oil
- Smoked Fish (could be smoked Mackerel or 'Mbonga fish') or meat (could be smoked Beef or 'Bush meat')
- Cocoyam leaves
- Crayfish (optional)
- Onion
- Pepper(optional)
- 'Contry Onion' or 'Rondel'
- Ginger
- Seasoning
Preparation:
- Peel, wash and grate Cocoyams using a grater or grind it using a grinding machine.
- Prepare and grind all ingredients. Roast 'contry onion' and grind on a stone or break into small pieces before grinding with the machine. Wash the fish, take out the bones and break it into pieces.
- Wash the Cocoyam leaves properly and cut them into sizes that will enable you to wrap the paste perfectly in them.
- Add some salt to the cocoyam paste and wrap the paste in the leaves then put it in the pot to form a circle.
- Add the fish to the pot as you put in the wrapped paste so that the fish is evenly spread in the pot.
- You can slice some of the cocoyam leaves into the pot when you are done with wrapping.
- Add the fish to the pot as you put in the wrapped paste so that the fish is evenly spread in the pot.
- You can slice some of the cocoyam leaves into the pot when you are done with wrapping.
- Place the pot on a low flame and pour hot water on the Eqwang to harden the paste and quickly bring it to boiling point.
- Mix the seasoning with the ground ingredients and add to the pot when the Eqwang is almost ready.
- Add some palm oil.
- Add some palm oil.
- Add crayfish.
- Let it boil for a few more minutes and serve.
Bonne Appetit!
Blogging || Is it Still Worth The Energy? How To Remedy Reduced Blog Traffic and Engagement
If you've had a blog for at least a year now, you would probably have noticed that your blog stats are not the same. There has been a significant drop in traffic to blogs in the past months. Most bloggers are noticing that people don't read blogs that much anymore and this has discouraged quite a number of them who have either turned to YouTube as well or stopped blogging.
Many bloggers are wondering if they should keep on blogging and those who want to start wonder if they should try it at all. In fact, the big question is "Is blogging still worth the energy this 2019?". Especially when people are reading blogs less and bloggers are not getting approached that much for work.
.png "Blogging || Is it Still Worth The Energy? How To Remedy Reduced Blog Traffic and Engagement")
To answer the big question let's examine why we are experiencing a change in blog traffic and engagement. Let's answer the following questions:
Blogging just like any other career or industry experiences changes which could be positive or negative. When it all started, it was for fun, and then it gained more value and pulled lots of attention from readers and brands who wanted to work with bloggers because of their growing faithful readers.
As time went on many more bloggers came along with much more content to read. The tips and lifestyles they shared attracted lots of readers.
The readers began to have less interest in blogs as time went by.
Readers come back to blogs which they find relatable content. Over time bloggers no longer shared content that they could relate to and this made them no longer read as much.
Readers no longer have a long attention span as before. They no longer want to spend much time reading one content so they tend to prefer very short content on platforms like Instagram and other social media platforms.
Instagram has become an addiction and an obsession to many more people and the community over there is growing. Content previously shared only on blogs is being shared on Instagram and this doesn't encourage the readers to move to blogs when they know that they can see it all on Instagram.
This is common with fashion, beauty and lifestyle bloggers. The same outfits, poses, flat lays, filters, places and topics are used by them on their blogs.
As I mentioned in another post, it's ok to learn from and copy from others from the beginning of your creative career. But it's smart to learn from others and then apply what you learned in your own unique way.
Bloggers have become a lot more money minded. Which is not a bad thing at all. But the problem with this is that they let it show to their readers in a bad way.
There are some bloggers who only share sponsored content. Even though you have lots of people following your blog and you are monetizing it as much as possible, it's not fun for your readers who followed you originally for your non-sponsored content. They may feel used when they see you sharing only sponsored content.
Some bloggers now microblog on Instagram since they have a bigger audience there. This doesn't encourage readers to go over and read their blogs. They write the content of their blogs and refer readers to their sites. Fashion bloggers share their outfits on Instagram and ask readers to go over to their blogs to see the post they published about them. Most readers don't go to read because they've already seen the outfit on Instagram.
Not all bloggers have complained about a drop in stats on their blogs but most bloggers are experiencing this new trend.
Bloggers with a bigger following may not experience it much because they may have developed a very strong and large community of faithful followers.
But most growing and new bloggers are suffering from the low blog traffic trend.
- Fashion blogs
- Beauty blogs
- Lifestyle blogs
- Personal development blogs
These niches have the highest number of bloggers so there is already so much content on these topics for readers to choose from. As bloggers increase in these niches, the bloggers will have to share the readers' interest in these topics.
The fact that most bloggers in these niches complain about a fall in traffic to their blogs doesn't mean that new bloggers can't grow successful blogs in them.
It will need a lot of work and most of all original content. Something different, unique and true to you and your personality.
Life and levels may change but your content still needs to be relevant to your audience in order for them to want to keep reading. If you know who you want to inspire with your blog then keep writing content that is relatable to them.
When your life becomes better or levelled up as a blogger, instead of making all your content only about your new property and achievements, also share content that you used to share before to keep your audience. Most of them are inspired by and happy with your achievements but may not be able to relate to all of them. So keep sharing content that will keep them around.
If you want to change your focus or your audience then make your content relatable to your new audience.
I read a blog post where a blogger explained that she was moving to YouTube because of the present low blog traffic trend and in her comment section, one of her faithful readers said that she doesn't read her blog as much as before because of her content was no longer relatable to her.
That could be one of the reasons why your blog traffic has been reduced. Find out how your blog content has changed over time and ask yourself if 70% of it is still relatable to your audience. It may have happened consciously or unconsciously.
Bloggers need to make money with their blogs no doubt but don't make your readers feel like all you care about is the money. Your readers have problems too and trust me money is the biggest one.
Share valuable content with them for free alongside your sponsored content. Be honest when you are making money from your blog or when a post is sponsored. It makes them trust you more and come back to read.
Don't make it a goal in your blogging life to copy and be just like your favourite bloggers. It's easily predictable and gives a feeling of deja-vu. Your readers are intelligent enough to spot that and trust me they also follow your favourite blogger. It can lead to them comparing you to the person that you are striving to be like.
Implement your own ideas no matter how insecure you feel about them. Let your personality show in your blog posts, develop your own voice tone and just be yourself because that's the only way that your readers will distinguish you from others, remember you and stick with you till the end.
People are more used to shorter content but that is a trend that will fade away with time when people will need longer and more detailed information to solve their problems.
I realized that bloggers tried to compete with Instagram by producing content which is short and straight to the point. But that is not really working as readers somehow expect blogs to have more detailed content.
When the reader is in need, he will read the longest post as long as it solves his problem and is helpful to him. So don't be afraid to write longer posts, dear blogger. Make it easy to assimilate by breaking it into sections and making it entertaining and personal. They will love it and want to read more.
Make your titles catchy to your target audience. To write a blog title that will make your readers click quickly, ask yourself 'what questions does my audience have in their minds about this topic, issue or problem. You can write your title in the form of that question or as a response to that question. Also, ask yourself what they want to know or feel when reading about what you are writing about.
You should also make sure to include the keywords they would use to describe or identify this problem or topic you are writing about. Let the reader think that he/she will find what he/she is looking for in your post. And make sure that you deliver and make him/her feel the way he/she expects to feel.
Bloggers should expect the best in my opinion. Every career or industry experiences some regression at some point and blogging isn't an exception. Times like these help to redefine the industry and those who stay consistent and restrategize will succeed when the bad phase is over.
- Instagram will become normal to people and blogs will still be needed for a very long time.
- People will need detailed and useful information in a place where they can find it anytime. Most apps don't provide that. They just pack up one piece of information over another and this makes people lose useful information on apps.
- People will miss reading blogs and connecting with bloggers on their blogs.
- To stay consistent.
- To make people fall in love with and value blogs again by providing original, valuable, relatable and detailed content to readers.
- To be more creative and diversify our blog content.
Here's what we can do during these trying times to revive our lovely industry of blogging, trusting that everything will turn out fine again.
Many bloggers are wondering if they should keep on blogging and those who want to start wonder if they should try it at all. In fact, the big question is "Is blogging still worth the energy this 2019?". Especially when people are reading blogs less and bloggers are not getting approached that much for work.
.png "Blogging || Is it Still Worth The Energy? How To Remedy Reduced Blog Traffic and Engagement")
Some people even ask: "Is blogging dying?"
To answer the big question let's examine why we are experiencing a change in blog traffic and engagement. Let's answer the following questions:
Why are people no longer reading blogs?
Blogging just like any other career or industry experiences changes which could be positive or negative. When it all started, it was for fun, and then it gained more value and pulled lots of attention from readers and brands who wanted to work with bloggers because of their growing faithful readers.
As time went on many more bloggers came along with much more content to read. The tips and lifestyles they shared attracted lots of readers.
The readers began to have less interest in blogs as time went by.
Why do readers have less interest in blogs?
- Most of the blog content is similar and doesn't contain much information.
Most of the blogs or content readers came across are the same even though they are written by different bloggers. Similar content or blog posts flooded the internet as more bloggers came up. This discouraged more readers who assumed from the blog titles that it will be the same type of content they once read. Readers seek unique content.
- Bloggers are no longer relatable to their readers.
Readers come back to blogs which they find relatable content. Over time bloggers no longer shared content that they could relate to and this made them no longer read as much.
- Reduction in readers' attention span
Readers no longer have a long attention span as before. They no longer want to spend much time reading one content so they tend to prefer very short content on platforms like Instagram and other social media platforms.
- Addiction to Instagram
Instagram has become an addiction and an obsession to many more people and the community over there is growing. Content previously shared only on blogs is being shared on Instagram and this doesn't encourage the readers to move to blogs when they know that they can see it all on Instagram.
Where are bloggers going wrong?
Putting out empty posts/content.
To be honest, some bloggers don't put much effort into blogging and put our empty words in the name of blog posts.
They may be going through writer's block or just a bad phase with their blogs but will put out content which doesn't seem to have any extra information from what already exists on the internet.
Other bloggers deliberately do this and this floods the internet with the same information which readers don't find useful anymore because everyone is talking about the same thing.
Over time readers started losing interest in blogs because most of them have content with nothing new or different in it.
The beauty niche has the same content flooded on the internet. When makeup was still a mystery, most beauty bloggers got lots of views because they showed people how to do makeup and which products to use. But most women have learned how to do their makeup already and it's no longer as 'mysterious' as before. Adding another beauty post may not earn you many views if it's something that many others have talked about it and if you have nothing extra to say in that blog post.
This is the same with fashion bloggers who only post pictures without writing and who have titles like 'how to style a jumpsuit or 'how to style a trouser'. There are so many fashion bloggers who have already shown people how to do that. How is yours different?
Lack of originality.
Most bloggers want to be like the successful bloggers they admire so they try to blog like them or blog about the same things as their favourite bloggers. Almost everyone is writing about the same thing using the same style and taking the same kind of pictures with the same kind of poses. Everyone seems to be producing similar content these days and readers are no longer inspired to read.This is common with fashion, beauty and lifestyle bloggers. The same outfits, poses, flat lays, filters, places and topics are used by them on their blogs.
As I mentioned in another post, it's ok to learn from and copy from others from the beginning of your creative career. But it's smart to learn from others and then apply what you learned in your own unique way.
You show your readers that it's all about the money
Bloggers have become a lot more money minded. Which is not a bad thing at all. But the problem with this is that they let it show to their readers in a bad way.
There are some bloggers who only share sponsored content. Even though you have lots of people following your blog and you are monetizing it as much as possible, it's not fun for your readers who followed you originally for your non-sponsored content. They may feel used when they see you sharing only sponsored content.
You are micro-blogging on Instagram
Some bloggers now microblog on Instagram since they have a bigger audience there. This doesn't encourage readers to go over and read their blogs. They write the content of their blogs and refer readers to their sites. Fashion bloggers share their outfits on Instagram and ask readers to go over to their blogs to see the post they published about them. Most readers don't go to read because they've already seen the outfit on Instagram.
The effect of Instagram on blog traffic.
Is Instagram stealing your blog traffic?
When Instagram came, most of us were excited to use it just like every other social media platform.
Of course, as long as a social media platform allows you to grow your blog and followers it's welcome. But little did we know that with time it will become a great competition with our blogs.
Instagram gave the audience what they wanted; visuals and short soluble content which they happily consumed within seconds considering that their attention span has greatly reduced.
Instagram diverted people's attention from blogs by providing what people see on blogs in attractive shorter and smaller bits every day.
The more Instagram made it possible to share more information on their app, the more people don't see the need to go to blogs. People get news, beauty tips, fashion looks, DIYs, travel tips, and lifestyle tips in the form of text, images and videos all on one app. While this is amazing to experience, it is detrimental to blogs because people don't want to leave the app most of the time.
I for one thought I could get traffic from Instagram to my blog. That's why I was excited to be on it. But I realized the hard way that no one else clicks the link in my bio except for me when I am testing my link.
It also taught me that Instagram is a world on its own and should be treated as such. While growing your Instagram, you should put in twice the effort on your blog because they both have different roles to play to readers.
Instagram really changed the game for blogging by making content more visual and instantaneous and I think that it's only raising the bar for bloggers to work harder and stay in the game.
Are all bloggers experiencing low reader stats?
Not all bloggers have complained about a drop in stats on their blogs but most bloggers are experiencing this new trend.
Bloggers with a bigger following may not experience it much because they may have developed a very strong and large community of faithful followers.
But most growing and new bloggers are suffering from the low blog traffic trend.
Which blog niches suffer from this change in traffic the most?
- Fashion blogs
- Beauty blogs
- Lifestyle blogs
- Personal development blogs
These niches have the highest number of bloggers so there is already so much content on these topics for readers to choose from. As bloggers increase in these niches, the bloggers will have to share the readers' interest in these topics.
Does this mean you can't make it if you want to start blogging in these niches?
The fact that most bloggers in these niches complain about a fall in traffic to their blogs doesn't mean that new bloggers can't grow successful blogs in them.
It will need a lot of work and most of all original content. Something different, unique and true to you and your personality.
What should bloggers do to remedy this?
Share relatable content with your audience.
Life and levels may change but your content still needs to be relevant to your audience in order for them to want to keep reading. If you know who you want to inspire with your blog then keep writing content that is relatable to them.
When your life becomes better or levelled up as a blogger, instead of making all your content only about your new property and achievements, also share content that you used to share before to keep your audience. Most of them are inspired by and happy with your achievements but may not be able to relate to all of them. So keep sharing content that will keep them around.
If you want to change your focus or your audience then make your content relatable to your new audience.
I read a blog post where a blogger explained that she was moving to YouTube because of the present low blog traffic trend and in her comment section, one of her faithful readers said that she doesn't read her blog as much as before because of her content was no longer relatable to her.
That could be one of the reasons why your blog traffic has been reduced. Find out how your blog content has changed over time and ask yourself if 70% of it is still relatable to your audience. It may have happened consciously or unconsciously.
Show your audience that you genuinely care.
Remember when all you wanted to do is a blog? You need to go back to those times, my dear blogger. all you wanted to do was to share great content with your readers and you were willing to go to any length to do so and even spend money to give them content for free. That's why they stuck with you because you genuinely cared.Bloggers need to make money with their blogs no doubt but don't make your readers feel like all you care about is the money. Your readers have problems too and trust me money is the biggest one.
Share valuable content with them for free alongside your sponsored content. Be honest when you are making money from your blog or when a post is sponsored. It makes them trust you more and come back to read.
Start producing original content.
Don't make it a goal in your blogging life to copy and be just like your favourite bloggers. It's easily predictable and gives a feeling of deja-vu. Your readers are intelligent enough to spot that and trust me they also follow your favourite blogger. It can lead to them comparing you to the person that you are striving to be like.
Implement your own ideas no matter how insecure you feel about them. Let your personality show in your blog posts, develop your own voice tone and just be yourself because that's the only way that your readers will distinguish you from others, remember you and stick with you till the end.
Share longer, detailed and more informative content.
People are more used to shorter content but that is a trend that will fade away with time when people will need longer and more detailed information to solve their problems.
I realized that bloggers tried to compete with Instagram by producing content which is short and straight to the point. But that is not really working as readers somehow expect blogs to have more detailed content.
When the reader is in need, he will read the longest post as long as it solves his problem and is helpful to him. So don't be afraid to write longer posts, dear blogger. Make it easy to assimilate by breaking it into sections and making it entertaining and personal. They will love it and want to read more.
"We need to show our readers that blogs have their place and that it provides them with detailed information that Instagram can't provide."
Use catchy titles
Make your titles catchy to your target audience. To write a blog title that will make your readers click quickly, ask yourself 'what questions does my audience have in their minds about this topic, issue or problem. You can write your title in the form of that question or as a response to that question. Also, ask yourself what they want to know or feel when reading about what you are writing about.
You should also make sure to include the keywords they would use to describe or identify this problem or topic you are writing about. Let the reader think that he/she will find what he/she is looking for in your post. And make sure that you deliver and make him/her feel the way he/she expects to feel.
What should bloggers and future bloggers expect in the future?
Bloggers should expect the best in my opinion. Every career or industry experiences some regression at some point and blogging isn't an exception. Times like these help to redefine the industry and those who stay consistent and restrategize will succeed when the bad phase is over.
So what should we really expect as bloggers?
- Instagram will become normal to people and blogs will still be needed for a very long time.
- People will need detailed and useful information in a place where they can find it anytime. Most apps don't provide that. They just pack up one piece of information over another and this makes people lose useful information on apps.
- People will miss reading blogs and connecting with bloggers on their blogs.
And what is expected of a blogger?
- To stay consistent.
- To make people fall in love with and value blogs again by providing original, valuable, relatable and detailed content to readers.
- To be more creative and diversify our blog content.
Here's what we can do during these trying times to revive our lovely industry of blogging, trusting that everything will turn out fine again.
Indispensable Virtues You Need To Level Up Your Life
One thing I've learned on my level up journey is that you need to be ready to work on yourself and do most of the work by yourself before you reach out to people to help you.
Levelling up is a personal journey because only you understand what you need, what you want and where you want to be in life. So when you ask someone to help you level up or become a better person, the truth is that for his or her help to be useful to you, you have to be ready for a change. You have to want the change to happen and you have to be ready to do the work and invest in yourself in order for your life to change.
I have made several attempts to change my life for the better in the past and this time I realized that I am more ready and willing to invest in myself and take the steps necessary to make that change happen. And now I'm getting more positive results.
Levelling up is a personal journey because only you understand what you need, what you want and where you want to be in life. So when you ask someone to help you level up or become a better person, the truth is that for his or her help to be useful to you, you have to be ready for a change. You have to want the change to happen and you have to be ready to do the work and invest in yourself in order for your life to change.
I have made several attempts to change my life for the better in the past and this time I realized that I am more ready and willing to invest in myself and take the steps necessary to make that change happen. And now I'm getting more positive results.
I will talk more about how to invest in yourself for positive results in subsequent posts. This time let's talk about personal virtues that will help your life in general and career in particular.
It's sad how certain virtues are going out of style these days. We see people on social media who are being paid to have fun in five-star hotels all over the world and we think that that's where their hustle began. No honey. Their hustle began way before that. They had some personal values which helped them move to the next level of their lives. Values that we neglect a lot these days but which are still projecting people to higher heights.
These people you admire and want to be like had to humble themselves and work their way to the top just like you are doing now. They had to invest in their hustle to increase their value as a business or brand then get to the point where people saw them capable and trusted them enough to collaborate with them.
It's sad how certain virtues are going out of style these days. We see people on social media who are being paid to have fun in five-star hotels all over the world and we think that that's where their hustle began. No honey. Their hustle began way before that. They had some personal values which helped them move to the next level of their lives. Values that we neglect a lot these days but which are still projecting people to higher heights.
These people you admire and want to be like had to humble themselves and work their way to the top just like you are doing now. They had to invest in their hustle to increase their value as a business or brand then get to the point where people saw them capable and trusted them enough to collaborate with them.
Here are the virtues that you need to have for success. It has helped most successful people get to where they are today.
Hard work
Like it or not the virtue of hard work never goes out of style. Nobody is born with any knowledge whatsoever. The only thing we know how to do as babies which nobody teaches us is to suckle, cry and poop.
We have to be taught everything we know today which has been hard work for our parents, our teachers and for us who have invested lots of time and energy learning something. So why will you think that hard work is no longer a virtue to apply for a successful life.
If you believe your parents did a good job with the way they raised you then their hard work paid off. It's the same with your teachers, mentors and your bosses. Trust me they went through a hard time to train you and teach you or build the company where you worked in order to help yourself.
If you think good of them it's because they worked hard to make a good impact on you which actually is a success.
I see people encouraging others to work smart instead of working hard. But I wonder how one can become smart without working hard. No one is born smart. We learn to be smart. And if you train your mind to be smart, you will be smart.
And you have to work hard to be smart. Because being smart requires learning and being good at something.
Have the virtue of hard work instilled in you. As the term signifies it's hard but that's the best way to achieve the sweetest success. Be ready to put in your best and do what you want to do well. Be ready to learn all the tricks. Because that's how you will learn. And with time you will discover that you will not require to work as hard as you did in the beginning. That's when you start to work smart. Because you already understand your work and you have all the skills and experience necessary for it.
I can't count how many times I heard the phrase "patience is a virtue" while growing up. From movies (like The Mummy 1) and so many other people, I came across. It took me a lot of time and failing at trying to go ahead of time to realize how true this phrase is.
I have felt late in life for such a long time so I know what I am talking about. At some point, all my friends seemed to have and achieve something I was lacking and this made my self-esteem issues worse. Coupled with the fact that I had set goals like getting married at 23, having my degree in three years and controlling a successful business which none happened as I planned.
I got into the greatest phase of disappointment in my life. It took a while to begin to get things right or back on track. I was forced once in a while to be patient for certain things to happen but all I wanted was to catch up on the time I had lost.
And you have to work hard to be smart. Because being smart requires learning and being good at something.
Have the virtue of hard work instilled in you. As the term signifies it's hard but that's the best way to achieve the sweetest success. Be ready to put in your best and do what you want to do well. Be ready to learn all the tricks. Because that's how you will learn. And with time you will discover that you will not require to work as hard as you did in the beginning. That's when you start to work smart. Because you already understand your work and you have all the skills and experience necessary for it.
Patience
I can't count how many times I heard the phrase "patience is a virtue" while growing up. From movies (like The Mummy 1) and so many other people, I came across. It took me a lot of time and failing at trying to go ahead of time to realize how true this phrase is.
I have felt late in life for such a long time so I know what I am talking about. At some point, all my friends seemed to have and achieve something I was lacking and this made my self-esteem issues worse. Coupled with the fact that I had set goals like getting married at 23, having my degree in three years and controlling a successful business which none happened as I planned.
I got into the greatest phase of disappointment in my life. It took a while to begin to get things right or back on track. I was forced once in a while to be patient for certain things to happen but all I wanted was to catch up on the time I had lost.
I focused so much on the fact that 'I was supposed to be further with my life and not be at this lower point where I found myself. It hurt me and killed me every day and I put in all my energy to make sure I jump at least five steps ahead to get to where I was supposed to be.
When I didn't catch up I felt even more discouraged and blamed myself for it. I compared myself with my friends and even with strangers on the internet who are younger than me. It made me think "this is where I would have been if I didn't have this or that obstacle that slowed me down".
Now I have come to realize that patience is really necessary for things to work out. Some things do take time to happen. You need to be ready when it happens and have the ability to maintain it if not you will not manage it well and you will lose it.
You need to have patience as you work hard for what you want. You will fail and meet obstacles on your way some of them will even take you back to the point where you started, but in all this, you have to apply patience to your courage to move on so that you don't go astray.
Staying positive is very important for success. It can be hard to remain positive when you don't see results but only a positive attitude can attract success.
Make efforts to believe in yourself no matter how hard it is. Your confidence may fluctuate every day, your self-esteem may not be on top every time, you may feel discouraged and sometimes nervous. Know that this is normal.
When I didn't catch up I felt even more discouraged and blamed myself for it. I compared myself with my friends and even with strangers on the internet who are younger than me. It made me think "this is where I would have been if I didn't have this or that obstacle that slowed me down".
Now I have come to realize that patience is really necessary for things to work out. Some things do take time to happen. You need to be ready when it happens and have the ability to maintain it if not you will not manage it well and you will lose it.
You need to have patience as you work hard for what you want. You will fail and meet obstacles on your way some of them will even take you back to the point where you started, but in all this, you have to apply patience to your courage to move on so that you don't go astray.
Positive attitude & Self believe
Staying positive is very important for success. It can be hard to remain positive when you don't see results but only a positive attitude can attract success.
Make efforts to believe in yourself no matter how hard it is. Your confidence may fluctuate every day, your self-esteem may not be on top every time, you may feel discouraged and sometimes nervous. Know that this is normal.
Don't focus on how low you feel, but focus on how you can boost your confidence. Most people are not always confident in themselves, everyone has done at least one thing afraid and experts still say they still feel nervous while doing what they know how to do best. So don't let your fears or lack of confidence affect you to the point that you can't do anything to make your life better.
Be kind to people with your words and actions even if you disagree with them. Be respectful and help others. It's important to have a business relationship with people but shows them some extra kindness because that will make them to always remember you.
Being kind to people is a great way to build a solid network. A kind compliment or a selfless action can build trust and open up conversations which could lead to a job or an opportunity that will help you. Practice kindness.
For the sake of your reputation or brand, you need to have integrity and respect your work ethic. This will take you far because every action that you take will contribute to your reputation with time.
If you show more integrity and respect for your work ethic then you will build a good reputation for yourself which will guarantee more clients for you in the marketplace.
Stay vigilant and prudent as you interact with people and make decisions because not everyone has an agenda that is also favourable for you.
You will meet selfish people who will ask to work with you but will only want their own desires to be met. Stay woke. Develop an eye that decerns such people. Make sure that you define and defend your own interests in every deal.
Take people the way they are and find ways to deal with them as they come for your own good. Be wise.
Kindness & Selflessness
Be kind to people with your words and actions even if you disagree with them. Be respectful and help others. It's important to have a business relationship with people but shows them some extra kindness because that will make them to always remember you.
Being kind to people is a great way to build a solid network. A kind compliment or a selfless action can build trust and open up conversations which could lead to a job or an opportunity that will help you. Practice kindness.
Integrity & respect for your work ethic
For the sake of your reputation or brand, you need to have integrity and respect your work ethic. This will take you far because every action that you take will contribute to your reputation with time.
If you show more integrity and respect for your work ethic then you will build a good reputation for yourself which will guarantee more clients for you in the marketplace.
Vigilance & Prudence
Stay vigilant and prudent as you interact with people and make decisions because not everyone has an agenda that is also favourable for you.
You will meet selfish people who will ask to work with you but will only want their own desires to be met. Stay woke. Develop an eye that decerns such people. Make sure that you define and defend your own interests in every deal.
Take people the way they are and find ways to deal with them as they come for your own good. Be wise.
From Dependence To Independence | How to manage the pressure
Talking about money is always a serious thing. No one likes to hear that they are not doing well money-wise even though they can clearly see that.
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As important as it is, I don't like talking about money. I had to come to terms with the money talk recently and it has been a process for me to get to that point.
It wasn't easy for me to address the details of my financial situation. I just thought I could get a better financial situation without cross-checking and being real with my financial status. The focus for me has always been to make money and not to focus on the actual details that characterize my present financial situation. No doubt I made mistakes with managing my money.
I had a very strict upbringing when it came to money and I was thought to be content with what I had no matter how little. I developed a spirit of managing what I had as much as possible and since I was afraid of coming off to everyone as money-minded, I would not ask for money until I really needed it. I was provided with already bought items rather than the money to purchase them myself. It made the subject of money feel taboo for such a long time but as an adult, I realized that we have to talk about money at a certain point. At a certain point, we have to question our finances to find out what's wrong and right with them and what the future holds for us. This is the point where we are finally becoming financially independent because it's hard to question and look into your finances when you are still dependent.
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The pressure to be financially independent.
Being dependent feels normal until a time when we begin to feel that guilt to take money from our parents or live off someone else's pocket. It can make you feel depressed, stressed and pressured to want to do something to get out of that dependent situation.
Hustling and yet not independent?
This is very normal - I mean to feel that way. The feeling is worse when you try so hard to become financially independent but you fail on many attempts. Or what you make isn't enough to ensure your financial independence. This is worse because it kills you every time when you have to go back to ask for help when everyone knows that you have a hustle or a job. Everyone expects you to be doing well at this point.
At what age should I be independent?
Another factor that causes the pressure of being financially independent is age. Trust me you don't want to be getting close to thirty and still be depending entirely on your parents. It feels so stressful, especially in this era of social media where everyone seems to have their sh*t together and have accomplished a lot before thirty.
When the pressure takes you in the wrong direction.
That's not an easy thing to deal with. I remember that I had to unfollow lots of people (including my friends) on Facebook some time ago because everyone seemed to be achieving something and I felt my life was stagnant because I compared my life to theirs all the time.
That wasn't healthy at all as it made me strive to change my life so bad that I wanted a quick change to meet up with the standard. The standard that had been built in my mind was that by this or that age, I should be achieving this or that. I wanted to skip further than my legs could take me and I failed many times because I was motivated by the wrong thing.
The things I wanted were not exactly what I wanted instead, they were things that I saw that looked good on other people. I mismanaged the little I had in order to look like all was well and I was getting my sh*t together. But underneath, things were rather getting worse because I was only increasing my financial problems and making my financial situation worse.
I spent money on things I didn't really need at the moment and I didn't want to come to terms with the fact that I wasn't a fully independent babe yet. I had a struggling business that went on and off for a long time and I was tackling school, my blog and life too. It became so stressful at one time that I became so discouraged. Everything I was doing wasn't working. While I tried to portray (and fool myself at the same time) that my life was intact, I was working out ways to back it up. But it wasn't working.
Finally facing your financial situation.
Like I said earlier I don't do the money talk (not even with myself) but I was forced to do so when I realized that it's time to level up my finances and live my best life.
I had to look myself in the eye and tell the truth which is that I wasn't doing well and I needed an upgrade. Here are a few things I looked into.
Realizing the reality.
I mentioned this already but I will emphasize it because it is the start point for change. I had to accept it. It is really hard to accept a situation that you are not used to. While being dependent I lived well and alright but when I took the road to independence, things changed and my financial situation dropped.
I had more needs and less money to spend. Money was now going into my business, my blog and other things. It wasn't just food, school and monthly bills anymore. Other expenses added up. This changed my situation. I began to struggle even more to manage my money.
It took me a long while to realize that I was in a real mess and that I needed to think about reassessing my finances.
Analyzing money entries and exits.
I didn't analyze my entries and exits of money. I just lived like that. When I received money, I rushed to solve the next pressing problem without analyzing how that expenditure will affect me. And I think that was my main problem with my finances. I would have some money now and later I am already broke and sometimes in debt.
I now realize it's important to know your streams of income and how much these streams of income give you, then know how you spend it so that you don't go broke. It's also important to take into consideration the duration of each stream of income to come in. Is it a monthly, weekly or daily income? How certain is this income to come in? Some incomes are not as certain to come in on time as others are so it's risky to depend on them.
Those are a few questions to guide you analyze your financial entries and exits. Knowing how much you make or receive in a month will help you to know how to spend and invest your money without going completely broke.
Knowing the assets and liabilities in your life.
Assets and liabilities are not only meant for the accountants. It is meant to be understood by everyone who wants to manage their money well. This here is all about spending or what you are spending your money on. Are they assets or liabilities?
Assets are valuable and useful things you own that help you generate more value in the form of income or any other value. While liability is like a debt like your monthly bills and loans. I hope I defined them well without sounding too technical.
So you see that it's better to have more assets than liabilities. If you stop increasing your liabilities like health, gas, phone, internet, water and electricity bills then you can have more money to invest in assets that are good.
Also, you need to know the kind of assets to invest in. Some assets increase in value while others decrease in value over time. Assets like land or a house increase in value over time but a car will decrease in value over time.
When it comes to simple things like clothing and cosmetics, invest in pieces that will take longer to wear out so that it becomes cheaper for you over time. At least I practised this one already, especially with my clothing and accessories like my bags. I have pieces in my wardrobe which are as old as six years and are still in a good state because they are of good quality.
Making a financial plan.
After all this analysis, you need a plan. You need to use the knowledge you acquired about your financial situation to make changes that will take you to a better financial level.
The method I use is this.
Calculate how much money you need monthly for your present and future (combined) expenses, investments and savings. How much do you need to spend, invest, refund or save every month? If you already know your total expenses, then you may decide to invest a certain amount and then save a certain amount monthly.
When you know this then this will be your financial target to reach each month. When you multiply this amount by 12 months then you will know how much you need to make in a year.
If you meet your yearly income target before the year runs out then that's great. This can also help you track your expenses to see if they are increasing, decreasing or the same. If your yearly target income is increasing but your expenses are increasing as well then you are not making progress financially. Also, calculate the total amount of money you are expected to save by the end of the year and track your progress as you save.
Consider your abilities, skills and opportunities while doing your plan. Also, consider your future plans for investments and family plans as you plan your finances.
Financial independence is a TRANSITION, not a sudden change.
I want to highlight here that it takes time to become independent financially so don't expect to get on your feet with a snap of the finger.
It is a transition, an evolution, a progression and a metamorphosis from dependence to independence. It takes time. Don't be fooled by what you see on the internet of people getting financial independence right after college and all that yadda about getting financially independent by a certain age.
Don't even let that make you question your life for a minute. Keep working on yourself to get the financial freedom you seek. Hard work and patience are still such good virtues.
If you are still dependent while you work your way towards independence then I would say don't feel too comfortable but don't feel ashamed about it. If you still live with your parents or they still send you money for upkeep, don't let that make you relax your efforts and don't feel ashamed about it.
Just do what you have to do to get out of that situation because that is just a transition period. It's not meant to last forever but it can take a long time too.
I didn't warn you that this post was going to be long lol.
But I am happy to share all the details with you about levelling up your finances. This is still January. Or whatever month in which you read this post it is not too late to start making drastic changes to better your financial life.
I hope to share more real and practical tips with you on that as time goes on. I hope you enjoyed this post and don't forget that you can always share your thoughts with me in the comment section below.
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