Sunday 10pm, Julie
Gichuru, one of Kenya’s most successful lady news anchors is signing off this
week’s episode of Sunday Live(a show that airs on Citizen Television) . I am
seated on the comfy sofa covered with a warm duvet as I lazily slurp the last
sip of a cup of hot delicious chocolate. “Wow, this woman is quite a force to
reckon with!”… Oh no! Its 10pm! My brain finally registers the time...I can’t
believe the weekend is over…again! ‘I need to use my weekends better’ I mumble as
I rush up the stairs into my room to start my ten page assignment due tomorrow.
This has become my routine; the sudden realization that I have no time. Why do I keep doing this? Why do I always seem
to not have any time? Tomorrow is Monday, am so tired…it feels like a Friday,
sigh!
I started my graduate
studies earlier this year with a lot of enthusiasm. I even attended the ‘not so
popular’ orientation, did back to school shopping and made sure all my friends
knew that Carol has gone back to school. I am that person who always loved
academics. It is my dream to have about three master’s degrees and a doctorate.
(My alter ego is laughing so hard at this point.) A dream that seems quite far
-fetched at this point, do I realize that I cannot afford to use the same
undergraduate script to get through graduate studies?
.jpg)
William James, a
popular American philosopher and psychologist stated in the book ‘Energies of
men’ that “We are making use of only a small part of our possible mental and
physical resources”. From this, various researchers, analysts, bloggers, rumor
mongers and even people who were just trying to sound smart came up with a myth
that we only use about 10% of our brains. A movie titled ‘Lucy’ was even
released to prove that the average human being uses only 10% of their mental
and physical resources.
I pride myself on
being an innovative, ambitious, self driven woman of excellence. I am that
person who gets things done. My bosses at work are happy with my performance and
my teachers in school are not complaining either; All this while using only 10
% of my brain.Did I forget to mention that I work well under pressure? Hold
that thought. When I talk of pressure, is this pressure external or is it
self-imposed? Mmmmmh, now that’s a tricky question. How can I talk of being
able to work well under pressure, yet I piled on all this pressure to myself? Why
am I only starting my 10 page assignment at 10pm on a Sunday? Yes I will get my
work done. I will deliver the assignment dully completed and well lets be
honest…, averagely researched. I will sleep late and wake up tired, on a Monday!
I will sluggishly go to work and give my average best… well am tired remember? Doesn’t
this mean that I am simply a bad time and resource manager? Ok, I think I
should stop there before I lose all the faith people have in me. Remember, I am
still the innovative, ambitious and self- driven woman of excellence. But how
much more innovative would I be if I utilized my time well? Perhaps we lose the
90% mental capacity while we waste time. We live in a generation that is thoroughly
entertained and has time wasting as a hobby. Perhaps if we cut out the
entertainment and the waste of time in meaningless engagements, we would be a
generation that utilizes 100% of their brain. Imagine the exploits!
By Carolyne Kiambo
No comments:
Post a Comment