Just do it… for you

“Didn’t you say you’d skip the next edition?” Nkechi asked. With my bloodshot eyes and grumbling stomach, I was racing to edit and publish an edition of the 'Thinking Out Loud' newsletter on LinkedIn before the end of the month. “I have a few minutes to spare,” I answered. “I might as well just…

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The good, the bad, and the oblivious

“Do bad people ever admit that they are bad?” I spent a lot of time as a child asking myself questions like this. Now that I’m much older, I realise everyone has their perspectives on good and evil and the word “bad” is relative. Regardless of perspectives, do we ever take stock of our…

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Live in the picture-perfect moments

“I took some pictures when I was at the Aurlandsfjord in Norway last summer. But the pictures only captured a tiny piece of the beauty that the Aurlandsfjord is, and no one will ever truly understand the depth of beauty until they go there themselves.“ Murphy explained. We were talking about our last vacation…

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Do you feel at home?

“She has a skin like me” - these were the words of my three-year-old niece as she described a friend she made at her new school. Children her age make friends quite quickly but for some reason, she was overjoyed about this one.Her statement got me thinking a lot about how much impact inclusion…

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Give Fathers Their Flowers

"If I had the necessary requirements to carry and birth children myself, I would have probably done that too" - Mike said. This was over three years ago during an interview for my thesis on gender roles. But those words still live rent-free in my mind. This month, my family marked 12 years of my dad's…

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Never stop smiling

“Now, it’s my turn to tell you stories,” Molly said as she settled into the empty train seat beside me. For over an hour, the seat was occupied by Fred, a tourist who shared more information about Dresden with me than I’ve learned in over three years of living there. “Fred tells me you’ve…

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What’s in it for them?

I once worked on a project that needed major inputs from many department heads within the company. Contributing to and reviewing the project would take several hours of their time. Time they needed to do their real job. I explained how important the project was for marketing and how it was impossible for me…

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Less about you, more about others

“The checkout operator at Zara had such beautiful hair!” I said in a conversation with my husband after my day-long shopping on Black Friday. “Her hair was so long and full, I couldn’t stop staring at it.” I continued. “That’s nice” he responded. “Did you tell her?” he proceeded to ask. “Tell her what?”…

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Social media detox

I recently read “Deep Work” by Cal Newport. Although the message of the book was clear and actionable, I struggled to get past certain pages. I spent weeks avoiding the “quit social media” chapter because frankly, I believed that was an unnecessary piece of advice. Thousands of people make a living from social media…

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Let go of what’s gone

I found myself in what seemed to be an empty room. There was a small bed on which I sat but nothing else besides the really high walls stood out to me. I should have been trying to figure out where I was, but my mind was consumed with intense anger and frustration and…

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