It’s 11.13 pm as I type this. Baby Amelia is finally asleep, the hubby is on military duty while I stay awake to try to catch up on some work before the baby wakes up again or a new day begins, whichever comes first.

2019 has been very transformative year for me. My experiences this year challenged my belief system in ways I didn’t expect. In local parlance, “the things wey my eyes see, mouth nor fit talk am”…well, that’s why I am typing it. In the same vein, I experienced some very amazing things too, for example: I boarded my first international flight and travelled to the US for the first time. I became a mom to a beautiful baby girl, got featured on one of Nigeria’s popular daily newspaper (Here’s the link –> https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2019/11/29/bestie-atti-raising-african-women-in-the-digital-space/), published 4 books on Amazon, launched an online school to teach others how to start their own businesses and many more.

This year has been a journey of learning, unlearning and relearning. Here are my top 5 lessons from my experiences:

1. I learned not to hold on too tightly to my plans but focus on the ultimate goal, because sometimes, even the best laid out plans can change. Does that mean you should not plan? No. By all means plan, but focus more on pursuing the goal and vision with clarity and confidence. When your goals are clear and changes happen, you can recalibrate and identify other paths/directions toward your goals.

2. I learned to be grateful for the big blessings as well as the small ones. Nobody has it easy, life can be tough but perspective is key in overcoming life’s challenges. You can choose to see the thorns in the roses or the roses in the thorns. There might be a gazillion reasons to complain about people and things that are not working but if you can count your blessings, you will also realize that there’s a lot to be thankful for. First, the fact that you are alive and able to read and comprehend this post, the roof over your head, clothes on your back, good health, family and friends, job, business, career, financial status, freedom, peace, etc.

3. I am learning to be intentional about my mental health. Life as an entrepreneur/business owner can be tough but combining that with being a new mom, struggling with baby crying every 2-3 hours at night, dealing with low breast milk production, hormones and all the unexpected things you learn along the way can take a toll on your mental health and lead to depression. As a human being, your mind is so powerful and having a sound mind is critical to your productivity, therefore, do whatever it takes to protect it. Seek professional help, talk to family and friends whom you can trust to help/support you, go on a vacation, pray, exercise, listen to uplifting music, go dancing, sleep, see a movie, laugh, etc.

4. I am learning to ask for help and accept help. As entrepreneurs many times, we want to do everything by ourselves. I carried that mindset and attitude into my new phase as a mom, always reluctant to seek help and when offered, my first response was usually: “don’t worry, I got this”….until I did not “got it”….eye turn me! I was always exhausted and frustrated. Then I started asking for help and accepting it. You do not have a planet of your own for a reason. You don’t always have to be superwoman/man all the time; the people, resources and tools around you exist for a reason. Utilize them, maximize them.

5. I have also learned to maximize the internet and digital technology for business operations. In the words of Bill Gates: “If your business is not online, you are out of business”. As an entrepreneur/ business owner, when it comes to business operations and service delivery, your clients/customers usually do not care about your personal situations, whether maternity leave or relocation or whatever situation you are. If you promised to deliver on a service, you must get it done, your brand depends on it. Leveraging on digital tools and resources for my business helped me a great deal to keep in touch with my clients/customers while I was on vacation and during my maternity leave. As a military wife, there’s usually need to travel to different parts of the country and being able to do that without it affecting my business operations is such a blessing. Having a digitally-enabled business which is not affected by my location or situation was the highlight of my year and one lesson I will take with me everywhere. This particular lesson inspired me to create an online course titled “Borderless Business Blueprint” where I show participants how to leverage on digital tools to build profitable and impact-driven businesses and brands that they can run from anywhere in the world and the best part of this is seeing my students build their own businesses from scratch using the lessons and strategies I share this course.

By the way, Baby Amelia woke up when I was at No. 4 of this post. I did the needful and put her back to sleep.

I hope you got value from this post.

Leave a comment and also share one lesson you learned recently.

Cheers to your success,

Bestie Atti