7 Things You Need To Take More Seriously

About a year ago (or the year before), I resolved to be more serious with my life. I was actually serious with my life at the time; probably took life more seriously than most people. But I had to see more, do more and be more.

Being serious about you life is beyond focusing on your academics, your career, or other responsibilities that you may have. Being serious is about being *actively* involved in your life.

Come on, It's My Life

I have always said and I'd continue to say: "Much of your life is formed by other people's decisons". Of course, it's your life, however, your share in 'your life' is a minority.

Being actively involved means that you take that minor decision making share, and make it influential. If you cannot have the majority, the minority decision you're making should be able to influence the decisions of the majority.

Ultimately, when you are actively involved in your life, you are in control!

Let's be serious

I have missed two weeks now. This is supposed to be my fourth article this week, but it's just the second. Yeah, I have not been too serious. So let's be serious.

I remember talking to a friend sometime last year about being serious. I spoke at length on what it meant to be serious. I spoke on areas where we ought to be serious. One thing that stood out was the concept of Survival and Living.

Surviving VS Living

Many of us are trapped in this cycle of survival. Flowing with the days and seasons. We just eat whatever fruit we get. If it's Agbalumo season, you eat it. You don't look for alternative. 

Survival means being passive with your life. It means you don't have control of your life. You don't have the final say. You're a slave of life. You're not a master.

Survival cycle is like:

- Wake up

- Grab your phone. Check for updates

- Whatever it is you do in the morning

- Go wherever you feel like going

- Being overly cautious

- Calculating too much

- Being indecisive

- Complain about everything

- Give excuses for your mistakes

- At the end of the day, you survived the day.

- There's nothing spectacular.

Why don't you live?

Wake up each day and choose to experience the best day ever; Wake up to be a shining light; Wake up each day to experience life; Wake up to live; Wake up each day to achieve your goals; Wake up a step closer to your dreams; Live life, quit survival. Be actively involved in your life.

7 THINGS YOU SHOULD BE SERIOUS ABOUT

1. YOUR RELATIONSHIPS

I will be talking alot about relationships this year, because you need to take your relationships seriously. You have to actively select who and who should be and not be related to you.

You have to choose who you spend time with. You have to choose who you relate with. Don't be for all, you can't please everyone. Make sure you're actively involved in your relationships.

Learn to crop some people out of your life. Know when to plant some people in your life. Be conscious of the people you spend time with, relate with and communicate with directly or indirectly.

I choose to improve my relationship with God. I need someone to talk to when times are dark. I know that things will be better when I relate with Him. I am being Intentional about my relationship. You should too.

Here are some markers that may help you take your relationships more seriously:

•  Your goals - Which relationships will help you achieve your goals? Which groups will give you clarity of vision? Know these relationships and stick to them. On the other hand, any relationship that's not helping your goals should be trashed!

• The quality of your life - Will these relationships boost the quality of your life? The quality of your life should be great when you're in these relationships. You must ensure that you are better off in these relationships. Some other relationships might seem good, but You know that they are affecting the quality of your life negatively.

• Your growth - Relationships should aid your growth. They should aid you career advancement, spiritual growth And so on. You must grow in these relationships. Some other relationships might keep you stagnant - break free from them. Some relationships take you down - run from them!

2. YOUR HEALTH

You must take your health seriously. You must take care of yourself. Health is wealth, yet very underrated. Please, treat yourself well. There seems to be almost no remedy for death. 

Choose your food; know what you are consuming. Know the nutrients inside your food. Take time to learn about what you're consuming. 

Aside your physical health, take care of your mental health and other areas. Don't leave your mind exposed to negativity. Be strong and SERIOUS about what you take in and put out. 

To take your health more seriously, here are some markers that may be of help to you:

• Know your system
• What improves your health?
• What's bad for your health?
• What are you feeding on? What are the nutrients in them? What do you feed your mind with?
• Your environment plays a major role.

3. YOUR SKILLS/TALENT

I truly believe everyone has talent(s). You have a talent, or even more. You need to be serious about the skills you have and your in born talents. Don't be dormant, be useful. Sometime in the future, I will tell you more about your skills and talents. 

Talents are beautiful and special. Everyone has them. However, I believe more In the fact that 'Talent is never enough'. I don't know how many times I've read John C. Maxwell's book on Talent is never enough. I've never read it at a stretch, but it's been a blessing each time I go through it.

That aside, you must be useful and harness skills. Don't be lazy. Don't be slothful. Work hard. Use your talents, grow them. Learn skills and keep learning.

Of course, to be more serious about you skills and talents, you have to know what skills you should acquire and how you want to go about them.

•  Learn skills that are relevant in today's world
•  Learn skills that contribute to the world
•  Learn skills that improve the quality of your life
•  Learn the skills of the future.

You must be serious about what you can do. Improve your capacity And capability. Don't slack. Please, I beg you: Be serious. I want to see you shine like the star that you are.

4. YOUR FINANCES

Of course, you have to be serious about your funds. Don't snooze. Take control of your finances. Take control of the money you make. Don't go about begging for money or borrowing money when you don't have a source of income.

You should understand that money does alot In our world. Money works wonders in today's markets. You must have money. You should be useful financially.

Don't chase money; Let money chase you. Don't just focus on getting the money, focus on giving value, and Automatically, money will be after you. 

Earn money

Like I mentioned above, you need to have the right skills. These skills should be able to fetch you money. Why? They solve real problems.

Take charge of your finances. Don't just blow money up and down. Don't be simply a spender; be an earner. Make sure you have a mechanism to earn money.

Savings

You also need to learn how to increase money through savings. Savings are an important part of securing your finances. Wealth doesn't become when you don't take action. 

Wealth is accumulated money. Savings is one way to be more serious about finances. You should save money to achieve some of your goals. 

I know, you want to buy this or that. You must be serious about savings. Don't just spend money, set some funds aside for emergencies and those things you dream of. Be intentional about savings.

I know right... there's so much to take seriously. 

There are ways to put your savings on auto-pilot. You don't necessarily need to be in it everyday. You just have to take action once. I even learnt about a platform that makes your financial goals their priority.

"I came across myStash early this year. myStash like other fintech companies helps you save money. However, what makes myStash different is the fact that you can save automatically.

"Besides automatic savings, you save anytime you spend or earn or do both. Just like VAT being collected from you each one you spend , myStash helps you save. You don't complain about VAT, why should myStash bother you? MyStash saves for you.

"You don't have to do it all. You can save money each time you earn. You can save money each time you save. You just have to take four easy steps:

• Sign up on myStash here
• Make a money move i.e Save as you spend; save as you earn; or both.
• Link myStash with your internet banking
• Save your first #50. 

It's so easy! It's helped me with savings."

So, you can start here. You can also message me on whatsApp to tell you more about it or if there is any issue you encounter. I trust them!

That's it about savings. Take it seriously.

Investment

Grow your wealth by investments. Take steps to secure your finances through investments. There are many things you can invest money in. You can invest in stock, real estate, cryptocurrency.

Don't just wait. Take charge of your finances. Make sure you are serious about it. Be serious about financial intelligence. Don't be on the wrong side of the road. Take your finances seriously.

5. FUN

Like I started, being serious is beyond your career or those other intellectual goals. You have to be serious about the quality of life you live. Don't just be that guy or that babe. Be funny. 😂

You need to experience life. Live...don't just be a survivor, be alive. Experience each day and feel the goodness of it. Smile, joke, laugh, be positive. Play games, play with people, meet new people.

Life is certainly not the easiest, but please have fun. You deserve to be happy. I know you want the world to be better. You want conditions to be better. Well, it starts when we have fun people around.😜

Another thing you must know is that creativity thrives alot more in funny environments than non-fun environments. You should seek to have fun. Plug in the music, dance, shout, scream, laugh, smile, jump, be happy!

Maybe we don't need to take life all to seriously. It's just ironic that you need to take your life serious by having fun.

Have fun, my gee. Have fun! Take it seriously.

6. YOUR TIME

You should know by know how important your time is. You have to take charge of your time. Time is precious. You have to be serious about your time.

I cannot overemphasize the need to take your time Seriously. You must be in charge of your time. You must have control of your time. If you don't, other people will control your Time.

Don't be a procrastinator. Don't push tasks over. Be a great manager of time. Do you know that waste of time is simply wasting your life? Put your life on track by spending your time wisely.

I recommend this book by Marc Mancini - Time Management. It's a great book I've read And practiced. It works if you do it well. Take charge of your time.

Don't be the vessel that screams: I'm busy all the time. Don't look for excuses for not meeting up. Take responsibility for your time. Be serious about it. It's your duty, it's your life.

Make to-do lists, prioritise tasks, know what you can afford. Do alot of things that are right in the right time. Be the player of your time. 

There's so much to talk about regarding time. You may need another post on time management. I have written one earlier for you - A and B. Time flies So Take your time Seriously. Guide it, it's your life!

7. YOUR IDENTITY

You are your identity. Many people don't know more about their identity than their names. Your Identity is more than your name. If you will agree with me, my identity speaks alot about me. It goes deep into my origin.

Anyone who is aware of his/her identity will have a different approach to life. That you know who you are, you may not be hurt by other people's definition of who you are. 

You are your identity, and you must take it seriously. I mean, if you don't take yourself seriously, who will? Apart from what you identify as, what can other people identify you as? I mentioned that when you know your identity, you may not be hurt by other people's definition of you. However, don't forget, much of your life is formed by other people's Decisions.

How are you seen in the society? What makes you stand out? How do people perceive you. Ou must come to grounds with the fact that a dent to your personality, character, attitude, or whatever, is a dent to your Identity.

You should be a competent person. You should be a person of integrity. You should be honest. Your skills, relationships, finances, health, etc. tell on your Identity. Your Identity is what ties the other things you're serious about.

When you're serious about your identity, you will take other aspects of life more seriously. So I beg you, take your identity more seriously. Don't be just anybody, be a star. Don't be useless, be useful. Be more.

In taking your identity serious, I have two strong tools that I believe will help:

• Principles: Principles guide a man. They are the bothers of a man's destiny. A man without principles is moved about by every thing that goes around him. You must be principled. Take your ground. A principled man will be serious about other aspects of his life. He will take his time, relationships, skills, finances, fun seriously. 
• Discipline: You have to be disciplined. Self-discipline is a path of self-mastery. Take your self seriously. Be disciplined. Don't just do things any how. Understand that you should have a background to allow you think straight and be serious about everything you wish to grow.

I'm leaving you with a serious conclusion

You have to take your life seriously. I didn't plan on writing this earlier, but it feels right to give you this. I missed two weeks because of loads of work. Don't worry, you will get more content from me every week.

I need you to do something for me before my next post: Take a stance, re-evaluate, resolve to be more serious. Don't be the passive decision maker. Be actively involved in your life.

It's not so easy to be serious. If you can be serious with these things, life will flourish better. Your life will bloom like a flower by the water.

You have the tools - Be principled and build your spirit of self discipline. 

Gracias!

P.S: If you loved this, please let me know in the comments. If you want to add more, let me know. Whatever it is, abeg, the comment section is just down there.

Till I come your way next time. Take your life seriously. Be more serious. Be Intentionally involved in taking your life to the next level. I want to see you becoming a better version of you.

Cheers to taking things more seriously! 🥂