Sometimes I read back on my posts and it surprises me how I came up with them. What’s even more shocking is that I am confident enough to believe it and urge you to do the same. It’s not that these ideas are wrong or that they’re terrible advice, it’s that I do not follow through on some occasions.

Wondering about it made me realize I do not function optimally every day. Maybe hormones, environment, uncontrollable situations, and other deciding factors play a much larger role than I choose to acknowledge.

This is the perfect time to remind you I haven’t figured out my journey yet. It’s all a process that I choose to share with you so that we can learn from each other.

A while ago, I shared a secret about habits with you, how little things you do every day eventually add up to make enormous differences in your life. Let me also share a story with you to buttress that;

During the lockdown, I ran a lot. My friend and I will spend about an hour every morning working out. We didn’t notice any major changes until the second month, but that’s by the way.

One evening, we took a stroll around the neighborhood with some other friends. This was about two months into the lockdown. We were on an eerily quiet street and couldn’t help but chat about how noiseless the place had become because of the lockdown.

While we said that, we heard a deafening and aggressive bark beside us. I was back on the main road in less than ten seconds. My exercise partner was right at my side while the others were far back, screaming for us to wait up.

I noticed two things immediately. First, I didn’t break a sweat, pant or feel tired. Second, I was incredibly fast for someone who just picked up running two months ago. Turned out the dog was not after us, we were just too close to his territory.

It also taught me two things:

• Habits prepare you – If I wasn’t running every day for two months, I would also scream for others to wait up.

• Your environment influences your functionality- the sole reason I picked up exercising was because of the lockdown. At the moment, I can not run to save my life, my best bet is to hide.

On some days, you take steps that bring you closer to your dreams, on others, you just can’t. I’m telling you it isn’t entirely your fault, and that you need an enabling environment as much as you need to motivate yourself.

So, maybe I wrote those articles on a day where my environment agreed with my thoughts, and on days they don’t, I question them.

This is my reminder to you to stop being so hard on yourself when you don’t meet your expectations. It might be because of factors that are outside your control, like being born Nigerian.

If you don’t feel like it today, try again tomorrow. Just don’t stop because you never know when you might get a dog-chase scare.