TIMEZONES

In the day time, prepare for the night.

We are in different time zones. The earliest you understand, the best it is for you to get the best of other people around you.

Olawale Daniel

Isn't it weird, how we never worry about the nightfall, or the daylight in our own countries, when other countries are enjoying the serenity of the evening that we wish for, while we are enduring the hottest of days where we are?

Why though? Have you thought about that before? When you call your Aunty Chioma in the US and realise that it's late and she's sleeping already, but you are still at the office, working your ass off, why don't you get jealous and begin to compare?

Why don't you get worried and start wondering if ever the night will come, or why it isn't here yet?

I am sure that as you think about it now, you are answering it quietly, silently in your mind. The reason why you never bother, or question why some other country is enjoying the night as you go through a hot day, or question why it's late and you're surrounded by the night's darkness when somewhere in the world, someone is enjoying the light of the day is because, you know, for certain, that your own time will come.

You know with a degree of intense surety that although you're in the day, soon enough, the night will come. You know that although the heat is piercing through the layers of your foreskin, the cool of the night will also grace you soon, as it is in this moment, gracing other people in other countries.

You are not worried because you understand the principle of timezones.

However, I bet only a few are aware that timezones don't only apply to countries and continents. They apply to lives as well. They apply to you, and your nearest neighbour.

Human lives operate the way timezones operate. That your friend, the one who was your seatmate in school, who was in the same Sunday school as you, who took the same courses and almost had the same life path as you, is experiencing daytime right now, and you're experiencing a difference does not mean you won't get your own daytime.

Just because someone who is seemingly 'not as qualified' as you is experiencing abundance right now doesn't mean your own abundance will not come.

Europe's daytime does not, cannot, will never affect the daytime of Africa. The same way, your friend's daytime, his success, his bouyance and abundance right now does not affect or hinder the chances of your own success.

So why worry and bellyache about these things? There is zero reasons to even try to compare yourself with someone else with a different timezone.

Yes, every single human has a different timezone. Although we are interconnected, we are all individual lives with completely different roles to play, as long as we play ourselves.

In times of pain, sorrow, shame, failure, seven falls, know that it's the night, and it will not last. The days will come, and it is not dependent on someone else's night or day, so it is complete ignorance to even think about being envious, jealous and try to sabotage someone else.

The same way, that you're presently in your daytime, experiencing the pleasures of life, dining with the glories and kings of this world does not mean someone else's daytime will not arrive. It does not mean that your daytime will continue and last forever without nights in between.

Knowing this, it makes you to never treat people like they'd remain in the night all the days of their life, or that you'd remain in the day all the days of your life.

The Nigerian in you wants to disagree with this and say "Chai! God forbid!" But that's just life. Take the lesson.

There are many things Timezones of life teach should bring to your mind:

Someone else's chances is not mutually dependent on your own chances. Someone's daytime or nighttime will not affect or limit your own. That your friend is experiencing daytime right now and you're not should not throw you into depression and dejection when you know for certain that morning will always come for you too. It's stupid to be dejected over America's sunlight when you'll experience your own in a few hours.

Never compare your circumstances. People who are experiencing the day right now have earlier experienced the night, and many times than often, they will experience another night, albeit, another type of night from the one they have in the past (if they learned, of course).

Never mock the person who's experiencing the night right now, because you never know what's happening behind the scenes.

When you're in the day, remember the night, don't dwell in it so much that you don't enjoy the day, but don't carelessly enjoy the day so much that you forget night will come.

When you're in the night, build capacity. Grow. Acquire knowledge, learn everything you can from the threshing floor. Prepare yourself for the morning.

The nights are there to teach, if you will not learn, you'll continue to repeat the night over and again. What you'd then experience will be shorter days and longer nights. Again, in the night, don't vilify people enjoying the day. Prepare for your own day, and learn all you can.

Remember, just like countries, humans are in timezones. Understand this, and you'd have solved more than half of your worries.

There's too much to write on Timezones. It will not cover one newsletter, as you can already tell. We will revisit the topic in the future, for now, I'll read and meditate on this again, and again for the rest of the week.

To your growth,

To Our growth,

Your Coach,

Abiola Okunsanya,

Handzinspired.