Cut yourself some slack.

Life has taught me that the more you know, the more you realize that you don’t know. Yes, you can swim in a stream, but can you conquer the ocean?

Sometimes I get sad, very sad, and I start to feel incapable. Like I am not enough or do not know enough. With time I’ve realized that it’s because I find myself swimming too far in the stream of knowledge that I ended up in an ocean. Does this mean I don’t know enough? No, it means I am in the process of learning, and learning is endless.

We all wish that learning can come from a place of comfort. My people say mbekwu si na ife wa me wa nwa onye ozo ka o ji amusha. It loosely translates to a wise one learns from the experiences of others. However, sometimes, learning comes in very uncomfortable spaces and personal experiences. It might be in difficult conversations, in accepting a job that you later realize is not the best fit for you or in deciding you want to change your career course after spending so much time and resources.

So next time you catch yourself beating yourself up for something, ask yourself, ‘am I swimming in an ocean? Are these new waters for me?’ If the response comes back in the affirmative, I hope you remember to cut yourself some slack.