"THINK" DO WE?

"THINK" DO WE?

On a certain Thursday, a couple of weeks ago, i and my boss went to one of this "important high rolling" ministry. We needed to work out some paper works with some officials of the ministry about a contract we had just been awarded with the ministry. We had done some work with them before so i was already a house hold face with the staff + security guards and so we were ushered to the top most floor (more or less where the Ogas stay).

It was a typical cozy government office, with the shiny table top, executive swivel chair, chilling AC unit, and yeah a floor length mirror. Ofcourse i will notice that, as it fuels my vanity anytime i walk in there. However, that is not the aim of this story. Upon arrival i gazed into the mirror, fluffed my hair, smacked my lips and sat down. The SA to the minister walked in and we exchanged pleasantries. Just then three ladies from another firm walked in, as the SA also had another meeting with them. It was something about helping them tender their case to the Minister so the company they were representing could be paid its monies. (oh yeah, i eaves dropped. As a media person it is expedient to have a nose for news). Somehow they struck me as stand off-ish kind of ladies. They seemed to carry an air of somewhat importance and exuded an aura of "we know what we are doing here" that made me make a mental note to give them my most bitchy attitude. Just then the Minister summoned the SA, so he had to "neglect" us for a bit. Thank God for that window period as that is what inspired this write up.

When he stepped out, my boss, the three ladies and i introduced ourselves and exchanged conversation on a few general national topics. Just then, my boss had a ring on his phone so had to excuse himself out of the room to answer it.  I was left alone with these ladies and as we conversed, they turned out to be a great inspiration. One was Igbo, another Yoruba and the third Hausa-Fulani. You would expect that they will counter each other in every discussion (as we see in todays politics) but that wasn't so. They were colleagues but seemed to be friends also.

Somehow as we conversed, we meandered into the aspect of "thinking". Usually we just throw that word around without taking time to understand what it entails. Most of us who have been out of school no longer know how to think. We pour ourselves deeply into our work and we get soaked into the constant ups and downs of our occupations that we never find the time to imagine other things we could be and/or could do in our lives. We are so encumbered with providing solution-oriented thoughts that we do not give our minds the credit to create something new, unique and innovative.

While we argued back and forth, we came to the realization that "worrying" "anxiety" cannot  be categorized under thinking. They are solution-oriented mullings. The ability to think constructive thoughts is in all of us, but we need to learn to sometimes shut down certain worrying/anxiety thoughts to be able to allow us truly focus our energy into thinking productive thoughts.

That conversation taught me 2 things:
1. Never to judge a person before you have given them an opportunity to express themselves.
2. Strike up conversations with people I meet. I just might learn a great deal from them or in the least, impart my knowledge to them.

After our conversation, we exchanged our cards and promised to keep intouch sometime in the future. Who knows my company just might be called upon to be their PR Consultant in the future?