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Twisted in a Positive Way

~ A regular source of motivation through personal experiences interpreted to inspire the reader.

Twisted in a Positive Way

Category Archives: Motivation

Book Review: Twisted in a Positive Way

31 Thursday Mar 2016

Posted by Chika Efobi in Motivation

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Review by Rebecca Markus

Twisted in a Positive Way is a charming novel by UK author Chikamso Efobi. I love a good coming-of-age story and this one doesn’t disappoint. The story follows Adaugo, a young Nigerian girl on the brink of big life changes. She comes from a large and happy family who encourage her to strive for success.

When Adaugo is ten she leaves home for boarding school. That’s when she discovers a voice inside her that helps guide her through these difficult new experiences.

As an adult Adaugo is expected to conform to cultural standards. She has a job, lives in her father’s house, and is supposed to be finding a husband. But she knows that she wants something more for herself. She realizes that she has to stop caring about the opinions of others and take a chance on her future.

Twisted in a Positive Way is elegantly written. I felt the nervous excitement of Adaugo as she left home as a little girl and the heartbreak when she struggled through the trials of growing up away from her family. The contrasts of Adaugo’s world to my own are what kept me glued to the story.

Chikamso Efobi has painted a stunning picture of Nigerian culture. I loved that this book took me into a world that’s completely unfamiliar to me. By her use of dialogue, the reader is immersed in the language and culture of Nigeria. I could hear the voices and inflections of the characters in my head. Efobi explained her style to me:

“I wrote the story to reflect the local Nigerian expressions. Translations of most of the expressions are written immediately after, so as not to lose people who are not very familiar with how Nigerians speak in an informal setting. Nigeria has over 52 languages and it is not uncommon to find the average Nigerian inserting words from various languages into one sentence. There is also a lot of animation when we speak, that’s why you may see the odd ‘o’ here and there.”

If you’re looking for something beyond the same old story, Twisted in a Positive Way is definitely a novel of substance. This book will inspire you to strive for the things you’re told you can’t have. If not, well your life must already be pretty awesome.

Twisted in a Positive Way is on a 3-day sale for £0.99 (75% off) on Amazon UK for a limited time between 31 March and 02 April 2016. Click here to grab your kindle copy

Check out the original review at Nevermind the Furthermore

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A Lesson from my orchid

13 Sunday Mar 2016

Posted by Chika Efobi in Motivation

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

determination, hard work, life lessons, motivation, orchid, success

image

I hope you are having a restful weekend.
Today’s post was inspired by my little orchid. (Read another lesson from the orchid here)

6 weeks ago, I was wondering what was happening to my orchid plant. A bit of background info: i have very little experience with orchids and growing plants in general. So to me, this little plant looked dry and dead (picture on the left). Looking at it, I contemplated throwing it in the bin because to my untrained eye, the plant was simply done.

However, I followed my gut to keep feeding and watering, just to see what would happen. Two weeks ago, to my surprise and relief, the first sign of a flower appeared. Now it looks beautiful (picture on the right).

I believe that this same principle could apply to life as we know it. You may be reading this and wondering when your efforts towards a particular venture or job would start paying off. You may have sunk in a lot of money, made so many calls…with nothing to show for it.

If you are convinced that you are on the right path, follow your convictions and continue to push and who knows, with time, just like my little orchid, your efforts could pay off.

Now, in hindsight, I can now see that in the picture on the left, there were little bubs which to someone who had more experience with plants, would have meant that the orchid really was not dead (or dying). But, isn’t this the whole point? Sometimes what you see does not necessarily reflect reality.

If you enjoyed reading this, and you know someone who may benefit from reading this message, please feel free to share this with them.

Peace and love to you and yours 🙂

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The Guest House – a poem by Rumi

09 Wednesday Mar 2016

Posted by Chika Efobi in Motivation

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

attitude, coldplay, depression, inspiration, kaleidoscope, living, lyrics, mind, motivation, music, poetry, President Barack Obama, rumi, shazam, spotify, success, thoughts, wisdom

The guest house

Happy “hump day” to every one. I hope everyone has had a good week so far.

For people who know me or have been following my personal posts on this blog, you would know that in addition to being a book addict, I am also a bit of a music junkie.

On Sunday night, I came across a Facebook video which was posted by a pilot friend of mine, who has a habit of posting videos of himself driving to work. So I played this particular video and there was this song playing in the background which I instantly liked. I started to type a comment to find out what the title of the song was, when I remembered that I could “Shazam it”.

I instantly opened the app, and found out that the song was, “A Head Full Of Dreams” from Coldplay’s new album. Within five minutes, I had downloaded the entire album on Spotify and I haven’t stopped playing the album since then. Now, I listen to it every chance I get.

One of my favorite songs from the album is a short song titled, “Kaleidoscope” which begins with the voice of a man reciting some words, and is then followed by the voice of another man singing “Amazing Grace”. Naturally, I became curious and wanted to find out what the man was saying, so I consulted Google. To my utmost surprise, the man singing was none other, than President Barack Obama.

I also found out that the words were an excerpt from a beautiful poem by Rumi (above). I hope you find it as insightful as I did.

Enjoy the rest of your week.

Love,

Chika

Image credit: http://genius.com/Coldplay-colour-spectrum-lyrics

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What do you see in the mirror?

03 Wednesday Feb 2016

Posted by Chika Efobi in Motivation

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

career, enthusiasm, life lessons, motivation, reflection, soul, thankfulness, Tunji Shittu

image

On Monday morning, a dear friend of mine sent me a message that resonated with me. I excitedly asked him if he wrote the message and he revealed to me that even though he would like to be able to take credit for the writing, it was written by one of his colleagues, Tunji Shittu.

I hope this message touches you as it did me.
See below:

Think about looking in a mirror. How many of us get depressed when we notice a new gray hair or a new wrinkle in our forehead? Now, take a moment to think about what you can’t see in a mirror…are you allowing wrinkles to appear in your soul?

There are many ways that this can happen from worrying too much, to not pursuing a life of purpose.

One of the most common ways to wrinkle the soul is to give up enthusiasm. We should always try to show and feel enthusiasm for whatever we do. Sometimes this is difficult…we might not like our job or we might be having difficulties in our personal lives.

When there is a bump in the road, one of the easiest ways to get back on track is to show and feel enthusiasm and gratitude for what we do have, knowing that whatever show gratitude for, multiplies with time.

Have a fulfilling new week and keep keeping on.

Love,
Chika

Image credit: laizaking.com

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Stay on your grind

26 Tuesday Jan 2016

Posted by Chika Efobi in Motivation

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

business, CNN money, dedication, determination, Esther Ijewere-Kalejaiye, Facebook, hardwork, ideas, Mark Zuckerberg, Netflix, Nigeria, Principle of recognition, Reed Hastings, Rubies Ink Initiative, success, successful people, Twitter

 

stay dedicated

In my first post of 2016, I wrote about the 10 rituals of the most badass women

While carrying on with the research I wrote about in my last post, I watched more interviews and read more articles about successful people and I found one common denominator between all of them – they had been working on their crafts for years, even decades before most people began to hear of them.

Sure, few people may have heard of them during their silent years, when they were still trying to make it, but most of them were only truly known after they had put in many years of hard work. In some cases, some of these people we hear of now, had to beg people to collaborate with them, sometimes even giving their products out for free.

Just some days ago, I came across a Facebook post from Esther Ijewere-Kalejaiye, renowned rape activist and Founder and Executive Director at Rubies Ink Initiative. In that post, she recounted how back in 2010, she had to go from one news outfit to the other to “beg” for interviews and features just to make her vision believable. Now her initiative and charity is regarded in Nigeria as the go-to place for rape survivors to receive support and care.

True to the way the Principle of Recognition works, I also recently stumbled on a CNN Money article from 2006 on Twitter. The title of the article was, “10 People who don’t matter”.  The aim of the list was to highlight people who the readers could safely snub at conferences. Amongst the 10 executives on the list were CEO of Netflix, Reed Hastings and Mark Zuckerberg, Founder of Facebook.

What struck me most while reading through the article, was not that the fact that the two names are now very relevant, but that this article was written about 10 years ago and even before then, these two people have been working and fine-tuning products Netflix and Facebook, both of which are now very relevant.

I personally, did not know about Netflix until a little more than two years ago, when I discovered that it was possible to stream movies and TV shows through the platform. For Facebook, you have to live under a very secluded rock not to have heard of the social-networking site which as at 2015, had 1.55 billion active users worldwide.

But look how long ago, these people had been on their grind.

If you cast our minds to any successful person you know, be her/him an actor, musician or entrepreneur and listen or read their stories, you will find that my observation applies. Sometimes their success may appear as instant, but if you dig deeper, you will discover that they, like others had been on the grind for much longer than it appears to a casual observer.

Finding this out was very eye-opening to me particularly, as we seem to live in a time when a lot of people want and crave instant gratification, often packing up their bags and tools when they don’t see the success they seek within a short period of time.

You may be reading this post, while in the process of starting something that perhaps, is taking longer than expected or is really difficult to execute. Just stay on your grind, resting safe in the knowledge that with time, the success you seek will materialise. Also stay open to receiving inspiration and adapting your ideas when better ways of executing them emerge.

Till you read from me again, keep keeping on

Image credit: https://twitter.com/bizgurusa

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Live life…

24 Sunday Jan 2016

Posted by Chika Efobi in Motivation, Quotes

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Tags

Arianna Huffington, expectation, happiness, living, positivity, Quotes, rumi, SuperSoulSunday, wisdom

Rumi

Image Credit: Pinterest.com

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10 rituals of the most badass women

12 Tuesday Jan 2016

Posted by Chika Efobi in Motivation

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

2016, author, free books, freebies, girl-power, habits, health, life, mindfulness, oprah winfrey, productivity, purpose, reading, rituals, sign-up, success, thought, Twisted in a Positive Way, wisdom, women, writing

oprah1

Hello and Happy New Year. I know I am more than a bit late considering that we are almost half-way into January but like they say, better late than never aye? I hope you all had awesome Christmas breaks if you can still remember it, lol!

I have some exciting news from this end. I have been working really hard on my next book which is scheduled to be published in July this year so I have become a bit of a night owl to meet this deadline.

To celebrate the New Year and the future release of my new novel, I have decided to make 3 chapters of Twisted in a Positive Way completely free!!! Awesome right? I think so too. To get the free chapters and other exclusive content such as free copies of my novel, sample chapters from my new releases in addition to other cool stuff, just sign up to my mailing list here. I promise I won’t crowd your mailboxes with junk.

If you just want to download the free chapters of Twisted in a Positive Way without signing up to my mailing list, click here to get for free on Okada Books

Okay, over to today’s post:

I have spent a lot of time thinking about the habits that differentiate successful people from regular people. What do they do that gives them the extra edge over the rest of us? My search has led me to listen to a number of interviews featuring some people I really admire. It was through this search that I stumbled upon an article written by By Samantha Thornhill which lists 20 daily rituals of the most badass women. It is important to point out that even though this post refers to badass women, the rituals are not limited to only females and can be practised by anyone despite their gender. I have listed 10 of them below: Ps:  I liked number 7 the most.

1. Watch the sunrise

Not literally, but maybe. Most successful women are up by 6 a.m. Business leaders are said to accomplish more in those early hours than the average person does in days. This means getting to bed early too, since sleep deprivation went out of style along with shoulder pads.

 

2. Have gratitude

We so easily forget what a miracle it is to be alive. Let each day birth you into a state of gratitude for the day ahead, and give thanks for everything that you have.

3. Imbibe

Coffee, green juice, green tea, rooibos, chai, smoothies, hot chocolate, water with lemon, wine, whatever. Without exception, every badass woman alive begins or ends her day with a drink. (I personally drink green tea. It tastes absolutely yucky but it is filled with anti-oxidants which are very good for you.)

4. To-do list, check

Walking through the day in your mind or writing a list of things you hope to accomplish is incredibly centering, and it’s so gratifying to cross things off as you go along (I can vouch for this one. It truly works wonders).

5. Be mindful

Artist and social entrepreneur Rha Goddess tells “Gala” that she sees personal transformation everywhere: “In every interaction. Every conversation. Every intention. If we’re awake we recognize we have the opportunity – every single moment of the day – to heal, transform or affirm something about the truth of who we are, and what we say is important,” she states.

6. Just like water

Swim. Drink eight glasses. Splash it on your face. Dunk your weary bones in a full tub with Epsom salts. Have an ongoing love affair with our world’s most precious resource.

7. Position yourself

Arianna Huffington, who champions 7-8 hours of sleep a night, wouldn’t be much good to anybody if she didn’t poise herself for the bustling day ahead. She tells Soulcyle: “A big part of my morning ritual is about what I don’t do: when I wake up, I don’t start the day by looking at my smartphone. Instead, once I’m awake, I take a minute to breathe deeply, be grateful, and set my intention for the day. ” (Awesome right?)

8 Get energetic

Most of us will not spend two hours a day working out like Gwyneth Paltrow, but no matter when we get it in, anywhere between 15-45 minutes of exercise a day releases stress and clears the dome…and let’s not forget to stretch! The world’s most successful women get their best ideas during exercise or right after.

9. Be promiscuous with books

According to the “Los Angeles Times,” reading on your cell phone or iPad before bed can affect sleep habits by sending signals to the brain to stay alert. Lena Dunham says she keeps a stack of books by the bed. Fall asleep reading.

 

10. Plug out

If you are the type to fall asleep face first on a glowing screen, it’s good for the soul to plug out sometime—even if it’s just to put your phone to bed along with you.

I hope you enjoyed reading through the list and picked up some tips from it. Which of them did you find that you already practice and which ones you plan to take up? To read the full list from femde.com, click here

Culled from: http://www.femde.com/article/30758194/20-daily-rituals-of-the-most-badass-women

Image credit: http://www.algemeiner.com/

 

 

 

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2015: closing cycles

31 Thursday Dec 2015

Posted by Chika Efobi in Motivation

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Tags

2015, 2016, happiness, letting go, living, motivation, moving forward, New Year, progress, wisdom

2015 ending

Hello everyone,

With today being the last day of 2015, I thought to share with you a profound and pertinent message, written by one of my favorite authors, Paul Coelho. I found it both insightful and I hope you do too.

Read below and have a pleasant New Year in advance:

One always has to know when a stage comes to an end. If we insist on staying longer than the necessary time, we lose the happiness and the meaning of the other stages we have to go through.
Closing cycles, shutting doors, ending chapters – whatever name we give it, what matters is to leave in the past the moments of life that have finished.

Did you lose your job? Has a loving relationship come to an end? Did you leave your parents’ house? Gone to live abroad? Has a long-lasting friendship ended all of a sudden?
You can spend a long time wondering why this has happened.

You can tell yourself you won’t take another step until you find out why certain things that were so important and so solid in your life have turned into dust, just like that.
But such an attitude will be awfully stressing for everyone involved: your parents, your husband or wife, your friends, your children, your sister.
Everyone is finishing chapters, turning over new leaves, getting on with life, and they will all feel bad seeing you at a standstill.

Things pass, and the best we can do is to let them really go away.

That is why it is so important (however painful it may be!) to destroy souvenirs, move, give lots of things away to orphanages, sell or donate the books you have at home.

Everything in this visible world is a manifestation of the invisible world, of what is going on in our hearts – and getting rid of certain memories also means making some room for other memories to take their place.
Let things go. Release them. Detach yourself from them.

Nobody plays this life with marked cards, so sometimes we win and sometimes we lose.
Do not expect anything in return, do not expect your efforts to be appreciated, your genius to be discovered, your love to be understood.

Stop turning on your emotional television to watch the same program over and over again, the one that shows how much you suffered from a certain loss: that is only poisoning you, nothing else.

Nothing is more dangerous than not accepting love relationships that are broken off, work that is promised but there is no starting date, decisions that are always put off waiting for the “ideal moment.”

Before a new chapter is begun, the old one has to be finished: tell yourself that what has passed will never come back.
Remember that there was a time when you could live without that thing or that person – nothing is irreplaceable, a habit is not a need.
This may sound so obvious, it may even be difficult, but it is very important.

Closing cycles. Not because of pride, incapacity or arrogance, but simply because that no longer fits your life.

Shut the door, change the record, clean the house, shake off the dust.

Stop being who you were, and change into who you are.

Culled from Paul Coelho’s Blog: http://paulocoelhoblog.com/2015/12/27/closing-cycles/

Image credit: www.interstaff.com

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Meet Author Chikamso Efobi

22 Tuesday Dec 2015

Posted by Chika Efobi in Motivation

≈ Comments Off on Meet Author Chikamso Efobi

Hello everyone,

I was lucky to be interviewed by Author, Mercedes Fox, Read interview below:

Source: Meet Author Chikamso Efobi

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Reblog: How to Live in the Now

19 Saturday Dec 2015

Posted by Chika Efobi in Motivation

≈ Comments Off on Reblog: How to Live in the Now

Roxana writes about what she considers to be the now moment and offers a way to experience it and use it to manifest the life of your dreams.

Source: How to Live in the Now

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