Random Musings. . .by Kui Gathua

  “ Keep Going. Your hardest times often lead to the greatest moments of your life. Keep going. Tough situations build strong people in the end. ” ~ Roy T. Bennett We all have placed faith in something or someone at a point or other in our lives. What was your faith based on? Past performance, the reputation of the trusted person or thing, or was it just blind faith? This week I was reminded of a past failure where despite all previous experience, I lost faith in my ability and buried my failure in a graveyard of ‘never to be recalled’. 2016 was a year of summits. In April I summited Lenana Peak on Mt Kenya (4,985m) and in December Uhuru Peak on Mt Kilimanjaro (5,895m.) I was a bona fide “Club Five Thousander” with a number of other summits conquered along the path – The Elephant (3,658m), Mt Kinangop (3,906m) and, Mt Satima (4,001m) to name a few. Having been an ardent journaling enthusiast for many years, most of my experiences have been recorded in my collection of many...

  “ What will the next 100 days look like? ” ~ Richie Norton Yesterday, my daily devotional reminded me that it was 100 days to the end of the year. It follows then that today is 99 days to the end of 2022. In Kenya, much of this year was shaped by politics, skyrocketing prices of consumer goods, and a ton of memes to keep us laughing through it all. It may be a year tainted by loss for some, a year of long-awaited victories for others, a same-old-same-old kind of year for someone else, and yet another still has no idea what hit them. But we are all walking down the double-digits to its end. How is your walk? Slow but sure, a trot, a breathless run, or is time dragging you screaming and kicking? Are you winding it down or are you just winding yourself up? What have you achieved so far? What’s ahead in those 99 days? To be sure, those are too few days, yet too many if you make every minute of every one of them count. Your choice, entirely. I found 2 quotes that had me thin...

  “ No matter how good you get you can always get better, and that’s the exciting part. ” ~ Tiger Woods Kaizen is a Japanese word that means improvement. As a business concept, Kaizen was introduced by author Masaaki Imai as a systematic approach to business improvement. This week, I have been engaging in some personal Kaizen – I went back to class for a craft I’ve been working on since I was a kid. It was time to up-skill and sit under a person I consider a master at the craft. And boy have I had assumptions shattered! Sometimes we get “so good at something” based on our standards. And possibly those around us also contribute to our acquired arrogance because they probably haven’t met anyone better or they just love you and want to encourage you. I was there for a while, but there was a nagging feeling that there was a higher level I needed to get to but I was not there yet. I have always been a magnet for new learning but in this craft, I got to some comfort level and r...