ON VISION CASTING

DON'T READ THIS If You Wish To Move To The Next Level Of Your Life.

Two days ago, I strolled into my university e Portal to check my final results.

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Afterall, convocation arrangements have begun. My outfit is ready, so are my shoes. Slaying must be done.

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It just made sense that I checked to see if indeed I would qualify to be a gradukoko, not that I had any doubts,

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So I tapped my details into the appropriate tab and waited for the shaky shaky portal to load and there it was…

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Just staring at these final results suddenly unlocked a core memory that I didn't even know was still in my head.

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I will share a part of it though.

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But first, I'll give you a frame to see this story from.

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Everytime you're about to move into a new level, it starts with a NEW PERSPECTIVE. That new perspective will usually cause you to wonder why you ever thought your old perspective made sense. And in turn will cause you to question why you're living in such a ridiculously tiny life when you thought you were normal before.

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At that point, you have become a new person and your life will slowly begin to align. This is something I think we should pursue all the time.

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Rather than a lifestyle change, a change of mind, of PERSPECTIVE.

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Example?

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When I left secondary school in 2012, I was a proud snooty-faced young lady who thought she could conquer the world WITHOUT LIFTING A FINGER. I mean, how HARD could it be?

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I am a genius, I've always known it so really how hard does a genius need to work to make it.

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And then my WAEC results came out and alongside most of the students in my set, I failed. Really badly.

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But no, my change of perspective did not happen right there. I was able to clear it off my mind by saying oh everyone failed, it's more a system thing than a me thing.

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So, the next year, when my parents applied for another exam, I did the same thing I always did, lazed around reading novels and ignoring my upcoming exams.

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I failed that time too. And the time after that up to 6 times.

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So I blamed the system and decided I wanted to do something else.

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They just didn't recognize my brilliance, I didn't even want to go to school in Nigeria in the first place. I wanted to go to Oxford and if I couldn't have that, I didn't want anything else either.

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I never addressed the real reason why I wasn't passing, which was simply because I wasn't prepared.

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So I spent 7 years of my life chasing other pursuits. Don't get me wrong, they were CRAZY things. I did a lot of COOL stuff that have contributed to who I am today.

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But I was also running away from the failures I had orchestrated with my own two hands.

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And then I had a wake up call from someone who wasn't impressed by my phantom genius! A couple with kids that studied around the clock. My aunt and her husband, two bulldozers, diligent and very very circumspect.

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My parents have always believed in me, after all they saw what I'd done as a kid, before the pride of youth descended to blind my eyes,

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Perhaps that's why they didn't spot the issue, they were still seeing me through the eyes of my glorious past where I was both diligent and a shining star.

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This couple were not impressed.

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They did not know Kuku of the glorious and shining childhood who often led her schools to victory in all areas; Sports, Academics, Beauty, Arts,

All they saw was hard evidence of my failure.

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So they basically said, The Truth

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“If there's no tangible evidence that you're a genius, why should we believe you?”

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“If ALL you ever get in your exams are 4 Cs and all the rest Fs and Es, why should we believe what comes out of your mouth?”

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It's common sense, to be honest. I have no idea why everyone indulged me as a smartypants when I was obviously failing every test in front of me.

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But for some reason common sense didn't click for me until that day. I was at my lowest point because a way I could have approached my dream school opened up but I was not qualified for it.

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You see I had been waiting to be in my dream life BEFORE I started giving things my all.

I didn't realize that I couldn't get my dream life WITHOUT giving it my all.

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At that moment in time, it became clear to me that my life would be a meaningless forgettable existence, if I didn't start applying myself with sense.

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So 7 years after I graduated from secondary school and about 3-4 years after I had exited that world of SSCE exams, I returned. This time I got the memo less than 3 months to the exam itself.

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So I had only a couple months to prepare. Which means less than 3 months to refresh my memory on everything I'd learned in 9 subjects over the space of 3 years and still figure out Mathematics which I HAD NEVER BEEN GOOD AT..

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It was the first time I ever gave something my all.

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I wanted to prove, not to anyone else but myself, that I am indeed a smart girlie, maybe even a proper genius.

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So I locked in.

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Here's what I did,

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1. I left my home which was very laid back, after all just how hard would you be willing to work if you lived on a FREAKING BEACH.

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I went to live in the type of place I was trying to go; a University environment. I moved to a friend’s hostel around LAGOS STATE UNIVERSITY. I did this so that student life will become the normal thing in my mind and my perspective would shift from ‘could I ever really make it into the university?’ to ‘everyone including much younger people are here, it's not a big deal, I can run it.’

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2. A family friend who has always believed in me and wanted me to go to the university saw my resolve as an opportunity and paid for me to get a Math TUTOR.

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3. I set aside everything else and spent day and night studying like a maniac. NOTHING ELSE. Just study, eat, sleep, repeat. This time no one was advising me or waking me up, my day had dawned and I needed to move.

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For once in my young life, I realized that I am the STEWARD of my life and no one can create my destiny except ME.

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So I did and thus began my journey.

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When the results came out that year, I finally had hard evidence: 4 Cs and 4 Bs from less than 3 months of work. Not bad at all.

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And as for my Maths, nope, a miracle didn't happen like in Korean movies where a stark olodo suddenly unveils his secret genius and gets all As, I had an E. To be fair, that was progress since I'd always gotten Fs previously.

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A case could also be made for the fact that because we didn't have much time to study together, my tutor kinda focused on just a few topics that were notorious for coming out in Math exams. Unfortunately that year, the exam setters did a lil switcheroo which had me at a disadvantage.

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Oh well.

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It turned out alright. I didn't mind because I was never gonna be a great Mathematician anyway, one needs to lean into the strengths and acknowledge their weak areas.

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Btw. I know you are really itching to see my final CGPA. I'll tell you.

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I'm 1.5 units from a first class (4.35) and I don't know whether to LAUGH or CRY or hope something happens to change things. Dammit! I was really hoping to breach that first class (well, you win some, lose some. I wasn't really focused on my education anyway, too busy building THE CAVE, I guess that's the trade off)

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Hennyhoo, in case you're not getting the moral of this story clearly, I will break it down to you what should be a take home from this GM?

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YOU CANNOT BECOME WHAT YOU DO NOT TAKE AS NORMAL.

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When people say you have to envision something, or see big pictures, etc. This is what they mean. If wealth, good health, great relationships, deep spirituality doesn't seem like an everyday lifestyle to you; no matter how hard you try to imitate it, you will never truly experience it.

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If you're still seeing it as something high above you to admire and dream about, that's ALL it's EVER going to be for you so you have to PULL IT DOWN from that pedestal and bring it down to your everyday.

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Now you're probably wondering, how am I gonna live in the reality of something that is so far above my reach?

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Thank you for that question: Remember how I left my home to go study in a cramped University hostel where I couldn't even afford to eat properly when I could have just stayed home and enjoyed my mum's cooking, my bed and my beach walks?

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I did it because I had to first become a student in my mind before I birthed that into existence. It's the same reason people move to rich neighborhoods and pay so much extra money,

Same reason they try to hang out in places where the rich frequent so that wealth becomes natural.

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The other day I saw a girl online who said she saved a lot of money just to go on a first class flight with no destination in mind, just a return trip in first class. She said she came back and realized that she couldn't go back to living the way she was, so she multiplied her hustle and by extension her INCOME.

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Thing is she was very clear about what changed the game for her. It wasn't the multiplied hustle. It was her seeing the kind of lifestyle that was normal to the rich and realizing that what she thought was normal was NOT and that she had to level up.

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If you are going to level up, you need to orchestrate situations that expand your perspective and sharpens your vision.

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What you THINK you know about people in the next level you're aspiring to be is NOT actually the truth, you need a closer view, an inside view, BEFORE you BECOME an insider.

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So what's your dream next level, and how are you gonna find your way in there before you get there.

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I'd like to hear your plan.

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PS: I've been posting a lot of helpful stuff on IG lately, are you following me on there? Or you din like good things. Here's your link to my profile. https://www.instagram.com/kutipriscilla?igsh=MWNhaHRjajNoZjlxMg==

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PS#2: Remember you promised to SHARE this and JOIN THE CONVERSATION IN THE COMMENTS. I'm counting on you.

PS#3 There are several more lessons to be picked out here, but let's play a game, if you can share some of them and reference this Substack with links on any active platform of your choice, I have free gifts for the three I'm most impressed with.

The Gift: You get to pick one of my DIY products for free.

Make sure to tag me.

Good luck.