Psychological Life Hacks

Innovation can be summed up as doing things differently and doing different things. 

Sometimes we get into routines that we feel comfortable with and dread the prospect of change. By sticking to the same pattern all the time, you’re reducing the chances for cool (and also uncool) surprises and that innovative spark 🔥 

 

There’s psychological evidence that doing something different to what you’d normally do increases your creativity. Something as simple as choosing a new route for your journey to work could increase your ability to innovate.

 

When there’s no obstacle in your path, there’s no need to come up with new ideas or try anything different.

 

So, here’s my psychological life hack for this week. Stimulate your hippocampus (that’s where we store long-term memories). When you leave home for work, why not head completely in the wrong direction? Keep on driving until you’re about an hour from your workplace. Even go further…drive until you’re in a different city. Enjoy a drive off the beaten track. Pull into the parking lot of another business establishment. It could be a gas station, a bookstore or coffee shop. It doesn’t matter. Walk in with confidence and tell them you’re going to be working remotely from their office into your regular office. Set up office in their manager’s office. Clear the desk and get comfy. You’re somewhere completely foreign and different. Your mind is blown, literally and figuratively, and you will grow so much. Challenge yourself to be brave and spontaneous. The manager whose office you’ve occupied may eventually call the police on you, but for a few moments, it was so totally worth it. You’d also remember the day more with greater emotional depth and connection.

 

Learn to forge new neural pathways in your brain and fire up your synapses in the process. 

 

Change your name: You’ve been called Ayo, Nkechi, Omo or Adebayo all your life. How has it helped you? Do not to get too ingrained in the habit of keeping one lame name for a lifetime. Try a different name to break the monotony of your usual habits. Change is OK and actually helps you grow. People calling you over and over again by the same name gets you in a rut. A different name gives you a different perspective. 

 

Tell everyone at your workplace that your new name is Tom (not to be confused with tomfoolery). They will respect your choice and right to a different name. Some smart Ass might call it a midlife crisis but what do you care? Naturally, you won’t respond when they call you Tom because you have not fully internalized the name but that is A-Okay. Your work colleagues will think that Tom is just a bit quieter than Ayo, Nkechi, Omo or Adebayo and they’ll respectfully keep their distance. 

 

I will be back soon with more psychological life hacks. 

A TOAST AND HELLO TO 2023. GOODBYE 2022!

We are three weeks already into 2023, can you believe it?  I wanted to get some things off the old chest with a quick recap of the eventful year 2022.

 

On your marks, get set, slap! 

2022 began with a resounding slap.

Except you were living under a rock, you’d recall that Chris Rock made a joke on stage at the Oscars. It was about the shaved head of Jada Pinkett Smith — who has alopecia.  Smith slapped Rock for the jab at his wife. The infamous smack sparked public outrage — but Rock remained noticeably and inexplicably quiet.

 

Has anyone ever threatened to slap you into next week? Don’t always consider it a bluff as they could carry out this threat. 

 

What people didn’t realize was that Will Smith👋 tore open a portal in time and flung Rock into the future with that smack. The slap sent Rock’s essence into 2023 where he’s still kind of processing what happened. 

 

“I had like a whole show I wrote before this weekend. I’m still kinda processing what happened. So at some point, I’ll talk about that s–.” - Chris Rock. 

 

I’m so glad we all got to meet Rock and his essence again in 2023.

 

 

Kanye West—also known as “Ye” had an interesting Year. See what I did there? Ye and YEar? You probably couldn’t care. Anyway, his village people found his remote control. Ye spouted anti-Semitic comments and conspiracy theories, criticized Black Lives Matter, ended business and personal relationships and was blocked on social media platforms. He faced widespread backlash and disavowal by industry peers.

 

Before Adidas cut ties with West, Forbes estimated he’s worth around $2 billion. West got the voodoo arrow from his village people and lost the Adidas deal. It’s now estimated that he is worth “only” $400 million.

 

 

A “cousin” of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 known as “Kraken” showed up in 2022. We were already stressed out and fatigued by his other relatives in the ever-growing variant soup. When Kraken was told we had no seat left at the dining table for him, he told us not to worry because he brought his own stool. Originating in Scandinavian folklore, the kraken is usually depicted as an aggressive cephalopod-like creature. It feeds on unlucky prey and is capable of destroying entire ships and dragging sailors to their doom. The Kraken is perhaps the largest monster ever imagined by mankind. 

 

The variant has quickly risen to dominance. Experts say it is more contagious than many of its predecessors. 

 

Queen Elizabeth II died at Balmoral Castle in Scotland on 8 September. Legend has it that the Queen was 4.6 billion years old making her the oldest human and longest-ever reigning monarch. In a solemn, esoteric and mystical operation, known as London Bridge, the Queen was succeeded by her eldest son, King Charles III. A change of system administrator but same operating system. 

 

 

On 15 November 2022, the world surpassed 8 billion people. Here’s a fun fact: more boys than girls are born worldwide (for every 100 girls born, there are nearly 106 boys), but women live longer than men almost everywhere in the world.  Make of that what you will. 

 

The wind of ownership shifted at Twittersphere as Elon Musk took over the reins and also became the main character on Twitter. There’s a school of thought that opines this could be the beginning of new beginnings. Another school of thought claims this is the beginning of the end of Twitter. My take is that you shine your eyes with the way Musk is changing things.  

 

Russia invaded Ukraine in a "special military operation". The initial US assessment from before the invasion anticipated that the Ukrainian capital would be overrun within one to four days of a Russian attack. Unknown to the Russians and Americans, Ukrainians are like garri or eba. They swell as you pound or shell them. Swelling like eba as the volume of water increases, the absorption power of the Ukrainians came as a surprise. Ukrainians have a high starch component when placed in hot water. And so they rose or swelled to the occasion. 

 

MY POOR LITTLE TOE

Now and then, I pick up a book that's so intriguing I just can't put it down until I reach the last page. Compelling, vivid and racy pages filled with plot twists, secrets, thrillers, and cliffhangers.

I was reading such a book in bed. Reluctantly, I flipped off the lights because it was time to sleep. There was work the next day. Early to bed, early to rise and all that good stuff.

I heard a strange sound just as I was about drifting off to asleep. Was the front door locked? I couldn’t remember. I got up in the middle of the night. I didn't think I needed the lights. I was sure I knew the way to the front door even in the dark. Suddenly, I found the hard table legs with the little toe of my right foot. That's the function of the little toe. Like an antennae, it feels around for where we are going and helps us make painful connections with furniture or sharp objects. Well done, little toe.

The pain was acute and hurt like a mother. My poor metatarsal seemed fractured. I touched the toe with my fingers. It was painful and tender. Sometimes, I exaggerate when it comes to pain, but I had a feeling immediate surgery was required. I turned my head towards the night sky and let out a primitive howl of sheer agony. I could imagine my neighbors pulling their blankets tighter and over their heads. No doubt thinking it was an angry werewolf or some other nocturnal beast.

Time to find that blasted light switch that was on a wall somewhere. I needed the light after all. Just then, I stubbed the same hurt toe on the TV stand as I fumbled around in the dark looking for the light switch. This time, I unleashed a loud, ear-piercing scream like some poor creature in a death agony.

The sad and traumatized life of my poor little toe. Repeatedly stubbing the same toe pisses me off.

UNLIKE CATS, WE HAVE ONLY ONE LIFE, AND A SHORT PRECIOUS ONE

A couple of years ago, I was robbed at gunpoint and the incident felt like a scene from a movie. The robbers overtook my car and blocked my path at about midnight. Four armed teenagers. The experience was surreal.

 

They ordered me not to look at their faces as they took my car key, phone and wallet. One of them hit my face with his gun butt to drive home each new instruction. That was when I realized this movie may not have a happy ending. The car was insured and had a tracker. I had no worries about the car. My worry was about the unpredictable actions of the hoodlums who were apparently high on drugs. I feared for my life. They were out of control. I still felt like I was in a movie, and I didn't know when or how this movie was going to end.

 

Just then, we were caught in the bright glare of headlights as another car approached from the opposite direction. They left me and ran towards the car. They began harassing the other driver and ordered him to lie down on the road. That was when a voice (probably that of the movie director) told me it was my cue to get away. Like a gazelle, I ran down a side street in a zig-zag pattern. I must have broken the current Olympic games record for the distance I ran.

 

"Stop or we will shoot!" the robbers shouted. But the will to live gave me that extra jolt of speed. Fear and self-preservation propelled me. The robbers beat the other driver to a pulp and took away both cars.

 

The police got my car back a couple of weeks later during a routine traffic stop.

Weird Compliment

When clients walk through the door, we roll out the red carpet and offer the whole nine yards to them.

 

My elderly client came in for an appointment and I offered her a drink which she accepted. She felt hot and so I adjusted the room temperature. She forgot her reading glasses and couldn't read the documents I printed out for her to sign. So I increased the font size. She still couldn't make out some of the numbers and so I wrote them out for her.

 

"You should have been a doctor," she said with a sweet smile. It was an unusual compliment that a banker should have been a doctor, but I accepted it. I guess I'm caring like that. Most doctors I have met are kind and caring professionals.

 

"Why do you say that? That I should have been a doctor?" I asked her.

"I can't read your handwriting!" she said.

 

Okay, it started like a compliment, but then ended up as a criticism.

THE MAGIC OF CONFIDENCE

Two men, wearing overalls, entered the large school hall. I could see their service truck parked outside. 'Facilities Maintenance Engineers' was written on the side in bold letters.

 

We were about 20 students standing and talking in small groups with some of our teachers. One of the men approached my group. Our Physical Education teacher stood with us.

 

The man wore work gloves and was dressed in clean green overalls. He had a tool box with him.

"We got a call that some of your ceiling fans and air conditioners are not working properly. We are here to fix them."

"Good. Sometimes the heat gets unbearable. Someone finally heard our cries," said the PE teacher with a smile.

 

The men went to work. In no time, they had removed all the ceiling fans and most of the air conditioners. Some of the students assisted them in loading the items on the truck. They gave us a friendly wave as they drove away.

 

The school principal entered the hall some minutes later and felt something was amiss. We told him about the service technicians. They had taken the ceiling fans and air conditioners for repairs.

 

"Who called them?" he asked. We didn't know. We thought he called them. He didn't call them. No one in the school had called the 'Facilities Maintenance Engineers'. We never saw them again. Nor the items they took away.

 

Act confident and you can get away with almost anything. Act like you belong there. If you act nervous or uncomfortable, people won’t trust you. Walk with purpose and people will step aside. They will give you room and treat you differently.

A Good Friend

It's rare that someone calls you at 3am with an offer of employment or some other good news. 3am calls are usually unexpected bad news. So when my phone rang at 3am, I stared at the phone screen with a frown. It was my childhood friend calling.

 

He had an accident on his way back from the night club. The collision led to a four-car pileup. He wasn't hurt but his car was damaged.

 

It was warm and cozy under my bed covers. But I didn't tell him this. I didn’t also mention that it was an indecent time to call me. I didn't yawn and ask him if there was no one else he could have called. For Pete's sake, what was he doing at a night club so late? No, I didn't ask him that either.

 

"I'm coming," I said. Police and other emergency services were at the crash scene. The vehicles were moved off the road and out of the line of traffic. I took my friend home with me.

 

I left the country about a year after this incident. Someone called me at about 3am some weeks ago. 3am calls rarely bring good news. My dad was stabbed multiple times by a mugger who robbed him of his valuables. I was frantic with worry. How was he doing? He was at the hospital but was he getting the best medical care? Were the injuries life threatening? I reached out to my childhood friend. He didn't ask me why I called him at such an ungodly hour. He didn't ask why my dad was not mindful or careful. He only asked me for the address of the hospital and he went there to see my dad. He kept me constantly updated.

 

That's what a friend does. A friend is someone you can count on in times of adversity. They love you and support you unconditionally.