IF YOU REALLY KNEW ME

2010 is a year many would not forget in a hurry. A year with so many events, calamities, success stories and many more. So as such i think 2010 won't be easily forgotten by a lot of people whatever their story.

For me, it is been a year of mixed giving, mixed blessings. 2010 have taught me to see things and people differently and clearly. Beneath all those make-up, clothes and what-have-you, we only let people see what we want them to see...or is it what they want to see. Few weeks before the end of the year 2010, i learnt the most important and intriguing thing about life. Do people really knew who we are? Do our friends, colleagues, families know who we really are? They assume they know you but do they really? Please don't get it twisted, i simply wrote this 'cause i want people to understand that, what i have gone through or still going through, won't define me....no matter what.

So here, i am, asking or better still, telling you, IF YOU REALLY KNEW ME...

If you really knew me, you would know that i am not the happy face you see. That behind this smiling face is a frighten, lost girl who wants nothing more but to be free to live. If you knew me, you would know that i am who i am for a reason. That i don't...can't trust anyone, not that i don't want to,but because those who are suppose to be the foundation of my trust are the ones who betray my trust.

If you really knew me, you would know that i would rather be hurt than to hurt anyone. If you really knew me, you would know that i can be successful but i would rather not because the fear of doing it alone. If you really knew me , you will know that i grew up on my own and i had to fight for everything.

If you really knew me, you would know that i want to be free, to be me.....but the question is "who am i really". If you knew me, you would know that i have taken care of me since the day i can remember. And i will give everything i own to have someone take care of me for a change.
If you knew me, you would know that the only thing i want is to live a normal life, no drama.
If you really knew me, you would know that when i love i really love....and i love really hard even if it kills me; that's because i believe in love, i believe in you, i believe in me and i believe in us.

If you really knew me you would know that i'm happy and won't change a thing about my life....it'z been crazy but boy, i love it. And i'm blessed to have lived it and by the way, still living it....lol

So, you see, 2011 will be the year that you will definitely know me....and not what you think of me or what you think of what you know of me. Therefore, embrace yourself for a real and true revelation of who am i, want to be and going be.

Love, Peace and Be true
Gentlehawk

MY CHRISTMAS

I wrote this poem like 17years ago and funnily, it was meant to be a project for my kid brother. He was in junior high, i think, probably his last year and they were asked to do something on Christmas. So he asked if i could write him a poem which i did. But when i did, i really didn't pay too much attention to it 'cos i practically wrote it in about 10 to 20 minutes.

After, many years i took a look at the poem again and i felt it was one of those poems you simply scribble without much thought but actually, it's really the heart doing the writing.

So as you read this poem of mine....please open your heart to this season we celebrate, and find your own true meaning for this season.

Enjoy:

Some say it’s about eating and drinking
Which makes me go into deep thinking
That a day called CHRISTMAS DAY
Is nothing but a long and beautiful day
Of nothingness but a little pretty fairy tales
During the time of winter gaze
Oh! My meaningful Christmas
Where have you gone, just like that
Of a little daisy child
With lots of love and good tidings
Oh! My joyful meaningful Christmas
Tell me about you
This always makes me happy and dance
Tell me the real things you do
And let them know the true meaning of you.
(c)nabel

So, HAVE YOURSELVES A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS and remember, be true and real to you.
Peace out
GENTLEHAWK

A CRY FOR HELP

As I lay me down
Heaven hear me now
I'm lost without a cause
After giving it my all

Winter storms have come
And darkened my sun
After all that I've been through
Who on earth can I turn to?

I look to you
I look to you
After all my strength is gone
In you I can be strong

I look to you
I look to you
And when melodies are gone
In you I hear a song, I look to you

About to lose my breath
There's no more fighting left
Sinking to rise no more
Searching for that open door

And every road that I've taken
Led to my regret
And I don't know if I'm gonna make it
Nothing to do but lift my head.............

When i first heard this song by Whitney Houston, (and by the way, i am a huge fan...i don't think there will be a better fan of hers than moi, with everything she went through, it was a good thing to have her back) i simply enjoyed the beats and rhythm and mostly importantly...........the magic and comfort her music has always given to me. It is also worth mentioning that if you know the Diva the way i do, you would notice that she has obviously lost something while in rehab and that we will never have the old Whitney back, .....well, not completely. What she has gone through, has taken, or better still, stolen alot from her....even in her vocals.

Anyway, as i listened to this song again i felt she was trying to communicate her heart to someone, anyone, out there who cares to listen. She knew, she needed saving, most especially from herself but she doesn't know how. It is much more devastating when you acknowledge your problems but there is little or nothing you can do about it. One becomes so depress that the more one feels helpless, the more the problem sucks you in. The lyrics of this song is so strong and deep. This makes me wonder, if we take a critical look at our problems, we will discover that "WE" are the problem. And it takes a person with deep roots and high level of humility to admit their weakness and vulnerability......in public. But honestly speaking, don't we all need saving from ourselves? A lot of us, don't even realise we're lost until we have lost everything and most times, everyone we hold dear. Her honesty, her humility and her fore-rightness in this song makes her a number one as far as i am concerned. Looking at the world today, it is difficult to differentiate what is real from what is not. People aren't real anymore and so is their emotions; and whatever is connected to them. It is very easy to lose one's way in that kind of world. A world that demand you to be perfect despite, it, not been perfect. An imperfectly perfect world. How depressing can it be.

But the thing is, you are allowed to lose your way....get lost. It's perfectly fine 'cause we are HUMAN. But it stops been fine when you fall and refuse to stand. When you are weak you refuse to ask for a strong hand for help. Everyone at one time or the other will need to ask for help....we can't simply do it alone. We are built to ask for help and to be assisted. No man can be an Island. I need you as much as you need me.

With this, i believe that the song is the best song ever....in the history of Whitney's musical career.

As for me, it helps put my mind at rest that these celebrities are people too, just like you and i. And that the have the rights, like everyone else, to make mistakes, learn from them and then move on with their lives.

There's nothing as peaceful and comforting as been REAL and TRUE to yourself and to everyone around you.

So try to be Real and True!

It's your Gal

Gentlehawk

Well, i guess it will be appropriate to say to all my readers or fans as this case goes, HAPPY NEW YEAR. You might be thinking HAPPY NU YEAR in the month of March? Yea, Yea. Please give me a break or cut me some slack, will ya...lol. It's just that this 2010, began with so many bad things that it is difficult for people, at least me, to keep track or at least think straight. Tragedy upon tragedy, individually or group-wise. Just when you are stepping out of one or getting a relieve from one, you get struck by another tragedy. Interesting this year has been for every human being.

The economic melt down, train crash, plane hijacking, earthquakes, unexpected deaths of loved ones, flood, terrorism and the lists goes on and on. God help us. But really what is going on? Everywhere one looks there is a sad song. Yet in the mist of all there are many having a great time. Making greatness and riches in these trying times. My mother says it has always been so and it will always be so. Is that true? Is that the essence of our world? Is there still hope for those who hold on to hope? The pain of some is the gain of some? Is that the reality of life? Am i seeing the world the way it is or the way it we want it to be?

When i was younger, the world to me was the most beautiful thing that i could not wait to explore. And i know, for every child in us, it felt this way. But now, it is what i refer to as a "mixed feeling".

We called for change - change in our way of life but is this change the beginning of our doom? For so many, life has lost its taste. It's more like a crew at sea left with just a few jar of dry, hard and tasteless biscuit and the storm just started.

But in the mist of this, Life is still very beautiful, if you know what it takes to look inwards.

Stay tune

Gentle hawk

DECEMBERS

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 wonderful months and we are on the last lap, the 12th month...so exciting and exhilarating, don't you think?

Happy new month to y'all!!! This month is the last month of the year. The month of greens and reds which to me means, a new dawn or beginning and love. A month to sit and reminisce about the days gone by, to assess and redress, to be thankful for life's lessons and prepare a new script that will guide one into freshness.

December, a month of bliss and tranquility yet alot see it as a month of greed and bleed. A month that ends all months...a month that ushers in newness, gives a reason.

I simply love this month because with it, it carries the essence of life. It is one month i look to because it gives to me alot of strength to start again or something like that. It feels me with love and hope. I taste it and feel it deep down in my heart so as much that i can feel it's warmth and peace. It defines life and the joy that life itself brings with its purity it gives.

However, we forget what this month brings instead we focus on what we can take from it. Those trival things that bore us down.

It is New, it is birth, it is freshness, it is a beginning, it is GREEN and it is care, it is passion, it is sensual, it is romantic, it is RED. Let it free you, let it envelop you into experiencing it's newness and freshness. Be free, like the wind, be light.

Enjoy December, a new era of greatness, the month of GREEN and RED. the month of liveliness and Passion.

Welcome to Love, Welcome to my month, Welcome to the beautiful month of DECEMBER.

Be True and Be Real

Your Gentlehawk
Peace!

HOW TO INCREASE EMPLOYEES PERFORMANCE

Coming to together is a beginning, keeping together is a progress, Working together is success
- Henry Ford.

In the jet age, I’m pretty sure you have heard and read enough on this topic and you are bored stiff. I can bet you are saying right now that “what else is new that I haven’t heard or read”, and you are about to drop or flip over the page to see more interesting issues.

Unfortunately, this is not like any other article you have read infact this is more of a way of life. So before you do flip over, please do me a favour by hearing me out, will you, because here right, now is a place for you to start?

Why are we interested in increasing performance anyway? This is a suppose to be a blog so why i'm writing about this. Yea, this is a blog......if you read my first blog i said my blog is about everything and anything as long as it helps pass a good message. There’s got to be a reason, right? It all balls down to the motive behind why one wants to increase the performance. Besides, we all need to know and understand one or two things about increasing performance because we all need it in every aspects of our lives. Understanding how we can be productive in life is important to every one who yearns for growth in life.

So, i will sharing few ideas and tips on this topic because it's one wide and controversial topic.

Knowing who we are and our composition as humans we need to understand that increasing productivity our motives are not selfish. Researchers in human behaviour have identified some important characteristics in humans and they include the following:

UNIQUENESS:

Every being is different even twins that came out of the same womb are not only genetically different but emotional, physically, in every ramification you can think of, different. That’s why you can have two people doing the same different but a different way. That’s how it is and that’s how it will ever be. Traits could be same but behaviour won’t.

COMPLEX:

Humans are the most complicated out of all things God created. He (Humans) can never be understood in the total sense of it.

UNPREDICTABLE:

Because humans are complicated they become unpredictable. That’s the reason the person you know today might not be the same person tomorrow. I know for one that I’m not the same person I was 10years back, for good or bad, that’s another story completely so don't break your head.....lol.

NATURALLY LAZY:

This one I wouldn’t have to say much except “Hands up, if guilty as charged”. We are, in often times, just want things to happen without lifting a finger.

SELFISH:

I guess we all believe in “me, myself and I” syndrome. 'I love you guys but I need to love myself first, so I can love you better'.

CHANGE:

This is anti-human so we fight anything in that light. Why should I leave my comfort-zone for an unknown, are you out of your senses? 'Why change it besides it is better this way'.

Realizing what humans are, should help place one in a better perspective of what one wants to achieve. When we think that, to increase employees’ performance all depends on the employees, then we have totally missed it because their performance depends largely on the boss or the employer. Sounds different? It is the employer that influences at least 70% of any employees’ performance. Why? That’s so because you can not use rules to make people do what you want without first making them understand that performance – be it good or bad – is a way of life.

For an employer to influence the performance of employees he needs to possess some essential qualities.
Understanding the right type of leader you are, is most important because with this you can influence your employees a lot better. To understand your leadership style, you could start by asking yourself and answering these questions truthfully.

1. Does my leadership style support or against employees’ performance?
2. Am I communicating effectively to enhance their performance?
3. Do I motivate or de-motivate my employees?
4. Do I know and understand my employee temperament?

To truly influence the performance of an employee, an employer must exhibit visionary leadership characters.

So you ask, “Who is a visionary leader?”

A visionary leader is someone who engages his followers and takes them beyond mere reward and punishment. In order words, a visionary leader is a “TEAM PLAYER”. He knows the importance of TEAMWORK. He knows and understands that he needs his employees and that without them he can not get the work done.

A visionary leader is someone with vision and can make his employees understand and not just understanding his/her vision but makes them to see it very clearly with him/her. He motivates them to look beyond the mundane activities of the job and encourages them to think independently and creatively which in turns gives them a sense of belonging and trust in the organization.

But most importantly, he recognizes the fact that his employees are human beings and acts as a mentor to them.

Margaret Mead once said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has”.

The fact is that must leader fail to define the team they want to build because they fail to understand how to create the experience of teamwork. They keep talking about building the team and working as a team but forget the essential things. Belonging to a team is a result of feeling part of something larger than you. It has a lot to do with understanding the mission and objective of the organization and aligning your personal fulfillment goals with the organization’s goals.

Once you have identified that you are a visionary leader then you will require the following for influencing your employees’ performance.

1. Ensuring that each employee understands the organization mission and objective and why their role is very important to the achievement of the company’s mission and objective.

2. Ensuring that they perceive their service as valuable to the organization and to their career.

3. Recruiting the right people and equipping them with the right tools to do the right things. This gives the right attitude which supports them to accomplish the set mission.

4. Ensuring that they understand the need for coordination and the need for effective cross-function and multi-department relationship. That No Successful and Good Man is an Island.

5. Giving them the freedom and empowerment to express themselves and ensuring that working together is the key.

6. Establishing a good channel for communication for receiving honest performance feedback and to channel conflicts if need arises.

7. Encouraging creative thinking and individuality and rewarding the same if positive.

8. Providing and encouraging trainings, education, access to books and field trips to stimulate the right thinking that will influence their performance.

9. Ensuring that they understand and feel responsible and accountable for achievements and are rewarded and recognized when successful.

10. Mostly importantly, the organization should recognize that the more it can change its climate to support teams, the more it will receive in pay back from the work of its employees in terms of better performance.

With all this in place, pull my ears if this doesn’t increase and boost the performance and the attitude of your employees. But before you pull my ears off, let me say this works with a little patience from both sides of the coin.

So, I leave you with this last word by H.E LUCCOCK who says that; “No one can whistle a symphony. It takes an orchestra to play it”.

So, Peace n out
Gentlehawk

A Gal's Dairy 04

Can you keep a secret? I bet you this one is the best secret of the year, so can you, keep a secret? It will be our secret....and ours only. Come closer and listen. But first, let me explain something to you.

Life has got a way of dishing things at you whether you want them or not. It has a mind of its own but most of us think, rather than not, we can help it in its decision making.

For example, I had always wanted to be a medical doctor....science had always had a way of awaking my curiosity. But my personality craves for beauty, creativity and peace. However, i ended up doing something else. Being a medical doctor was my own decision and i walked in the light of that but it was contrary to what Life had and still has in store for me.

Life is beautiful.....but as the saying goes, it only in the eyes of it beholder.

Similarly, i nurture and lived in a love (infact two) that wasn't meant for me and as Life will always do, it has its own plans. Funnily, its plan always work out beautifully and perfectly.

Lately, i have been opportuned to see Life in a clearer light. Life is what you make of it. The plan is all set just your reaction to it is what triggers it in motion.

We walk in paths that look real to us and the thing is that they are mostly illusions. Now i see clearly that we don't choose what Life gives us, however, we choose the way we react to it.

Yes, you could say i'm in cloud nine ;) and i don't want to come back. And believe me, it's the best place to be. All these years i've be blinded by things i thought were right for me. Yes, Life really knows how to play jokes. Funnily, i'm enjoying this one. If only and only if, we could stop for half a second and put aside our delusions and be a bit logical. We will see that Life is really, really beautiful.

I see my relationship(s) with clearer eyes. It has no expectations and no limitations. It's a soul free experience. My course has changed and i'm allowing the wind of Life sail me to the promise land....ah! it's MY promise land. Not what YOU think or know to be my promise land. So zip it, your opinion not required, thank you!!

It's a path of Life i've chosen.....good or bad, it's my choice and my Way. I will march with it....love and cherish it because it is the essence of Life. Never again will i let people, society and culture determine who and what i am or not. I am REAL and TRUE.....to me. I AM ME!!

Life gift to me is MY DESTINY! I will hold on to it, cherish and nourish it.

I'M Gentlehawk!
Lock down!!!