Monday Motivation from Michelle Obama

Surround yourself with good people that won't weigh you down.

Do not bring people in your life who weigh you down. And trust your instincts … good relationships feel good. They feel right. They don’t hurt. They’re not painful. That’s not just with somebody you want to marry, but it’s with the friends that you choose. It’s with the people you surround yourselves with. —Michelle Obama

Pic source: people.com

Four Necessities to having a better relationship

These are four necessary factors you need to make your relationship better.

As humans, we are social beings. We  must interact with one another to attain certain goals on a daily basis. So that even when one tries to isolate oneself from others, and limit communication to none, it's a task bound to be immensely difficult to achieve.

We must come in contact with other people, whether in  the office, school, religious or social  gatherings,  or even the market place
We interact with people, and most times, form some kind of relationship with them. 

And in other to live or work well with these people we have formed relationships with, here are four necessities I have garnered :

1. Communication 

This is the first and most important thing you need to have a better relationship with others.  Relationships without proper communication are often filled with too much unstated emotions and feelings.
And the fact that everyone has opinions and feelings about things, stamps the need of adequate communication and expression of thoughts. Keeping mute most times automatically means that you agree with whatever is going on around you as people don't work around with mind reading xrays on their heads.  So if you feel a certain way about something or someone's actions, please try speak up.
And always remember to speak with wisdom and make sure your words when commucating, are not hurtful, rude or offensive.

2. Understanding 
The second necessity, is to understand others. Whether it's your child, spouse or colleague  at work, if you want to have a better relationship with them, you must first try to understand where they are coming from (their point of view).
Put yourself in their shoes before you decide to challenge  or judge their decisions or actions as it will go a long way, to ensuring a longer lasting healthy relationship.

Most people, fail to do this and instead, hurriedly react to what is in front of them without knowing the reasons behind such actions.
So, always make it an obligation to understand other people's views and ideals about life and whatever is in front of them before you jump into the wrong conclusions.
Getting a better insight as to why a person is acting a certain way, will help you in taking the appropriate approach to solving a problem.

3. Respect 
After you have understood a person, please throw in a little bit of respect for them.
Respect, is something that everybody wants.
We all want to feel and know that we are not deemed worthless or useless. We want our voices or actions to matter and stepping on other people's ego, is an automatic way, of having the most unhealthy relationship.

Respect people's personalities, ideals religion, their faith (even though you don't believe) and even when  you want them to see things from your own perspective, respectfully communicate your thoughts to them.

4. Compromise
This is the fourth and last one here.
We all can't always get want we want, when we want it all the time.  You can't always win at the detriment of others all the time. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and sometimes you just have to let go, to have  peace.

Everybody is different and my way of doing things may not be familiar with you but that doesn't mean we can't work or be together. We just need to know when to compromise.
By opening yourself up to compromise, you learn new things, engage in new ideas and foster better relationships.
Remember also, that compromising, works two ways. Do not compromise on your truth. You might bend or adjust to certain things people do, but never compromise on what makes you YOU.

Thanks for reading.

Serena Williams - Forbes highest paid female Athlete

Pic source:hotflick.net

According to a new list compiled by Forbes, the 34 years old Tennis Star, is the new highest paid female athlete in the world with a salary earning of $8.9m and endorsments of $20m which sums up to $28.9m thereby beating Maria  Sharapova who had been holding that title for eleven years. Maria comes in second with a total of $21.9m. Serena and Maria are the only women on the Forbes 100 list of highest paid athletes, the remaining 98 being men.

This makes Serena  the highest paid athlete in the female category and #40 highest paid Athlete in the world.

Pic source: zombie.com

Visit  Forbes.com  for the full list of highest earning athletes in the world.

Substantial Woman of the week - Hillary Clinton

Who She is

Hillary Clinton is the presidential candidate

pic source:theatlantic.com

of the Democratic Party in the United States in the 2016 Presidential  Election. Also, former First Lady of the U.S, and the State of  Arkansas, Senator, Secretary of State, Lawyer and activist.

Her Life

 She was born on the 26 of October, 1947 to Hugh Ellsworth Rodman and Dorothy Emma Howell in Chicago, Illinois and attended Main East High School, where
she participated in student council and the school newspaper and  graduated amongst the top five percent of her class in 1965.

Also In 1965, Hilary enrolled in Wellesley College where she majored in Political Science.
As a freshman in college, she served as president of the Wellesley Young Republicans and supported the elections of Mayor John Lindsay of New York, and Senator Edward Brooke from Massachusetts, but later on, she  stepped down from her position as her views regarding the American Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam war changed.

In her junior year, she became a supporter of anti war and following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr, she organized a two day student strike.
In college, most of her fellow students, often thought that Hillary might become the first female president of the United States.

After college, she enrolled in Yale Law school, where she meet and started dating her classmate Bill Clinton, who she later married on October 11, 1975.
She gave birth to daughter Chelsea in 1980.

She became first lady  of the United States in 1992 till 2000 when Bill was President and led the fight to reform the American health care system.
In 1995, Hilary led the US delegation to the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing China and gave a speech that inspired women around the world.
In  the year 2000, she was elected  a US Senator and in 2008, she ran for President but lost in the primaries to then Senator Barack Obama.
She later became the Secretary of State in the first four years of Obama's administration.

Quotes of Hillary Clinton

1. The worst thing that can happen in a democracy - as well as in an individual's life, is to become cynical about the future and lose hope.

2. What we have to do... is to find a way to celebrate our diversity and debate our differences without fracturing our communities.

3. I think the world would be a lot better off if more people were to define themselves in terms of their own standards and values and not what other people said or thought about them.

4. Forgiveness is a way of opening up the doors again and moving forward, whether it's a personal life or a national life.

5. Women are the largest untapped reservoir of talent in the world.


Life Lessons from Hillary Clinton

1. There is no limit to what a person can achieve if you put your mind to it.

2. It's never too early to start living your dreams.

3. Gender is not a barrier to achieving your goals, all you need do, is to work hard and follow your dreams.

Thanks for reading.

Source:
Wikipedia
Hillary for America

Current female world leaders(Presidents and Prime Ministers)

Presently in world, there are 10 female prime ministers, 10 presidents and 1 Chancellor amongst their male counterparts, in  the 196 countries.
Making a total of 21 female leaders of developed and under developed nations in the world.

Female world leaders have always existed and have shown strength and courage in leading their countries to greater heights. And apart from the great monarchs like the Queens of England, scotland, etc,  who were born into royalty and thrust into leadership positions (although majority now perform only ceremonial duties), quite a number of women have been either appointed or elected by ordinary citizens, as presidents and prime ministers.

Here are six notable Female world leaders we have today:

   Ellen Johnson Sirleaf - President of Liberia
   From Jan 16 2006 - present

     Park Geun-hye - President of South Korea
     From Feb 29 2013 - present

        Angela Merkel - Chancellor of Germany
        From Nov 22 2005- present

Sheikh Hasina Wajed - Prime Minister of Bangladesh
From Jan 6 2009 - present

Portia Simpson Miller- Prime Minister of Jamaica 

From Jan 5 2012 - present 

Catherine Samba-Panda - President of Central African Republic 

From Jan 23 2014 - present 

The other countries with current female presidents and prime ministers are: 

Trinidad and Tobago, Kosovo, Denmark,Slovenia , Cyprus (North), Senagal, Norway, Latvia,Chile, Malta, Lithuania, Poland, Switzerland, Croatia and Brazil(although she isn't functioning now due to ongoing impeachment trial).

Source: rulers.org 

Meet the Military Commander Miss USA 2016

The just concluded Miss USA pageant brought to the limelight a very amazing young woman of 26 years - Deshauna Barber. She won the contest not only with her beauty, but with her brains and love for her country as she is a military commander in the United States Army.

picture source:deshaunabarberfans@instagram


This is what she thinks about being CONFIDENTLY BEAUTIFUL when asked by the judges  of the pageant :

Picture source:missusa@instagram

"To me confidently beautiful means understanding. Its not always about your appearance. It’s not always about who you are around and how they feel you look, where they feel you come from or your economic background. Serving in the military has taught me that being confidently beautiful is about being able to earn respect from people regardless of what you look like. As a woman in the military, people associate beauty with weakness and they learn very quickly that I’m extremely strong, and though I’m small, I’m powerful. Confidently beautiful is being myself and being very happy with who I’ve become."

What young girls should learn from her, is that being pretty is not enough. Women are worth more than a pretty face and a nice body.  Our mind is what is important, if we truly want to change the world for good.

Wise words from Regina Brett

"Don't compare your life to others; you have no idea what their journey is all about."

Why wear Makeup?

Question- Have you ever been asked why you wear makeup as a woman?

Well the other day, I was asked and in order to defend myself from what I honestly  don't know, I began ranting of how I have these gigantic pimples on my face and how the spots and blemishes are too much so, I needed to cover them up and blah blah blah.
I just needed to give a legit reply to the question but  deep down, I knew that those weren't the only reasons, and that I wear make up because I wanted to feel attractive and beautiful as a woman. But in order not to look vain and insecure I gave the obvious answer.

Now that's just my reason. And this question made me think about the reason why women like me wear make up. So, I decided to ask my close female friends and family members.

The first person I asked, was my cousin who I tell you sincerely, has no business putting a single thing on her face,except from maybe white powder. And her reply was that it makes her look 'fine and clean.'Her exact words, no joke.
In my mind, I was looking for the ugly and dirty face that needs beautification and cleansing which unfortunately I couldn't find but I kind of got what she meant though.

The second person I asked, gave a reply close to mine that it was because of the acne on her face she wears make up which ironically according to her, adds more acne to her face.
Well, that is just women wahala for you.

Others gave answers like: it makes them more beautiful and gives them confidence, while for some, it's fun trying on new tricks from YouTube and just playing with brushes and colours.

Well, I concluded, that whatever the reason women were make up, the bottom line is that they do and majority like doing it. Maybe it's an innate desire to look beautiful I can't tell,  but whatever the case may be, I think that  when we put on make up, moderation is key.
We should not have to change our entire face under foundation all in the name of wearing make-up. Too much make up is never beautiful.

NB- If you have more reasons why you think women wear make up, please drop your comments in the little box below.

Thanks for reading.