How did the year 2019 treat you? Very well, I hope. Believe it or not, every five years, I get a pivotal year. I moved to the United States in 2004, joined Toastmasters in 2009, became Area Governor AND found StoryMasters in 2014. When the year 2019 started, I wondered what would happen this time. But the five-year theory could be just a myth, right?
One morning in January, while I was coding (I’m a programmer, by the way), I thought, “I’ve been programming for decades. Maybe it’s time to spice it up!” and decided to register my own business and give myself a little satisfaction. A few days later, I was sitting at my bank to open a business account. When the banker asked me about my business plan and marketing strategy, suddenly I felt overwhelmed. It sounded so official! I felt that I was stepping into a grown-up zone. When you don’t have any plan or strategy, what do you do? Start with the looks! I created a website and made business cards, which I always forget to carry, but their existence makes me feel happy. Once I made everything look official, interesting jobs started knocking on my door and stimulating my creative mind throughout the year.
In the meantime, my storytelling world is growing faster and faster. I was blessed with many incredible opportunities to tell my stories and meet terrific storytellers this year. When I joined StoryMasters five years ago, I’d never imagined that any of these excitements would happen to me. So I started this website to record my storytelling journey.
Looking back, I hadn’t visioned any of them when I started. They all started with one little step. Programming – my college major was the Swahili language and I didn’t know anything about computers back then, but I was fascinated by coding and started learning on my own. Storytelling – I was captivated by the art of storytelling and joined StoryMasters. Becoming DTM – it wasn’t my intention at all when I joined Toastmasters. I joined because I wanted to improve my English. If I hadn’t taken those steps, I would’ve maintained the status quo. Each small step has added up to make a big difference. Rome was not built in a day, was it?
There is no perfect starting point, but we all need to start from somewhere. So get the ball rolling, put your wish in the universe, and see where it takes you. Your pivotal year is waiting for you!