Skip to main content

My Journey to Moments of Gratitude

Where do I start? Really! This is one of those weeks where I don't even know where to begin writing since so much has happened in a short space of time. But I will try.

A few weeks ago I attended a communication course that lasted two and half days. Oh boy did I need it. It was an opportunity to take a serious look at myself and identify what works and what doesn't work in my communication with others. I went there with an open mind (I heard that the mind is like a parachute; it works best when it is open lol) and I was ready to do what ever it took to learn what I needed to learn.

What did I discover about myself? Do you want to hear it? Well first of all I am a business man so I don't give my stuff out for free.....however............because it is you I will tell you. So do you want the long or the short version of the story? Actually, let's go with the short version and you can let me know what you think.

It is the year 2001 and I am in Burundi my home country. I have a big goal that I want to accomplish and I share it with a very close friend of mine. He laughs at me and says that I am such a dreamer. I don't say anything, but deep inside, I am burning to prove him wrong. The days pass and he keeps on teasing me, so I decide that I will NEVER share my goals with anyone ever again.

Guess what! Ten years later, I am still the same! I have that wall between me and others in regards to sharing my goals. I prefer to talk about it when it is complete. Do you know what? With close friends, my method doesn't seem to work. They feel like I don't trust them (and I can't blame them, I would feel the same). However, I was not doing this on purpose (you don't know, what you don't know until someone shows you.)

Do you still have a minute? I can share another thing or two with you.

I discovered that my whole life has been about giving (which is not bad at all), but I have a hard time receiving or asking for help (do you know anyone like that?). It takes all the courage and vulnerability in the world for me to ask for help. I want to do it myself. But, YOU ask me for my help? I will move mountains to help you get what you want (sometimes even forgetting my own goals).

So I decided to change. I decided to allow myself to be vulnerable and ask for help and feel OK about it. Oh man! It was like there was someone out there saying “why did you wait this long?” Since I allowed myself to do this, things have been crazy.

Let me share this with you.

Last week, I asked two friends to donate money for my trip to Africa coming up in a few months (that by itself is a huge breakthrough for me: asking for money.). Anyways, the two friends saw me two days later, and one of them said: “Oh Patrick, I have your money. Here it is”. The second one went: “Oh yes, me too. Here is the money that I promised you”. Not far from us, another friend was watching all of this, and she came to me and said: “I don't know why these people are giving you money, but it must be for something good. Here is mine too. You can have it. Now, can you please explain to me: Why are all these people giving you money?”

CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT!!!??

All I had to do was....ask!!!!

A few days later, people came to me with GREAT business opportunities which made me feel as if I was a magnate!

Do I have everything in place for my trip to Africa? Not yet. But I know I can ask for help. Funny enough, I am receiving help and people are feeling good about it (I guess I have been sowing enough seeds in the ground).

I am so grateful to everyone. It is beyond imagination.

Oh, I forgot to tell you another thing. I was approached by a newspaper last week, and they want to write a profile about me! (are you serious!!!). I met the journalist, we did our interview and she sent me her first draft of the article. When I read it, I was like “are you kidding me? Is this me, really?”.
Now, everywhere I go, I take my pen with me. Hey, you never know someone may need my autograph lol.

What a week!!!

Moral of the story? Do you want to take a trip to Africa? Just ask for help and you will find yourself signing autographs.
Always a pleasure

Patrick
The Journeyman
pbizindavyi6@gmail.com
Twitter: @journeymanstory

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

My Journey to Orillia

We drove a little bit late at night. I had been to this place called Orillia before, but it was about ten years ago. I didn’t remember much about it, other than it was beautiful. Here we were on the road, and there was not much we could see, except a signal on the highway that said “beware of cattle”. We thought it was funny.   By the time we arrived at the hotel, it was almost midnight. I went straight to bed. We had to wake up early in the morning as breakfast was scheduled to be served a six O’clock. There was no way I was going to miss out.‎ You may be wondering what was happening in Orillia. I am glad you asked. A number of months ago, Paul, my business partner, got this brilliant idea, and once he shared it with me I was totally on board. He realized that for us to do what we wanted to do, we must work with partners. These may be service providers, or simply other business owners with goals similar to ours. Paul decided to go out and attend different netwo...

My Journey to two stories

I participated in a communication's course last week-end. Talk about being at the right place at the right time. It was unbelievable! Do you know what was the emphasis in the course? Guess! It was communication in relationships! No comment! Lol During the course, I reflected on two stories that I would like to share with you (free of charge of course). Here they are: There was an old guy who was sleeping in his couch. His grandkids came over while he was sleeping and placed a piece of cheese under his nose. Soon after, the guy woke up and exclaimed: “this room stinks!” He went into the kitchen and said again: “This kitchen stinks as well, maybe I should go outside”. He went outside, but still the same smell was around. Finally, in disgust he shouted: “The whole world stinks”. Little did he realize that the scent came from the cheese that was under his nose. Did you like that story? If not, I won’t share the next one. ..........Okay, okay, seeing that you insist, I wi...

My journey to Choq

Here I am again with another unknown word. What in the world is the meaning of Choq? This is the name of the first radio station I worked at in Canada (so far it's the first and only station, but I believe there are many more to come). How did I come to know about this station? It's a long story. Here I am, new to Canada, with three years of experience in radio broadcasting under my belt, trying to nail my first job without even getting my work permit yet (Superman, watch out). The only connection I had in Toronto was the Internet (what a good one!), and the only place I knew was the public library (another good one). Networking has been one of my strengths (the Internet and the public library were the first good business contacts I made. I was the man!!!). But, after a few calls, I knew that my two contacts were not enough. I had to meet real people. However, I kept coming back to the library (I am a faithful friend) because the Internet helped me to keep in touch with my fami...