On being TenacioUS
- in advocacy of self and others
- in willingness to fail and reevaluate
- in search for your place and people
- in your desire to push beyond the comfortable
- in your most significant beliefs
Eferoghene's steps to self-advocacy:
"If you’ve got my attention span, two steps are enough to fulfill any requirement. These two steps are the priming and performance stages.
Priming phase: This phase has more to do with internalization of values and goals. This is where you tell yourself that you are enough. It is here that you teach yourself to set personal and interpersonal boundaries. It is here that you learn the difference between self-deprecation and humility. I am a bit more biased in favor of David Brooks’ definition of humility as “radical self-awareness from a distance, seeing themselves from a distance and saying, what’s my problem?”. As for interpersonal boundaries, you’re going to have to set limits for how much you’ll let people’s opinions get to you. Believe it or not, decisions people make about you in your absence will contribute just as much as your efforts to the achievement of your goals. Also, develop your skills. Be with the trend. If you love graphic designs and there’s a newer app that employers of your skills are using, become well versed in it.
Performance phase: It is now becoming general knowledge that good products sell themselves. This is the stage where you perform optimally. Employ the values learnt in the priming phase and do your work well.
The fact that I have outlined these action items as two stages is not an indication that the former runs to completion before the latter begins. As a matter of fact, that idea of one preceding the other is a product of the myth of process that we should resist falling prey to. These stages are in dynamic equilibrium, likewise the social climate. Consequently, one must prime and perform simultaneously to make for a prime performance.
While I won't pretend that I have just outlined an easy mandate, we must all concede that it is feasible after all. Shape it to suit your tastes. Just do you!!"
Eferoghene, First-Year Five 2021
