Quit work to Start your WORK

 Great Ujima during this third Ujima in 2022:

I am excited to be able to reach out to all of you and build in the way that we do. Waking up this early and hitting this keyboard has been a mixed blessing. I guess all blessings are. Strange how the world seems to work like that. Hey... That thought moved us into what I want to talk with yall about this morning. Work, that dirty word that we have learned to associate with early mornings or late nights. Work, the place we go to be abused and missed used. Work, that hamster wheel that we have sold our most valuable asset to run on powering someone else's dream. I know y'all may be waiting for me to unleash some secret that is ingrained in the Nguzo Saba that can free you from the drudgery, but.... Naw I can't. There is no cure for it. We have to work, as a matter of fact I am writing this to encourage you to continue doing so, but what I am going to point out for you is that you may be working too much for the other team, and not enough for us. Think about how most people spend about 40 hours per week working for someone,or something that not only does not move them toward their life goal, but in most cases they are working against their tribe and themselves. We spend so much time working for others that we have no time to spend  working for us.

"Work, the place we go to be abused and missed used."

In Gye-Nyame we talk about the #224selfhelpprocess. If you start practicing this you will be able to free yourself from working or slaving for others and begin to work for yourself and your people. This process simply requires you not to fear working for you. It encourages you to go the extra mile for your dream, while you slave for others. We ask each of our tribe members to work their way up to be able to spend at least 2 hours a day working on themselves, their  dreams, their  tribe, their etc.... We only ask for two hours. Now I know you are looking at this blog right now and are about to kick it to the curb but bare with me because I am going to show you the simple truth and wisdom of this simple concept. This is a tool of Ujima and if you can get yourself and your tribe to put it to work you will be surprised at what happens. First we have a saying in the tribe "if it comes fast it doesn't last, but if it comes slow it's good to go", this is a slow process and requires dedication from you, in fact you have to WORK at it sometimes at work, and most times at home. We start slow because experience teaches us that when something is new people jump in with excitement, but excitement fades. With the excitement also comes a tendency to do too much, and sometimes people do so much that they hurt themselves or burn out. What we are building is a generational thing so we don't have to rush. We can take our time and apply this next gem that we are giving out for free. Another saying that comes from the tribe is "Your small change can make a large change in the community. This is a saying that came about during a fundraiser we were assisting with in like 1992 (funny story that I have shared many times on my podcast). We needed to raise funds to support some of our community organizational efforts. I suggested that we put jugs or jars in all the stores within the area and collect peoples leftover change from purchases that they made. Now the idea was good but execution was bad. Nevertheless the idea still rings true, but in this case we are not talking about change (money in your pocket)) we are talking about small changes that we can make that will help propel us in the direction we want to go in our life. Remember the key word is small. This process is based on some crystalized wisdom that you hear on a regular basis but may not pay it any attention. For example “how do you eat an elephant?” Here is another one:”The journey of a thousand miles starts with...”! Our Ancestors have left us answers and all we have to do is the “wisdom mining” to extract and use it.

Looking at Ujima through the lens of Ujima does nothing but demonstrate the fact that we have to double down on our WORK. I capitalize this WORK to help you see the difference. This WORK is done for you, your Ancestors, your people, and your legacy and can not be skipped. We have to stop running from our WORK and use being tired from our work (for the other team) as an excuse. Our enemies' worldview never rests, so in some form or another we have to continue to build. We have to figure out how to sneak out at least 2 hours a day for our WORK. For example break time, lunch time, water cooler time, that hour before your show comes on, that early saturday morning, that so called day off, that 15 minutes before you go to sleep. Now I need you to understand you will know your true WORK because it will consume you.It will energize you, and lift you up. You will notice that in some form or fashion it will begin to blend into your day, and start to feel natural. You won’t suffer from burnout, in fact you will strive to find more time to do it. Eventually you will be able to quit work to do WORK. You have a great Ujima during this Ujima week.