Liberosis: keep things in play.

Why you should choose optimism and worry less about everything

From time to time, I am chanced to share deeply expressive memos with my team. As I look towards my wrap-up for the year and the various drafts in my Medium, I realised that my latest Memo to the team at SentientXT sets the tone well for a year of many firsts and lots of lessons.

Given my fresh fascination for December, I imagine that my 2024 wrap-up will take lots of cues and deductions from how December goes for me, rather than the other way around:

What a year, what a run!

December is not particularly my favourite month of the year, majorly because I spend time accessing the year and reviewing my own personal performance report.

So I really wasn’t looking forward to this December. Well, not until I came across a new word: ‘Liberosis’.

The striking thing here is that Liberosis isn’t really an actual word, but a coined word. However it is a striking word.

Liberosis is: “…the desire to care less about things — to loosen your grip on your life, to stop glancing behind you every few steps, afraid that someone will snatch it from you…”

It’s such a freeing idea, the concept it represents: to worry less about life in general.

Personally, November was the hardest month in the year for me. I suffered a lot this year, however the suffering of November were heavy and consequential for me.
As someone building and imagining what’s next for SentientXT, it was a stark call-to-awareness of how bad things have gone, and the impact of chasing this dream on the lives and well-being of everyone connected to SentientXT.
For every part that didn’t go well, delayed wages, loss of glimmer and shine in the faces of some colleagues, exit of colleagues et al, it all weighed me down heavily.

Somehow I was prepared to go into December with that burden, that sense of inadequacy and borderline guilt. As a forever optimist, I am grateful for this shift in perspective really.

‘Liberosis’.

What a year! So many feats, such bravery in the midst of despair.

We started the year with the honour of launching a core creative idea for a sitting Governor who critically needed to articulate his political ideology and uplift citizen engagement.
In quick succession, we stretched the hands of partnership across 3500 kilometres to the the cool city of Nairobi, collaborating with NENDO Kenya to launch FamilySearch Africa and help thousands of Africans know, document and share their family history and tell their stories better.

Our next adventure took us again deep into South-Eastern Nigeria, weaving stories in the hues of destination marketing of a bold vision for an ever ambitious capitalist keen on developing his local community and creating a distinct persona.

We then took a game of chance, rolled the dice, took a BET, and came out Winners. Ran the game against the house for a while, but then again, the house won.. as always. Didn’t matter if most of the games were played either on or by Saturday, winning meant something else and our watch ended.
However our imagination did not!

We codified the Family Meeting experience, brought Oloriebi and the dazzling charm of a Man of God to delight and inspire a select audience on their path to finding greater meaning and identity from their family trees.

We ticked some boxes, the white ones, the grey ones and then got our skills up on the Blue ones! Angela decided it was time to show workings, stop the cho cho cho, and gave us the Oversabi flavour! Made the soft life democratic, turned 6 stars into an achievable standard, and made 5 stars look so ordinary.

Bisola came in and dazzled on a radio to match, light work, quick fight, no need for anything beyond 1 round. Left her mark, made her way…

It was time to make a delivery, someone definitely had to send a box of all this magic we had been cooking. Tee Bello came in rocked the lamp a few times, but got the genie firing in due time, voila! Magic!!

Somehow… the box was sent, but regulators stole our manifest, tore our packaging and sadly that door closed.

Then we mused and decided to aim even higher, let’s build a bank for the future. Some thing to pep things up and land the dreams of a new eco-conscious generation.
We are still in the kitchen, cooking, and retooling, in the famous words of Wrestlemania ’98 : “Can you smell what the Rock is cooking?”

Our global romance didn’t end, the pioneers of an 80 year journey sat and took our counsel, and even though the Council was British, the message was Nigerian, authentic, aware of the voices of tomorrow and ready to amplify the future without losing sight of the context of Past, Present and Future.

Boy! We moved like crazy!
Created a monster of an anthem, told a commemorative story the way only us could.
Lyon with the lyrics, Iyke and Eumaxx going full throttle on a Timbaland-Quincy-DJ Mustard-Don Jazzy spirit; weaving tunes so lit, it captured 80 years of change in bars!
Got Kingie stringing words softly spoken and Hanifah Adams stencilling tomorrow’s voices on an epoch canvas. We hustled and huddled, delivering our best commercial production yet… and in a few days, the commercial film of the year. You already know so!

We didn’t stop, we went divergent and dystopian, broke the backs of real estate dogma and turned space into leverage. Built a brand story so huge and big it needed a BIG Build. Pelumi looked at Webflow, and like the pirate in Captain Philips, went “I am your Captain now!”…
Type-shit!!!

With a growing cultured taste for collaborations, we got in bed with the Perception Managers, took a connecting flight that was going global.
Landed on site, flipped the script, underlined the super star status of our super Trio at the Council to a T.

Our sticks are still in the fire, and from time to time, we stoke it up higher.

In the midst of all this, a certain butterfly fluttered into our house of Magic and stole the heart of the Mage with the biggest engine in the smallest body. Love wins always, eh?

We are default alive.
We chose our destiny, did what we wanted to do, created impact and solutions we believed in and grew considerably either in lessons, strengths or returns or all the above.

A quote that reflects my thoughts well is one from Dankoe.

Do whatever you want. When you do, you will make massive mistakes. At that point, you no longer want it, and slowly course correct toward what you really want. If you always do what others want for you, you will never discover what you want.
-Dankoe

Worry less, trust yourself more. Believe that at any given time, what’s coming is always better than what’s here. Be open, flow with change, don’t spend time resisting or fighting it. Put in a honest shift everyday and trust that it would be enough.

See the good always, speak and think with clarity, not worry nor prejudice.
Ask your self: “What are the facts?” then, “What will I choose to do about it?”
Don’t believe that good things/times won’t last, just enjoy every moment of the journey.

This year we fought hard, I think as we go into December, you can loosen your grip a little, laugh more, celebrate moments more, and let optimism lead you. Because, truly, we have given it all we could, and we are still giving it our all.

This December, be present, be here, be default positive, care less about what could go wrong, and stay curious about what would go well.

Lead yourself and others (if you are blessed/chanced to) with clarity, optimism, grace, balance and without evasion.

I am grateful for all we did, do and will still do.
Let’s close the year with a bang and with incredible, incurable joy!

Personally, I want to make December my best month this year, and I find this particular challenge, exciting already!

Well, hello December!