NIGERIA: Get up, World Moms, Aisha’s Talking to YOU!

NIGERIA: Get up, World Moms, Aisha’s Talking to YOU!

World Mom, Aisha Yesufu in Nigeria, has an incredible amount of drive. From humble beginnings, she worked hard at her education and it became her family’s ticket to a better life. We’ve had the chance to join her virtually on World Moms Blog’s panel at the World Bank on the right to a universal education in April, and she is truly, an inspiration.

Just in time for International Day of the Girl on Sunday, get ready, women and girls everywhere, to reach your goals and make things happen!…

If you want to reach your goals, start a business, or start doing anything else for that matter, it has to start in your mind. You have to believe in yourself. You have to believe that you can do it, and this is where most times we have a problem. We start something without actually believing that we can do it. Sometimes we just start certain things without truly believing in ourselves.

We are either pressured into doing it, or doing it because others are doing it; and its expected of us. We start never truly believing in ourselves. You just go ahead to start something, and even you, yourself, are not sure you can do it. You don’t believe you can do it and along the way things begin to fall apart and you begin to blame external forces.

There are no external forces affecting us. The problem is our mindset. What is your mindset when you are about to start? That is something that we can change.

Other times we never start something because in our minds we do not think we are worthy of it or capable of it.

You have to realise your mind does not know the difference between reality and what is not real. Let me give an example. You are just sitting down having a nice time and all of a sudden you hear bad news. You know what happens when we hear  bad news? Everything changes, and we begin to cry or scream or feel sad. Your whole body, your whole mind, everything changes. What happened? It’s only that the news got to you!

2015 WMB Quote Aisha Yesufu

You don’t even know if what you just learned is true or not. Have you confirmed the bad news? Fact checked it yet? No! You just heard the news and that’s it. That’s the mind. It does not ask for confirmation whether the news is true or not, it goes into the mode it’s fed. That means your mind does not know the difference between truth and a lie. It is reactionary.

If you have continously been told you would amount to nothing all your life and you feed your mind that same notion, well, then, guess what? You may think this is true about yourself! You have to free yourself from the shackles of mental bondage.

You can always trick your mind. For example, you can tell your mind you are the greatest business person in the world. In fact you are at par with Dangote, a billionaire and businessman in my home country of Nigeria. Your mind doesn’t know whether it’s the truth, or not. It’s going to accept it, but the thing you need to do now is to begin to do what smart business people do. I listened to Dangote once on a live interview on TV sometime in 2001 or 2002, and he said he goes to work around 9am and doesn’t close before 9pm.

For me that was a wake up call. I had one of my “Aha!” moments then. When I first saw him I thought, “If only God will bless me the way he has blessed this man.” And when I heard he works 12 hours a day, for me, that was a wake up call.

If you trick your mind into thinking that you are among the ranks of the leaders, and you begin to work as they do, you may begin to set bigger goals for yourself. You can run with the best of them, but you have to BELIEVE it.

When you are trying something new with the mindset of negativity, it could impede your progress.  At that point, you may not want to even bother starting. It failed before it took off because it failed in your mind, if you did not have the right mindset. But I believe this thinking can be changed.

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World Mom, Aisha Yesufu, speaks out in Abuja on August 17, 2015 against anti-corruption in Nigeria.

Business and goal setting starts in your mind and you need a lot of patience. Business needs patience, patience and more patience. There is nothing like overnight success.

It’s a whole lot of hard work starting something new and having the right mindset. Persevering, focusing on what you are doing. Setting goals and moving on. This does not come easy, but I believe if you keep going that is what leads to that “overnight ” success that a lot of people see. Our mindset is very important and often times when you talk to people the mindset is just not positive. We are looking at our past and looking at who we were and not who we could be.

Where I grew up, we didn’t have anybody. We were born into less privileged homes. It didn’t matter. Whether you are a billionaire; the child of a billionaire; the child of struggling parents making ends meet or from a rich neighbourhood or the slums; it doesn’t really matter. It’s your mindset that matters and determines who you are at the end of the day.

If you don’t believe you are a star you can never be a star. If you don’t believe you are a success you can never be a success.
You can never be greater than your mind.

You have to set your mind higher. Give it goals. Give it targets. Give your mind something to work on. Trick yourself into thinking positively. It doesn’t know the difference between truth and a lie. Tell your mind a good lie.  “You are a big time business person.” “You are a billionaire.” “You are on Forbes list.”  Let your unconscious mind even when you are sleeping work on that.

WMB 2015 Achieve Your Goals

Our mindset is of such utmost importance and most often we neglect it. We don’t work on it. There is a need for us to work on our mindset to project ourself mentally where we want to be before we begin to work on that.
Some use Affirmation like repeating to yourself…

I AM THE GREATEST BUSINESS PERSON. I AM THE GREATEST TEACHER. I AM THE GREATEST ASTRONAUT. I AM THE GREATEST CHEF. I AM THE GREATEST POLITICAL LEADER. I AM THE GREATEST MUSICIAN. I AM THE GREATEST FRIEND. I AM THE GREATEST PEACEKEEPER. I AM THE GREATEST HUMANITARIAN.

You can keep saying that repeatedly so it becomes engraved in your mind. Whatever you want to be, you need to let your mind know.

Once you have a positive mindset and believe you CAN, you can start thinking about setting goals to achieve something in your heart. Something that you would ordinarily look at as impossible, but because of your mindset you don’t see the impossibility. You see the POSSIBILITY. You just strike out the ‘im’ and you move on.

Have a positive mindset. Believe you can do it. Why not you? Why can’t you achieve it? If people are achieving it why not you? The difference between the achiever and the non achiever is the MINDSET. Go get ’em, World Moms!

This is an original post to World Moms Blog by contributor Aisha Yesufu in Nigeria.

Photo credit of Aisha to the author. Images to World Moms Blog. 

GUEST POST: Caitlin Domanico of United We Feed #WorldMoms

GUEST POST: Caitlin Domanico of United We Feed #WorldMoms

Her feature on The Huffington Post is going viral, and her e-mail inbox is currently overflowing with media requests. Caitlin Domanico of “United We Feed” is a World Mom on a mission through photography to unite mothers in how we feed our babies. We look forward to following the journey she has launched as she continues to capture the diversity of mothers feeding their babies around the globe. We are excited to bring you her guest post on World Moms Blog today…  

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To the mom who is feeding her baby,

You decided how to feed your child long before they were ever born.

“I am going to breastfeed.”, you said. Or maybe you said, “Nursing is not for me, I will pump.”  Maybe neither of those were an option for you. Maybe formula was your milk of choice, or maybe, just maybe, your doctor informed you that it will be necessary to use a tube to help your child thrive.

I see you. I see you feeding your child every single day.

I see you feeding your child on very happy days, and on very sad days.

I see you feed while you sing and coo and gaze into your baby’s eyes.

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I see you feed while you are filled with pain and sorrow, as you try to find a smile through the tears.

You feed at first thing in the morning, you feed in the wee hours of the night while the rest of the world is sleeping.

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You feed while you are out to eat, and while you are on vacation.

When you are at work or at the store, you leave your baby with a loving caregiver and ensure they have enough to feed your little one.

One thing is very apparent while noticing you and your baby — the insurmountable amount of love that exists between you.

You smile and your baby smiles. You frown and your baby frowns.

Your baby holds your shirt, your hand, twirls your hair, and kicks her feet with joy and contentment.

Your baby loves you and you are smitten over him.

Maybe your bottle was filled with pumped milk, or maybe is filled with formula, but that doesn’t matter to me.

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Maybe your baby gets her milk from you while breastfeeding, or maybe she nuzzles in close and as her pump delivers milk directly into her stomach so that she can grow and develop, but either way, it doesn’t matter to me.

I know it matters to you, and it should.

Please don’t take that to mean I don’t care, and that I don’t respect your choices as a mother, because actually, it is quite the opposite.

I care.

I care about you as a mother.

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I care about your beautiful child.

I support and respect you, because you are a good mom. There are so many ways to be a good mom, and you are one of the best.

You see, I fed my first child with breast milk and formula, and now, six-years-later, she is a gem. We are close, so close that at times, I wonder how I ever lived without her.  She had both types of milk and she is absolutely lovely, just like your little one.  My second daughter only had breast milk, a decision she made when she refused a bottle. She is incredible, just like your little one. She loves her mama and takes every opportunity to snuggle in close, just like your little one. I know where you have been, because I had the cherished task of feeding my babies, too.

Motherhood is tough, and mommy guilt has worn-out it’s welcome here.

Tonight, when you hold your dear one close and feed them before bed, feel proud that you are apart of a community of women who love fiercely, protect feverishly, and support one another, no matter how they choose to feed their babies!

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xoxo,

United We Feed

About the Author: 

Caitlin Domanico grew up in Bucks County, Pennsylvania on a small horse farm.  Now a mother of two, Ava (6) and Genevieve (nearly 2), Caitlin resides in Montgomery County with her daughters and her husband.  She operates a photography studio in the center of her town, where she focuses on capturing families and specifically, documenting motherhood.  During the week, Caitlin can be found having dance parties with her daughters, photographing families, or part-time teaching as a special education teacher in birth-3 services. Caitlin’s photo series “United We Feed” had gained international recognition for empowering and uniting women and the many ways they nourish their babies. For more photos head to her photography site

Photo credits to Caitlin Domanico. This has been an original guest post to World Moms Blog from Pennsylvania, USA. 

World Moms Blog

World Moms Blog is an award winning website which writes from over 30 countries on the topics of motherhood, culture, human rights and social good. Over 70 international contributors share their stories from around the globe, bonded by the common thread of motherhood and wanting a better world for their children. World Moms Blog was listed by Forbes Woman as one of the "Best 100 Websites for Women 2012 & 2013" and also called a "must read" by the NY Times Motherlode in 2013. Our Senior Editor in India, Purnima Ramakrishnan, was awarded the BlogHer International Activist Award in 2013.

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Travel Itinerary for the Week of April 18th!

Join us in the Pacific Northwest of the USA on Monday with writer, Tara B. from Seattle on Monday!

Tara’s son has “the gift of gab”, and she often hears herself through her son’s words.  Be sure to check out her top 5 “kid comebacks” in her post this week, “The Comeback Kid.”

Tuesday, we fly east to Cape Cod, Massachusetts to hear from Courtney Cappallo! She asks, have you packed a “Go-bag” for your family to have handy in a disaster situation?

In light of recent world natural disasters, Courtney takes us through what she has packed for her family in her “Go-bag” in her post, “The Bare Necessities.”

Wednesday, we head south to Arkansas, USA, where Margie Bryant takes time from her busy parenting and student schedule to tell us about life in the deep south!

Get your passports out on Thursday and fly with us to Chennai, India, where we meet up with writer, Fire Crystals!  **This is truly a “Wow!” post.**  She writes about fertility treatment in India in the 1920s and her great-grandmother’s undying persistence to conceive a child, Fire Crystal’s own grandfather.  An inspiring read for all mothers, and also one to forward to that good friend going through fertility treatment.

And, be sure to chime in with our writers on Friday for this week’s Friday Question presented by Eva Fannon at the end of the week.

In news, we have added Malaysia to the blog — welcome Alison!  We’re soon to be writing from 11 countries!  Thank you to our readers and writers who have been helping us spread the word about World Moms Blog!

We also hit a 200+ fan milestone on Facebook.  We love our fans!  Do you want to help us inspire and unite more mothers around the globe? If so…

Share your favorite WMB posts on your Facebook Page and tell your friends all about us!

Our writers would be thrilled if you did!  Thank you!

— World Moms Blog

Our World Moms Blog logo was designed by the creative Erica Joyner Designs in Virginia, USA.

World Moms Blog

World Moms Blog is an award winning website which writes from over 30 countries on the topics of motherhood, culture, human rights and social good. Over 70 international contributors share their stories from around the globe, bonded by the common thread of motherhood and wanting a better world for their children. World Moms Blog was listed by Forbes Woman as one of the "Best 100 Websites for Women 2012 & 2013" and also called a "must read" by the NY Times Motherlode in 2013. Our Senior Editor in India, Purnima Ramakrishnan, was awarded the BlogHer International Activist Award in 2013.

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