A day of Optimism

True inspiration comes when you surround yourself with optimistic people. I’m honored to be among the fifteen fellows here at the D&F academy in Hamburg on the sports coaching fellowship. It’s now exactly two months before we leave to our home countries and I remember vividly when I arrived on the 16th April 2012 I had no friends or family member in Hamburg and the only thing that I knew was to stay in Germany and participate in the fellowship program which the  milestones were clear for the next 10 weeks which was communicated to me before. I was very expectant of many things with a lot of worries in mind if what I read was really going to be true and this is a normal feeling I guess many people have when they travel to a place for the first time and to make it even worse no one knows you.

I’m very confident and happy now to share my feelings of optimism after all that I have learned from my co-fellows, D&F staff and experts. One of the greatest things I will leave with back home is a clear road map of my dream project which I was able to think through together with my colleagues and D&F team who helped me clear the mist ahead and see myself succeeding no matter what challenges I might face.

I arrived with a forest of ideas and for me to get a clear way through my project, D&F academy offered me the best learning environment that I didn’t have a chance to experience before considering my background. This experience makes me even feel inspired with a lot confidence in solving the puzzles that I will face when I’m back home be it organizational or  life in general. In my bag pack back home I have good memories  from day one till the last days to come and now I have a big family in Hamburg who believes in me and my project that instill the feeling of courage to stay on the course to discover my potentials even further.

I love the adage “A picture is worth a thousand words” my experience here in Hamburg especially on the two optimism days could neither be captured on pictures or even words and that is why my new version of the adage is “It feels different if you smell or taste the food”  This is a metaphor meaning in this context when you experience an event real time it is quite different when you watch it on TV or get story narration from the third party. One of my best times in Hamburg I would say is optimism day and the visit to Dedon company even though all the days I learned something special either from people around me, sports project activities and generally all the environment I have been to.

 So for one to succeed in life many of  the things I have learned are;

• Be optimistic in life!
• Smile and believe in yourself.
•  Surround yourself with optimistic people and people who believes in you.
• Take every moment as a learning point.
• Don’t expect everyone to say YES also try to understand and learn why others said NO.
• Embrace diversity!
• Don’t be selfish pass on the knowledge to the next generation.
• Change starts with you so think possibilities and be positive.
• See opportunities in difficult situations.

I hope these few notes will help you even become optimistic in life, I have realized that the first thing I have done today is to wake up early before everyone else and write this article. I’m really inspired by my good experiences at D&F academy

Adrienne Morgan founder of http://www.morgan-hammond.de & musician, Wilson Masaka and Oya Ogurcu board member at D&F and Interior designer http://www.odesign.com.tr

Long live D&F !

Article by Wilson Masaka ( Founder of  Wilsen Initiative)

D&F fellow – Hamburg, Germany