Author: Jane Nannono

GOING OUT ON A HIGH NOTE

This post was first published in 2017 and was updated on 11 August 2024

Image by William Warby from London, England, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

30-year-old Usain Bolt, the Jamaican sprinter, is a 9-time Olympic gold medalist who shot into Olympic lore when he won 3 gold medals at the Olympics in Beijing, 2008. He is the fastest man in the world deserving of the nickname Lightning Bolt.

 I for one have always been fascinated by the Olympics and World championships since my teenage years. From the highs of  John Akii Bua’s gold medal, the first  for Uganda in the 400m hurdles in 1972 to  the scandal when Ben Johnson of Canada left the Seoul Olympics (1988) in disgrace-after testing positive for anabolic steroids following his gold medal in the 100m dash, the Olympics are an unparalleled showcase of excellence and human endeavor.  It has been a great joy and fun to watch Usain Bolt reinvent himself every year and keep challenging himself without using performance enhancing drugs. 

From the onset, Bolt identified his strengths and defined his image  that he projected to the world, then he committed fully to his authentic image and made the statement as the greatest athlete of all time. Every time he stepped on the field to compete, he  carried himself with dignity and respect thus teaching us how to treat him. He owned his image, loved it and lived it. Who can forget how he worked up the London crowd during the 2012 Olympics after winning the 100 metre race?! He covered himself with the Jamaican flag and ran around the stadium greeting his fans! No wonder the people of Jamaica adore him and consider him among the best representatives of their country. On the track, he demonstrated incredible skills, traits, abilities  and strived to play by the rules. He set himself apart from every other athlete and could never be confused with any of them.He declared to us that he was the fastest man in the world and proved it. He had become such an essential part of the Olympics and World championships and since his retirement , we continue to miss him until someone steps up to follow in his footsteps.

He was bold enough to say : “I’m the best.  I’m the fastest man alive. I’m now a legend.’’

I was inspired to write this post mainly out of my admiration of him as one of the all time greats but at the same time for his humility that allowed him to know when to quit the game.

According to the Institute of Biomedical Research and Sports Epidemiology; the peak age performance for athletes in track and field events is 26.1. For the 100 metre race, it is 25.4 for men and 26.6 for women. In such a high-powered activity, no one gets better with age. Bolt holds the world record both in 100 metres dash (9.58secs of 2009) and 200 metre race (19.19 secs of 2009)  and chose to give himself the 2017  IAAF World Championships in London as his final challenge. He had hoped to go out on a high note by breaking his own 100 metre record.   In a highly charged atmosphere, the unexpected happened: Usain Bolt followed behind Christian Coleman (USA) and Justin Gatlin(USA) , the only person who had beaten him twice before. Justin Gatlin had been banned twice for doping and returned with a big bang. The irony was that as Bolt bowed out, Gatlin staged a comeback.

Like all his fans, I very much wanted Bolt to win one more time. 

 After all,we are always being advised to leave the stage when the audience is still applauding.

Some inspiring quotes by Usain Bolt:

“ Stop waiting for things to happen. Go out and make them happen.’’

“To all my doubters, thank you very much because you also pushed me.’’

“The difference between the impossible and possible lies in determination.’’

Yes, Usain Bolt, you took the games to another level; you made them exciting and made people want to watch them . Most importantly, you have inspired and demonstrated to the young that each one has something great inside her or him and has the responsibility to develop it fully for their own good and for the good of others. You set out to be recognized among the greats like Mohammed Ali and Pele and you achieved it.  I cannot wait to see you channel that deep passion, energy and determination into something else.

Fast Forward to August 2024.

The doctor in me has forced me to follow up Usain Bolt’s life after he hung up his sports shoes at the  London  IAFF World Championships of 2017. He had bagged a bronze medal in the 100m men’s race but still retired as the track legend and the wealthiest sportsman in track and field. He was 31 years of age. Since the age of 16, he has enjoyed sponsorship by PUMA, the sportswear company. Usain Bolt has made PUMA a lot of money by his iconic status while he is paid a minimum of $ 10 m per a season, with another $10m added for the start of 2017 World Championship.

 Life after a high profile sports career.

Available information indicates that his coach had wanted him to stage a comeback but knowing himself better , Usain, never did. He instead had a short stint at his favourite game, football till 2019.

After his retirement in 2017, he continued to collect $ 4m per year as PUMA’s brand ambassador. He also signed endorsement deals with other brands like VISA. His charisma and larger-than life personality draws large audiences whenever he appears at any event. He earns large appearance fees at any event.

Virtual appearances are the lowest while athletic appearances range from$ 200,000-400000.

He has a management team that maximizes his earning potential as the man with the most unmatched athletic performance worldwide.

He is engaged in business and some philanthropic efforts.

In his personal life, he started a family with his girlfriend of over a decade: Kasi Bennet.

They had their first child, a daughter, in 2020 followed by twin sons in 2021. He is committed and focused on being a hands-on head of the family and hands-on father.

He tries to live a normal life though his fame throws him some restrictions.

As for the 33^rd  Summer Olympics that started in Paris on the 26^th July and ending on the 11^th August 2024, the sports fans are on a daily high as surprises keep rolling in.

Noah Lyles won gold in the 100m event in 9.784 seconds and Letsile Tebogo from my second country, Botswana, won gold in the 200 m event in 19.46 seconds , setting an African record. This was Botswana’s first gold medal at the Olympics so it was not surprising at all when the President of this country, known for its high quality diamonds, declared Friday a half- holiday to celebrate the success.

Usain Bolt’s world records (of 9.58 seconds in the 100m event and 19.19 seconds for the 200m event are unbroken, proving that Usain Bolt remains the fastest man in history.

As a Ugandan, I screamed with delight when Joshua Cheptegei won gold in the men’s 10000m event and Peruth Chemutai bagged silver in the women’s 3000 m steeplechase.

One last quote from Lightning Bolt:

“ I know what I can do so it doesn’t bother me what other people think or their opinion about situations.’’

No wonder the self-belief, discipline, determination, hard work, resilience and adaptability that turned a 

16-year-old Jamaican boy into a world athletic icon, still guide him into being his own man.

QUESTION:

There is always life after a career, however simple. Has Usain Bolt’s resilience and adaptability to life after a high profile career helped you find strength in managing change and embracing new challenges?

Has it given you some ideas on how to turn your personality into influence and inspiration?

Watching my nonagenarian mother lose most of the people she has known intimately has humbled me and made me think seriously about what is considered old and familiar and how it affects all aspects of our lives.

Familiar people and things are less threatening and reduce the amount of effort put in interpreting things in our surroundings. Naturally, mere exposure to people and things endows us with familiarity which itself makes us comfortable.

By observing my mother, myself , my eldest son , our thirty year old helper, and my grandchild who has just turned three years old, I would say that the old and familiar may have a few constant elements like family but as one grows and gets exposed to different people, things and products, the strength of the sense of familiarity becomes  variable. Exposure affects our choices, attitudes and behaviour.

At ninety-three, my mother still clings to the old and familiar.  Inevitably, she has lost most of her relatives, peers and friends. She is very much aware that she could be the next one in the firing line. She has never come to terms with the death of two of her children including the youngest.

Her eyes light up and she speaks with an excited tone when she is in the company of her children, grandchildren and some people she has known for a long time, irrespective of their age. At that moment in time, she is less tense and can crack a few jokes and laugh heartily. When unfamiliar faces surround her, she becomes agitated and at times she just withdraws into her shell.

The passage of time and the technology wave of the time has made the familiar unfamiliar to her.

 In a world transformed in many ways including traditional things like how people dress at weddings and the huge entourages at the Introduction ceremonies, she cannot understand how a groom in a suit wears trainers at his wedding!

“What happened to a fine and soft pair of leather shoes?’’ she keeps asking.

Three months ago, the helper who had lived with us for four years left us to try her hand at self-employment. The cost of her four children’s school requirements had gone through the roof.

The new one, almost thirty, has two children whom she has entrusted to her mother. She comes from a rural area in the central region of Uganda about 150 kilometres west of the capital city. She could not go beyond primary seven after the loss of her father. Her prospects were capped by an unintended teenage pregnancy.

For her, the old and familiar was growing staple foods in her mother’s small garden, collecting water from the village well, using a kerosene lantern for light at night. In her small village, everyone knows everyone and almost every adult has a basic phone.

She found herself in a gated big house with her own room, drawing water from a tap and using a flushing toilet, using electricity for lighting while cooking on a gas cooker. 

She was utterly overwhelmed by the new people, the routine and use of domestic utensils like an electric kettle and microwave.

My mother initially considered her too young to take good care of her.

Three months down the line, spending time with each other has opened them up.  The helper has shown genuine interest in my mother as a grandmother. I would say that one familiar thing that has significantly joined them together is their Catholic faith. They pray together and listen to radio programmes on Radio Maria on my mother’s old radio. On Sundays, they are both glued to the TV for the 10 am Lubaga Cathedral church service. Gradually, my mother trusts her enough to do more things for her; she tells her of her complaints and the helper is patient with her. A great affinity has developed between the two. Mama is less stressed and easier to handle. The parish priest outreach prayer committee arranges with the helper when to visit them.

“Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.’’ Stephen Hawking

I for one, a senior citizen, I am forced by circumstances to sober up fast.  Since the COVID-19 pandemic, familiar faces are disappearing at a rapid rate.  My friendship circle is shrinking fast!

Things that I used to take for granted like time, are now limited and very precious to me.

Sometimes I find it necessary to recreate the good times by gathering childhood friends for a glass of wine to reminisce about the past, laughing at all the crazy things we used to do.

At the same time, I have to learn fast as new technology disrupts old ways of doing things including computer systems programmed to learn and work as humans – Artificial Intelligence.

In a noisy and busy world, the familiar is quickly disappearing as technology runs most aspects of our lives and keeps changing. Staying closer to earth has become a challenge.

“To master a new technology, you have to play with it.’’ – Jordan Peterson

My eldest son is in his early forties, a millennial, and cannot imagine a world without the Internet and computers. The internet shrunk the world into a global village and made it highly competitive.

  “ Man cannot discover new oceans until he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.’’- Andrew Gide.

 In this fast-paced global village; things are changing rapidly by new advances in science and technology, keeping his generation vigilant. In today’s workplaces, there are apparently no more permanent jobs!

To remain relevant and useful in this highly connected world, he has to keep exposing himself to new skills, knowledge, new experiences and connect with diverse people to become more open-minded.  To his generation, sticking to the old and familiar is a disadvantage. The high rate of unemployment in the country demands that he keeps improving himself to increase his chances of employment either in the public or private sector. His generation and those following them have almost all that they need to function on a smartphone or laptop. This instant-solution- generation is living in the online world. An environment of this nature results in daily stress and inevitable challenges that affect their overall health.

 The psychologists advise these young generations to stay grounded in reality by cultivating these basic essential soft skills:

• Self-awareness- having a firm sense of self, being centred and connected to the present. Aware of your thoughts and emotions and physical sensations without being carried away by them.
• Emotional resilience-having a resilient emotional state and positive attitude and recovering quickly from negative exposures.
• Having a balanced perspective- grounded in reality. It enables you to remain mentally and emotionally self-aware.

These soft skills enable the youth to approach life with a sense of purpose.

The psychologists also highly recommend that in this fast-paced work environment demanding for high productivity, beating deadlines and achieving great expectations, workers, especially new recruits, have to be helped to develop mental resilience. To enhance their well-being, their mental health has to be addressed and improved. They should be provided with the tools they need to live their best possible lives.

 A supportive environment should be created to enable them to act within their values, maintain healthy boundaries and open up to different perspectives and seek the truth and understanding other than cling to rigid beliefs.

For my three-year- old granddaughter, the old and familiar simply means her mother’s warmth and smell: Kangaroo pouch-like, her mother’s voice and a ride on top of her father’s shoulders and her laughter as he bathes her. Interestingly, the digital technology craze is slowly creeping into her life through her toys, children’s online games and both her parents’ smartphones and laptops. The exposure keeps growing by the day!

 As we go through life, change is all around us. In this 21^st century driven by science and technology, learning to adapt to changes is key to our overall well- being. It requires creativity, teamwork, time management and adaptability. No wonder my mother’s and my own “old and familiar’’ is slowly fading into the unfamiliar!

“ Good, bad or indifferent, if you are not investing in new technology , you are going to be left behind.’’- Phillip Green

“ Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.’’– Anais Nin“

QUESTION:

Do you realise that we all find comfort in the familiar and that mere exposure makes things familiar and that familiarity impacts our decision-making process?

Those working in the advertising world know better than any of us that complex and sometimes multiple ideas can be conveyed by a single still image. A simple image  can bring out character, emotion and colour into the message we want to convey.

“ A picture is worth a thousand words.’’– Fred . R.  Barnard advertising executive.

Human beings have five primary senses namely sight, sound, smell , taste and touch. We use these five senses to collect information about our environment and send them to our brains for interpretation. This serves one main purpose – enabling us to survive in our environment. Sight is our dominant sense while hearing is the most sensitive. About 80% of what we learn from the world around us is due to perception, learning, cognition and activities are mediated through vision. A child learns from those around her/him mainly by observing, listening and imitating.

In today’s world of consumerism, manufacturers and service providers have to compete to capture our attention. They study our behaviour then target us with well designed, clear messages and bold colours. They do this consistently to increase our awareness about the products and services- influencing our behaviour and creating familiarity. Living in this era of digital marketing and online advertising, outdoor advertising like use of billboards, banners and signs usually in public areas are still very effective in capturing people’s attention and conveying the intended message aiming at motivating consumers to take the intended action.

Writers are being constantly reminded to write with brevity- brief, simple and concise. Be objective and focused; avoiding verbal clutter. Practice a bit of “Kiss: keep it Short and Simple.

“If It is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out .’’– George Orwell

In this post, I have  decided  to express my thoughts loudly throug some photographs from my collection.

Nature:

SUNRISE OVER  the Atlantic ocean in Cape Town , South Africa.

Table Mountain overlooking a calm ocean

Midmorning  by Lake Nalubaale.

TIME CHANGES US:

Maama at her best.

 Seasons change

Harsh winter is usually followed by a glorious Spring. 

There is a Time for Everything

A time to sow and the time to harvest.

Last but not least, let me briefly talk about two important elements that affect how we navigate the ever changing Digital world.

Working online or offline is the order of the day in this Digital era. Nearly every online activity leaves some form of digital trace: digital footprint. This data is stored by third-party services and is relatively permanent. It includes website visits searches ran, social media posts , comments or any other interaction. It can reveal a lot of personal information about you. Once data is made public or semi-public the owner has very little control over how it can be used. it can be abused. It can be used to distort or destroy your reputation, relationships and employment opportunities both negatively and positively. We are advised to minimise our Digital footprints.

http://www.keeper security.com advises us to reduce information publically available about ourselves. Among the actions that we are advised to take to limit data that is left behind after working online are:

• Use tighter privacy settings
• Use strong passwords
• Delete accounts
• Delete social media accounts
• Limit your online accounts.
• Always to update your software. Not updating the software for your computer or mobile phone increases their risk for a cyberattack.
• Restrict mobile app permissions.

While trying to protect and reduce our Digital footprints, we have also to prepare ourselves for both the potential of positive and negative effects of Artificial Intelligence ( AI).

Computer scientists have long been in the quest to  develop machines that control the world- machines that can see, read and at least appear to think. This is what is called Artificial Intelligence(AI). AI is gradually empowering people in a myriad ways. It has the potential to make the world  a better place like increasing the access to education and health care  but at the same time , it has the potential to be grossly abused if not well regulated worldwide.

We have to brace ourselves to accept and work with AI experiences. As of now, Computing power can be used in many things like : 

AI can write anything for you.

It can outperform  many humans

AI can generate photographs, videos- creating pictures of events that have never happened. It can generate made- believe photos and videos.

This potential comes with new challenges as well as opportunities.

We live in a world that changes so quickly; knowledge changing fast. AI

  is here to stay and demands that we minimise its potential for abuse worldwide immediately.

www.linkedin.com.  The largest  professional network on the internet

 suggests the following actions:

1. All countries should establish clear legal frameworks that foster responsible AI practises.
2.  Promote education and awareness and encourage international co-operation in a manner that benefits society while safeguarding human values and interests.
3. Label synthetic AI generated content to distinguish it from human –created content. It has the ability to mislead and misinform thus threatening both individual  and democratic institutions at large.

In today’s fast-changing Digital world; flooded with information and an  explosion of video content, the mantra of “ less is more’’ defines effectiveness. Research has shown that the average human span is low: around 8 seconds. It is now a daunting task to capture and retain viwers’ attention. The viewers need concise, focused simple message: easy to understand and remember.

Both writers and content producers have this daunting task to deliver the message quickly and effectively.

“ Transformation is not a future event ; it’s a present activity.’’- Jillian Michaels

QUESTION: How are you navigating the digital transformation for your development and success in a rapidly evolving digital landscape?