Sigh.
I need to get closer to God.
You’re probably thinking to yourself from what we see of my life on social media, “you seem to have a pretty good relationship with God, you are passionate about serving God and things like that.”
But I don’t know, I guess that’s part of the relationship with God, right?
It’s always having a thirst for wanting to have more of Him and be more with Him, like Him and all that stuff.
So yeah, I wish, okay not wish, but I want to be closer to God. Yeah, random but not random thought.

At what point do I give my followers of my content a name? Not like Instagram followers, or you know how people name themselves, mostly like BBNaija people always have a name for their people like Titans or whatever, but I don’t know.
Some of you’ve been rocking with me since 2013, that’s 11 years, I feel like should we have a name?!

Anyways, welcome to this week’s edition of Words of Wednesday there is a lot to share with you all and I’m glad that I get to share with you all. I have two main guy friend groups. In one of the groups there is 9 of us. We actually call ourselves the Nifty Nine, and in the height of the pandemic we used to have monthly check-in calls but as the world went back to normal or close to normal that tailed off a bit.
A couple weeks ago, I hosted another session for us to spend time to catch up, talk and things like that. 7 out of the 9 of us were present and you know, we had to discuss a bunch of different things. I think something that stood out to me was when one of my friends in the group, rightfully so, shared some feedback about relationships as he’s getting older and doesn’t want to feel like he is always chasing after people and things like that and I thought it was very apt but it got me thinking about intentionality. It got me thinking about adult relationships and how one of the main pillars that helps relationships grow is being intentional.
Being intentional to show love, to show care, being intentional to afford grace, being intentional to not hold grudges, to forgive, being intentional to have the best intentions, to believe that people have the best intentions. So I ask you today, how are you intentionally showing the people you love around you, that you love them?

Now the reason why I asked that question is it’s very easy to just be your natural self, and by virtue of that, people feel your love or feel the love that is in your heart. But I’ve noticed that as you get older, busier, more distracted, if you’re not intentional with taking those steps to make those people feel seen or loved by you, they just simply won’t, or sometimes you will miss the mark. So intentionality in how you love yourself is important but being intentional in how you love the people that you love is also significantly important.

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For many of you currently reading this, you are probably a new follower or just came because you saw my reel.
First of fursttttt, welcome!
You truly will like it here – the best way I can describe this space is that it is a place for me to share my most authentic thoughts. I realized years ago that I had a gift for writing – thank you God and mummy but yeah – I’ll periodically write down my thoughts and share here.
Think of my speaking videos but in long form and more depth.

So I went viral last week – this time last week. One of my reels blew up.
At the time of posting this, that reel is at 4.9million views!
Like huh?
I have gotten almost 15,000 new followers in less than a week. Like huh?????
If you had asked me when I was posting the video if I would have been happy with 5K views and 100 comments, I would have been so happy but we plan and God laughs.
The content in the reel is nothing new, I didn’t edit differently but God did.
The impact it has had on people has been truly phenomenal. And I am grateful.

One thing I want to flag though is how the devil can try to steal your joy.
As the reel went viral, I started to feel shy. Like I had overshared.
As I said in the caption, the story was something that only a handful of people knew. And now almost 2million people know as well. I considered pulling the reel down but I was led to keep it up.
I will leave you with this quote I came up with yesterday.

I guess the Sunshine people have been calling me is finally reaching wider than I can imagine.
As part of being here – you are now part of my family. So let’s enjoy the ride together, we will grow even more – so to my Day 1’s and Day-April2024 people, let’s go!
Here’s my linktree to all of my accounts and playlists. Enjoy and for the playlists, please spread it and share the love of God and music.
Links: https://linktr.ee/adewus4real

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This year, so far, as you’ve wrapped up Q1, it has already been a very expensive year.
Did I know that it was going to be expensive?
Absolutely!
Earlier today, I was being critical of myself because currently my savings are at the lowest they’ve been since maybe two or three years now. Like early pandemic.
As many of you who have been following me for a long time know I try to live a very cash-based life and as many of you who know and who have been following me, you know that I just recently moved to a new city, and it’s been expensive.
Moving is expensive, moving across country is expensive, getting your own place is expensive. I had a roommate since I moved out of my parents house in 2009, and I finally just moved into my very first solo place in 2024, before some of you start squeezing your face the Bay Area is extremely expensive, California is extremely expensive.
It’s very possible for you to be able to afford your own place, but also it can be very draining on your pocket if you have intentions of saving or things like that. I’m happy to be in this new place, my new place is absolutely gorgeous. For those of you that I know and those of you that I love hopefully, you get a chance to visit soon and experience the warmth and homeliness that I have worked very hard to create so far.

Yeah, moving is expensive, and especially if you’re trying to live a very cash-based life. I try to shy away from my credit cards, I have now gotten to a place where I have them again, like I have a few, I have some that are rewards cards, some that are travel cards.
Its been expensive.
Back to being kind to myself, as I was thinking about what’s in my account. I started to think about the big expenses that I have paid this year – you know, my couch, my TVs (I have one in my room and one in my living room), my car had an issue that I had to pay for earlier.
About a month ago, I totaled all those things and I thought to myself, “Wow, I already spent that much this year.” and I’m still in a good place, not the best place that I want to be, but I’m still in a good place, and that was comforting on one hand.

The lesson that I want to flag here is in two parts.
One is track everything, I tracked how much all my expenses were in my old place, and I’m also tracking what my expenses are in my new place and I am keeping a close eye on what I’m spending and the journey there. It’s important, I guess if you add a third element, so the first one is write everything down and track it. The second is make sure that the data you’re writing tells a story.
If, for example, in Q1 you spent $20,000, tell the story of what that $20,000 is.
You’re not a wasteful person who just splurges or buys designer clothes, and things like that. Maybe it was paying off the balance on your father’s car, or maybe it was moving to a new city, maybe it was paying a medical bill, maybe it was supporting a friend. Document that so you can track those things going forward. And then the third thing I will say is put yourself on a budget. I’ve put myself on a budget for the last two weeks.
When I first started taking care of my financial journey back in 2018, I put myself on a $50 a week budget. That $50 budget was for everything outside of groceries and gas. So, if it was a birthday dinner, if it was going to the movies, it had to all be within that $50.
Things were a lot cheaper back then, movies, I think they were $5 per person, gas was $2.79 per gallon in California at the time.

So, by the grace of God my income has significantly increased since 2018 and I put myself on a $100 budget. I’m proud to report that, two weeks in, by the time you will be reading this, which is Wednesday or beyond, I have kept to that budget for the last couple of weeks. And I’ve felt good about it, not only has it helped with in terms of like of spending, but it made me feel good about myself, about my discipline, and my ability to stay on task. So, track everything, make sure your data tells the story, and thirdly, put yourself on a budget – be disciplined.

Moving to a new place comes with new opportunities, comes with new experience, try new things. I want to tell you all a story.
I absolutely love spaghetti, it’s one of the meals that I will not cut corners on, I don’t portion control spaghetti. I love spaghetti and I make bomb spaghetti sauce, if you’ve had it before you will know.
When I moved, I thought that the company that I buy my spaghetti from would have a location where I would be able to buy here in my new state. Unfortunately, since I’ve gotten here, I’ve checked online and nobody sells it here. I was to the point where I wanted to order it from California and ship it to this new state, or go to Dallas, Texas, which is hours away from me, to see if I could pick it up, buy a box and bring it back, this is because I just knew what I liked and I wanted that.
Then, suddenly, I went to Whole Foods and I saw a particular brand of spaghetti and I said, “You know what, let me just try it.” And I tried it, and it turns out that I actually like it better than the one that I initially was looking to ship to myself. And it got me thinking, what are some of those things that you were stuck on that you’re not allowing yourself to experience newness because you’re so used to the things that you’ve had before, right? I think that it’s important to allow yourself to experience things, and allow yourself to feel different elements and feel different things because it will give you that opportunity to enjoy new things or at the very least, it will expose you to what you may not like or want for yourself.

Yeah, I thought that it will be important to share that with you all, as you go in through your week, make sure that you are allowing yourself to experience new things because they will bring opportunities that you probably did not know that you’ll experience or enjoy.

I’ll stop here for this week. I am very tired, but I’m very excited. I’m also intending to challenge myself to give you guys something that I have been holding for a few years, so hopefully check back again this Saturday, and hopefully I have more information for you all.
Till then, take care of yourself.

I absolutely, absolutely love you all, I’m filled with such gratitude that you all get to spend this time with me and learn about me and from each other and if there’s one thing you can do for me after you read this. Please leave me a comment, tell me what you’re thinking, tell me what you’re feeling. Let me ask you a question, and maybe you can comment at the bottom of this post, or you can send it to me via Instagram or Twitter since I’m never calling it X.

My question would be, “what is one new thing that you want to try in the next month since April just started? What is something you want to try in the month of April?”
Comment it down so you can be held accountable or send it to me so I can hold you accountable and join you in accountability. Until then, stay up, take care of yourself.
I absolutely love you all, talk to you soon.

Comment, repost and share. Thank you for your continued support.
You are highly appreciated.

#WordsOfWednesday

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