Yesterday I tweeted that one thing I was thankful for was my upcoming trip to Toronto (a city about five hours away from me) to see Oprah (and Bishop TD Jakes, Iyanla Vanzant, Tony Robbins and Deepak Chopra). I’m so excited!!

Last year, I mentioned that one of the things I was looking forward to in 2011 was the launch of the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) in Canada. Even though the network isn’t doing as well as hoped, there are definitely some shows worth watching (Lifeclass, the Lifeclass Tour, and Master Class), shows that I think can inspire you to change your life. I also shared a bit about my history with the Oprah Winfrey Show and from people’s comments on that post and also in general, Oprah’s the type of person that people either love or don’t really care for.

My colleague and I tried so hard last year to win a spot in the audience of her show during its last season because that would have been a great bucket list item (not that I have a bucket list, mind you). I thought it would be cool to sit in her audience, feel some of that charisma she has, and maybe even get some insight into how she became such a powerful and driven woman. We didn’t succeed in getting tickets so we contented ourselves with watching her Lifeclass series when it began airing last October and my friend and I were hooked. I bought a notebook to take notes about each episode because I was certain that if I paid attention to the lessons, I would learn one or two things that would help propel me to greatness.

When the Lifeclass episodes stopped airing last November, I wanted to watch them all over again because they’re the kind of thing that you really have to hear more than once for all the deep messages to sink in. Also, I wasn’t able to get all the notes that I wanted down (thankfully they’re now doing reruns on OWN). But then we heard that the second season of Lifeclass was being called the Lifeclass Tour and Oprah would be traveling around the USA sharing some of the lessons from the first season that people wanted more information about. Once again there was an opportunity to win your way into her audience, so I tried to get into the New York City session without success. But then at the end of February I got an email saying she’d be coming to Toronto in April—it would be her first trip to Canada (if I’m not mistaken)! My Oprah-loving colleague was in my office when I read that email so I told her about it and she said we had to go! I’m very thrifty (or is that cheap?) so when I discovered the cheapest tickets had sold out within two hours of the show being announced by email, I was not happy at the thought of paying for the second cheapest tickets. But then I put the cost in perspective to past wasteful spending and decided it was worth it! My friend and I bought our tickets and now in a few short days we’ll be in Toronto! The show will actually be taped live so if our seats aren’t too far back we may actually become overnight celebrities too (jokes!).

Will our lives be forever changed as a result of this trip? Maybe not, but I’m learning so much from the Lifeclass Tour and I know this information is sinking in, even if I don’t act on it for years to come. The videos are actually available online so if you’re interested, check them out:

1. March 26, 2012: Stopping the Pain (with Iyanla Vanzant)
2. April 2, 2012: Living Fearlessly (with Tony Robbins)—I mentioned this one just the other day.
3. April 9, 2012: Living with Purpose (my favourite episode so far!!) (with Bishop TD Jakes)

Have you ever gone to see someone you admire live (Ginger got to meet Chimamanda Adichie–so cool!)? Who would you love to meet in person to pick their brain?

I came across the above quote this past weekend, and I shared it with my sister and we kind of had a “A hah!” moment. It came to me again so I put it on twitter too. It’s a cautionary tale: if you’re not careful you could end up being someone who helps others achieve their goals without ever accomplishing your own! It isn’t a bad thing to help others but when you’d rather help others because it’s easier than trying to help yourself, that’s not good.

I can relate to this: I have dreams of my own, but the path to achieve them is not easy so I procrastinate and instead focus on what I can do to help others with their dreams. My friend and I are both planning to launch websites this year. My friend is a motivated person who lists her goals and works consistently and methodically to cross each goal off her list. I make partial lists of goals and procrastinate on doing every single thing on the (incomplete) list. When I realized that my friend had a plan and knew what she wanted, I happily offered my skills where I felt they could be used, and appreciated that she respected me enough to seek my input. I helped her do things for her own site that I haven’t made the time to do for my site, but it’s easy to help someone who knows what they want and where they’re going, unlike me.

My friend has been apologetic for asking for help (which is silly because I love providing the assistance and am totally inspired by her work and her plans!) because she knows I have these issues of procrastination and laziness. I guess part of me feels like as long as I’m working on goals, even someone else’s, then it’s ok, but this quote forces me to remember that it’s not.

So, it’s time to create balance: I don’t have to change the time I spending helping others, because I’m no Mother Teresa who gives and gives and gives, but I do have to stop putting my goals on the back-burner because dealing with them is harder than I want them to be. This is a generalization but my struggles with procrastination sometimes make me question my “Nigerianness” because to me, Nigerians are goal makers and goal achievers! I want to be one too!

Happy New Year! Thank God we made it to 2012. It’s easy to forget that not everyone who was looking forward to this year will get to experience it so I already feel blessed. I hope you’re thankful for your life and excited about a fresh new year and all that can be accomplished in it.

On the topic of accomplishments, I looked over the list of things I shared that I was looking forward to in 2011 and how disappointing: I only accomplished one item on the list! People who set goals and actually accomplish them intrigue me (and make me envious of them, quite frankly!) so I need to master the art of goal setting (and accomplishing). One big thing I fail to do is regularly review my goals to make sure I’m on track (and adjust them if necessary). Once I’ve completed my list of goals for 2012 I plan to set monthly (and maybe more frequent) reminders on my phone remind me to revisit the goals.

My blogging goals so far are:

• blog at least twice per week
• post more pictures with my entries
• redesign the site
• cut down the number of categories I have for this blog (36 the last time I checked–way too many!)
• incorporate All the single ladies unite! into this blog (I think)

What goals (blogging or otherwise) have you set for yourself this year? Please share!