Know Yourself Embrace Your You Print

[Music]

[Music]

teme

nosse now why would a jamaican teenager

be familiar with this phrase

it was not her school motto that was

labor omnia winkett

labor conquers all temet nosse

means know yourself and that was what

this jamaican teenager’s mother’s

motto was for her and she told her that

every time she complained about not

being liked

you see i was that jamaican teenager

and my mother knew that the single most

important thing i could ever do in my

life

was to know myself by knowing myself

it would put me in a position of power

not just in life but also in business

it would free me of lives bullies in

particular the bully of

other people’s opinions and it would

give me a healthy appreciation of who

i was my unique qualities what made me

quintessentially me

and positioned me for purpose and the

main purpose

of impacting the world with my unique

and refreshing

you print so what is a uprint and why

does that matter

now in order for me to explain the

inextricable link

between self-awareness self-acceptance

and the art of skillful you printing i

would like to tell you a little bit

about my story

you see i was fourth of five children in

a very prominent

well-respected high-achieving family

and that put me in a position very early

of understanding that performance

was the currency of the day i had to

find

my place in life can anybody relate to

that

i and but i quickly found out that when

i won the weekly in-house

maths and english quizzes yes we had

them

it not only gained me the coveted

prize of the tin of peanuts but for one

brief

moment i was sent a stage

i was no longer the little runt i i

mattered

but you know what guys what i was doing

then and i started to do until i

learned was i was basing

who i was on what i did

how many of you are still doing that

you see it’s not about performance

and i had to learn really really quickly

you know i didn’t want to hear what my

mother was saying i was like oh come on

now mommy

can’t listen no seriously didn’t they

teach you anything in modern 101

you know like did you skip the troubled

teen phase because i’m going through it

right now when i really need your help

but all she had for me was know yourself

and because

i didn’t know myself or take time to

even understand what she meant

i went through high school being

top of the class teachers but i found my

place in that i couldn’t run with the

cool kids

because i was brought up sheltered so i

even if they wanted me i couldn’t go

i was bullied i had inordinately um

long legs or disproportionately long

legs so they call me filming

legs i had big eyes which i’ve grown in

to know but i was called frog eyes i had

knobbly knees it’s called horses you

take your pick

i had it but i used to take confidence

in the fact that i was top of the class

and i was teachers pet but we know what

happens

best laid plans don’t usually work or do

they and when we set our foundation on

shifting sands you know what happens

it shifts so because i did not have

an awareness of who i was i found myself

falling free getting pregnant

and dropping out of university in my

first year

you can imagine what that did

to a little girl who based all of who

she was

on being the good girl

pleasing her family accolades

that sent me into a spiral

of self-loathing shame and

self-isolation

but do you know what also happens in

life guys in the same way the suns can

shift the very things that come to

harm us can also serve to shape us

and what i found in life from then and i

continue to find is that

when we let experiences

tell us who we are by how we respond to

them and we pay attention to not

other people’s voices but the voices in

our heads like i did

i remember clearly today as it was

yesterday as it was today i remembered

looking at myself in the mirror and

saying to myself

you are not going to

fall you’re gonna pick yourself up you

are worthy

because my daddy told me i was worthy

when i when i got pregnant i said listen

you’re not the first girl and you won’t

be the last

pick yourself up i picked myself up but

i also

learned that i should value people and i

and it’s not about who what i was but it

was what i did but it was about

who i was that experience served me so

well

that when i landed in united kingdom

after successful legal career because

i dropped out of university yes but i

got picked myself back up and i

qualified as a lawyer i had an

incredibly professional

career and i moved to united kingdom but

you know what happened then

i got tested again i was faced with

homelessness

joblessness in the united kingdom

kingdom because the best laid plans that

i had

fell apart and you know what happened

then

i did not spend one night on somebody’s

couch

because my you print the thing that i

found out about myself

where i loved people i cared for people

i was always generous

that kicked in and when i was in jamaica

at the height of my career

i helped out a family in the youth who

well

at the time i didn’t know where they

were from but they came they were

let down by their travel providers and

i house them in my pool house free of

cost

fully catered when i was in the united

kingdom and i found myself in a position

of homelessness i never spent one night

on a couch

when i also was looking around trying to

find a job

couldn’t find a job another one of my

uprints kicked in

because i care have you ever wondered

why you might

not be able to walk past somebody who is

in need or walk past a problem

but other people walk past it is because

it’s showing you who you are

and i discovered i’m a person who cares

so at the time in bradford

when i couldn’t find a job i saw

refugees and asylum seekers

needing to circumnavigate the social

welfare system

i decided to set up a charity and that

charity

landed me my most prestigious speaking

engagement to date at the united nations

geneva switzerland fully paid for by

bradford council

just imagine that my you print also

kicked in when i moved from bradford to

wales in 2006 at the head of property

at new law solicitors this jamaican lady

knowing nowhere else knowing no one i

had to run a department

and build it but you know i’ve always

taken for granted

the fact that i greet people people say

they they

love the way i greet them they feel so

special i leave them feeling so special

i give them a bernie hug they call it

and they look forward to it now

that endearing quality of mind opened so

many doors to me

that within six months of me trying to

build that convincing department i was

invited to speak at the national

conveyancing congress

not about conveyancing but how you build

your business through relationships

i was and still am the darling of the

media i wasn’t still i’m sought after as

to to head any kind of

activity or initiative that has to do

with inspiring people

and helping people because i had learned

very early in life

how important it was to inspire

encourage and help because

i was inspired i was encouraged and i

was helped

now full circle when

i in 2012

was scheduled to speak i had three

seminars

at capital cardiff which was an annual

event by the

cardiff council and it was held at the

city hall so not so bad for horse knees

or flamingo legs yes i had three

seminars to deliver what happened

that morning i got the news my mother my

dear mother passed away

and that my other you prince showed up

when something goes wrong if people are

depending on me i’m going to show up

and i showed up i delivered the three

seminars and then my world fell apart

i’d lost my true north because what

you’ll understand is that when you

understand who you are you own your

unique qualities

and you go about purposefully and

intentionally

imprinting your unique imprint it

becomes

self-replicating people actually

benefit are inspired and encouraged to

do the same

so when my mother passed away i realized

but you know her you prince showed up

her euphemism showed up when we went to

the funeral home

and the owner of the funeral home said

is that your mother

that woman saved my life he said when i

was in high school

i was going off the race and she said to

me come on you know bet you are better

than that

and i listened to her and here i am he

put a tribute he put a tribute in her in

her program

and he also gave us the top package

bottom price

her european showed up in the delegation

of school children

who came in uniforms at her funeral at

the university chapel

because she had talked to the ranks

straight up to being a university

professor

her you print also showed up when she

was flown to the university

hospital and she was welcomed that the

returning queen mother

the medical practitioners deemed her to

be

because when they were first-year

students medical students

she taught them their composer’s course

abuse of english

and she made them feel so special she

died

like a royal she was treated like a

queen by them and died like a royal

it showed up in the country preacher who

she asked to preach at her funeral

and he got up before all the dignitaries

and he said when i look around at all

you

dignitaries i wonder why dr thompson

would ask me to speak

we said dr thompson did not make what

she did

affect how she felt about others and how

she esteemed herself and i said to

myself

if dr thomas thought i could speak i

will and he got up and he did her proud

and if that did not tell me and if i

didn’t understand

when i turned to my daughter and i said

to her i’m so proud

of the legacy my mother has left behind

where she

has made people feel so special

when they have an encounter with her she

looked at me

straight in the eye and she said mommy

that’s how i feel about you

and that’s what you are so all i can do

right now is invite you

i invite and implore you know yourself

embrace your you print embrace the

circumstances

that make these you print self-evident

be intentional about impra implant

imprinting and cleverly making a

difference

to your world the world needs it thank

you