Everyone hates their job – especially at 25! Why? Because it’s probably your first job, and probably not what you expected. All through your (school) life you knew you would grow up and be something, have a great job, make lots of money.

Then you get into the real world, study whatever career path you fell into, tarmac for a while, get a job that pays – well – not what you expected, and where everybody treats you like an idiot, a child, fresh meat. Or all of the above! At first, you envy people who (you think) have jobs they like. Then you start to wonder if anyone has a job they like. Finally you fall into step and drudge along.

There are some lucky people who like their jobs, because they do what they love. My dream job is radio presenting. But since I started writing seriously, I’m worried. I always write for passion. But whenever I try to write for money, I totally dry up and it’s not fun anymore. So what if I somehow get into radio and block? Would I lose my psyche – or worse, my voice?

Take a kid with a talent – sports, music, art, anything. They love it! Now make them practise six times a day, change their diet, get them a trainer. Make them a professional. Result, they’re the best in the world, they’re millionaires, they can retire at…25? But now, they hate it. The joy in it is dead. It’s just a job. Or worse – an escape from the life they lost getting to the top. A consolation prize.

Some prodigies do get a second chance. The money helps with that. Some crash and burn and never get up. To love my writing again, I have to take the ‘job’ out of it, and just write. If I make money, great. If not, well, that’s what the day job is for. I suppose all artists should have a day job for that, if nothing else. Or have a rich parent, spouse, or organic ATM. Otherwise the passion and beauty of you art will die, and so will your soul.

So if you have a hobby or talent, live it, love, but think very carefully before making it your career. And if you can’t do what you love, learn to love what you do.

I heard an interesting comment recently. “Either all the women in Nairobi are suddenly gorgeous, or they’ve just learnt how to dress well.” Yes, it was a man. Yes, he was my date. Yes, he was looking at a voluptuous female. No, the voluptuous female wasn’t me.

But he had a point. Take a look around. Suddenly the whole world is gorgeous. Nursery schools look like beauty pageants, the kids are all so cute! Even my gorgeous little one is only top five in her class. She moves up to first place for her friendly, beautiful heart – even the janitors adore her.

Are we evolving? Personally, I blame it on mixed marriages. Fuse intertribal and interracial gene pools and you get beautiful babies. I pity judges of beauty pageants.

But in this beautiful world, you need to work harder to stand out. It’s not enough to just look like Halle Berry. Intelligence helps, so does personality. But you need more. You need the X-factor.

The trouble with the X-factor is nobody can define it. They all say It’s that extra something … you’ll know it when you see it. And you can’t learn it, you either have it or you don’t. Ajuma has it. Alek Wek has it. And the common factor there is…

So, if we don’t all have the X-factor, and we can’t acquire it, how do we get the goodies that X-factor offers? Here’s a suggestion. Acquire a Y-factor. As in “Why you should pick me instead of anyone else.” This Y-factor will get you what you want. It will define why you should get that job instead of the 500 other candidates. Why you should be asked out instead of the other boys in the class. Why you should have your dreams come true.

Every human being has a gift that is uniquely theirs. That’s your Y-factor. Find it. Build it. Make it work. It can be as simple as knowing song lyrics or as complex as learning dance moves instantly. It could be the ability to listen endlessly (to music or nagging spouses), the power to talk non-stop (Radio presenters!) or even just being nice to people you hate – not everyone can do that. They’re called PR Managers!

Think about it. Everyone runs. And everyone can outrrun a dog when they need to. But not everyone is Marion Jones – eh, I mean Kip Keino. Everyone can write (at least their name) but not everyone is JK Rowlings. Everyone can eat, but not everyone can win eating competitions. Find that one passion you do better than anyone else, and then use it.

These days we have competitions for everything from texting to mosquito-killing (Italy). So stop trying to be like everyone else. Stop forcing X-factors. Find your Y-factor and shine, shine, shine.

One of my favourite wordpress features is ‘searches used to find this blog’. I’m pretty sure some are tailored specifically for my amusement. I mean why would anyone go onto google and type ‘crystal otero is really really weird’. I shall die for laugh.

Well lately, the humours have been getting kworo airtime [do you still doubt my age?]. First, the origin. I once took a course called Psych 101 where among other things, we had to cram the book of Jude. I’m not sure why. We were also introduced to Freud and the Greek humours.

Apparently, the ancient Greeks believed there were four basic types of people : Cholerics, Sanguines, Phlegmatics and Melancholics. These are somehow – I’m not quite sure how – related to the four bodily fluids – bile, blood, lymph and phlegm. Not necessarily in that order. I can’t quite remember the order – or the significance, but never mind.

So anyway, the average person is made up of a combination of two or more of those temperaments, and their combination influences how they react to things and why they do what they do. There’s a pretty good series on that by Tim and Bev Lahaye, though it has a biblical leaning.

Each temperament has it’s own trademarks. For example, cholerics are bullies, sanguines are flirts, melancholics are depressive and phlegmatics are nice. Most people have 70% of one temperament and 30% of another. The 70% is the primary temperament, while the 30% is secondary. Of course percentages vary. Some people have 60-40 or 80-20 or 50-50. Some even have 30-30-30. So your temperament combination is a template for who you are, kind of skeleton that anchors your nature.

It’s pretty handy to identify what your temperament is. It’ll help you understand yourself better. Plus it can almost be a weapon when you know how to use you plus points on others.

So here’s a kasmall test I snagged off Mavuno Church crowd. What you do is look at the lists of qualities, and tick all the ones that describe you. The column with the most ticks is your primary temperament, and the second-most is your secondary temperament.

So, according to your scores, you are a combination of two letters, or maybe three. I scored 8/8 for column B and 7/8 for column A. Now look at the table below and match the letters to the humours.

Okay. So now you know what your types are. Or at least you have a rough idea. Now let’s test your skin. Let’s see if you can laugh at yourself…it’s cheap, healthy, and you’ll live longer. Now where to start…hee hex and smelling socks…who won?