ADIEU 2018

It’s been officially 11days ago that 2018 passed on. Although that old year has gone and never to come back, we cannot but recount the memories associated with the events in it.

One thing I will encourage you to do is to count your blessings and not the losses, appreciate the successes and not the failures, focus on the maximized opportunities and not the lost ones, recall the joyful moments and not the sad ones. These do with the hope that 2019 is bringing vistas of great and amazing possibilities for you.

It is a true statement: the focus of your constant thinking becomes your reality. Focus on the bright side of events as you move on this year, there and then will you see the great opportunities life has to offer when others are blind to it.

You being MAD (making a difference) in your dealings this year will actually cost you short-term pain for long-term rewards. The pain is that of sacrifice of leaving your comfort zone, people not understanding you and your ideas not accepted. But the long term goal is more ‘importanter’, as the end justifies the means.

I will not say you shouldn’t write goals for the year, but will advise you write goals for each day. Because days are miniatures of years. If you can gain mastery of each day, with consistency you gain mastery the year.

Get used to life, because 2019 is a start of a new life.

Be all you can when you can where you can.

Feel free to like and comment your thoughts.

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It’s Never Too Late To Succeed

Hi friends,

It’s been a while on this platform. Its my joy to be back again. I was thinking lately and had a bug on how to succeed. King Solomon, the wisest King that ever lived once remarked that: “Time and chance happeneth to them all”. This statement of fact is the summary as well as the hallmark of every success story throughout history.

Success is what happens to you when you maximize the opportunities brought by time and chance. The universe is so structured and designed by The Intelligent Designer (God) in a way that it bestows great opportunities to its inhabitants regardless of their background. There is only one condition involved: a sense of its presence. On many occasions, opportunities may not appear as expected, but your sense of perception will refine the raw gold and make it golden opportunity (-ies) as the case may be.

I believe that age is not a factor to consider at succeeding in anything in life. Some people become successful when they were very young whilst some dared the impossible and imprinted their footprints in the sands of time when they were very old. What matters is your mindset. “As a man thinketh in his heart, so he is.”

My question for you is: “What are my thoughts?” “How am I thinking?” “How am I supposed to think?” Success is attained when you achieve your goals, either short-term or long-term. You are success par excellence when you have influenced a number of people to be successful.

I equate success to solving other people’s problems. In a way, you become successful when you are a key figure in other people’s success stories.

On the contrary, to be successful man must first be ‘selfish.’ As the (Yoruba-translated) saying goes: “he who will clothe someone else, his attire must first be meticulously examined”. You must be a person to reckon with to give a fool-proof evidence that you have the credibility to influence someone else.

As a challenge, dedicate your time, to resourceful thinking and map out the things you want to achieve. Set a SMART goal, pursue it till you see it happen in the real world. It’s not too late to start a new goal. Though 2018 is rounding up, don’t give up, you can still achieve something big. Remember, it’s not over until it’s over.

Cheers… To our success!

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Know Your Onions

Two things maketh man: Manners and Knowledge. Manner talks of your character or disposition whilst knowledge speaks volume of the level of your self-awareness. In this Fourth Industrial Revolution the importance of knowledge cannot be overemphasized. Knowledge is relative as it is in the quantum of how much you as a person can acquire as you progress in life.

I have a flair for philosophy, it makes me engage in rational thinking, at times free thinking; this I do in my spare time. Colours in Philosophy’s coat include epistemology, metaphysics, logic, ethics, aesthetics and so on. I wont like to bug you much on that.

But on a lighter note, I want to give a hi-five to epistemology, which prides itself in the study of knowledge. Knowledge, according to Wiki quote, is what is known; the confident understanding of a subject, potentially with the ability to use it for a specific purpose. It is a familiarity with someone or something, which can include facts, information, descriptions, or skills acquired through experience or education. Knowledge from a worldview is the mental construction of reality.

I won’t be guilty of the fallacy of hasty generalizations if I should say no man is fit to live or survive without knowledge. In knowledge is the key to mental strength and power. No wonder God says in the Holy Writ in Hosea 4vs6: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge…” It is lack of knowledge that destroys not ‘too much’ knowledge.
Knowledge acquisition is one step, application is a further step. The latter transcends the former, but the former precedes the latter.

The salient question to ask is: How much do I know of what I think I know? How much have I practiced what I know?
Knowing your onion is being completely aware of your place and space in the area of your calling. Your calling goes beyond your daily routine job, it is what you are made to do that gives you joy, regardless of formal education.

You should rather spend a good time sharpening the axe before cutting the tree than launch into the cutting with a blunt axe. The ‘sharpening’ process is a way of building capacity without supervision in secret which is usually done in isolation. You are doing this in preparation for the future not necessarily for immediate implementation. You are prepared for any opportunity coming up; because, when preparation meets opportunity, success is inevitable.

The cornerstone of any profession is updating your knowledge bank as you go higher in that profession. You must grow daily, because if you don’t grow you must go.

The spiritual factor is key. The divine knowledge transcends all. When you know your Maker you are COMPLETE all round; the consequence of not doing so is a GRIEF to the soul. It’s succinctly spelt out in Daniel 11 vs 32b:

…the people who know their God shall be strong and carry out great exploits.

Two words are noteworthy: ‘know’ and ‘exploits’. Not just exploits but great exploits. There is a deeper revelation in knowing God, it’s absolutely supernatural and mind blowing. A natural man will not be able to understand how you come about what you know through the revelation knowledge of God. It’s a mystery. You, as a carrier of mystery, become a mystery. When you know your God, you know everything you need to know to fulfill your purpose on earth. Know God!

Please endeavour to like, comment your view and share. Thanks!

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What About My Talent(s)? [2]

Sequel to the previous post dear reader, I hope you have been able to list (at least) 5 things you can do and you now plan to give serious attention. Having done that you now devise a strategy by setting a goal on how to improve on those 5 things, one at a time.

Every goal is summed up in SMART- Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-bound. Every human under the sun has the same 24 hours and how we spend this life currency determines who & what we become. Bishop David Oyedepo once remarked: ‘I achieve in a day what an average individual will achieve in 2days’. This is as a result of how he spends his 24 hours. He cuts his sleeping time to 3 hours on average.

Any body can become great whether he is formally educated or not. What matters is to what extent they have developed their talents. Abraham Lincoln was an autodidact (self educated) with no college degree and he became one of the greatest US presidents in history. This is however hinged on 2 key ingredients: self-discipline and determination to succeed.

As much as I will encourage getting a college degree, I will like you to make great effort in acquiring self education. I define Education as a process of learning that brings Self discovery. The purpose of Education is to bring self discovery and any form of learning that doesn’t fulfill this purpose is but a waste of time resources.

Without mincing words, a talent that is undeveloped is as unprofitable as a goldmine without discovery.

In the words of Tony A. Gaskins Jr, an American motivational speaker and coach: “If you don’t build your dreams, someone else will hire you to help build theirs”. I will like to re-phrase it: If you don’t develop your talents you may end up working for others who discovered & developed theirs.

The only way you can discover & develop your talents till it’s refined is in God. Just as an inventor is the rightful person that can give a detailed account of his invention OR a painting artist that gives the descriptive detail of his artwork masterpiece, so also is the case with humans and God, his Creator. You cannot know the why you were made and as well be fulfilled without coming to the Intelligent Designer for guidance and accepting Him to be the Captain of your ship. If you do, your ship will successfully sail through the stormy, roaring waves and billows of life’s seas as your dreams transmute into reality. (Ignoring Him is as a capsized ship waiting to happen.)

Get God involved as you discover and develop your talents. Be all you can be, the sky will be your spring board!

P.S: Endeavour to hit the like button, comment & share if you enjoyed it. Thanks!

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What About My Talent(s)? [1]

It is a beautiful saying: When the purpose of a thing is not known, abuse is inevitable. I will like to also add: God determines purpose, man discovers purpose.

Someone may ask: Do I have a talent? If yes, for what purpose?

Talent, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary of English, is the natural endowments of a person. I define talent as a raw gold that is implanted on the inside of a man by God. God puts it there for a purpose. (Purpose is the original intention/reason why something was created.)

At this juncture, I want to make it known to you that every human born of a woman under the sun has a talent. That talent is unique, custom-tailored and perfectly programmed for an individual to exercise dominion on the earth- man’s purpose on earth when God created him. Talent is an ability which must be put into work, else, it’ll be useless if dormant.

From the Parable of the talents that Jesus Christ gave [Matthew 25:14-30], talent has a multiplicity effect, a growing ability when put into proper use. You use it, it multiplies; you abandon it, it becomes a burden. If for example you have a talent for singing, if you develop it well, by mastering the art skillfully, you get to discover you can leverage on it and be an effective coach or consultant as singing is concerned. It is noteworthy at this point that skill is your own developed style of doing things. Skill is simply doing a common thing differently as innovatively as you can be.

Talents are never enough. You have to be diligent and committed to refine that raw gold in you. Gold doesn’t look like gold in its unrefined state, it’s appearance is unattractive. So also it is for talent. You get to consistently and continuously refine it by working tirelessly on yourself till that gold becomes shining and glitters for the world to see. The is no place for Rest when the job is yet to be accomplished. God, our perfect example and Creator, rested on the seventh day after finishing the six days’ job. Your greatest & only job is to bring out that gold in you.

Let me burst your bubble: your intelligence is not what makes you great. What makes you great is discovering and developing your talents! History is a great reference. Anyone with a sense of history will attest to the fact that IQ plays little or no role in becoming great on earth. What counts is the courage to believe in yourself when you have successfully developed your talents.

I will like to encourage you to put on your thinking cap as you list at least 5 things you know you can do but you have not given serious attention. Write it down, make it plain so that you can RUN with it.

…to be continued