Tuesday, October 13, 2009

BEING A PERSON OF INFLUENCE: Living your Utmost!

I have a saying for giving meaning to the word "life", it goes like this: "Life is not supposed to be lived like 'anywhere belle face' but as 'as I plan am no so I go do am'",  that's a Nigerian slang for saying " you should not live life based on impulse but it should be a well-thought out process that is planned and constantly monitored and pursued".  Being a person of influence means just that.

I believe God sent us into the world to fulfill a particular assignment.  That has alot to do with our purpose... by now, you should have settled the "purpose issue", if you have not, get this book "Purpose-Driven Life" by  Rick Warren, it is a highly recommended reading for any serious-minded person, believe me, that's one book you wouldn't want to miss reading!

Your goal in life should be to make a difference in your world, to be a man or woman of influence,despite your demographics and religious beliefs, you should be a person of influence, positive influence that is.  You were created to provide a solution to things in life,to be a reason why someone should smile, to be the hope of a family. Friends, you have a use! Common, get a life! You get one when you can say for sure, this is my definate purpose in life, and you are obviously living it. Your purpose should be a positive contribution to humanity.

When you discover your purpose and busy fulfilling it, men would come and look for you.  Trust me,a tree is so powerful that when it starts to bear it's fruit, you have to go to it in order to eat its fruit: meaning your purpose can actually become the greatest streams of income of your life!  If you really want to be successful, find something you are passionate about and commercialize it. hmm...hmm...because we really only appreciate something when it comes down to financial terms but really really...that's one of the keys to great wealth!

In concluding for now...it would be a tragedy if you go through this our modern jet age where there is actually an information overload and not become a person of influence... research on your area of interests, buy tapes,attend seminars,take courses and in all, do whatever it takes to upgrade,update and upload all the information you need to make it to your glorious future!

I believe in your future! It is real! I can see it , can you see it? T-A-K-E  C-H-A-R-G-E !!

Recommended Reading: Law of Recognition ,The Assignment (Mike Murdock), The Glory of Living (Myles Munroe),Ideas Rule the World,Success is Who You Are (Sam Adeyemi)

ONLY YOU CAN STOP YOU! :You are Unstoppable!

I want to rush a thought to you, it's one have found to be very true in our life pursuits.  From my research in studying great men and people that have really made impact in their generation I have come to discover one common characteristics amoung all of them...they all believed in theirselves and never stopped at what was their passion! 

Never in history has the power of self-determination be defeated by the seemingly mountainous problems or challenges. Once you put your mind to doing something nothing can really stop you except yourself!  That may be surprising...but it's the truth. Picture Obama and the American Presidency, Picture Amstrong and climbing the moon,Picture Usain Bolt and 3 Olympic gold medals and him shattering the world records and being the fastest man on earth!

There are no mountains nowhere except in your mind...you actually come to a point where you say "I don't think I can make it anymore"...this challenges are too much for me...I feel like giving up...Oh God! am tired of these problems and difficulties! and then you quit! How sad, because just right at the point of your quitting you might have hit the target for real...It was Albert Eintein or so, who tried 9,999 times before he was able to get it right so that we can have the electric bulb today. Henry Ford dared to create a v8 engine, what his "expert mechanics" said was impossible but he insisted they go on working at it and guess what? it was possible.

History is replete with countless stories of people who overcame obstacles to attain new heights of achievement, you can do the same...but the question is ... do you believe you can? do you really believe that despite what every other person is saying, that your dream is still possible?  Even the devil knows that you are unstoppable that is why he uses his most potent weapon against you, it's a weapon that always work, if you fall to his trickery-- the weapon of frustration.

He knows he cannot stop you by his power, no matter how powerful you think he is, he cannot stop you, he only suggest discouraging words to you and paints the problem bigger than it is...then if you believe him, you quit and he wins. If you fail to quit and fodge ahead, you frustrate him and go on to win...that's the spirit of champion in you.  You are more than a conqueror!

In concluding for now..."Never, never,never give up....Winston Churchill". You can win, you can succeed, you can be all the best you want to be in life...do you believe? I believe ! TAKE CHARGE!

Recommended Reading: You Can Win (Shev Khera), Awakening The Giant Within (Anthony Robbins),
Winners don't Quit and Quitters don't Win (Robert Schuller)

Thursday, October 8, 2009

WHAT ARE YOU LIVING FOR?

A wise man once said, "if you don't have something to die for, you have no reason to live".  I have come to find out that there's alot of sense in that statement, in that, it signifies what is our ultimate drive. There is need for you to have a reason why you woke up and leave your bed this morning, your job should not just be seen as an avenue for paying your bills.

Your job should be seen as something that affords you the opportunity to develop your gift, it should be something that should be used as a training ground for you to refine and harness your natural talents, a place where you learn discipline and principles of management and relating to people. I ask this seeming strange and overly-simple question which many people find very difficult to provide an answer to..."what are you living for?"

Many people can tell you the latest Soap Opera on AIT and Dstv but cannot tell you what they are living for...many people know the lyrics of all of D'banj songs but cannot tell you what they are living for...they can  tell you all the political woes of our beloved country Nigeria but cannot tell you what they are living for...hmmm...friends, this I find very very disturbing because if the future of our country lies in the hands of youths, do these youths know what they are actually living for? 

Let me ask you some thought provoking questions (if you are regular follower of this site you would be used to them by know...lol):

1) What are you living for?...yes you that is reading this post...what are those things you are living for? Is it for your family, your personal goals, your community? what is it?...

2) If you are faced with the Creator of your soul, what will you tell Him that you did with your life? What would you be remembered for after you've lived to a ripe old aged and return back to the creator of your soul?...I believe many will receive eternal condemnation not so much because of the sins they committed BUT because they fail to answer this simple question " what did you do with all the potentials and giftings inside of you?"

3) Will you go to the grave with that business idea lying inside of you? Will you live your life and go through your youth without fulfilling those deepest desires in your heart? Will you become an old man or woman one day with bitter regrets of a wasted opportunity at life?...Will you leave earth with all the abundant potentials inside of you and never gave them a shot?

Common take a risk for once! Life itself is a risk...dare to dream...dare to live out your dream...do whatever it takes to fulfill those dreams and crazy ideas inside of  youDon't be an employee all your life when you are supposd to be an employer of labour...there are many destinies tied to your dream...if you fail to bring that business alive, they may never be able to fulfill their dreams...where you are working today was once in the mind of somebody...he dared...he dreamt...he risked failure and loss of a paid employment to establish the company that is paying your monthly salary.

In concluding for now...Matthew Ashimolowo said in his Wealth Creation Series " an employment gives you a salary but a company of your own gives you profits for life".  We'll continue tomorrow, wonderful day!

Take Charge!

Recommended Reading: Wealth Creation (Matthew Ashimolowo), Success Is Who You Are (Sam Adeyemi)

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

THE TRUE MEASURE OF SUCCESS (Part 2)

Hello friends, we started our talk on the topic the true measure of success yesterday and we are going to try and conclude it today.  I picked up a book from my library to actually butteress the topic and what I found were actually very profound and thought-provoking. I will like to share some of them with you.

Dr Myles Munroe in his book, In Charge , said " the key to success is discovering your uniqueness and significance", meaning that in order to be truly successful, you have to find out what makes you relevant to your community,your country and the world at large.  I believe that every human being on earth has trapped within them unique giftings and talents that are relevant to this world's problem...I believe that any human being that goes to the grave without discovering himself have robbed us of our goods and have actually contributed to the problems in the world. Yeah...you may be shocked but it's the sad reality.

According to Dr Munroe, " the greatest discovery in human experience is Self-discovery" yeah...you see that friends, the best selling author has confirmed all our earlier affirmations over here about the importance of discovering your purpose...see, I cannot over emphasize this any further. Please get the recommended text usually given at the end of each post...seriously they do more justice to the principles highlighted over here.

Here are some excerpts from the book In Charge:

1) Each of us makes ourselves valuable to the world by identifying a gift so unique that no one can find our skills and contributions anywhere else.

2)Your uniqueness makes you valuable

3)As valuable as oil is, it too must be refined from a curde form to make it useful to us...We must refine our gifts to make them valuable so that we can serve them to others most effectively and successfully.

4) You succeed by helping others achieve their mission and fulfill their needs.

5) Success is becoming a person of value

6) Refine means to be free from impurities,imperfections or coarseness,to remove moral imperfection or to improve by introducing subtleties or distinctions.

7) Value + Refinement = Success

8) When you discover who you really are, people's opinions of you suddenly fall to the ground.

9) An attitude of freedom and confidence is a by-product of our self-discovery

10)The only way to discover yourself is to discover the Creator.  You and your creator are of the same nature. Your life on earth will make no sense if you do not know yourself.

In concluding for now...I reinterate for emphasis sake the words of our beloved doctor and best-selling author, " Your life on earth will make no sense if you do not know yourself ( know your purpose and  being busy fulfilling it).  TAKE CHARGE!

Recommended Reading : In Charge!,Understanding Your Potential,Releasing Your Potential and Maximizing Your Potential (Myles Munroe), Success is You ( Sam Adeyemi)

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

THE TRUE MEASURE OF SUCCESS

As the year 2009 runs to an end, we have about 86 days to go, by taking a look at the year in retrospect, what can you say you have achieved so far? For your family,career and self? Hmmm...I strongly feel that an honest and deep self assessment, what I'll like to call the Inward Analysis, is very vital to our lives. You see friends, there's every need for us to examine our personal and corporate,even more so as the year comes to an end. I cannot over-emphasize the importance of this...I really cannot.

The true measure of success, which I have come to discover is this:

1) Have you come to discover your true purpose? Folks, please pardon my repeating myself all over and over again...I think the most important thing that can happen to a man is "the discovery of purpose"...see, if you can clearly and boldly state in no uncertain terms your purpose...then you have really started to live.  Clarifying your purpose makes life easy to live, gives meaning to life, gives you zest for your job. Friends find your purpose...You have a purpose...find it.  The car has its purpose, the pen has it purpose, the computer you are using and the monitor you are viewing now have their purposes. What is your purpose?  To discover your purpose, ask the Manufacturer, look at the inherent gifts and dispositions you are naturally inclined to.

2) Are you fulfilling your purpose? The way you become great in life is to find your gift and serve that gift to the world.  We are all leaders in the areas of our giftings, Tiger Woods is the master of golf, Usain Bolt is the master of the tracks,the Williams sisters are the queens of the court, Jay Jay Okocha is the king of the football field and master dribbler.  What are you all about and are you fulfilling that gift?  You have to find, refine and serve your gift to the world for you to be great.

3) Are you helping others to discover and fulfill  their purpose ? True success produces other successes, you cannot be acclaimed successful if you do not have a successor. You should produce people after your own kind.  If you claim to be truly successful...how many people have discovered their purpose through you? How many people are inspired to do more,be more through your lifestyle.  Man! you're supposed to be a role model!  Honestly...you can't say you are successful if your success does no impact lives and cause positive change in your society.

4) True success has little to do with monetary worth.  Yeah...you may say what is success without money but let me ask you, haven't you seen wealthy men who ended up terrible wrecks,died miserable deaths? So having superfluous wealth doesn't make you entirely successful.  Success is in levels, its not a destination but a journey. You keep on succeeding from levels to levels. Success is never ending, failure is never final.

Write me and post your comment on this topic, "what is your own measure of true success?

Take Charge!

Recommended Reading : In Pursuit of Purpose (Myles Munroe), Goals! (Brain Tracy), The Assignment (Mike Murdock),Success 101 (John C. Maxwell)

Monday, October 5, 2009

THE NIGERIAN DREAM: Recreating and re-orientating our National Values

I want to introduce to you a new concept, it's new if you hearing it for the first time,anyway, it is actually a vision born in the hearts of some brave,young and dynamic individuals-it's call The Vision 2025. I would like to refer to it as the Nigerian Dream because for once in our national lives some group of people have decided to give a Specific,Measurable,Achieveable,Realistic and Time-bound goals to our national lives.

The Vision 2025 Nigerian Dream goes like this " by the year 2025, Nigeria would have developed into the most desirable place to live in on planet earth".  This vision requires the effort everybody, all hands have to be on deck for the vision to come into fulfilment.  It requires a mental re-orientation of how we see ourselves as Nigerians,how we view our potentialities and our natural resources.

It involves recreating the Nigeria of our dreams in our minds, it involves being highly optimistic that these dreams will come to pass. It means that we  have to believe that one day that Nigeria will be good,that "Niaja go better". We really have to believe in the Nigerian Dream, let it be a popular jingo in the mouths of every youth, I look forward to seeing passionate youth that goes about with the mentality that " we can be agents of change for Nigeria, we are not going to loot and embezzle anymore".

It means that everyone have to decide to look in the mirror and make a change...yeah...you have to be the better Nigerian in order to have a better Nigeria. You have to believe that you can make super wealth legitimately without taking your own share of the "National Cake"...where did Bill Gate and Warren Buffet get their wealth from?. The Vision 2025 is one where our Presidential and Gubernotarial aspirants are devoid of the "Ghana-must-go mentality"...rather the "corruption-must-go mentality" should be installed in their minds.

Change is possible...look at Nelson Mandela and South African. Change is possible...look at Ellen Johnson and Liberia. Change is possible look at Jerry Rawlings and Ghana...Change is possible look Matthew Luther King Jr and the American Dream. Change is possible...look at Obama and America!  God will not send down angels from Heaven to come and carry our hands and go to Aso rock to make a change.  Change is possible when we decide to recreate the Nigeria of our dreams by having a positive mental re-orientation in every sphere of our National lives.

I believe in the New Nigeria...I believe that one day NEPA (or PHCN) go change and give us 24 hours light. I believe that one day, good portable drinking water will flow from the taps of every home.  I believe that one day our educational systems would be free from incessant strike by Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in Nigeria.I go dey pray so te, so te, so te, so te..." Do you believe?

Take Charge!

Recommended Reading: Second Revolution,Ideas Rule the World (Sam Adeyemi)

Friday, October 2, 2009

IT'S A NEW DAY: God Bless Nigeria!

It's a new day! A new chapter in our national life. A new phase in how we live our lives.Nigeria is 49! How do you intend to live the next 365 days as a citizen of this great country which is immensely blessed by God. I believe in the vision of a New Nigeria, I believe in the Vision 2025 in which Nigeria would have developed into one of the most desirable nations to live in on the planet earth.

What are your aspirations about Nigeria, what is the Nigeria of your dream? What would you do differently that would be a positive change for the country? What are you views about corruption in the corridors of powers?  What is your own suggestion are a solution to the Niger Delta situation? What are your views on youth empowerment in Nigeria?

We all talk about the American Dream, what is "the Nigerian Dream"?.  I look forward to a time when it will be a popular jingo in the mouths every dick and harry that "I believe in a New Nigeria...this is the Nigerian Dream!" I look forward to a time when youths would be passionate about being agents of change in Nigeria.  I look forward to a time when corruption,embezzling and every form of political looting would be a thing of the past and a taboo.

I look forward to the time when the Nigerian would be a highly envied citizen all over the globe and he would be a person that everyone would want to be associated with.  I look to a Nigeria where the President would be in the mould of the Pat Utomis,Donald Dukes, Raji Fasholas,Niyi Adesanyas, Fela Durotoyes etc and our ministers would be in the mould of Praise Fowowes and Gbenga Sesans.

The Nigeria of my dream is one where there would be constant light and not some company holding the power like Power Holding Company of Nigeria is presently doing.  I look to a time when the Nigeria Naira would be of more international value.  I see a Nigeria where we would be harnessing the potential of the vast human capital and natural resources of which we so so immensely blessed with. Wow! I love this country.

As I conclude this for now...I want you to do something very special...take a pen and paper and write 10 points highlighting your dream for Nigeria and write against each one the steps that you would personally contribute to that course.  Common, you can do it...I believe in you...do it right now. Take that action. MAKE THAT MOVE.  I love y'all. T-A-K-E  C-H-A-R-G-E!

Recommended Reading: Make That Move (Abiodun Mabadeje), Start With What You Have Where You Are,The Second Revolution (Sam Adeyemi)