Living and Learning

Lessons from a walk

2011-10-27T11:09:00.002+01:00

We are almost at the end of another month. The year just seems to have flown by and with it, time that can never be regained.

This post was inspired by my experience yesterday on my way to return some library books that I borrowed when I was writing my masters dissertation. I was walking at what I thought was a fast pace as I also had to get to work a few hours from then, and all of a sudden a young man walked right past me. I thought that he must have had wheels below his feet for him to walk at the pace that he did. I continued on my journey and got to the traffic light pressed the button to signal traffic light to stop the oncoming vehicles and looked up. There right in front of me was the same “speed walker guy”. As the traffic light stopped the cars, I crossed the road, stood right beside the guy and I thought, “After all the speed, we are right at the same point”. I know it looks a bit petty but I also had another thought, “This is just like life, you may be comparing yourself to someone else, thinking that the person is far ahead of you and you can never catch up but if you keep moving, you will find out that before long you have covered all those gaps that you felt existed and you are doing as well as your contemporaries. The key is to keep moving.

It is like the tortoise and the hare story: The hare was one of the fastest animals in the animal kingdom while the tortoise was one of the slowest. There was a race between the two animals and the hare, being the fastest bragged to the tortoise and sped off. On getting close to the destination, the hare decided to take a nap thinking that the tortoise would never catch up with him. While the hare was still napping, the tortoise caught up with the hare and overtook him and crossed the finish line.

Now, you may be thinking that you have lost a lot of time and your mates have gone far ahead of you in their careers. It could be that you see a lot of wedding pictures on facebook and you think to yourself, “Oh… when will mine ever happen”. You know what? It surely will. Just don’t rest on your oars. Keep moving forward.

If it is a job you are waiting for, start a small business, take a training, just keep moving. If it is a marriage, then my dear… just forget all the paparazzi you see on facebook. Half of them are not as they seem. Also remember, that you are better off waiting for the right person than ending up with the wrong person. Keep yourself occupied but most importantly, be thankful for what you have got. Remember that as long as you have life, you have hope. Just ask the ones lying in the graveyard.

Till you read from me again…
Have a blessed weekend

picture from http://leanonmilton.wordpress.com

View from the other side

2011-10-20T14:09:00.006+01:00

It has been close to 4 months since I last wrote in my blog. In this period, I have succeeded in completing some crucial coursework, completing my dissertation for my masters program and doing my viva (defence of the dissertation). I have also joined a network marketing program, that has paid off real well (that is gist for another post) and lost some weight.
More important than all these accomplishments are some important life lessons I learnt during this period. One of which I would share with you today.

A number of us are familiar with optical illusions, one of which is in the picture above. This picture is a fusion between a young woman and an old woman. A couple of people see just the young woman wearing a hat with her face away from them while other people just see the face of a really old woman. Whichever category you fall into does not change the fact that both views exist.

Life is exactly like that. Most times we look at a situation from a particular perspective without realising that a different perspective very different from what we see exists. An example that readily comes to mind is a personal experience of mine.

Some months after I arrived into the United Kingdom, I was very desperate for a part time student job that I could combine with my studies, due to the fact that my resources were dwindling at an alarming rate. I kept applying and applying but got the same polite rejections. Finally, I got a call from a company for an interview. I was so delighted and prayed so hard for it to work out. I went for the interview and did very well. I was invited to a trial shift but I was told by the manager that I needed to go for another one, as he was not sure if I was up to the standard. 3 trial shifts after, I was told that I could not be employed for the role. At that point I was already tired and a bit devastated because I had put in a lot of effort and I felt the job was for me. I had no choice but to move on.

Two days later, I got a call from another company that I had applied much earlier in the year. I had actually forgotten about that application because I didn’t get a call when I expected. I was invited to an interview and I was offered the job two days after the interview. I must say, that the job I finally got was a much better one with a slightly better pay package, better working conditions, free outfits etc. I was amazed at how things worked out. I had been so focused on the view of the other job that I did not step back consider other views.

Right now, you may be gunning for something that is causing you a lot of pain because it does not seem to be working out. It may seem to you that you have to be on that path or no other. Have you considered stepping back a bit to think that just maybe, you are not on the right path and that a more rewarding path exists elsewhere if only you decide to adjust your view? It could also be that you are on the right path but you are just wearing the wrong shoes, i.e. using the wrong methods to solve the problem. This life is really not as difficult and complicated as most of us make it out to be.

Every single situation has more than one view to it. We just need to step back a bit and look within for it.
Till you read from me, have a blessed weekend.
(picture from coolopticalillusions.com)

Life's pictures

2011-06-25T12:37:00.000+01:00

As I lay down in my bed with the light from my computer as the only source of illumination in my dark room, I let my thoughts drift. Occasionally the red light from my blackberry would interrupt my thoughts but somehow they still found their way back. With the ticking of my table clock, the constant reminder that I was another second older, my thoughts drifted to my childhood to the days when I had no care in the world, the days when my biggest problem was how to get my hair plaited by “Iya Seyi”, because I despised people touching my hair. As I let my thoughts wonder, I looked at a picture on my laptop. It was a picture that I took with some friends. As I looked closely at the picture, I saw some faces of total strangers in the background and a thought occurred to me. “In how many people’s pictures has your face appeared? How many people have your image as part of the background of their pictures?”
Just as we can be part of someone’s picture without even knowing it, we can affect someone’s life without realising it. The choices we make every minute of every day can contribute to making someone’s life a little bit better or worse even without intending to.
Little acts of kindness such as smiling to an attendant at the supermarket, leaving the door open for someone behind you, saying thank you. These things don’t cost a thing but go a long way to make people’s lives happier. Think about it, a smile or a kind word to an attendant who has been standing all day at work make the person feel more appreciated. The attendant goes on to say kind words to other people and the cycle continues. The original person didn’t intend to affect so many people but indirectly, he/she has.
An example that quickly comes to mind is a story about a boy who went out in the rain to distribute Christian tracts against his father’s warning. During his round that evening, he slipped the tract into the letter box of an old woman who was just about to commit suicide. The woman had been frustrated with living life alone after the death of her husband of over 40 years. Just as she was about to take the poison, the tract came in through her letter box and she read it. The boy didn’t know that just by going out to share those tracts even in the cold rain, he was saving the life of someone.
You never know just how far your actions and inactions go to help the lives of others. I believe that once we all live in the consciousness of the impact of our actions and inactions, we make the world as we know it a little bit easier to live in.
Think about it
Have a fulfilling weekend.
(picture form http://topnews.in)

If only I could talk

2011-04-18T03:03:00.000+01:00

About two months ago, I was walking home from the University when I walked past a bus stop with the spray painted message above. I kept on walking but I took some steps back, paused and read the message again… If only I could talk. I stood there for some minutes before I took out my phone and took a picture. While walking home, all I could do was to imagine the emotions behind those words. Was it sadness, anger, helplessness, disappointment, fear or frustration? Was it a figurative expression i.e. did the writer have the ability to talk but just couldn’t speak out for him of herself? All I could do was to imagine my life without the ability to talk, without the ability to speak up for myself, without the ability to convey my message in words. I couldn’t imagine a life where I had to depend on sign language to communicate, a life where I had to be in close proximity to someone in order to communicate. Yet that was someone else’s reality.
As I got home, while making dinner I kept thinking about how much we have taken for granted the ability to talk. How we sometimes speak before we think. How we cause our loved ones sadness just with our words. How we curse, put people down with our spoken words and it occurred to me that there are a lot of individuals around the world who don’t have that luxury. That which we take for granted is the one thing that someone else may need to make his/her life feel more complete.
While having my dinner, more thoughts kept crossing my mind. I considered the chewing movement of my teeth and remembered that someone out there couldn’t chew. When I swallowed the food, I remembered that someone out there was hooked on to pipes and the only nourishment the person could get was through those pipes. I stood up to clear my plates and remembered that someone out there required a wheel chair or crutches to move. All these thoughts brought tears to my eyes.
The truth is that you don’t know how good you have got it. Every situation you are now, that you believe is unbearable is someone else’s dream. If only we could just be more grateful. If only you could stop for a while and reflect you would see just how truly blessed you are. If only you could stop trying to “keep up with the joneses” for a while then maybe you could just be a little bit happier.
The law of gratitude is one of the greatest laws of the universe. Once you are grateful for what you have, you would have no option but to attract more opportunities to be even more grateful. Do not rest on your oars but at the same time be more sensitive and grateful for what you do have because that could be someone else’s dream.

Till you read from me again…
Have a blessed week and keep keeping on

The Law of Recognition

2011-02-18T13:53:00.001Z

I have pondered on the right topic that would fully capture the essence of this article and so many options crossed my mind. “The principle of recognition” and “Recognition power” were strong contenders but I finally settled on “The law of recognition” as the topic. It is a law that has been at work in our lives but we hardly notice.
Have you ever wondered why, right after see a clothing material say in the market, you start to see outfits made from that same material or a similar pattern all around you? After a while, you may even conclude that the outfit is common. Or you seem to start bumping into someone more often right after you are introduced to the person. Did the person suddenly start plying the same route right after you got introduced? You may wonder. Or, you see a book you are intrigued by, and before you know it, that book seems to be on every book stand you come across.
It is the law of recognition at work.
Recently, I saw the law work perfectly in my life; “E-commerce systems” is one of the modules that I take as part of my masters program and a module textbook was recommended. Three days ago, I decided to order the book on Amazon website but I was late for class, so I postponed the order and went to class. After the lecture, I stayed back to tidy up a few things and on my way out of the lab, guess what I saw lying on the floor with some other textbooks in front of a lecturer’s office with a “Free books, help yourself” sticker on it? The same E-commerce textbook!!! For some seconds, I could not believe my eyes. This was the same book that I was about to purchase for above 40 pounds some hours ago now lying right in front of me. Free!!! I was ecstatic. I picked up the book and sent a mail to the lecturer informing him that I had taken the book, just in case it was a prank. While I was still rejoicing, a thought crossed my mind, “What if this book had been lying amongst these other books and I just didn’t recognise it”. There was a very high possibility of that being the case.
I have termed the law of recognition as follows,”In order for something to become your reality, you must first recognise it”.
Most times solutions to our problems are right around us, we just fail to recognise it because we are not conscious enough. Most times, it is like we are blindly groping around when the solution is right there before our very eyes. When we finally do recognise it, we are so thrilled at easy it was to solve the problem in the first place. All we need to do is open our eyes and recognise it. I imagine that if the solutions were living things, they would have given us a kick in the backside saying, “I am right here, silly”
I imagine that the first human that made fire always had those stones and leaves all around him, but he didn’t make fire until he realised the possibility of those stones and leaves becoming a source of fire.
This is how the law of recognition works; Have a clear picture of what you want, hold that picture in your mind, before you know it you will have experiences and meet people whose aim would seem to be to bring that clear picture that you have in your mind into reality.
As much as we would all like to sit and watch solutions to problems fall right into our lap, please also remember to act on the opportunities as they present themselves.
Till you read from me again… keep keeping on.
Have a blessed weekend.

(picture from http://dailymail.co.uk)

The key to success

2011-01-23T01:06:00.000Z

Before writing this article, I was listening to a song “successful” by Drake and Trey Songz which I found very deep. The chorus there had a line, “… I suppose, I just wanna be... I just wanna be successful”. Although the entire song doesn’t really relate to the main content of this article, there was a verse where Trey was basically saying that even though you are the only one that believes that you would be successful in something, just stick with it and eventually others will see you become a success about that which you feel strongly about.
I have been out of Nigeria for more than 4 months now and I must tell you, it is tough out here. Most people who come here start with a whole lot of cash but before long, the cash is all drained up as a result of the bills one has to pay. I had applied for jobs and I kept getting the same very polite replies that I basically wasn’t chosen because others were considered to be more suitable than me. At a point, I got really sick of it and because you can never kill the entrepreneurial spirit in me, I decided to join a company called Kleeneze as an Independent distributor. It cost some money to start and in a week, I made back my capital and I now enjoy some profit. However, I found something really amazing doing the business. Once I set my heart and didn’t allow any thought of failure into my consciousness, it worked. I never for once opened my mouth to say what everybody says about life here, that is, “there are no jobs”. If there are no regular jobs, create one for yourself. It is that simple. You don’t have to have a lot of money to start doing something. Just start and stick with what you are doing. If you do it well enough, you have no option but to be successful. This is because we have all been created with the ability to create wealth. Our God is a creator and he blessed us with that creative ability. So how can we who are created in his image become victims of our circumstances? God said, “Let there be light” and there was light. He had seen it before it became a reality and He spoke it, he had no doubt and it came through. Another thing that amazed me was that money seems to attract money. I guess that is why the successful people seem to get even more successful. You may be praying, “God please give me money”. How is he supposed to give you money if you do not put in some work? I have never seen a situation where God put money in the lap of someone just after praying. You have to do something and God will bless you through that thing. You have to meet a need and you will get paid for meeting that need. You in turn, will pay someone for meeting your own need. Needless to say, I stopped looking for a job and was determined to be financially free. Guess what then happened? I got a call to start working somewhere that I had given up on. So I have two streams of income (not much by some standards, but it pays the bills). Isn’t life just amazing? I have often said this, “Zero times one million is still zero”. Start something first and you will get blessed from there. It doesn’t have to be much. Just as Cathie Black from Hearst Magazine told Steuart Martens, one of the contestants on Season 10 of the Apprentice USA, “Start small, keep your overhead low and keep focused”. Start, forget fear, and forget the “nay sayers”, don’t have analysis paralysis. Just start. It is that simple.

Till I you read from me again...
Keep keeping on.

The Bucket List

2010-12-30T14:15:00.000Z

It has been one year and 4 months since I last wrote on my blog. Within this period, I have been employed in an international bank, resigned from the bank and moved on to take a postgraduate degree in a different part of the world. While these transitions are not enough excuses for why my posts have been so few and far between, I will start by saying I am very sorry to all the people who actively followed my blog before now. I know that I must have disappointed you.
I was at a friend’s house over the Christmas and when she asked me about my blog, I was ashamed because I had set out with the best intentions. That shame made me to promise myself that I must put up an article before 2010 ran out. The thought woke me up and here I am typing it out.
This article has been on my mind for at least 6 months, I got the thought after I watched a heart-warming film “The bucket list”, by Rob Reiner staring Morgan Freeman as Carter Chambers and Jack Nicholson as Edward Cole.
Carter and Chambers were both diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and were stuck in the same room with each other. Before long, they became friends and decided to make a list of all the things they would have loved to do throughout their lifetime and do them with the little time they had left. Their list took them to many interesting locations and different countries and exposed them to new experiences. It even helped Edward to reignite his relationship with his estranged daughter. After watching this movie, it got me thinking, “If I decided to create a bucket list what would be its content?” Someone may read this article and say, “Oh no, a bucket list is not for me, it is only for dying people” but the truth is, you don’t have to be dying to summon courage to step out and do all that you have been planning to do for years. You don’t have to let the fear of the unknown to stop you from being the best that you can be. What is the worst that can happen if you eventually do it? You fail, but failure in itself is just a probability. You can also succeed and reap all the fruits that come with your success. As I have written in my previous posts, the graveyard is full of untapped potential. Please don’t be counted among those people who could not reach their full potential just because of fear or perceived setbacks.
As we enter a new year, I want us to write down a bucket list for the year, and consciously work on achieving them. From experience, striking off even the smallest achievement gives a such a sense of achievement and fuels you to achieve even more. I feel so good for just finishing this article.

Have a great and fulfilling 2011 and remember to keep keeping on.

My Aloe Vera and I Part 2

2009-08-22T17:35:00.000+01:00

My Aloe Vera and I
It seems like it has been a year since I last wrote something. It is not as if I do not get inspirational thoughts. I get so busy that I hardly have the time to write my thoughts down. It sounds crazy but it is very true. For those that have been following my blog, you would know that I recently decided to care for my aloe vera plants. I started with 3 pots and within a period of a month and a half, they have expanded to 9 healthy looking pots. Sometimes I look at the plant and I just marvel because not only does it beautify my environment, it serves as medicine and is a constant source of inspiration to me.

Early this morning, as I was transplanting the new set of baby plants that grew below the “mama plant”, the sharp leaf of the “mama plant” pricked me. It hurt a bit but as I clutched my pricked finger, a thought came to me. “A month ago I could touch these leaves without feeling this pain, what was the difference?” An answer came to me almost immediately, “It is growing and getting stronger by the day and it is probably protecting its young”. I marvelled at my thought pattern because to the regular mind, it was just plain bonkers. I then went to caress the younger plants, and was not pricked at all. As I did that, another thought came to me, “If a little plant that you personally nurtured can eventually grow so big and prick you as you are trying to “de-crowd” it, how much more can God protect you if someone or something looks like it wants to hurt you. “ After that, I spent about an hour praising God because He really did do a lot by creating the Aloe Vera plant.

I have to stop now as duty calls, till you read from me again, keep keeping on and have a very blessed weekend.

My Aloe Vera and I

2009-07-12T09:09:00.000+01:00

Hello my people, I hope you are enjoying the weather. One thing I am sure of with this season is that love is in the air. Throughout this month, I have had the opportunity to kick back and enjoy life. Even with all the challenges of being a young entrepreneur I still try to take out time to appreciate my environment and all that God has created. This period I have watched how fish grow from the fingerling stage to 3 weeks and I must say that I have learnt a lot.

Early this month, I made a conscious decision to water and care for my aloe vera plant. I transplanted some plants in the pot and moved them to a different location and started watering them everyday before going to work. As I began to do this every morning, I noticed that they gradually started to look healthier. If they were humans I would have said that they had grown taller and built some muscles. As I sat there watching my lovely plants, a thought came to me. “ If this aloe vera could look and do so well within this short period, with just a little TLC (Tender Loving Care) then all that any living creature requires to reach its highest potential are the right environment and the desire to grow. I had mentioned this same plant in a post that I did a year ago (stretching the limit). At that stage of the plant’s life, it was not well cared for but it still stayed alive and broke its pot! It had the desire to grow and didn’t allow the fact that it did not have the right environment to stifle its potential. Now that it has the right environment, it is really growing and multiplying.

Someone may say, I don’t have the right environment, my parents are not rich. Well, money doesn’t always guarantee the right environment. Infact, I have seen some kids from very rich homes who turned out to be a disgrace to the nation. I have also seen some men and women from extremely poor backgrounds who decided to create the right environment within themselves who have turned out to be CEOs of big companies. Like my aloe vera, they decided never to give up and created the right environment within themselves until it was manifested on the outside.
It is not enough to create the right environment for yourself. We should always try to create environment for people around us. A simple “Thank You” can make a son or daughter to want to do better. A “You look smashing today” can make an employee to work at maximum efficiency. One little book or advice can save an organization millions of naira and take it to the next level.
It is so easy to do. I really marvel that I got this from caring for a small plant. We human beings still have a lot to learn from other living creatures.

I hope that this inspires you as it did me.
Have a very fulfilling new week and remember to keep keeping on

Pride Vs Ego… Same Ni...Different Grammar

2009-07-02T15:54:00.000+01:00

Pride Vs Ego… Same Ni Different Grammar
Good morning my people, how have you been enjoying the weather? The weather has been perfect (At least even when PHCN fails us, God sends his cool breeze and rain as our natural air conditioner).

I am sorry that I have not been consistent in my posts. I am trying to balance out a lot of things right now and my blog is suffering for it.

One evening about 2 months ago, I let my mind wander about why men and women seem so different yet are so alike. That thought led to the topic.

Pride Vs Ego… Same Ni... Different Grammar

While Pride can be defined as, “disdainful behavior or treatment; insolence or arrogance of demeanor; haughty bearing and conduct; insolent exultation”, Ego can be defined as, “an inflated feeling of pride in superiority to others”
From the definitions above, it can be seen that both words basically have the same meaning.

Pride is often used in relation to “chics”/women and Ego in relation to “blokes”/men

During the course of pondering, the following two questions arose;

1) Which sex has more?
2) How do you think the knowledge that both men and women crave respect can improve both our work and personal relationships?

I have thrown these questions in the open and hope to get your responses

Hope to hear your responses
Have a very blessed weekend

Do people change? (1)

2009-06-12T13:00:00.000+01:00

Good day to you all. I hope you have been enjoying the weather. I think I am and I now have the perfect excuse not to wear the hair extensions that used to drive me nuts. We thank God that we are alive and doing well. The mere fact that you can see and read this article means that you are doing well.

This month, my articles will take a different turn. I will feature people’s thoughts instead of mine. (I know some folks may be tired of reading from me. lol).It is all about living and learning

On the 23rd of April, I sent a text message to about 10 of my friends asking the following question, “Do you think people change?” I appreciate every text message and email that was sent in response to my text message, I really do. I have posted the first 4 and post the remaining when I dig them up from my archives. Please feel free to make your own contributions to the topic. See responses below:

Question: I am working on something. Do you think people change?

Funmi Bashorun
I don’t think people change. Sometimes they pretend to change to suit other people and can hardly keep up. Other times, they try to change genuinely but it is usually short lived and their true colours tend to come out from time to time until it totally resurfaces when they are unconsciously tired of false character! This doesn’t mean that people can’t change at all. Like every rule, there is always an exception!

Niyi Jaiyeola
People change, sometimes dramatically other times gradually. For some it takes a blinding light on the road to Damascus for others it is a simple one page tract. You’ve changed…

Kemi Ojo
Yes, people change over time, because change is the only constant. Even you have changed, hope I have answered your question.

James Sosa
Do I Think People Change???
I really don’t know the context of this question but,
I’ll try not to bore u with a long epistle on my thoughts and opinions…lol
I’m gonna be as brief as possible!!!!
Here goes…..

From the moment of conception, the cries of a new born child ushers in the roar of hope and greatness. This is the first significant change. What do I mean? I’m pretty sure babies don’t cry in the wombs of mothers. So why do babies cry? Well I think it’s the sudden change of environment. After 9 months of lounging, kicking and relaxing, suddenly mummy is “pushing” me out, while some unknown doctor is “pulling” my head out without permission……Who no go cry? Abi? …..lol
Change of Environment is a deciding factor for human behavioural change

The toddler years are probably the most fun, if not the best time of human life. Mummy is at your beck and call. All you have to do is cry, panic ripples are sent through the room. Is it Hunger? Is it Sickness? or Does baby want a pampers change?
Mummy goes into Emergency Attention Mode, to try and stop the yelling and see to it you get what you want.
As time goes on, the baby soon realises the potency of a good old high pitch cry, but we all out-grown the diapers and the Cerelac era, younger siblings now get all the attention.
Basically, everyone wants to get attention and feel important like the toddler years at all times!!!! Anything contrary, will lead to a “mischievous” behavioural change.

In a nut shell, I really believe change of environment plays a big part in human change. Also, whether you are 5yrs old or in your late 60’s, the craving for attention and importance is still supreme. Failure to comply to this “craving” will surely show some pattern of human change.

Change is the only Constant thing in life. Hope my epistle wasn’t boring???? Hahahahaha!!!!!!! Gudnite Miss Chika

The people have spoken, do you think people change? Let us hear your opinion.
Thank you guys for you contribution

Have a great weekend

Your Personal Letter (Part 2)

2009-06-02T13:59:00.000+01:00

Hope your week was as eventful as mine. I must start by saying that I am grateful to everyone who read my article. Thank you to everyone who called and sent text messages. I really do appreciate it. Ok…where do I start? This week was exactly as I wanted it. You know that I love work (because it keeps me in shape and helps me to exercise my mind) so that was exactly what I got. Last week, I stated the first 5 of the 10 principles that have guided me throughout my life. This article will shed light on the remaining 5.

6) Seek Counsel:
It is a known fact that people who seek advice from different people will never go astray. When venturing into something new, it makes more sense to ask people who are more knowledgeable in that field so that you don’t make too many mistakes and save resources that would have been expended to correct those mistakes.

7) Always be thankful:
Every morning, when I wake up, I thank God for the miracle of seeing a new day because I know that between the time that I was busy “snoozing” and when I woke up, some people lost their lives and valuable properties. That mindset will keep you positive throughout the day.

8) Actions speak louder than words:
I can only explain this with a saying that we used during my secondary school days, “Maja na water, action na blood”. If I cannot do something, I will never say that I can do it. I always like my work to speak for itself. It makes my life much easier.

9) Keep your peace:
I cannot do anything that does not give me peace of mind. I know of some situations that I went ahead to ignore my conscience and men…. the outcome of those decisions weren’t worth it at all.

10) Do your part:
If you are given any task, at home, school, or at work, make sure that you do it with all your heart. The Bible even states, “Seest thou a man diligent in his…., he shall stand before kings and not before mean men.” With that quote in mind, I always put in my best into any work I am given. If you are a paid worker, do your job like it is your company and before long, you will be elevated. Do not join the crowd of people who only work when the boss is around. Remember that what goes around, comes around.
I hope this article has made as much impact as I intended.

Thank you for taking out time to read this.
Have a great week ahead.

Your Personal Letter (Part 1)

2009-05-15T22:30:00.000+01:00

This week was a little uneventful for me, uneventful in the sense that I didn’t run around doing my work as I normally love to. I stayed indoors because I took ill and was advised to take a break. During this period, I really got to do some sober reflection and decided to write out some principles that have guided me throughout my life.
I call it “Your personal letter”.

Everyone knows what a letter is, most times letters come in envelopes and you don’t get to see what is in the letter until you read it. We are all like letters and your behavior and attitude to life can be regarded as what is written in your personal letter. No one would really know you until he/she reads you. Ok… I think I am getting fuzzy. Let me get back in the zone. Below are the 10 principles that have guided me through life and I thought I should share.

1) Love God

One day during my NYSC, I mistakenly left some sugar on the floor of my room and before long I saw some hardworking ants enjoying the bountiful harvest I left. I noticed them but instead of attacking them, I decided to watch them and a thought came to me. What if I were God and the ants there represented the human race always “huzzling” to make ends meet and always wanting to do their own thing. Wouldn’t I find it funny if that ant suddenly stood up and said, “I don’t need you, I am storing this sugar because I have the ability to produce it”. I would laugh because I know that with the slightest effort, I could crush the whole battalion or better still pick up my cube of sugar and wipe the whole battalion off with a mop!!! Living a life without acknowledging God is the easiest way to stay frustrated.

2) Love your neighbor as yourself:

Whatever you know that if someone did or said to you and you wouldn’t like it, do not do or say it to someone else. If someone still hurts you even though your hands are clean, just continue being good and eventually “kasala” will burst and when it bursts, it would be pure entertainment. I remember in my university days, one girl decided to make it her life goal to spread all kinds of rumors about me. I do not notice those kinds of things because I really don’t have that kind of time or energy to waste. I always did my thing and got out. I heard some of those rumors but just left her. For 2 years she continued until the day her cup got full and all the secrets that she thought she had, were revealed. What she didn’t know was that people were also talking bad about her as she was talking bad about me. I still remember coming back to the hostel after shopping for my corporate day suit and was forced to watch serious real life film show. It was that day that I heard in details all she had said about me. I still remember it to this day and laugh. (Kai… public disgrace is bad o!!!)

3) Judge not so that you may not be judged.

I always try to make it a personal motto not to judge people. When I hear stories about people I try not to judge them because not only is it a pure waste of time, I am not sure of what I would have done if I were in their shoes. Let’s get real, we are all humans and prone to mistakes but our ability to realize and “sharply” correct those mistakes is what makes us higher than goats or cows. Whenever I read about David in the Bible, I marvel at the fact that even with all his sins: he took someone’s wife and killed her husband he was still called him a man after God’s heart. Saul prosecuted Christians but went on to be one of the greatest apostles of Christ that ever lived. Why then are we so uptight if God who made the rules can still forgive. I really wonder.

4) Never bite the finger that fed you (or still feeds you)

Recently I was shocked to my very core when someone I know called me and was complaining about the salary his boss pays him. I was surprised because he got there through pure favor and I just kept wondering why he was being greedy and ungrateful, comparing salaries and going around trying to find out things that are really not his business. This guy has a six figure salary that a lot of hardworking unemployed graduates would kill for. That attitude will never give anybody true success and the joy that it brings with it. I have since regarded his comments as part of the human nature.

5) Speak evil of no man.

I really believe in the law of karma and I try not to say anything about anyone that I cannot say to his face if I am summoned. (I no fit chop slap…lol) That attitude will help you check the rate at which you gossip. I believe that people will not speak evil about you if you do not speak evil about someone else and if they do, it will never hold water because your good deeds will surpass the bad impression that they want to create.

I will stop here for now. Please expect the concluding part of this post next week.

Have a great weekend.

The Joy of Pain

2009-05-09T23:18:00.001+01:00

Early this week, I watched a show on the series channel called “The doctors”, it is a show with four medical practitioners who answer questions from the audience and viewers at home. The particular episode that moved me was that of a 9 year old called Ashlyn Blocker who had a disease called CIPA (Congenital Insensitivity to Pain with Anhidrosis). She cannot feel any form of pain whatsoever. Anyone would hear that and think, “Wow… that is so cool so she can’t feel anything, if she hurts herself, it wouldn’t hurt” I know a lot of people who are feeling a lot of pain right now and would wish they could swap places with her. If you are one of them… think again.
The truth is that the disease is so dangerous that she could place her arm on a hot iron and her palm would be burning and she wouldn’t know. She could break a leg and wouldn’t even realize it until it is too late. At one time, she hurt her eye so badly and would have lost that eye completely if her mother didn’t come in early enough. Another boy with the same condition had literarily almost chewed off his tongue, some years before that, he had chewed on a lot of things until his teeth fell out and guess what? He didn’t feel a thing. Most children with that condition do not live longer than 3 years because they can have a fever and not know, not cry and not get treated until their bodies boil over. Do you still like the condition? I guess not!!!

After watching that episode, I began to appreciate the pain that I feel when I hurt my leg when walking, cut my finger when chopping tomatoes, touch a hot spoon, eat a hot meal, bite my tongue when chewing gum, scratch my arm, have a headache, have a cramp etc, I even thank God for the pain on my legs and arms as I type this post.
It is so funny that something we take for granted and sometimes wish we didn’t feel is something 18 families in the U.S (yes… they are that few) are praying earnestly for.

Next time your kid, cousin, sibling, nephew, niece, family member, friend etc cries out of pain, thank God that they can feel that pain because there is a parent out there who wishes that his/her kid could if only for a split second do that.

Have a great weekend

Time na Money

2009-05-02T22:44:00.000+01:00

I remember a song I used to hear on the radio when I was much younger, it used to go like this,

“Time na money o, time na money, time na money o, time na money. No waka waka, no gossip gossip, take your time o, do better thing… money no go come from heaven do better thing money go come… na true word I dey tell you so….”

I got the full concept when I decided to try something. I decided to calculate my future net worth in hours and tried to do only valuable things with my time. Anytime I found myself wasting time, I reminded myself that I had just wasted “xyz dollars”. For example, let us say that the future net worth you desire is 1 million dollars per year, dividing $1,000000 by 365days gives you $2739 per day. Dividing $2739 by 24 to get your value per hour gives 114.2 dollars. This means that for every hour you waste, you have just wasted $114.2. The constant awareness of that will always keep you on your toes anytime any “time-killer” encroaches into your life.

Someone may ask, “what if I have to spend time with family and friends, is that a “time-killer”? Well, I would say that it depends on how much time you spend and what you are doing with the time. If you spend the whole day gossiping when you have a lot of things screaming for your attention then that is not wise. It is our responsibility as mature people to learn how to strike a balance. Any time spent with family should be regarded as an investment into their lives and your relationship with them. Any time spent relaxing outdoors, listening to music, etc should be regarded as an investment into your health and well being. When you read books and magazines, then you should be aware that you are spending 114.2 dollars per hour so you better make it worth your while. Let us decide to be more conscious that any time wasted can never be regained. There can never be another 10:23 pm on the 2nd of May, 2009.
I hope this article has been worth your while

Have a great weekend

We Are Here

2009-04-23T23:25:00.001+01:00

They were a happy family of 6. Everybody who met them wanted to be like them. No one knew about the little secret that kept causing them a lot of pain. Slowly, their finances started dwindling and people began to wonder what was happening to the once cheerful family. Hidden beneath smiles was a mother’s fear that one day, the cold hands of death would snatch her first son away. Before long, the hospital emergency room became their home and their home seemed to fade into the past. They spent money on the illness until they started spending their own blood.
After 27 years of the struggle, they began to breathe easy, but alas they got the news that their beloved son had died in a major crisis the night before. It happened when everyone least expected it.

This is a true life story of a family with a sickle cell anemic child. I met a sibling (a carrier) of his over the weekend on my way back to Lagos. The death of his brother and a lot of children has driven him to fight the disease with all his might. He is organizing an awareness campaign to inform the public about the disease. (I thought I was enlightened enough but I didn’t even know that there is something like SC which is even more deadly than the SS that most of us are aware of and guess what? It is in Nigeria)

A lot of people do not know that their children have it. Some believe that it is a curse. You would be amazed at how many fathers abandon their wives when they find out that their child has the condition. These women are left to suffer with these children and most times the children die because they do not have access to quality drugs and healthy food.

We know people directly or indirectly who suffer everyday because of this condition. Most of them suffer in silence because of the way the society labels them as “sicklers”. But they are not sicklers, they are rare gems who have extraordinary intelligence, beauty, wisdom, drive and motivation to change the world. If you have ever lost a friend, room mate, class mate, sister, brother, cousin, aunt, acquaintance or you are concerned and you want to find out how you can help, please email him on secureage_2004@yahoo.com.

Thank you

The Devil Wears Prada

2009-04-18T16:53:00.000+01:00

On Easter Sunday, I watched a comedy drama, “The Devil Wears Prada” because i was intrigued by it’s title. The movie starred Anne Hathaway as an upcoming writer who had just been employed by the biggest magazine in New York. Her boss was played by Meryl Streep who was both overbearing and feared in the whole fashion industry. She basically called all the shots. At first, Anne Hathaway’s character was immune to the fashion brouhaha and regarded everything they did as a joke. As time went on, because she felt that that was the only firm that could fast track her career, she started to develop a better dress sense but began to lose her basic values. Her friends kept raising eyebrows whenever she made the excuse that she didn’t have a choice but to take some bad decisions. At the end, she got a wake-up call when she complained to Meryl Streep’s character after a colleague of hers was passed up for promotion and she was reminded that she had done the same thing to an assistant she had previously worked with. She walked away from the job that day and was eventually recommended by the Meryl Streep’s character for her next job.

What I learnt from the movie is that we lose our peace when faced with decisions that go against our basic values. That loss of peace is a sign that all may not go well, most times we go against that warning and go ahead to take that decision. The result of those decisions is painful and more expensive to tackle.

For instance, let us say that you are in charge of procurement for a company and you interview different suppliers and a supplier presents a ridiculously low quotation, is not time conscious and doesn’t seem serious. You get those signals that he is not professional but you go ahead because you are greedy and are looking for more profit. You may end up spending the extra gain that you thought that you would get chasing him around town.
Go for the supplier that gives you more peace and is more professional. A good name is more important than silver or gold.

Have a great weekend

"Pure Water" or Table Water

2009-04-11T21:14:00.000+01:00

The title of this post cracks me up. It was inspired by a discussion that took place at home 3 days ago. Someone brought out a sachet of water popularly known as “pure water” and brought out a bottle of water made by the same company and asked the following question, “Why would a customer buy table water (the more expensive version) instead of sachet water assuming that both are manufactured from the same company?” We, the participants of the discussion had various opinions. Here are my reasons why a consumer would buy table water instead of pure water:

1) He believes that the table water is of higher value than the sachet water i.e it was produced in a better, more professional and cleaner environment.
2) He knows that he would most likely reuse the bottle at home.
3) He doesn’t want to carry a half-filled sachet of water when moving from one place to the other because the water may spill on him, it is not convenient.
4) He doesn’t want the sweat from the pure water sellers to touch the tip of the sachet where he would eventually sip from.
5) Table water is a fashion statement (does this sound absurd? Trust me… this is for real… in my university days, you dare not walk into class especially morning class with “pure water”, ah!!! just “je-je” (quietly) gather your 50 naira, go to the vending machine and buy your table water, you could buy the sachet water in your room where there is nobody to impress.

Table water version has been well branded to make you want to drink water just by watching the advert.

Just like the sachet water and the table water produced from the same plant, we all came into being from one source (God). On the basic level, we are no different from each other. A consumer (employer, interviewer, business partner, parent, spouse etc) will pay more for you if;

Reason 1: He believes that the table water is of higher value
The way you think, speak and act is the way you advertise yourself to potential consumers. People will rate you based on your perceived worth.

Reason 2: He knows that he would most likely reuse the bottle at home.
How “reusable” are you. How many skills do you have? Is the basic degree you earned in school the only thing you think you can do? Can you speak fluently? Do you have good interpersonal skills? In addition to being an engineer, Can you read financial statements? Can you do little procurement? Can you write legibly? Can you sell? Can you sing? Can you think fast? If you do not have at least three skills, you may not go very far. Why do you think that programming gurus in high level programming companies hardly rise to the managerial positions? This is because they are good at only one thing and that is programming. Most of them lack the interpersonal skills that are necessary to take them to the top management level.

Reason 3: He doesn’t want to carry a half-filled sachet of water when moving from one place to the other because the water may spill on him.
How fast do you adapt to change in your immediate environment? Can people depend on you to stay strong even in not-so-favorable conditions? Will your contents spill out with the slightest application of pressure? Your IQ can only take you into an organization, what keeps you there and takes you up is Emotional Intelligence which is basically your ability to adapt to change and effectively manage situations.

Reason 4: He doesn’t want the sweat from the pure water sellers to touch the tip of the sachet through which he would eventually sip.

Do you always appear clean and neat everywhere you go. Do you leave people always wanting to associate with you? Do people feel safe with you? Are you organized or are you perceived to be disorganized? Is your picture supposed to be in the Longman Dictionary beside the word chaos? (lol)

Reason 5: (This is slightly related to Reason 1)

In conclusion, how much you make and how much you are respected can only be determined by your perceived worth. If no one is ready to stretch his budget a little to “buy” you, then you need to start working on repackaging yourself by first developing what is within you. If you do that long enough, it will start to show on the outside and before long, your net worth will increase. Just remain steadfast.

Please note that the above post is not to discourage readers from buying sachet water, I just used an every day life scenario to emphasize my point.

Have a great Easter break

Mind Magnet

2009-04-07T16:22:00.000+01:00

Have you ever had a song you have not heard in ages suddenly pop into your mind or scenes from a movie you watched long ago suddenly being replayed in your head? Have you ever wondered why this happens? I did and I discovered that our minds work like a very big hard disk where information is being downloaded to every second of every day. Every image you view, every song you hear and the feelings associated with those images and songs are stored in different parts of the brain for future use.

Recently, I embarked on a task of “detoxifying” my mind. The detoxification process involved intentionally checking what I listen to, what I watch, the thoughts and songs that I allow my mind to dwell on and the words that I allow myself to speak. I immediately dismissed any thought, image or song that didn’t align with what I wanted to remain in my mind and replaced them with the ones that were fit for my mind. It was during this process that I began to fully appreciate the capacity of the mind. I was astonished by the number of songs that flashed my mind on a daily basis. Do you know that for almost every word or object I saw read or saw or sound I heard, there was a song or an image associated with it. For instance, I woke up and saw a diary and the song that came to my mind was Alicia Keys “Diary”, I saw a remote control and remembered the DSTV PVR remote control advert on TV. I heard a tune and immediately remembered all the words to a song that sounded like the tune. It was just mind blowing.

As I lay down pondering about it, I reconfirmed what I had heard and read in a couple of books about how the mind has a key role in shaping your destiny. Every little piece of information that you expose your mind to will act in accordance or in opposition to your vision for life. How can I want to be happily married in future and sing songs or listen to a song like “Your love is wicked?” by Brick and Lace or “So what” by Pink. In Pink’s song, a line goes this way, “I guess I just lost my husband, I don’t know where he went” Can you imagine? You listen to that song, sing it and when your words become reality you wonder what happened. You are just getting what you declared. Or you watch a film filled with intense suffering and sadness, where someone spends 75% of the time crying (We have Africa Magic to thank for that!) and immediately, your mood changes and feelings of hopelessness begin to fill your mind. It is what you have fed your mind that is at work.

The quality of your life can never be better than the quality of your thoughts. Read books that develop the skills you want to acquire. Drop all those tabloids and gossip magazines that contain stories that add no value to your life. If you pick up a book or magazine, ask yourself this simple question, “What will I gain from reading this?” If reading it will only result in wasting your time please drop it. If you are about to listen to a song, check the lyrics and if it makes no sense, don’t bother listening to it. If you are about to say something that doesn’t edify your mind, keep quiet. You really don’t have to talk. Start treating yourself as the
person of great value that you are. You are not like everybody so don’t do what everybody does. Start seeing yourself as a moving production floor of ideas and inventions. Any input that will not aid the production of a quality idea should not be allowed into your production floor.

"Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life"-Proverbs 4:23

Have a great week.

View from the top

2009-03-22T20:27:00.000Z

Recently, I was at the window of a very tall building. Looking down on the multitude of cars and people on the road, I wondered at how little all the cars and houses seemed. At that height, I couldn’t differentiate between a jeep and a saloon car. All the people and cars just looked very tiny and began to think about how little we must all be in God’s eyes if at the height I was on, everything seemed really small.

At God’s height, your status, the type of car you ride, the amount of money you have, how pretty or handsome you are doesn’t matter. We are all like little ants in his sight. “So why do we place so much importance on status and the material things if all of it can end in a split second?” I wondered...

I am still wondering.

Me Myself and I

2009-03-10T20:09:00.000Z

This post was inspired by an experience that I had last night while working on a problem that had persisted for two days. It started when I decided to move my blog from the blog spot domain to my personal domain as a way of improving the quality of my blog and making it look more professional (I am sure that you have noticed the new pictures before every article). After registering the new domain, I proceeded to move the blog from blog spot to my personal domain but I discovered that the new site couldn’t open. I called up a friend who knew more about websites than I do, explained the problem to him and gave him my details to work on the problem. He suggested some solutions and I took them but they didn’t work. We decided to give it time and throughout the next day, I kept checking the internet on my phone to know if the site was up but nothing happened. By night that day, I was getting frustrated and called up a couple of people who I thought could help but I couldn’t get through to them so I decided that I was going to fix the problem by myself. I checked the net and after about an hour of going through various sites, I fixed the problem. I was so elated that I could solve a problem that I didn’t know that I had the ability to solve.

I learnt from this experience that we all possess inside of us that which we need to solve any problem we encounter. All I needed to do was to stretch my thinking and apply a little bit of persistence. I would never have discovered how to fix the problem if I had gotten through to my friends. I would have continued to remain dependent on them any time a problem like that arose. It was only when I reached the wall and realized that the solution to the problem all depended on me that the inspiration to solve the problem came to me.

Most of the highest breakthroughs come when you have reached the point where you have no other external help. It is at that point that your mind starts to get creative and works on finding solutions to the problem. Most Nigerian comedians discovered that their talent could take them places when they were faced with serious financial difficulties and couldn’t find help anywhere else. This forced them to look within and today, most of them are doing well. One comedian is known for using the phrase, “Hunger begets talent” It is only when you are between the devil and deep blue sea that inspiration from within is forced to come out and your horizon is forced to expand. Most people do not reach their full potential until they are faced with circumstances that are so trying that they have no option than to conquer it if they intend to succeed. It is only when we realize that problems are only present in our lives not to defeat us, but to stretch our minds and take us to a higher level of achievement that we begin to take the first steps to success. This causes us to look forward to solving problems and we gain courage to take on every problem with great joy knowing that it can only get better.

Keep keeping on

A measure and a half

2009-03-05T20:34:00.000Z

There was once a very wealthy rich farmer who planted crops that yielded him so much money that he fame spread throughout the neighborhood countries. He was also known as being very generous and just in all his dealings. At the end of one planting season, he needed workers to help him harvest his yam farm, so he set out to look for workers. Soon enough, he found some workers and they agreed to work for him for a full day’s pay and went on to work on the farm. 3 hours later, he met another set of workers and also employed them for a full day’s pay. Some hours after that, he met another set of workers and the same thing happened. Two hours to the end of the day, he met some other people sitting around and asked them why they had not been working for the day. They replied, “Because no one hired us”. So he told them to go and join the other workers in his farm. At the end of the day, when his cashier was paying the workers starting with the ones who were employed last, he gave them a full day’s pay. Those who were employed earlier were happy because they figured that they would get more since they had worked for a longer period. They were however dismayed when they received the same amount as everyone. They grumbled among one another. The rich farmer on hearing what they were saying called out to them and asked why they grumbled even after they had previously agreed to be given a full day’s pay. He went on to explain that he had decided to give the workers who had come late a full day’s pay out of the abundance of his heart.

This story was adapted from a story in the bible in Mathew 20 which related the rich man to God.

I was inspired by the story because it showed clearly how God helps us to manifest once we are willing to take a bold step and put in some work. It didn’t matter that the last set of workers had arrived late; they were still given a full day’s pay. It then dawned on me that we humans are the ones putting all the limitations on ourselves by thinking that we have become too old to start something that we should have started earlier in life. Instead of wasting that time in regret, why don’t you just start? The worst that could happen isn’t failure but not trying at all.

The mere fact that you have been given that idea or that you are just about to act on an idea that you have had doesn’t mean that it is too late to succeed. The truth is that it is God who grants us the grace to succeed. As seen in the story from the workers that started work earlier, because someone else started earlier in life doesn’t mean that he will be more successful than you who are just about to start. The key is for you to start and tap into that wisdom which only God gives.

It really doesn’t matter what it is, it could be taking a new course in school, starting a business, changing your career, running a charity, developing a skill, meeting a financial target; whatever it is, don’t be crippled by the thought that it is too late. It is never too late until you are dead. The graveyard is the place filled with the most resources because buried in it are so many unfulfilled dreams and untapped potentials. Do not take your dreams to the grave. It will be such a colossal loss.

Have a great weekend.

Reverse Paranoia

2009-02-17T20:30:00.000Z

I came across the term “Reverse Paranoia” on a blog I follow regularly a couple of days ago and found it very interesting and in line with something I had been considering for the past month. While Paranoia is an abnormal tendency to be suspicious and lack trust in other people, that is the belief that everyone is against you and everything happens as part of a plan to cause harm to you. Reverse Paranoia is the belief that everything that happens is part of a plan for good things to happen to you. Reverse Paranoia is not a mental illness as Paranoia is, it is a conscious state of mind that most successful people have been known to have.

Once something “bad” happens to the average person, he whines about it all day long and say things such as, “I knew this was going to happen, nothing really good ever happens to me.” This person continues with that negative state of mind and continues to dwell on what has gone wrong and what else will probably go wrong. A person with Reverse Paranoia sees everything that has not gone according to plan as part of God’s divine plan to bring ultimate happiness to him. If a paranoid person is delayed on his way to a meeting by a flat tire, he whines and beats himself about it, puts himself in a bad mood and ultimately ruins his day. A person with reverse paranoia faced with the same situation stays calm, fixes the flat tire, drives to the meeting with the same calmness and confidence and puts the experience behind him. If things do not work out, he believes that it was not supposed to work out in the first place. That gives him peace of mind and put him in the best mind frame to go on with the rest of his day.

How many of us have been faced with “bad” situations that turned out better than our previous plan? You forget something at work on your way home and when you go back to get what you forgot you meet someone who gives you a ride home. You miss a flight or a bus and you take the next flight or bus only to find out that the one you would have taken if you had arrived earlier was involved in an accident. You fail an interview and you find a year later that your peers that passed the interview have been downsized by the company. You do not meet the cut-off mark for the University of your choice, you pick another school and sometime later, you find out that the school that you couldn’t go to, has some internal issues and students have been forced to stay at home. Someone breaks an engagement with you and you discover later that the person has alienated all his in-laws or is worse, dead. The list is endless but I am sure that everyone has been faced with a bad situation that ultimately turned out for good.

The outcome of that “bad” situation to a very large extent depends on how you handle it. For a situation where someone forgot something at work and goes back to get it, if she is in a bad mood, she might be too busy being angry that she might not see the person that is to give her a ride home. Now you see that she has failed to make the best of the situation because of her state of mind.

Choosing to have Reverse Paranoia should be done consciously, saves you a lot of stress and puts you in the best mind frame to make the best of every situation. By believing that everything works together for your good, you keep your mind alert to see opportunities that are hidden in the “bad” situation. It keeps you happy and in a state of mind that attract good things to your life. Reverse Paranoia works hand in hand with the Law of Belief which states that, “Whatever you believe with conviction, becomes your reality” and the Law of Expectation which states that, “Whatever you expect with confidence becomes your own self fulfilling prophecy.”

If you believe that nothing good can happen to you and that things can never run smoothly in your life, your attitude will be so bad that the right people won’t even be able to come into your life, bringing to pass that which you believed in the first place. If you believe the opposite, you will take fewer things to heart and radiate so much positive energy that you end up attracting the right people to your life. You will live a happy and very stress free life. Try it today.

Have a great week ahead.

Not my will

2009-02-07T11:58:00.001Z

Someone once told me a story that a philosophy professor he met on a flight told him. The professor always went to ease himself everyday after his three-hour philosophy class and each time he did and flushed the toilet, he always saw one little brown spider on the toilet bowl struggling for its life against the swirling water. Every day, he went there and saw the same spider struggling to get out of the toilet bowl. One day, he decided to help the spider, so he took a paper towel and scooped up the spider from the toilet bowl and put it on the floor. The next day, he went to the toilet as usual and found the spider dead on the floor, its eight feet in the air.Out of the kindness of his heart, the professor tried to help the spider thereby imposing his will on the spider and the result of his actions was the direct opposite of what he intended.

I am sure we can all think of situations that would have turned out better if only we had kept our hands to our sides and trusted the situation to God. The truth is that in every situation we find ourselves, God has already mapped out a great plan to get us out of it. The only thing we need to do is to submit to his will and trust him for directions. By running about, looking for ways to influence the outcome of situations without going to God first to ask for directions, we show that we do not trust Him enough to handle the situation and we end up making things worse. It is when we have messed things up by "butting in" that we finally remember God and go crying to Him for help. By then, it would take a longer time to find a remedy to the situation than it would have taken if we had just submitted to His will from the beginning.

The way you render a butterfly useless by using the smallest of pins to try to assist the little butterfly to come out of the pupa stage during the metarmorphosis process so it is when we impose our will on different situations. We mess up that which God has planned for us and end up settling for less than we would have gotten if we had just trusted in Him.

Psalm 125 vs 1: " Those who trust in the Lord are as secure as Mount Zion; They will not be defeated but will endure forever" Do you know what it means to endure forever? That is enough reason for me to keep my meddling fingers out of situations without first consulting God for directions.

This is especially important now that the NYSC passing out date is around the corner. So many people will begin, or have already begun to run helter skelter for people to help them to get employment in different establishments. While it is not wrong to be proactive in things concerning your future, it would do us much more good if we first of all went to God in prayer and asked Him for directions while submitting to His will.

Naughty Goat

2009-02-04T11:59:00.000Z

One morning about two weeks ago, my attention was drawn to the early morning paper review on one of the local channels. It is a programme where two presenters read out the headlines on all the daily newspapers. The headline that caught my attention was one concerning a goat that was accused of stealing a mazda car. At first I thought it was one of those headlines that journalists make up to stimulate readers to buy the paper only to find out later that the real story is about something else. I was proven wrong when the strory was read out and it was about how a thief who was about to be arrested for stealing a mazda car allegedly turned into a goat to escape arrest. So many thoughts crossed my mind as I stared at the T.V screen mesmerized by what i was hearing. I continued to think about it throughout the day. How could a human being change to a goat? What would push someone to go that far? Was the goat supposed to run faster than a human being? Why did he choose to change to a goat instead of a bird which could easily fly away? Where did the thief's clothes go? How would he change back? Would he ever change back? Were the policemen sure that the thief actually turned into a goat? Did they actually see the thief turn into a goat or did they lose the thief while they were chasing him and decided to pin the crime on a harmless goat? How long would they keep the goat in custody?

If the thief actually turned into a goat, then it shows how far people would go to commit crimes. It shows how badly our morals as a society have degraded. The fact that someone would chose to change into a creature much lower than a human being just to get away with stealing still baffles me. It just doesn't make sense to me. Did the theif consider that he could be putting his life in danger while in his goat form? Did he consider that he could get knocked down by a car or he could get stolen by a petty theif and end up being someone's supper? I still find it extremely unbelievable that the goat that was captured was the theif that stole the mazda car and if it really is, I am sure that the man-goat has learned in a hard way that crime truly does not pay.

Keep keeping on

What goes around

2009-01-15T16:56:00.000Z

Those who know me know that I am a “Television series junkie”. What that means is that I am addicted to TV series, once I start a new series, I don’t stop until I have watched all the episodes of that series that I can lay my hands on. My friends often wonder what my fascination with these series is. I can’t explain it; I guess I am thrilled by the fact that I can follow the stories of the characters in these series and watch as their stories unfold. From “Desperate Housewives” to “Grey’s Anatomy” to “Prison Break” to “Heroes” to “Everybody hates Chris”. With every new month, I find a new TV series to watch. 3 months ago, I was watching “House M.D”, the month after; I was watching “Ghost Whisperer”. Last month, I watched “One Tree Hill” and this month, I am watching “CSI-NY”

CSI-NY is short for Crime Scene Investigators New York. The story revolves round a group of investigators who solve murder cases. They dust the crimes scenes for finger prints, take out fiber samples, perform autopsies on the corpses and ultimately find those who are responsible for the murders.

I was particularly moved by an episode that involved the murder of a 19 year old girl who was murdered in the hospital, while recovering from an operation as a result of an auto crash. Nicole had been in the car with her best friend Heather. Nicole and Heather did almost everything together, they always wore similar hairstyles, went to the same parties, hung out with the same crowd. Those who didn’t know better thought that they were twins. They had gone to a party and had the accident as a result of drunk driving. Heather had died on the spot and Nicole was paralyzed and her face was beyond recognition. Her parents couldn’t understand how someone would still go ahead and kill their daughter who was already in that kind of state. When the investigators arrived at the murder scene, they met both mothers together. Heather’s mother, a volunteer in the hospital was comforting Nicole’s mother. The investigators launched into the investigation and with time, they found out that the killer was female and shared similar genes with the victim. They tested Nicole’s mother but her genes didn’t match that of the victim. They tested Heather’s mother and found out that her genes matched that of the victim. She killed the victim because she was so angry that her daughter Heather had died and Nicole survived even though Nicole was driving and was the cause of the accident. What she didn’t know was that Nicole who was too drunk to drive had given Heather her driver’s license because she knew that they looked alike and if the police stopped them on the way, they wouldn’t be able to spot the difference as they looked very much alike. Heather was mistaken for Nicole because of Nicole’s driver’s license that was found in her back pocket. The angry mother killed her own daughter.

This is a very sad story as it portrayed how a woman’s anger and jealousy drove her to kill her own daughter. The ill she wished on someone else became her portion.

What goes around comes around

Making Resolutions Work

2009-01-07T16:50:00.001Z

I use this opportunity to officially welcome you into the New Year. I know it is a bit late, but as they say, it is better late than never.
The New Year has brought with it so many articles on personal development and how to turn your life around in the New Year. Many of them have been inspiring, very well written and well presented but many lack one thing- They are not realistic. I read one that basically suggested to the reader to become a different person in order to maximize the New Year. It involved steps that I found highly impossible in a short period of one year.

It is a normal practice for people to start every year with a New Year resolution. A New Year resolution is a list of things someone wants to achieve within the year. It is a known fact that a lot of people abandon their resolutions before April. I have been wondering why this is so and I have come to the conclusion that it is because most New Year resolutions are too long. The problem with a long list of resolutions is that it can be very overwhelming and eventually breaks your focus. As the year runs by, it gradually becomes difficult to remember all the items in the list and with time, the list is forgotten and the person goes back to the former way of life. This can be very disappointing and often leaves the person with a feeling of failure very early in the year.

The advantage of a short list is that it is very easy to remember and focus on. Every goal that is achieved leaves the person with a lot of energy and a high sense of achievement. The person believes that he can conquer all and indeed he can. I know someone that achieves all his goals for every new year by September, what he does after that is that he proceeds to add a few more things to the list because he is sure that if he could achieve the first set of resolutions, a few more would be a walk in the park and it usually is. His list never has more than 4 items and he is a very happy man.

Before you are tempted to adopt the super hero method of writing a long list of New Year resolutions, remember the advantages of a short list and keep it short and simple.

Have a very fulfilling new year

Telling Great Lies

2008-12-01T08:13:00.000Z

I know that a lot of people who come across this will wonder what I mean by the title. I was reading the book, “Retire Young Retire Rich” by Robert Kiyosaki and I came across the concept. I found out that when one makes a statement such as “I can never have enough money” or “I can never be rich” or “I can never be happy” that these statements are actually lies because they are not based on actual facts. They have not been to the future to actually confirm that they can never be those things, so basically, they are lying. The same applies to when someone makes statements such as “I will be very rich in future” or “I will pass my exams” or “I will be happily married”. The truth is that anything you say about yourself will eventually become a reality in future. This means that those lies that you tell about yourself eventually come true. This is because those words are planted in your mind and begin to affect your actions and your future is a result of your actions based on the words you have spoken to your mind. So when a person makes a statement such as “I cannot have enough money”, what happens is that the person’s mind picks up the message of poverty and transmits it to the brain, so that when an opportunity to make money comes up, the mind shuts off itself from that opportunity causing the person to remain at that level of poverty. The same applies to when a person makes a positive statement such as, “I will be very rich”, the person’s mind picks up the message and the brain continues to work out ways for the person to become rich such that when an opportunity to make money arises, the mind immediately picks it up and the person takes advantage of the opportunity. I think it makes more sense for me to have a great life as a result of positive lies I have told in the past about my future than to have a life filled with pain and sadness as a result of negative lies.

I am not saying that telling lies with the intent to deceive is good, but when it comes to our future, we should watch the words we use because our words do become a reality. Just as God used words in the creation process and every thing He spoke came to pass so every word we speak eventually will comes to pass because we were created in his image which means that we possess that same gift.

Telling great lies is actually easy and costs nothing. If nothing, it helps to shape our future and keeps us in a better mood. So next time you feel down and negative thoughts fill your mind and you feel that those negative lies are about to pop out of your mouth, just remember that your words have the potential to become flesh and choose to speak positively. Make positive speaking a habit and watch your life and your outlook about life change for the better.

Till you hear from me again,

Keep Keeping on.

May I Borrow 25 dollars?

2008-11-20T16:00:00.000Z

As we go about our daily activities trying to achieve that dream life we want for our family, we might find out that we may in the process, alienate those people that we do all the work to cater for. I read this story a while back and decided to share it to remind us to spend time with those that truly matter.

Read on...

A man came home from work late, tired and irritated, to find his
5-year old son waiting for him at the door

SON: 'Daddy, May I ask you a question?
DAD: 'Yeah sure, what it is?' replied the man.
SON: 'Daddy, how much do you make an hour?'
DAD: 'That's none of your business. Why do you ask such a thing?'
the
man said angrily.
SON: 'I just want to know. Please tell me, how much do you make an
hour?'
DAD: 'If you must know, I make $50 an hour.'
SON: 'Oh,' the little boy replied, with his head down.
SON: 'Daddy, may I please borrow $25?'

The father was furious, 'If the only reason you asked that is so you
can borrow some money to buy a silly toy or some other nonsense, then
you march yourself straight to your room and go to bed. Think about
why you are being so selfish. I don't work hard everyday for such
childish frivolities.

The little boy quietly went to his room and shut the door.

The man sat down and started to get even angrier about the little
boy's questions. How dare he ask such questions only to get some
money?

After about an hour or so the man had calmed down and started to think:
Maybe there was something he really needed to buy with that $25.00,
and he really didn't ask for money very often. The man went to the
door of the little boy's room and opened the door. 'Are you asleep,
son?' He asked. 'No daddy, I'm Awake,' replied the boy.
'I've been
thinking, maybe I was too hard on you earlier' said the man. 'It's
been a long day and I took out my aggravation on you. Here's the $25
you asked for. The little boy sat straight up, smiling. 'Oh, thank you
daddy! He yelled. Then, reaching under his pillow he pulled out some
crumpled up bills. The man saw that the boy already had money, started
to get angry again. The little boy slowly counted out his money, and
then looked up at his father. 'Why do you want more money if you
already have some?' the father grumbled... Because I didn't have
enough, but now I do, the little boy replied.

Daddy, I have $50 now. Can I buy an hour of your time? Please come
home early tomorrow. I would like to have dinner with you.

The father was crushed. He put his arms around his little son, and he
begged for his son's forgiveness. It's just a short reminder to all of
you working so hard in life. We should not let time slip through our
fingers without having spent some time with those who really matter to
us, those close to our hearts. Do remember to share that $50 worth of
your time with someone you love...

If we die tomorrow, the company that we are working for could easily
replace us in a matter of hours. But the family & friends we leave
behind will feel the loss for the rest of their lives.

Making Silent Impact

2008-11-06T14:13:00.000Z

I was really pleased today when I got a call from one of my friends. We had not talked in a while and I was really pleased to hear from him. While we were talking, mentioned my blog and said that he enjoyed reading the articles I posted but he was surprised that I no longer posted as often as I used to. I was really shocked because I had never mentioned my blog to him. He happened to be browsing one day, decided to google me and stumbled on my blog and he had been reading since then. I was surprised because I never knew that I was making impact. To me, I was just writing thoughts that crossed my mind. It never occurred to me that there were people who were reading and not making comments. It reminded me of a story I read somewhere about a pastor who was giving a testimony about how he got saved about 15 years earlier. He was walking on a street and a poor scruffy looking homeless man approached him, looked into his eyes and asked, “Where would you go to if you dropped dead right now?” with that the homeless man walked away. The question kept running through the pastor’s mind and he gave his life to Christ that night. After service that day, a woman walked up to him and told him that she had been converted by that same man’s question. The pastor then went in search of the man. He saw him on that same street and told him about how that question he had asked him years ago was responsible for his salvation and indeed that of a lot of his church members. The old homeless man just marveled and said, “I didn’t know that what I was doing mattered. I just had to get the word out and that was the only way I knew how”

The homeless man never knew that by asking that simple question over the years, he was making a lot of impact in people’s lives. He just kept doing the little he could.
We should learn from this homeless man and strive to continue doing the little we can to affect our environment positively. You may get discouraged and be tempted to give up as it may not seem like you are achieving anything, but in reality you may be the source of inspiration to more people than you are aware of. Keep doing what you are doing, you never know who is watching.

Till you hear from me again,

Keep keeping on.

Go Start Something

2008-10-17T16:45:00.000+01:00

I haven’t posted any write-up here in close to two months. I was experiencing some sort of writers’ block. It started with two weeks and before I knew it, a month had passed without posting anything on my blog. With each day that passed I was constantly reminded that I was going against what I always told people. I was not keeping on. Last week, as I lay pondering about the writer’s block I was experiencing, I remembered an MTN advertisement I had watched months ago. It started with a little girl of about 12 years, running up the stairs to meet her friend who was standing and waiting for her. Once she got to her friend, they started playing a game that involved both of them clapping hands first, then hitting each other’s palms, clapping hands again, then two other girls joined them and before long, more people had joined them in the game. The line kept getting longer and longer and extended beyond the house, across the street into a school yard. At the end of the advert, was a message… Go Start Something.

I had not realized the real meaning of that advert until that evening. Because two girls had decided to start playing that game, the result was a long line of almost 200 children. It all happened because they decided to start. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a step. The greatest producers in this world did not get to where they are today it simply by lying around and daydreaming or having doubts in their abilities. They didn’t wait for someone else to start for them to follow. They summoned courage, and took the first step, not giving into challenges they faced on their way and strove till they reached their destination. They went on to start something. I wish more people took this seriously. We would be surprised by how many more tasks would be completed, how many more potentials would be reached, how many more dreams would be fulfilled, if more individuals involved decided to start something.

Till you hear from me again,

Keep keeping on

What do you feel?

2008-08-23T14:36:00.000+01:00

What do you feel when you wake up one morning to find out that the person you once cried, laughed and shared fond memories with is no where to be found? Death has snatched the person away.
What do you feel when you find out you have been betrayed and all you have been led to believe was a lie?
What do you feel when you find out that your dreams and aspirations may never come to pass as you have missed a vital step required to get you there?
What do you feel when those you trust, your family seem to have suddenly turned against you?

You feel pain.

What you do when you feel pain is the test of your true character. Do you suddenly give up on life entirely; refuse to move forward by choosing to dwell on the cause of your pain? Is that the time when you choose to curse God with your attitude and the words of your mouth?

Pain is the natural emotion you feel when you are hurt physically or emotionally. It is like fire that purifies gold and makes it much more valuable and attractive when it is over.

When you feel pain is when you should draw closest to God. It is the point when you should surrender all your members to him and acknowledge that you have no power to deal with what you feel except that which he gives you. It is the point when you should ask Him to show you what you must learn from the experience. It is the time when you must ask Him for strength and be more determined to move forward knowing that the worst is behind you. When you do all that, you find out that your mind grows beyond that situation and you receive the strength which you require to move forward. Your mind begins to see ways out of the painful situation and you begin to get over that experience.

The problem people have is that when they are supposed to go back to God is when they give up, not realizing that the solution is just a step ahead. They end up doing much more harm to themselves than necessary. God allows us to feel pain to remind us of what a loving and caring father He is. You appreciate Him more, when you look back at that painful situation after everything has turned out well.

So my friend, when you feel pain, don’t give up.

Keep keeping on.

Have a great weekend.

Midnight Stars

2008-08-16T16:50:00.000+01:00

I was reading a book, "Jesus CEO" by Laurie Beth Jones and i read this poem, "Midnight Stars" written by her mother, Irene A. Jones. I was moved by the poem and i decided to share. See below:

I’ve wondered these days
Why you brought me here, Lord…
Far from my beloved ones
To this strange enchanted place…
alone for now…alone.

Wondering still I stepped out
into the cold winter night,
Looked to the midnight skies
And there…the glory of the Lord
Shone round about me!

I know the answer…for I saw
Heaven’s
Stars…millions…so many I could
Only stand in awe…
Overcome by stars…planets…
Galaxies…and then…a falling star!

For this I came…beauty to behold
Undimmed by raw city lights;
And in the darkling silence
Heard brother coyote sing
His lonesome song
To the star-kissed night.

Tears came that I should be so
Blessed…
That you would light my path, Lord…
Your angels guide my steps.
Alone? No. You are with me, I know.

My heart sings a solo…”Silent night,
Holy night, all is so calm, all is so
Bright,
Round your children bathed
In star’s light…
O holy night. O holy, holy night.

By Irene A. Jones

Why am I here?

2008-08-10T22:30:00.000+01:00

This question crossed my mind after I spoke to a co-worker. We were just talking while I was checking my e-mail and my online stock portfolio (which has depleted a whole lot as I had to sell a large portion in order to finance some “projects” that needed money. I don’t normally check my portfolio when I have company but I figured that there wasn’t much left so anyone was free to see. To my amazement, he exclaimed at the current value and wondered how I got to have so much (I must stress at this point, that the value is truly small). I was surprised at how he went about wondering aloud at how a “smally” like me, had been able to buy shares and save “so much”. I turned to him and said, “Little drops of water, make a mighty ocean”, I then went on to explain that I had saved some money while I was on industrial training and had bought shares gradually, took some profit from the little business I was doing then to buy some more. I also told him that I didn’t think that the value was large enough to warrant the kind of response I was getting from him. He just sighed and said, “Well, you were born with a silver spoon” and I said, “I was born with no spoon at all”. We kept discussing till I was able to make him realize that no matter how little you earn, there is still that little amount that you can set aside to save.

I must say that after our discussion, I felt really good about myself. I was able to affect a person, who had lived in ignorance for a better part of his life. It was at that point that the topic crossed my mind. Why am I really here? Why was I created by God? Why am I the way I am? Is it to make as much money as possible? To live as comfortably as I possibly can? To get as many degrees as possible? I don’t think so. I have seen and read about a lot of professionals, a lot of rich people who suddenly stop their jobs to pursue worthy causes. We read about foreign actors and actresses who support causes as large as the eradication of poverty, support of HIV patients, rape victims, improve education, and as little as providing mentorship to young teenagers and counseling little kids from broken homes. These are people who have come to realize that true fulfillment does not come from what we have amassed in terms of material wealth but what we have done to put a smile on the faces of people who are not as privileged as we are, people who do not have access to as much information as we do.

It could be as small as putting a smile on the face of a beggar on the road, helping a child with his/her homework, helping a friend through a personal problem, as simple as being a shoulder to lean on or as “complicated” as contributing to orphanages and to causes in church. The point is that there are so many things to be done, so many lives to touch and the responsibility lies on everyone. Let us make our environment a little friendlier, let us make ourselves a little more accessible and the truth is that once you start being more sensitive to people’s pain and start to do something about it, you feel an inexplicable form of peace. It is a warm sort of feeling that makes you forget about those problems you face because you know that God above is going to take care of you just as he has helped you to take care of someone else.

I can’t explain it, but it really works. That look of gratitude I see on the face of someone that I have helped or spoken with. That feeling of fulfillment I have, that feeling of peace beats any amount of money I have ever received, any degree I have earned, or any job I have landed. It really does. Try it. It works.

Have a great week ahead.

Stretching the limits

2008-07-26T11:53:00.000+01:00

About 4 months ago, I was at the veranda of my house, enjoying the early morning cool breeze and decided to water some of the potted plants. As I was doing that, I noticed a particular aloe vera plant that had broken its plastic pot. Its roots had grown so large that the pot could no longer hold it.

I marveled as I looked at the young, vibrant plant that was not willing to let its immediate environment to stifle what it had on the inside and I began to think about how we human beings allow our environment to limit us. How we seem to allow old laws and traditions that were set by our forefathers to determine our happiness, our future. How we allow what we see in our today to determine what our future would be. I thought of how instead of striving forward, instead of pursuing our dreams we let our environment, the options that are available to us now to determine how far we dare to reach in life.

That aloe vera plant had to oppose those constraints that were set by its environment. It had to break the pot: the one thing that was limiting its expression, its growth. Do we make up our minds to pursue our dreams no matter what the cost is, or do we give them up at the slightest threat of resistance? Are we willing to look foolish in order to achieve our goals or is the impression we are creating our major concern?

God has little use for people whose main concern is, “What would the neighbors think?” The greatest people that live and ever lived on this earth are people who didn’t care what people thought about their ideas, they are people who kept on striving forward to produce results, to reach goals that they had seen in their hearts regardless of what their present circumstances were. They never gave up; they never conformed to set down rules, limiting unwritten laws that were just put there to create a sense of security for the people who made them and are adopted by people too timid to do otherwise.

Sometimes I think of how foolish Noah must have felt when he was building an ark on a desert, people came, saw what he was building, laughed and walked away but he didn’t allow that to stop him because he was sure of what he had on the inside. Walt Disney’s concepts were seen as foolish, he went bankrupt in his first business endeavor but he still went on to build a multi million dollar company and his products are still appreciated by children today. Thomas Edison had thousands of failures before he finally succeeded in making the first light bulb and people still use his concept till today. Franklin Delano Roosevelt (the 32nd president of the United States of America) was warned by his staff that his plan to end the Depression were too large, too costly and too rough but he didn’t listen to them and today, he is credited with putting the country back on its feet.
The earth waits and celebrates those people who despite circumstances, reach out to fulfill their life vision.

Think about it.
Have a great weekend

Slow down

2008-07-11T07:38:00.000+01:00

Michael, a young executive in a fast growing investment bank had just been made partner in the company. He had over the years, closed the most difficult deals, brought in the biggest clients and traveled all over the world. At 35, he was the youngest person ever to be made partner in the company. As bottles of champagne were popped, he called home to inform his loving wife about the good news. The phone rang for 30 seconds, no response. “Oh, she must have gone to the neighbors, I will call back”, he thought. He called back 20 minutes later, no response. At that point, he began to panic. He called again and when she didn’t respond, he picked up his jacket, picked his car keys and dashed for home. When he got home, his house was empty. “Susan honey I am home, you wouldn’t believe what happened today...” No response. He got to Sam, his little son’s bedroom and found the room empty. All his toys, clothes, shoes were gone. His room looked like it had never been moved into. In panic, he rushed to the master bedroom; every other item of clothing apart from his, was gone. He rushed down to the living room to call the police, as he was about to dial the number, he found a note lying on the table. It said, “Michael, I am leaving you, I have taken Sam with me, please do not bother to reach us, till you hear from my lawyer” In dismay, he sat on the chair and began to think, “Why now? What have I done wrong? Is there someone else?” He looked on the table and found a tractor that Sam had made with his Lego bricks. At that point he started to weep as he remembered those mornings when Sam had tried to show him some of his new “inventions” and he was too busy with work, those days Suzan had complained bitterly about how he was always busy and never seemed to have the time for her, how he would just say he was sorry just to shut her up. He stood up from the chair and started to look at the pictures in room, the smiling faces of Suzan and Sam at Sam’s school play, ball game, birthday party and realized that one face was missing, his.

A lot of us are so driven by the quest for comfort, a better life, money, financial independence, higher social status, etc that we alienate those people who truly matter in our lives, our family. We are often too busy to attend children’s P.TAs, remember wives’ birthdays, forget to cook husband’s favorite meal, go out on weekends as a family, watch movies indoors, call close friends etc. Things that would not take much from us, but will go a long way to make those who we love feel truly special.

I watched the beginning of a film, I can’t remember the title but I can remember someone screaming, “Why do we die making a living”. Why do we die and “kill” our loved ones while trying to achieve something that would not matter if they were gone.

Michael in the story above had his priorities wrong, he strove so hard to climb higher in the company ladder that he kept on sweeping silent protests under the carpet, warning signs that all was not well in his family.

Do we have to wait till it degenerates to that level to do something about it? I believe that life is too short for us not to make out time to treasure those things that make life truly beautiful.

Think about it.

Have a great weekend

Our Silent Years

2008-06-28T10:16:00.000+01:00

Last weekend was a lovely one. I got to kick back and relax with my loved ones. We told ourselves that we were not going to talk about anything work-related for the whole weekend, in my opinion; we were very successful because at least we were able to do it for a whole day.

I consider myself as very lucky and rich because I surround myself with young, highly motivated, purpose driven people. I didn’t have enough liquid cash on me, but that didn’t affect my state of mind because I know that I have put measures in place to ensure that whatever financial increase I get, has its specific task.

There is a law that affects everyone irrespective of his discipline, religion, strength etc. This law is the law of SEED and HARVEST TIME. Just as I have never seen anyone who plants oranges expect to reap mangoes or anyone plant plantains with the hope of harvesting pineapples, (Luke 6 verse 43-44) it would be sheer stupidity for anyone to expect that somehow, without any effort, he will suddenly become rich. Even most people who win jackpots lose the money easily because they have not expanded their minds to be financially free. They “blow” the money in cars, vacations and before they know it, they are back to square one.

If you want to reap financial freedom, you must start today to put measures in place to ensure that you continue to sow the right information into your mind. You must ensure that you command a portion of any financial increase you have to work for you.

I find it amazing when in this day and age; people still say that they work for money. I begin to wonder how a human being who has been commanded by God to be fruitful and dominate would decide to be a slave to something that doesn’t even have life. The root cause is lack of information and a good financial plan.

Someone could argue that you can only implement a good financial plan when you have a lot of money; I personally think that that argument has no backing. If you earn say, 5,000 naira a month, what stops you from putting aside, 500 naira to save for the rainy day? What stops you from not just saving that money, but joining a cooperative or investment club where funds are pooled together and invested in the capital market, real estate and other investment vehicles where the return on investment would be much higher than just dropping it in the bank?

This brings my mind, back to a parable, which Jesus told his disciples in the bible about a master who was traveling and gave his 10 servants 10 pounds of silver. The first servant came back with 10 times what he gave him, the second servant came back with 5 times what his master gave him, while the one that did nothing with the money, lost that which he had to the most productive servant. Even as far back as then, his master asked him why he didn’t he at least put the money in the bank so that it could yield some interest. See Luke 19 verse 22-26

Your silent years are those years when you are still small. It is the time when you are still unknown to the world. It is the time when your name still doesn’t ring a bell. Silent years are very similar to the seed time. It is in your silent years you should start to read good books to expand your mind. It is the time to start instilling discipline in you. It is the time to learn how to invest, network with people, confess positively into your life, and keep away from “reducers” and “rejecters”. It is a time to consciously work out the kind of future you want to have.

We are warned in Proverbs 6 verse 10-11, “A little extra sleep, a little more slumber, a little folding of hands to rest-and poverty will pounce on you like a bandit; scarcity will attack you like an armed robber ” That word alone makes me shiver to my bones. Imagine poverty like an armed bandit invading your house. I am sure I don’t want that for my life and I know that you don’t want that either.

Please start planning your future today.

Have a great weekend

Love and Anger

2008-06-25T10:28:00.000+01:00

Hi Friends, this really got me thinking...

While a father was polishing his new car, his 4 yr old son picked a stone and scratched some lines on the side of the car. In his anger, the man took the child's hand and hit it many times, not realizing he was using a wrench.

At the hospital, his child asked, "Dad when will my fingers grow back?" Dad was so hurt. He went back to car and kicked it a lot of times. Sitting back, he looked at the scratches, and found out that his child had written, "I LOVE YOU DAD"

Anger and Love have no limits...

The Power of Association

2008-06-21T15:00:00.000+01:00

This topic has been on my mind for a while but no introduction ever seemed to fit. It was not until this morning, I was trying to wipe water that spilled on the floor. I had my bowl of water and my mop, and then my mind did a flash back to a HIV advert I watched on MTV about a year ago. Two young guys were about to go diving. The first guy insisted on going in with their safety gear. His friend said, “No we always go in with it, there are no sharks around. Let’s just go in this once without it.” The guy still argued with his friend a bit but finally his friend convinced him and they both dived in. Guess what, the sharks ate them.

It has been said, “Show me your friend and I will tell you who you are”. The truth is that those we constantly associate with will either add to us or remove from us. We begin to act, speak and think like those we have in our inner circle. If your inner circle is made up of people who just sit around gossiping and talking about non-issues, before long, you will turn to a gossip. If your inner circle is made up of people who are focused, driven and serious minded, you too will have no choice but to be like them. The bible also supports it in Proverbs 13vs20: He that walketh with wise men shall be wise but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.

In this part of the topic, I shall highlight 5 different kinds of friends.

Refreshers: These are people that strengthen your faith and energize and motivate you. They share a similar vision with you. When you interact with these people, your energy level is up and you stay inspired.

Refiners: These are people that clarify your vision. They are very similar to the refreshers.

Reflectors: These are people that neither add nor subtract from you. They just mirror your energy.

Reducers: These are people who try to diminish your goals and efforts to their comfort level. Most of the time, they are people that are too afraid to see beyond their present situation and they get uncomfortable when they see someone with a large vision. You find out that, after interacting with such people for a long period of time, you feel down. Please stay away from such people.

Rejecters: These are people who do not understand you or what God has called you to do. They keep criticizing everything. Please also stay away from such people.

Do have a great weekend

The Power of Negativity

2008-06-18T12:58:00.000+01:00

+ x - = - (positive multiplied by negative equals negative)
- x + = - (negative multiplied by positive equals negative)

I remember my early secondary school days, when we were introduced to algebra in general mathematics. I remember wondering why anytime the positive sign was multiplied by the negative sign, the answer was negative. I actually thought that the teacher made a mistake as I thought to myself, “surely the positive sign is supposed to defeat the negative sign.” It was not until I failed the first class work that the laws stuck to my head.

Recently, I was in a cab, coming back from work, I was reading a book, “Battlefield of the mind” by Joyce Meyer. I got to the “10 wilderness mentalities” and I let my mind wander. I kept thinking of how almost 80% of the people in my immediate environment always had something negative to say about the roads, the city, state, leaders, economy, police, PHCN and the country as a whole. I noticed that once I started to actively listen to those complaints, I began to feel unhappy. I began to notice so many things that I hardly used to notice. I had gradually begun to allow myself get negative.

There is a difference between being positive and being ignorant. Ignorance is being unaware of things you are supposed to be aware of, being positive is choosing not to dwell on those things that you truly can’t do anything about. Dwelling on those things will make you ungrateful for those things you have been blessed with.

Even David who constantly praised God and was known as the man after His heart acknowledged that he had started to allow negative thoughts to get into his mind: Psalm 73vs 3-14. In Psalm 73vs 15, he acknowledged that it was not right for him to voice out those thoughts. In Psalm 73vs 21-22, he acknowledged that having negative thoughts affected his happiness.

Do you ever wonder why it took the Israelites 40 years to complete an 8 day journey? It was because they were “whiners”. They always had something to complain about because their hearts were filled with negative thoughts. If it wasn’t that they were tired of manna, it was that the water was bitter, or that their enemies would destroy them. They couldn’t “mentally eject” themselves from their immediate situation. They couldn’t stop complaining, and the truth is that God doesn’t appreciate people who complain. When you complain constantly, it shows that you do not trust Him to take you out of your present situation. It also shows that you do not appreciate all the things you have.

Imagine you have a kid who complains about even the smallest thing, although you constantly provide for him. Before long you would not be motivated to keep providing for the kid.

The same thing applies to God, if you keep complaining despite all you have; He won’t want to provide you with another blessing to complain about.

Till you hear from me again,

Keep keeping on

A little pill to keep you going

2008-06-11T11:33:00.000+01:00

Hello my friends,
I got this message from a friend and really loved it, and decided to share with you all. I hope it inspires you as well as it did me.

Smooth roads never make good drivers. Smooth seas never make good sailors. Clear skies never make good pilots. A problem free life never makes a strong and good person. Have a tough but winning day ahead! Be strong enough to accept the challenges of life. Do not ask life, 'Why me?' instead say, 'Try me'.

Keep Keeping on
Efobi Chika'

The essence of time

2008-06-03T09:43:00.000+01:00

It was about 1am, I was lying down on my bed one night; you know those kinds of nights when sleep seems to have quarreled with you and doesn’t want to have anything to do with you, trust PHCN, there was no power so I couldn’t watch late TV. The only sound I heard was that of my wall clock. It seemed louder than normal because everywhere was dead silent. I would say that the sound bordered on being scary. As I lay there, with the sound of the clock as my only companion, it hit me. With every click of the clock, I was getting one second older. That second that just passed would never come back. I would never ever witness another 1:02am on the 27th of May, 2008. Time was gradually slipping out of my hands. As I kept pondering, my thoughts drifted to all that I had done the day before. “Had I achieved all that I set out to achieve?” “Did I waste my day, a day that I would never have the opportunity to witness?

I have come to realize that time is the only resource we as humans have at our disposal. It is the only thing that has been given to every human being in equal proportion. Every human being has 24 hours a day, 60 minutes an hour, 60 seconds in a minute. Every human has been given the freewill to do what he pleases with his time. It also dawned on me that at that moment while I was lying down and praying for sleep with all my heart, someone somewhere was reading. Someone in another country was signing a business deal that was worth a lot of dollars, another person was busy at work.

There is a saying, “Procrastination is a thief of time”, if our lives are made up of days, hours, minutes and seconds, then from the saying above, it shows that procrastination is a thief of our lives. If we continue to put away what we are to do today, till tomorrow, before long we would find out we have lived our whole lives without achieving anything.

Do not leave what you are to do today, till tomorrow.

Till you hear from me again,

Keep keeping on.

Aye Ole

2008-06-01T18:39:00.000+01:00

I woke up one saturday morning and turned on the TV. After about 5 minutes of flicking through the channels, i decided to settle for one that had videos of Nigerian songs on.

Watching "Aye Ole" (means life is not hard) video by Infinity. I was moved by the video as it portrayed 4 men who were going through turbulent times. They didn't give up because they had their eyes fixed on their destination and their hopes on God.

I often hear people say, "Men... this life is difficult." Life would continue to be difficult because their ears have heard what they have uttered with their mouths and authomatically, their minds begin to process it. Before long, everything about their lives begins to be hard. Nothing seems to work because all they will continue to see is the difficult side of life.

Picture this;

You are dressed in an immaculate white outfit ready to go for say, a party and as you are just stepping out of your house, a car zooms by and splashes muddy water on you. You can decide to get angry and start to haul insults on the already gone driver and every other person around or you can decide to save time, quietly go back into your house, thanking God that the car didn't hit you and change into something else. The fact is that, you feel any emotion you allow yourself to feel.

Choosing to stay happy and positive even when your immediate environment doesn't encourage it is a very difficult thing, but as you continue to practice it with the help of the Holy spirit, before long you will begin to live a happier and more fulfilled life. Things will begin to work out for you and before long, you will realise that life, truly is not hard.

Have a great week ahead

The Hitchhiker

2008-05-24T23:24:00.000+01:00

A young lady is driving home from a party at about 1am. Although the roads are very silent, she doesn't notice as her car windows are wound up and heater is working just fine. She has her best song on the car stereo and right at that moment she feels like a pop star. Suddenly, her car stops. She gets out of the car, opens the bonnet but cannot figure out what was wrong with the “machine”. She locks the car and thinks to herself. “Surely a cab should go by any time soon”. She waits for what seems like forever, no cab in sight. Her wrist watch tells her that she has spent an hour waiting for a cab. Her high heels hurt; she can feel calluses growing on her toes. She decides to trek home. All that she can look forward to is a warm bath and nice soft warm bed. She looks at her wrist watch and it is 2:30am.

Suddenly, she hears what sounds like a car driving at full speed from behind; she gets scared and starts to walk faster. The car slows down and the driver winds down and says, “Hi dear, you look worn out. Do you care for a ride?” Will she trust the driver enough to get into the car, or will she decide to continue in pain on the lonely road? She shakes her head and the driver zooms off.

As we walk on the road of life, we forget that there is a God who is ready to help us get to our destination faster. We try to do it on our own because we don’t trust Him enough. Let’s start trusting Him more and we’ll see that it is the far less stressful and faster route.

Have a great weekend

Efobi Chika’

Thank you

2008-05-24T01:00:00.000+01:00

Hi Friends,
I am so sorry i have not blogged in a while. I was "tucked away" at Nysc Orientation camp Okada Edo State. My experience was tough at first and after a while, i got used to it.

To all my friends and family who stuck by me through encouraging smses, calls, prayers et all. Thank you

Till you hear from me again,

Keep keeping on

Efobi Chika'

Let Go of the Past

2008-04-17T21:19:00.000+01:00

“It is a new day, a new chance to perform a new task or series of tasks that will lead me one step closer to where i want to be in life.”

This is how every one should start his day.

Sadly, we don't start every new day like this. We often wake up and instead of being thankful for the opportunity our creator has given us, we seem to dwell on yesterday, last month, last year and believe it or not... last decade. I think that that is a whole lot to keep in one's mind.

We should start start letting go of grugdes, past mistakes and start being more thankful for new days and new chances to correct our mistakes and move on.

I have never seen anyone get to his destination by standing still and looking back. He would stand there until the whole world has left him behind.

Quoting a very talented artist Nigerian artist, Obiwon sang in his song, “Get them off me”, he sang “Hapu ife talu na anyasi ka o bulu chinch”

Direct translation being, “Leave what bit you at night to be a bedbug”

In less cryptic language, Leave the past in the past where it belongs.

Till you hear from me next time,

Keep keeping on

Efobi Chika’

The Law of Inertia

2008-04-17T21:12:00.000+01:00

“Every body continues in its state of rest or constant motion until it is acted upon by an external force”

Hi Friends,

At last, I have started my blog, I had considered it for so long, meditated on it, written up to the 10th post in my mind but somehow, the body (this blog) continued to be in a state of rest in my mind, until it was acted upon by an External Force (Determination/Pressure).

You may ask, how did the body (this blog) move? I decided to apply an external force, so i called up a friend and told him that I had written out 4 posts tonight. At that point, I had only the topics in mind but had not even switched on my system not to talk of writing out a post. White lie? Yes it was.

I needed to tell that lie to put myself under the pressure to deliver as I knew that if all my friends I had told about this blog, woke up today and decided to see what my blog looked like, and didn’t find it, they would not take me seriously and trust me, I never want to be seen as unserious.

As people, we should decide to make each day count by performing all those highly important tasks that we delay to perform because we feel that they are either boring or too difficult as it is those tasks that would take us to the point where we want to get to in life.

As Brian Tracy, one of my mentors stated in his book, “Eat that Frog” If you want to eat a frog, chose to eat the Biggest, Ugliest frog first.

Till you hear from me next time,

Keep keeping on

Efobi Chika’