The Expediency Of Change

One thing in life we cannot change is change. Change is constant, no matter how much we try, change must occur. Look back at how you were 10 years ago, I bet you have changed intellectually, physically, emotionally and in your perception of life, I have. Pause and imagine for a moment, if you were exactly the same as you were 10 years ago, how would it be?

Despite the fact that change is inevitable, we must strive to create changes (and I mean good ones) in our lives and environment. Success in life largely depends on how well we change and adapt to the demands life throws at us. The almighty God creator of the heavens and earth was subject to change. God realized that the instructions he gave to Moses was producing little result, therefore he decided to send his begotten son Jesus Christ to bring about the change he so desires. If God can change, then so can you. All you may need to improve your situation could be just a little change in your appearance, character, thinking, habits, priorities and so on especially as a new year beckons.

Henry Ford learnt about change the hard way. In early 1900s, his manager William Cannuzi advised him that his model T car was getting out dated. Henry ford so cherished his model T that he sacked his manager and refused to change a bolt on it. William Cannuzi joined General Motors (GM) and helped build a better car than Ford's model T. General motors began to make more sales than Ford motors. Henry Ford realised this and made another model called Model A. It was however too late, General Motors had taken over the market. Ford motors was never able to recover even up till today.

The key to change is wisdom, wisdom is the result of the knowledge and understanding we have about a particular subject. Wisdom can only be gotten through continuous learning. In other words change is directly proportional to the amount of learning. The more we learn, the more the ability to change. It is high time we take learning more seriously. The best cellist Pablo Casals was asked on his 95th birthday why he still practiced 6 hours a day, he said, "because I think I am making progress".

Oswald J. Smith

A great revivalist Oswald J Smith learnt French and Spanish at 70 and ministered in french and Spanish until his death. What area of your life are you changing as you enter 2014?

The Power Of Dream (2)

     I realize that dreams come to us in the form of pictures, though a little bit unclear, its capable of taking root in our subconscious minds. The content of your subconscious mind determines how successful you will be in life. This is the reason you should always ensure you hold a favourable picture (which I call a dream) in your minds.
      God knew this when he started by planting a dream in the mind of Abraham, he said " i will give this land to your offspring" Gen 12:7. The dream of attaining leadership was also planted in Joseph, in no time at all, these men started living their dreams.

How To Create A Dream
      Only few people have the privilege of been given a dream (or vision) directly by God. It is therefore our responsibility to create one by ourselves, after all, bible says "ye are gods", gods are meant to be creative and infinite. The whole world is at your beck and call, its all yours, you have a "blank cheque" to become whatever you want, by;
1. Carrying out a self appraisal, look into yourself, identify your likes, preferences and strength. Funnily enough you could consciously develop love for something and turn it into a dream.
2.  Start developing, first by writing it out, thinking about it and start doing things that will bring about improvements in line with the attainment of your dreams.

       At this stage you have a dream in your hands which should dictate how you live the remainder of your life. In fact if I see you misbehaving, I conclude that you don't have a dream or you simply have a bad dream. At the early stages, dreams are fragile, they are like soap bubbles floating towards jagged rocks on a windy day. 
      Start living your dreams, always ask yourself this question, "what the are the things I need to achieve my dream?" The more frequently you ask yourself this question, the more your dream take root in your mind and the more efficiently you will be pursuing your dream.
       Thomas Edison dreamed of producing light from electricity, he invented the incandescent lamp. John F. Kennedy dreamed of having a man on the moon, 8 years later Apollo II was launched and landed Neil Armstrong, Edwin E. Aldrin Jr and Michael Allen Collins on the moon. Martin Luther King Jr dreamed of racial equality in America, this dream is believed to be fully achieved when Barack Obama was elected president of the United States.
   Start dreaming early, start dreaming now, you never know, you in a short while you might be living your dream if you don't give in, a dream will provide you with the power to be the best you can be. This is Gods plan for you. 

The Power of A Dream

Tony wakes up suddenly, sweating profusely, his heart thumping away violently in his thoracic cavity, his pupils dilated, he reaches for the lamp, its just 3:30am he blurts. His wife complains, "whats wrong darling"? I had a nightmare, he says. Oh, its only a dream dear, lets go back to sleep. I am sure you have once experienced something similar to what Tony experienced.

The dream I am talking about isn't those we see when we sleep but those we make when fully awake. (of course I don't mean day dreaming). Dreams arise as a result of activities taking place in our subconscious minds. The workings of the subconscious mind is very complex and processes billions of information sent to it via the sense gates (i.e the eye, ear, nose, tongue, and skin). These activities usually  are what result into the dreams we see when we sleep.

However, we are talking about a dream created, crafted and designed by you which is able to sail you from where you are right now to where God wants you to be. God's desire for us is to be prosperous. The Hebrew word translated as prosperous "Tsalach Tsaleach" means to push  forward. We are expected to push forward in our business, academics, marriages and so on. God said, "I know the thoughts I have towards you, thought of peace and not of evil to give you an expected end". Having an idea of what is ahead gives us energy to continue pushing forward.

God will likely not appear to you and tell you what to do, he has already done his own part of the deal, the bible says " he has given us all things that pertains to life and godliness". This means you have all the raw materials needed to build yourself a great and impartful life here on earth. That is success. you cannot begin to achieve success except to begin to achieve one internally. This internal success begins with creating a dream by and for yourself. If you don't design your own dream, you will likely end up working yourself in someone's own dream.

The Enigma Called Madiba

Last night I was scrolling through the news feeds on my facebook page when i stumbled on a post by a good friend of mine which states " REST IN PEACE MADIBA AFRICAN GREAT LEADER". I felt a cold chill run up my spine as I thought, oh! at last this man has finally left us.

Personally, I have been facinated by the life of this great enigma. The life he lived, his leadership qualities all helped to make Africa and the world a much better place. I would like to use this medium to share some of the leadership qualities of this great man.
1. He sacrificed all: The life of Nelson Mandela was a life of sacrifice for the people of South Africa. He laid down his life, education, family to ensure a better life for his people. He refused to accept offers from the Apartheid government during the early days of the struggle, instead he preferred the Robben Island prison than to sit in luxury and watch the people suffer. He must have the heart of the greatest leader of all, Jesus who sacrificed himself for humanity to reconcile us to God. Jesus taught us something profound when he said "no one who has left home or wife or brother or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to recieve many times as much in this age and in the age to come eternal life". The sacrifice of Madiba virtual bought him the world, he was begged to become president, a position  people would gladly kill and destroy to get.

2. He had a Large Heart; Madiba was a man with an incredibly large heart. He was loving, forgiving, humble and always ready to listen to ideas. He could have come out of prison and turned himself into an emperor or dictator, but not this man. I remember watching him soon after his release going round to visit and reconcile himself with those who worked hard to ensure his life was a living hell, especially the attorney who laboured to ensure Mandela was hanged during his trials. you could feel the genuiness of his smile, hugs and disposition.
when he became president, he dropped some of the "ignorant" policies of the ANC which could have spelt disaster to the economy of South Africa, thanks to his wide consultations and learning he had undergone after he was released.
There is too much to say about this man, he is an inspiration of hope to me and millions alike. I pray the youth of my country Nigeria learn something from the life of Nelson Mandela. May his gentle soul rest in perfect peace.

Developing A Mindset for Success (2)

              Our minds and thoughts have been said to be the determiner of our success in any area of life, be it financial, marital, spiritual you name it. However just mere knowledge of the fact does not change anything but the effort in putting acquired knowledge to work that matters. A famous football couch said, "its not the desire to win that brings victory but the desire to engage in the training that brings victory". There two important ingredient in the development of a success mindset

1. Faith; Napoleon Hill in his book, Think and Grow Rich described faith as the head chemist of the mind and I agree. Faith has the ability to treat the mind whenever it is 'sick'. Faith is calling real what we cannot see. A friend recently on Facebook described faith as taking the first step without seeing the end of it. However the best definition was done by God in Heb 11:1.
               Faith can only be gotten through our ear gate, what we hear determines the kind of faith we have. we develop faith in God by hearing the word of God, we develop faith in our selves by hearing what we and other say about ourselves. Faith is deceiving our subconscious mind to act and respond in a certain way. Faith is a pillar which support the mind to achieve success, remember that if you don't stand for something you will fall for everything.
             The whole teaching of the bible or Christianity is all about developing this all important virtue called faith. God can't help you if you don't exercise some faith. Heb 11:6
2. Forget The Past; Everyone of us can look at our past and pin point times when we experienced failures, made wrong decisions and so on. 

This is only normal and it happens to everyone, however it becomes a problem when they affect our mindset and destroys our faith on things in the present. Past failure is a trickster with a keen sense of irony and cunning. it takes delight in tripping one when success is almost within reach. The cure for forgetting past failures is developing strong faith in God and yourself.

Developing a Mindset for Success (1)

        Everybody desires success, success is good, success is sweet, success is God's desire for you on earth, in fact he had to endure excruciating pain in order to deliver it into your hands, therefore if you are not succeeding, that means you are wasting the grace of God upon your life. God has done his own part what are you waiting for?
        Success is not achieved by external accomplishments such as obtaining a College degree, getting married, having a promotion or securing a visa to the United States. Success is a mindset, and until you develop that mindset, you can't be successful.

         Your mind is the ultimate determiner of success, you must first of all achieve success in you mind first before it can begin to manifest to other people around you. The Bible tells us " as a man thinketh so he is" prov 23:7. This simply means whatever we achieve or accomplish is a direct result of our thought and our thought are made in our minds. Our brain has a way of becoming magnetized with our dominating thought which we hold in our minds, these magnets attract to us the forces, the people, the circumstances of life which harmonize with the nature of our dominating thoughts. In other words, you become what you think about most of the time. someone said something amusing, he said, " you are not what you think you are but what you THINK, you are". Got it ?

Self Discipline; A Requirement for Academic Success

Harry Truman, the 33rd President of the United States in his biographies of great men said, " the first victory greatmen had, was the victory over themselves". Self discipline is a serious challenge to mankind because we are naturally lazy, greedy, ambitious, selfish, ignorant and vain. This is the most difficult battles we may ever face in our lives: the battle to take control of our selves.
This battle is an internal one, that is why Pastor Sam Adeyemi said, "the journey from rags to riches is an internal trip". Self discipline is the ability to do things that you don't like to do when you should do them and how you should do them, so you can get what you want.
The Greek meaning of self discipline is "to grip" or "take hold of". self discipline is the ability to have a grip on those areas of your life which would bring you success. Over the years i have watched top students in schools and i realized they had a good measure of discipline in the following areas.

1. Pleasure; they don't eat, play much, they don't engage in drugs (alcohol and cigarette), and the       don't keep meaning less relationships.
2. Concentration; they keep their concentration in class no matter the distraction, they have time       to study
3. Habits; they don't engage in habits such as film/music video watching, video games, fighting,           gossiping etc
4. Spiritual; they usually have reverence for God.

Dear students as you get set to resume another academic session, ensure that you are equipped with this virtue called self discipline. Succumb to the principle of "pay now and play later". Self discipline is a never ending battle we have to fight. Start winning yours now. I believe the race to get to heaven is a race of self discipline!

Success is yours, go get yours.  

Tips To Achieving Academic Success

        In the next few days, students will be returning back to school for a new academic session. I believe you are moving to the next class, and if not, it is not time withdraw into your shell, it is time to re-strategize and take full advantage of your situation.
       Now that you are resuming, do you have goals for the new term and academic session? If you don't have, don't just sit there, take a few minutes, find a quiet place and ask yourself these questions.

1. Why  am I going to school?
2. What do I want to achieve after school?
3. At the end of the session, do i want to be among the stars or among the fans who clap for the           stars?
4. How do i want my parents and teachers to feel at the end of the session?
5. How do I concentrate more on my studies?

It is very important you take time to answer these questions sincerely. One of the greatest attributes of a young person is the ability to speak honestly to himself.
Setting goals for the new academic year is the surest way of becoming a star this session. Remember always that " the whole world (even those tough and boring subjects) steps aside for the student who knows where he is going".

Success is yours, go get yours.

The True Meaning Of Success

John Maxwell said, "Success is not the wealth of Bill Gates
                                         it is not the business acumen of Donald Trump
                                         it is not the athletic ability of Michael Johnson
                                        nor is it the physique of Arnold Schwarzeneger "
   Many people see success as the attainment of a goal or desire. most times it is seen as the ability to have millions in your bank account, to buy the latest cars, houses and fly all around the world. talk to teenagers and you will discover what I am talking about. Every body is running after money, they want to be politicians, hip hop artists and so on. There is nothing wrong in desiring wealth, but it is better to desire success

What Then Is Success         

• Success begins when you know where you are going, why you are doing what you are doing. This means knowing the purpose or vision for your life.
• Success is set in motion when you know how to get there. There is/ are routes you must follow in order to achieve that purpose or vision for your life
• Success accelerates when you begin to make the right moves in the right direction in achieving the purpose for your life

Success is living your life and living your life is success, may you live all the days of your life!