SUCCESS VISA (Part Ten)

Continued from Part Nine....

3.   The Attitude of Faith and Perseverance: Indeed, greatness comes with a lot of challenges and confrontations. There are a lot of battles you fight even when you don't expect to fight. You even fight with yourself at times. You struggle with some attitudes, weaknesses, addictions, obsessions and proclivities. At times you struggle between various options to make sensitive decisions. There are times you may need to step out of your comfort zone when you are not even too sure of survival in the new jungle you are stepping into.

SUCCESS VISA (Part Nine)

Continued from Part Eight....

1.  The attitude of honesty and integrity: If you look around the world today, there is so much confusion everywhere. The sense of morality and values are increasingly being lost. You see people trying to fake it in a bid to make it. You see people playing games in order to make names in the society. Betrayals, backstabbing, breach of contracts, manipulations, and maneuverings, corruption and all sort of societal vices plaguing humanity. You see people offering substandard products and services packaged in well-beautified containers all in a bid to make more profit. They run over people in a bid to increase their turn over. There is deception everywhere and it is now very difficult to know who to trust. People now dealing with high level of skepticism, suspicion, and distrust all because of where we've found ourselves as a society.

SUCCESS VISA (Part Eight)

V - Vision

I - Initiative

S - Sacrifice

A - Attitude

A - Attitude: Indeed, attitude is everything. Your attitude will either launch you to high altitudes in life or place you in perpetual servitude. You mold your attitudes to mold your future. Success or failure is a product of attitude. Once you get it right with your attitudes, success is in view.

Let's take time to X-ray some of these attitudes required for success.

1.  The attitude of humility: Greatness comes in bits, in installments. It comes from doing many small things greatly per time. It comes by laying many small bricks on each other until a whole building is formed. Success is the cumulative result of taking small steps daily towards the achievement of a bigger dream. To succeed in life, you may be required to start very small at times. You may be required to play on a very low key until you've gathered enough momentum to pitch and this requires absolute humility and patience.

SUCCESS VISA (Part Seven)

 ...continued from Part Six on Sacrifice...

1.  Sacrifice of Pleasure: There are some things that count but are not counted by many people. Whereas, there are some things that are counted but do not really count, thus you must know the difference. To succeed, you must know the things that count and treat them with utmost priority. Nothing should count that is not connected to the fulfillment of your vision at the very core. There are some personal desires, cravings, comfort and pleasures that could really be so enjoyable but these could get you trapped and hindered if not checked. If you can't deny your flesh some of the pleasures it desires, your flesh will deny you the treasures you desire.

SUCCESS VISA (Part Six)

...continued from Part Five on Sacrifice...

1.  The Sacrifice of Time: Great things don't come too easily and too quickly, they take time. Never be in a hurry to come on stage when you are not well prepared. Every good performance you see on stage is a product of long hours of unseen labor behind the scenes, but the time spent in preparation will always be worth it at the end if the desired results have been achieved.

Note that you cannot reign well and reign long if you don't train well and train long.

LIVING THE FUTURE (Part Two)

More on steps to self-actualization: (continued from Part One)

1.  Document the picture of the future you have sculptured in your mind. Try to print out the mental picture physically using pictures, graphic illustrations and words that correctly portray the exact image of the future you have created. Be very detailed, simple, specific and realistic in doing this. Keep these information before you all the time in parchments, diaries, wall frames, as wallpapers and screensavers on phones and computers and any other form as applicable.

LIVING THE FUTURE (Part One)

Living every day like the person you want to become in the future is the beginning of fulfillment. A major part of tomorrow is lived today. Thinking that the future is still far ahead is one of the greatest risk ever, it makes you to be taken unawares by the unfolding of life realities.

Let's look at it this way: some hours ago, today was tomorrow, and some hours from now, tomorrow shall become today and today shall become yesterday. So, every tick of the clock brings the future closer than you think and you may be overtaken by events if you are still thinking the days are still far ahead because they are not. To fulfill your dreams, therefore, you must strive daily to beat the time and start living your dreams now.

THINK BIG (Part Seven)

Having done all to start the pursuit of your dreams from the preceding series, always remember the following as you go on the journey:

1.  There are potholes ahead: The road to success is never a smooth one, not at all. Your journey will always be checkered with challenges. Things may not go as expected. Friends may fail you. Attacks from both known and unknown sources would come. But remember, if you would fail or succeed, it's a choice you would have to make. God's promises for your life does not make for the absence of obstacles, they only guarantee your victory.

THINK BIG! (Part Six)

 More on How to start:

4.  Documentation: It is not enough to set goals and make plans; you need to document them properly with all details. Don't just keep your goals and your plans in your head because you will forget them either in part, or in whole. Good documentation practices helps in monitoring, evaluation and follow up. It reminds you of the task ahead thereby keeping you always on your toe and on the watch. It also keeps you focused.

THINK BIG (Part Five)

Now, having thought through and structured your dreams, the next thing is to start pursuing them. At times, it may require you to start small. Some people could really detest starting small. But it is worthy of mention that starting small is not mediocrity, it is continuing and ending small that makes it so. Please note that any road that leads "there" starts from "here (where you are and what makes the difference is "TIME”). So, it may only take time but you must surely get there with time even if you started very small. If you cannot survive the "down" then forget about the "up". Many small bricks laid on each other with purpose and consistency eventually makes a whole building.

THINK BIG (Part Four)

For every delicacy prepared, there are vital ingredients and for every good building erected, there are specific materials needed. Your thinking has to be constructive, focused at an endpoint that is eternally rewarding. The vital ingredients for this all profiting venture are as follows.

1.  A clear sense of vision and purpose: The first step to real success is the clear knowledge of what you want to succeed in. A clear sense of vision prevents your thinking from stinking and saves you from sinking in the ocean of mediocrity. Making a clear cut definition of your vision prevents you from being cut up in the web of complacency and stagnation. It enables you to navigate through the hazy and gloomy circumstances without losing focus of where you are going. It saves you many distractions. It points you towards a higher ground than you've been.

THINK BIG (Part Three)

Why you should dream big: Dreaming big especially within worthwhile life principles is not pride nor greed but a way of life of the great. Dream big because;

1.  Your God is big and with Him nothing shall be impossible.

2.  You deserve more: God created you so special and has endowed you with potentials for unlimited greatness. You have every right to place higher demands on life and life will offer you what you demanded so long you are ready to pay the price. So, confining yourself to what prevailing circumstances will ordinarily allow is the height of self-shortchanging and self-deprivation.

THINK BIG (Part Two)

Some reasons why people don't think big:

1.  IGNORANCE: Ignorance is not just a disease as it is popularly said, it is a killer. It kills faster than you can imagine even while you are still breathing.

The size of your dreams will always be commensurate with the size of your wealth of knowledge; how informed you are about yourself and your environment. You will always find it difficult to dream bigger than you know you can ordinarily achieve. The more potentials you discover in yourself to achieve greater fits of glory, the more you will be prompted to expand your dreams. You can't do more if you don't know you have more inner energies to do so and having something without knowing it is suicidal.

THINK BIG (Part One)

"As a man thinket in his heart, so is he..."

This is a fundamental truth that cannot be gainsaid in the pursuit of greatness. The whole destiny of man is influenced by several working principles and chief of these is the principle of THINKING.

Life is such that the result in your hand today has been in your heart since yesterday either knowingly or unknowingly. There is nothing achieved in this world that was never conceived afore time. However, it is not enough just to think; thinking big is a more profitable venture.

THE POWER OF BEING INFORMED

In life, we live as we know. We go the way we know and how far we know.

Now, when you are informed, you will be transformed and when you are transformed, you will be in form to reform the formation of your world. But when you are not informed, you will rather conform to the form of your world and consequently be deformed. And when you are deformed, you cannot perform.

THE MENTAL EYES

The lens through which you see determines how you see things. The broader and clearer the window through which you view life, the broader and clearer the field of view.

Our perception of life issues influences our attitudes towards them. Our behaviors are greatly in response to the way we see things in our mind. Every situation we go through leaves an impact on us which is always a product of how we see and respond to those situations. True, what we go through each day is not as important as what goes on in our mind. We either win or lose in our daily struggle depending on the way we see and hence respond to the challenges that confront us.

SEEKING HELP

We all need help as humans in one way or the other. No matter how great, strong and versatile you are, you still can't meet your needs all by yourself. No matter how long your hands may be, you will still need somebody to rub your back for you. No matter how sharp your eyes are, how far you can see and how vigilant you are, you still need somebody to watch your back.

ON EXCUSES

      Chances may not come under the labels we anticipated. There may not be clear indications showing which one is the "negative" and which is the "positive" terminal. We wake up each day with expectations in mind. To see these expectations come to pass, we reach out daily in pursuit of one thing or the other. Nature, however, provides us with different circumstances that influence the outcome of our pursuits only that these circumstances, if you are not careful, you may plug in wrongly. So, we are left to look critically to identify and label circumstances the way they are in reality.

Some circumstances may carry what we really need to succeed but may not come in the likeness of what we expected. It then takes looking through the eyes of vision and purpose to discover what every situation holds for you. When you lack this mental capability to identify and place things where they belong, you begin to commit errors of commission and omission.

BEFORE YOU JUDGE!

      Every action carried out is always prompted by a prior motivation and the prevailing circumstances at that moment, both circumstances within the person in question and the ones without. Behind every act, there is a "heart". And you may end up misjudging the act if you don't understand the "heart" behind the act. Whether your judgment will be right or wrong, it all depends on what you know or did not know before passing your judgment. All the time, be curious and patient enough to find out and understand what really happened and the circumstances surrounding the incidence before making your judgment. At times, assumptions can be very costly. It can make you pull down what and who you are supposed to build up and build up what and who you are supposed to pull down. It can make you kill who you are supposed to save and save who you are supposed to kill. It can make you see enemies as friends and friends as enemies. Always remember that there is no second chance to make a first impression. Be sensitive!

#eyafimoniemmanuel

YOU HAVE A MESSAGE!

     Hey..., you have a message! 

Most times, our phones and systems do give us signals whenever we have a message either as text, mail or any other. To know the content of the message, you must care enough to open and read the message.

You see, every situation we go through in life remind us of the message we are born to deliver to our generation. They tell us the purpose we are born to fulfill. To a large extent, what we suffer in life is a reflection of what we are born to offer to our generation. Most of the remarkable things we experience as humans whether positive or negative are being attracted by what we carry within us and the essence is to point us to the glorious destiny we carry. Like in the game of football, all attention is always on the player with the ball at any particular time. So, the several attacks you've suffered in life affirm the fact that you carry something big within you. If you were not important in destiny, you wouldn't have suffered those things.

       There are times our experiences may conflict and contradict what we carry. You could feel the heavy weight of great potentials within you, yet all around you is mediocrity. At times, you could hear a voice speaking from within you telling you, "you can make it"; you could feel an upsurge of strength within, yet you find yourself in such a helpless and weak circumstance. But which one will you believe? The voice of prevailing circumstances or the voice of destiny calling from within?

True, life presents us daily with opportunities to live our greatest self, but these come in the disguise of hardship, problems and all kinds of negative circumstances around us. Maximizing your potentials therefore involves identifying a problem around you, looking inwards to discover what you've got within you to meet the need and then beginning to take small steps daily to make it a reality. The challenge could be something that has been that ought not to be, or something that has not been that ought to be. 

To succeed in life, you have to look beyond what is ordinarily visible to see the great opportunities for advancement carried in the womb of prevailing circumstances. You may be born to bring hope and restoration to your world, yet everything around your life looks so hopeless and helpless and it seems you are a born loser. You may be born with a message of love, yet it's all hostilities around you - no one cares about you and it seems you are just on your own in the wilderness of life. Just imagine the one destined to help people in more need of help than the people! Think of the deliverer in bigger chains than those he is born to deliver! You see issues around you that are very touchy and you are moved with compassion to respond, but the means is not there - your pocket is dry, you can't even feed yourself either spiritually, physically or mentally not to talk of feeding others.

Now, whatever you might have gone through in life, don't give up. it's only telling you, 'you have a message' and guess what the message is..."you carry greatness within you", "you are not a failure", "you are a champion, a hero, a trailblazer, a pacesetter, a world changer..."

There is something in you that is more important than what you are going through. It is called "greatness" and this must not be sacrificed on the altar of prevailing circumstances. So, dare to take advantage of every situation you find yourself to live your greatest self. Again, YOU HAVE A MESSAGE!

#eyafimoniemmanuel