THE DREAM FACTOR (part 2)

DREAMERS RULE THE WORLD

People who dream big dreams rule the world. The products of their dreams control the economy and influence global decisions, markets and many other things at a greater level. Another point to note is the fact that great dreams do not die, the dreamers do. Ancient history has proven to us that men who dreamt dreams that shook the word still affect the earth long after they are gone.

I also learned that dreams are attached to purpose and assignment to which one is born for. With the dream, comes loaded within it great potential to make manifest the same dream. The sad thing is many people dream but doubt their capacity to deliver. It becomes even sad to realize that people end up dying with their dream because of fear of engaging robustly with their dream. Thomas Edison once said, 5% of people think, 10 think that they think and the other 85% would rather die than think.  The latter also possess great wealth of ideas, but fail to give birth to these because of fear.  Napoleon Hill said that more gold has been mined from the mind of men than ever been mined from the earth. That mining was carried out by working out people’s dreams.

CHARACTARISTICS OF GREAT DREAMERS

People who tend to success more than ordinary people have certain admirable characteristics, those are:
1. Positive attitude. They think “I can all the time”. Henry Ford once said: whether you think you can or cannot, you are right.

2. Self-Discipline. A dream can lift you up, but discipline and character will sustain you.

3. They do not depend on the ideologies of the crowd.

4. They keep company of like-minded people and they value their contribution

5. They are relentless. On the contrary, most people walk away from things on the first sign of defeat. There are so many people who have had dreams that took too long to manifest. At times people may mock, scorn and ridicule you for having a dream. They do that because they expected the dream to be fulfilled in their watch or in their time. That may create negative pressure for the dreamer.

6. Self-confidence. Nothing beats a confident man. What others believe about you is not as important as what you believe about yourself.

7. They think ahead, creatively and BIG. F.S. Nukeri says: creative people hire lazy thinkers, make them do hard labor and pay them less. They have the goals written down and followed after,

8. They think things through before they quit.  They have a strong belief that the current circumstance or status is but for a limited time. What makes some people to fail in life is their lack of persistence in creating new plans that will replace those which fail (Napoleon Hill).

9. They constantly acquire new knowledge and sharpen their skills.  They tend often attend seminars and courses that develop them in the areas of their application or their dream. It is said that 77% of poor people watch more TV compared to 27% of wealthy people who watches TV for less than hour a day.

People will pay you based on what you know. But you will be paid even more for what you do with what you know. The more you learn, and apply what you learn in the practical situations, you become sought after so that you are given a platform to use the knowledge that you have. And as you use what you know; your income may grow, depending on how well you apply what you know.

10. They are not afraid to think differently.  Great discoveries were made by people who were not afraid to look at the same thing as others, but think differently about it.  Sir Isaac Newton once said no new discoveries were ever made without a bold guess.

So go ahead, keep your dream alive because success is intentional. It is not an accident or a random act.

THE DREAM FACTOR (part 1)

Imagine lying on your death bed in your last moments, and the ghost of your dreams and potential coming to you and say; we came to you because you had the ability to make us manifest, impact the world and create employment opportunities for thousand others, but you are dying with us. What would your response be? I think if potential could speak, many of would have been in court many times.

What if you live your whole life, only to realize that you never lived, you never scratched the surface of your potential. You need to decide to live in full and die empty.

I want to try and help you move from small to big, from failure to success. Whenever you see success in another person that means that person has mastered the craft of his destiny. He/she has learned and proactively answered the question: what is your WHAT? And what is your WHY? If you can be able to describe explicitly what is it you want in life, and why you want it, then anything that tries to stop you will not be able to limit you.
Let me show you how to do that in six simple steps:

1. Ask what is it you really want to achieve in your life. Write it clearly on a clean sheet, diary, and paste it where you can see it every day.  You must be definite with your objective.

2. When do you want to achieve it? Put a time frame to it. You must be specific.

3. Determine exactly what you are willing to give in return for your dream.

4. Decide on how and when you are going to start to build on it.

5. Find few people that you will call "accountability circle" or what Napolion Hill calls, the Master mind group. The trick here is to choose people who can be able to push you to your limit and support you when you fail.  By the time you decide who should be in the group; you should have developed a definite plan.

In the plan you should be able to describe your vision clearly. Thereafter describe the role of each members of the group in fulfilling that dream as well their individual benefit from it. As you do, remember that no one has sufficient ability, experience, education or knowledge to make accumulate any amount of wealth or achievement of any goal without the cooperation of other people.

6. Start NOW. Many dreams die in the womb because since they were conceived, they were never given birth to. Many people tend to think and think and never act. It is impossible to till a land by just turning it over and over in your mind. You have to act. You have to make the bold step to move towards your dream. Sometimes the road may seem cloudy and somewhat incomplete, but you still have to forge your way.
Look at yourself, and ask yourself: why do I want this thing that I want. Know that if you can master your why, you can endure almost any how. The world has a habit of making way for those who know where they are going.
For more: email: ngmafarafara@gmail.com

Power Tip no 2

power tip no 1

Mistaken Identity

Introduction

The world has a system of classifying people into certain groups based on multiple factors. They are classified or categorised based on their gender, skin colour, educational achievement, family history or contribution to society, physical ability, personal accolades, societal and social association or status and more. Others are just labelled based on a hunch of the community. Then others have personally deliberately mislabelled themselves based on their personal experiences of the past, family history, upbringing and so on. 

If you are an associate of a prominent business man, sports man, or politician, you find yourself receiving a certain status in the society that is not necessarily your own. People respect you based on association. The day you separate from such influential figures, your status also dissipates. Others, like Pastors kids, pastor’s wives and children born of the highly intelligent or prominent people receive high esteems in the society with “perfect” expectations of their performance. Their behaviours, performances and achievements are measured based on their parents or spouses accolades, and not of their own.

I can imagine the pressure that these people have to go through each day trying to match the status of their parents or spouses. The pressure sometimes makes them vulnerable to more mistakes in life than they normally would had they not been exposed to the competition with the status that is not theirs. How I wish they could share with us how this kind of life makes them feel.

Celebrities have to deal with the people who expect them to be super perfect beings; hence they turn to drugs and image reconstruction to meet the expectations of the public. They miss out on giving the public and their followers the genuine feel of who they really are. They rather ascribe themselves to what the world expects of them and it brings more frustration.

Looking into biblical history

History shows us that this is not new. Biblically there were circumstances like these before. During the times when Jesus physically walked on earth, His disciples were expected to act and perform miracles like He did. Later they were identified as those who “walked with Jesus”. At this level, this was a good thing.

There are however circumstances that are somewhat difficult. Like in the life of Moses, who after having rescued a Hebrew from the hands of an Egyptian, whom he killed on the spot was rejected by other Hebrews. As he walked around the Hebrew natives, he was described as a man who kills his own that he had to run into refugee camp far in the desert for 40 years. Can you imagine, 40 years away from your people because one incident that people have used as a permanent marker of who you are. 

It is very difficult to be identified with the past all the time or with the character that is much more capable than you are and yet you are not. It makes one feel unwelcomed and maybe inferior.

21st Century dilemma

Having said all the above, which we may say it’s rather an ambiguous illustration of reality and truth. The 21st century generation is living in times where in people have mistakenly taken the identity of other highly acclaimed personalities such as sports celebrities, musicians, actors and so on. While they themselves may be living in the world of realities, (well some of them of course) those who follow and admire them have bought into their images such that they want to buy into the images that others have naturally inherited with money. The pain ascribed to the notion of facial changing, skin bleaching and so on is robbing youth of their true lives which could have been lived in full.

It is not a problem to admire someone, but it is rather totally wrong to admire a person such that you want to lose yourself and try and be them. I heard someone say “if you imitate someone, the best thing you can ever come close to being, is to be his/her second best”. But if you pursue being yourself, building your brand, you have more to gain than becoming second best.  Your true identity is not borrowed and cannot be bought with money but can be worked on by yourself through determination. 

I had a meeting with one of the guys I admire in the 21st century generation, Thulani Mphahlele and he was telling me about his organisation, The CEO Speaks. He said “we all have the power to engineer our lives”. I guess it so true. The reality, however, is that others have engineered their lives to death.  There are many people who have scraped off their beautiful self to “things” they do not enjoy. What is the use of spending years and years trying to fake being someone you do not know while there is a beautiful woman or a handsome man in you wrapped in God’s glory? Embrace yourself and enjoy your life.

Peeling off the layers of toxicity

If there is a tough thing that we can do for ourselves, it is peeling off the layers of mistaken identity. We ought to build the image that is locked within us by God, the creator and giver of life even if it is difficult. I can make reference of many people who have found what they were born to do, sharpened their skill and have become internationally recognised heroes in the world’s hall of fame. 

We can talk of Dr John Tibane, who based on his intellectual gifting was directed into becoming a medical doctor. He later realised that it was not what he wanted to be, that is what people wanted him to be. He left medical practices and became a well-recognised speaker who now is enjoying the arena and empowering people’s lives than he would being a Doctor.  

People like Nick Vujicic, a man who has broken beyond extreme boundaries and hit the sky with brain power and limitless attitude. He writes in his book, life with no limits that “knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power”. Now that is being free from the ideologies of others about you and mastering the true you. This man has no legs or arms. And yet he lives his life better than many who have. I mean, what is stopping you from being the best you can be? You are far too smart to be the only thing standing on your way.

Eliminate yourself from the boundaries of people’s idea of you. People, who set their agenda of you, lie to you, waste your time and mislead you to what they think you are. You are a person by yourself and not according to what other say of you. You have to get out of your way and stop limiting yourself by embracing wrong ideologies, opinions and perceptions of you.

Challenge yourself

Set your mind to a goal that you have never attained before. It does not have to be an extrinsic challenge. It must be something that you have personally desired to do. It could be a dream you have been laying off for years and were intimidated to follow, it could be a course you wanted to enrol, or a business you were told it’s too big for you. Give it a try. 

What you need to do is try to answer this question: what do I stand to lose for doing or not doing this? Step up, step out and climb that mountain. After all,  you will never know if you can do it until you try. So you have to put your attitude, your mind power, your skills and all to the test.

Invest in your mind

A friend of mine is writing a book which will be released soon. In his book, Investment in your personality, Nyiko L. Mthombeni writes, “the greatest investment is not in things, but in you. Your mind is a garden that can only be watered through use”. I totally agree. I will publish a summary of his book in this blog later on for you to read.

Your mind is the best factory where all products, tangible and intangible are manufactured. Napoleon Hill said “more gold has been mined in the mind of man than from the earth”. That is a reason enough to make you want to invest in it because more gold is found in there. You can be physically impaired, but if your mind is still intact, you can live beyond what many physically abled people can achieve. But you have to know yourself well enough to get to that.

If you do not live up to the reality of your purpose, you rob the world of what God has invested in you. Bonnke Shipalana asked a question that is very profound and I want to leave you with it; “should you die, what would the world have lost?’. Dr Myles Monroe said the richest place on earth is the cemetery. People have died with ideas never realised, dreams never pursued, books never written, music never sang. 

Refuse to miss out on your identity!

STEP OUT, STEP UP-Pursuing God''s big idea

Step-Out, Tep-Up 2

Ever wondered why certain things that you so much desire are not happening as you wish they should be happening. You have dreamed, talked, written down, thought about it so many times but nothing seems to be moving beyond the thought life. Life seems to be moving like a small wheel in one small area.  I mean, when you look back over your life, nothing much has changed except that now you maybe in another grade, or promoted to another position, married with kids. BUT, personally, you have not changed. Your dreams are still at that stage where they were few years ago. That book has not been written, the business is not yet registered, the problems you had are still the same, you still financially limited as before. The question is WHY?

I believe I may be on to something here. Not that all the answers have been written in this blog, but I want to try and set you on a mind journey of self-discovery. As long as your life's environment has not changed, your life may still remain the same. 

The Metamorphosis of Caterpillar 

Each and every person’s life has to go through various development stages in order to mature to the fullness of his or her potential. Imagine the beautiful butterfly that you may have seen recently in the garden. Before it matured to that beautiful, colourful, admirable and decorative state, it was but an egg, the size of a Sesame seed. The little seed was laid underneath a green leaf somewhere in the garden and abandoned to hatch on its own.

The egg hatches into a living organism less admirable, a Worm. When we see a worm in our environment we hardly take a second thought but hastily suck the life out of it with a shoe, or plank, or whatever it is. Like you my friend, at some point you may be feeling like the worled is sucking the life out of you. Being rejected refused all over and everywhere you go. You may have tried this and that to set your self apart from the pain of rejection, failure,  resentment,etc, but you still find yourself rejected.   

Don’t worry; you are just a caterpillar, a worm going somewhere to be a beautiful butterfly. The caterpillar begins to eat away the shell of its egg for nutrients. There after it eats every leave it finds for days. It has to survive on its own.

Man was made to find his own means of living. We cannot afford to live without having to work for something to sustain us. The caterpillar there after finds a small twig, hangs itself there fixatedly and peels off its old skin. That is the skin that held her up as a crawling organism.

After few hours or days, it will hide under a new shell while developing into a new being with wings. It thereafter emerges as completely new organism, a butterfly with beautiful wings. And it flies away to anyplace where it admires to reach, eat in new grounds, break new heights and reach new territories. I can almost hear you say; so what? It’s a butterfly, it’s meant to fly! Yes, that is true. It is meant to fly. What are you meant to be? 

You are meant to be big, live a purpose driven life, live out your dreams, fulfil your calling, make a difference and touch people’s lives. Your life is totally different from that of a caterpillar or a butterfly. But a caterpillar knows that it is not just a caterpillar, it is a butterfly hidden in a worm’s body. So are you, an executive hidden in a student body in the class room. You are a President hidden in a servant’s body. A business woman hidden in a cashier’s uniform. The point is, you are more than what you think yourself to be. 

How to step out

In my previous article titled Step-out-Step–up I wrote that you have to think outside the box, think creatively and plan into the future. I want to add some more things for you to know and do in order to separate yourself from here and climb to there. But before that, let me quote again from that article:  “ to step out means to consciously determine to move outside the normal circle of thought, language, actions and step into an arena where you see things from a magnifying glass. Where you do  not only see your life in today’s terms but also in impending metamorphosed state and be prepared to work it”. That’s where you need to head to:

1. Realise that you are not a regular person.  

You are made of the image of the Most High God to manifest His creative ideas on earth.

2. Realise that there is a higher life awaiting you.

No one can achieve beyond the limitations of his or her own belief. Your life, your success, your vision is measure of what you have chosen to believe.  God has place within each one of us a higher call of His purpose. That purpose is intertwined with the very strong urges and desires that are not yet met. God exposes them as hunger or irritations to you. He knows that you are capable of sorting them out, step up to the game. Until you believe that there a life of purpose awaiting you, you will remain a caterpillar crawling from here to there for life. 

3. Realise that failure is not final

Dr Myles Monroe said failure is not the absence of success; it is the neglect of trying. When we meet failure, we need to step up, try again. Success is not achieved on one attempt. There should be a repetition of efforts towards a greater goal. 

4. Align yourself with the original intent

Lean to speak the right words to yourself. Say to yourself that “I am bold. I am confident. I am smart. I am capable. I am not a failure. I am fearfully and wonderfully made. I am blessed. I am a winner”. Keep saying words like that until they become real in your own imagination. That is how God sees you. 

When you align yourself to God, you become like the tree planted by the rivers of water (see Psalm 1). The tree has constant supply of nutrients and is able to bear fruit in season. Even if it loses its leaves in the dry season, it remains with more green leaves because of its attachment to the source of life.

Proper alignment can be better explained using the life and function of a moon. The moon has no light of its own. Even though it lights up the earth beautifully at night, it has no light on its own. what it does so good is the way it aligns itself with the bright light from the  sun and it emits that same light from the sun to us. The moon positions itself at a good angle that allows it to receive sufficient light from the sun and then reflect it to the earth. And then we celebrate the moon and thank God the nights are not as dark as should be because of that. The moon acts as a mirror. It mirrors the glory of the sun. It has no glory of its own.

Your position with the creator affects your productivity. Imagine what it would be like to be constantly connected to God and receiving guidance from Him every step of the way. We would be able to display His glory all the time, with ease.  Jesus when speaking with His disciples in John 15:4-5 said “abide in me…then you shall bring forth much fruit”. That’s the beauty of it. Stay connected, and fruitfulness in accordance with your potential is possible. And you will increase. Our fruitfulness is hidden, secured and sustained when we connect ourselves with the source.

Step Out-Step Up

Step Up-Step Out

Daily we are each faced with the opportunities to make choices about our current and future state of life. The circumstances present themselves in different ways. Some may be urgent and some not.  Some may be important, some not. Some may yield great profit and others may set us on a path to make great returns later in life. It is therefore important for us to know which is which because the manner in which we approach any situation affects the outcome.

Stepping out means consciously determining to move outside the normal circle of thought, language, actions and step into an arena where you see things from a magnifying glass. Where you do not only see your life in today’s terms but also in impending metamorphosed state and you be prepared to work at it. Stepping out means you are employing tactics, actions and efforts and work twice as smart and twice as hard as your peers.  It is not a secret that great rewards cannot be and are not associated with regular thinking and ordinary efforts. So you can be in the same place as your peers, but you chose to think outside the moment in a way that sets u apart from them.

Look at your world around you and you will see many examples of people who have employed their minds far out and above what we call normal and we even go to the extent of saying “I never thought about that” and bla, bla, bla! We all are products of our thoughts and work employed "after the thought process".

The ten Virgins.

The story of the ten virgins in the bible illustrate this very well for me. When the girls heard the groom was coming to meet them in the few hours to come, they washed up, dressed up to their best (I believe) and took up their oil lamps to go with in the waiting area. I believe it was known that sometimes they have to wait in the dark night and had to provide for their own lighting.  Interestingly, the bible labels the virgins as five wise and the five not so wise. The wise virgins took extra oil and the not so wise took their lamps without extra oil. Since the waiting did not have a defined period, they ran out of oil in the night and darkness filled their waiting area. 

The girls did not think of the future. They thought about what was needed "now" and made no provision for the unknown or the latter life. Stepping out and up is to be  like the wise girls. You do not only think of your present, but you mitigate for the future known and unknown. The foolish girls resembled a thinking style that I believe is for the poor. They think not of anything but their hungry stomach. They do not think of growing food for more than their stomach or their cooking needs for today. Instead they think of who should be next donor for their next ambition in a way that yields no results for self sustenance or reproduction.

To step out of this low level of thinking and into a better productive life, you need to employ what is called “creative thinking”.

Creative Thinking

Creative thinkers have chosen to do the hardest and most paying work anyone can do: thinking.  Albert Einstein said; Thinking is hard work; that’s why so few people do it. And David Schwartz said “Where success is concerned, people are not measured in inches, or pounds, or college degrees, or family background: they are measured by the size of their thinking.” Now that should call for some thinking about yourself now.

 So here is what thinkers do on daily basis:

• They value ideas
• They explore options
• They embrace ambiguity
• They celebrate the “offbeat”. Meaning they celebrate what people call awkward. 
• They connect the unconnected. They harness the power of being able to take what others have left in despair,rejected and thought it can't bee done. They take everybody's rejected ideas and make them one big idea.
• They do not fear failure. They always jump in and and explore new territories.

Thinking outside the box challenges the thinker first, then those around them. A person who thinks outside the box tends to challenge the status quo. People of this nature are usually associated with more challenges in life and they embrace it as fun for them. Like Richard Branson, who amidst all his successes, he has embraced every challenge in his life as part of fun, and that made him great success in his business endeavours. In obstacles, he looked for the part that has fun, and stepped his game up almost all the times.

I can go on and on, but let me give you these little nuggets that I believe may be crucial for you going forward as you think outside the box and step up. 

1. As a person who wants step out, I want you to know that doing that will improve the quality of your life and those around you. it adds value to you and everything . John Maxwell describe it as “being able to see what everybody else has seen and think what nobody else has thought so that you can do what nobody else has done”. These people see the world through new eyes and develop solutions for problems that are known to them and the people they live with. 

2. Thinking outside the box draws people to you and your ideas. People and money are drawn to people who think outside the box. 

3. Thinking outside the box gives you options or the ability to look for options. Ernie Zelinski puts it this way “Creativity is the joy of not knowing it all. The joy of not knowing it all refers to the realisation that we seldom, if ever at all, have answers; we always have the ability to generate more solutions to just about any problem. But being creative is being able see or imagine a great deal of opportunity to life’s problems.”

As a thinker, you need to learn to recycle ideas, combine two or more ideas that people thought will not work and make an exceptional idea. That is how big business grows. They do not necessarily invent completely new things, the take what already exists, improve it and make it work more efficiently. They stepped out and think outside the box. Remember, it is hard to see a picture while inside the frame. Step Out, and Step up!

Rules of Effectiveness

Effectiveness is a measure of how well does an instrument perform its intended function given the surrounding circumstances. It is a statement that is ascribed to equipments, machinery, medicines and people as well and is attached to the extent to which they do what they do within a certain space of time. Now as I read, make observations and assessments I discovered that the most effective people have discovered some secrets that ordinary people may have not discovered as yet. They have mastered and practiced some activities habitually as rules governing their lives, and this has led to them achieving success. I break them into 11 rules of effectiveness.

Rule 1: BE GOAL ORIENTED

Set up your short, medium and long term goals. Goals give you a measure of accomplishment over certain time.  He who lives to achieve nothing is as good as dead. You ought to have something that you have set over the future that you want to attain and that should be the centre of your thoughts. As you think more about it, it creates new realities in your own life. People achieve what they always think about, whether positive or negative; as a man thinks in his mind, so is he. Know this, whatever you keep meditating on, you will attract.

Goals energise. They propel our minds and action. So set goals, make them as big as you can. Make them as bold as you can. Your goals do not necessarily have to agree with the pattern of life in terms of being realistic. The people who have achieved great results have determined to defy the odds, set goals that no one had attained before and came out better than their peers.

Rule 2: SET PRIORITIES

If you want to achieve your goals, you need to start having a priority based activity plan of action. That should be daily, weekly, monthly and for life.  If you don’t learn to prioritise, then any distraction that you allow can be a thief in your own life.

There is no one who has ever become a great success by doing anything and everything that appears on their tables or drops in their minds. Author and Speaker, Steve Covey talks of a Time Matrix, which has four quadrants which have the following: Q1: urgent and important, Q2: urgent and not important, Q3: Important but not urgent, Q4: not urgent and not important. If you want to achieve success, you need to teach yourself how to set priorities according to these. Urgent things that are important should be treated first. Then the rest will follow.
I have discovered that having to answer to every call and SMS and Email every time your phone receives them costs people so much of their valuable time. Very small things have been allowed to be destructions in our lives that the most important things have been left undone. You end up missing deadlines, having to work yourself under tremendous pressure and robing yourself of the quality of results you disserve.

Rule 3:  MAKE AND FOLLOW A TO-DO LIST

Keep a daily to do list. Update it each morning and review it each night. I have been learning to do this and made a good observation over a two months period. One month I followed a to-do list for all my work days. Then the other I left it out. When I reviewed the two months, I found that I had accomplished more at work and personally during the month that I kept and followed a “to-do list.”
Schedule you day according to specific activities and allocate time for them. For example: allocate time for gym, for reading, leisure, checking and responding to emails, etc. You may at some point miss it, but if you learn to stick to it, you will achieve more. People who read every email that comes in usually fail to respond properly to the ones that are important. Rather set time for those while you focus the rest of the day on other important activities.
The trick is not to over-burden your day. Start with one or two main activities for each day and practice it for at least 21 days. You will soon discover that it comes naturally with practice. Do you realise that you don’t need to consciously think of brushing your teeth each morning when you wake up, its nature to you because you have practiced it many years. The same goes for anything and everything else. The more you practice scheduling your activities in a to-do list, the better your results will be and easier it becomes for you to do so.

Rule 4: DO FIRST THINGS FIRST

DO first things first. Every expert will tell you this is crucial. I can’t emphasise it any better. Doing everything as they come will cost you millions. So learn to prioritise in your life. Start today, the skill become well as you practice it. No one became better at anything by thinking about it too long. Refer back to rule 2.

Rule 5: LEARN TO BREAK YOUR BIG TASKS INTO SMALL MANAGEABLE TASTS

You eat an Elephant by chewing it one piece at a time.  By combining rule 2, 3 and 4, you will realise that nothing can be achieved by pressing on it all at once. Even the biggest companies that exist today started by breaking their dreams into pieces that we can call development milestones. The rule applies to life as well. Life is like building a house or baking a cake. You have to do it one step at a time.

What causes frustration is the desire to see the full picture all at once from start. This frustration can be overcome by deciding which tasks should be done over a certain time. Each activity must be designed to build towards the bigger picture. It should not be done in isolation.

The rules above are not a limiting performance based model, there are many things that we can do to be effective, these are just simple things that we can do.

In my next article, I will give you rule 6 to 11.  I hope you enjoy reading.

Do not hesitate to contact me on ngmafarafara@gmail.com or on twitter @mafarafara for more on these and other productivity reading and training.  Otherwise, leave a message on the comments section

Understanding your Purpose_ (part 2)_Kenny's testimony

GOD'S DESIRE

It is the desire of God that every living being should uncover and understand his/ her purpose.  Any person who does not understand his purpose is subject to frustration and abuse. In  the simplest of its form, we all need to fit into that which we were born to accomplish.

God keep on drawing us closer to him through experiences and desires. We find ourselves longing for deeper relationship with a higher being that cannot be filled with any thing on earth but Him and Him alone. Day after day He makes the call and invite us to an intimate fellowship with him.

MAN'S SEARCH FOR MEANING

Some few days ago, I met a very inspiring man and formed friendship with him. I invited him to a meeting where I intended to know him better. I wanted to understand what drives him, what makes him unique and why does he think so. In the beginning of the interview, he told me how he actually started to do what he does, and how he has actually grown into his organisation that is transforming young people in South Africa. I narrate his story here under. His real name ha been changed to protect his identity.

KENNY's story

In a small village, kaMajosi, about 47Km west of Giyani, lived a noble young man, Kenny. He was known for having answers to almost every question. Young people at school referred to him as the Village encyclopedia. Kenny always gave an ear to anyone who had something to say. At some point he would even host small life empowering seminars for high schools learners. He lived his high school life to the best of his abilities that earned him a good name in the community.

Few years later, he walked the streets of Mamelodi. He was now wearing a new helmet. The village boy was now “Mr Smart Guy” rooming the streets of Mamelodi. He had just graduated as an Environmental Health Practitionerd, and was walking as junior municipal consultant. That gave him the same platform as he had back in the village; to talk to people. That was something that he really loved doing all his life.

The streets of Mamelodi smelt his scent on every weekend. Because he did not have much to do, he spent much of his time in bars, night clubs and shebeens. He felt like the village had robbed him of fun and now it was time to explore the different delicacies that the township and near city life had to offer. From drinking he added cigarettes, which made him broke from time to time, but he took a puff of the wrong smoke and still, he did not relent. His friends would attest that he said he needed to prove a point. But he never disclosed as to who needed an explanation for his life.

It was not long that he found himself having tabs in different bars and night clubs. Sometimes he would open a tab for all his friends to have one or two rounds of their best shots, their choice. His tabs sometimes ran to as high as R15, 000 at a time, a debt higher than his basic salary. He woke up one morning on the entrance of a night-club in Rosebank wearing white socks and boxers and a black vest. When he asked the securities guards for answers, they all looked away and said; ‘boy, who taught you to drink? Go ask your mama?” It was cold, Kenny was freezing, almost naked in the streets.

Turning point

He hid himself in a corner near a waste bin. I listened to him narrate what happened shortly after that morning.”I was so cold that morning. I could do anything for warmth. I had never felt so cold like that ever before. I felt like my bones were breaking. Few hours later, a young beautiful lady walked by and heard me groaning. She lovingly approached me and looked at me with eyes I’ve never seen before. Her look made me feel empty and like I was being judged.” He stopped for a moment, took a deep sigh and said, “thank you Jesus.” I wondered where that came from, but I listened to him continue his story.

“She reached out to me and handed me her big scarf. She did not say a word. Then she gave me her coffee.” He stopped talking for few minutes, he expressed a deep sigh of relief from what I believe I was about to be enlightened. “That woman was sent from God to me. She said to me in one blow that shot through my heart and left me shattered, ‘you need God brother, you need God’. Then she asked me to walk with her to her car. Her husband was waiting for her in the car. The husband walked out and handed me his jacket, drove me to my flat and said no word to me. Just like that. I wondered what kind of man would do that. When we arrive at my door, he opened his mouth to ask one question, ‘why are you destroying yourself?’” With an angry look, Kenny stood up and hit the table where we were having our drink. My drink splashed all over the place. But I kept my cool.

“I felt like God was looking at me right in the eye with indignation,” he continued. From that moment he told me a very long story of how he started searching for meaning. No one had any answer for his question. In his search for meaning, he ran even faster into the path of destruction. He started drinking everyday of the week. He started changing women weekly.

He spent most of his days drunk and searching for answers. He spent all of his fortune trying to find meaning to life, but there seemed to be no answer to his quest. The more he searched for meaning, the more he drowned himself in alcohol and nicotine. Even worse, he was drowning in dept. It was not long before the bank repossessed his car and then he was “kicked” out of his flat because he could no longer afford to pay his monthly rental fees.

He looked for God, and seemed as if God has turned a blind eye on him.

The lady that picked him up in the cold met him again on his way to drown his sorrows with friends. She called him aside and invited him to church on the next Sunday. “I felt like this lady was becoming a thorn in my flesh”, he said. “It felt like every time I meet with her, she just adds more sorrow to my already diminishing life. She never spoke much, but there was a strong convicting power in her that judged me when I was around her.” Kenny continued.

That day, he turned back to his new flat. He lied on his sleeper couch facing the counting what seemed to be layers of sorrow the whole night.

I believe God wants me to preach

The thought of going to church, meeting with a group of people who cry “without cause”, clap and dance all over the place and sometimes keep their hands lifted up high too long was not acceptable in Kenny’s mind. He tried to pass the thought around with some friends and they laughed at him. May I say that none of his friends knew what was going on in his life. They regarded him as “the man”. He still maintained his high standard of intellect.

Need me to say, many times we go around with people and we do not know what they are going through. We seek the fun and joy of their presence but we never seek to discover the inner thought. Many people go through life pretending as if everything is alright. They spend their life hiding from the same people that share a meal with them.

Husbands and wives may spend their lives hiding the truth from each other in the name of “sparing them pain”. Children suddenly lose their parents to a dreadful disease which these adults kept from their children in the name of “sparing my children pain”. People spend their days hiding from the truth.  Like Kenny, he never told anyone about the worm that was eating him from the inide. But his life was rotting slowly.

After his friends scorned him for telling them that he wanted to meet with the creator at church, he said something that baffled both him and his friends: “I believe God wants me to preach.” That is somewhat unexpected form someone who had never been in church. The same weekend he went to a church nearby but he did not spend 30 minutes in side. He said the people were pretending.

He spent the next five weeks going from one church to another on Sundays. On each occasion, he did not spend more than 30 minutes. His view was all church people are full of hypocrisy. But even with that, the longing for God did not stop. It was like he was becoming addicted to seeking the true meaning of Life from a God he never knew. His pursuit for meaning isolated him from his friends. At work he was sidelined from meetings because sometimes he would find himself switching to another world not known to others and mysterious to him as well.

One Sunday morning he remembered that lady who gave him coffee and a scarf in the cold. He remembered the warmth that he observed from her face. The love that he believed her husband had for her and the compassion he sensed from him when he borrowed him the jacket. It was almost as if they were not from the same planet. All his life he knew people who expected something from him. He was expected to perform to a high standard; hence he suffered inside because he did not have anyone to talk to. But when it came to this couple, whom he did not even, know their full details except the name of the church that was on the bumper sticker of the car. He thought he might as well try it. If he still finds pretending people, he was determined to never try it again. He resolved in his heart that if the next church he visit does not give him what he wants, he is never going to think of God or his intuition of being a preacher ever again in his life.

Right in the arms of God

When God calls you, He puts in place all the mechanism that will drive you to Him even if you are ignorant. Like He did with Moses, when he was born, Pharoah, the monster king of Egypt in pursuit of the Hebrew boys two years and younger. He was determined to kill all sons of the Hebrew generation. But Moses managed to escape through a mini bucket in the river to the enemy’s camp where he was raised by the same man who wanted him dead. Later he ran for his life after killing an Egyptian man. Fast forward to 40years later, he is on a mountain standing in front of a burning bush that was not consumed by fire. God had him where he wanted him to be. No more running around. No more games. No more excuses.

Kenny woke up on a beautiful Sunday morning. Put on his Red Suit, a white shirt and black tie. He asked his friend to drive him to church early in the morning. When he arrived, the meeting had already started. The atmosphere was intense; there were sounds of excitement, joy and celebration. He described the people that he sow as those who had appeared to have no worries about anything. They seemed to be in an atmosphere not easy to contextualize. Kenny looked all around to see that everyone was focused on God. It appeared as if God had visited that place and He had no intention of returning after He left. So everyone had to make sure they impress Him by pouring out their hearts on Him.

As was still wondering, he felt a warm strong hand around his shoulder. He turned his head to be greeted a young man in a black tuxedo. “Welcome home my brother. My name is Mpho, I’m an Usher. This is the house of my father, and your father too. My I walk you to your seat?” said the young man. Kenny did not utter a word; he was still in awe of what he was seeing. “By the way,” continued Mpho, "it is an honour to have you hear. Please tell me your name and if it is your first time here.”

“Kenny”. That’s all he said. “All right brother Kenny”, responded Mpho, “is it your fist time here?” Kenny just nodded his head as he reclined to a comfortable seat next to him. He felt like he was in another world. The lady that assisted him that cold morning was singing. “I do not remember the song, but it touched my heart, I cried that day. Throughout the service my mind was wondering if I could ever have the same feeling another day. I wondered what would happen if God came into me and made me feel what the rest of the people in that church hall were feeling.” Said Kenny.

I looked at him as he narrates the story to me. He had an expression of a love struck man who had just found the girl he had been dreaming of all his youth. He accepted the Lord that day. And he said after saying “’yes, Lord’, I felt like a mountain had just been removed from my shoulder”.  A new life had just begun.

From that day, Kenny speaks as CEO of his life. God has turned his life around. He has since stopped drinking and going all over the country speaking about what God can do if one lets Him in. Through the years of desperation, he knows now that there is no meaning to life without God.

I would love to share more of his success, but the page is limited. but I can say that he has started an organisation  that serves to capacitate young men and women all over South Africa. He helps people discover their potential, their drive and move on to a place where no one and nothing can stop them unless they do so themselves. 

(It is written in honor and recognition of men and women who have found God and allowed Him to drive them to peak of their abilities and to salute men like Thulani Mphahlele, Author of The CEO Speaks and Stay on Track Diary (www.thulanimphahlele.com)), who has helped me plot this story.

God can do it for you too.

Understanding your purpose (part 1)

Understand Purpose

introduction 

The ultimate purpose of a man is to give glory to God. This function is not manifested until one discovers that element within yourself that will set you in a path to a more meaningful and fulfilled life. You see the great hunger and longing to discover God’s unique original purpose for each one of us when you see people wondering all over the world seeking satisfaction. We shall forever seek the infilling of the void in us until the day we find it in God

In Psalms 139:16 we learn that God has masterminded our lives even before we were born: “…in your book all the days [of my life] were written before I ever took shape, when as yeast, there was none of them”, (Psalm 139:16 AMP). This passage shows clearly that you and I are no accident nor man’s doing whatsoever.

the meaning of purpose

The meaning of purpose is very deep and very spiritual. It goes beyond what you are capable of doing. Your purpose is your God given footprint. When you miss the footprint, you either go astray or head on to destruction.  Your purpose is that which gives you the distinguishing factor. Once you identify and marry yourself to your purpose, you begin to stand out of the crowd, think outside the box and act out of the ordinary.

God uses our purpose to drive us into this world. He uses your purpose to provide for you. When he gave man the Garden of Eden, He instructed man to till the ground. Adam’s instruction was so clear. His enjoying the Garden of Eden was dependant on his performance of that which God instructed him to do. When you get to that point, life becomes easy and energising.
Your purpose is your assignment. Or let me put it this way, your assignment tied to or into your purpose. No matter how hard you try to escape, your purpose will always draw you back to the drawing board. You will find yourself running back and forth, frustrated and winning some battles and losing more until when you find your purpose.

Yeast Resemblance

Yeast usually presents in small particles. Its force or impact is not manifested except when put into the right environment, the dough. You are like dough; Yeast is like your purpose. Yeast makes dough to grow in size, even though it is tiny. Yeast influences the growth and growth rate of dough.
You are the dough and yeast is your purpose. You need to be positioned right to explore the greatness of your purpose on earth. If you embrace your purpose, it grows you.  Your purpose will set you off on a great path of success. But you need to understand that your purpose that your purpose is your first influence, the rest is support systems into the realisation of the true potential. T
The following are properties of yeast. They resemble how purpose can be

Properties of Yeast

_Yeast is tiny, but it influences the size and growth rate of dough. It changes the environment I the dough. Your purpose may seem small, but the influence that it can make is great than you allow it to happen. When a man identifies his purpose, it enlarges his territory by the power of God.

_Yeast works quietly: when it gets in the dough, it does not make any sound. It mixes with the dough as it is not in it. Purpose does not have to be announces on radio and say “I’m born for this and that”. It just acts with a quiet force, sooner or later; the observers will start seeing change without any external tangible force. Dr Myles says some of you “are not powerful in your actions because you are too loud”. Talk less, act more.

_Yeast does not become dough. Even though it mixes with the flower, it does not change from. The dough can expand as much as possible, but it retains its properties. When the environment is slightly warm, yeast performs its function optimally. When yeast is left slightly longer in bread dough, the dough can double in size.

Your purpose can never be changed by circumstances. Instead, your purpose cause change in your circumstances. When pressure comes your way, your purpose makes u float above the circumstances. Identifying your purpose is what has made great men and women who have identifies a gift that may have seemed small, neglected, non-fundable, not appealing and useless to grow beyond ordinary.

_Yeast is useless when stayed in its package: in order for you to enjoy the benefits of yeast, you have to put it in the right mix. It must be removed from its package in order to be effective.
The same applies to you. As long as you are hiding behind some covering of people above or around you, or things surrounding you, you may never realise your full potential. Hear me will, I did not say you will never, I said YOU May Never realise your full potential. Why? Because you still rely on others. Some of the surroundings have actually entrapped us from yielding the fruit of our purpose.

You need to get out, un-wrap your potential and get it mixed with your dough. Like the Blind Bartimaeus, who when Jesus called for him to be brought closer after he had made several calls to Him, he took off his coat (see Mark 10:46-52). He stood up and dusted himself from a blind man’s coat into a new life. You also need to release yourself from the holding cages into the place where your destiny is calling you to. Find out what it is that is holding you back and break away from it. Things like fear, low self-esteem, procrastination, bad friends, lack of knowledge, laziness, keep us from rising to our true purpose and therefore rob of our true greatness.
***
To be continued

FROM DREAMS TO REALITY

DON'T JUST DREAM, ACT ON THE DREAM

Time and time again people make decisions based on what goes into their minds. The decisions are influenced by inspiration of excitement or fear. These decisions come in different forms; from small to big, short-term to long-term and so on. The questions that may be asked is; how have you benefited from these decisions? How many have you implemented? If none or few, why have you not implemented your dream?

Many of us have areas that we can point as having benefited or succeeded. Others it is quite the opposite, their decisions are linked to how they have failed, how they are regretting and how miserable their lives are. Day and night people are faced with over-sized images of their regrets. Others are haunted by images of dark fears; fears from past failures, current failures, parental descriptions of negativity, community rejections, business failures, academic failures, relational heartbreaks as well as regrets of “could have”, “should have”, “would have” that never materialized.

There are many other things that are attached to failures, fear and poor achievements in various areas. These failures have actually created permanent “imaginary” labels ascribed to us.

How does one move from failure to success, from losing to triumphant living, from struggling to make significant progress? What is the difference between losing and winning people? What attributes are contained by those who have significantly achieved their goals, and made a success of themselves?

The difference

·          Successful people do daily what poor people do occasionally.

·          Successful people have declared independence from the world.

·          Successful people are bold to take the first step, the opposite (timidity) is true for failures.

·          Successful people view failure as a wrong sharpening of their rod, not as permanent   rejection.

Getting things done

1. Watch your habits

·          Habits repeated are results repeated.

You can change everything in your life, but if your habits have not changed, the results will remain the same. It is said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expect different results.

·          What you tolerate in your life, you cannot change.

If you have accepted defeat, failure, weakness, etc., in your life, no matter how hard you try to change it, you will keep struggling with it until you determine to refuse defeat. Joseph in the Bible had many of the things that he decided not to tolerate; his brothers’ negativity, rejection and resentment towards him. He was so much resented by his brothers for dreaming but he did use their negativity as his yardstick, he believed that the dream will come to pass, even if it takes time. His resilience made him succeed his brother’s hatred, being sold to slavery, accused by his master’s wife and wrongfully arrested and sentenced for years in prison for rape he did not commit. Despite all this negativity that surrounded him, he emerged victorious and lived to enjoy his God given dream.

2. Change your thoughts and language

Whatever you keep talking about will eventually multiply. Your thoughts build a path for you to follow. Your silent thoughts are to a certain extent silent prayers in your life, whether you realize it or not.

Your thoughts/ meditation build your character. They determine what you say and how you respond to external stimuli. Once you change your thought pattern to a more positive, ambitious, and bold and possibility focused, you will get things done. Note that your thinking pattern is far worse an enemy than the devil.

Watch also what you say. Young Joseph kept talking about his dream. The great proverbs of all time teaches the power of words; the tongue of the just is like choice silver… the lips of the righteous feed many (Proverbs 10:20-21). A man’s belly shall be satisfied with the fruit of his mouth (Proverbs 18:20).

Learn to speak positive about yourself and to yourself all the time, it will eventually start to build in you and make up who you are.

3. Learn new skills

 The reason for learning should not be to acquire a certificate of qualification. It should be to get new skills or to sharpen the current set of skills. There are many people with certificates of completion or degrees and diplomas that do not certify competency.

Learning is for the purpose of bridging the skills gap. What you do not know is killing you right now. Knowledge changes and empowers people. Note that you cannot change where you are, but you can change how you are, how you will be and where you will be by changing what goes into your head

4. Take charge

It is easy to dodge our responsibilities, but we cannot dodge the consequences of dodging our responsibilities. One of the reasons why people don't get things done is that they took their time to think and plan but never tell themselves to act on their thoughts. When things do not go their way, they blame it on the education system, on parents, on government, etc.

Start to learn and master your “WHY’s?” Once you have answered the “WHY” question, you can endure anything.

Remember, a rejected opportunity to sow is a rejected opportunity to reap. don't let opportunities pass you by.

5. Aim for the big fish

Let the small fish be used as bait for the big fish. Small talk, small thinking is for mediocre people and should be left at primary level. Think big, plan big and act like wise. The greatest heights achieved by many were not achieved overnight, those who did toiled through the night while their counterparts were sleeping and snoring.

Many people miss great opportunities because they are busy chasing small things other than chasing their dreams.

Note: Starting small is not a problem; it becomes a problem when your small beginning becomes what you die for. Aim for the world. Aim for global impact.

6. Master your strengths

When David killed Goliath in battle, he had focused on what he is capable of doing. While the entire Israel including the king at the time focused on how great their enemy was, they failed to realize how strong their army is.

Know your strengths, build on them and capitalize on them each day. As a matter of fact, your skills, if sharpened can be your gold mine

Echo of His Voice

Echo
Portraits from ancient eternity conveyed in infinity
Random antediluvian traits from unfamiliar dynasties emerging in flash-lights
Raging fury of disconcerted frenzies relentlessly wrestle my soul
Blank memories needs to be filled with ancient time bed stories
Whom shall I call to narrate them to me?

The streets have learned the language of the illiterate
The walls have short evocative graffiti that mimics the echo never told
Dry summer air whispers sounds of stories my memories refuse to recall
Skin scrunches to the bone in the imperturbable of the night
Still, I desperately chase the cradle of the ricochet
The echo that ceaselessly haunts my sleeping mind
No philosophy is accurate enough to explain the sound of the echo
No artist can craft the actual essence of the echo
Shall I then conclude that this is a desperate search of untold ancient myths?

The crafts that already exists are not drawn to the image of man
The portraits are illustrative of a supper-human
The intricate interiors are convoluted from incorruptible source
Imperishable is essence of the echo
Incomprehensible to any mortal being but apprehensible to the immortal ever living,
And only Revealed to me!

RELENTLESS

 Arise, Shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee...and the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and the kings to the brightness of thy rising-Isaiah 60:1,3

     A number of times we lie in our rooms with so many questions and ideas in our minds. More often than not, these questions hardly ever get answered and our ideas never reach incubation stage. We tend to abort our ideas early and conceive others. At the same time, our lives are like a Merry-go-round: full of ups and downs.

 Most of us have been exposed to situations that haunt our minds to such an extent that we are mentally crippled or paralysed by fear and mediocrity. The essence of living has been snatched away from you by the past that haunts you. Your experiences of the past have somehow captured you and enslaved you in an atmosphere of mediocre, failures, fears and nightmares and you do not know how to escape from them. The mind has reached a state of hardness from external stimuli. Even if we try to talk you out of the current state of mind; it will be like drilling through a rock that refuses to break.

Many people have been right there where you are and have broken through such state of mind and changed the world. The bible is full of examples of men and women, young and old who have been in similar situations or worse but they emerged victors. They had to take a bold conscious decision to defile the odds of life, detach from mediocre instillations and become giants against their own failures and challenges. Today we refer to them as conquerors and heroes. You can be one. You can emerge from the same situation as a better man or woman and be written in the world’s history books as such.

Today’s youth have to deal with a multitude of challenges ranging from family rejection to being left alone to be parents of small babies and siblings, academic failures to unemployment, from rape to teenage pregnancy and HIV with minimal to no support at all, peer pressures to absolute bullying at school and in the communities, drugs and alcohol to imprisonment and many others. In a world full of these challenges, how do you emerge a victor even with scars of war? Or even, how do you inspire others to do better?

The world offers us a stage where excellence defines who we are and not our integrity. The material achievement have become the label ascribed to by many young people without which life is not as fulfilling as should be. The systems that have been highly pronounced by media present us with a challenge of defending the reality of life against the shadows mostly known to be genuine.

When an angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon in Oprhah, (Judges 6:11), he was dealing with poverty, war, and mediocre. He and his family were faced with poverty while the entire community was in the midst of war. His family was among the least. He had concluded that he is nothing; a looser, least of the least and waiting to die when the Lord appeared to him and called him a mighty man. He gave him a label description that no one else ever ascribed to him. I am sure it came as a great shock to him, a shock that many still experience when they are told they are better than what they actually think they are.

That is similar to what many of us have had to deal with or are already classified as such by the community and our peers.

He had to first wrestle in his mind with the new identity that God was presenting to him. There was war in his mind between his current identity and the new identity which God was inviting him to live in. You have to break away from the old identity that was imposed to you by circumstances and your upbringing into the identity that God has originally placed on you from the beginning. God knows you better any living being on earth. He knows what you are made of and all your capabilities. He knows how to take you from where you are to where he has originally created to be.

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11(ESV).

BIBLE HEROES-YOUR BUILT-IN DIVINE TRAITS

The transition from the current state to the realisation of the plans of God for your life will require bold faith. You will be faced with many challenges in life that requires transition. Some of these challenges are addressed in this book. You will, at some point in your life, be forced to make a decision to break out and away from the inhibiting circumstances that life currently presses on you to a better, yet challenging but fulfilling journey.

For example; David had to deal with his family not considering him as candidate when God needed to anoint a king from his father’s house. Even though he was ultimately anointed to be King, the fact that he was not considered by his own father could paralyse the confidence of a young man. But he did not let his father’s recognition or lack thereof define who he was meant to be.

Young Esther had to give up her youth into marriage to a king in order to save Israel (see Esther 4). I think some of the youth and teenagers are dealing with this aspect. Being faced with a responsibility to father or mother a child you did not have time to plan for. A large number of households are child headed in Africa. They are forced to do so because their parents are not there to do it for them for one reason or another.

Young Abel was killed by his own brother for giving a pleasing sacrifice before the Lord. Joseph, when he was still young had a big dream which his brothers did not believe in. Instead, he was hated and sold to slavery by his own brothers for having such a dream.

Have you ever felt like your own family hates you for the good things you are doing? Can you survive the rejection and exclusion from your own family?

These are some of the things that the youth today still face in one form or another. The challenges facing youth in the 21st century are such that some end up joining gangs to compensate for the pain they felt in their upbringing, some turn up to be bad husbands or wives because of their poor upbringing, some never enjoy their youth because of words uttered to them when they were still babies. Words such as; you are stupid; you will never amount to anything; you are ugly, I hate you and so on and on. These have left scars in the hearts of many young boys and girls and ripped them off of their great future.

Many of us have faced similar challenges in our individual lives. These and other challenges have made some to give up from life. Some ended their lives, some just totally resigned from pursuing their dreams. At the same time there are others who faced the same challenges before or at the same time as we did but they emerged victors. The difference is the mind-set.

INDIPENDANCE  FROM IENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCE

Someone told me this story which I find intriguing:

There were two young men born and raised in one family of the same parents. Their father was a heavy drinker and a drunkard. When they grew up to independence, one grew up to be a drunkard like his father; the other never tasted alcohol and was very successful. When they were asked on separate occasions as to how did they turn out to be what they turned out to be. They both gave the same answer: my father was a drunkard!

What is the difference between the two guys? This scenario explains what you and I are exposed to and what we can do. We can all be in the same situation but we do not have to become what the situation dictates for us. We should exercise the power of choice and boldly move from dictated and imposed realities to the real purpose God created us for.

With this book, I want to encourage every young man and young woman and show you that you can come out from the walls withholding you. I want to show you that you can be free from the place of low self-esteem, deal with the words once spoken to you, emerge a strong and confident person and show the world what you are made of. You are born of God and you can overcome any thing the world throws at you (1 John 5:4). Arise, stand tall and shine for your glory is risen upon you (Isaiah 60:1). Be bold.

INFLUENCE: You are either influencing or being influenced

Influence is plainly defined as the power to affect, control or manipulate something or someone,the ability to change behavior or conduct. It can be in both negative or positive depending on the energy employed. 

The most influencial, effective, powerful and succesful people in the world have so many things in common, one of them being "influence". They have surrounded themselves with possitive people. These may be people who are like minded with them or those ahead of them. They never suround themselves with medioctrity thinkers or quiters. the pople in their circles are people who add velue to them.

BEING INFLUENCED!!

Now, lean back and take a short break and ask yourself this question (try and answer it openly); what kind of people are within your circles? Is it people who inspire you to be better than you are or those that keep on subtracting something from you and demotivate you? Could it be you are being influenced to do less than you are capable of or to stretch beyond the sky? Perhaps ask yourself; do I add value to the peole around me?

When each day passes, take a look at your life and see what is inflencing your life. Young Samuel in the bible was inflenced by ELi to become a prophet, Elisha was influenced by Elija, Nelson Mandela was infleunced by his great friends and fellow polititians (OR Thambo, Goven Mbeki, etc), Donald Trump is inflenced by, among others his legal advisor. the kind of people who suround you will either bring the best out of you or kill it. "bad company corrupts good mennars".

A friend of mine wrote this on facebook: "a real woman can help a man achieve his goals in life".. a nother man was told by his wife while complaining that she was smiling and hugging other men (her former lovers and friends): If I had married one of these men, he would now be a CEO of a big company, a pastor of a great church, father of great and succesful children, author of many New York times best selling books and a multi-bilionair".  The man acknowledged that had it not been for his wife he would have not achieved all that his wife had just brought to the attention of his remembrence. she was the infleunce behind him.

The opposite can also happen too. consider your friends.

INFLUENCING!!

As defined above, you can be an influence too. as long as you can be in contact with any one, you can become a person of influence. would you rather be a person who influence other to be come the best they can be or sit back, relax and watch doom fall over them while you could have changed their destiny for the better by a simple encouragement and support.

I see many people cheering on the sidelines while others cramble and fall and plainly admit when these people fail and say "I knew nothing will come out of that". That is not the way to live. Leave a legacy behind. In every human contact and interaction you have, strive to be remembered for the good work you have done.

It does not take any extra special attributes to influence other. It is as simple as living your life. you just do what you are able to do and do it best. Make a choice that you will never "shout" a negative criticism to anyone. Decide to be the best. just by being you, many can be turned. As a metter of fact, every living person has someone constantly watching them. they may not be talkign with you, nut they are looking at what you do. other they do it because they see somthing in you and they would like to do it.

That is why in a family where in the father or mother prays or is in business, there is a high posibility that one of their children will tun out to be like them or even better. In a family where there is one person educated, I believe there is more chances of having more people aducated in that generation than where there is none. And that I say because the first role models that we have come from within our families.