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A man travels round the world in search of what he needs and returns home to find it.- George Moore. Welcome home!


Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Currents of Favour

Watching waterfalls could be a very exciting and an informative thing. You will see how things and people have little problem swimming or flowing with the tide. You will also notice how it could be very difficult if not impossible to swim against the tide. Swimming against the tide obviously means to swim against the water currents and that can be disturbing.

In our lives also, it is possible to swim along or against the tide. Sometimes, I see people struggling to succeed in one thing or the other and it baffles me how very difficult it is for people to understand the reason for their struggles. Definitely, we will face challenges on our way to achieving greatness. But to swim against the tide is quite another thing. It leads to unnecessary failures and heartbreaks.

What do I mean by swimming against the tide? I mean trying to achieve success in any endeavour contrary to the principles and laws that govern success specifically or generally. Every durable success must be on the platform of principles. To succeed otherwise is to build on sinking sand.

It is important to understand that favour is like a river with high currents. When we swim along with the direction of favour, we struggle less and succeed without much difficulty. Swimming against the currents of favour is an energy sapping exercise that ends in futility. If you are doing something over time and there is nothing positive to show for it, take time to examine and re-examine what you’re doing and how you’re doing it. There should be a measure of success that should go with our endeavours. It may not be in the immediate but the signs will be there and the certainty of success will keep you going even when there are no tangible results.

To swim along the currents of favour, firstly, we must understand the direction of favour. Favour isn’t everywhere and in everything at least for an individual. If you get into a business or project you are not supposed to, then you are swimming against the currents of favour. You need to be sure that what or who you want to be involved with is what or who you are supposed to be involved with. You need to find out from God if you are in the right, else you will struggle unnecessarily.

Also, you could have a good idea but a bad location can sabotage your prospects. So, currents of favour, has to do with understanding the right location for what we want to do. Not all locations are good for everybody and everything. Companies site their building in strategic places that will enhance their businesses. We must know the right location for us if we want to succeed.

Moreover, not having the right people to work with can lead to swimming against the currents of favour. Right people will determine the success and durability of a project or relationship. When you work with wrong people, you will be wondering why all your efforts are not yielding commensurately. It will be like putting money in a bag with holes. Be careful with the people you identify with because they can make or mar you.

Next is diligence. The lazy man cannot but swim against the currents of favour. This is because it takes diligence to harness opportunities and openings and this is an impossible thing as long as any man is lazy. In spite of great difficulties, a diligent person will rise to greatness. Work does not kill only laziness does.

Understanding these things will enable us to keep swimming along with favour and experiencing great results and successes that are almost unimaginable.

Monday, February 22, 2010

WHY?


I am a thinker and the art of thinking requires that we sit down and ask questions. I understand that in Philosophy, questions are more important than answers. This is because questions provide the raw material for great results and achievements. Every great result achieved has been a direct product of questions. The more questions we can ask, the more raw materials we generate to work on issues and pressing problems. He is a failure who doesn’t ask questions because he will live within the range of the status quo.

Recently, I noted that I’ve not been doing a particular thing for a long time and the question was, “why did I stop doing that thing?” I had stopped for certain reasons which though may be genuine but were not sufficient enough to make me withdraw. It’s almost amazing what can happen when we begin to ask the question, why? If we are sincere, we will discover that why is so crucial, maybe more crucial than we can imagine.

What is so important about this question, ‘why’? Firstly the question, ‘why’ reveals the motive behind our actions. Why are we doing what we are doing? Why do we want to get into that business? It’s important to realise that intent precedes content. Intention is more important than action. This is because if our intention is wrong then our actions, no matter how good they may appear, will not be right. They can only be manipulative at best and seductive at worst.
Secondly, why defines our scope. It helps us to know region, our sphere of operation. Coca Cola Company is not into software development. Understanding why helps us to concentrate our energies to the right direction. Why helps us to focus. It limits us and maximizes us. It strengthens our resolves and invigorates us.

Thirdly, why helps us to know the resources we need to achieve our objective. It is important to understand why as it will enable us to know how and where to channel our resources. Lack of proper understanding of why, has led to so much waste of scarce resources. Because many people haven’t asked why they were created, they tend to dangle from one thing to another. This leads to waste of both time and energy. We cannot afford to waste our time on earth as we are not staying here forever. We have limited time and for us to maximize it we must ask the question, ‘why’.

The question why opens our latent resources. When you begin to ask why, you will begin to discover that you have what it takes to move far forward than where you are now. You will suddenly discover that you are more than what you are now. It will be a case of scales falling off from your eyes. You will remain where you are presently until you ask why.

Who do you direct your why to? Our most important questions must be channelled to God. This is because He is our Creator, our Manufacturer. He alone knows who we are and why we are. We must find out from Him. This we do in prayer and looking at the manual He gave us, the Bible. Inside that book are all answers you’ll need and more. No one knows a product like its manufacturer and no book can be more explicit than the manufacturer’s manual. Get the manual of God for your life and study it, then watch how your questions will be answered.

If you are still the way you were years ago, the reason may be because you haven’t asked the question why? Ask yourself, why am I single? Why am I poor? Why am I jobless? Why do I feel lonely? The more whys you can ask the better. Give your life a thorough look. Don’t settle for less when you can be more. Don’t settle for a mediocre life. Those who got to the topmost tops didn’t get there by wishing, they got there by asking why. They moved when the changed their reasoning about themselves and their situations.

The time to move forward is now but that will happen if you begin to question the status quo. The future belongs to the one who will ask why. You will never know what you can do until you begin to question yourself about you are doing and where you are. The time is now. Get up and take your destiny. Challenge your challenges and watch how thing can change. Don’t ever fail to ask this all important question, WHY.