THE P.D.P OF LIFE

Thank you for reading my blogs! I hope you are inspired.

The last issue we dealt with was on purpose. However, there are two other ingredients that will help you make the most of life if you take them seriously alongside purpose. Let's talk about them in this issue...

The life of Elisha and his work with Elijah especially the part leading up to the taking away of Elijah (The Bible book of 2nd Kings chapter 2) was marked with what I would term the PDP of life.

·      P- Purpose: this is the vision or goal you want to reach in life. In the case of Elisha, his purpose or goal was the double portion of the spirit of his master, Elisha. This goal burnt so deep inside of him that he accompanied his master up to the point and place where he reached his goal and his dream came through. In other words, Elisha did not stop searching for his true identity and the meaning of the life he was living (or supposed to read) until he found.

·      D- Determination: this is the driver of your vision or goal. For Elisha NOTHING was strong or influential enough to stop him from achieving his desired goal. Even when the sons of the prophets tried to shift his focus and make him loose his purpose, he didn't give in. Attempts from even his master did not stop him. His determination to get what he wanted kept him in his place of assignment and when the ultimate test came i.e. the chariots and horses of fire that separated him from Elijah, he still did not lose focus- HE WAS DETERMINED. Be determined, this will give you a platform to stand on in your place of assignment.

·  P- Perseverance: this is what keeps you in your place of assignment. Hold on. If you're sure you're in the right place of your being, nothing should be strong enough to dissuade you because you have perseverance. Elisha persevered when he should have given up. He would have had a lot of reasons why he wouldn't be able to reach his set target, goal or dream but he refused to let these reasons rule him. Instead he suppressed them with the words of his mouth. What do you have in your mouth? How much of God's word is in you that you can let out when trying circumstances arise? It is the word that can keep you in your place of assignment because it was the word that brought you there; that's if you are sure.

In the next two issues, i'll be dealing extensively on determination and perseverance.

Have a wonderful day!

Be inspired!

Remain motivated!

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PURPOSE

Now let’s talk about purpose…

What is your purpose in life? This question has sent so many minds to serious soul searching. It is the most important question to answer in life yet it is the least attended to by people for fear of the unknown. Are you living your life or an already scripted one from childhood? Purpose is a call to live your life.

In the words of Napoleon Hill, “there is one quality that one must possess to win and that is definiteness of purpose, the knowledge of what one wants, and a burning desire to possess it”.

Stretching Napoleon Hill’s thought above, I would like to submit to you that to discover your life purpose is to ask yourself the very important question- “who am I?” Lots of people have spent both time and money attending seminars and workshops with the hope of picking up their life purpose somewhere. The problem with this way of looking for your purpose is that it reduces it to just “a thing”. When you see your purpose in life as an object lost that has to be found, it makes it very difficult to be grasped. Sometimes it is frustrating looking for it.

Who are you? Please take out some time to answer this question. At the core of your being, what do you see as your unique contribution to your generation?

To discover your life purpose is to tell yourself who you are (let’s call it ‘self leadership’) and to know where in life you are needed will cause you to properly apply yourself (let’s call this one ‘self management’), Stephen Covey would say self management follows self leadership. It is not enough in and of itself to discover your purpose; you have to know where in life you are needed.

What are the things you have tried doing with your life? I won’t be surprised if you’re reading this piece but yet to have ever done anything by and for yourself. In other words, you are comfortably acting out the scripts of life written for you by someone else; perhaps your parents, society or a close family member and you have been struggling to act out this script.

In other to answer the question of who you are and what your contribution to life is (which is the sum of your purpose), you have to leave your comfort zone, your secured location and explore the world for and by yourself.

After all purpose is the reason for YOUR existence (‘existence’ is what you will find in the dictionary, please replace it with ‘living’, it makes it more wholesome).

Have a wonderful day!

Be inspired!

Remain motivated!

Further reading

Stephen Covey

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

 

OPEN YOUR MOUTH!

OPEN YOUR MOUTH!

After a speaking engagement somewhere, someone walked up to me and wanted to know how he could speak like me. He said he enjoyed the energy and passion I exuded and would like to see himself that way.

Well, I told him first of all that I wasn’t born that way. I learnt to speak in public. The next thing I told him was that he shouldn’t try speaking like me, he should always try being himself and then I went on to share the following with him:

·      I told him that the first step in speaking before an audience comes from having a message for them. You have no business being in their presence without a reason why;

·      I went on to tell him that the messenger is as important as the message he carries. You need to work on yourself as a message carrier- your vocabulary, physical appearance, knowledge base, confidence level and so on;

·      In addition I pointed out to him that as long as he could stand confidently before me (as an individual) to chat, he could do the same before an audience. One of the top secrets of public speakers is that they see their audience as made up of one person and they go ahead to converse with them in that light.

Everything else about public speaking revolves around the above three.

I have met and heard so many people conclude that they can and will never open their mouth before an audience to say anything. The problem with those who hold this line of reasoning is that they see those who do it as haven fallen from the skies, a special breed of humans. It is not so. I am an example of one of those who jettisoned that line of thinking.

My friend whose experience I was relating earlier and a number of others that I have shared the above three pillars of my public speaking engagements have gone on to open their mouths in public. They have refused fear holding them back, they have rejected the opinion that only a selected few can open their mouth in public, they are enjoying it and are craving for more.

Finally friend, if you think you are just too bad to open your mouth in public, know that great speakers were as bad as or worse than you are.

So get up and seize that opportunity to open your mouth!

RECOMMENDED READING:

·      Richard Dowis

The Lost Art of the Great Speech.

How to write one- How to deliver it.

·      Dale Carnegie

The Art of Public Speaking

Be inspired!

Remain motivated!

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http://www.extrememakeovers-connecticut.com/

FLIP FLIP (2)

FLIP FLIP (2)

Thank you for reading my blogs. In FLIP FLIP (1) I aroused your interest in reading by pointing out benefits derivable from it.

In this concluding part I’ll try to address some of the concerns raised earlier.

Personally, my reading culture grew and has remained healthy because of one guiding principle- PURPOSE. I always ask myself why and what I should spend time reading when there are other things I could be doing. I have come to answer these questions based on what I have found myself doing (which is what I have always longed to do, inspiring and motivating people like you with both the spoken and written word). Haven answered the ‘why’ I should read, I am hence directed to the ‘what’ I should read. For instance, outside books on Economics (which is my academic discipline) I read books that help me communicate better; books that will enable me enrich more lives as a speaker, teacher, coach and mentor.

Please avoid the trap of wanting to read because society expects you to and because if you don’t you’ll start feeling guilty. That is an external motivation and it is not enough to help you start nor sustain a healthy reading culture. The motivation and drive to read must come from ‘a reason why’ which is drawn from within.

Just look at yourself and see if you are satisfied with what and where you are professionally, academically, with your call and in other areas of life. If you’re not, if you want to advance and become more relevant, look at those specific areas and enrich them by reading appropriate books (not just reading for the sake of reading).

If you’re not comfortable with big books, start with small ones. Break up your reading into chapters or pages. Be disciplined and committed enough to pick the most convenient time of the day you want to read and stick to it. Here are useful thoughts from great minds:

“To read is to fly: it is to soar to a point of vantage which gives a view over wide terrains of history, human variety, ideas, shared experience and the fruits of many inquiries.”

- A C Grayling, Financial Times (in a review of A History of Reading by Alberto Manguel)

“The things I want to know are in books; my best friend is the man who'll get me a book I ain't read.”

- Abraham Lincoln “You're the same today as you'll be in five years except for the people you meet and the books you read.”  - Charlie "Tremendous" Jones “No matter how busy you may think you are, you must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance.”  - Confucius “Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are.”  - Mason Cooley “Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.”  - Richard Steele

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Stay motivated!

Be inspired!

FLIP FLIP (1)

FLIP FLIP (1)

When was the last time you started and finished reading a book? Ha! A long time ago I guess. Well, the fact that you're reading this piece shows that you have the ability and capacity to read. Yet ability and capacity alone are not enough to get you develop a healthy reading culture.

Someone once said that if you know how to read and don't, you're not better than that person who can't. I agree absolutely, don't you?

Let's see some of the benefits you can derive from cultivating a healthy reading culture:

·      A tree that hopes to continually have green leaves must be watered; so also must a mind that wants to continue being fresh, productive and relevant, with the pages of books.

·      Reading affords you the opportunity to tap into the wealth of experience of great minds without having to meet them face to face.

·      A healthy reading habit makes you more creative.

·      I found my life purpose from cultivating a reading habit and so many have the same experience too. It might work for you.

·      Reading helps you develop the ability to be more analytical and critical.

I have listed all the “what’s in it for you” above (you can find out some more) but you’re saying “come on Emeka, I start and after some time I stop, I don’t think I can do this”, “it’s tiring and frustrating, don’t you get it?”

“Ok, how and when do I start?” Alright, I’ve been in your shoes before and I know how it is… you pick a book today and with all the ginger, you plunge into it and after a little while you drop it and that’s it for a long, long time. Nmmmm! In the next part of this piece, I’ll tell you what I did (that has been working for me) that you can adopt also.

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Stay motivated!

Be inspired!