GROW UP

I am often mortified when I watch the way young people like me enjoy growing old (as though they don’t know) without growing up. Personal development, self improvement and value addition are seen as archaic. Everybody is in a haste to get to the top but forget they’ll need a ladder to climb. Don’t be fooled young person, one day you’ll become a grandpa or grandma; your youthfulness will not last forever but the foundation you lay today for a life of relevance and impact will outlive you. While an eighty something Chinua Achebe was being buried like a national hero, some others like him have been abandoned in old people’s homes; a Wole Soyinka at seventy something is still as relevant today as he was in his days at the University while a Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu are regarded as national gods. These were people who took advantage of their youth to make themselves immortals. Most of their contemporaries are nonentities, rotting away in the oblivion of time; not regarded by family, friends or neighbours.  I am not writing this to make you apprehensive; I intend to help you answer one important question which is,

        ''what am I doing with my youthfulness?''

''Remember now thy creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them''- Eccl 12:1. Young people spend so much time decorating their bodies (which is not bad if sparingly done) than they do decorating their minds, thinking the body will last forever. Let me submit to you that the beauty on your body will fade if your body is confronted and challenged to take action but can’t by a rag-tag mind. Sophia Loren says ''there is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age'' because the body, no matter how active it is, does not appreciate; but the active mind does; though it won’t without a conscious effort from you. Look around you and you'll find that those who really grow up are those who keep developing and decorating their minds. As I mark my birthday today, I want to inform you that ''growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional''- Chili Davies. Few people choose the latter; I am one of them, are you?

Be inspired!

Remain motivated!

Picture credit: www.gettyimages.com

Let's talk about resolutions (Conclusion)

It is worth stating here that decision making is the process of “analyzing alternatives to reduce uncertainty about achieving a desired outcome”[1]. Decisions or resolutions are not taken because they are popular but because they are relevant. Decisions are taken after it has been identified that there is a problem that needs a solution. Hence the first step in making a resolution that will last is to recognize that there is a problem. Doing this will enable you sort out the mere symptoms from the real disease.

Having identified the problem, the next step is to look at the various ways the problem can be solved. All the alternatives should be on the desk, an African adage says that there are several roads that lead to the market yet the best way to get to the market might not be through the shortest route, but through the route that will have the best effect on you. Quick fixes as it characterize many resolutions made by people at the end or beginning of the year rarely fixes anything; in other words, the shortest route might not be the best route. They might work in solving the immediate cause(s) of a problem but won’t ameliorate the remote cause(s).

After comparing and contrasting the various alternatives to solving an identified problem, the next step is to make a choice out of all of them. Like I stated earlier, the choice of a particular solution should be predicated on its suitability to you and not just on its popularity.

You have identified a problem, lined up various ways you think the problem can be solved and have made a choice that is best for you; the next step (and perhaps the most difficult) is to implement the choice. It is often said that the problem with Nigeria is not a want of policies that have the potential of transforming the nation, but of implementing them. Same goes to us as individuals. The question now is, ‘how do we ensure that we implement and stick to a solution we have discovered to a problem plaguing us.

First you have to recognize that resolutions or decisions are made as remedies to problems in other to make progress[2]. You have to make the choice as to whether you want to make progress or remain where you are. If you choose the former, it must come with the understanding that progress is arrived at with sacrifices. In other words, progress is made by doing things differently from how they had hitherto been done.

On a final note, for your resolution to last beyond the first week of the year, you must base it on the principle of love. Why love? Love, because it helps you realize that the progress you seek for yourself will also help lift someone else from the valley where they are to the top of the hill where they aspire to. I usually tell myself that I must get better because someone needs my help to get better. By the way, sometimes as humans we find it extremely difficult and challenging to go through this process of decision making on our own. If you can’t go alone, let someone go with you- a friend, mentor, colleague, relative, counselor, etc. Live your life on a forward motion.

Until next time,

Be inspired!

Remain motivated!

N.B

My blogs haven’t been regular because internet facility where I am currently undergoing my one year mandatory national service is very epileptic. Please bear with me. My service year will end in the first week of October this year and I promise my blogs will be more regular then.

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[1] Robert E. Dittmer, Stephanie Mcfarland,  151 Quick ideas for Delegating and Decision making.

[2] Robert E. Dittmer, Stephanie Mcfarland,  151 Quick ideas for Delegating and Decision making.             

RESOLUTIONS

Let’s talk about resolutions…

At this time of the year, it is very common to hear the word “Resolutions” being bandied about by all and sundry. Unfortunately, it is a beautiful chorus whose lines are forgotten almost as soon as it is remembered.

Before delving into reasons why resolutions fail, it is important to know what it is and why it still remains everyone’s best friend in the first few hours of the New Year.

A RESOLUTION is simply a decision, determination or resolve to deal with an identified challenge or problem.

Why is resolution still very popular?

a)   Everybody want to move further in life hence many feel that a resolution will serve as that driving force and of course it can, after all a resolution is a decision to deal with a challenge.

b)   ‘Resolution’ is what everybody does at the beginning of the year. In other not to have nothing to say when asked about mine, it is safer to just acquire one like everyone else.

c)   It is a shelter for those who are running away from the heat of a debilitating habit or obsession. Unfortunately to most of those people, it only serves as a temporary cover though having the potential for permanence.

d)   People think a resolution can serve as a short-cut to an envisaged end thus freeing them from the rigour and thoroughness of hard work. Definitely it can lead one to an expected end, yet it is not the short-cut people think it is.

Seeing then that there is nothing wrong with resolutions, what is wrong in its application that makes it die almost as soon as it is born?

Ø People ascribe resolutions to a particular time of the year (January 1^st) and a particular place (the church or mosque) thereby overlooking the time when a decision that would have led to an action being taken on an issue should have been appropriately taken hence reducing the potency and longevity of the resolution. Mind you, resolutions are not born with the coming of a new year, they are always with us to be taken and stood by all through time even NOW.

Ø Most people just sit down and without much pondering decide to do or not do something in a process they call resolution making without bearing in mind  that resolutions are decisions and decision making has a process. It is not something you just say, it is a goal scoring process that you set in motion.

Ø Just like a building with a faulty foundation collapses in no time, resolutions give way if they are not built on sound values. The values you hold are the building blocks upon which you can rest your resolutions without which it will be nothing but wishful thinking. This is the most important factor.

I will stop here for now and in the next article talk about:

·      The process of making a resolution (also known as decision making process)  and;

·      Values that can hold up a resolution.

Till then,

Have a great new year!

Be inspired!

Remain motivated!

IT’S STILL ABOUT ECONOMICS

When I meet people whose only opinion of an economist is that of tightfisted people, I laugh off their ignorance because inadvertently they are referring to themselves, Just about everyone is an economist!

An economist simply chooses the proper allocation and application of his resources which have competing demands, for maximum output knowing there are implications for his choices. Is this not what you do daily?

Let’s discuss the four areas of our lives where agonizing will be the inevitable result of not economizing.

TIME:

If life is measured in and with time then the amount of time you’ve got is equal to the amount of life you have. In short:

Your time = your life

You tell the quality of life a person lives by the use(s) he puts his time to. Knowing so many things jostle for his time, he’ll choose to put it to the most productive use because a waste of it is a waste of his life. So what are you doing today, what are you doing now? It is important for you to know that “the best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time”[1] therefore, “let him who would enjoy a good future waste none of his present”[2]

Be careful the people you spend your time with because they will either appreciate your value or depreciate it. Know that “time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.”[3]

Be careful the places you spend your time because you either earn your right of progression to the next level in life or you regress to the beginning.

Be careful what your preoccupations are because they will either help you occupy your land of fulfillment or occupy you themselves. People who always complain that their time is occupied by one or other things are actually not in control of their lives until they are the ones occupying their time with resourceful and result-filled ventures.

Let’s hear Solomon talk to us about time:

    

Everything has its own time, and there is a specific time for every activity under heaven:

a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to pull out what was planted,

a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build up,

a time to cry and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,

a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to hug and a time to stop hugging,

a time to start looking and a time to stop looking, a time to keep and a time to throw away.

a time to tear apart and a time to sew together, a time to keep quiet and a time to speak out,

a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.[4]

TALENT:

The world will keep ignoring you if you keep ignoring your talent. Nobody has ever left a mark in life without using the ink called ‘talent’. Unfortunately so many people have worked and walked through life without the proper application of their talent for maximum impact and benefit. Sadly enough, all the “hard work without talent is a shame, but talent without hard work is a tragedy”[5]

There is no mortal born without an ability, something they can do with minimum supervision and direction. Look deep inside of you, that is what is yearning to be displayed. Your life will never be lived with maximum output and optimum productivity without the input called ‘talent’. Yet your talent is not just enough because “there is no such thing as a great talent without great will power”.[6] It takes will power to recognize first what area you are talented in, it takes will power also to step up and hone your talent until you can see its Excellency like raw gold that has passed through the rigour and heat of refinement.

After realizing in my days at the university that my talent lies in helping people achieve their dreams through motivating and inspiring them by the spoken and written words, I started investing time and money on books, tapes and seminars that will help me polish this talent. Though I am still far from my desired destination, I am not where I was those days. I am still seeking for ways to remain relevant with both my spoken and written words.

In the end, it’s your choice to discover, sharpen and use your talent and live in bliss everyday or ignore it and live in confusion.

Until you start walking in the light of your God given talent, you will keep stumbling in the darkness of your shadows.

It’s still about economics!

Arise! Shine! Your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has dawned[7]

Be inspired!

Remain motivated!

… to be continued

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[1] Benjamin Franklin

[2] Roger Babson

[3] Carl Sanburg

[4] The Bible book of Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

[5] Robert Half

[6] Honore de Balzac

[7] The Bible book of Isaiah 60:1

All quotable quotes are from www.mobile.brainyquotes .com  Accessed on 20^th November, 2012