TGIF!

Thank God it’s Friday!

Friday is the best day of the week I have ever known in my life. It’s usually full of bustling activities and sparked with an atmosphere of fun and excitement. Friday is the day when the clubs bubble the most; the parties rock their best and the chics and guys dance all night long. The Me suya makes his hit sale on Friday and the bars sell into the very early hours of Saturday. There’s no work on Saturday so everyone can afford to paint the town red and black. Those who don’t go to club go to church for night vigils, and those who avoid both watch films late into the night. Friday just always comes with its own spirit; bubbling far beyond any other day of the week.

Since I was a kid, Friday has always been the beginning of my regular mini-holiday. I always look forward to Friday with great anticipation. When Friday morning came, it was always as though I had come to the day of enjoyment. I enjoyed that day in school all the time; I always did. On one part, school work was always on a low key. Sometimes not all the teachers came in for their periods. Even in my days in the university, Friday was as good as a lecture free day because if we ever had any lectures it was just one lecture and it was usually short. I bet you had similar experiences on Fridays too. My most memorable days were weekends. Yeah! I remember that Friday was sports and games day in primary school. How memorable it was filing out and having P.E for practically the whole day. We would run around the field, play football till we were bathed in dust and dirt, then we waited patiently for the driver to pick us up. Friday was a great day for me. I bet it was for you too.

The Friday philosophy that was entrenched into us from childhood is what many of us carried on into our adulthood. We have unconsciously slipped into a culture that celebrates Friday and bemoans Monday. Sunday morning is usually quite interesting but the moment we return from church, a sudden gloom settles on us like a dark cloud. We become so unhappy and worried because we are wondering why we have to go to work the next day. I have overhead someone ask himself, “Do I have to go to work tomorrow? Can’t I just stay at home and rest for once?” It is a worse experience for those who are lost in or tied to a job they have no flair and passion for. These people are the ones who tied themselves to the job in the first place and have stumbled into a state of helplessness. My friend Jimi Tewe calls it “Corporate Slavery.” Monday has become a source of worry and maybe hypertension for a lot of people. We are so bothered, annoyed or depressed by the idea of going to the office the next day.

That brings me to the multi-million dollar question on this matter: What does work really mean? You may not have thought about that before now, but it is a very important question to ponder on. It amazes me that millions are in the workplace without an idea of what work means or is. Many people are working without knowing why they are at work. It’s like trying to play a game without knowing what the rules are. All you find yourself doing is rolling the dice, counting spaces and feigning excitement over rules that you have serendipitously invented in your advent of playing the game. The worst part of it all is that you can never finish the game because you don’t even know how the game is played let alone how it is finished. When work on a daily basis becomes something you don’t do based on understanding you merely work away your time at work. Time at work without objectivity is time wrongly invested. If you consistently whine about Monday, you are probably in the wrong job or you lack sound understanding of what work really means.

Over the next few weeks, I will attempt to help clear the fog that makes your understanding of work hazy. I will begin first by showing you what work is not. After that we will find out exactly what work is. This is going to be a really great time of learning because you are going to get a new lease of insight into the timeless purpose of work. Join me next week for the first part of what work is not; till then celebrate Friday but please don’t whine on Sunday about Monday.

You are an Icon!

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PRAY-SHUN!

"The Irresponsible Attitude of Africans to Africa's Problems"

Agitating about negative trends only to resort to the pray-shun strategy is a bad habit of Africans. We are mystically minded, and we have a mysterious orientation about most and maybe all challenges we caused and now face. We have made a slave out of God; reducing His essence to our most efficient servant. All we have to do is nag and bicker relentlessly until we sense His humming in the near distance as it approaches. We have unconsciously created, learnt, taught, modeled, encouraged and worst of all enforced this pray-shun attitude.

We have made a marsh of it that it now soils our appearance in the league of continents and colors. In the words of P. W. Botha, "Let us all agree that the black man is the symbol of mental inferiority, laziness and emotional incompetence." He futher said, "They are good at nothing but making noise, dancing, marrying many wives and indulging in sex." It shows therefore that if we continue to do this, we are portray ourselves Africans and our continent- Africa as a race given to animalistic tendencies as a follow up to our traditinal exercises of prayer. Botha was right; or do you say he's wrong? Don't we pray in Africa? Don't we make noise? Do we dance? Do we marry many wives as men? Don't we indulge in sex?

You say other races do them too. I agree with you but i say that Africa's problems are the problems of Africans and it will take Africans to solve them! Even if you must share similarities with other continents, why the degrading, inhumane and undignifying things? Why not forward thinking, value for human life, respect for fellow humans, patriotism, value-adding commitment, passion for defending our valuable heritage (because we have useless ones as well), and lifelong commitment to learning and development?

If Africa must get transformed, rescued and revolutionized we must take the bull by the horns and tackle it till it weakens so we can slaughter the pray-shun attitude that keeps us mystifying our problems, praying to the servant we have made out of God, and then shun progressive corresponding action to engage in all Botha listed in his description of the black man's itinerary.

Enough of pray-shun! Now it's time to advance! It's time to take-action!

START AT THE END

Hi friends.

Happy new year to you! It may be three weeks into the year but it is still very much the beginning of 2012. I entered this year with a lot on my mind, and it is my desire to share some life-changing thoughts with you. I believe 2012 can surpass all other years in quality and quantity if you heed these insights i am about to share with you.

Over the next few weeks, i will be taking through these insights one after the other, so fasten your seat belts...

The first is to think at the beginning as though you are at the end. That is why i say start at the end. This is partly the principle of vision, but i want to hammer more on the place of THOUGHTS. I was reading Velocity by Smith Bam yesterday and he made a statement that drives home what i am talking about. He said, "Whatever you are thinking about is also thinking about you." Wow! So all the greatness you are thinking about is also thinking about you and guess what? This is going to daze you...those things are also looking for you!

Invariably, it means that whatever you think about vehemently and are out in search for is also thinking about you and looking for you. This is it: You must think about it long enough till you find each other! Many people think for as long but give up thinking just when they are near their desire or when they are just in view. Tenacity is staying power! Stay on long enough! Tenacity is your stick-ability with what you desperately desire and dream of.

My first word to you this year is to start this year 2012 at the end! Become obsessed with the possibilities that abound in this year. Drive yourself to a point where your faith and confidence scares you. When you are grossly overwhelmed by the things you desire and the total possibility of achieving them, you will find yourself taking the next step i will share in my next post. Begin with the end in your mind, in your vision and moving your hands. Start at the end. Look out for my next post, the end has begun at the very beginning...

PARENTS FAILING AT LEADING THEIR CHILDREN

Ever thought of the possibility of a home being under the authority of a father who is supported by a mother yet led by a child?


The dawning reality today is that parents are rare; and where you find them they are fully booked! Many children are growing up without the privilege of effective parenting and leadership. These children grow up to hold leadership positions where they misappropriate the opportunity to serve their communities, and everybody criticizes them for their mess. Why? Where we all these people when the parents were setting up these "now-old-children" for a life of ineffectiveness?


I believe that we ought to have criticized the parents many years ago when they were messing up the lives of their children. Our outcry against these children who have grown to become menaces to the society is far too late.


I have said it before and will repeat it here: "The home is the breeding ground of street children; the street is their training ground."


When will we redirect our focus to where it ought to be? Let's give attention to leadership in the home as much as we give to parenting. Many children have begun to assume the leadership responsibility in their homes simply because their parents are defaulting. I hope it doesn't happen to you.


The failure of the children when they grow up indicates the failure of the parents in training their wards effectively. Teenage years are the real test of effective parenting. When a child leaves home, the quality of parenting (s)he has received show up while he is away from home. So parents, this test awaits you.


Take your place as a leader in the home and earn the right to influence your children; that way we can preserve the dignity and sanity of our children in the years to come. Remember, train a child in the way he should go and he will not depart from it when he grows up.


The ball is in your court

HUMANS LIVING AS ANIMALS IN HUMAN SOCIETY

Humans are not animals.


Whatever postulates evolutionary theory say matter little.


We are made to be humans, live as humans and think as humans. The uniqueness of the human race and specie is the ability to think. Animals are wired to react instinctively; they lack the faculty that enables them to think.


When humans fail to think and use their initiatives, they are living below the capacity and natural order of the human nature. Whatever is not used is as good as non-existent.


Many biological humans are living as animals in human society. We see them daily. They appear as humans but they live as animals; but we often mistake them for humans. Anyone who doesn't think is no better than an animal. Humans are humans are humans because of our difference.


Our thinkability allows us to be sophisticated in our reasoning, creative in our disposition and simple in our perception. So why should we live as animals in human society?

MANIACS, ADDICTS & 'HOLICS (2)

GET ON THE MANUFACTURER’S TABLE

Every product is the brain child of its manufacturer. No product suddenly appears on the shelf; neither do products disappear like ghosts. Similarly, you are a product of God’s creativity. You did not fall from the sky like the terminator. You were created or manufactured by God.

We all know that no one knows a product better than its manufacturer, and no one can fix a product’s malfunction better than the manufacturer. You are best fixed on your manufacturer’s table. So how do you get yourself on the table? Prayer.

Some attempt to play neutral by employing pre-emptive tactics. I’m not the religious type; even if you consider yourself to be an atheist, you can’t deny the fact that you still owe yourself to a manufacturer – God. Prayer is not so much what it is portrayed as. In fact, it is one of the most commonly engaged forms of communication: a dialogue. Yes, a dialogue. An exchange of words, thoughts and feelings between two people. The uniqueness of prayer is that it is specially designed for God and you; not you and another human.

So when I say pray, I simply mean express your thoughts and feelings to God, your manufacturer, through words. I know of no greater listener; God listens to and monitors His over 6 billion products including you. He is by far the most excellent post-manufacture personality. Why should you deny yourself such grace? Teilhard de Chardin says, “We are spiritual beings having a human experience, not human beings having a spiritual experience.”

Prayer brings the spiritual to bear in the physical. God is spirit, yet he can and does operate in the physical since spiritual laws supersedes and suspend physical laws. Every time you pray, you secure spiritual intervention in your situation.

You need fixing? Want to get on the manufacturer’s table? Pray.

Bring It To Life

1.     Remind yourself how limited you are and how omnipotent God is. Your little problem is not any problem to him.

2.     Determine the areas where you need God’s help. Locate the places where you need fixing. Now, express how you feel about each of those points and what you need God to do for you. Be sincere and open about your prayer and watch how peace will flood your heart.

Key Points

1.     Prayer is a dialogue; an exchange of words, thoughts and feelings between you and God.

2.     Every time you pray, you secure spiritual intervention in your situation. 

MANIACS, ADDICTS AND 'HOLICS

How Much Can Buy You Off The Shelf.

If you were an item on the shelf of a store how much would you be worth? What price tag do you think the owner of the store would attach to you?

In the university, every student is given a grade point of 5 once they are admitted. But rarely does anyone graduate with a GP of 5. While that is exceptional, majority fall below 3.5- the borderline for second-class upper division. Why? They lost touch with their education.

At birth we all have 100% worth. That’s why everyone gathers to celebrate the birth of a new child. The hopes are up, the aspiration and expectations are high, everyone just naturally accepts that the child will be the greatest human that ever lived. But what happens afterwards? You can tell the remainder of the story.

Your personal value is a function of your relevance to the peculiar needs of people. A refrigerator is of no value to an Eskimo because it is not relevant to his needs, but the same Eskimo will be willing to pay as much for a boiling ring or a box of matches.

Addiction derails the mind from the proper course of reasoning and when you can’t think straight and constructively you cease to be relevant. Praise Fowowe defined addiction as “a distraction that side tracks you.” The sequence is this: get addicted, get side tracked; lose relevance, lose value.

Give up your addiction, mania, alcoholism or workaholic so you don’t get side tracked and ultimately lose value. Sincerely observe to see whether you are as valuable as you were before your addiction issues began. I doubt it. But note that value can be built as much as it can be depleted; in your own case it begins with giving up your addiction.

Bring It To Life

1.       Evaluate yourself: Are you better off now compared to how you were before the addiction issues? Are you satisfied with your life now? To what extent can others entrust valuable information, possessions and their selves to you?

2.       Your current value notwithstanding, decide to build your value beginning with giving up your addiction.

3.       Overcoming addiction is a process. Clearly write out a recovery plan stating a gradual depletion in the rate of frequency of your engagement in the habit with time frames. E.g. Sex everyday 1-week >> 3 times a week >> once a week >> once in 2 weeks >> once in a month >> once in 2 months >> once in 6 months >> once in a year >> stop.

Key points

1.       Addition is a distraction that sidetracks you

2.       If you are not relevant to meeting the needs of others, you are low in

value.