CAGE

Nothing is worse than a man trapped but thinks he is free. The mental cage of slavery and religion have many destinies trapped. He that knows not that he knows not will never know. the most difficult cage to break is right between the ears of man. Most foolish never admit their folly. Its not a bad idea to start as a fool but to die a fool is insanity. The acceptance of folly is the first step to wisdom.

Winning

What are the strategies to winning wars?
Winning isn’t guaranteed, winners don’t just wish to win; they plan and play to win because the opponent is not sleeping. So how can you win despite the readiness and talent of the opponent or competitor? It’s a simple answer but a complex one to master. To win and always win, you need to develop an UNFAIR ADVANTAGE over the competition. You cannot lead any team to victory if you don’t develop that unfair advantage personally and then drill it into the fabrics of everyone on your team. I hope you know that you cannot give what you don’t have. If you don’t develop this advantage, other leaders will beat you to the game.

THE AVATAR

Yes! you are born to be great. You have the seed of greatness inside you and you have been told that you are wonderfully and fearfully made. I have no doubt about these facts. As a matter of fact, I am certain that you were made to be great. God never planned evil for any one. Look around you and everything and everyone you see are a product of the amazing greatness of God. Sometimes I wonder HOW God thinks. Seriously, if truly we were made in his likeness and we have the breath of life running through our nostrils then I submit that we are living far below our making and calling. I hope my submission hit you hard or better still strike you like a thunderbolt. If neither applies to you, let me say it better. MOST HUMANS ARE A DISSAPOINTMENT TO GOD. I am not talking about sin, I am talking about what God intended for us to accomplish. Even the likes of Mozart and Leonardo Da Vinci despite the feats they did are still not at the level of a god. Look around you and it will displease you to ask yourself, what around has my TRADEMARK? Have you by anyway or means reflected the ‘god’ status you and I were born to represent? I know the answer to the question. I do not claim to be a saint and I am guilty as charged as well. But then at least I am thinking about it. I am asking myself a million questions and every day and every minute matter to me. I view the days as crucial and the moments as vital and I want nothing to pass me by. I am sure that no matter what I have accomplished, I am still far away from what I am still capable of achieving. Thus I am not ready to settle for mediocrity. I am not willing to settle for less than I could accomplish with the gift of life that God has given me. Moreover the older you get the closer you are to your grave. Hard but true? Sorry dear :) .

I love watching cartoons and recently I saw the best I have ever known. If you have seen this cartoon you may agree with me, but if not you will have to go and watch it. It’s the cartoon titled AVATAR. I am not talking about the movie. I have seen that as well but it is not close to the potency of the cartoon. It’s more than just a cartoon, it’s a master piece. Just like the way 24 is not just a movie. It’s something I watch and watch all over again. I have learnt far too many things from these master pieces and at times I wonder if they are actually real life scenes. It’s a beauty to see how the human mind can be so creative. Like I have said earlier we are far from the level we have been created to perform. I know that other people may have seen this stuff that I have seen but never gotten the insight that I got. I guess that is because we may look at the same thing but see different things. The mind is where we reason and our reasoning is based on the dominant voices in our life. Soon I will get into the issue of voices and you will see that you are a sum total of the voices in your life.

It’s interesting but very true. I hate to admit it but then it’s true and I cannot undo what has been done. You may be wondering what I did or did not do. I hope your imagination isn’t going out of line. Well I guess your imagination is probably a function of your dominant thoughts and an example of who you are. You may not accept that to be true but trust me it is. Your thoughts are a direct reflection of your thought pattern and we become what we think about the most.(Sorry if Im hitting you this way, but I guess you caused it. Or did I? Any way I am having fun pulling your legs about your thought pattern but I am not joking about it) Whenever you intend to change your life you must not begin with a prayer. Oh did I just say another thing you do not like? I can imagine what I may cause by saying that if you want to change your life prayer isn’t the first thing. Hmm. So what can it be? Your THOUGHTS. Have you forgotten that you can only be transformed by the renewing of your mind? In case you have, I just reminded you. To be transformed to a new or better person you need to renew your mind and not your prayer. Can you see what I am talking about? Oh you are still not satisfied. The truth is that you need prayer and greatness may be eimpossible without it. But with it alone you are still short of the very things you need. The miracle of change begins with the thought pattern. Here is what you need to see as well; AND THE PRODIGAL SON THOUGHT WITHIN HIMSELF. That was the beginning of the end of rubbish lifestyle. He THOUGHT. He thought and then he acted and then all things began to fall in place. Without the thinking there was no way he could have set his foot on change. Now let me bend your mind a little bit. Don’t worry I haven’t forgotten where all these started from.

POWER HORSE

I am smiling as I am about to discuss the issue of power horse. I find it interesting that a drink like this will have an impact on me. This drink is designed to give you extra energy. On occasions I have to take the drink and the result is alarming. The drink sets my head in motion and I just want to go on and on. Many people also rely on this drink to keep their stimuli high. They want instant power and they want to produce at the level of a horse. Not a bad idea until it becomes a life philosophy. They do not understand the 10,000 hour rule. They want to get ahead without investing the necessary amount of time, effort and energy necessary for unmatched performance. Soon I will tell you what the 10,000 hour rule is. You need to know it. It will save you from the illusion of talent. It will make you see that there is nothing so special about those we call special. They have only done what we don’t do and thus they see the result that we don’t see. There are no secrets to success except the ones that others have practiced. You can surely get the same result and even surpass it if you can only do what they have done.  

There is no power horse in life. I must say it again that there are no power horses in life. Thou shall not be fooled that you will take a can of drink and then you will possess instant success. You are simply kidding and you are not set for outstanding success. Look around you and the people you think have taken power horse as a matter of fact they didn’t. If you were to ask anyone that truly attained greatness, they will not be able to tell you that there was one step that they took that brought them thus far? The truth is that it’s an accumulation of deliberate and intentional steps, backed with efforts in hours and years that brought them to this enviable level. In short they have a story to tell. Real life doesn’t answer to power horse. You can never find the magic wand, the power horse that will jet propel you suddenly to stardom. Quit trying to look. It’s just one of those things you can never find. You had better learn to invest the fundamental and necessary time to attain the level of proficiency that will locate you among other men of greatness.

TALENT SHOW
Recently I attended a talent show that paraded very talented youths. Of a truth, all of them were talented. There was not one of them that did not possess the capacity for stardom. The competition began and tension mounted. People watched, booed and cheered. The atmosphere was charged and as a member of the panel of judges I felt delighted at some of the participants but dejected at the performances of many of them. I watched with sadness how these participants were trying to succeed with the power horse mentality. They were talented but talent alone is not enough. The talent they paraded like I love saying is a product of nature but skill and competency is a product of nurture. Though equipped, they stood before the crowd and they messed themselves up. I doubt if they knew that life will always give opportunities and what you do with such opportunities is what really counts. You may not know but those who are doing well and excelling at their chosen career do not live with the power horse mentality. They have mastered their craft with the 10,000 hour rule. After about three hours and many minutes of frustration, we finally came to the end of the show and it was time to announce the winners and losers. Before we could announce, the crowd had seen the whole show and they began the announcement. See, my dear friend, you cannot hide skill. You cannot power horse it. It sure takes time and real time it takes. It does not answer to prayer as well. It answers to discipline. You cannot sleep every night and expect to join the rank of gladiators. Great men wake up well before dawn and sleep late into the night. This is no secret and you had better learn from the foot note of those that have gone ahead. Greatness is never made in the ring but only appears in the ring. The great are made when there are no voices to cheer them on except theirs. When life hits you below the belt, you will need to hear your voice amidst all the voices that are around you. When all has been said and done, you will distill the voices and lean towards an extreme and then make your voice from the voices. Please re-read this all over again. The power horse mentality is the mindset that wants to avoid the process of discipline and just use some magic wand to excel and the competitive arena of life will not allow such to prevail. You will need to invest the time, effort, boredom and discipline that is required and demanded by nature before she will allow you greatness.

Stay Positive!

A lot has been said and written about positive attitude. As a matter of fact, some people have said that it is the most important missile in the success armoury. I'm really not interested in playing with sweet words; my challenge is how to stay positive when everything around me is negative and crazy. I guess I need to live with the fact that it takes time to grow, and that growth is not sudden, but intentional and deliberate. I have learnt that staying positive is a process and it takes deliberate action to remain positive.
A sure recipe for disaster in life is to assume that you will just stroll through situations without intentionally setting yourself up to stay positive despite the harsh conditions. Let me share with you some of the conscious things I have done to stay positive despite the odds I have faced in life so far. Our elders often say, you may not be able to stop birds from flying over your head, but you can stop them from nesting on your head.

CRY!

CRY! Yes I CRY!  :) I am sure you were not expecting this. But if honesty and practical steps is what you desire from this blog, then come along. Let me state quickly; BEWARE OF THE MAN THAT DOES NOT CRY! That is the gospel truth. The epitome of manhood, the great sage Jesus of Nazareth wept; yes he wept, not cried. Weeping is a higher degree of crying. If he could have wept, I guess every man is permitted to weep as well. Crying helps you release your frustrations. It’s like setting yourself free from all the bottled up emotions resulting from the things dealing with you or vice-versa.....that’s up to you. You need to be dealing with the issues of life and not the other way round. Nonetheless, irrespective of your capacity to deal with the issues of life, we are all human (I guess) and we get to a point that is called the breaking point. At that point we do not know what to do and we get overwhelmed. We feel so defeated and feel the urge to cry. Unfortunately, the society has sold us the lie that men don’t cry...men suck it in. There can be nothing farther from the truth. MEN OUGHT TO CRY! I grew to believe the truth that men don’t cry. My uncles trained me to believe that when you cry, you are a woman and weak. I remember the days when we played football or ran and fell, my uncle will challenge me not to cry. But honestly, crying can be a therapy.

Whats the size?

Without mincing word about this, I will strike at the heart of the issue straight away. No problem has a SIZE. The size of every problem is determined by the sight of the person in the situation. If you allow this statement sink into the fabric of your mind, then you would have all the value this article is worth. When you realize that you are responsible for the size of your problem, then you will discover that you don’t have an adversity size problem, but a SIGHT problem. If you see what you are going through as the biggest challenge in the world, then that is exactly what it will be to you. The moment you size up your problem, you are ready to either fight or flight your way through. Your response or reaction will always be determined by your sight. Your sight can either motivate or de-motivate you. Your attitude towards what life throws at you is determined by how you see what is thrown and the definition you give it. I understand that most things do not have a definition except the one you give to it. So the question is, what size have you given to what you are dealing with or what is dealing with you? Digging deeper, what determines your sight? There are factors that determine how we see. You cannot see more than your level of exposure. The people around you will determine the seeds in you, and the seeds in you will determine what germinates. Lets connect on this blog next week as I write on the factors that determine your sight.

BE INSPIRED

SURVIVING In-between
Many have a defined destination, but few survive the journey.

THE LAW OF DETAILS

The things I am about to share can do a lot to you and the thrust of your life. I believe that if you know the details of most people's lives, you will never wish to be like them. As a matter of fact you will only wish to be the best of what God made you. I have spoken about the law of details at many conferences and I wish you could feel the level of passion that fills the audience.

I strongly believe that love either grows or stops growing depending on the level of details we are exposed to. I think that people say they love too quickly without taking time to find out the details of the other person. Do you know that people are quick to leave you as soon as they know the details of your life? I quite agree that this is why most people in courtship refuse to give their partner the whole details of their past and present life. They are afraid that they may loose the relationship, the moment their details is exposed. But think about it, we all have details. Yes, we all have details...there is more to us than meets the eye. Everybody has got a detail to their life. I wonder how some people live to think that their story is the worst history. I wish you could know the details of the person next to you and you will be glad about your life. You will thank God about how far he has brought you though you are not where you want yet. At least you are no longer where you used to be. That is just the truth. We fail to count our blessings and all we see and have time to count are all the things God is about to do.

If you have read my book FORTIFIED and you will recollect how much I flogged the issue of appreciation. Nevertheless, I want you to understand that the more you realise and aknowledge that your case and situation isn't the worst, the more you will be able to appreciate God. Details about those you envy will make you feel content with what God has done for you.

If we were to put a camera on you all day, will you allow us to sell the video without deleting or editing any part? Think deeply about that question. What I am trying to say is that will you allow us show the details of your life? Can you be proud of it without thw video being edited?

MASTERY

All men clap at the sight of talent, nobles arise at the glimpse of mastery.
-Smith Bam

In the last five years, I watched and heard speakers, speak about talent, gift and potential whichever word you prefer; and I am in total support of showing people that they have within them what it takes to become whatever they desire. People get so excited about the commercials on potentials and they salivate at the thought of potentials without realizing that no one eats a commercial. The blue truth is that all men clap at the sight of talent because it is common; but when mastery appears, it causes all men to open their mouths and propels even  kings and nobles to arise.

DO YOUR WORK WELL

Here is something one of my over five hundred mentors taught me. Do your work well,  not for your work, but a little more for natures sake. And if you suffer, as you will, do your work and suffering will come the great joy of life. Peter Drucker once wrote that, if you are starting a new business from your kitchen table, your goal; must be leadership in your industry or you shouldn’t even begin at all. If all you want to do is make a quick bang or a little extra income, you will never be particularly successful. You will probably end up losing both. Every time you offer an excellent product or service better than anyone else in a competitive market, and you focus on your goals with tremendous intensity of purpose, you will eventually be a big success in your chosen field. You will literally experience velocity after paying the price. This is what Napoleon Hill once said, 'a time will come, when money will come to you so much that you will wonder where it had been all this lean years'.

YOU NEED DESIRE

You can’t attain mastery if you don’t have the desire. The starting point of all achievement is desire. I want you to keep this in mind. Week desire brings weak results just as a small amount of fire generates a small amount of heat. Here is an interesting conversation between a boy and his baseball coach. I wish you get the drift and get challenged as you read. 'My elementary school baseball coach was a very wise old man, I remember one day doing practice, he walked me to the side of the field and said, son, look around you, of all the people in the entire baseball league only 10% will go on to play high school baseball, of that 10% only 56 will continue on to play in college. |Out of the remaining 5% , only 2% will play for the pros. Do you know what separates these men? Desire! You have to want to be in those 2% who here desire.