Category: Inspiration

Why you should not whine but work hard and wait for your time to wine and dine with well-wishers.

On By Isaac OlatunbosunIn InspirationLeave a comment

 “There is no great achievement that is not the result of patient working and waiting”-J.G. Holland.

From pixabay.comSource: Pixabay.com

God created the universe in six full days and rested on the seventh. The creation of the universe was not only an exemplary display of orderliness by God but also a masterful demonstration of his organizational skill. With His awesome power, He could simply have made a single pronouncement and everything would fall into place. But He chose to do the job in stages spanning seven days. He did not do the job of two days in one day. He did not rush to finish the job he planned for four days in two days. Rather, He created all things one day at a time. He did this to stress the importance of planning all activities in a structured manner and execute them in an orderly fashion.

Here are 4 reasons you should never complain or lose hope if you have not yet achieved your goals in life.
1. Your life is designed to evolve in predetermined stages: A baby has to first learn how to crawl before walking. As a toddler, he learns how to take a few but unsteady steps one at a time. When he grows older, he no longer toddles but walks as a boy or an adult with a perfect and balanced gait. No scientific knowledge or manipulation can magically transform a toddler into a man without passing through all the necessary and developmental processes.

In the human journey of life, you cannot brush aside certain phases that you are destined to pass through despite your best efforts to avoid them. There are periods of failures and successes, sadness and joy, weeping and laughter, planting and harvesting and so on. Whether you have a growth mindset personality or a fixed mindset personality, you are bound to experience some life adversities. How you demonstrate resilience over time to get over those adversities rather than whine about them is what will get you to the next level.

2. Giving up on your dream is self-defeatist and self-destructive: Are you currently positioned on a ledge trying to jump off to your death because you think your dreams of making it in life are shattered? Committing suicide is not the answer to your problems. Perhaps your efforts to land your dream job are yet to come to fruition and you feel like giving up hope altogether. Giving up will never get you the job; persistence will.

No matter the pain and suffering afflicting you right now, rest assured that it only represents a bend in the journey and not the end of your life. Anytime you fumble or stumble along the way to achieve your goal, get right back up and continue rather than whine. This kind of unyielding spirit is what will guarantee your success.

3. Destiny has assigned us different times to reach our goals in life: What I mean here is that we cannot all be millionaires or achieve our life goals at the same time. Some will hit their goals in the morning. Others will get there in the afternoon. There are others still who are destined to reach their goals in the evening time. That is why there are people who attain financial freedom in their 20s or 30s while others only get there when they are in their 50s or 60s.

The race runners in an Olympic event do not reach the finishing line all at the same time. If you consistently invest your time and energy in any worthwhile venture of your desire, your chances of achieving success at your appointed time are bright. God has assigned to every one of us specific times to shine and flourish in life. If you are not there yet, never whine, work harder and wait for your time.

4. Give thanks for the gift of life: Do you know that no matter your current situation, a lot of people out there are still trying to match your level of achievement just as you too are looking up to emulate the achievements of others. As long as you are still alive and able, Providence has given you the considerable latitude to attain excellence in any profitable activity you lay your hands on.

But always give thanks to God for the abundant opportunities of life that are available to you. When you give thanks for the little you have now, you are paving the way for more to come. Remember, you do not own your life. Your life is like a property leased to you for a limited amount of time. Before the owner asks you to return it, why not make the most of it and stop whining?

For you to achieve success in life, you have to plan your actions meticulously and embrace hard work. Even if you experience some ups and downs, do not whine, quit, or think of taking your life. Just continue to be conscientious in whatever you do, realizing, however, that the path to success is laced with thorns and thistles.

When success eventually comes your way, give thanks to God and whoever is instrumental to your achievement. If you commit all things into God’s hands, you will see God’s hands in all things. And your friends, relatives, and well-wishers will subsequently rally round to “clang silverware on drinking glasses” in your honor.

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How to activate your greatness and leverage it for humanity.

On By Isaac OlatunbosunIn Inspiration2 Comments

There is greatness in you right from the moment of your birth. It is a seed that God has implanted in an obscure part of your body waiting to be found either by you or someone else. All you need to do once this seed is found is to water it consistently until it germinates. It is now up to you to nurture the seedling and allow it to grow to its full potential. Greatness is not an exclusive preserve of a rare breed of human beings. It is an attribute that you and I can achieve if we make deliberate efforts and remain focused.

Everyone is born with potentials for greatness but not everyone has the ability to tap into those potentials provided by nature for human benefits. When it comes to the pursuit of greatness, human beings can be categorized into three groups in terms of their approach and level of commitment.

The first group, through sheer hard work, courage and steadfastness, nurtures its seedling of greatness to fruition and full potential. They are the go-getters. The second group consists of people who are not persistent enough with their nurturing activity and their seedling of greatness grows up but never reaches its full potential. There is yet a third group of people who either fails to locate the seed of greatness in them or simply refuses to water the seedling due to laziness, lack of strong will or commitment of purpose. The seedling therefore dies off in them.

Greatness can be found in various professions and careers. We have great teachers, great philosophers, great physicians, great scientists, great industrialists, great custodians, etc. You can be great in anything you set your mind to and for which you have the capabilities. Only you have to be ruthlessly determined and deliberate in order to unearth those possibilities lying dormant within you. And remember that your dreams are pointers to the direction you want for your destiny and greatness in life. Here are 5 ways to tap into your hidden talents and activate them for your greatness

Identify your God-given talent:

The first thing for you to do is to identify one thing you are naturally good at and in which you are likely to excel if you find yourself in any competition. God has deliberately hidden at least one talent in you when he created you. But he wants you to discover it at some point in your life. We discover our talents at different stages of our lives.

Whereas some realize early in life what they are naturally capable of doing, others, for one reason or the other, discover their talents only in their early or middle adulthood. These are the people who probably have experienced several failures in life before they finally found a way out.

Be proactive:  

You have to be proactive. Without action, there can be no reaction. Now that you have identified your area of strength, take the leap of faith and go after it.  The action you need to take now is to begin to nurture and develop that talent until it matures. No one will take the initiative for you. You have to. You don’t expect greatness to land on your laps on a platter of gold. A farmer who is provided with an arable piece of land but refuses to plow it for cultivation should never expect a high yield of harvest from nothing! You can only reap where you have sown.

Work harder:

Look around you and study the history of the great men and women who have made their mark in life. You will find out that nearly all of them worked very hard before they got where they are.  I say “nearly” because I agree with Shakespeare that some people are born great, while some have greatness thrust upon them. But I believe that only very few great people fit this description. And they represent an exception to the rule. The golden rule is that you have to work very hard to achieve greatness in life.

Hear what the legendary Mohammed Ali had to say on the need for hard work before greatness: “I am an ordinary man who worked hard to develop the talent I was given. I believe in myself and in the goodness of others”.

Stay focused:

When you stay focused and develop your talent, you are sure to attain the level that God has set for you. All you need to do is believe in yourself and create time to consistently develop that which was given to you. Staying focused is a key component of success which can also lead to your greatness.

Have a positive role model:

You need a positive role model to look up to for guidance in your chosen career, profession or vocation. The person must be someone whose achievements you can emulate. He or She must be able to guide you every step of the way and where necessary. James Brown was a good role model for the young and burgeoning Michael Jackson. Michael tapped into his God-given talent, emulated James Brown’s mesmerizing dancing steps, worked and practiced hard until he eventually became a superstar and a musical genius.

What steps are you taking to activate your greatness? Which of the three groups above do you belong to? Is it the group of go-getters, the lackadaisical group, or those who lack the commitment to take action to develop their talents?   Try the following and change your life for the better: Identify your hidden talent, take action and work consistently and tirelessly to develop it with the help of a good mentor. If you remain focused, you are definitely on your path to greatness for the benefit of humanity.

Isaac Olatunbosun is a contributing writer for Huffington Post and The Good Men Project. Follow me on Facebook or connect with me at http://www.isaacolat.com

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