A Time to be Strong

For the past few weeks we have been on the series on success. For today however, I will like to share from my random thoughts, this will help you a great deal, so read on. How we need to be strong in life: to live with strength inside of us. You see, knowledge is for use. A proof that you know something is you doing it. You don’t really know something because it’s in the head; you know when you put it to practice. There are people that learn about things- maybe about patience, but then when situations show up, when there is a heat, they can’t just control themselves again. Although they have the knowledge- they know they ought to be patient, they can’t just use that knowledge. A knowledge that can’t be used is useless. Learn to use your knowledge: that’s the way to win. ‘You are a poor specimen if you can't stand the pressure of adversity’. Prov 24:10 TLB
Nobody gets the victory without a fight. You want to experience victory, apply your knowledge, that is the right information that you have-even in the heat.

Never Fear Rejection

We are on the special series ‘Principles of Success’ and today I'm writing on ‘Never Fear Rejection', you’ll enjoy this.
Learn to see “no” as an opportunity, not a rejection. Prepare for greatness. You see, champions aren’t made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them- a desire, a dream, and a vision. They have to have the skill and the will. And the will must be stronger than the skill. Let your tenacity towards life be off the charts. I love the lyrics of song: ‘Ain’t No Stopping Us Now by Mcfadden& Whitehead’. There is so much ‘focus and hard work’ could do. So believe in yourself and go out of your way to achieve your dreams. Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who push through. Refuse to accept failure: when it comes to your dream, refuse to ever take ‘no’ for an answer.
Learn what successful people do, and act that way too. Some people obviously have more going for them than others. Get to know those people. They will lead you by example, and soon you will be one of them. I have learned that successful people have a certain look: they wear certain clothes, walked and carry themselves in a certain manner. Yes, your appearance is your first impression. Think of your style carefully, and take time to do it right. When you act like a successful person and think like one, then you can never see rejection. For no one can really make you inferior without your permission. And you need to start acting successful, don’t wait. Don’t wait to see some ‘trace of material success’ first, no! Act that way first; real success starts from within you. Fortune doesn’t change men; it unmasks them. Never be discouraged in life; never let them see you sweat. Don’t just accept things around you: question the way things had been set up. Learn to ask why and why not. Have no sense of limit and have a fix on the future.

Success Ingredients

Success is discovering you. There are no naturally born failures; failure is self-made. So look inside you and find out what you have inside. And there are certain things you must do:
1. Cultivate a Discontent with Mundanity and Mediocrity in Your Life: refuse to be satisfied with anything that is mundane. Anything that is not excellent. Some people may label you braggadocios when you think like this, but never mind. Set your sail and go for it. When you win, it will be a different story.
2. Drive Yourself to Improve Your Mind and Abilities: whatever you choose to do, become the best in it. If it is good for people and good for God- Great! Go for it. Train yourself, put your abilities in front of you and say to yourself: I will manage and cultivate these. Then start and see.
3. The Unseen You is the One to Make You a Success. Train that man inside of you. There’s a man and woman of substance inside every one of us. Don’t let that inner person be intimidated. Maybe the way you were brought up: you were brought up to think you cannot amount to much. You weren’t raised to be bold. But you know what, you can make new decision today to change the future. Have new programming, new ways of thinking, new ideas, new words and change the course of your life.
4. Don’t let the Memory of the past Stop You: if your past doesn’t inspire you, dump it. You cannot change yesterday; but you can do something today that will change tomorrow. You can position yourself today and change what tomorrow will bring. So invest in your future today.
5. Conquer Your Handicaps: Let nothing stop you. That thing you would have given as a reason for failure, conquer it. Go beyond it; gain the mastery over it. Don’t let it stop you. Hang up your hang ups.
6. Transcend Your Environment: what can you really see? Start thinking of raising businesses and organisations that will rule nations. Be influential. Think of yourself as somebody special. If you don’t say who you are, ‘they’ will say who you are not. Stand up tall.
This is actually an excerpt: to get it complete, email me: dappydaniel@gmail.com.

Intro: The Principles Of Success

Happy New Year to you. How has been the year? For me, I’m moving on in a big way. I’m going to be sharing some very important thoughts in the next few weeks. It will be fulfilling, inspiring and educative. I promise. And your life will never be the same by the time we are through. I’ll be titling this ‘The Principles of Success’. Indeed I will be doing this with a special approach.
Over the years, I have had the opportunity to be blessed and inspired by some people. And so, I will be sharing what I have learnt from different people- my special Role Models about the subject of success. I will be sharing parallel truths, because all truths are actually parallel.
Success s is meant for everyone. The principle of success is not a respecter of anyone. Anybody who makes use of these principles will certainly produce its corresponding results. When a person knows what a rich and successful person knows and put that to work, he or she will produce matching results. This world functions by principles and these principles will work for or against a man with or without his direct knowledge of it. Take for instance the law of gravity: that a man doesn’t accept or believe that law doesn’t nullify the law: if he walks off is balcony, he will fall down. So ignorance is not an excuse. Don’t be ignorant; learn what you ought to learn. Don’t just be sincere, because sincerity is not enough. When you are sincere without knowledge, you become sincerely wrong. And that is why I will be sharing on the ‘principles of success’ for the next few weeks, so make sure you hook up with this blog. It is time to learn the principles you didn’t really know before. And learn more and have more understanding of the ones that you do know. So watch out!

LIVING IN TWO WORLDS

I like to share with you at this critical point of the year some of my most vital meditations, i know you will learn some very important things reading this: A true king is a king inside and outside. As an individual, be real. Know who are you- and be real. The Bible says, ‘God has made us Kings’. Live that way. Many people don’t know how to merge up spiritual and physical things together. And so they concentrate wrongly. Real live starts from the spirit, however you can make spiritual things real in the realm of the physical. In order words, spiritual things is not for the spirit only, it’s for the physical realm. We as Christians actually live in two worlds. Live real; success is not supposed to be a vague thing at all. ‘Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all.’ 1 Tim 4:15-16NKJV. If you are a success in the spirit, be a success in this physical realm too. Jesus said ‘Whatever is bond in earth is bond in heaven also’. Matt 16:19, Matt 18:18
The level of your background knowledge can be your limit, if you allow it. For instant, think of a Brother who is ‘efficient’ in spiritual things- he can pray, he reads his bible, he knows different verses. But then, when it comes to physical aspect of things, somehow he lacks. It is a big challenge for him to get the funds; he can’t really get things done in this realm. No result in this realm. He even fails in class after praying.
And then there’s another one: he’s always serious minded, he reads well when he was in school. He had good results, then a good job. He had connections all over the world, maybe because he was erudite. But he didn’t know anything spiritually. One day he was travelling from a global conference, and the airplane was getting off course. He couldn’t do anything about it. After all, he doesn’t know what he could do. He crashed- died so suddenly at a tender age.
But I came to tell you; you ought to have it all. You can have successes physically and spiritually always- if you know how. God designed us to have it all. The Bible says, ‘The children of this age are in their time wiser than the children of light. Luke 16:8. When Jesus showed up at the grave of Lazarus, He knew He could raise the death, and He was ready. But then, he said to the people: roll away the stone. Luke 11:39. That was a physical responsibility they needed to participate in. Give unto Caesars what is Caesar's and unto God what is God’s. Be as wise as serpent and harmless as doves. Matt 10:16
You see, in heaven your heart speaks louder than your voice (action). And in the earth, your voice (action) speaks louder than your heart. And you need to balance this, because you live in two worlds. Jesus was said to have favour with God and with man Luke 2:52
How do you balance this? This is the principle: In the beginning, God created man first spiritually and then formed him physically. Gen1:26-27; Gen 2:7. Start out first spiritually- create what you want spiritually from your spirit. But it doesn’t end there, form that thing physically. For example, talking about an exam: pray as though all you need to pass is the prayer; then read as though all you need to pass is that reading.
I tell you: you can have it all. Be real; be a doer…I repeat-a doer. It is easy to talk, it is easy to hear. But to complete the job you must do. I say do- do the word.

Extreme Makeover II – Sharpen the Saw

Today, I will like to write about how to make things more effective in your life: how to achieve things faster. We are about entering a new year, and I tell you- you need to prepare for it in a big way. You need to decide that it is going to be your best year ever. With you functioning with the required knowledge, attitude and wisdom, it will be.
You see, it is said that one of the definition of madness is- to always do what you have been doing and expect a different result. How true! You want a different result, then do things differently. You want a smart result, do things smartly. So let’s talk about Sharpening the Saw. “A dull saw requires great strength. Be wise and sharpen the blade” (Ecc 10:10). Your ‘Saw’ are the things –gifts God has given you. Your life, mind, body, Spirit are all gifts from God-you need to sharpen it constantly.
Many find themselves struggling in life because they don’t sharpen these: they don’t improve their mind and so they loose opportunities. They don’t take care of their body and so it gets weak. They don’t exercise their spirit- and their attitude is affected. But the Bible says, Be wise and Sharpen the Blade’. Your life is a gift of love and trust, so keep it and dress it. I want to share with you some point on how to do this:
(1) Knowledge- how vital knowledge is in the world we are in today. you need to constantly get yourself updated in learning. Constantly learn things about your business, job, course and activities around you. Get the required information. Many people have found themselves suddenly outdated-just because the were oblivious of this fact. The world is moving so fast, that if you limit yourself by not learning- you will get outdated. Learn new things, it prepares you for newer opportunity. Don’t limit yourself: everyone father’s farm is always the biggest until that one moves out to learn and find out new things about what’s really happening. Don’t be a local champion; transcend that environment. Carry your own atmosphere.
(2) Right People- you want to sharpen the axe, then move with the right people. ‘Right people’ here means people who have something to do with your purpose and vision in life. People can make you and people can break you: It amazing how people can influence us in life. When we allow negative thinking people to intrude our lives, before long we start to get influence by them. That’s why we need to build ourselves up, so we will always have our presence with us- carry our atmosphere wherever we go. Get the right folks into your life; it will help you a great deal. Instead of going around- looking for the right people. This is how to do this: first become the right person, then go ahead and help those people you want to be in your life. Reach out- because you have something to give. Before long you’ll find out that your life is filled with positive and vital folks. I will continue in EXTREME MAKEOVER III in a couple of Days, Join me.

Extreme Makeover 1

For the next few weeks in this year 2009, I’m going to write about a very important subject that I’m titling-Extreme Makeover. In Personal Development we need to concentrate in developing ourselves in all areas of our life. A life that’s stops growing starts to decay. An important characteristic of Living Things is Growth. And as we move on in life, we need to be able to measure our level of growth; take track of how far we are going. And the close of the year is just a good time to do this.
It’s nice to be alive, but more importantly it’s vital to be alive to our purpose, dreams, personality. And so, the question I have for you is: have you really grown? How much is this growth? Are you really moving forward? How fast are you? I have got news for you: you can actually determine how fast you move ahead in life. But to do this, you have to know where you are right now. So where are you- where are you in your mind? Where are you in your spirit? Where are you in your body? God came to the Garden after Adam had eaten of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and God asked him: where are you? And so, I am asking you today: where are you? Find out where you really are: What you’ve used your mind for through out the year. How much have you build and develop your mind. Have you really improved your abilities? Have you really followed your purpose? Did you really do the things that most matter? It’s time to take stock. You want to prepare for success with giant stride, then you must know where you really are now.
Some time ago, I learnt a very profound principle in time management. And it is: you don’t achieve more by increased speed, but by making right and important choices. Many have found themselves always busy, doing different things. But the question is: are those things really the right and necessary things. Activity doesn’t always equal effectiveness. Effectiveness has to do with achieving results.
I tell you: it’s amazing to note how a single decision, choice, activity could make a tremendous change and contribution in one’s life. At all time, you need to find out that activity or those activities which when you indulge in, will make the most impact in your life, and then do them.
Life is a fight for territory. Stop waiting for everyone to accept your ideas. Stop waiting for people‘s approval. Go ahead and make a difference. If you care about what people say or think, you will never do anything worthwhile. Decide to shake the world and you can. I will write more on this on Extreme Makeover2 Watch out.

Don’t Live as a Photocopy

This last weekend I spoke to almost a hundred special people during a Leadership and Business Summit. It was a time of learning, discovery and decisions. I will give you more details on that later. But for now, let’s look into this:
In the world of today- full of competition, what will set a man aside is ‘his uniqueness’. You have to know you are unique; you are one of a kind. As you begin to harness your uniqueness, what value you will create. Many are used to competing against other people. But I tell you: the first person you should compete with is yourself. Break your own records, outdo your past, run with more energy. Invest in yourself: you are of great value. There is no one like you, there’s no one who was ever like you, and no one will ever be like you. Because you are You in your class. Come home; stop comparing yourself with the multitude. Create your own destiny. You have gifts and talents-stir up those gifts in you. Improve your abilities, and as you do put commercial value on it. You see, if you truly capitalize on your uniqueness, no one can truly and safely compete with you. Stop the constant and consistent limitation. Imitation is limitation. There’s a way you do or can do things that no one can truly and safely do it that way. When you just come to the world and do all that has been done, the way it has been done, then you don’t prove your uniqueness. Be different, because you are different.
Decide to make the world a better place than you met it. Someone is waiting for a lifetime on the gift that God placed in you. Don’t cheat them; don’t cheat yourself of this great opportunity. God invested in you- proof him to be a good investor by your act. When you use what and all God gave to you, you are telling Him: ‘God, you made the right choice and decision by investing in me’.

Let That Picture Always Be There

Always let the picture of where you are going always be in front of you. Many give up, many are weary, many do the wrong things, and many take wrong decisions because they lose focus- they consider the wrong things. In life, there will always be different things generally trying to get your attention, but you have to make up your mind only to focus on what’s right for you. Focus on your dreams, desire and your destination. As long as you do, you’ll sure keep moving. And the more intense you focus on it, the faster you’ll move. For me, when I started focusing more on my desires to build businesses, suddenly things started happening: the people, resources, logistics I need started falling into place for me. When I prayed, I could pray in faith, because I had a desire, a picture of what I wanted to see.
Everyday, things and people will seek for your attention. Situations will show up- the right and incidentally the wrong things. But with the right focus, you’ll always go for what’s right and necessary in every situation. Don’t be distracted, stand firm. The bible says, ‘a doubtful mind is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. People like that should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. They can't make up their minds. They waver back and forth in everything they do’. (James 1:6-8)NLT. So it’s time to be more focussed. Look to your dream everyday; let it always be in front of you. It should be what matters to you. Let the picture of success, victory, impact be in front of you always. Don’t doubt! You are able to do much more than you can imagine now. Look inside, a hero resides in you, stand up tall and focus. You are a king, so you live as one, dress as one, see yourself as one.

Treat Your Dream as a Lover

Sometimes people don’t know how to treat their dream: they remember it at times and forget it at other times. They treat it casually. I’ve got news for you: that will not work.
You should always treat your dream as a lover. If you treat a lover casually, you will most likely not enjoy the relationship you have with them. How do you treat a lover? Answer that question for yourself; think about it. And when you answer, treat your dream exactly as you’ll treat a lover. I endeavoured to answer that question my own way:
1. You give a lover attention and time: This is exactly what you should do to your dreams. Your dream is calling on you. It wants you to work on it. Do something that will make you move closer to its fulfilment. The more you answer the call of your dream, the closer the fulfilment of your dream to you. I can remember moments with my close friends now; being with them makes me almost lose my sense of time: suddenly three hours can look like three minutes. That what you should definitely do towards your dream, be so obsess with it that your put in your time and resources into it.
2. You treat a lover with respect: No one really has to explain to you how to respect someone you love: It comes naturally. You just appreciate them; you want to complement them. That’s exactly what you should do to your dream. Respect your dream, don’t allow anyone to talk you down. Put a premium on your dream; it should matter to you the most. If you don’t respect what you have, no one will respect it. But as you take it seriously, and talk positively about it, people will start seeing it that way. You dream demands your respect, give that respect to it today.
3. You spend your money and resources on a lover: You naturally like to invest your money on a lover without actually feeling it. This should go with you dream too. Put your money where your mouth is. If a dream really matters to you, you’ll always be ready to invest your money in it. Knowing what percentage of your money a dream consumes, I can tell how important that dream really is to you.
4. You can go any length to fulfil a lover: when you really love someone, you can sacrifice, do anything, and go beyond your comfort zone-just to make them comfortable. Love gives, love sacrifices, love look beyond the present. That’s what you should do to your dream. What’s your dream? What do you want? And then, what are you willing to pay for what you want. You should be able to give everything for your dream today.