Defining Success

Success is reaching beyond ourselves and helping others in specific ways. It’s performing with excellence: no matter the work, you do it excellently. Success is to always look out for a need and try to meet that need. It is refusing to make an excuse: use what you have, where you are.

Success comes to the one who prepares for it: Clear the area, organise your thoughts. Get rid of the negatives and prepare for prosperity. It is about keeping your eyes on the prize: It is deciding what is it you want, and then focus on it like a laser beam.

And ultimately, Success is understanding and being happy with who you are. Only you can let you down, and the only way you can do that is by not loving enough. Arise, shine; for your light has come.

          Impossibility is actually ignorance. Impossibility doesn’t exist; it only exists in the mind that doesn’t know. Did you know there’s nothing that you can’t do? This knowledge is what you need. When you believe there’s a way, you will see the way. However, when you question ‘the possibility’, then you wouldn’t see what is possible. Believing is seeing. Some may say, ‘seeing is believing’, but that’s the talk of the ignorant man. You don’t need to believe what you’ve physically seen. So believing is seeing; if you believe, you will see. Did you know you can do all things through God’s power that works in you? You can! Let this dawn on you for all time. Know that all things are possible; live with high energy. Aim on the highest things in life, because that’s where you belong. Believe in the one God believes in, love the one that God loves- that’s you.

The Seeds of Greatness

Many desire a great, fulfilling and prosperous life. Yes, you must know what you want, but then you should be a ready and able to do what’s required to get it. Success is not accidental; things don’t just happen. In fact, we daily reap what we have sown. And that’s a vital principle of life. Instead of just hoping good things come your way, you can consciously determine what is it that you want and work towards it.
If you require greatness- then sow the seeds of greatness. The seed of vision, purpose, attitude, persistence, courage toward your dream. And as you do: don’t worry whether or not ‘it’s going to happen’. It will, if you keep going. If you plant tomato seed and you water it and makes sure it gets sunlight and nourishment, guess what? Tomatoes will eventually grow. But you can’t plant tomato seed, hoping that maize will grow. It’s the same with your dream. If you want success, you must plant for success instead of failure. You don’t set out for the north by walking east, do you? Of course not! You have to be walking in the right direction to get where you’re going. Simple but true.

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.

The ABC's of SUCCESS

I want to share some thoughts on success which to a large extend explains why some people are successful- really successful. As simple as these points are, if you Read, understand, put it to heart and make use of it daily- it will help you a long way.
1. How you Think is Everything: Always be positive. Think success, not failure. Beware of a negative environment. This trait is one of the most important of the ‘successful’. Your belief that you can accomplish your goals has to be unwavering. The moment you say to yourself “I can’t…”, then you won’t. Remove all impossibility mentality from your mind- strike it out from your dictionary.
2. Decide Upon Your True Dreams and Goals: Write down your specific goals and develop a plan to reach them. Someone may ask, ‘you mean I should write down my dreams and goals and develop a plan to reach them- like a project plan?’ Yes, that’s exactly what this mean. Goals are those concrete, measurable stepping stones of achievement that track your progress towards your dreams.
3. Take Action: Goals are nothing without action. Be like Nike and ‘Just do it’. Take action everyday to move you closer to your goals. A good idea is nothing without the will to make it happen. When you see an opportunity, leap on it. Ask yourself this: have you taken action today towards your goals?

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 III

Its 8 days to Christmas, 15 days to the New Year and 21 days to my Birthday (i.e. 7th Jan 2010) and we have been on our topic- Extreme makeover, this is the 3rd part of it.
I want to share about two important things to note in planning for success with giant stride:
1. Upgrade Your Experience and Environment: go out there and do something with what you’ve got- your talents, opportunities and abilities. Go and get the experience. The more you use what you have, the more you will learn about it. There is so much that action does. Many are use to just learning- but learning is not enough. I like Nike motto ‘Just Do It!’ Let that be your personal slogan too. Get in the game; enough of just talking about what you want to do. Go do it today, you will be amazed things are not as difficult as they seem.
Also, upgrade your environment. Your environment starts from you-That is your mind, your body, your surroundings, your room. Clean up yourself. Dress for the job-dress for that person you want to be. Start thinking like your ‘dream self’ today. Start talking like it. It’s called ‘fake it till you make it’, but I like calling it ‘make it till you make it’
2. Prayer- how vital it is for us to pray. Prayer exercises our spirit. It makes our Spirit more aware of reality. When you pray, you are activating and energizing your spirit- man. Learn to always refresh yourself like this. Prayer is more than just asking God to do something. It’s more! I remember a friend of mine once ask me if I believed in long prayers. She said, ‘I don’t think all that is necessary, God loves me, why do I have to pray for so much, for Him to hear me’. ‘Is He that wicked?’ She asked.
I looked at her and I know she represents a lot of people. And I asked her a question: do you think when you pray to God- it is only God you are dealing with? She paused and started thinking. I said, ‘for your information, when you pray to God, is not only God you are dealing with. You are dealing with yourself, and even other Spiritual beings’. The bible says, ‘We use God's mighty weapons, not mere worldly weapons, to knock down the Devil's strongholds.’ (2 Cor 10:4NLT)
So, sharpen your spirit through prayer, and mind you- not five minutes prayer. Pray so much, you need it: and do it by faith, believing and knowing that God hears you. See you next week. If you read this, please Comment, I will like to hear from you- love you.

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.

No Excuse!

People especially in this part of the world are quick to give excuse- reasons why they didn’t and can’t do what they ought to do and why they can’t achieve a dream. But I tell you: get out of that rut. Do away with that habit, because it’s not the habit of the ‘successful’. It’s a habit of the one who fails. I always like to define excuse as: a reason for failure. Every time you give an excuse, you are giving a reason for failure. You are giving a reason not to perform.
Remove all the excuse you would have given from you. Understand no excuse is ever good enough for not achieving your dream. But if you allow yourself, you will always find reasons why you can’t do what you ought to do. No one can stop you in life: the only person that can ever stop you is you. Go ahead and achieve your dreams. What would have been a limitation, use as a stepping stone: fuel your dream.
Go find out- poor people are always filled with excuses. They don’t give excuse because they are poor; rather they are poor because they give excuse. Every time a man manufacture excuses, he’s attracting failure. Decide, face your dragon, conquer the handicaps, hang up your hang ups, go ahead and produce results. The world doesn’t get attracted to failure and excuses; they only celebrate victory, success. No one will embrace or love you for your failure, so don’t think your excuse can work. It has never worked for any man.
The bible says, The lazy man is full of excuses. "I can't go to work!" he says. "If I go outside, I might meet a lion in the street and be killed!" (Prov 22:13TLB). He stays inside afraid of the unknown and gives reasons for failure. Why? Because he doesn’t understand; he doesn’t know. I used to think if only that man knews who he really is- that a bigger and greater lion actually resides in him. That greater (mightier) is He that is in him than he who is in the world. He will step out with confidence: and that’s why I am telling you this now. You can achieve anything you choose to. Go and do it.

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’.

A Very Important Secret to Success

You want to live a very successful life- then show up to your dreams, goals and purpose swiftly and consistently. To be very successful we must be quick to use what we have learnt. Many are accustomed to only learning and learning: reading books of success from different authors. But you see knowledge is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do. When you continuously use what you have and know, where you are, you will see what drastic result you will start producing.
To be successful doesn’t mean you’ve to know everything about life. In fact, to know more in an effective way, you have to use what you know. Do not deceive yourselves by just listening to his word; instead, put it into practice (James1:22 TEV). Don’t read about success and start saying, ‘that thing didn’t work’, but ask yourself: have I really practice it, did I learn it rightly.
We should put to work more of what we are learning than seeking to learn more. As you learn about God, life, success put it to work for yourself. For many, it is easy to learn something; it is easy to talk about something they’ve learnt. So let us practice it easily and swiftly also. Don’t deceive yourself.
Things are not as hard as they initially look generally. Launch out- you will be amazed how much you can actually accomplish.

Live Deliberately

You can be what you want to be: all you need is the right knowledge, wisdom and attitude. If you decide what you want and go for it, you will get it. A lot of times what people call their dream are actually wishful thinking. This is so because they’ve never put ‘this dream’ to work. I tell you: live deliberately- decide how, where and what you want to do.
I’ve got news for you: Hoping that things will fall into place is not enough; you are the one to make things fall into place for you. This is a vital truth you must understand. For some people, this is good news- it offers them the opportunity to make things happen. But to some others- it isn’t; they are too scared to make things happen and so they freak out. Where do you stand?
Decide what you want. Do things that you know can help you achieve your dreams. Define what you want, find the price and pay it. Every result has a how, find it and go to work. Life is too short (even if you lived to be 150) to cross your legs and wait for things to happen. It’s high time you made things happen in your life. Many fail because of their thinking: when you think wrong, your life goes wrong. Don’t think you can’t do what you ought to do. Fix your thoughts on what is true and good and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely, and dwell on the fine, good things in others. Think about all you can praise God for and be glad about. (Phil 4:8TLB).
In whatever you want to do, ask yourself about what results you’ll want to achieve with it. Live consciously. Many make decision rashly; they think rashly and act rashly. They go out for the day without a plan, and then they wonder why they didn’t achieve anything worthwhile that day. But why should they? They got what you planned for: nothing. Don’t act that way: not only should you decide and plan what you want, put your plan to work.