How to Develop Creative Vision

To create anything you must first envision it. I like to say it this way: you must see it to create it. A common word we use to explain vision is imagination. Nothing comes to fruition without imagination. Stephen Covey, author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, states that, “Everything is created twice.” You first envision and create it within you then you fabricate and create it without.

We all have two pairs of eyes – our outer pair and an inner pair. Our outer pair is held down by limitations and boundaries. They feed us with the helpful but limited information to go about our everyday life. With your inner pair, sight has no boundary. You can see and be wherever you want to see and be. You can be in a village on the outskirts of Zungeru and yet travel in your mind to the Avenue of Stars in Hong Kong, or the Eiffel tower of Paris. You can experience the snow peak of Mount Kilimanjaro while living in a valley near Lokoja!

So, to create you must first see your boundless creation!

In addition, it isn’t simply enough to see it. You must be able to see it clearly. You must be able to define it in your mind. A blur is not enough. The blueprint in your mind must be specific and clear cut. Below is an excerpt from the autobiography of one of the greatest inventors of his generation, Nikola Telsa, which explains my thought:

“… I observed to my delight that I could visualise with the greatest facility. I needed no models, drawings or experiments. I could picture them all as real in my mind. Thus I have been led unconsciously to evolve what I consider a new method of materialising inventive concepts and ideas, which is radically opposite to the purely experimental and is in my opinion ever so much more expeditious and efficient.

"The moment one constructs a device to carry into practice a crude idea, he finds himself unavoidably engrossed with the details of the apparatus. As he goes on improving and reconstructing, his force of concentration diminishes and he loses sight of the great underlying principle. Results may be obtained, but always at the sacrifice of quality. My method is different. I do not rush into actual work. When I get an idea, I start at once building it up in my imagination. I change the construction, make improvements and operate the device in my mind. It is absolutely immaterial to me whether I run my turbine in thought or test it in my shop. I even note if it is out of balance. There is no difference whatever; the results are the same. In this way I am able to rapidly develop and perfect a conception without touching anything. When I have gone so far as to embody in the invention every possible improvement I can think of and see no fault anywhere, I put into concrete form this final product of my brain. Invariably my device works as I conceived that it should, and the experiment comes out exactly as I planned it. In twenty years there has not been a single exception. Why should it be otherwise?”

Nikola Telsa went on to visualize and invent the Alternating Current, electric bulbs, discovered X-rays, Radio, Remote Control, Electric Motor, Robotics, Laser, Wireless Communications and Limitless Free Energy. 

In Your Image

Have you considered the question, “What is creativity?” What does it mean to create something that hasn’t been there before? What makes creative people creative? Can you and I be creative? Without considering such probing questions it will be noteworthy to realize that everything that we have around us was created by someone – the chairs, the hall, the microphone, the sound system, your mobile devices – everything!

MADE IN YOUR IMAGE

The underlying principle to the best of creativity is in creating something in your own image. The best creation that will ever come from you must have your image and carry your own life within it. The great writer, Chinua Achebe, wrote Things Fall Apart when he was 26 years old. This is what he had to say about it:

“I was conscripted by the story, and I was writing it at all times – whenever there was an opening. It felt like a sentence, an imprisonment of creativity. I worked on my writing mostly at night. I was seized by the story and I found myself totally ensconced in it. It was almost like living a parallel realm, a dual existence not in any negative sense but in the way a hand has two surfaces, united in purpose but very different in tone, appearance, character, and structure.”

Things Fall Apart has so far sold over 10 million copies worldwide in addition to being translated into various foreign languages and turned into a movie series. Your perfect creation must have not just your signature but your image and life.

10 Powerful Quotes from the Last One Year

I felt I should take some quotes from articles I really enjoyed reading from the last one year. All the quotes are from my writings in this blog. Enjoy reading:

1. To make progress you must be on your own unique path. You must be pursuing a predetermined goal and taking premeditated actions toward it. Progress is intentional. It does not come on you but you work and walk toward it. Culled from: Are You making Progress in a Rat Race?

2. You may find yourself deadlocked and immobile but for as long as you know you are on the right path, your success is simply a matter of time. Also, even though you may be in the same situation you were months earlier, you know that as long as time has passed you are not on the same spot. Culled from: Immobile Progress

3. To educate and develop my mind I needed to read books related to the fields I wanted to be outstanding ... if you want to be the best manufacturer of furniture in your city, your library should be filled with books on types of wood, wood finishing, business and factory ethics, etc., and not books on motivational public speaking. Culled from: Intentional Education

4. Two things stop folks from living their dreams. 1: The fear of the untested. We often allow the darkness of fear to envelop our hearts. 2: The gruesome voice of sameness that speaks through your mental airwaves telling you, “You are not ready,” and, “It isn’t time.” You must change the dial and listen rather to the sweet melodious rhythm which says, “Now is the right time for your salvation.” Culled from: Swimming on Land?

5. A parasitic person will gain from you but in return harm you. In essence it is what he gains from you that destroy you. Culled from: Associations (Types)

6. To be a leader you must have a mandate – a clearly defined and outlined assignment – that keeps you on course. Without this you are simply on a lonely stroll and, if unfortunately you have a portfolio, wasting peoples precious time. Culled from: Here is Your Assignment

7. If you would produce great results, irrespective of the environment you are in, you must learn to concentrate in chaos. Your perfect environment will never be so you must learn to do your stuff anyway and do it well. Culled from: The Perfect Success Journey

8. In your success journey it is important to keep trying and not stop even when it seems you are at the end of your game. You should develop the attitude that says to daunting situations, “I will rise again!” Culled from: It's Never Too Late to RE-start

9. If you have identified an unhealthy habit stop it now. Not next year. Not next month. Not next week. Not later today. All these lie in your future and the only time you really have is this moment here and now. Culled from: Kill or be Killed

10. Why sit in our conditions and die? Why sit in poverty and die? Why sit in confusion and die? Why sit in ignorance and die? Nothing moves until you move. Nature responds to movement and never to inaction. If you remain the way you are things will remain the way they are. Culled from: The Power of Movement

Learning How to Learn (VII): Interaction

Barely a few years ago boys and girls in Africa didn’t have specific individual ages. Rather, they were in groups, cults, and peers. So a boy's age and maturity isn’t measured by when he was born but by which age group he belongs to. In addition, initiation into higher social platforms is done in a collective way together with other members of the same group or peer.

In as much as this concept sounds archaic and possibly ineffective to us today, a careful search as to why it was done in the first place will reveal some astonishing things about how we learn. Children were grouped in peers and cults so they could learn by interaction. In some of these groups what they had weren’t “teachers” (from a narrow meaning of the word) but guides and counsellors. So, they learned to hunt together, farm together, dance together and get married together. As time went by these groups develop such strong bonds that they’ll willingly die protecting each other than live without the other.

Our present-day classes are designed in a way that narrowly imitates this method of peering but we contradict the goal of grouping by encouraging and enforcing individualism within the group. 
If you will learn effectively, I propose you form groups with people of like minds. Interact with one another, advice each other, complement weaknesses and sharpen strengths. In my book, Do it Like Kids, I suggested 5 unifying factors that ensure groups and teams work effectively. Here is a summary:

1. The unifying factor of harmonizing skills: members of a team should complement each other in skill. If you have everybody in a group having just one skill, know that you have no team at all. There is practically no way such a group can effectively provide excellent service at all times. When children form teams, team players take up roles that they feel they can best fit into. They don’t all take up the same role because it makes play boring.

2. The unifying factor of shared purpose: Every team must have a single reason why it is doing what it is doing. Every member of the team must share that ideal reason. This is the purpose of the team. Myles Monroe in his famous quote said, “If the purpose of a thing is not known, abuse is inevitable.” In line with that I say if the purpose of a team is not known and shared by the team players, abuse is inevitable.

3. The unifying factor of performance goals: A goal is an aim, something someone wants to achieve in a specified period. In view of this, a performance goal is a goal that specifies the performance required of a team. If this is lacking, progress cannot be measured and if progress is not measured, there is no way the team can say if it is successful or not. So every team needs to set goals to help move it forward. Here are some ways to set performance goals-

-         Write them down in clear terms

-         Set a time frame

-         Make a list of everything the team will have to do

-         Plan

-         Review often

4.  The unifying factor of approach: the approach taken to achieve the performance goals is as important as setting the goal in the first place. If you know where you are going, then you immediately become restricted in the number of roads that will lead you there.

5. The unifying factor of mutual accountability: who is responsible? Whose fault is it? Who is to give account? These are questions all groups have to answer at one point or the other and therein lie where many groups fall short of being teams. Note this; in a team, nobody is accountable, everybody is. It is nobody’s fault; everybody is at fault. Nobody is responsible, it is everyone’s responsibility. The moment this is missed, the cords that bind team play are broken. 

Learning How to Learn (VI): Physical Exercises

Have you ever wondered why there are always sports facilities in good schools? These aren’t placed there just for the fun of it. Schools have sports facilities because educators have realized that physical activities in form of sports, jogging, or even walking helps learning. Every good school has a sports program where they develop the physical aspect of their learners. This is important because as you participate in physical activities new brain cells are born in your brain and this helps in learning.

I recently developed a habit of jogging for the first 30 minutes of my day. I do this 6 times every week and I now find it very difficult not to get off my bed and hit the street jogging. In doing this I have benefitted in interesting ways. First, I realized that it reverses any stress I feel in the morning. I was accustomed to waking up tired and stressed out. It was usual to hear me say, “I am tired,” first thing in the morning. When I jog I feel much stronger and the energy takes me through the day.

Second, I realized that it helped me to process information faster. While jogging I am able to steady my mind on a thought and keep it there until I have the answers I seek.

Third, I listen to audio books while jogging. This means that I multitask and use the opportunity to learn from books that would have taken me a longer period of time to cover. The moment I realised this secret to learning, I make sure I don’t leave my room without an audio book in my phone.

Success Myth #1: You Must Cheat to Learn

You may think after reading this myth that you don’t believe it applies to you but the only prove of believe is in your actions. In my society our learning has been incapacitated by this myth. We have institutionalized examination malpractice. This scourge, which some years back was a tightly kept secret, now thrives enabled by examination bodies, school administrations, invigilators, students and their parents.

The problem with cheating to learn is that it short-changes your brain, crashes your self-esteem, degrades your integrity, removes your dignity, and makes you less likely to render useful service to your society. At the end of it all, after you have cheated your way to examination “success”, you haven’t learned anything.

Contrary to this myth I have met learners who believed in themselves enough and had sufficient dignity to refuse malpractice. They read, practiced, understood, and passed their examinations with very good grades. As I said in the beginning, if one can do it, you too can.

Learning How to Learn (V): Discipline

You must be disciplined to stick to your goal of learning. This means you control yourself to consistently choose only the things that will help you achieve your goal. It also means you obey the laws that guide to the acquisition of your goal. Many people desire to learn something but at the same time desire a hundred other contradictory things. Others desire to succeed in learning but won’t follow the guiding principles. They want the “golden” egg without nurturing the “ordinary” goose that lays it. in both cases they’d meet with failure somewhere along the path.

This seems to be my story in my desire to learn to play the keyboard. Gift, my wife, bought a keyboard some years ago and I want to play. I don’t want to be the next Ludwig van Beethoven or another Alfred Cortot but just to learn how to strike some chords and make something that sounds like music. I have tried a lot of the tricks in the books. I have placed it in front of me, downloaded free tutorials on YouTube, told friends I’d soon be a keyboard player, but have ever since failed to make any progress. If I were to choose one single reason why I haven’t made progress I’d say I am not disciplined to learn it. The time I should use to practice I use to write or read an unrelated book. I’d even readily watch a movie than practice!

Discipline is indispensible to learning. “If you only write when inspired, you may be a fairly decent poet, but you’ll never be a novelist,” said inspirational writer Neil Geiman. It is true because you require the discipline of writing even at times you aren’t inspired or feel like writing if you’ll be a novelist to be reckoned with.

Learning How to Learn (IV): Desire

It is common knowledge but not common practice that without desire you cannot achieve anything meaningful in life. Learning isn’t any different. Most of the people in classrooms and other learning platforms don’t really desire it. They may want to learn, they may take a step to learn, they may even say they will learn but they don’t desire it. To desire is to want something strongly enough for you to take actions towards it. To desire is to defeat inertia. Desire is the springboard, your springboard to higher heights.

Imagine with me two friends, Sadiq and Bello, who sit lazily under a tree and discuss the fact that they were both very hungry. Sadiq says, “I only had a snack this morning, I am so hungry I can finish a buffalo!”

“You do not know what hunger is my friend,” Bello responds, “I haven’t eaten for 2 days!”

If we interrupt their discussion at this point we’ll all assume Bello would have a greater desire to get a meal having stayed without a meal for 2 days. 

Then there comes Tosin, who becomes privy to their discussion and says, “Why waste time talking rather than eating? There is a restaurant a kilometer away.”

“One kilometer?” asked Bello with sarcasm in every word, “Too far to travel just for food.”

“Not for me,” Sadiq says, “I am hungry and will pay any price to get a good meal.” He stands up and immediately leaves for the restaurant leaving Bello on the same spot looking hungry.

It was a fact that they were both hungry and also a fact that Bello should be hungrier having stayed without food for 2 days, but who among the friends desired to eat? Sadiq of course! This is so because desire is shown only with actions.

If you desire to learn anything it will show in your actions. It will show in the time invested in pursuit of the knowledge. It will show in the sacrifices you are willing to make to achieve your goal. It will show in the amount you are willing to spend on things related to it. Indeed, it will show in the thought energy you direct towards it.

Learning How to Learn (III): Probing Questions

First Associate Pastor: Can I chew gum while praying?

Senior Pastor: Definitely NOT! Why even consider it?

Second Associate Pastor: Can I pray while chewing gum?

Senior Pastor: Why not? The Bible says to, "Pray without ceasing!" 

Have you noticed that all kids are curious. Sometimes they are annoyingly curious. They want to see it, they want to touch it, they want to smell it, they want to hear it and they certainly want to taste it. This is one reason all drugs carry the caution: "Keep out of reach of children.” This inherent curiosity in kids is taken to be foolishness by many adults but the contrary is the case. It goes to show us that children are curious, which is a good thing because curiosity is the beginning stage of searching and it is, “the glory of God is to hide a thing; but the honor of kings is to search out a matter,” (Proverbs 25:2). Kids are curious because they are creative. Their curiosity stems from their creativity.                                
You can use your curiosity, which is actually easier to form, to develop creativity. That’s the lifeline: use curiosity to develop creativity. The easiest way to do this by the way is by ensuring you do not see things in a single dimension. Do not look at things the way they come, rather look at them from a several-dimensional point of view and ask yourself probing questions. 

Questions open up doors that ordinarily will remain closed but it is noteworthy that not all questions will bring about the desired result. There are questions you can ask that will immediately shut the doors of further creativity while there are those that will make the creative genius flood your mind. Here are two tips on right questioning.

Tip no. 1: Ask yourself about changes. One form of questioning that will help you think more creatively is to ask yourself to change things and make them the way you would like them to be. This gives you room to innovate. For example:

● What would taste better if it were less sweet? How can I make it sweeter?

● What would be nicer if it were bigger? How can I make it bigger?

Tip no. 2: Ask yourself questions with lots of answers. You strengthen your creative thinking skill anytime you ask yourself questions that permit many correct answers. Here are some examples using the concept of air:

● What are some of the uses of air? 

● What floats in air? 

● How does air help us? 

● Why is cold air cold? 

Probing questions are some of the fastest ways to learn. Don't sit back and accept things only because they were told to you by a reputable source. Ask questions and take a quantum learning leap!

                                      [MAINLY CULLED FROM MY BOOK, "DO IT LIKE KIDS"]

Learning How to Learn (II): Active Engagement

How are (or were, as the case may apply) your classrooms? If they are like mine they'd look like this: The teacher stands somewhere at the front. She rarely strolls around nor gazes with intent at every student. She is somehow fixated on some students. Tibeck and Wemimo sit in front. Their position in class gives the impression that they listened attentively and are loved by our teachers. James and Kayode are sending notes to each other on which football club they think will win the UEFA Champions League. John leads a group at the opposite end on the room. All teachers feel he and his group won't amount to much. They hold this impression even as it is popularly accepted that John is one of the most intelligent students in the set. Sagir is listening intently, flipping through a textbook while the teacher speaks, taking side notes where he feels they are needed and interestingly engaging the boring teacher. Where was I? I was the definition of "lost" somewhere at the back of the room.

How did our results turn out? Well Sagir got just nine A's out of nine subjects, Tibeck and Wemimo got enough credits to get into a university, John and his group were suspended and didn't write the examination with us, James, Kayode and I failed woefully. Of course we pretended we were shocked by the results but we knew deep down that we didn't deserve better.
Learning, as Sagir showed us, was best done by active engagement. When you are engaged in a thing it establishes itself deeper and better in our brains hence increasing our chances of actually learning and remembering it when the need arises. But what do most of us do? We passively listen. Passive listening leaves you with the deception of learning when you aren't. 
Unfortunately, passive listening is what our classrooms, churches, seminars and conferences are designed to accommodate. Someone stands in front of an audience and goes on and on with something he is presumed to know better than all. The ability of the audience is judged by how attentive they are. We ignore the major fact that silence is not a prove of attention and much less shows learning has been achieved.
If you'd learn better and faster you should be actively engaged in it. Never allow lethargy take you over. Engage your mind, engage your teacher (a good teacher will love this), engage your lesson materials. Probe deeper than is expected of you and you will certainly learn better. This would work no matter where you use it.

Learning How to Learn (I): Activities

If you have been through school you'd have asked yourself or someone else if all you were taught were relevant in the first place. You look at all the information you are required to soak in and you wonder if it could be learned - and if it can, then you wonder if you could learn it. I look back at my over twenty years of formal education and I realize I was never taught how to learn. I am just now learning how  I learn and it is amazing the simple stuff I am discovering.

How do you learn? Have you ever learned how to learn? I ask this not as a trick question - although it feels like one - but because learning isn't automatic. It is a skill - an art in it's own right - and must be learned itself. Think about it, how did the ancients learn how to learn? Many ancient cultures have left us glimpses into how they taught their children how to learn. They told them stories and fables, they took advantage of their childhood and teenage years to input the life information they wanted to pass across. They raised their children in peers, groups, cults and fraternities. This developed communal learning and ensured deeper lifelong learning experience. But how do we "modern" cultures learn?

In the next few articles we will look into modern ways to learn. I will in effect show you ways I am learning how to learn. I will give examples where it suffices and will also be very incisive and informative. So lets get right to it.

Learn by activity and NOT just by reading. This is important. We are trained to read and read and finally it will become a part of us. I have taught my students for a few years now this same principle of reading until it sticks that didn't work with me. My excuse? That was exactly what I was taught. So, I was probably saying to myself that, "although it didn't work with me it must work with someone else for my father, mother, brothers, sisters, and hundreds of other teachers to say it works." 

I am only now realizing that what is wrong remains wrong even if the whole world says it was right. Until fairly recent world history, people of different cultures - from the Chinese to the Greek, Indian to Aboriginal - believed the world was flat. It was until people like, Herodotus, Pythagoras and Parmenides, postulated a possible spherical earth that the whole world population began to entertain its possibility. The earth didn't become spherical when they postulated it. It had always been so and all the people and cultures of the earth thinking it was flat wouldn't change it.

    Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn. - Benjamin Franklin

It is the same with the "read, read, read" approach to learning. In fact, when you learn by activity you learn faster, recall better and enjoy the process. Do not take only my words for this. Pause and think of the things you do perfectly and without thinking about it like riding a bicycle. Did you learn them by reading about them or by taking activities on them? I already know your answer and this is so because your brain relates to activities and develops a pattern for doing it again and again. 

Finally, I realized, while I was learning to write, that no matter how much I read about writing I didnt know how to. It was until I began to write that I became better and better. Today I am an author, write regularly for a blog and for other people.

Start small or Stay small

Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can. - Arthur Eze

I sometimes feel our present human culture is obsessed with having things BIG. We like big businesses, big cities with big buildings. We like to be referred to as the person with "The biggest ... in town."

Big isn't bad. In fact, I like it big also, but although culture teaches us to celebrate big, nature shows us to cultivate small. Look around; everything in nature starts small. From the trees to the fishes, the bull to the person, they all start small. I was reminded of this principle when our baby girl, Jamila, was born exactly two months ago today. As I looked at her lovely white eyes that day, I wondered how a human life could begin in such a small way. But then again, I thought, "In what other way could it start?" Two months on, and it is evident to all the way she has grown so well.

This same principle ensures that countries grow, provinces grow, families grow, and you grow. Whole countries - take your mind to the greatest ones - are established with something as small and fragile as an idea. Not races and ethnicity but an idea. It begins with that spark of a creative moment in the minds of a few, which they fan until it has ignited a flame that burns every heart that hears of it and makes many willing to stake their existence for its realization or nothing else. It is the same with great businesses. Pioneers identify a need that must be met. It is a problem that cannot go unsolved, and they stake all they have and are to see they help solve it. 

Greatness doesn't come from mindlessly achieving some BIG stuff - like making so much money--but growing from small to great. Do not be afraid of starting small. More often than not, it's the fear that keeps you as an underachiever and not the fact that what you have started is small.

I and a small team have started a project to support public school education in Nigeria. At present, we have given out thousands of exercise books, but there is still more to be achieved. We are setting up free libraries in these schools, and we will take one small school library after the other. It will be our joy to see hundreds of schools with the libraries they need, but before we get there, we will do with the small we have--one school. 

Sit and Watch Your Life Reel Through!

I love sports. My interest in sports pushed me to know the rules of many sport events that I would never participate in or probably never witness others playing. In particular, like 75% of the 170 million people in my country, I love football. I so love football that I used to sit long periods at a time discussing the players’ rumors, the possible transfer headlines, the problem with referees and lots more. Sometimes our discussion leads us on journeys back in the days and we vividly describe events that happened then.

Recently in one of such discussions we traveled back in time to the world cup event of 1994 – US ’94 it was popularly called – and discussed the many euphoric moments. Our country was represented for the first time on the biggest football stage on the planet. We went there as African champions and I vividly remember thinking – rather erroneously with hindsight - that we would be certainly unstoppable after gloriously conquering Africa just some months earlier.

Suddenly it dawned on me that this sports event I was vividly describing was twenty years ago! Where had all the time gone? Twenty years! If this was US ’94 then I am twenty years in the future. The obvious question that arose was, “Was this the future I envisioned?” I refused to answer not because I didn’t know the right answer but because I didn’t want to hear it.

Our lives do not come to us all at once. I remember my father describing fifty-year-old events “as though it were just yesterday.” Our lives come in years, and years in months, and months in weeks, and weeks in days, and days in hours, and hours in minutes and seconds. It stands to reason that what you do with the seconds – the very second you are living through right now – determines what will be the outcome of the results you will produce in the minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, and ultimately in your life.

If the next twenty years – 2034 – would bring better outcomes I must ask myself the difficult question, “What am I doing with this second?” It is the same with you and your friends and your family. We have all the power to choose what we do with this second but we have no power whatsoever to determine the outcomes we would experience in the next twenty years.

Choose wisely.

The Power of Movement

There is an interesting story in the history of ancient Samaria. It was of a time they were besieged round-about by a great Syrian army and there was no way of going into the city or out of it. Typically, supply ran short, inflation hit the economy and life became so hard that people couldn’t buy the cheapest foods. In one gross instance, two women negotiated to kill and eat their sons to survive and actually succeeded in killing one.

When things seemed to only spiral downwards, four lepers negotiated the unthinkable amongst themselves. They reasoned that they couldn’t go into their own city because death was imminent for the merciful able-bodied talk less of the physically handicapped. Their other option was to head for the camp of the Syrian army – their enemies. They would most likely be killed but they had a slim chance of engendering enough pity to get food. They summarized their discussion this way: “Why sit her until we die?” and moved towards the Syrians. This seemingly insignificant half-hearted movement of four lepers saved a nation.

I like that question and I think it is important we intermittently ask ourselves this question. Why sit in our conditions and die? Why sit in poverty and die? Why sit in confusion and die? Why sit in ignorance and die? Nothing moves until you move. Nature responds to movement and never to inaction. If you remain the way you are things will remain the way they are.

I remember that I have always desired to be a published author. I especially wanted to write a book that will draw the attention of international publishers. This was an ‘incredible” dream considering the fact that I had no foundation for such. I set out working on my first book, Do it Like Kids, and sent out applications to numerous companies. I got rejected by several but didn’t feel hurt because I wasn’t popular enough to be hurt. It took four years and one evening I received an offer for an all-expense-paid contract with a lovely company.

If I hadn’t moved by writing and pursuing the dream, it wouldn’t matter how long I spent dreaming over and over of being published, it will never happen. If I didn’t move by writing and pursuing, but rather sat back to wish, the dream would be dead today. It would have been said of me, “He sat until his dream died.”

Creating External Balance in Your Life

We have laid a foundation of how important balance is in life and success. We all have various roles and responsibilities to carry out at the same phase of life. We could be parents, spouses, employees, employers, teachers and students, at the same time. With each of these roles there are accompanying responsibilities. Balance is when you know your specific roles and follow through with corresponding responsibilities. Imbalance is when you do not know your corresponding responsibilities to roles or have knowledge of them but mix them up.

          When you have internal balance settled – the “two peace-steps”; peace with God and peace with self – then you will have laid a proper foundation for external balance, which shows itself as peace with the world.

          External balance is the outer you. It is what the world sees. It is your ability to be organized, to stay focused, and to prioritize every action in your life. Without external balance you have no physical prove for success. People respond to tangibility and external balance creates tangible things. Some years back while sharing my “great” visions of the future to my wife (then fiancé), Gift, she interjected and said, “I have heard a thousand of your dreams. Can you do one for me to see?” I realized at that moment that I may have internal balance but lacked sufficient external balance to bring to bear my dreams and aspirations.

          External balance begins with a vision. What do you see with your mind’s eye? What has your heart captured, or like the ancient prophet put it, is your “heart inditing a good matter”? Vision forms the framework for all success. It turned corn to cornflakes, potato and rice to Pringles, and lemon to lemonade. It is vision that initiates the process of taking nature’s gift to finished products that add value to human life. It is vision that gives you a blueprint for your success journey.

          Then we go to goals – long term and short term. Do you have them? It was Earl Nightingale who likened the mind to a huge caterpillar, which can be used to do a hundred-man days’ work is an hour, but is controlled by a small steering wheel. The mind is to a human what the steering wheel is to a caterpillar. Without goals there may be movement but no direction. If you lack direction you will not arrive at your destination.

          Finally, what is your plan for accomplishing your goals? A plan breaks down your goals into smaller and easier to accomplish bits. Anything can work if you have a plan that clearly outlines strategies for accomplishing it.

Creating Internal Balance in Your Life

Balance in life is indispensable to your progress. A person who lacks balance will continue to be unstable and produce mediocre results. An imbalanced person will mix up roles and responsibilities. He would act in the right way to the wrong person. Have you seen husbands who relate to their wives as though they related to an employee – and possibly vice versa?

          Balance in life means having right knowledge of all your roles and responsibilities and functioning in line with them whenever their specific need arises. Balance means you don’t give undue attention to only one aspect of your life living every other aspect unattended to. A balanced nation, for example, isn’t one that has mansions and luxury cars on every street but one that wouldn’t permit the poor and uneducated remain the way they are. A balanced nation wouldn’t leave others behind because it knows that it doesn’t matter how far it expresses prosperity externally, with the poor and uneducated around they would pull all the structures down.

          Balance begins not without but within a person. The problem we face most of the time is that we try to be externally balanced without considering who we are inside. If you remain internally imbalanced it will be irrelevant how many seminars you attend or the number of my articles you read on external balance.

New wine must be put into new wineskins. – Jesus

          I reckon that complete balance naturally emanates from three sequential peace steps:

To have peace with God means to be believe that he exists, to accept his love toward you, and rely on him to guide you through every step of your life.

          To have peace with self is to recognize and understand the peculiar path for your success journey, to align yourself with it, and ensure your physical needs don’t wage a war with your soul.

          When you lay a continual solid foundation of internal balance you will be able to build skyscrapers of success externally.