How to Generate Hunger and Drive to Achieve Any Goal

It doesn't matter if you are the ONLY one

You’ve gotta be hungry for something if you’re going to get it. you’ve gotta want it as bad as you want to breathe. ­– Les Brown

It is a one thing to have a dream, a completely different thing to have the hunger and drive to achieve it no matter the stakes. I have set countless goals which I was certain (at the time of setting) that I had all it may take to achieve them only to fall short of hunger and drive the next morning. Sometimes I wonder what motivated me in the first place.

          Hunger and drive are two different pals always travelling together. Hunger is the pain within that will not leave you comfortable until a goal is accomplished while drive is what pushes you, your motivation to get going towards the goal. Hunger and drive are differ for different goals but the principles behind generating them are the same.

1. Ensure your goal is within the boundaries of your burdens. Goals outside burdens may never be achieved. The burden keeps you in it when the chips are down.

2. Do not exaggerate the problem. Problems have a special way of looking bigger than they actually are. Don’t join in exaggerating the problems confronting you.

3. Clearly understand the gains of victory and fix your attention on them. Victory will motivate you. Keep your gaze fixed on it. It is a common idea for military commanders to ensure their soldiers have their eyes fixed on victory, its profits, and nothing else if they would stand a chance.

4. Recall past victories and the feelings you had. You have succeeded before. Everyone has. Recall your past victories. None is too small. If it happened before it will happen again!

5. Count God in; He has your back. Don’t rely solely on your strength or what you know – they will fail you. God is able and willing to ensure you succeed.

       {To order for my new book, Do it Like Kids, click here}

If you would align yourself with these five principles you will find that you have the hunger and drive to accomplish every goal you set.

The Predictable God

While the earth remains, seed-time and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease. ­– God  

 There are some things I can guess about your day without you giving me a hint. First, you woke up this morning. You got ready for work. The sun gradually rose in the horizon and by noon it was right overhead. Four hours later, as you prepared to leave for home, the sun had moved to the west and seemed to be cooling off.

Now you may go, “Is this a joke? What is so ingenious about stating the obvious way a day will go?” and to that I say, “Of course there is nothing ingenious about it.” In fact the only reason I can (as every other person can) predict the trend of a day is because of the predictability of God. God set nature in a way that you can observe and correctly predict. Imagine, for a moment, if your alarm woke you up by 6 am and by 11 am the sun isn't up. Imagine if seasons were completely unpredictable and you wake up each morning to a different weather. Chaotic! I hear your heart say and in addition to that I say that the world can’t work that way.

As it is with our predictable God so it should be with our lives. If things would work in your life, and if you would make steady progress in your success journey, you need some degree of predictability in your daily activities. You should be able to operate with a pattern of vision, goal setting, planning, to-do lists, and prioritization. “Just maintain the proper order in all things,” was an advice Paul, the apostle, once gave.

It is interesting to note that progress is always the signature of orderliness. A simple glance at societies that take order and patterns seriously shows this and a glance at societies that give room for chaos provides ample evidence of stagnancy.

When Dreams Turn to Nightmares

Even when walking through the dark valley of death I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me, guarding, guiding all the way. ­– The Psalmist

I had a dream some nights ago that began on a sweet plane. I enjoyed every twist and turn of that dream and did not want to wake up. I wanted to see the end of it. Suddenly – as it so often happens in dreams – my sweet dream turned to a nightmare. I found myself running helplessly from something that scared me so much. I immediately wanted a way out of this dream.

As it happened to my sweet dream, so it often happens to our visions and goals. Teenage Joseph dreamed of glory but found himself in a dry well abandoned for dead. Just when he thought he was to be saved from his ordeal he was sold into slavery and subsequently went into jail, all for crimes he did not commit. His dream turned into a nightmare so much so that he forgot the initial dream. Similarly young and vibrant Moses wanted to live his dream and took steps in line with it. He soon discovered that his dream would turn into a forty-year nightmare in the odd part of a desert.

When your dream turns to a nightmare you will be tempted again and again to abandon ship. It will occur to you that you do not need to carry out the work after all. The following may become friendly phrases to you: “I have done my best,” “There is no way out of this,” “Oh, God, Please send somebody else!” “O my Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me …”

        Now, let’s be frank, the world will not end if you give up. So to be honest giving up is an option – but not your only option. If you consider that your goals cannot be achieved only by your own abilities you will realize that all you may need to do is keep walking on. It does not matter how fast you are going at such times. What matters is that you stay true to the journey. Your success journey is a long journey and if you stick to it you will slowly but surely walk through the valley of the shadow of death and emerge victorious. 

God first!

In the beginning God … ­– Genesis

It is in our revised culture to celebrate the beginnings of things. A child is born and we celebrate the beginning of a life. Admission is gained into a high institution and we matriculate with as much pomp as we can afford. Your dream girl says yes and you empty your account to make the beginning of your lives together a memorable one. Every year a day comes where you mark a birthday and look earnestly with hope at the beginning of the rest of your life.

I love beginnings. I believe that it is important we that we give it them the best we can because after all they only come once in a lifetime. I will like, though, to bring to our attention the need to place God first in every beginning. I like God’s entrance into the Bible. It very simply says: “In the beginning God …”.  To be sincere I do not think that is too much of an introduction. It contains no explanation as to who he is and does not give room for prior knowledge. It assumes that you will accept every word written in the phrase.

From a symbolic point of view this is exactly the same way we should handle every beginning in our lives. We should be able to affirm:

In the beginning of my year God …

In the beginning of my marriage God …

In the beginning of my career God …

In the beginning of my business God …

In the beginning of my studies God …

In the beginning of each day God …

When we have this disposition we are aligned on a proper platform to succeed in every endeavor. We do not need to understand completely who he is. We do not need to be fixated on the eschatological knowledge of his being. All we need to do is acknowledge him first. I conclude with this piece of advice from the wisest man that ever lived:

Trust God from the bottom of your heart;

Don’t try to figure out everthing on your own.

Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go;

He’s the one who will keep you on track.

Don’t assume you know it all.

        Run to God!
                                                   {CLICK HERE to view more articles on God by the same author}

How to Locate God's Provision for You...

So Abraham called the name of that place The Lord Will Provide. And it is said to this day, On the mount of the Lord it will be provided.

Provision is key to achieving your goals. If you are to achieve the things you dream to achieve you need to find provision of the resources required to do it. 

     In considering this thought line I recall my teenage year’s addiction to the computer game, Super Mario. Three things will ensure you succeed in taking Super Mario to the end of each stage; the amount of life he has left, his degree of invisibility, and the weapons he has at his disposal. Mario does not have these things all through his adventure and you will have to get to certain stages of each level to get the provision of more life, invisibility, or better weapons. Whenever you have the three combined you feel super indeed until the time it wears out.

     As it is with Super Mario so it is with your success journey. If you would receive God’s provision you must be at the right place. This is important. If Mario does not arrive at the stage in the game level where he can get more life or weapons, he will receive no provision, irrespective of how much dire need he is in.

     On God’s instruction, Abraham set out on a strange journey that would redefine his entire life and that of the nation that would come after him. He followed instructions to a specific mountain of which he was told to make a big sacrifice. At the very moment that he was to strike his son, he heard a call that showed him the real sacrifice. Don’t you wonder what would have happened if he had gone to the wrong mountain?

      A similar thing happened to Elijah. In the heat of a famine he received this instruction: “Get out of here fast. Head east and hide out at the Kerith Ravine on the other side of the Jordan River. You can drink fresh water from the brook; I’ve ordered the ravens to feed you there.” It was important he followed all these instructions on location because there and there alone is the provision. 
      If you would receive provision you must be at the right place. 

Parable of the Blessing: THE GOALSETTER

I’ve got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward – to Jesus. I’m off and running, and I’m not turning back. So let’s keep focused on the goal, those of us who want everything God has for us. - Paul (the apostle)

Peter J. Daniels once wrote:

If you are uncertain, timid or vague,

If you are not sure which is the way,

If you are concerned what the future will bring,

If you are dissatisfied with any old thing.

Then you need to take hold of your life from this day,

And you must plan a far better way.

Its goals that you need to straighten you out,

To smooth out the paths and to get you about.

For goals set a sight that is clear and is bright,

And goals give you purpose to strive and to fight.

Your life is of value and the world is your home,

So stop now and think of where you should roam.

Just make a new start, to win and to claim,

A fresh firm new goal with a definite aim.

Then chase after your goal with desperate desire,

With passion and excellence, as if you were on fire.

Do not be timid or reluctant or slow,

Just move into top gear and let all systems go.

Goals direct a person’s life. Goals guide you and move you forward. To live without goals is to live aimlessly. All high achievers set goals again and again. Your goals should be believable to you, have a time frame, consistent to other aspects of your life, and easily broken down into smaller parts. 

Parable of the Blessing: THE BEGINNING

First he took my rights as the first born, and now he has stolen my blessing. Oh, haven’t you saved even one blessing for me? – Enoch (speaking of Jacob, his brother)

      So you could sing, you were a great writer, you dressed exceptionally, had the best looks, was educated in elite schools, was loved by the ladies and lots more. You seemed set to being the ideal person – the role model for your generation – and yet you wonder what happened that you didn’t amount to much.

This is not a far-fetched scenario. Several people – men and women alike – have fallen into this. They look back at their lives and realize they have not succeeded though they were the most-likely to succeed.

Potential does not always translate to productivity. In fact, potential in every area of life, more often than not, lead to poor productivity. This happens because of the laxity that accompanies overconfidence in potential. A lot is then taken for granted because it does not seem logical that you would “fail in every area”. This is easily and clearly evidenced in countries. There are more natural resources in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), for example, than the whole of Europe combined, but figures and estimates from the International Monetary Fund World Economic Outlook Database, April 2013, pins DRC as the poorest nation in the world.

At the end of the day it does not really matter how much potential you have. What matters is how much you can make of it. To convert your potential to productivity, some things must be in place. First, you must have vision. Nobody becomes what he does not see. You can only progress as far as you see.

Second, you must learn to set goals. Goals are to the human mind what the steering wheel is to a car. Goals guide you to a destination.

Third, you should develop a habit of planning and working with strategy. Goals are achieved by proper planning. Without a plan a goal becomes a wish.

Forth, you should learn to diversify. This is the proverbial not “putting all your eggs in one basket”. The law of chances states that, “you stand better chances of succeeding when you have more things working for you at the same time.”

Fifth, you have need for focus on the purpose, call, ministry, or vision. You must have your eyes set on the final (which was in fact the initial too) goal.

In the next few articles I will be expounding on these principles.

Aides to Destiny

A man found Joseph wandering around in the fields and asked him, “What are you looking for?” He replied, “I’m looking for my brothers. Can you tell me where they are grazing their flocks?” “They have moved from here,” the man answered. “I heard them say, ‘Let’s go to Dothan.’” So Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan.

I have heard a lot of people speak up hoarding information of their specialized knowledge for fear that their ideas would be stolen. Many have a tendency of making sure they do not tell you anything pertaining what they do because they want monopoly of supply.

In as much as this perspective may do some initial good, on the long run it robs the world of productivity. I am rarely, if ever, afraid of telling what I did to get what I have. I think it comes from a healthy self-estimation. To replicate the success of a person goes beyond mere imitation to the point that you actually become the person in question. Success is the person and not just an act. If this is true then total imitation is not possible.

When I am asked how I achieved success in an area I count it an opportunity to point a person to a direction that may help in his or her future. Folks often need direction and I hate it when I cannot help out.

Nobody becomes a success on his own. There are always people that point you in the direction of success. Sometimes they do not even know that that is what they are doing! Why don’t you be that person in another’s life? Why don’t you point someone towards his or her success?

       The idea behind the Butterfly Effect is that when a butterfly flaps its wings the effect is felt in distant galaxies. I think this speaks more to people – as we are so intricately connected to one another – than to butterflies. Our actions, even when we do not mean them to, affect people that we have no clue exist. Now imagine if you, like that nameless man in the wilderness, direct a wandering Joseph to his appointment of destiny. How much good would you have done to the future of the soon famine-stricken world and ultimately the purposes of God? 

Receiving Help from the Spirit of The Lord for Success

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor … - Jesus (the Christ)

When it is said in the Bible, “The Spirit of God fell upon …,” it normally is succeeded with immense – obviously unnatural – empowerment which leads to success in a venture. When the Spirit of the Lord fell upon Moses, he empowered seventy others to serve over Israel. When the He fell upon Samson, he conquered thousands. When the Spirit of the Lord fell upon the followers of Jesus, they preached and three thousand others joined them.

The Spirit of the Lord obviously will come upon every person who is willing but, there is a fixed (by this I mean immovable) condition. The condition is that there must be a prior, clearly understood and defined assignment. The Spirit of the Lord will not come upon a person that is going nowhere. It makes for reason that a person that has no need for power should not receive it. If you want to be empowered you must have identified a reason why you should receive that power.

How then do you identify a reason for empowerment? I would strongly suggest you search your heart for the burdens that lie therein. Since the Spirit of God is on a re-creational mission, then your burden will tend the path of correcting what is not perfect. There are enough burdens in our society to go round every folk who desires them. It may be the rot in the education sector, or the nonexistence of good drinking water for the masses, or the plague of drunkenness upon our young men. It does not matter what it is, what matters is that the burden points to the area you will receive the empowerment of the Spirit of the Lord.

May I note here that your burden, though may bring some, will not revolve round selfish (I mean this word in the best possible context) needs. Rather they will serve a need in society. Your burdens would be such as Jesus (the Christ) proclaimed, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor …”

Take it Easy, Success is a Process

I often pride myself with the story of the double promotions I got in my early education. Twice in a process that should take eight years I was taken a year ahead of my peers. It was to me a batch of great honour and in my mind imagine it been said of me, “Here is a lad who jumps the process.”

It may be desirable – indeed almost harmless – to see that your child can be intelligent enough for his teachers to recommend a double promotion (as that will mean you don’t pay the fee of three terms – or in my case six) but in your personal success journey you cannot jump the steps. The moment you get on your unique success path you discover, more sooner than later, that it is a process, which you cannot help but follow.

The problem is that in or world of speed – speed boats, speed trains, sports cars, and fast food – nobody wants a process. Processes are too slow for us. We seem to ask, “Why do I need to learn ‘A’ before I learn ‘A, B, C, D, to Z?’” We see very little sense in following processes that can be truncated.

God, though, is a God of processes. With God it is, more often than not, one step at a time. Isaiah (a prophet) says, “The LORD is going to teach you letter by letter, line by line, lesson by lesson”. Another way to put it is: “GOD will start over with the simple basics and address you in baby talk, one syllable at a time—“Da, da, da, da, blah, blah, blah, blah. That's a good little girl, that's a good little boy”. I conclude that God wants us into the process so he makes it slow enough for us to understand.

I once taught computer studies at a primary school and the way these minors establishes the fact that we were wired for processes. The moment you take the shortcut of jumping steps, you realize that it wasn’t a shortcut after all. You have to be patient and wait until they learn a step before you move on. God also teaches us that our success journeys are that way, carefully, patiently, one step at a time he waits for us to understand before he moves on to the next level. 

Goal Formulation: DEFINING PURPOSE

What have I done now? Is there not a cause? - David (In the battle with Goliath)

In the pursuit of any goal it is of utmost importance that you define clearly to yourself what the purpose of your goal is. Why do you want to achieve the goal? Is it to gain more relevance, or more money, or more skill? Is it to be the best in your field and leave a name for yourself or to push the work of God’s kingdom one mile further? I am not here to tell you if your purpose is right or wrong (when you define it you will tell that to yourself). What matters to me is that you define the purpose no matter what else you do.

Definition of purpose is one of the most important steps in goal achievement, the lack of which leads a thousand goals to the drains. This is so because you will be confronted with the question, “Why?” a thousand times over, and in different forms.

The young man David was confronted and rebuked by his brother while considering the unrealistic duel with the giant Goliath. Ordinarily this opposition should make David stop his enquiry but he asked: “What have I done now? Is there not a cause?” This was David’s energy source. It was his greatest motivating factor. He did not just feel like fighting a giant man-killing machine, he was acting based on the purpose that won’t leave him no matter how hard he tries.

People will confront you and show you splendid reasons why you should abandon ship. Situations will compel you and place your finger next to the “Abort Mission” button. Your parents, siblings, or even I may not believe in your cause. But if that goal is borne out of burden and you have sought God for direction, all you need to keep you on track is defining – in very clear terms – why you are doing  what you are doing and the sky will be but a starting point for you.

Goal Initiation Stage: SOLIDIFYING

It gives great fulfillment to see a goal come to pass. Humans are goals-seeking creatures. This is so because fulfilling goals gives us hope and leaves us with a sense of significance. The most difficult lives to live are those not motivated and directed by goals. The psychologist, Ernest Becker notes that, “What man really fears is not so much extinction, but extinction with insignificance.”

In this article I shall continue on the goal initiation stage.

COMMIT YOUR BURDENS TO GOD: When you identify areas that lay burdens upon your heart, do not make the mistake of running off into achieving goals. Goals are not simply to make people famous. They are primarily to correct things that have gone wrong. You need direction on how to carry this out. Pray to God to clarify what exactly you can do and to direct you on how to get going. In addition, you will easily notice that your goal expands beyond your logical ability. This means you can pray that God increases your strength and enlarges your capacity to accommodate your goal. “Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart,” remains true. If you acknowledge the Lord in all your ways he will “Direct your path.”

In addition, it is God that makes people. You cannot make yourself achieve a worthy goal. Peter learned this early on when Jesus told him, “Follow me and I will make you …” You need to be made. Fabricated. Branded.

KEEP YOUR GOAL TO YOURSELF: Many folks (yours sincerely once included) have the tendency to go raving about announcing their goals to just about anybody that gives an ear. We think doing this will make us get closer to it or commit us to accomplishing the goal but the opposite is true. When you go sharing your goal to just about everybody you stand a much higher chance of failing as opposed to when nobody knew about it. This is because many folks will show you reasons why your goal is ill-thought of and on the path of certain failure. In a bid to help, they help you abandon ship.

Also, when you indiscriminately tell people your goals and they wow at your ingenuity, your brain registers a feeling of accomplishment – the same as it would have if you in reality accomplish it. This way it rewards itself and you end up with a deflated momentum. Cake eaten (and what do they say about eating your cake?), pleasure gained, goal untouched. Preserve your precious goal by shutting your mouth.

Thought Line on Success

I know the thoughts i think toward you ... thoughts of good and not of evil. - God

I often pride myself with the following tagline: “I am a writer.” By this I mean I write or something like that). There were many times I make this statement and pray my audience don’t get bold enough to ask what I have written. A friend once told me, “Leinge, a writer writes.” Well that went a long way in sinking into my mind that he intended to say, “Leinge, you are not a writer!”

I have learned that public opinion is very important. It is just not as important as personal opinion. A songwriter said of Joseph, “Until his (Joseph’s) opinion of his future became a reality, God tested him.” Joseph’s family’s opinion was not near as important as his own and the opinion that God would have of him after he tests him. Successes listen to understand public opinion of them but they do not meditate on them until they become crippled by external opinions that have become internalized.

It is fun to say you are something. We hear, “I am an Engineer,” “I am a Pastor,” “I am great person (as though that were a goal),” daily, but the problem really comes to bear when we try to actually be “Engineers,” or “Pastors,” or “Great persons”. This is where the cliché, “Talk is cheap,” applies. Luke (M.D.) wrote a letter to his friend Theophilus, and he said, “I once wrote to you about the things Jesus began to do and to teach.” Notably, doing came before teaching because it is important, indeed more potent, to proclaim what you do.

Young folks should learn to begin small. My pastor, Chris Olamor, once said, “God never starts small things in a big way but rather starts big things in a small way.” How true! Zachariah (a prophet) once noted, “Do not look down on small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin, to see the plume line in [your] hand.” So you want to be an actor, or a singer or a movie director, or a writer, or a doctor? Begin! Start! Do something – anything – that etches you closer to your goal! It is far better to do it wrongly than not do it at all.

Finally when you get yourself to start something, do not stop. Keep at it. You will get tired – possibly as tired as I get posting daily in my blog – but do not stop. It is in stopping for a rest that you fail.

Limitless God

I took the liberty of checking out the meaning of the word LIMITATION in a mathematics dictionary (just for the fun of it) and they defined it as: “A number whose numerical difference from a mathematical function is arbitrarily small for all values of the independent variables that are sufficiently close to but not equal to given prescribed numbers or that are sufficiently large positively or negatively.” How infinitely confusing that is!

So I decided to check it in one that was written in English and it says: “Something that bounds, restrains, or confines”. Now that’s better.

We all have limits. We have boundaries in every relationship (or we should have boundaries), we are restrained in many areas because of our experiences, and we are confined to our gifts, strengths, talents and abilities.

It is OK to have limitations. I cannot do it all or be it all – neither should I bother trying to do it all or be it all. The trouble starts when I need help. Growing up as a child I believed that my father could do it all, be it all, and afford it all (I discovered not too long into growth that he certainly could not do the latter). Now, though what my young mind believed from the very beginning was never true, it was worth believing it. It was worth believing his “all-ability” and “all-sufficiency”. I needed to believe that because the person that provides for me and protects me and soothes my pain cannot be exactly like me.

As it was with me and my father so should it be with us and God. God, as a matter of emphasis, cannot be exactly like us. I wrote an initial article that says we are not limitless, and I have more and more reasons daily to believe we actually are very limited creations. Our five senses – sight, smell, touch, taste, hearing –, for example, serve as portals to our environments and at the same time serve as limitations. For, though I can see some things, I cannot see all things. Though I can hear some things, a zillion more sounds are beyond me. Considering this I am quick to resolve that I need help! I need to believe in an “all-ability”, ‘all-sufficiency”, all-perceptive” person. Who else to fits this description but God? As King David would write:

Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.

Whispers of God

Therefore when he ascended ... , he gave gifts to men. - Paul (The apostle)

Paul (the apostle) once noted: “For all creation, gazing eagerly as if with outstretched neck, is waiting and longing to see the manifestation of the sons of God. He was talking about us! He was saying that the world outside the church earnestly awaits our manifestation. So, it seems in the heart of God there is something we have to offer to the world that has left them in earnest expectation.

But, have you noticed that it seems we are not manifesting enough for the world to stop its expectation? Have you noticed that sometimes it seems we are the ones that await the manifestation of the world?

I think of it as a father that has taught his five year old child to perfectly recite a poem. He then boasts to his friends that his child can recite the poem without help from him. What do you expect? The friends will certainly ask for prove, in other words, the child should recite it in their presence. Then the father, to prove a point and save some pride, calls up the child and requests, “Recite the poem you learnt yesterday so your uncles can hear.” Now if the child stammers or stands looking awestruck and dumb, what do you think the father will think? Will he conclude the child does not know it? No! He is sure the child can recite it, the uncles are waiting for the child’s manifestation but the child is dumb! The father then begins to whisper, “Come on remember the tune? Remember the words? Remember the…”

As it is with such a situation so it is with us and the world. Our heavenly Father has given us all that is needed to manifest in the world and has gone ahead to boast to the world that we have all it takes to manifest but we stand dumb! So what does he do? He whispers to us hints so we can remember what it takes for us to manifest. And what are those things he whispers to us?

Talents and natural gifting: God whispers to us, “You have the talent to manifest son, you have it daughter- I gave it to you”. What are the talents and gifts you have? Are you tall? Are you short? Can you sing? Can you dance? Can you speak boldly? Can you do anything? “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”

Excellence

If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause and say, "Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well." - Martin Luther King (jnr)

 How much boast can you make about your works? Can you boldly speak about the works of your hands and demand they speak for themselves? Can you append your name on your work if you knew it would be placed side-by-side with the best in your field?

If you would be tremendously successful you must have a spirit of excellence. This spirit will give you the boast for your work anywhere in the world because it dots the “i’s” and crosses the “t’s”. Noah had this spirit and so we read of him that, “Noah did everything exactly as God commanded him.” To develop the spirit of excellence, consider the following:

Make every work a masterpiece. It is important you take every work you do as an extension of your life. People considering your works are not merely meeting a piece of work but are meeting you; what first impressions are you leaving?  If you have this in mind you will handle each task as a masterpiece work of art set with intent for the audience.

Develop skill. It is also important you develop skill in every detail of your works. The archaic definition of the word skill means to “make a difference”. In view of this, decide to make a difference in every area of your works. There is always something else you can do to improve your work. You do not need to do it the same way you have done it before neither do you have to do it the way others do it.

Learn from others. It is important to keep an ever- learning attitude in all you do. Don’t get to the point that you feel you know it all. If your heart is open there is always something you can learn from just about everyone.

Innovate. Innovation is the icing on creativity. It means to effect a change. Do not strive endlessly trying to do something nobody has done before. Simply change what has been, making it better.

Excellence is reserved for a select few – follow this and you will be one of them. 

Awaken Your Dreams!

Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me. – Joseph (the Prime Minister of Ancient Egypt)

There is a part I love in Disney’s Alice in Wonderland, and it is the point Alice tells of how she believes in six impossible things. "Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast,” she says. I like that statement because it summarizes the life of a dreamer.
The dreamer believes. He or she believes in some ideal that is non-existent at the moment – that is what makes it a dream! But what makes it interesting is the fact that many dreams dreamers believe in appear impossible.
Impossibility - this is what ensures that many sermons are not preached and many songs remain in song book and countless inventions remain in the mind and many ideas remain unheard of. It is the thought of impossibility that introduces fear in us and shuts our capacity to believe the dream-words we once boldly proclaimed. It is the attitude of impossibility that has left our multi-blessed continent centuries behind leading world economies.
The thought of impossibility must be killed! We must be like Martin Luther King (Jnr) who proclaimed in the face of grave impossibility that, “I have a dream…” Or like Eleanor Roosevelt who said, “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams,” Or reason like Walt Disney when he said, “No matter how your heart is grieving, if you keep on believing, the dreams that you wish will come true,” Or be like old Jacob and reawaken the dying dreams that once burned in our hearts, with the question, “What is this dream you had?”
Dreamers move the world. They are the Noah, who dreamed of a holy world, and the Abraham, who dreamed of a land that milk and honey flows, and the Moses, who dreamed of liberating a whole nation out of bondage of the most powerful authority of his time, and the Joseph, who dreamed of becoming a great man, and the Jesus, who dreamed of saving us all.
We cannot live without dreamers. Are you one? I conclude with an excerpt from Alice in Wonderland:

Door: Why it's simply impassible!

Alice: Why, don't you mean impossible?

Door: No, I do mean impassible. (chuckles) Nothing's impossible! 

Identifying God's Help in Your Success Jouney

Be strong. Take courage. Don't be intimidated. don't give... [it] a second thought, because GOD, your GOD, is striding ahead of you. He is right there with you. He won't let you down; he won't leave you. - Moses (The Prophet)

I read a story of an old man who lived by a river. In the rainy season the rains were heavy, and the river rose. The Police Chief came by in his jeep, and said to the old man, “The river is going to flood, and I want to evacuate you.”

The old man folded his arm confidently, “I have faith in God. God will take care of me.”

The Police Chief shook his head and drove off.

The river continued to rise. It lapped about the old man’s house, rising up to the entrance. The Police Chief came by in a canoe, and said, “The river is continuing to rise. I really need to evacuate you.”

The old man looked at the river which covered his steps and lapped across the entrance. He folded his arms. “I have faith in God. God will take care of me.”

The Police Chief shook his head and rowed away.

And the river inched higher. At last the old man was clinging to his roof. The Police Chief came by in a helicopter and hovered above the man. “I really must evacuate you. You’ll drown if I don’t.”

But the old man repeated, “I have faith in God. God will take care of me.”

Frustrated, the Police Chief left.

And the river rose even higher. And the old man drowned.

In heaven, he was very upset. He went to God and said, “Why did you do this to me? Why did you let me drown? I kept telling the Police Chief that I had faith in you, and that you will take care of me.”

God said, “You ninny! I sent you a jeep, and a canoe, and a helicopter!”

When we ask God for help, we can’t insist that help come in the way that we have decided. Some things to note about God’s help are:

1. They will come through people. Do not look far when seeking God’s help. He will lead people to you to help you accomplish your worthy goals. Do not isolate yourself from people because they are an extension of God’s hands.

2. They will not contradict the Bible. The help that will come to you will not stand against God’s word for ethical living. People that will offer immoral or unethical help are not an extension of God’s hands.

YOU: the Genius...

Give and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over… - Jesus (The Christ).

Have you wondered what makes some people geniuses in their chosen fields? They seem to know what to do to wow everybody that watches. They do what they do with such ease and precision that many find it difficult to believe they act only with their human abilities. Such people are found in virtually every field – sports, politics, clergy, - of human endeavor.

It is easy to fall to the thought that they are simply more talented than their peers and so their excellence but the truth is far from that. In every field, talent is never all it takes. It is one thing to be talented while it is a completely different thing to harness your talent to genius status.

The difference lies in a simple thought – the genius gives himself or herself to the field while the “normal” folk do not. Because the genius gives himself totally to field, the field gives back to him, hence the birth of genius.

To give yourself to a field may mean a thousand and one things but I will highlight three. First, you give yourself to a field by practice, practice and practice. There is no genius that has not invested thousands of hours to practice.  Many would-have-been geniuses are too lazy to invest their time and energy to such high demand for practice and so end up falling short.

Second, understand that many have trodden the path you are on right now. Get them to help you. You need guidance, counsel, mentorship. King Solomon once advised that, “…victory is won through many advisers.” Never think you can go it all alone and that advisers will lead you to ruin. There is something about having done something in the past that helps you see the pitfalls way ahead of any other person on the same path. Seek for and enjoy mentorship on your path to genius.

In addition, you need to – for lack of a better phrase - give room for instincts. There are things that practice or classes or the best mentorship won’t give you. They lie deep within you and only you can unleash it when it beckons. I am talking about those thoughts that flash in and out urging you to get out of convention. Harken to them and act immediately.

Self-Esteem VS God-Esteem

But Moses said to God, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" - Moses (the Prophet)

             

                 Have you ever felt charged up and motivated to get a venture going only to wake up the next morning and feel completely incapable? If you are like me you would have probably asked yourself if you sensed correctly the vision that you professed. You are not alone in this. Moses (that great prophet the split the Red Sea) asked, “Who am I, …?” Jeremiah said, “I am a child!” Gideon wondered if the Lord was with his nation, and Jacob confessed: “I am A Crook!”

            It is very human to feel insufficiently equipped to bring to reality the dreams and visions in our hearts. So the fact that you are in that shoe isn’t new at all.

            We feel this way when we look inward – our insufficient education, limited money, debatable beauty, obvious physical inabilities, and a host of other hindrances. We never seem to get to the point where we are ready to take the bull by its horns and conquer it.

            We will remain in limbo unless we look elsewhere for the strength to accomplish. We must look to God. It is in God that we find our true estimation. Forget self-esteem, try God-esteem! God does not deny our incapability; he knows them all too well and has appropriate responses to them. He said to Moses, “I will be with you,” to Jeremiah he said, “Do not say “I am only a child,”” to Gideon, “Go in the strength you have,” and to Jacob, “Your name will no longer be A Crook but A Prince…”

God's True estimation of YOU

            For analogy sake, imagine God as a mirror. Just like the mirror which reflects your outward image, God reflects who he esteems you to be. You can only estimate yourself correctly when you look at you through God’s eyes. Be like David who said of Goliath, “The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” It is only then that you will have assured success.