Immobile Progress

“I am a slow walker but I never walk back.” – Abraham Lincoln (US President)

It is possible for me to sometimes get obsessed with making progress. It may come from a sincere desire to make life better for me and my family members or it may come from a competitive disposition when I compare myself with others. Irrespective of what motivates me, what I really want is to make progress.

Progress is sweet. It is good to see that the steps I am taking toward my goals are bringing fruits. Unfortunately there are times when it seems as if my progress has stopped. It suddenly seems that I have hit a brick wall in my success journey. It is true – but rather simplistic – for me to console myself with: “It is all part of the success journey,” until I realized a liberating concept that I am about to share with you.

I believe that the two most important parameters to anyone’s success is whether the person is on the right path and whether the person is taking the right steps at the right time. For as long as these two are satisfied, success is assured irrespective of mobility. By this I mean that the fact that you are not moving is not a prove that you are not making progress.

If, for example, you are in journey to a place and you are suddenly stalled to a spot for two hours by a traffic jam. You get annoyed and curse the cause of the impasse but you do not conclude that you have failed in your journey. You don’t do this because you know that you are on the right path and in a matter of time you will get to your destination. Also, you realize that every minute that passes by you edge closer to moving forward than you were a minute before. This means you have made progress (with respect to time) even though you have not left the spot.

This concept is the same with your success journey. 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.
                          {For Articles on Progress Click Here}

If you understand this you will cut yourself some slack because you are simply making immobile progress. 

Are You Making Progress in a Rat Race?

“You are the part of rat race because you are letting them treat you like a rat. This is the modern definition of a slave.” – Saurabh Sharma (Author)

Have you been in a situation where you get tired every other day and yet wonder if the energy you exert daily is worth the effort? Does it seem to you sometimes that you are taking two steps forward and three backward? Wake up! You may be in a rat race.

I remember once watching a film that had a scene in a science laboratory. It had in it a rat that continually ran earnestly in a spinning circle. It was obvious that the rat was exerting a lot of energy and was “thinking” that by running fast enough it was making progress in getting away from his captors. Little did it know that it was caught up in a vicious cycle.

Many of us are like that rat (no insult intended). We are caught up in a race and we have been exerting all our energies, creative abilities, finances, and intent in winning. Little do we know that the fact that we are running does not mean we are progressing.

A rat race is put upon us by a system. In this system things have a pattern in which they must operate. We are simply a part of this pattern and nothing more. We are expected to do the same things over and over until “expertise” is attained. At this point we are either promoted or paid higher for our “contributions”. Little do we know that the promotion or pay increase is not different from a bigger spinning circle given to a laboratory rat.

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.

Rat races cut across education, occupation and career, religion, and relationships. I have been in them, in fact, I still know some that I am in at the moment. But I do not desire to remain in them. I often evaluate my actions and ask myself in every aspect of my life if I am caught up in a rat race. What I want to see is progress in every area – all cylinders firing.

I suggest you ask yourself if you are in a rat race or a progress race. 

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. 

Idle Hands

And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing idle, and said to them, Why do you stand here all day idle? - Jesus (The Christ).

Picture From Idle Traveller

Unemployment is an ailment eating deep into my generation. In many African countries the figures are staggering, often reaching unimaginable points like 80% of all youths. For a long time it was seen as a problem of the “developing world” and though we still top the chats, several countries in Europe are fast approaching.

It is common to get the answer, “I am doing nothing”, to the question, “What are you doing now?” from young folks. It is this response that disturbs me. While governments are truly responsible for creating enabling environments for young workers, it does not excuse idleness. I believe that unemployment is a mirage. It only exists in your experience if you permit it to. If you choose to you can take yourself out of that group. All you need to do is occupy yourself with worthy work. It is said that, “The idle mind is the devils workshop”. This is so because the idle mind assuredly conjures up mischievous deeds.

This need not be so. Our young minds do not have to submit to idleness. At every point in time you can occupy yourself with a new skill. There are numerous artisans that will permit you to understudy them if you would offer voluntary service. What is wrong in learning to cook, or bake, or sew, or farm? You give them your time and strength and they give you a new skill that you could use in life.

Devote yourself to continuous learning. Never get to the point that you stop learning. When you do not learn you do not grow. So, read, listen to professionals, do cheap research, improve yourself. Take advantage of this period of your life to become a better person.

Take your focus away from monetary rewards. Money has become a big problem to the young generation. Our eyes seem fixed on becoming wealthy in an hour. Process is now a forgotten word in success dictionary but this should not be so. It is said that, “He that is in a haste to get rich will not be considered innocent”. 

IGNORANCE - The Success Killer!

     If you think education is expensive, try ignorance. - Derek Bok (Former President of Harvard University)

     To know or not to know. It is amazing the number of ignorant people in our society. Large segment of the population do not know and funny do not know that they do not know. It almost seems like they feel ignorance is bliss and if that is the case they certainly are hanging on error. Have you heard it said that what you do not know cannot hurt you? Well there isn't a bigger lie than that! Indeed, what you do not know can kill you!
     My work colleague died some time back because she used medication that killed a baby in her. You see, she was pregnant but neither she nor her husband knew about it so she used strong malaria medication to counter to the morning sickness she felt. Ignorance is a killer, a certain killer.
     But for me I do not think ignorance is the biggest problem. The bigger problem is the lack of desire to learn. An ignorant man with the desire to learn is a patient with a properly diagnosed sickness. All he needs is right medication to be well. A majority of young folks have a lackadaisical attitude toward learning. Look around you and you will realize that it is certainly true.
     If you would succeed in life you must be able and willing to learn.
     Interestingly, it is easy to learn. Never in human history has information, which leads to knowledge, been more readily available than today. Researchers and authors willingly share loads of information on every area of development. Plunge into this sea of information and improve yourself. Read books. Take positive advantage of the internet. The information you receive will bring knowledge to you and the knowledge will transform you into another being.
     When you begin your learning journey you will realize that some of the things you thought you knew were an illusion and that you did not know as much as you thought you did. Hence, you will unlearn and begin to properly relearn. Martin Luther King (Jnr) once said, "Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." Decide today not to be sincerely ignorant nor conscientiously stupid.

Was it Meant to Happen?

Some things are meant to happen - it just

takes us a couple of tries to get there. - J. R. Ward (Author)

“Seeing we have not gone far, let’s call-in the motor park for a replacement,” I suggested to other passengers after our taxi slated for a three-hour journey broke down after nine minutes.

“There is no need we do that,” they unanimously responded. “It is just a minor fault, and who knows, it was probably meant to happen”. I could have disputed their theory but I felt there was no need so I stayed silent.

One hour down we started out again.

Two hours into our journey, in the very middle of ‘no-man’s-land’, the car made a sharp sound and stopped. This time it obviously was a more serious problem for the car made no sign at all of starting. “I told you all!” my heart kept screaming with my mouth shut. I wondered if the passengers would have said it was a minor fault that was “meant to happen” if we were aboard a plane and not a car. I did not blame them much though - they live by fate.

It is a futile thing to rely on fate. Many people make clumsy decisions, take the actions accompanying those decisions and when the result of their poor decision-making and actions come out, they attest it to fate. How can a driver who decided not to put on a seat belt while driving say after an accident, “I was meant to hit my chest on the steering wheel and develop a complication”? It is absurd! However, many who rely on fate are doing just that.

People run to fate because it gives them a loophole to be irresponsible. They cannot be held responsible for whatever happened or is happening because the buck doesn't stop with them. “It was destined” or a better one is “God made it happen”. Have you heard such clichés before?

Take the driver's seat of your life - we are called to live by faith and not by fate! None who depends on fate has faith. Nothing just happens because “it was meant to happen”. God set nature to respond in a way that a prior happening causes everything that happens - a cause and then an effect. As long as we ignore faith and hang instead on fate, life will give to us whatever it chooses. If we instead take up the responsibility of the things that happen in our lives, we can then begin to change for the better whatever we do not like in our lives.

Do not fall to pieces!

When the going gets rough, take it on the chin with the rest of us… - Paul (The apostle)

Our society is ranked with people that we have judged too early in their success journeys. For a lot of people we take a glance at their present states and conclude that they have utterly failed probably because they are not yet in our perceived state of success. Because of this societal perception for success, there is often a tendency, especially for the young, to cringe away from anything that has the similitude of hardship. Rather, the young want to “make it” NOW!

                 This will not help any generation. People of substance are made with the processing of time and experience and not at an instant. To be made a person of substance you, like gold, will have to endure the heat of the furnace of life. When you step out of that furnace you will glow for all to see. People love the gold-like person but hate the furnace that purifies to this state.

                Your endurance of tough times shows your discipline because it takes discipline to stay in the heat of the furnace of life and not jump out to some comfort zone of yours. Only the disciplined get to see the vision in their hearts. If you lack discipline you risk aborting the dream your heart has so far incubated.

                 Enduring hard times shows the stuff you are made of. When you squeeze a fruit, its juice oozes out because that is what it was made of. Pressure exposes us. “If you fall to pieces in a crisis, there wasn't much to you in the first place”, (Proverbs 24:10).

But should in case you intend going all the way, I have ONE recipe. Keep your eyes on the ultimate end. King Solomon reasoned, “Endings are better than beginnings. Sticking to it is better than standing out.” You will not be able to endure to the end unless you see the end. If you see in your mind’s eye the grandeur that comes with completing the journey, you will remain in the furnace.

The Strong Achiever

In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invisible summer. – Albert Camus (French Author)   

     It is said that a chain is as strong as its weakest link. This is not just true with chains but with our lives. We are all as strong as the points that we are weakest in. The importance of developing strength in every area of our lives cannot be overstated. Our strengths determine to large extents who we become, what we achieve, and even the type of legacy we leave behind.

     The extent of strength you develop in any area of your life gives you competitive advantage in that area. A popular advice says, “If you do not have competitive advantage, don’t compete”. This means if you do not have strength in an area stay away from competing in that area. So, if you really want to take the spoils in any area, develop some strength in that area.

     The test for how much strength you have is in what happens to you when difficulties come your way – and they will. Sometimes we smartly do nothing when we are faced with troubles in some areas of our lives but that, though it was intended to, does not show strength but weakness. It shows a limit to how much strength we have.

     If you desire to build strength in areas of your life, I would suggest building yourself in three dimensions:

     Dimension I: Build your knowledge. The fighter who knows his opponent well enough has gone a long way already in the bout even before it begins. The less he knows about his opponent the less he can face the opponent when the bout begins.

     Dimension II: You will need to build your “more capacity” – more speed, more accuracy, more balance and self-control. Build your capacity to carry out more thereby making yourself more efficient. More efficiency will mean you use less time and less effort in achieving great results.

     Dimension III: Finally you must be flexible. Be flexible to change, be versatile to different roles and responsibilities. Many people are very rigid and their rigidity undermines their strengths. If you will survive you must be like Bamboo trees, ever bending but never breaking. You cannot achieve this dimension of strength unless you are flexible to the harsh things that will come your way.

The Swift Achiever

I’m so fast that last night I turned off the light switch in my hotel room and was in bed before the room was dark. – Mohammad Ali

   I have had opportunities in life that I missed out of because I was not swift enough. I am pretty sure that you will not think too far to identify such occurrences in your life also. In relationships, business, and vocations – they cut across every area of our lives – our lack of swiftness costs us more than we bargained for.

   In my desire for extra knowledge I love to read about and watch documentaries on eagles. From some of the things I have learned them I have picked some points to highlight in this discourse. The eagle is such an excellent hunter because of three things – sight, flight, and grip. It is of these characters I would write on.

  To be swift in any area of your life you must have an excellent sight. By this you will be able to identify opportunities from afar off. Eagles can see prey from over a kilometer – now that’s sight! Sometimes opportunities stare at us right at the face yet we do not recognize them. You must be able to distinguish an opportunity from that which isn't from a great deal distance. This is the very first step to swiftness.

   Also, you must have the capacity to plunge-in for the opportunity as fast as possible. This will require a fair deal of effort and practice and time. It takes time to become fully familiar with your flight accessories and to use them to the optimum. Your flight accessories are your talents, abilities, education and skill. You use them to nose-dive toward your prey.

  So, you have identified a great opportunity, you have plunged toward it and now it is just by you, what next? You must be able to take it and maintain a firm grip on it. Sometimes we lose opportunities either because they simply slip out or our grip was, in the first place, a weak one. It is one thing to take up and opportunity and a completely different thing to hold on firmly to it.

  With these you will be well on your way to eagle-like achievements!

If you don't fight you will DIE!

When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say. "I used everything you gave me." – Erma Bombeck (American humorist).

More often than not we sit back and watch our lives fizzle away. We recoil and let life happen to us. In our bid to abstain from trouble we abstain from living. So, in effect, we become the walking dead – we have life in us but are not truly living life.

This is partly so because of how we have been raised. Our inner programming says, “If life does not give it to me then I can’t have it.” This mentality is a warped one because life responds to the demands you place on it. If you demand big you receive big if you demand nothing you receive same.

There are three ways you can fight back for your life:

Flee the comfort zone. We all have comfort zones. This zone is that which you are most comfortable in. You normally resist anything or anyone that seeks to push you out of this zone but it is this same zone that will kill you! If you remain in this zone you will not grow any better than you are. Get out of that zone today!

Dream big and pursue your dreams. Many fail to dream. They have concluded that weaklings dream – a sorry thought. In truth if your life will take any reasonable shape you must dare to dream and dare to pursue your dreams no matter the odds.

Live for others. Albert Einstein notably said. “Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.” I must get to the point that life isn't only about me, I, and myself and so should you. Learn to think others into your life. This means that you should live to make others happy and to bring fulfillment to them.

Finally, declare again and again to yourself that you are a HUMAN BEING and you have dignity! You deserve to live life to the fullest… and you shall.

All BIG things start small

Our vineyards are in blossom; we must catch the little foxes that destroy the vineyards. Songs of Solomon 2:15 

    The names Bill Gates, Aliko Dangote, Barack Obama, Tiger Woods, and many others represent people that are perceived as being at the peak of their fields. They are the “BIG boys” in what they do. The media hype, the splendor and pomp that accompany the status leaves many young folks with an unsatisfied crave to be “BIG!”

       There is nothing wrong with being BIG. I reckon that it is natural to desire growth. When I was a child I craved adulthood at every moment. I wanted to eat whatever I wanted when I wanted, sleep when I felt like, talk to whomever I desired, and much more. In effect, I wanted to be all I felt I should be.

     As time went by, I grew to observe that NO-thing I did made me BIG. I didn't become BIG by thinking I was, I didn't become BIG by acting as though I were, I didn't become BIG even when I said I was!

      Gradually, I forgot about being BIG and now I am!

      Thinking back, I cannot recall any day that I actually saw myself grow. I now know that I had nothing to do with the growth process – nature simply took its course.

     As it was with my growth, and undoubtedly yours also, so it is with attaining that BIG boy status in your mind.

    Many young people make the various mistakes there are to make in trying to become BIG when all they needed to do was allow nature take its course.

 ...a person who wants to get quick riches will get into trouble. Proverbs 28:20.

     This is the course of nature: All BIG things start small.

     This also mean BIG businesses, BIG nations, BIG sportsmen and women, BIG singers and musicians – they all start small and grow big.

     Nothing is born BIG!

    This is an open secret of success. Do not let the splendor trap your heart. Do not let the over-bloated tales of the media ensnare you. Choose a worthy path for your life, enjoy beginning small in that path, work at growing daily, give both it and you time, and you SHALL grow BIG. Nature takes its course on all things… and that includes you!

Grow Through Change

I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound. - Paul (The apostle)

It is said that the only constant thing about life is change and when you think about it you will realize it is true. You do not need to do anything for change to occur. The moment a child is conceived the mother takes the right foods and does the right exercises but other than that she does nothing to the child to make it change state. When a river decides not to move, it may not change position but it sure does change in state- it becomes stale!

Consider these words: “Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert”, (Isaiah 43:18-19). He begins by saying we should not remember the things of the past so no more saying, “the good old days”! He is saying “get ready! Something new is about to happen! Change is about to take place!

    Change will happen: Change is the only constant thing about life. You do not need to believe it will happen to you for it to happen.

           Anticipate change: beyond knowing that change will happen you also need to anticipate its occurrence. In every aspect of your life expect change. Be on the look for it.

        Adapt to change: when things happen, learn to adapt to the new   conditions as fast as possible. This is your only lifeline for surviving change. In the theory of evolution Darwin observed, and rightly so, that it is not necessarily the strongest or smartest of creatures that survive the changes in their environments but the ones that know how to adapt fastest to it. For many great creatures their lack of adaptation has meant extinction. The apostle, Paul, stated of himself, “I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me, (Philippians 4:12-13). What do you think he was talking about?

CHANGE IS THE ONLY CONSTANT THING IN LIFE!