Setting Your Soul

What shall a man give in exchange for his soul? ­– Jesus

There is an unspoken thing that determines if a person will yield or refuse to yield to anything – good or bad, wrong or right. It is the setting of your soul, your hearts disposition. This determines to extents that cannot be estimated what happens to you. It determines how you react or respond to stimulus. It interrupts the cause and effect process and gives you the power to determine the direction of your life.

Let’s say the president of your country decides to lift the ban on imported leather. You will interpret his move based on the setting of your soul. If your soul is set on the need to empower the shoe making industry and creating employment you will celebrate it. If on the other hand you are a manufacturer of local leather I would suppose that your soul will be set on the opposite. We all see the world and every single thing that happens to us through the lens of our soul settings. These settings determine how we see ourselves, our environments, the world, and what we get out of our lives.

In the Museum of Tolerance, Los Angeles, there are two famous (infamous in some cases) doors. One is labeled, “PREJUDICED,” and the second, “UNPREJUDICED.” The second doesn’t open. The idea behind the two doors is to show that there is nothing called an “Unprejudiced Adult.” The museum designers recognize that we all have set our souls.  

The American writer and poet, Ella Wheeler Wilcox, summarizes my thought line well when she wrote:

One ship drives east and another drives west

With the selfsame winds that blow.

‘Tis the set of the sails,

And not the gales,

That tells us the way to go.

Like the winds of the sea are the ways of fate;

As we voyage along through life,

‘Tis the set of a soul

That decides its goal,

And not the calm, or the strife.

How have you set your soul?

Are You a Thinker or a Doer?

Thinker VS DOer

Faith by itself, if it does not have action, is dead. ­– James 2:17

 My brain loves the human brain. I mean, where will we be without it? Imagine a brainless head? Our brains ensure we think through every single step and action before we take it. It processes and analyses data fed to it at unbelievable speeds. More excitingly, it senses environments and can inform you to stand and fight or take flight when the need arises.

In your success journey your brain is very important. It is God’s gift to think and grow into success. Deep thinkers go into the recesses of the mind and draw out the solution to every challenge that they face. Thinking is a part of the success formula – a part.

The other part of it is DOing. Without doing, thinking is impotent. Thinking × Doing = Chance for Success. If either thinking or doing is zero, chance for success will certainly be zero. The higher the figures of both, the higher the chance for success in any venture.

Unfortunately a good percentage of great thinkers don’t act. They sit down, think, think, and produce no results. Have you met such? I bet you have. Isaac Newton’s first law of motion shows us that any object will remain in its state of rest or uniform motion until an external force is applied to it to either get it into motion or alter its direction and speed of motion

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In life your actions are the external force. Without them all situations will remain the same. It doesn’t matter how much you think about it, you will continue to fail, continue to stay poor, continue to stay unhealthy, continue to stay sad until – and only until – you take actions to alter the trend.

Never underestimate the power of your actions. Never say there’s nothing you can do. Take the right actions no matter how insignificant they seem. 

Knowledge Revolution

When you know better you do better. – Maya Angelou 

It is said that, “What is worth doing is worth doing well.” I really question this one-directional thought line. What happens when the folk in question does not know how to do the thing that is worth doing? His ignorance will not let him do it well.

There is probably nothing more incapacitating than ignorance. An uneducated mind is severely restricted by walls that can easily be broken. It is by far easier to exploit a man of his rights and worth if, in the first place, he does not know what those rights are!

In his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, the revolutionist, Nelson Mandela, wrote: “Education is the great engine of personal development. It is through education that the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor, that the son of a mineworker can become the head of the mine, that a child of farmworkers can become the president of a great nation. It is what we make out of what we have, not what we are given, that separates one person from another.”

If you would travel far and successfully on your success path, you must undergo a knowledge revolution. Your mind must be educated and liberated so it can live. How much do you know about your field? Have you increased in your knowledge in the past two weeks? What about the past month? Most advanced level graduates have never picked up a book within or outside their fields since they left school.

A knowledge revolution changes your outlook to the world. Gradually you will see things differently. Biases you have will be challenged. You will be pushed beyond your limits in every area. It will unlock you to endless possibilities that exist in the world around you and beyond.

A knowledge revolution begins by your acknowledging that you do not know it all. Greek philosopher, Socrates, said, “The only true knowledge is in knowing you know nothing.” When you have the “I-know-it-all” attitude you shut your mind from receiving further education. On the other hand when you know that there is still more to know, the window is opened for the fresh air of new knowledge to flow in.

In addition, revolutions are the children of specificity of purpose – focus (if you may). Zero-in on few specially selected areas and invest your time and resources on building your knowledge base therein. 

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.

Conviction...

He who stands for nothing will fall for anything. - Alexander Hamilton (Author)

I used to be a coward. Whenever someone challenges me over some things I may have done, I stammer and stutter through my answers. This leaves me with that sense you have when you have failed to defend yourself or the things you hold with high esteem. The lifespan of my happiness was as long as my prevailing ideologies face no challenge because the moment they are, I grapple without success in standing my ground.

In that state I lacked conviction. That firm belief. That strong opinion. That gut feeling you can stake even existence for. It is the reason for doing a thing that is sure to keep you at that thing no matter what comes your way to move you otherwise. It has been the driving force of all human civilization as far back as the birth of the history book.

A person without convictions is flesh without skeletal framework. When people do not stand on convictions firmly they get blown off to other paths at the whims of others. Every person you meet is a salesperson of an ideology. Everyone wants to pass on what he believes, understands, by whatever means is available- verbal or otherwise. If you do not have strong convictions, you really have no choice than to buy from one salesperson or the other.

The place for knowledge: knowledge is what conviction strives on. A strong conviction comes as information is fed into the heart. For conviction to be built into a structure that cannot be easily surmounted it has to begin with the seed of information in that thing and as it germinates, it has to be nurtured by way of information in that same thing. When you feed your mind with countering information, you set your baby-conviction up for certain death because, “if a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand”.

So buildup the information base of your conviction; feed it; fuel it; give it air- that is what all that have made impacts and enjoyed their days did.

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.

Knowing Where You Are Headed

We are all in journeys. It does not matter if you know it or not, or whether you accept it or not. What matters is that you are headed somewhere. The question then is, "Where are you headed?" 

Not many folks, though I reckon it simple, can answer that question. I say it is simple to answer because all you really need to check is your actions. The decisions you make and the things you do are a precise prophecy of where you are headed. The student that invests his or her most productive hours gaming rather than studying is prophesying failure already.

Nonetheless, it is not ideal to identify your destination only from your actions. I advice that you define your destination even before you turn-on the ignition. 

In normal circumstances, before anyone sets out on any journey they have an idea of where they are headed. As it is with journeys so should it be with our success. What exactly are you trying to achieve? Where exactly do you want to get to? Would you recognise it when you arrive there? Clearly define what your dream is. Many have vague dreams. You do not get anywhere with vagueness and ambiguity. You must be able to state categorically what you desire to achieve.

Set dream-fulfilling goals. Set goals that take you steps closer to living your dreams. Ensure that every goal you set and pursue is important to the final destination.

Take a step daily. Make sure you do something daily that takes you closer to your dream. It does not matter the size of what you do. What matters is that you do it. Because of my dream to be a best selling author, I post an article I my blog daily. It is very difficult for me and seems small compared to my dream but it is a step toward it.

No matter the storms and difficulties that come your way, never, never, never give up!

Who Do You Think You Are?

As a man thinks so is he... - A Proverb of Solomon

Whenever the question, "Who do you think you are?" is asked it is often connected with a bid to bring down or look down on someone. I have not seen several instances where the question is answered directly. Rather, it is given a sharp response of “Who then do you too think you are?” Of a truth this question can easily be described as rude but then let us really analyze it.

Who do you think you are? Your answer, howbeit nonverbal, is very important to how and when you succeed. This is so because what you think of you will define your life. A person is what he or she thinks about most of the time.

So, who do you think you are?

The answer to that is in as many variants as there are people on earth. Some think they are ugly others think they are beautiful. Some think their lives are not worth living others think there can’t be a better time to live. Some think they are meant to live poor, sick and sorry lives others think they should be rich, healthy and hyper-excited.

It is interesting that people produce the very results they think often about. I sometimes point this out to my students by bringing out the top three in the class and ask them if they ever think they may drop below the first five positions in class and in all occasions the answer is the same – “never!” They remain tops because they, first of all, think they should be tops.

You must change your thoughts to fit where you claim you will attain. Without changing our thoughts we cannot change anything else. Santosh Kalwar (a poet) once said, “We are addicted to our thoughts, we cannot change anything if we cannot change our thinking.”