If you find a society where there are good leaders, it must be a society that pays attention to reading. Readers are leaders. If you don’t read you cannot be informed. An uninformed mind is more dangerous than an unformed mind. A baby has an unformed mind. An uninformed mind is a formed mind empty of knowledge. He is susceptible to errors, and an easy object of manipulation by the informed mind. One of the main reasons people choose wrong leaders during election is because they are uninformed. They follow the dictates of others.
“If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson. You are a reflection of what you know. What you know is a function of your knowledge. Knowledge is acquired through learning and experiencing. The easiest of the two is learning, and one easy way to learn is by reading. Experiencing oftentimes is of more benefit to others than to the person having the experience, but reading benefits you directly.
The saying ‘Readers are leaders’ is not just a cliché. It is an enduring truth. Reading exposes you. Good books open up your mind and gives you edge above others in whatever subject you read on. They make you experience several lives while you are reading. ‘A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading.’ (William Styron). It shouldn’t come as a surprise if the depth and content of your speech or conversation leaves your audience speechless. Such brilliant and articulate speech delivery, whether prepared or ad libbed only comes from consistent reading.
There is a lot of things you can easily learn by reading. Reading actually gives you the opportunity to understand the workings of the minds of the writers. So if you want to be a President, read books written by and about Presidents. Whatever you want to become in life, find books on those who have already achieved it.
In reading however, be careful with your choice of books. You can easily be initiated into some dangerous cults or habits by reading certain books. So read books on science, art, Finance, self help, autobiographies and biographies of great people. The Bible is arguably the greatest book because it is life manual. It teaches you how to live.
If you travel with great people, you will observe that while others are sleeping or chatting, most of the time they are reading and taking notes. So if you want to be Distinguished in life, you must make reading a chronic habit.
God bless us all.
Good morning Africa!
Good morning Nigeria!
Test Every Relationship
Many have been sent to early graves because they entrusted their lives in relationships they did not test. Many visions have been stolen and hijacked by unfaithful friends, associates and partners. Many have been ruined financially due to undue trust in others. There are so many Delilahs and Judases out there today, so before you start trusting, test the trust.
Don’t be in a hurry to start sharing your life’s secrets with someone you hardly know because he has an angelic look. Don’t reveal your trade secret to someone who has not earned your trust. Don’t commit your resources into the hands of an untested workers. Even God does not commit resources into the hands of untested fellows.
Subject that relationship to the test of prayer, time, small assignments, and your gut feeling. Pray about the relationship before you go deeper. Allow good time to pass before taking the relationship to another level. Don’t be ruled by your emotion. Keep your senses alert. The signs are usually there, we just ignore them. Start with small resources and test their integrity and sense of responsibility. If they are not faithful in little, they can’t be faithful in much. Follow your spirit or gut feeling or your sixth sense. It is rarely wrong.
Summarily, don’t be in a hurry to speed up any relationship, subject it to all kinds of test.
God bless us all.
Good morning Africa!
Good morning Nigeria!
Lead the Change
You are either an agent of change or an agent in chain. You are either leading or being led. There is no middle ground or fence in this matter. It is either you are influencing things or you are being influenced. You can also be an agent of change positively or negatively. Life is a reflection of these two agents (change and chain). The more of agents of positive change we have, the better our world. Likewise, the more of agents of negative change we have the poorer our world will be.
Now, what impact do the agents in chain have on our world? They help to maintain the status quo. If we have more of negative agents in chain, it is because there are more negative agents of change, and the effect on our life is continuity of negative situations, and vice versa. If we then desire for a better world, then we must become agents of positive change. Those in our circle of influence becomes our agents in chain.
As we are all eagerly hoping to see positive change in our land, it is important to know that the change starts with us. Be the Change. Lead the Change. Don’t wait for the government. Start in your own home and neighborhood. Stop littering the environment. Stop jumping queue. Maintain orderliness. Drive carefully and respect other road users. Help the needy. Be the voice for the helpless. Get involved in a volunteer service. Preach Peace. Stop the message of hatred, discord and war. Stop abusing your office and position. Stop appropriating public resources for your private use. Let the Change begin with you.
Your actions can influence the actions of others. Choose positive actions. Be a positive change agent.
God bless us all.
Good morning Africa!
Good morning Nigeria!
Your Worst Enemy
One of the harmful beliefs we grew up with, especially in Africa, is the existence of witches and wizards, and the great harm they can do to us. Our parents in their bid to protect us often went to the extreme to seek protection for us against witches and wizards. And we can’t blame them, they were also fed with the same belief, more so at a time when knowledge was extremely low. We were made to believe that our worst enemies are witches and wizards. So even in our prayers, we spend more time praying against witches and wizards. When Jesus taught his disciples how to pray, not one mention was given to witches or wizards, so get your focus right in prayer.
Do they exist? Yes they do. Do they have power to harm you? Yes, but only to the extent to which you allow them. The truth is that no witch or wizard can conquer the man who has conquered himself. There is no greater enemy to yourself than yourself. If only we can spend half the time spent on praying and seeking protection from them on working on ourselves, we will be closer to the persons God destined us to be. We attribute most failures in life to the work of witches or wizards, while in truth, we are responsible for most of these failures.
We fail because we are indisciplined. We don’t manage our time well. We are lazy. We procrastinate. We don’t plan or plan poorly. We don’t take care of our health and we expect to be healthy. We are not mindful of what we eat and we complain that the resultant ailment is the work of a witch! No, you are responsible! If you focus on overcoming your weaknesses, your journey to success is half covered. A man’s enemies are those of his household. Micah 7:6. Your household refers to your body and self. If you deal with those habits, you will find solutions to your problems.
It is time for us to take responsibility for our destinies. God has invested so much in the African race, but these wrong beliefs have held us down for long. It is time to break loose and deal with our weaknesses. We can be great. Conquer within and no external force will be able to conquer you. Without an opening, a lizard cannot find abode inside the wall. Block the holes in your life. Either as individuals or a race, we are the Architects of most of our woes. The witches and wizards are only as powerful as you make them be. Stop idolizing them. Focus on the enemies within (yourself), that is your worst enemy. You are more than conqueror.
God bless us all.
Good morning Africa!
Good morning Nigeria!
You Can Make It
As I sat last night listening and watching dignitaries and ordinary people alike from different races, religion and creeds, making glowing tributes, eulogies, and farewell speeches about Muhammad Ali (the greatest) at his home-going ceremony, I couldn’t help crying and wishing he could hear all that was being said. I picked a few lessons from this farewell ceremony. Here are some :
Ali was from rural Kentucky, a heavily segregated part of America. He grew up in the midst of prejudice and racism. Yet he loved both black and white. He never acted out his experience in the hands of racist on anyone. He just loved humanity. Don’t let past abuses, sufferings and persecutions color your sense of love and respect for people. Forgive, Forget and Forbear.
Ali hated injustice and he fought injustice. He was asked to join the US army to fight in Vietnam. He objected saying it should be his choice, and he cannot go to fight innocent people when his people were suffering at home. His defiance of the State caused him to lose all his prized possessions, including his titles and boxing license in 1967. He was banned from the Rings and remained so for three years. This did not kill him. It only strengthened him to fight injustice the more as he used this period to make speeches while also appealing his conviction. Nothing can kill you, unless you allow it.
Ali was bold, often referred to as being brash. His sojourn into boxing started with the loss of his bicycle. He told Joe Martin (the white policeman he reported to about his stolen bicycle), that he wanted to beat up the thief who stole his bicycle. Joe Martin advised him to learn how to fight before challenging people and thus began his boxing lesson at the age of 12. Joe turned out to be his first trainer. You need boldness in life to succeed.
Ali knew and used the power of positive words to the best of his advantage. He kept singing it to the world ‘I am the greatest’ and truly he attained such greatness that remains unmatched both in and out of the Rings, even Parkinson couldn’t deny Ali of that greatness. What do you tell yourself everyday? Ali was indeed an apostle of positive confession. He confessed himself into greatness.
Ali never allowed defeat to knock him out. He suffered defeat in the hands of Larry Holmes, Joe Fraser, Michael Spinks and others. After each defeat, Ali would immediately go back to the gym and immersed himself in Training. He held the world title three times through his tenacity. He never gave up on himself, even after he was diagnosed of Parkinson disease in 1984. Ali didn’t commit suicide unlike most celebrities, as the disease took control of his body. He was in control of his mind and took to social activism, peace making and philanthropic engagements. Even Parkinson couldn’t defeat Ali, as he lived with it for 32years! So what is your excuse?
Ali was full of endurance. He had the reputation of tiring out his opponent. He could fight on for the entire 15 rounds in a boxing bout. Friend, develop your strength and stamina. Life will knock you down if you don’t have stamina.
I could go on and on. Ali made me love boxing and it remains my number one sport. He brought a lot of charisma and energy into the boxing ring. His popular words ‘float like a butterfly and sting like a bee’, became a terror to his opponents. Ali was great indeed. Death can’t deny him of his greatness, for even in death, his greatness still speaks.
Ali’s life is a challenge to all of us. Regardless of your background, color or race, you can be great. Especially for the black race, we can rise above every primordial sentiments and excuses and achieve the greatness God has destined for us. It is time to stop the senseless bickering and power struggles. It is time to amaze the world with our gifts and talents. Nothing can stop us except we allow it. May his soul rest in peace.
God bless us all.
Good morning Africa!
Good morning Nigeria!
Appreciate Your Own Glory
There is the Glory of the Sun, there is the Glory of the Moon, and there is the Glory of the Stars. These are all different Glories, yet they are all Glories. The Moon cannot perform the work of the Sun. The grace of the Moon is to provide light at night and would lose its importance or relevance during the day. Likewise the Sun, it will be an anomaly for the Sun to come out at night. It will hurt nature. The moon cannot provide the kind of illumination the stars provide at night. They are beautiful in their splendor. None is greater than the other, but they each function most in their time and space.
You have your own Glory too. You have your grace. God gives us grace as He wills and according to our different abilities, so there is no need to envy the Glory or Grace of another. You don’t need to struggle with another person to shine. You will shine in your own space. The Sun doesn’t struggle to shine. It rises gracefully everyday and there is no contention over its effectiveness. Once you find your space, you begin to function with ease and great effectiveness. Your Space is where your grace flows with ease. Your Space is your Calling. Find it.
Therefore, instead of envying the Glory of others, appreciate your own grace and build up on your grace. Sooner than later, your Glory will be seen by all. There is no one created without grace. The problem is we function out of our grace. Who is poor? He is poor who is ignorant of his Grace or who fails to utilize his Grace. May you find your Grace.
God bless us all.
Good morning Africa!
Good morning Nigeria!
The Choice is Yours
You are the major determinant of what you will become in life. Whether you are from a rich or poor background, whether you have strong or weak support, whether you are educated or not, the choice of who you become is yours. You have that veto power to decide who you will become in life. It is not your circumstance, condition, situation, location, but your choice that determines your destination. There is a lion in each one of us, but it requires a decision backed up with action to rouse that lion.
It is not what happens to you that determines who you will be, it is what happens in you. As a man thinks, so he is. If you choose to be great, you will be great. If you choose to be poor, you will be just that. The power to shape our lives has been vested in us by the Almighty. He commanded us to be fruitful, multiply, replenish, subdue and have dominion. He is not unaware of debilitating factors that we will encounter, but He has given us an inherent power to overcome every limitation through the power of our choice.
If you are nowhere near your desired goal today, it is because you have chosen to believe all the excuses that you have allowed to hinder you. Nothing can limit a determined person except God, and He won’t limit you in your pursuit of greatness. In the Biblical tower of Babel, God made a heavy statement in Gen. 11:6, ‘… behold the people is one, and they have all one language ; and this they begin to do, and now nothing shall be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.’ Powerful statement! In other words, you alone can hinder yourself by your choice and of your choice.
Charlotte Bronte (author of Jane Eyre) said, ‘I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.’ Nothing can ensnare a man who has decided to be great. Nothing can hurt a man who knows where he is going. ‘You don’t get to choose if you get hurt in this world…but you do have some say in who hurts you. I like my choices.’ – John Green
Your greatest limitation is you. You can be your own best friend or your worst enemy! The Choice is really Yours!
God bless us all.
Good morning Africa!
Good morning Nigeria!
Who Are You Impacting?
Life is a gift and it is given for a purpose. You are given the gift of life to impact another life. If all you are living for is to acquire wealth and compete with the Joneses, then you are wasting away life. If all you are striving for is to be comfortable in life without making another person comfortable, then you are not fulfilling the purpose of life.
You need to understand that your life is beyond you. There are destinies attached to your destiny. There are people whose lives can be made better by your words, deeds, ideas and establishments. The greatness of a man is not in his wealth but in the number of lives he is able to touch. Great people focus on impacting lives, while small people focus on enjoying life.
As the world mourns Mohammed Ali (regarded as the greatest), maybe you are wondering why everyone, regardless of race or creed or religion, is talking about Ali. It is because beyond the fame of boxing Ali touched lives. He stood for the blacks. He was a social activist. He spent his life for a purpose outside the ring. What will be said about you when you die? How many people will do everything to be by your graveside when you are gone?
Are you touching lives or just enjoying life? Who are you impacting? Jesus said in Luke 4:18, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” Herein lies the purpose of every man and it doesn’t have to be on the pulpit.
So, who are you impacting?
God bless us all.
Good morning Africa!
Good morning Nigeria!
RIP Mohammed Ali
RIP Stephen Keshi
Who Are Your Friends?
You become like those you associate with. A sheep that walks with the dog will eventually eat dungs. Your life is a reflection of two things, your thoughts and your friends or associates. You are a median of the group of friends you keep. If you keep intelligent people as friends, you will be intelligent. If you keep riff-raffs as friends, you can’t be better than a riff-raff. Don’t be deceived, your friends make you. Even if you are from a noble background, you can lose your nobility by the type of associations you keep. “A king’s son is no nobler than his company.” – Gaelic Proverb.
The choice of one’s friends is not something you take lightly. You must consciously build your association. If you want to be rich, associate yourself with the rich. I am not teaching you to disdain or despise people of low status. Your duty to them is to help them rise up, not to make them your advisers. The kind of advice, inspirations and dreams you have are oftentimes drawn from the associations you keep. So if you want to dream big, you have got to relate with big dreamers and people who have already done similar things. This is not pride, it is wisdom.
There is a need for you to begin a conscious review of your association with a view to sifting and repositioning yourself. Pigs enjoy staying in the mud, so if you keep a sheep with the pigs, they will drag her into the mud. Breed a dog with cubs of lion and you will be surprised that the dog will grow up as a lion dog. Changing your association is one way of changing your life. “Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation. It is better be alone than in bad company.” – George Washington
Find a role model among those who have achieved what you are dreaming of and learn from him or her. Read about great people. Small minds talk about things or people, while great minds make things happen. Leave the company of those who talk about things or people and join the company of those who make things happen.
God bless us all.
Good morning Africa!
Good morning Nigeria!
Don’t Feed Your Fears
Fear has torment and it tortures its victims before manifesting, if it ever manifests. 1 John 4:18. It cripples every sense of reasoning and weakens one’s faith. Fear is so terrible that it can kill the victim before the thing being feared even happens. Fear is a terrible monster and it has a spirit. There is a spirit called the Spirit of Fear. 2 Tim. 1:7.
Fear is defined as false evidence appearing real. It is the conceptualization of imagination such that it becomes more real than imaginary. It can lead to a state of paranoia, hallucination, despondency, suicidal tendencies and insanity. Fear is truly powerful and can keep you sleepless all night and restless all day.
However, as terrible as fear is, there is an effective antidote designed by God to neutralize fear. Please note that there is a difference between godly fear and ungodly fear. Godly fear is a reverence awe for the things of God which leads to repentance, salvation and abundance, while ungodly fear is the type that cripples and renders one useless. All fears, except godly fear is from the devil. The devil and his demons are the ones responsible for painting those pictures in your mind and making them so real that you begin to fear them as if they have happened. They are all lies. I have been there before and I can tell you that no matter how so real they appear to be, they are like mirage in the desert.
The only antidote to fear is Faith. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things hoped for. Hebrews 11:1. Faith is the accepting of promises as if they had happened. There is no vacuum in is. You either have faith or fear. You can feed your faith by constantly recounting what God has done in the past, hearing the word of God, meditating on the word of God, acting on the word of God and praying in the Holy Ghost. You can also feed your fear by constantly feeding your mind with news of terrible things happening all over, avoiding the word of God, believing enchanters, diviners and sorcerers. When the devil throws a fiery dart of fear, counter him with the word of God. This is why it is important that you are loaded with the words of God and always be mindful of what He has done in the past.
The intention behind sending the spirit of fear is to make you believe God less and weaken your faith. The devil is a liar and full of lies. There is no truth in him, when he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own. John 8:44. So when next he comes with his lies, tell him he is a liar and there is no truth in the picture he is painting. Resist him firmly by telling him what God has promised, which is the thoughts of Peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end. If you feed your faith, your expectations will come to pass and if you feed your fears they will manifest eventually. Job 3:25.
Stop feeding your fears by believing the devil. He is a pathological liar and cannot tell the truth. You cannot die before your time. You cannot fail as long as you are in Christ. You will not remain childless. You will not die single. Your future and destiny is certain as long as you walk with God towards the fulfillment. Put the devil where he belongs today by telling him he is a liar. Victory is certainly yours., because you are born of God. 1 John 5:4.
God bless us all.
Good morning Africa!
Good morning Nigeria!
adewumioni 