My thoughts

What's your relevance?

Sometime ago in an interview I was asked what I am about. I responded then to the question the best way I could even if deep down I knew I must have given a wrong response.

Months later, I started asking myself the same question. 

"What have I got to offer?"

 "What am I about?"

 "What exactly is in me that makes me unique?"

 "What ways can I make a major difference?". For days and weeks I pondered, what is my relevance in this life?

The answers started coming to me slowly after listening to some inspirational talks on the internet.

· What do I do that makes me happy?

· What do I do with so much ease and contentment that gives a satisfactory outcome?

· What is that thing you do so well that people know you for?

That's how you know what you are about. That’s how you know what you have to offer. More importantly, that’s what makes you who you are.

No matter how little or 'unrealistic' it may seem. Believe in yourself. With hard work, application of innovative ideas and a little prayer, it will definitely become something big. Do not venture into things because others are doing it, be yourself, do your own thing in your own way. Come up with ordinary things and make them extra-ordinary.

I hear some of my friends say that every body can not become bosses when I talk about self reliance and innovative creativity for self development and societal development as a whole. But I say, we do not have enough bosses yet to make better things to start happening in our societies. Become a boss today, work hard for it, even if you are a graduate, its not late to learn a type of 'handwork'. You have worked hard to make your employer rich but only getting pittance in return. There's a saying which goes "If you do not work hard to build and achieve your dreams, someone else will hire you to build theirs."

It will take time, discipline, diligence and perseverance, don't give up on the way. Become a boss. Just become your own boss. You are worth more than you know. There is no limit to our strength to achieve. 

RECIPE FOR A BEAUTIFUL DAY

These days scientist have discovered that our emotions sometimes trigger changes in our conscious realities. If you have by any chance noticed, you will see that when you start your day in a bad mood, the rest of your day will most times not go so well. And if you start with a smile, good fortune also smiles back at you. If you go to sleep worried, you
will wake up worried and in a mess, utterly in a disarray.You will also notice a high level of clumsiness. One of the reason being that you did not get
enough rest. But when you go to bed happy, you wake up happy.

Fear is another thing also. The things or circumstances we fear mostly and constantly remember do come to pass in the long run.

There is power in positive thinking. Positive thinking makes you display positive attitude, and the display of positive attitude will always get you a positive response or feedback. From the law of attraction, a book I read which was about the power positive thinking explains that, if you as an individual practice positive thinking, you give off positive energy (which is sometimes seen in your confidence) that helps you achieve your goal without much difficulties. And also, If you hold on to a thought long enough, it will come to pass. Your mind is a thought generator, control it.

If you think good, you will get good in return but if you fill your mind with negative or bad thoughts, those thoughts may start manifesting without you knowing that you are the one bringing it upon your beautiful self.

So, when you wake up each morning, start with a smile then think positive thoughts. Hold on long enough to that positive thought, as long as you can before you begin the days work and see the magic unfold. 

Your mind is a very power weapon. Use it wisely.

Whenever the unpleasant situation arise, just know that it always has an expiry date.

WORKING HARD IS NOT HARD WORK

Hard work can be described as a herculean task. Something that requires great effort and endurance both physically and mentally, while working hard is the attribute to persistently commit immense effort and endurance until success is achieved. They don’t necessarily mean the same thing.

What do I mean by "Working hard not really being hard work?"

When you work very hard on something you love, on a project you’ve dreamt about for so long to achieve, the ideas to apply comes to you easily. You apply yourself in brilliant ways which you did not realize was in you. You enjoy what you do and strive to do more despite the difficulties being faced. When you find joy in going the extra mile to make yourself unique – hard work becomes easy.

Growing up as a kid and even as an adult we learn that working hard will lead to success. Of course, most people set out to different spheres of activities, business or otherwise, and give it their all expecting a turn around and not achieving. Disappointment abounds.

Why?

Reason No: 1

You need to understand that different spheres of endeavors need different levels of persistence and discipline (hard work) to achieve the goal which is expected. For instance; An individual can study medicine in the university and work hard for eight years or more to become a licensed medical practitioner, so also can another study and work hard to become a fashion designer (tailor) for about a year or two and become a master in his trade. These two groups of people worked hard at different levels. The doctor happens to have worked may be not harder but longer. The higher the achievement, the harder or longer the work needed to achieve success. Do not measure yourself with those you started the race with, although we are all running but we all are running at different pace. The idea is to keep going until you get there.

Reason No: 2

Have you been working hard for too long on something you know you shouldn't have worked that much to become successful. It seems like nothing is working out.  My dear, it is not always an evil uncle, aunt, step-father or whoever. Sometimes the problem is you. How? You ask. Are you directing your effort at the right venture? In clearer terms, are you working hard at the right thing or in the right direction?

As I stated earlier, when you work hard on the right project, on something you love doing, working hard seems less hard and becomes easy for you. Now if you are working hard on an assumed calling, you may end up working decades with nothing to show. Find that mission that you are here to perform, and work at perfecting it. Discover yourself, your potential, your ability. Develop your ideas, even if it's not yours, make it better if it is line with your own calling. Seek pointers from established individuals in the fields your striving at, have a mentor you can relate with.

Chase your own dreams, don't chase other people’s dreams so as not to end up in disappointment.

Every human being has at least one gift/talent that they can use to better themselves. Find yours.

The State of Mind of a Growing Man 

by Madubuike Michael

The children, youth, whatever, are the “leaders of tomorrow” they say. A tomorrow that never comes for most, especially if you are not lucky to have or know a highly placed official as kin in the public and private parastatals. Even the very intelligent ones among us who graduate top of their classes end up like the rest and are most times not  considered for any of the benefits that should accrue to them

based on school policies. It mostly takes the grace of God for them to be recognized and considered for positions of higher study and job in the school. Yet they say we are leaders of tomorrow.

High school grad students will queue up under the sun and rain to purchase Jamb registration forms and it most times takes days, and painstaking effort to accomplish this which is just the first phase. They go through more stress to register. Jamb website is under maintenance or something of that nature. Do you know that this process can be automated in a such a way that each student can purchase and register for this exams from the comfort of their homes? Graduates of Computer Science/engineering who have the skill set and technical know-how are in their homes doing nothing or worse putting their knowledge into nefarious use. Shouldn’t this country meet up with the technological trend? At least to make some parts of our lives easy. That is not the end, these students will study (those that actually study), travel far distances to take this exams or worse sit and wait for unending hours for the exams to start, sometimes writing at late hours of the night or at ungodly hours of the morning. And they say we are the leaders of tomorrow.

God helps you, you pass the exams well enough to write the second one, the university version (UTME). You go through the same process (stress) as in the case of the first one. You pass with a good score, may be not good enough to get in for the applied degree but enough to get you a degree in that university, only to fall short of the opportunity which is mostly snatched by influential parents/lecturers who buy/sell departmental slots for their kids who scored less or did not even sit for these exams. Yet we are leaders of tomorrow.

Let’s say you are lucky enough and you get in to study in the university of your choice, go through the four great walls, and a below standard lecturer/professor tries to impede you for selfish or self-gratification reasons. Yet they are to be grooming leaders of tomorrow.

You graduate, serve your funny country, search for job, apply for positions you are well qualified for and get turned down. But someone who cannot even read is given the job with no stress at all (the governor of Edo state can attest to this: www.youtube.com/watch?v=quT33KJBSRY, and saharareporters.com/2014/04/19/governor-oshiomole). Yes oh, we are leaders of tomorrow.

Men and women above retirement ages, who can barely see or even remember what they ate the day before at lunch are still in government offices occupying positions that can best be managed by capable young men and women. We are the leaders of tomorrow who are not given the chance.

Mr. Managing Director and accountant in the government ministries will not employ youths in their local government areas but fill up staff lists with ghost names and earn multiple salaries under different alias’s and become rich and fat. But the young men and women living in your community in dire need of a job, seeking empowerment comes to you and asks for help from your office, you reply and say “Buhari season’ did not allow you the chance to help, that god will provide.’ But some years back, they were told that they are the leaders of tomorrow.

The Leaders of tomorrow turn out to become the scourge of the future, when young men turn to life of crime to survive, young women to prostitution. Hmmm…. Leaders of tomorrow.