Remove the Stumbling Block

As I think about this topic my mind races back to a pathetic story in the Bible. It is the story of a man called Amasa who King David gave an assignment to get his troops ready for an emergency attack against a rebel. For some unknown reason, he delayed and King David delegated another officer to carry out the charge. On the way, they met Amasa, as he was coming to appear before the King.

Unfortunately for him, he was craftily killed by another officer called Joab. As the troops got to where the fallen officer was wallowing in his blood, they stood still. Their attention and sympathy was drawn towards this fallen hero and so they couldn’t move forward. They were on national assignment but couldn’t continue because their attention was arrested by the dead. To enable them move forward the officer on duty removed the dead body from the way and covered it. After this the troops were back on course, carried out their mission successfully and returned to the King. (See 2kings 20)

The road to success is full of stumbling blocks and obstacles. Some are designed to defocus us while others are designed to frustrate us. We are on destiny journey and have been equipped by God with all the requirements for achieving success. But if we don’t take care of obstacles and other distractions on the way we will never become all we were created to be. No one should ever think there wouldn’t be obstacles on the way to achieving success. The good news is the obstacles cannot stop you except you allow them.

There are roadblocks we must deal with if we want to achieve great results and become all that God created us to be. First is mental roadblock. Sometimes the greatest obstacle to success is the mind- how we think. If we are not thinking well, we can’t live well. This is because our thoughts determine our actions and inactions. Our actions and inactions invariably determine our destiny. Success belongs to the innovative and the creative. Our mind is the greatest asset we have and until we begin to deploy it we will remain stagnant.

It is sad to note that majority of people don’t think at all. They live their lives like zombies. A statistic has it that of all humans only 5% think, 15% think they are thinking but are not and 80% will rather die than think. Isn’t that revealing, particularly when you consider that about 95% of the world’s wealth is being controlled by about 5% of the world’s population? Only people who use their brains will be qualified to attain great heights in life.

Another roadblock is emotional immaturity. Our emotions are a precious gift from God. Without emotions, we are deprived of the energy and fortitude to attempt great things and undergo rigorous challenges. But emotional immaturity can hinder us and keep us stagnant. Impatience, outbursts of anger, bitterness and the like will impede on our success drive. We cannot harbour these dysfunctional traits and maximize our lives. We must let them off so as to go ahead.

Next is spiritual emptiness. Many are spiritually empty and that invariably accounts for most dysfunctional lives. We cannot succeed in life without divine input. Many live as if all that life has to offer is what they can see. They fail to realise that everything we can see is temporal. It is only what we don’t see that is permanent. God’s presence makes all the difference. With Him on your side victory is assured. Knowing God is the greatest thing that can happen to anyone. It is the key to lasting success.

As the year gradually winds up, it is important to ensure you make peace with God. This you do by allowing Him to direct and control your life. This is just a logical decision since He made you in the first place. It is only normal for you to allow Him have His property back to Himself. His presence will make the difference.

Slow Down A Little

As the year gradually wounds up, it will be important to sit back and think about our lives. Many people live like cars without break, no wonder there are so many casualties. Life was never made to be lived just on the fast lane. This is because you don't refuel on the fast lane. You don't make purchases on the fast lane either. Having been on the fast lane for many months, friend, it is important to slow down a little, refuel and have some needed rest and prepare for the journey ahead.

Life is not a sprint but a relay race. Oftentimes, we see very fast and sharp people fail. Success in life does not really depend on how fast you are because you can be travelling very fast on the wrong road. Draw your mind back a little, were there not your mates who were the brightest, smartest, most beautiful girls and most promising guys who today are not to be reckoned with? They have fizzled away into oblivion. Those were people who were on the fast lane for too long and could not slow down to reposition themselves. Their fuel and oil got finished in the middle of the road, and suddenly their engine knocked and they got stalked.

I encourage you to slow down and sit down to think and plan. Without proper thinking and planning life will never be meaningful. But for our thinking and planning to be effective, we need God's input. And that will come as we seek His face in prayer and study of His Word. The Scriptures say, "Commit your way to the Lord and your thoughts shall be established." As we seek His face, He will show us the way we are supposed to go and the thing we should do. One idea from God can change your life forever.

Daily Prayer for Leaders

God give us leaders, straight and narrow, kind and good.

Clay-footed men with hearts of gold, selfless, giving and godly;

Men whose needs are few but who desire to leave the world a better place than they met it;

Give us men who are not flattered by praise or flattened by pride.

Men whose presence gives hope to other men.

Dear Lord, great and exceptional nations don’t fall off the sky.

They are always product of great exceptional leadership under You.

So give us leaders whose minds, ideas and policies are rich in content and robust in implementation.

Deliver us oh Lord from weak-hearted, lily-livered and empty headed leaders who desperately seek and obtain power for self and not for service.

Give us oh God, good, godly and transformative leadership who ennobles, enables and inspires.

And deliver us from self-centred, ego-centric and ungodly leadership who oppress, limits potential and destroys those better than themselves.

Give us oh God, large hearted leadership with capacity to lift men from mediocrity to excellence.

Give us team players who do not see their team as competitive, tugging with them for influence

Give us leaders who do not monopolise and get all the credit that truly belongs to everyone on the team.

Give us leaders who extend the frontiers of opportunities to those around and beneath them.

Leaders who are an inspiration for progressive development;

Leaders who don’t just throw their weight around but instead put their weight behind the labour and efforts of their team.

Give us oh Lord we pray valiant men and virtuous women.

A time like this demands strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hands.

Men and women whom the lusts of office will not kill; men and women whom the spoils of office cannot buy;

Men and women who possess opinions and will; men and women who love honour and who will not lie. Amen.

Your Greatest Treasure

Treasure! The mere mention of the word sounds good to the ear and stirs up right feelings in our hearts. Everyone wants to have treasures and the more quality these treasures the more we cherish them. The world is full of treasures and you have a share of the vast treasures that God has blessed the world with.

What is treasure? Treasure is something of value or someone of high value. This obviously categorizes treasures into two categories viz. something and someone. There are things of value in our lives which we need to make life more comfortable. These will include assets, wealth, precious objects and more. Treasure could also be someone who we value highly. It could be our President, dignitaries and relations. These are wonderful treasures and it’s important to appreciate them.

But what or who is your greatest treasure? I will allow the Word of God to answer that for us- Proverbs 18:22 tells us that, “A man's greatest treasure is his wife-- she is a gift from the LORD.” Your greatest treasure is your wife! Not your bank account, not your academic achievements, children or any other treasure whether human or objects. Let me say it again, your wife is your greatest asset!

It’s amazing how far we can be from the truth that is necessary for our victory. The person who is our greatest asset can be treated with the greatest levity. Not understanding that a man’s greatest treasure is his wife and vice versa is the singular most important reason why many marriages have packed up and many more will still pack up. The divorce rate in our contemporary society is unprecedented and the statistics is still on the increase. Why? The reason is because many don’t understand this all-important truth. Your spouse is your greatest treasure not any other thing or person. Oh how I wish this will sink deep into you because it will make an eternal difference in your life.

Treasures are made to be cherished, nourished, taken care of and treated with dignity. Do you treat your boss the way you treat your wife? Do you shout on your President the way you shout on your wife? Treatment shows value. If you value your wife you will treat her with the greatest dignity in the entire world.

Where then do we start? We start by recognizing that our spouse is the greatest treasure we have. This is very important because according to Mike Murdock who coined the law of recognition, that anything unrecognized will go uncelebrated, anything uncelebrated will go unrewarded and anything unrewarded will soon exit your life. Because people don’t recognize the worth of their spouses, they treat them with levity and indignity and sooner than later they are headed for the courts. If you want to succeed in life you must value the greatest treasure God has given you-your spouse. This is because if you don’t value the greatest, is it the least that you will value? You will not be qualified to handle lesser treasures if you didn’t value the greatest of all treasures.

It’s time to see your wife as she really is- your greatest treasure. That alone will solve most of your problems in life.

A Sublime Divide

We live in a world that literally worships wealth and prosperity. Though there is nothing wrong with wealth and being wealthy but to make its pursuit the utmost pursuit of our lives is destructive. Why is it so? This is because pursuing wealth for wealth’s sake makes people put a divide between integrity and prosperity. Such divide has wrecked so many and will still destroy many more. This is because we hardly learn from history. We obviously might have seen people who were destroyed for the evil ways they tried to get rich with but we fail to learn. Some think the end justifies the means but the contrary is true-it is the means that justifies the end.

Integrity according to Microsoft Encarta is defined as the quality of possessing and steadfastly adhering to high moral principles or professional standards. There will always be the temptation to change and use undercut methods to make money or achieve success in any endeavour and not be caught. We might have seen people who have successfully covered their tracks after illegal transactions but such methods and successes will invariably lead to the destruction of the possessor, if not now definitely later. Nothing is durable if it was not built of sound and durable moral principles. No one is truly successful who has not succeeded based on application of principles and standards. There is no shortcut to durable success. Shortcut will cut your life short.

Integrity is also defined as the state of being complete or undivided. It was Thomas Paine who said “ It is necessary to the happiness of man that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving, it consists in professing to believe what one does not believe.” Integrity is derived from the word integer which means whole without fraction. What a life it is to not have fractions! It makes for trustworthiness. People of integrity can be trusted. This is because they don’t say one thing and do another. Who they are in secret and who they are in public match.

When we merge integrity with prosperity, we achieve lasting result. That is the original way stipulated by God. He says that wealth gotten by fraudulent means shall diminish. He also says that such wealth will destroy the possessors. It is God’s will to make everyone prosperous but that will only happen when we walk in the principles of integrity and truth. Choose integrity and you will be glad you did.

MENTAL FITNESS FOR SUCCESS

Success doesn’t just happen. It takes more than a wish to break even and live life maximally. Many people desire to succeed but not many will taste the sweet juice of success. This is not as a result of divine partiality or age, location or colour. Success is neither a white, a black, a red nor of any other colour. Success starts with the mind. The mind is the centre of human activities that either make or mar any one, man or woman.

FACTS ABOUT SUCCESS

All Success is achievable.
There is no height attained by any one that another person cannot attain. If anyone has done it before then any other person can do it. It is important to know that impossibility is a mental block that tends to siphon our vital energies and renders us incapable of achieving our dreams. A lady who collected our form for an intensive training program, came to inform me that she can’t afford to pay the fees. I told her to never say she can’t afford a thing. This is because when you say you can’t afford to do what are supposed to do, you put a limitation on yourself and your God and that makes it impossible for you to be successful. She took my advice and went back resolving to start the program. Before the program had gone half way, she had completed the payments. I would always remind her of how timid she looked the day she came to indicate her withdrawal. All success is achievable. If someone can do it, then you can do it.

All Success is Relative.
This means that success in one area of life does not mean success in another area of life. That you succeeded as a footballer doesn’t mean you will succeed as a husband. This accounts for so called successful people making a failure morally. The rules are different for every game and in life that is the same. There are rules that govern football and there are rules that govern relationships. There are rules that govern businesses and there are that govern fatherhood. Success in one area does not translate to success in another area. Therefore for every endeavour, we must know and play by the rules.

All success is Unlimited.
There is no end to success. Recently, Usain Bolt, the Jamaican athlete broke his previous world record in track events. The new record will still be broken either by him or by another person. This is because there is no limit to success. The fastest computers of yesterday have been overtaken by newer ones. The same goes for cars and other inventions. There is no limit to success. You can get better. You can improve on your previous performances. You can break your ‘world’ records and set other ones. You can succeed beyond your wildest imagination.

All Success is Parallel.
My success doesn’t make it impossible for you to succeed. This is because all success is parallel. We all can succeed. The sky is so wide that every star can shine. No star can stop another star from shinning. So it will amount to foolishness for one star to envy another star. The success of one doesn’t cancel the success of another. There are enough resources to go round everyone. That is abundant mentality. If you have this mindset you will rejoice when another person succeeds, knowing that his or her success doesn’t stop you from succeeding.

Having the mindset seen in the above sub-themes will equip you for unlimited success. There is no better time to succeed than now. This is your time to make your mark. This is your time to succeed. Rise up from mediocrity and limitation-mentality and break through new horizons. Success is staring at you therefore reach forth and take it. But first of all realize that you can succeed. Yes you can.

Emotional Stability- A Vital Necessity for Success

Success is a serious business. It is not the play ground of the immature. It is the wrestle ground of the sound and stable. If success is our goal, then we must get to the point of maturity. One of the most important areas necessary for long and durable success is our emotions. Without emotional stability, there can’t be lasting success.

The subject of emotions has always stirred different philosophies and ideologies. The broad spectrum of emotion shall left to the classrooms where professors will handle that. But I shall take a little pain to show the need for emotional stability if we want to succeed in our life endeavours.

Firstly, it is important to realise that emotion and feeling are used inter changeably. Literally, emotion is defined as a moving of the mind or soul; hence, any agitation of mind or excitement of sensibility. In a philosophical sense, it is seen an internal motion or agitation of the mind which passes away without desire; when desire follows, the motion or agitation is called a passion. Emotion therefore can be seen as a strong feeling that is capable of moving one to a cause of action.

The above definition obviously does not take into account the morality of the movement or arousal. It becomes important to get to a point where one doesn’t just move because he or she has an arousal but responds to the feeling because it is the right thing to do and at the right time to do it. This is what I call emotional stability- the ability to control our responses to the numerous feelings that demand our attention and actions.


To explain emotional stability, I shall take an acrostic for the word Emotion. This will enable us to understand the importance of emotional stability and why it’s vital we control our responses.

The first letter E stands for Empathy. Empathy is according to Microsoft Encarta is the ability to identify with and understand somebody else’s feelings or difficulties. If emotional stability is our goal then we need to understand and put others into consideration. When the feelings arise furiously, empathy demands that we consider the effect of our response to others. That is the beginning of emotional stability. There is therefore no how one can mature if he or she does not put others into consideration in his or her endeavours, speech and actions.

The second letter M stands for Memory. Memory according to Microsoft Encarta is the ability to retain knowledge, that is the ability of the mind or organism to retain learned information and knowledge of past events and experiences and to retrieve that information and knowledge. Inability to retain and retrieve information when needed could affect our stability. A good memory is very important if we are going to build good and great relationships that will position us for success. For instance, if your friend offends you and you don’t take cognizance of the fact that this same person has been of great help to you in the past, you could deal with him furiously and thereby possibly destroy a much needed relationship. Memory helps us to keep our response in check and therefore a vital part of emotional stability.

The third letter O stands for Optimism. Microsoft Encarta also defines optimism as the tendency to expect the best: the tendency to believe, expect, or hope that things will turn out well. It is also defined as the attitude of someone who feels positive or confident. Optimism is hope in the midst of hopelessness and victory in the face of defeat. No one can be stable who does have an optimistic view of life. This is because several things will try to destabilize you by making you pessimistic and such an attitude breeds defeat and failure. An emotional stable person is one who is incorrigibly optimistic.

The fourth letter T stands for Temperate. Temperate means without extremes. It means to be mild and restrained. One of the most difficult things to do is to attain balance. It is easier to tilt either to the right or to the left than to stay in the middle. To be temperate is to be able to attain equilibrium and that is one of the marks of the emotionally stable. It is important to attain to this balanced state of mind as it will enable us to exercise proper caution in all our endeavours and gradually rise to success.

The fifth letter I stands for Introspection. Microsoft Encarta also defines introspection as self-examination: the detailed mental examination of your own feelings, thoughts and motives. An unexamined life indeed is not worth living. It is important to carry out self-examination periodically to know how far your live has fared. God gave us the capacity to think over our thoughts, feelings and motives and that power makes us humans. If we don’t use this capacity we will be on the same level with beasts. Incidentally, no one can carry out introspection for you, you must do it yourself. This will enable us to attain maturity as we don’t just do anything because it feels good but because it’s worth it after proper examination of our feelings, thoughts and motives.

The sixth letter O stands for Objectivity. Objectivity is the ability to view things objectively: that is the ability to perceive or describe something without being influenced by personal emotions or prejudices. Stable people don’t basically look at things subjectively. This is because prejudice is never a good method of assessment. It is important therefore to not allow our feelings and prejudices to affect our decisions. This will enable us be successful in all our endeavours.

The seventh letter N stands for Nurture. We are products of two things: nature and nurture. Nature is all the traits and qualities we received from birth. Nurture on the other hand is all the input we receive after birth. What we nurture ourselves with will determine who we become. Our emotional stability will be dependent on what we feed our minds and spirits with. If we feed ourselves with emotional junks we will become junks but if we take time to nourish our minds with right books and materials, we will turn out great and stable.

This is not really an exhaustive work but it is important to pick these points and allow their vitality to sink inside your hearts and minds. This will inevitably prepare you for a victorious life no matter the situations you find yourself in.
Acrostic for Emotion
E - Empathy
M -Memory
O -Optimism
T -Temperate
I -Introspection
O - Objectivity
N -Nurture

Who Is A Successful Man?

Everywhere you look, you see the emergence of one celebrity or another. It’s either a movie superstar, music mega icon, sports great, or whatever. These celebrities command instant followership and become role models. Many spend lots of times reading and researching them and wanting to know the secret to their emergence. Many want to be like them and therefore dress, walk or talk like them. Many advertising companies pay heavily to have them on their adverts and pictures. They attain instant success. And just as President J.F Kennedy once said, “Failure is an orphan and success has a thousand fathers”, so do we see in the lives of these great ones. Everyone suddenly wants to identify with them.

But is becoming a megastar and instant rich all about success? Do we say because someone has made huge amount of money that he or she is successful? I realize that in most sectors today, there is a redefinition of success. People are realizing that success is not all about a fat bank account and string of women around one. Many are coming to the realization that success is not about public image.

What is success then? Success is a total package. It affects with all the areas of life. You couldn’t call a man who earns a six-figure salary but cannot keep a relationship a success. You couldn’t call a woman who is a big time C.E.O but lives a highly immoral life a success. This invariably means that success is relative and if it is so no one is completely a success yet. Success therefore is a progressive attainment of balance in all areas of life.

There are basically four areas of life: physical/economic, emotional/social, mental and spiritual. These four symbolize the four parts of our human nature- body, heart, mind and spirit. To truly be successful we must progressively work on these four areas and ensure none is neglected. Negligence of any will undermine and even destroy whatever success we have attained in other areas.

Take for instance a man who takes great time to study (mental) but neglects to do regular exercise and practices good dieting (physical). He may achieve great results but his problem with obesity can rise up and destroy him. Supposing he succeeds as a tech wiz but neglects his family, the problems at home and inability to keep his family can set up an imbalance for him and thereby destroy him. Then also if he has a good physical discipline, manages his mental pursuits and social life considerably well but lack healthy spiritual renewal. He will be drained of the vital energy that rejuvenates and intrinsically empowers for success. Therefore whatever success he has attended will be temporal and ephemeral.

There is therefore the need to seek to attain balance in all these areas of life. That is what success is all about. This requires constant work and discipline because it is very easy to neglect one area and thereby imbalance sets in. Success therefore is progressive.

When I became a Man

Manhood! That is the dream of every man. We want to be able to look at ourselves and like what we see. We want friends, family and others to look at us and nod their heads in approval. We want to be successful and attain heights of greatness. Right inside every man is the hunger for success. And sincerely, nothing succeeds like success. I love it when I succeed in my endeavours.

What about you? Certainly, we were created to succeed. We were designed to succeed. We are alive to succeed. Success brings glory to God and joy to humanity. Success brings satisfaction. Unfortunately, not all men are successful. The reason among others is that not all are real men. It takes a real man to attain heights of success which many others only wish could happen in their lives.

Who then is a real man? Many articles in this site will be designed to provide this answer. But at this point I want you to know a real man is one who has put away childishness. So many attitudes, ideologies, thinking pattern and behaviours are childish in the least. A real man is a thinker. He takes time to process issues before voicing out his approval or disapproval. This is the time to do away with childishness and grow to maturity. When do you want to become a real man? You alone can decide, and I think now is the best time.