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