Fly at High Altitude

Dear loving people,

Have you noticed that the bigger planes fly at a higher altitude than the little planes? Why do you think so? This is because internal combustion engines are just like people, they need oxygen to breathe. At higher altitudes, the air gets thin and there's just not enough oxygen to support combustion. Jets and turbine engines use compressors to draw in huge amounts of thin air to provide enough oxygen to burn, but small piston engines in the little planes just don't have that capacity.

What lesson do we as humans learn from this? This means that growing through different stages in life is like increasing your altitude. You need to develop an internal combustion system equipped with jets and turbines to draw in huge amounts of the air of opportunities such that it can provide you with the oxygen of solutions to burn the adversities and inequities you encounter on your way.

The higher in altitude that the plane goes, the lower the pressure. The lower the pressure, the less resistant the air becomes and so it moves faster.  As you strive to gain more skills, knowledge and focus on your journey of life, the more aware you become and better equipped to break through challenges and thus you become more efficient and grow faster.

The higher the plan goes, the more time it has to react to emergencies. That is same with people, the more you become aware, the greater your capacity to preempt. But if you inundate yourself with excuses for doing or not doing anything, you behave like the little planes that must fly low at the mercy of turbulent winds. For those of us who fly regularly, you know what it means to fly in a turbulent zone for 30 minutes. I have seen the faces of people (men and women alike) develop seven shades of pink from fright.

Safety is an important factor at high altitude; a greater part of the weather takes place below 30,000 feet, so it is a great advantage for a plan to fly above the weather, both from a safety standpoint and a comfort standpoint. When you as an achiever rise through life mastering yourself and your processes, focusing on the essentials, planning with God, you equally rise above the bad weathers of distrust, mediocrity and blind-rocking.

The bigger planes fly at high altitude in order to avoid airspace congestion. They don’t want to mix-up and get lost amongst the infinite number of small planes flying at low altitude. You don’t want to be battered by mediocre people; you want to be distinguished by your works, your good nature and the fact that you are a respectable human being. You want to learn the craft of purposeful living, you want to be a child of God and you want to be an envelope of success. Fly at high altitude!

Fly at high altitude, go out there and make a real difference for as a child of the universe and most importantly because you are a child of God, you deserve it.

Are you a bigger or a smaller plane? Be honest to your own self. If you were a smaller plane, its time you get big and start flying at high altitude.

Should What You Think Be What You Say?

Dear loving people,

Thanks to a friend, I read from an article by Marty Makary published in The Wall Street Journal of Friday September 21, 2012 that “Medical errors kill enough people to fill four jumbo jets a week”

Frightening isn’t it? Really scary but wait a minute. How many lives have been destroyed by the ideas we sometimes generate within and that consequentially lead to wrong decisions? Have you ever thought about that? The figures are far more alarming.

I always teach that great inventions were once ideas conceived in the mind and acted upon in the physical world to bring them to reality. Think of any modern invention, Internet, Television, cars, airplane, etc. All of these were once ideas acted upon by individuals or a group of persons and today they make life better for us. What will the world look like without an airplane for example?

In the same way, if the original idea is a bad one, so shall it destroy you and the many people who subscribe to it. For those who did history, you will agree with me that if there was a French revolution in 1479 that got Louis XVI to the guillotine, it started with the intoxications of Maria Antoinette. As queen of France, she was so unpopular but extravagant and mounted an opposition to reform that contributed to the overthrow of the monarchy; she was guillotined along with her husband in 1793. All of this was because she did a perfect job of turning her husband the king into a despot.

Haven’t we seen families that have been ruined because one member of that family was such a bad influence, an epicenter of bad ideas and self-generated rumors.

There is no limit to the imagination, it can produce life-changing ideas or life-destructive ones, it all depends on how we discipline it.

If  medical errors kill enough people to fill four jumbo jets a week that is bad enough but what about our own ideas that not only kill ourselves but equally others? Isn’t it about time we start watching what we think and say to others?

The ideas conceived within that give birth to the words that we speak out loud or the words that we silently kept in our heads are very powerful. From the moment you say something, you bring it into reality and can’t take it back. Whether positive or negative words are spoken, “You shall reap what you sow” as the Bible warns. This implies that as humans, we have to be exceedingly careful of what we think and say no matter the circumstance. As an African, I grew up to know that blessings or curses can be spoken with just a few words especially from the elderly.

Each time you are to utter a statement, weigh your words, think about its implications on others. Are you a promoter of life or a destructive factor? Great achievers are those who mend in all that they think, say and do.

Forward-ever and Backward-never !

 

Dear Loving People,

When you stop concentrating on your present situation and start focusing on your future, You will  surely go further than you could ever imagine. I read it somewhere that “An arrow can only be shot by pulling it backwards. When life is dragging you back with difficulties, just imagine that its going to launch you into something great”

How often do we meet people who give up trying just because the situation at hand appeared gloomy? You should not give up but keep on fighting, reviewing your strategies and correcting course and you will be sure to make it some time soon.

Talk to God, tell him that you are not giving up, call upon him to keep you going no matter how bleak the future may appear to be and remind your self that it is through hope and faith backed by action that success will come your way.

Is Your Water Running Deep or Shallow?

Dear Loving People,

Really, I should ask you the question; is your water running deep or shallow? While I grew up through primary school, I quickly memorized the adage “slow waters run very deep.” The few of us, who shared the pleasure of guessing what that meant, were often quick to make that statement to a mate whom we assumed to be discreet and who suddenly committed an offence. We were often self-confident in making that statement especially with the aura of an intellectual.

Have you asked yourself what that statement could actually mean after all? I would say it's based on the simple notion that the deepest rivers and streams do have the calmest surfaces. When you look at them on the surface, they look like nothing at all is happening, but behold! Below, the water is flowing at a high velocity.

Now let’s come back to our lives, if you observe well, you will notice that most people who have a calm exterior enjoy rich and interesting personalities. Get close to some of them; you will notice they have fascinating ideas. What then do we make of this? The lesson here is that, those who are quiet, seem to be slow or appear withdrawn, may be worth paying more attention to than the talkative and vibrant types like me. Don’t get me wrong here; I am not insinuating that introversion is a better personality type than extroversion.

In the Christian Bible, Ecclesiastes 1:7 says “All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again” (ESV)

Streams and rivers flow into the seas year-in, year-out yet they make more noise than the seas that absorb them. Think about what a river sounds like especially at the upper course. It is shallow, so noisy, bubbling, transporting huge rocks that hit against one another, causing massive erosion and creating tons of silt. What happens as it approaches the mighty sea? It gets deeper and calmer. The huge rocks are broken down to pebbles and sand, the silt is beginning to settle down and only the sludge remains in suspension.

When the river meets the giant sea, it completely calms down; dropping off the entire load it’s been transporting from source and gets lost in the mighty waters of the sea. The sea with all its huge volumes of water is relatively calm, extremely deep and ready to accommodate the river.

Quiet people are often very thoughtful; they process information before making statements. Outgoing people on the other hand like me, process information while they talk. You must know where you fall and start making the best of it. That is a stepping stone to success.

While You Sit On The Elephant

Dear loving people,

A friend of mine – Victoire shared an African proverb that was read on the BBC last Tuesday 4^th September 2012. It read thus “When you are on top of an elephant, do not pretend there is no dew on the grass”. You can’t imagine how much this thought provoking proverb got me reflecting, it’s even been used during the ongoing 2012 Obama campaign.

Can you imagine for a second how often we forget the people who toiled with us to get us where we are today? Their empathy and dedication to us while we needed them is soon forgotten. We ignore at times even hate them once we attain what some have termed ‘glory’. N.D. Wilson writes “Self-loathing and self-worship can easily be the same thing. You hate the small sack of fluids and resentments that you are, and you would go to any length, and betray anything and anyone, to preserve it.”

You must remember at all times that excellent builders equally master how to scatter. N.D. Wilson continues to say that “Your life is your own, your glory is your glory, but you will lose it if you keep it for yourself. Grasp it for the sake of others...”

When you are on top of an elephant, keep it at the center of your mind how you got there, there will come a time when the elephant will stop walking and you will need to climb down. The very people who got you up there will be the ones to hold your hand as you climb down. If you are the type that used your past ‘glory’ to abuse, subdue and shunt the same people who toiled so hard to get you up there in the first place, rest assured the fall from grace to grass will be catastrophic.

You can only pretend there is no dew on the grass once sitting on an elephant because you forget so soon the life you led before climbing up there, you now think you sail above the issues that once bogged you and the people you now neglect.

N.D. Wilson advice “Do not resent your place in the story. Do not imagine yourself elsewhere. Do not close your eyes and picture a world without thorns, without shadows, without hawks. Change this world. Use your body like a tool meant to be used up, discarded, and replaced. Better every life you touch. We will reach the final chapter. When we have eyes that can stare into the sun, eyes that only squint for the Shenikah, then we will see laughing children pulling cobras by their tails, and hawks and rabbits playing tag.”

You must remain a man of the people even when you cruise in glory on the elephant. Your capacity to remain a man of the people at such times is proportionate to your determination to shunt evil and N.D. Wilson again, has this to say “Sometimes standing against evil is more important than defeating it. The greatest heroes stand because it is right to do so, not because they believe they will walk away with their lives. Such selfless courage is a victory in itself”

For always, remember that there is a price tag on every option in life. Victory at the end will be on the side of those who choose the positive options of life.

Remain blessed