Never Count On Luck!

Dear Loving People,

But then I told you that the word ‘Luck’ should not exist! In fact, I don’t have it in my dictionary and guess what, it’s so misleading that millions get trapped by it every blessed day. Luck suggests that there is some magic wand that can get things done for you with no effort of your and reinforces the already too bad concept of a ‘free lunch’.

The main question is, do things happen by luck? If they do, then one can speak of someone being lucky or unlucky. But if they do not happen by luck, then it is inappropriate to use those terms. Ecclesiastes 9:11-12 states, “I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all.

Moreover, no man knows when his hour will come: As fish are caught in a cruel net, or birds are taken in a snare, so men are trapped by evil times that fall unexpectedly upon them.” Much of what Ecclesiastes shares is from the perspective of a person who looks at life on earth without God, or life “under the sun.” From such a perspective—leaving God out of the picture—there seems to be good luck and bad luck.

In a capitalist world as the one we live in today, it’s so sad to note that some people think by some stroke of luck, they can make it. Some idle on doing nothing to improve upon their situations but hoping that by some luck, they will break into the upper circles of great achievements. I can assure you that it’s the nature of people who take no action in life to fail just like it’s the nature of ice to be cold.

While God can propel you from grace to grace, it will NEVER happen by luck. You have to demonstrate to God through meticulous thinking, planning, hard work and then prayers that you need to grow. Then God in his infinite love and mercy will after judging your motives propel you to that much desired status.

Thinking that luck will make you succeed one day is behaving like a man in a landlocked village who hopes to fly a bomber jet just because he sees such planes flying overhead while he goes hunting every morning.

A runner in a race may be the swiftest, but because someone in front of him stumbles, he trips over him and falls and does not win the race. How unlucky for him? Or a warrior king may have the strongest army but some “chance” arrow shot up into the air at random by a no-name enemy soldier just happens to pierce his armor in its most vulnerable location (2 Chronicles 18:33) resulting in that king’s death and the loss of the battle.

How unlucky for King Ahab? Was it a matter of luck? Reading the whole of 2 Chronicles 18, we find that God had His hand in the matter from the beginning. The soldier who shot the arrow was totally unaware of its trajectory, but God in His sovereignty knew all along it would mean the death of wicked King Ahab.

Again, imagine an inner voice tells you to leave your house and walk up to the road and you act upon it as instructed. While at the roadside, you are offered some amount of money as an unexpected present. Some people will rashly conclude that its luck. Now! Before you do that, remember you responded to the voice, you actually invested your time and energy to get to the road. Had it been you stayed put, you wouldn’t have been given the money. Is that luck?

What you get in life is proportional to the investment you make to get it.

Shape Your Destiny

 It’s DESTINY, It’s GOD’S PLAN! Well, are you saying that it’s God’s plan that you be such a derelict failure? Was it your destiny to become such a waste? OK I might just understand that when you sat at the road junction with idling friends each blessed day arguing about Eto’o Fils and his riches or who the current highest goal scorer is while your age mates toiled their way to success, it was God’s plan not so? I now can see exactly what you mean by God’s Plan.

Has it occurred to you that even God’s plan reposes on some platform called PERSONAL INITIATIVE? What you call Destiny or God’s Plan is a mammoth potential that God build into your system to govern you growth BUT- get me right! It’s not an automated system; it needs an ignition in order to create wonders. You are that ignition. Only you can turn on the ignition of your destiny.

You must have read or heard about an atomic bomb and how it can create unbelievable havoc. An atomic bomb is absolutely useless if nobody ignites it. It must be fired for it to destroy. In the same way you’re Destiny or God’s Plan will lie dormant until you personally take action for it to come true.

God is not a God of failure! God cannot be associated with failure and so God is incapable of making you a failure until you convince him that you have opted to be one. The Bible says in Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV) “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

People have allowed society to stratify them. We talk of upper class, lower class, poor, rich, privileged, underprivileged etc. Who has the power to decide the category where you belong? Certainly not Providence, God or Destiny as it’s often said but YOU! You alone can decide to belong where you want to be at any point in time. Those who give up so easily and opt to be losers, quickly blame the economy, the government, the environment etc. they see others within their communities moving on while they remain on the spot as professional complainers.

At one moment in my life, I gave up on looking for a job, my family and friends tried their best to advice but I closed my mind on them. I was suffering, in great poverty related pains but I kept on that way until the day it rang within me that I needed a change. I told myself it was time to get back on rails, I prayed hard even fasted and guess what? Some kind of telepathic emissions where sent out from that moment to all my loved ones. I had re-channeled my life and I would say God took over because shortly after that, a brother and friend called me to talk about a job opportunity somewhere and that’s how I got back to the world of happenings.

You have all it takes to shape your Destiny or God’s Plan for your life into what you want because the same God who made that Plan for you equally gave you the power to shape it. The Bible says in Psalm 139:13 (ESV) “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.” God knows you too well to ignore you when you truly need help.

Take action today; shape your destiny into what you want it to be. You have the power to do that. “I know the Plans I have for you, plans to prosper you” declares the Lord.

You Must Swing Your Pendulum!

Dear Loving People,

I agree with Arthur Schopenhauer who says “Life swings like a pendulum backward and forward between pain and boredom”. As a matter of fact, Life is a lot like a swinging pendulum. On the one side of the pendulum is happiness, fulfillment, excitement, variety, interest, and on the other side is the potential for failure, risk, disappointment, and criticism.

Recently, I kept late nights at a time when I would much rather be sleeping than staying awake in the dark thinking things over. But the truth of the matter is, this pendulum equation of life has been ringing in my mind for a while and enough to keep me sleepless. I have been thinking of what will happen if I brought my pendulum to a standstill. If that were to happened, it means for certain that I will not have issues like failure, risk, disappointment and no one will say anything bad about me; however, I will likewise miss out on all the excitement of life, the fulfillment, the variety, the interest and the happiness.

During these reflections, I realized how much I micro managed the last seven months of my work life. Every day I left my house for work, I was deeply worried about one work-related thing or the other, as if that was not bad enough, I got tired of the management system in place. In fact, the mere thought that I will meet some faces at my office spoiled my day; I got really disappointed with some of the routines.

From that moment, my pendulum continued to swing. I critically examined all that happened around me in the office. Every ‘Yes’ I said had a purpose. I wanted to be at the center of every negotiation, for short, I wanted to become a ‘Mr. Fixit’. The pressure was mounting and I was unwilling to stop it. Many colleagues who found profit in what I was doing congratulated me, but inside I was screaming “This is not part of the plan.” I thus concluded I badly needed a change. For seven good months, I fought tooth and nail (bones and brains) to get out of such an emasculating system and out of the prison of my depression… guess what, I did. I got a new job!

The pendulum was finally swinging in a direction I was happy with. Life changed. I changed. Anxiety and fear no longer controlled what I was doing (or lack of doing). Depression no longer had a hold of my heart and spirit and for the first time in my life I was absolutely present in the moment.

Do you realize how much you cannot swing a pendulum one way? Think about this for all aspects of your life.  In every relationship there is a risk that your heart can be broken. When you raise a family there is a risk that child will make bad choices that bring pain to themselves and others or shame to your family as a whole.  However you don’t run away from a relationship or a family because you are scared of the Potential for pain.  You are willing to take a risk because you want the other side of the pendulum.

Now think about your business.  On the one side is financial freedom, excitement, fulfillment, success, but on the other side is the Potential for rejection, criticism, failure and disappointment.

The journey to a fulfilling life and that of achievement is about finding balance and honestly, I   know I have not been doing a good job of finding that balance. Contradictory ideas have been running rampart in my mind and playing themselves out in ways that I never thought would happen to me. While work is essential and central to me now, my recent act of frequently moving jobs is really painful at times…I want better jobs, my mind is saying otherwise.

Unfortunately, I often meet people who let the pendulum stand still. They don’t want the failure, the rejection or the disappointment, so they don’t take massive action where risk is present. However, what they fail to recognize is that by making this choice they are also missing out on the other side of the pendulum – financial freedom, fulfillment, variety and excitement.

My advice – get moving, stretch all options beyond limits, generate enthusiasm and swing your pendulum as high as it can get! You must dare a lot in order to get a lot.

The less you are scared of the “bad side” of the pendulum and are willing to charge ahead then the pendulum will eventually swing to the good side. Nobody will hold you accountable if you fail anyway, failure is never permanent unless you accept it as such. That is how life was designed by the powers that be to function.

I believe this is a universal law – if you are willing to push the pendulum to the “bad side” then it will inevitably swing the other way! The ‘good side’

At any one moment from now, you have the choice either to swing your pendulum or not. Whichever choice you make will certainly shape your future.

To your success

Vantage Point

Dear loving people,

Literally, vantage point means a position that affords a broad overall view or perspective, as of a place or situation. To me, it equally denotes a higher level of success you attain as a cumulative result of painstaking actions meticulously taken over time such that you have an overview of what it takes to get there and can point out the pitfall to others because you are now at a higher level and can see all around you the struggles of others.

During the very early days of my career, I had a boss who gave me a “Lacks ambition” rating on my performance review. Despite the fact that my second supervisor opposed the rating, it did not calm me because I knew fully well that when it comes to work, employees who lack ambition seldom rise to the top of an organization. Without a strong desire to achieve something, nothing is accomplished.

Today when I look back, I thank that boss because that rating he gave me, set me on a new path, I decided that I will stop at nothing to get the highest performance rating possible and a few years later, I repeatedly achieved the “consistently exceeds expectation” rating.

But I must however caution that in a world where ambition often compels people to do whatever it takes to rise to positions of power over others, God calls His people to a new way of living. We are to do nothing out of selfish ambition (Phil. 2:3) and to lay aside the weight of sin that ensnares us (Heb. 12:1).

If you want to be someone who truly “rises up,” make it your ambition to humbly love and serve God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mark 12:30). This frame of mind did changed the way I regarded myself when I was rated a high performer, I was in shock—I had entered the cherished circle of high performers.

It’s the oddest feeling when something you’ve been working towards finally comes to fruition. For me, I had constantly done my auto-evaluation, adjusting my strategies for so long, so reading it my new rating in the performance report seemed surreal. Success can be surreal like that.

It got me thinking about victories. So often people talk about their worries and struggles to rise to prominence but seldom do we talk about success when it comes. When success happens to us, sometimes we aren’t sure how to embrace it because we’ve been struggling for so long. Or we overlook our achievements.

Many of us undermine the good things that happen in our lives. So it is vital to learn how to let the positive things really sink in and benefit us. A starting point that can assist you get the most out of your achievements are the following!

Visualize your achievements. For me, holding my performance report with such good rating was similar to the way that parents cuddle a newborn child. Shortly after reading the report, though, I put it aside and moved on to other things I had to do during the day. But then I picked the report back up. Too often, we don’t let the good stuff sink in—so I felt and touched and examined this report for what is was. I now reread the successive reports regularly and keep them at a hands’ stretch where I can get to it at any moment and relive the good feelings each time. Did you receive a certificate of appreciation? Display it in your home or in your office so you can see what you received each time you look at it. This is a simple way to be reminded constantly that you’ve done well.

Mention, don’t brag. You may not want to talk up your accomplishments out of fear that others will think you’re bragging. If you have this mindset, you probably aren’t a bragger anyway. So go ahead and tell your friend that you’ve landed a big account. Tell your family members about all of the interesting appreciation you’ve received. Tell them about your good news and listen to theirs. I would be careful of the way you talk to others in your industry, though. Only my close friends know that when I share good news I’m not boasting—others may not have the capacity to understand. But it’s good to discuss your successes, and listen to others’ accomplishments. It shows support and a sound relationship with someone that you can mention successes and not be jealous or vindictive. Find friends that support you and share the goodness.

Publicize your career bonuses. When you complete a project to a client’s utmost satisfaction, this is the kind of thing that you should publicize. And remember that publicizing doesn’t mean bragging: it’s more about using a success as a stepping stone toward more accomplishments. Use a knockout clip in your portfolio. These are simple things to do that will help you leverage one success into more achievements. I always tell friends of the huge projects that got realized because I played a major role in their implementation. In a similar sense, it’s okay to mention that you’re an “award-winning” professional if you’ve won an award in your organization. It’s not boasting—it’s marketing your professional status and all of us need to celebrate the good.

Good happens. Let’s all try focusing on the good things, too. Securing a new client, creating a masterpiece…these are things that you should celebrate in your own way. And if you’re lucky enough to have a support system, you can raise a glass to yourself every once in a while.

At this vantage point, you don’t hope to roll off to the bottom of the hill again, exhale, live and let others live.