THE AWAKENING (PART 3)

And you learn that your body really is your temple. And you begin to care for it and treat it with respect.

You begin to eat a balanced diet, drink more water, and take more time to exercise.

You learn that being tired fuels doubt, fear, and uncertainty and so you take more time to rest. And, just as food fuels the body, laughter fuels our soul. So you take more time to laugh and to play.

You learn that, for the most part, you get in life what you believe you deserve...and that much of life truly is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

You learn that anything worth achieving is worth working for and that wishing for something to happen is different than working toward making it happen.

More importantly, you learn that in order to achieve the success you need direction, discipline and perseverance. You also learn that no one can do it all alone...and that it's OK to risk asking for help.

You learn the only thing you must truly fear is the greatest robber baron of all: FEAR itself. You learn to step right into and through your fears because you know that whatever happens you can handle it and to give in to fear is to give away the right to live life on your own terms.

And you learn to fight for your life and not to squander it living under a cloud of impending doom.

You learn that life isn't always fair, you don't always get what you think you deserve and that sometimes bad things happen to unsuspecting, good people.

On these occasions, you learn not to personalize things. You learn that God isn't punishing you or failing to answer your prayers. It's just life happening. And you learn to deal with evil in its most primal state - the ego.

You learn that negative feelings such as anger, envy and resentment must be understood and redirected or they will suffocate the life out of you and poison the universe that surrounds you.

You learn to admit when you are wrong and to build bridges instead of walls.

You learn to be thankful and to take comfort in many of the simple things we take for granted, things that millions of people upon the earth can only dream about: a full refrigerator, clean running water, a soft warm bed, a long hot shower.

Slowly, you begin to take responsibility for yourself by yourself and you make yourself a promise to never betray yourself and to never, ever settle for less than your heart's desire.

And you hang a wind chime outside your window so you can listen to the wind. And you make it a point to keep smiling, to keep trusting, and to stay open to every wonderful possibility.

Finally, with courage in your heart and God by your side, you take a stand, you take a deep breath, and you begin to design the life you want to live as best you can.

THE AWAKENING (PART 2)

You stop judging and pointing fingers and you begin to accept people as they are and to overlook their shortcomings and human frailties...and in the process, a sense of peace and contentment is born of forgiveness.

You realize that much of the way you view yourself, and the world around you, is as a result of all the messages and opinions that have been ingrained into your psyche.

And you begin to sift through all the junk you've been fed about how you should behave, how you should look, how much you should weigh, what you should wear, what you should do for a living, how much money you should make, what you should drive, how and where you should live, who you should marry, the importance of having and raising children, and what you owe your parents, family, and friends.

You learn to open up to new worlds and different points of view. And you begin reassessing and redefining who you are and what you really stand for.

You learn the difference between wanting and needing and you begin to discard the doctrines and values you've outgrown, or should never have bought into, to begin with ... and in the process, you learn to go with your instincts.

You learn that it is truly in giving that we receive. And that there are power and glory in creating and contributing and you stop manoeuvring through life merely as a "consumer" looking for your next fix.

You learn that principles such as honesty and integrity are not the outdated ideals of a bygone era but the mortar that holds together the foundation upon which you must build a life.

You learn that you don't know everything, it's not your job to save the world and that you can't teach a pig to sing.

You learn to distinguish between guilt and responsibility and the importance of setting boundaries and learning to say NO.

You learn that the only cross to bear is the one you choose to carry and that martyrs get burned at the stake.

Then you learn about love. How to love, how much to give in love, when to stop giving and when to walk away.

You learn to look at relationships as they really are and not as you would have them be. You stop trying to control people, situations and outcomes. And you learn that alone does not mean lonely.

You also stop working so hard at putting your feelings aside, smoothing things over and ignoring your needs.

You learn that feelings of entitlement are perfectly OK....and that it is your right to want things and to ask for the things you want and that sometimes it is necessary to make demands.

You come to the realization that you deserve to be treated with love, kindness, sensitivity and respect and you won't settle for less.

THE AWAKENING (PART 1)

I received this piece from an online newsletter I’m subscribed to, and I was really blessed by it, hence my decision to share it with you all.

Shalom!

Babatunde

THE AWAKENING

Author Unknown

A time comes in your life when you finally get it...when, in the midst of all your fears and insanity, you stop dead in your tracks and somewhere the voice inside your head cries out - ENOUGH!

Enough fighting and crying or struggling to hold on. And, like a child quieting down after a blind tantrum, your sobs begin to subside, you shudder once or twice, you blink back your tears and begin to look at the world through new eyes.

This is your awakening.

You realize it's time to stop hoping and waiting for something to change...or for happiness, safety and security to come galloping over the next horizon.

You come to terms with the fact that neither of you is Prince Charming or Cinderella and that in the real world there aren't always fairy tale endings (or beginnings for that matter) and that any guarantee of "happily ever after" must begin with you...and in the process a sense of serenity is born of acceptance.

You awaken to the fact that you are not perfect and that not everyone will always love, appreciate or approve of who or what you are ... and that's OK. They are entitled to their own views and opinions.

And you learn the importance of loving and championing yourself...and in the process a sense of new found confidence is born of self-approval.

You stop complaining and blaming other people for the things they did to you (or didn't do for you) and you learn that the only thing you can really count on is the unexpected.

You learn that people don't always say what they mean or mean what they say and that not everyone will always be there for you and that it's not always about you.

So, you learn to stand on your own and to take care of yourself...and in the process a sense of safety and security is born of self-reliance.

12 Key People To Have In Your Community & Network

1. Someone who loves you for you, just because you are you.

Yes, it’s magic. Find and Enjoy

2. Someone who isn't afraid, to be honest with you.

They'll need courage.

3. Someone who is more evolved than you are.

Let them be an evolving environment for you.

4. Someone who knows everybody.

Saves you time.

5. Someone who is well-connected.

Gives you access to opportunities

6. Someone who can solve your problems for you.

Life is too short to do this for yourself

7. Someone you can rely upon in a crisis.

Make sure they are up for this. Have a clear understanding

8. Someone who you love completely. Just because

Love is its own reward.

9. Someone who is a cyber/tech wizard.

Suck up if necessary

10. Someone in your field who is far more successful than you.

Model.

11. Someone who you are mentoring or coaching.

This brings out your best.

12. Someone who is mentoring and coaching you.

We all do better with a coach.

- Dave Buck

THE LITTLE FOXES THAT SPOIL THE VINE (PART 2)

Every single thought, word, and action contributes to our state of being at any point in time. Nurturing evil thoughts and intentions towards someone, saying the wrong thing to or about someone, or doing a wrong thing to someone may not seem to be connected to that thing we are seeking the face of God (or man) for, but the bitter truth is that they really do affect it and may be the reason why we do not get our desire at times. Not Knowing the Required Principles: the second-way ignorance robs us of our breakthroughs is by our not knowing the right thing to do to get what we want. We have often heard the saying that God operates by principles. And truly the bible is replete with several passages that hinge the attainment of certain blessing on the fulfilment of one condition or another. These are clear indications of what it takes to get such blessings. For instance, someone who desires financial prosperity may not attain it through constant prayer and fasting. That is like using Phensic to cure stomachache. The bible is very clear on what it takes to be prosperous; it is by giving, giving, and giving. Another example is that of someone who desires power (the ability to control or influence happenings both in the spiritual and the physical realm), but who is not given to constant fasting and a prayerful lifestyle, he is only deluding himself. He may not have it; no matter how great he or she can sing or how committed he or she may be in the church. The list of ‘to-dos’ to get ‘what’ goes on and on. That is why it is good for us to be devoted to reading our Bible regularly, for apart from the primary benefit of the knowledge of God it will avail us, it also contains all the information we need for life and godliness as well as all the relevant principles we need to apply to obtain the various good things we desire in life. But many of us Christians do not know this, and that is why we usually use the “wrong” approach to achieve the right end and thereby end up not getting the desired result. The Bible says in Hosea 4:14c “people who do not understand will be trampled.” Ignorance, pure and simple, is usually the major cause of most of our sufferings. NOT DOING ENOUGH (praying, giving, sacrificing etc) Another reason we do not receive what we seek from God is that we do not do enough of what it takes to receive our heart’s desire. The bible says, “If the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth; and if a tree falls to the south or the north, in the place where the tree falls, there it shall lie” (Ecclesiastes 11:3). Oftentimes we are complacent and settle for the average or even below average performance in our pursuits in life.

THE LITTLE FOXES THAT SPOIL THE VINE (PART 1)

Why Prayers Are Not Answered and Sacrifices Not Honoured Truly, the bible says, “Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened” (Matthew 7:7-8). However, we all know that this is not usually the case with most of us. Many are the times we have fervently asked, sought, and knocked for one thing or the other from God and man without being granted our heart’s desire. This write-up is an attempt to explain some of the reasons why some of our prayers and services to God are neither answered nor rewarded. Meanwhile, it is important that we note that the reasons proffered below are not totally exhaustive. There may well be some other reasons why we do not get answers to our prayers. But the ones below are those the LORD unveiled to me in the course of time after I asked Him the reason for this phenomenon some months ago. Let us now consider them: IGNORANCE The first reason why some of our prayers are not answered is because of our ignorance. The LORD says in Hosea 4:6a that ‘My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge’. While most of us know this scripture very well and even quote it often in discourse, we still nonetheless fall victim to its veracity. It is amazing to see the way we go all out to seek something and still truncate our own efforts or chances of getting such thing by our actions or inactions, done in ignorance. Let us look at two ways ignorance robs us of rewards and answered prayers. Self-sabotage: Oftentimes, we are diligent in our supplications to God about an issue and even do all we could to ensure that we get our heart’s desire. But little carelessness in a seemingly unrelated or unimportant matter may be the spoiler that will foil our chances of getting that for which we have for so long been seeking the face of God. A wrong thought, a wrong statement, a wrong action, or a wrong indulgence carelessly entertained when it does not seem to matter may just be the spoiler that will prevent our much sought-after blessing from being delivered to us. We all know that the earth we live in is spherical in shape. However, most of us do not realise that life itself is circular in nature. What this means is that even as the earth orbits or goes round the sun, so do our thoughts, words and actions revolve around the ultimate entity that is our lives. There is nothing like “it does not matter”, “it does not affect…”, “it does not relate to…” or “it is not important to…” in the cycle of life.

Tips on How to be a Star Performer

1. Self-discipline

All the highlighted pointers that make a star performer are a matter of discipline.After you have taken note of all the points, if you are not disciplined enough to put them into practice, they will all filter away. Self-discipline is what gets you started and keeps you going even when you don’t feel like it. In fact, one constant principle from all the books I have read on success is self-discipline.

Star performers are self-disciplined people, they don’t take nonsense from themselves, and they don’t take it from people either. They are harder on themselves than they are on people. They are driven by results; they don’t like stories and excuses. There can be a million and one reasons why things cannot or should not be done. Star performers only look for one reason why it should be done and they go ahead to do it despite the odds.

The workplace is about results and not reasons why things should not or cannot be done. People desire to associate with success, but it is not easy to be successful; there is no overnight success, the person who becomes successful has been paying prices that others have not been paying. That is why you just see him soaring above others, it is not by magic. Yes, God’s favour is key; and God will indeed favour you, as He has promised to bless the work of your hands. But if your hand is not doing much, what will be available for God to bless? It’s what you are doing that God blesses, He will not bless what has not been done.

We have passed that stage when the earth was void and it was without form, we are now in the realm of tangibles. He says,‘I will bless the works of your hands’, but if your hand is not doing something and He blesses nothing; nothing will start to multiply into more nothing.

Achievements come by self-discipline.You know we don’t like to be disciplined and we don’t like to discipline ourselves, but we have to be hard on ourselves to make any impact. Internet is a major distraction these days; for us to be focused, we have to limit our use of the internet. For the purpose of clarification, the internet can be a great tool for success, but it depends on what you are doing there. You have to be self-disciplined in your usage and activities on the internet. Star performers are disciplined people.

You usually know disciplined people from the way they talk and conduct themselves. While everyone can give excuses, it is the person that produces results that is celebrated, not story tellers. How many excuse-makers do you know that are successful? Nobody claps for what you plan or intend to do. You only get applauded for what you have done, and it takes discipline to get difficult things done because you have to take tough decisions and be rigorous in your thinking. It is not even easy to think through a process, it takes discipline.

2. The God Factor

Star performers know the place of God. You remember the story of Herod in the Bible, he talked and people started hailing him as God; then, suddenly, he was snuffed out. You have to know your source; star performers know their sources. They know where they recharge their batteries and receive inspiration. Where do you unwind, where do you get inspiration from? What makes you gel? These can be answered by knowing yourself (discussed in the first tip) and knowing your source.

Life is full of ups and downs; so there are many instances when both productive and idle people will experience highsor lows. It is the way each individual responds to these varying situations in life that usually separates them. When productive people face issues that are beyond them, they know where to turn because they know they must deliver results. The loafers, on the other hand, will merely cave in and turn back saying it is difficult because they do not think that they have to deliver. So, even as the loafer also has a source, he/she doesn’t draw much from there because it doesn’t seem to matter.

Star performers know their source and they draw strength and inspiration from there to carry on because they are committed to optimising their performance.

3. Focus

After you set your priorities and you are able to manage time, you have to be able to focus on what you are doing. You have to learn the art of focusing. As simple as it sounds, it is one of the most difficult things to do. It is not easy maintaining a laser focus on what you are doing and not be distracted.

There are psychological noises everywhere, even in your own thoughts there will be stuff demanding your attention. But you must have the ability to sieve through the myriad of things and focus on what needs to be done at any point in time. That is a major habit of star performers, they know how to focus; they know how to sieve through the muddled thoughts, they know what they want and they go after it, not minding what is going on within, around, below or above them. They just focus on what they have to do; they are not easily distracted or carried away.

You have to maintain focus, it is key to star performance. People usually get swept away by emotions and situations and then leave what they are doing or supposed to do to mind whatnot. Star performers do not fall prey to such trifles.

4. Manage people and your environment

You have to be able to manage people and your environment. For instance, maybe Mr A is busy working and then Mr B sees something on the internet and says,‘Hey, Mr A see this.’ In order to be polite, Mr A can check and then go back to what he is doing immediately. But if he is not someone who is committed to productivity, he can abandon what he is doing and start to ‘hoo-hah’ with Mr B such that both of them put their official tasks aside and become engaged in exchanging comments about a news or social media post.

You have to manage the people around you so you can be productive. People are their own enemies, if you leave what you are doing and then start to mind what you are not supposed to do, you cannot be productive. You have to manage people; you have to learn to say,‘No’ or promise to check it later, but not now because you need to do certain things at this time.

You have to be able to manage the people around you:your colleagues, your family members, your friends, associates, Facebook contacts, etc. If someone is chatting with me online and they do not say what they want to say between the first, two, three chats, I would not answer the person again. There must be a reason you want to engage me, I don’t have much time for online chats except there is something important to discuss.

You need to manage your environment too, there are some environments that aid productivity, and there are some that inhibit it. You have to position yourself in an environment that aids productivity, for example the way you organise your system, table and workspace. You will see some desktops littered with all manners of files, folders and applications; experts say you don’t get productive in a cluttered environment. So there is a way you arrange your system and workspace that aids productivity because performance is also environment-driven.

5. Review your work

Top performers have reviews ingrained in their system. If you have done something you should look at it again and ask yourself questions: Is this the best I can come up with or can I do better? They review their day; how has my day been, how have I fared? At home, how have I fared? Have I bonded with my family members? Have I bonded with my wife, husband, children? Review your work, your day, your professional life, your family life, your spiritual life so you can know if you are on track or off track.

The holy book counsels that you examine yourself to see if you are still in the faith. A popular saying goes that ‘an unexamined life is not worth living.’ A life that is not being assessed is not worth living. You have to be able to review your own performance before you are assessed by your superiors. You should also review your day, week, month, quarter and year. This helps you to know what you have accomplished so that you can report it and get the confidence boost to do more. It also helps you to know what is outstanding so you can pursue it. Star performers review their work, output, day, conduct and actions.