CHANGE: THE UNIVERSAL SECRET OF GROWTH

CHANGE: The Universal Secret of Growth

It is the easiest thing to talk about, but one of the hardest things to cope with in reality. Everybody wants it and talk about it but we don’t embrace it in reality.

In the history of man, the only constant thing that has abided with man all through history is change. The need for change can not be over emphasized, just as growth can’t be. In our societies, families, homes and individual lives, we want change but rarely embrace the reality. Change and growth are in some sort synonymous, they go hand in hand. You can’t reject change and say you embrace growth. There is no growth without change. In fact, growth is change.

Perhaps, the greatest gift you can give to yourself, the greatest skill you can develop is adaptation to change. That is where true growth lies. You can not afford not to change because that is where growth lies. You can’t afford not to grow because everything/everybody everywhere is growing. The world is changing fast, very fast. The way business is been transacted, say four five years ago, is not the way it is today. Communication is not the same, transportation is being modernized- change. Everything you can think of in all industries is changing fast. I am very sure that some industries will face out very soon because they will not change.

Growth is choice just as change is. We all have our choice to make either to change or not. Growth cannot be forced on you, you make up your mind to change and you make a conscious effort towards it. The truth is, you either face-out and become obsolete or adopt change. You can’t be a better student, business man, husband, father, neighbor, colleague, etc without change. You don’t just wish change, it’s a decision you make and follow up with.

Growth is resistible just as change is. Growth or change is the only constant thing in life, but can be rejected. Have you not wondered why two people entered the world of employment same day and within seven years, they don’t remain on the same level again? When they came in fresh from school, they came with all manner of attitude and no working environment ethics. The organization begins to train them, some will accept and grow very fast while some will reject and it will directly affect their growth. Sometimes, growth is ignorantly denied or delayed.

Growth can be cultivated and can be done via different means. One of the major means is to prepare your mind to pay the price for growth or success that you desire. This will help you and get you ready for all challenges that change may bring. Other things include obedience, weakness, conceiving the mental picture of what you want. Simply embrace change, it will bring about growth and you will never be obsolete.

Flexibility is key to success in life. Somebody said he learnt to abound and to abase. Flexibility is the ablility to cope with new condition. Flexibility is an ability you must develop if you must grow. You can’t be rigid and consistent with old style and be a world class. To be an authority in any field requires flexibility. Knowing how to navigate in storm and in calmness.

Having read all this, we now know that change has abided with mankind all through history and there is nothing we can do against it but for it. The greatest skill anyone can develop is adaptation to change. Change or growth doesn’t just come, you choose to change and you follow up with your decision. The greatest skill anyone can develop is adaptation to change and you follow it. Change (or growth) is resistible and maybe ignorantly denied. Change can be cultivated by anybody, even you, so stay flexible and don’t reject growth when it comes.

                                                                                                   Olayiwola Korede

                                                                          

                                                                                                   June, 2009

THE POWER OF DESIRE

THE POWER OF DESIRE                     (PART I)

Anybody can rise to stardom. Anybody can rise to legendary. Anybody can immortalize his name. It’s only a function of desire. There is no limit to what you can achieve, there is no limit to what you can acquire or do. It is only a function of desire. The laws, walls, history or pedigree are not in anyway a form of limitation.

I have come to understand that there is virtually nothing impossible, it’s only a function of desire. There is a vast difference between desire and wish. Anybody can wish anything but true desire comes out of sincerity and desperation to achieve. There are lots of people with multimillion dollar worth ideas but the conversion energy is not there: DESIRE. Desire is the medium or channel through which ideas, concepts, visions and dreams are turned into reality. It is the life-wire of dreams, the fuel for visions and the only hope for ideas. Without true desire ideas, concepts, visions, dreams etc are ordinary materials. They will remain in their raw state and are wishes forever.

Of a truth, ideas rule the world, men of vision dictates the pace, dreamers are achievers, but men with strong desires surpass them all. Every mortal man has a vision, but not every mortal man have the conversion energy; desire to pursue it. The battle is not to the strongest, the race to the swift, as they say, time and chance happens to them all. Opportunity plus preparation equals success, but time and chance will not happen to anybody who is expectant. Without expectation you will not identify opportunity. And expectation draws life from desire. Desire is longing in the soul to become, and longing is expectation. If you are not expecting anything, then you do desire nothing.

“To everything there is a season, and time for every purpose under the sun.” It can be paraphrased as to everybody there is a season and time for every man under heaven. I believe there is nobody on earth who has nothing to manifest. There is none without purpose. The Creator had purpose in His heart before creating us. Purpose discovered is vision. A man without vision can’t know the time of his manifestation, what he should or can do. If you have a vision, or understand your purpose, there will be a longing in your soul and that longing should be a consuming desire.

Desire is like fire, the greater the heat the greater the effect. And the effect is very contagious. When there is a burning desire in your heart, it can not be hidden. You say it, act it, and demonstrate it. Your thoughts and discussion is all channeled towards the vision. Nothing moves you, nothing entices you. As far as you are concern, your vision is the most important. It’s the greatest idea. The drama you do makes people around to naturally contact it and directly begin to contribute to it. For a man with a burning desire, no price is too much to pay, no risk is too high to take as long as can bring the desired result.

It is desire that made a pastor to preach a message on what he would do if had a million dollar today and he got it. The conviction (fire/passion) with which he spoke is what generated it. It is long aggravated desire. It is desire that made Martin Luther King Jnr to stand the prosecution and persecution he faced without relenting, even till he was assassinated. Desire to see the blacks and whites treated with equality that made Nelson Mandela historic figure. It is the desire to end apartied in South Africa that made him go to jail for twenty seven years, he was persecuted, yet his desire did not allow him relent. True desire can make you do anything.

            LOVE/DESIRE                               Part II

There is no true love without desire. In fact, desire is the genesis of true love. A man who truly loves a woman started with desire and when the love sets in, he will do anything to get her. Jacob in the scripture spent fourteen years to get this true desire. An old African tale said a particular king wanted to give his daughter out as a wife. So, he called the young men in the village and asked who would like to marry his daughter, and up to half his kingdom will be given to him. Every young man wanted to be connected to the royal lineage. There was a clause, a test that they must pass to get into that. Whoever would be the king’s in-law must swim across a pool of water filled with reptiles. The test was kept as a secret until the day. There was a young man who had longed desire to marry the princess before and have confessed true love to her. When they were told the test and the pool was opened, he jumped into the pool swam across before realizing the danger he had put himself into, He then asked: “who pushed me?” In reality, nobody pushed him other than his desire.

Love for science made Thomas Edison to become the greatest inventor of all time. Love for art made Michael Angelo to become the greatest artist of all time. The love for science and mathematics made Galileo Galilei the father of modern science. Everybody that achieved great feet in any field has done so because of their love for what they do. Michael Jackson, Michael Jordan, Ben Carson, Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, Henry Ford, Sam Walton, Walt Disney, BC Forbes, John H Johnson of Ebony magazines, our own Obafemi Awolowo, MKO Abiola, Gani Fawehinmi, Wole Soyinka, Fela Anikulapo, Austine Okocha, etc became who they were/are because of sincere desire. Love for Christ made Paul the Apostle spread the gospel more than anybody else and the greatest Apostle in the New Testament. Turn your desire on unto what you actually want to do with your life and you will be surprised by the great feat you will achieve.

It is one thing to want to be a thing, it is another to truly desire it.  A young boy went to ask an old man the secret of success, the old man held him in the hand and took him to a nearby river and dipped him in the water, the boy gasped for breath and struggled, the man brought him out for few seconds dipped him in again, he did it to him three times. After the third time he stopped. The boy was panting and the man attempted it again, this time around the boy screamed.  Then the old man said to him until your desire to succeed is like you fight for life then you will make it.

           

DESTINY/DESIRE           Part III

It is amazing how people turn down the true desires of their heart and follow after shadows. Often the true desires of our heart are a pointer to where we belong, what we should do or who we really are. Many lecturers are out there in the banking hall, many entertainers in the classes, while many teachers are trying to be lawyers, many farmers struggling to be doctors. They all ignoring the true desires of their heart and went after the perceived beauty and color. They went for the gold and sparkling and are frustrated, missing it and deeply within them feeling unfulfilled. A woman heard me speak to her subordinate about the true desires of our heart and how it connects to our destiny, after much talk, she sighed and replied the guy, “what he said is correct, many of us knows where we belong but can’t go back into”. Many are there because it’s the popular thing to be a lawyer, doctor, lecturer, banker, engineer, Accountants, etc is more attractive than so many other profession, but deep within them, they are/were more attracted to being a teacher or farmer than the one they ventured into. They rejected the still small voice within that was speaking. They gave no attention to the inner voice, to the intent of their heart and went after fables because of money, popularity, general acceptance, parental pressures, etc

No matter who you are, you have an inner still small voice, you have the true desires of your heart, and you have true attractions, the things that naturally move you. A personal and in-depth conviction that is what am talking about. One way or the other, your destiny is connected to this. It is what the Creator laid in your heart. Solomon in the bible says he did all that was laid in his heart to do, and it was mainly to build a temple for the Lord and a place for the king in Israel. I am fully persuaded that the true desires of your heart has a lot to do with our destiny.

   

                                                                                  Korede Olayiwola

One Chance!!!

One Chance!!!

Life is ironical. Life is mystery gradually unfolding itself on us. We all woke up to the reality of life. We did not pray, beg or ask for it, yet it place demands on us. What is called life is mystery, an enigma, but we just have to live with its reality.

The reality of life is that it places responsibilities, high demands and expectations on us and our conscience will not permit us to deliberately fail in it. Another amazing thing is that life gave no room for rehearsals neither did it blew whistle for anyone to start, yet we are not expected to fail. That means at every stage, at every point we are expected to give our best. I can remember I went to primary and secondary school without any serious approach to life, but not the university.

The realities and responsibilities of life dawn on us at different ages in life. As for me, it dawned on me at the age of sixteen when my father died. It sent a shocking sensation through and down my entire being. Recovering from it was like the veil covering my eyes being removed. My father has been like a savior, a god to me. I did not believe anything can go wrong or against me with this man alive and around me. Being in the car while he drive was like being in a haven. He was a perfect figure in everything to me, trust was too much. When he died, it was like a spiritual covering over me was lifted, so the need for another woke me up to the realities of life. Placed responsibilities on me. The demands and needs to be a man were clear to me. Then I was sixteen. My case was peculiar to me, everyone had a peculiar and different experiences. But the truth is that we have only one life with only one chance to live it.

According to our constitution, you are an adult from the age of eighteen. Anything below this age you are regarded as a minor. So be not deceived, if you are eighteen years and above. Wake up, be sensitive, you don’t have to lose your father, mother or someone precious to you before you wake up to life. This message is for you. You have only one life and only one chance to live it. Joseph conceived the vision for his life at age seventeen, David was anointed at seventeen, please know what you want to do with your life.

King David prayed a very powerful and important prayer; teach us to number our days, that we may apply our heart unto wisdom. An eighteen year old is not a kid any longer, at least by our constitution, and therefore should think particularly about what he/she want to do with his/her life. I observe that many and I mean many are going to through life without any specific vision or goal for their lives. Student or non-student, undergraduate or graduates, many are living their lives to chance. You should not leave your life to chance, be clear about what you want to do. The period between 18-30years is good and long enough to discover and prepare yourself. In Nigeria, from the age of 18 you are recognized by the law. You can drive, travel out, serve jail term, etc. These are perhaps the most important days of our life. This is the time to dream dreams, conceive ideas and bore visions. This are the days of inspirations and youthfulness. Days of youthful exuberance, days of life and vigor. When you want to explore, test and risk.

I tell you the truth, these days will never come to you again. Ask any adult around you. A wise man said great men made great decision early in life and stood by it the rest of their lives. You have the best of times, opportunities, ideas, insights, strength and everything required to lay a good foundation for your (life) future. As it were, these are the days to lay foundation for your future/destiny. Your future can not be brighter than the foundation you laid for it. The kind of foundation determines what is built. Preparation enhances performance. These are the days for real preparation. It goes beyond just acquiring university education. Its about conceiving or determining what you want to live for. Its about identifying the industry you belong. It’s about learning the intricacies of the industry. Getting a mentor and role model. It’s about setting targets for yourself.

The Jewish tradition allows nobody to launch out until he is 30years. At thirty, you are expected to have launched out, get ready for the outside world. This can be called the phase to of your life. Phase one is childhood till you are thirty years, phase two is thirty one to sixty years while sixty one and above can be regarded as phase three. At phase two, you are expected to manifest and show forth. You are expected to prove the quality of the content you are made up of. Shine and show yourself to the world. Do the swagger. And at the phase three, you teach and impact your experience.

Like I said earlier, great men made good decision early in life and stood by it. Wise decision is made with quality and quantitative knowledge base. When you identify the industry you want to explore, stay focused. Focus is the keyword. Concentrate all your energies, that is how to get result. There is height of distraction all around us. The need for focus needs to be highlighted. Focus your eyes as if its one. Direct your energy, attention, emotion, finance and mind into the course you want to die for. Lack of focus is anti-success. It deprives and robs.

Without taking too much of your time, let me say it again; at the age of 18 (eighteen) you are an adult, take full responsibility over your life, know what you want to do with your life. Before the age of thirty, be clear about it. Gather information for the future, at the age of thirty, without any flick of doubt, launch out. Take out territories. Explore and take adventure. Take risk according to your appetite for risk. Eliminate doubt and fear. Live life to its brim. Have in my mind that you will live every age once, so maximize opportunity at every age. Great men made good decision early in life and stood by it. Destiny forbids that you do something lying, cheating, stealing, fornication, etc what you sow you will reap. Don’t plan thistles in your land. You have only one life and one chance to live it.

                                                                                    Korede Olayiwola