PRESS ON

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan “press on” has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race. – Calvin Coolidge.

Imagine what would have happened or were we would be now if Thomas Edison had given up after the 10th try or maybe the 300th try of working on inventing the electric lamp. Imagine where South Africa would be this day if Nelson Mandela had given up the fight against apartheid. Take your mind back and imagine what would be the lot of the African Americans today if all the past redemption fighters had kept quiet. It goes on and on with a wonder on the determination and persistence of people in bringing about a change and ensuring that life is better for all.

The grave is full of talented men and women who had so much potential but no staying power. Even in the here and now, we have talented individuals and geniuses who have done nothing to benefit others from their so called talents. They find it difficult to “press on”, for them the slightest challenge or opposition stops them in their tracks. They just give up on making a mark.

It is somewhat a big deal to continue going on in the face of challenges and opposition. For a lot of us we let go of a lot of the things we want to do or think is right. Why? We give so many reasons but the most common is that of making a living. So many forget they have a talent because they need to make a living. They worry over the fact that working on their talent or skills and building a life from it would result in years of hunger. The “staying power” of persistence is not present neither are we determined in “sticking on” to our course until we are able to achieve success.

Everyone in life that has been successful with what they do and their dreams stood their grounds on what they want out of life. For them every obstacle was seen as a hurdle on the race track and without overcoming it you can’t get to the finish line. Some kick it out of the way, some jump over it and some fly over it, whichever way you can hurdles are meant to be overcome with determination.

Continuing to move on in your course of action not looking at or listening to the opposing challenges will put you above with time. Just as we have imagined at the start of this write up, I want you to imagine how wonderful it would be if you are to persevere and finally get to that place you want the end result will be every time that things look bad or it seems you are in a rut bring out the picture and keep going. Let your picture of success be the motivating factor to keep you pressing on and moving forward. Remember that no matter that with determination and persistence you can be who you want to be, you can move mountains and you change your lot in life.

Chose today to “press on”, persist on that dream and be determined to succeed. For you, let the sky be the beginning and not your limit!

LEND A HAND GIVE A HAND

There is a saying in my native tongue (the Yoruba language) which says, “One hand alone cannot lift a load to put on the head” and so I start with this saying. Imagine that you are at a crossroad with a heavy load you need to carry on your head. Would it be possible to tie one of your hands at your back and use just one hand to lift the load on your head? Or would it be possible for you to lift a 50kg bag on your own head without help? Why is it that the market women in spite of everything would ask the person closest to them to help them with their loads?

That’s because one hand alone can’t lift a load to put on the head to do that you need the helping of another able and willing hand. Are your hands helping or willing? Do you lend a hand or give a hand or are you the type that sees someone in need and just pass by with giving a thought to helping out? Do we need to remember the story of the good Samaritan? I remember a phrase one of my friends loves using “right back at you!” she says it with so much finesse that I began to wonder the weight of the phrase.

That is exactly it with lending a hand to the guy next to you. The implication is that it comes “right back at you” since what goes around comes around. Every time you lend a hand you get two back in return, yours and the grateful hand of the guy you have helped. It is a lifetime of hands that you can make use of at any time you need them. Accordingly more effort from others in helping to lift a load means that the stress of lifting is spread and the strain on one person reduced and balanced out.

Life is more meaningful to us all if we learn and become our brother’s keeper. When you lend a hand to someone in need you give out temporarily that which he needs to be who he should or to get to where he needs to get to. In return you get back not just your hand but the loving hand of gratitude from those that you have helped. There are so much ways by which we can lend a hand to the guy next door, find them and make good on them. You will find that your life becomes much more fun and meaningful. Be of help to those who are honestly in need of it, don’t wait for them to ask for it because they might not ask.

THE JOY OF GIVING

2:15am on a Saturday morning, I have just finished one of the best books ever! It’s a story about Christmas even though Christmas is almost a month ago! It’s the story of Scrooge, the grumpy old man who found no fun in life or in living. He was so cold that the heat of many fires could not warm him. But been visited by the ghosts of his dead business partner and that of three Christmas seasons; the past, the present and the future things changed.

It’s a great book to read and filled with so much but one great lesson stands out; the lesson that life is sweetest when you show love and compassion to the people around you. It also taught the lesson that we could change our future even if our past is already set in stone! Our future is an open book, one that we as the owners can write whichever way we want.

Life is such a precious gift that it is impossible to live it alone without sharing the joys with the people around you, those you know and those you don’t know. Giving back is the essence of life and giving back in the most helpful and loving way makes the essence of a greater importance than all the riches and wealth in the world.
Giving is not all money mind you, just a smile, a handshake, a listening ear, a shoulder to cry on, a gift on an occasion or time spent with those who need it speaks so much more and has so much more lasting effect than money given without a kind word.

This is what Scrooge learnt in all the visits before the Christmas day and a lesson he took to heart never forgetting to be merry and happy. Every good seed we sow is a treasure in heaven. We build castles with each good deed and each smile we bring into people’s hearts. Each gift of giving no matter how small is another step to have a good eternity and a better tomorrow for ourselves. It gives you some peace and joy and helps to nourish our souls making it stronger to withstand pain and give more joy.

Scrooge learnt (as we all will if we take time to) that every unkindness is a chain that imprisons the soul of the unkind. When his business partner first appeared to him, he was a bitter unkind man who saw no good in man or the life he lived. He had lost so much as a result and would have continued to do so. But his friend appeared to him in chains of his own making, chains he had made stronger and tighter with his time in this world through his own deed. He had, like Scrooge, been unkind and unloving not giving of himself, his time, or resources it was a thing he regretted but could not change. However he was able to point this out to his friend who learning the errors of his ways changed for the better.

There is nothing as great or as wonderful as giving. It is the life source to the very existence of mankind. All great men where great not because they were rich or because they were wise but because in their strive to make life better for their fellow man they were able to create things that lasted over time long after they have gone, and we are alive today as witness to this.

Remember this words “give it will come back to you, good measures pressed down shaken together and running over, give it will come back to you. When you give, you give to the Lord!”

WHAT IS FRIENDHSIP??

Today is the 21st day of January, 2011 at 06:11 hours Nigerian time here I am sitting on a two-sitter couch in the living room of the two-bedroom flat I share with my siblings. My sister called me this morning at exactly 10:34:09am and told me my eldest brother said I was a thief and that she agreed completely. What did I steal? My own money! However I will not go into the gory details of what led to the name calling but I hung up the phone bitter and almost in tears, well I was in tears with my heart bleeding and nothing to stop it.

Why am I writing this and then putting it out here in cyberspace for the whole of the cyber world to read? Well honestly, I don’t know but after the call I spent hours in contemplation of the journey to where I am today and what I could hang on to. To my disappointment or should I say amazement, I realized that aside from the God who created me and whom I love, I had no one who really knew me or I could say is actually my shoulder to cry on.

Don’t get me wrong, I have friends and I am fortunate to have met people, I even have family members and a lovely parents. But in all of these people I could not think of one person I could call and pour out my heart to.
Realizing this I decided that I might as well be alone in the world or let’s put it this way, in spite of the fact that I love people and life it was obvious that when it really comes down to it “it’s just me” after all is said and done.

At this conclusion, I now wonder what really is friendship and who really is a friend? Is there a kind of grade for knowing who your friend is? If family can gang up against you to do you harm then won’t a “friend” do worse?
Do I continue to love people or do I just love myself alone? Where is that helping hand that should be there for me to make my burden lighter? Or did I miss something along the way about what and who a “friend” should be? I thought it is said “a tree does not make a forest”? or is it that all trees should be their own keeper? I ask all these questions because if I can’t point at one person and say this is the one person who knows me well, then what is the purpose of friendship?

Someone please help me!!
If you have answers to my question please I would like to hear them. God bless you as you read and lend a helping hand.

ONE STEP AT A TIME

There is one great beauty to life
The beauty of watching a baby learning to walk
They move through life taking it one step at a time
And the funny thing is that they enjoy each step
Have you ever thought of what it takes
To move one step at a time?
To simple enjoy life the way it comes without worries?
Have you thought of the beauty of taking your time
And not working at anyone else’s pace?

For the baby learning to walk and the parents
Each step is a delight
Each day is a challenge and a new experience
The joy and wonder in the eye of the baby
Is a wonderful picture to behold all on its own
It’s a gift to them to just be able to go through one step
It’s a wonder to everyone around to also see this great wonder
But what is most amazing is the fact that
When they fall they are ready to stand up again and again
They would only wail with the immediate pain
And once they are back on their feet
The pain of the fall is forgotten for the joy of another step

They toddle along in a near race walking at a pace that can’t be rushed
It is so unlike the steps we take as adults
We are so impatient to move along
We never take time to enjoy each step and to be grateful for it
We complain and blame our legs for not moving faster
We complain about our life for not moving at our own pace
We complain when people around us try to make us understand
We fail to see that the more we run the farther off the finish line is
We set a very far target for ourselves and complain if we don’t get their
But the baby?
All she wants to do is get to the television or her toy
She wants to able to welcome her mummy and dad
Once they get into the house
She wants to move just for the beauty and fun of life

But we adults we have so much plans
We have so many places we want to be all at once
That most times when we fall
Getting back on our feet takes much more time for us
And even in most cases we just sit on and let time pass by
We cry foul and blame everything but not ourselves
We set ourselves up to fall
But we fail to see it
Let’s remember to take life
ONE STEP AT A TIME
Enjoying each step as we take them
And celebrating each step as we make them
With this we will achieve more and get more out of life

LEAVING YOUR MARK ON THE SANDS OF TIME

We are born, we grow and then we die but in between all this stages in life we are all on this earth to leave our mark on the sands of time. How we do that however is left to each and every individual person. For some of us we try to be of positive impact to everyone we come across, for others we try as much as we can to please ourselves and are not worried about who we hurt along the way while we have some of us who are not really bothered about making an impact and so just go with the flow.

Irrespective of whatever way we try to live our lives, somewhere on this beautiful earth our failures and successes are recorded for posterity. It might not be one that is known to the whole world, we might not be as famous as Michael Jackson, Winston Churchill, Adolf Hitler, Osama Bin Laden, J. F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, M. K. O. Abiola, I.B. Babangia, Aliko Dangote, Bill Gates, Thomas Edison or any of the other names that comes to mind. But we must remember that someone somewhere is watching us and learning something from us.

What they learn therefore is determined by us alone and maybe the person that is a student of life. It is imperative that whatever we do we must remember that we would leave a mark on the sands of time. Just like a fossilized print of the ancient and extinct plants and animals that makes it possible for us to understand the past of the earth and mankind, so also will our marks be studied for years to come in other for the generations coming behind us to have an understanding of our time.

Since we all know that time is the most precious gift of life and that time waits for no one in spite of everyone having the same 24hours we must therefore ensure that as time goes by our footsteps on the sands of time is not wiped away by the torrents of life or by the heavy storms we pass through in our own life. We know that with time the track grows cold if we do not leave a way for those coming behind us to be able to locate our route. So as we move along leave a beautiful marker for people to be able to find their way, this way they don’t get lost and they learn faster.

Our life is an open book irrespective of whether you are a celebrity or not, live it well! Our souls will give account one day, keep it well! Our minds are great networks of life and its intricacies, manage it properly! Our body is a vehicle for all this to thrive, treat it with all the care it deserves. But remember that whatever the marks we want to or try to leave on the sands of time, only us can determine or change it. So your life and destiny is yours to make good on! You are here on this wonderful earth already, MAKE IT COUNT FOR SOMETHING!!

ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING

Strange as it seems a lot of people live their lives on the outside looking in. it’s like standing at the window of life and watching others as they party and have a good time.
You are lonely and alone. The whole world is moving forward except you and yet you wonder “why not me?” The pain is masked, the fear has control and it is impossible to accept the invite to join the party. You are the family black sheep, the school geek, the community’s oddball, the office dumbass, the friend who everyone passes over, the unassuming one that is not expected to have an opinion. You wonder why this should be so and yet you do nothing to change the way things are.
To you that’s the way things are and that’s the way it should stay. Every once in a while you wish you could join the party but just as the thoughts come to you, you hear the words “you can never be like them”. Well that voice has spoken the truth and is right in saying you can never be like them. You know why? You are better than they are! You are unique and with all the potentials to be great. The only thing holding you back and is not allowing you to join the party is YOU. Yes you are so caught up in what others think and say that you fail to give YOU a chance to be you.
Therefore you find it easier not to find out if they are wrong. You are so worried that they could be right that proving them wrong does not even come to mind. You are so in the grip of the fear for the unknown that the simple act of living is a chore that you find very difficult.
This should not be the case love. Life is here just for you. You know how some birds learn how to fly? Their mama pushes them out of the nest! Yep, very drastic and risky. What if the bird can’t fly or the reflexes don’t kick in fast enough? Remember that the first thing about life is not living but survival and so the bird will not fail itself because it wants to survive. Living comes after survival is certain, that is the part when you begin to enjoy the party. You have to first make it to the party and enter in at the door.
The same goes for you. Take a chance, join the party and have a good time. That party will not be the same without you. What it needs to be the best party ever is your presence, your participation, your enjoyment and your joy of just been the life of the party. Always remember that no man is an island and its impossible to have a go at life alone. If that were the case I am sure God would have stopped human creation with just Adam. But then you would not be here now would you?
Stop looking in through the window, the door of life and all its enjoyment and pain is open to you. Enjoy the good, learn from the bad and reflect on the ugly. You never can say that ugly could just be the beast waiting for your kiss to turn into a handsome prince!!
Happy 2011!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IT WILL NOT ARRIVE LATE

There is time for everything we hear
There is time for everything we know
We get a vision, we have a dream
We look for ways to make them a reality
Sometimes we are in too much haste
Sometimes we are not attentive enough
Even at times we are just indifferent
And in some instances fear holds us back
Just like we read of the story of the manna from heaven
No matter how much the size is
It will still be the same weight
So also no matter how hard we try to hasten it
That success we seek will arrive at the set time

Yep!
Their truly is an appointed time for everything
But what and when is that appointed time?
This becomes the question that we need answers to
How do we know that it has arrived and not a fluke?
Actually this is the easy part
When success comes it cannot be hidden or held down
Success speaks for itself and does not bring shame
It is not a thing to fear and is responsible
Success is not wealth or riches
These are just the elements that go with it
They are part of the rewards for success


Success does not arrive late
It comes gradually and is identified not by the beneficiary
At least not initially
But by the people around who can see the manifestation of it
It is an accomplishment that we get for working well and hard
Therefore if it is an accomplishment
Then it will arrive not late
But at a time when the seeds we have sown bring forth fruit
And you know that it is impossible to hide the fruits on a tree
Everyone that passes by will see it and admire it
They will want a bit too

Remember that success will come
Only if you have put something into getting it
It is impossible for something to come out of nothing
Therefore put in that effort that is needed
Do not relent
Don’t be shaken or blown out of course
For the success that we all seek
Will arrive just at the right time!