WORK

I think strongly that the reason a lot of people have not become financially empowered as they will want to be is lack of the true or deep understanding of the word “work”. In as much as I believe that some of our acts as human are wrongly named. For example I wonder why trade is called business, looking at the etymology (study of history of words) of business it is traced to the state of being busy. From that account it implies that activity is celebrated over profit. I think this is totally incorrect; profit should rank higher than being ‘busy’, because without profit any and all businesses die. That is why I want to promote a change of name.
We can decide to rename this single most important act of man either as profitness, gainess,or wealthiness etc. I will subscribe to any name that promotes productivity, profit rather than the activity.

So I will be using this article to correct one of these many wrong interpretations or poorly organized naming ceremonies, like allowing Lord Lugard mistress the honour to give Nigeria her name, and no protest from our founding fathers.

I will like to approach this definition from science point of view. In science work is the product of force and distance, it is the amount of energy transferred by a force acting through a distance. The force must be applied in a specific direction.
In science there is something like zero work; this is when the force applied does not move a body or its position is not altered, no work is done. For example a book on a table, though a gravitational force is acting on it, in as much the position remain unchanged no work is done.

We must realise...
Work is not activity, which is where a lot of folks are confused. It is not the amount of energy dissipated, nor is it about the amount of effort invested. It is rather Returning on Investment (RoI). So before we start expending energy, we must be able define the distance we want to cover. We must know what we want to accomplish before embarking on the activity. That is what goal setting is all about
Work must be done with the outcome in view. We must clearly define what we intend to achieve. You must be able to answer the question. What am I trying to achieve by taking up this job? When such objectives are not clearly spelt out frustration is inevitable. This singular knowledge turns you into an entrepreneur even while an employee in another person’s office. It teaches you flexibility. Once you realize you are not about achieving your goal, you quickly change jobs, it teaches you professionalism. This lesson is simple, no work is done until you achieve your goal. Understand I am not trying to say that achieving goals is just about taking one giant stride, what I am teaching is that each of your baby steps must be taken with the goal post in view. Don't try to entertain, no drama. It is all about scoring goals, it makes the difference. You don’t get good grades by just writing some things down, you get it by answering the question correctly.

We must realise that air planes, vehicles, sky scrappers, jets, paper were created from the same brains that all of us carry around with our bodies. They are product of Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Steve Jobs well used brains. Do you want a car, a house, a beautiful family. Sit down, think, meditate, study, read, pray, be flexible, be dogged. Don’t take no for an answer, anything is possible to him that believes.

Power of Perception

Which is bigger an airplane or a star? From appearance the airplane is bigger; the truth is that most stars are far bigger than the earth. You will notice that at the closest contact an airplane actual size is bigger than what we perceive when it is flying.

The picture I am painting is that our senses does not give us the original picture or size or accurate information about situations, things or objects. We must accept this information as true; therefore realize that we don’t always have accurate data upon which to make judgments.

Do you realize that sun is also a star; it is the nearest star to the earth that is why it appears bigger than other stars. Other stars are visible in the night sky, when they are not shone by the sun.

Due to their great distance from the earth, all stars except the sun appear to the human eye as shining points in the night sky that twinkle because of the effect of the earth’s atmosphere. Stars range in size from Newton stars, which vary anywhere from 20 to 40km in diameter, to super giants like Betelgeuse in the Orion constellation, which has a diameter 650 times larger than the sun- about 0.9 billion kilometers. Source Wikipedia.

The fact that we cannot see a thing does not rule out its existence. We should maintain an open mind, we don’t know everything. There are still lots of things to be discovered in all aspects of life. We don’t have the fastest cars yet, we have not built the finest house yet. There will soon be cure for AIDS, for cancer etc. More revelations will soon spring up from the bible. We will soon see faster airplanes. Open up your mind.

Once upon a time, it was observed that the earth was flat so nobody dared travel long distance; Christopher Columbus dreamed, dared, thought and superimposed that assertion, it gave birth to USA. Now it is known that the earth is spherical.

Our problems stare us in the face so they appear so big and insurmountable. When a man is hungry the need for food is urgent so it may affect his reasoning. When we understand perception we will begin to approach life in a different way. Some of us will divorce our marriage with impossibility we will realize that there is nothing that is impossible.

We must also realize that we see with our mind not our eyes. Truth does not rule the world imagination does. It is not necessarily the truth that dictates our action. But rather what we imagine to be true. The Lord Jesus said “you shall know the truth and the truth will make you free”. Anything that you know that does not usher in freedom is not the truth. It is what you perceive to be true. We consider ourselves expert in perception which is not true. To demonstrate this fact, read the information that follows, one time.

FINISHED FLIES ARE THE RESULT

OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY

COMBINED WITH THE

EXPERIENCE OF MANY YEARS.

How many F’s is there in the above statement? Read once, you’re probably going to count 3F’s. But there are 6F’s in the statement you must have omitted the F’s of “OF”.

This is caused by Scotoma which is defined as a sensory locking out of our environment based on prior conditioning and/ or expectation. Most of our beliefs that we base our decisions upon are assumptions and hear says most we never really verified yet we claim ownership. 

The L.O.L.O. concept which is lock on lock out is when we develop a sentimental emotional attachment to those things we are exposed to first.

We can only consciously see one thing at a time.

Once you are lock on to a particular thing it is very difficult to see anything else. What we tend to do is that we consciously gather data to prove our decision are right; it is called cognitive dissonance theory.


Brain               


Our brain has 3 parts they are the conscious, subconscious and creative subconscious.

Conscious part of the brain helps us to perceive our environment through our senses. This is coordinated by the reticular activating systems which determine how far we can see or what we can hear. And there is limit to what we can smell or hear. We are not fully aware of what is going around us, if we are, we will run mad. Dogs can see better than us, this informed the reason why human sight is aided by microscope and telescopes. Thus we are aware of other organism such as bacteria, fungi etc. We have knowledge of other planets, the size of the sun, the moon or the stars. The conscious part of our brain makes decision based upon perception, association, and evaluation.


The subconscious on the other hand stores data that the conscious part perceives as true. It handles automatic activities and over-learned skills such as driving, walking, sleeping etc.

The creative subconscious maintains sanity, it solves and resolves conflict and reduces stress. It selects the most currently dominant image of reality about me and makes me act like that image of reality. My creative subconscious is not bothered whether this is my best or not. It rather acts out whatever I have accepted as truth about my job, my wife or whatever, my creative subconscious works to make it so. If I told myself that I have a good job, my brain work to make it so. One of the ways we can put creative subconscious to maximum use is to learn not to turn away from life problems. When we face problems and refuse to run away from them we are engaging/tasking our brains and putting it to work. We are telling our brains that this is not the end of the world, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Our natural state is harmony. Therefore if we are faced with a problem that creates a disharmony, we work toward harmony.




Awareness
Awareness is defined as how clearly I perceive and understand everything that affects my life. We cannot become anything that our awareness does not permit us to become. Our awareness is the key to our success. Our sense places limitation on our awareness. This is one of the reasons the bible teaches faith. Faith is seeing through God’s word which is our God given microscope and telescope. It helps us accommodate greater possibilities. Life is beyond what we can use. There are spiritual forces, there are spiritual beings we can’t just see them.


Principles That Can Help Us Increase Our Awareness
(1)I must know what I want before I can become aware of how to get it.
What this teaches is that we have a choice, we are not victims. The only two "haves" we have in life are :- we have to die and we have to make choices.
So what do you want? You are not concerned about how to get it or where to get it at this stage? The issue is what do you really want?
(2)I determine what has pay value?
Pay value is seeing the end from the beginning. What is in it for me? What do I stand to gain?

The consistently luck person is the who knows what he or she is looking for, knows the pay value and opens the filter thereby receiving the information that assists in achieving that goal.

We are a product of our thoughts we cannot do better than our level of awareness. So our concern is to dream, allow our imagination to wonder. Even if we cannot figure out the how of our dream, we know that the problem is not our dream.
But it is that we lack the necessary information or know-how. So we work on the know-how, open ourselves up to new ideas. We allow our creative subconscious to go to work.

The word of God is the truth, the bible is the truth.

There are two types of success the good and the bad success. Any of them manifest based on your source of information and what information you dwell on day and night. If you make the word of God your source of knowledge you will have good success

Joshua 1:8

Sources: Inspiration, Bible, Making Success a Habit by Steve Musseau

Self Confidence, a must learnt skill in Life II

To catalyse our experience at growth we should labour to change and affect our feelings. We should set goals for ourselves that we can easily surmount, in this way we can boost our confidence. We are the best of the pack. We are wired for great things no matter what we are going through, no matter our state of health.
We need the understanding of the following to experience our true self.

Patience     


Growth takes a long time. To be patient is to trust and never give upon the growth process, without making angry demands and expectations or worrying that the seed won’t flourish properly. We usually can’t foresee just how and when our efforts will bear fruits.

Patience is a bitter plant, but it has sweet fruits.

One must wait till evening to see how splendid the day has been.

Acceptance

To accept, this is to see clearly and with full awareness the good and bad, suffering and joy, as part of life and to experience life without battling, mostly that things be different or immediately trying to change, fix or get rid of present distress. Acceptance also means we will welcome the world as it is. It does not mean we should not do anything about our pains, distress or adversities. It teaches that we should have a clear mind about them, we should not allow them to push us into anxiety and become burnt out. Anxiety and fears resulting from our reactions makes it difficult for us to see clearly thus find a long lasting solution to our problems. If we can accept our challenges as reality of our world, it becomes easier for us to live a happy life and find solution to our problems.

Compassion


Love heals wound and nurtures growth. Compassion is sorrow over the suffering of others, and a desire to help. We don’t have to wait for people to express it towards us before we show compassion towards ourselves. We can show compassion towards ourselves, when we are faced with problems, that is when we need to show compassion. We must be willing to help others, give and it shall be given to you, it does not have to be money.

Non-attachment


Paradoxically, as we release externals and stop struggling so hard to be something we are not, we gain greater appreciation of who we are. If I insist that I need a certain kind of car in order to be happy, I might be sad if I don’t have it. If I get that car I might fear that it will be damaged or I might become angry if it gets scratched or stolen. So we can practice loosing our grip on what we demand in order to have happiness and self confidence, trusting that we already have every thing we need to be happy or confident.

In India monkeys are caught by attacking a treat-filled coconut to a string. The coconut has a hole large enough for the monkey to insert his open hand. Once the monkey clamps his fist on the banana or sweet meat inside the coconut the fist becomes too large to withdraw. Unwilling to release the grip, the monkey can be easily captured.


We should be very careful not to link our happiness to external stuffs such as money, marriage.

Non-judgement


Does saying mean things motivate us effectively? Or do loving kindness and encouragement work better? A person who puts him or herself down finds it more difficult to rise. It can be quite liberating to realise that we don’t have to over-react to situations by using harsh, punishing judgments that leads to intense negative emotions. We should avoid using such words as I am dumb, I am stupid, I am a failure, if not is should passed my exams.

Life manual taught us not to judge not only others but ourselves. If we notice we are not doing well in one aspect of our lives, we should accept the situation and make plans to perform better when next the opportunity presents itself.

Beginner's mind


This imply an open mind, a learner’s mind, a mind committed to constant and never ending improvement. The mind of a child who is experiencing a some thing for the first time, without overlying expectations or assumptions. Approach problems with a possibility mind, with God all things are possible. Mark 11:23for verily I say unto you, that whoever shall say unto this mountain. Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he sayeth shall come to pass he shall have whatsoever he saith.
We should approach life problem with possibilities, we see ourselves as being surrounded by helpers. We should understand that the universe is interested in our progress.

Good Humour


we should not take life too serious, we should rather enjoy
Life. We should watch event as they play out. Sometimes we may have to become spectator in our own movies, we will realize that our life story is the best seller.

Commitment


It means we will practice the necessary skill even when we don’t feel like it. We have to be committed to staying confident.

Vastness


This attitude helps us to be Calmly aware, without being drawn into harmful judgements about ourselves or the situation we encounter.

Generousity


The generous heart gives from a sense of worth, not a need to prove one’s worth, knowing that one’s giving matters giving can be very simple – a smile, our full attention, patience, allowing people to be just as they are, courtesy, a helping hand, encouragement, food or money – offering what we can, in so far as this does not create undue hardship for ourselves. Sometimes we avoid people who are struggling, fearing that their suffering might contaminate us and drag us down. In so doing we close ourselves off from the joy of giving and loving.
The Yoruba have a saying

if the hunters considers the investment involved in a catching a prey he will not share his spoil with any other

. Giving is empowering, it is healing.


Reference: Bible, 10 simple solutions for
Building self esteem: how to end self-doubt, gain confidence, and create a
Positive self – image by gleam R. Schiralch, PHD.

Self Confidence, a must learnt skill in Life I

I noticed that naturally people without money sometimes lack self esteem. This is demonstrated in their inability to relate with people that has money. Some times what is called inferiority complex. I wonder how they intend to solve their money problem. I am not suggesting hero worshiping or idolatry. What I am saying is that we should be able to approach people we need leverage from. What we need to do is to find out what we are willing to offer in exchange for their help. Once we find out what can be offered we should be bold to approach them.

Self-esteem or Confidence is a realistic appreciative opinion of yourself. Realistic means we are dealing in the truth, being accurately and honestly aware of our strengths, weakness and everything in-between. Appreciative means we have good feelings overall about the person we see.

Our self esteem or self confidence is who we are which is not subject to change. Whether we have a disabilities or we have a social misfit all these does not change who we are. Our feelings does not have any effect on these, it is about how we were made in the image of our creator.

Self-esteem rests upon three building blocks which are;
1. Unconditional Worth.
2. Love
3. Growth

Unconditional Worth – Worth as a person is neither earned nor increased or reduced by external factors such as the way people treat you, bad decisions or fluctuations in your bank account balance.

Psalm 139:14 – “I will praise thee; for I am fearfully, wonderfully made, marvelous are thy works and my soul knoweth right well.”

Unfortunately, that is not the message that is passed across in our society. Our social status sometimes is determined by the kind of car we use, where we work. This practice is what encourages photocopy, when we try to be someone else not ourselves.

Rather we should act out ourselves, which is the movie that will make us the money we need.

Our self confidence should not depend on our performance, health status or social status.

“The culture we have does not make people feel good about ourselves. And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn’t work don’t buy it”

Most times we compete to show our worth, but we don’t have to. No man is worthless. Our core self, our worth represents attributes for living well. This includes capacities to love, think rationally, sacrifice, persevere, beautify, experience beauty and make good decisions. This natural attributes can be fine tuned. That is what God meant when he said we should renew our mind.

Romans 12:1-2 - “I beseech therefore brethren, by the mercies of God that ye presents your bodies a living sacrifice holy, acceptable unto God, your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

External Influence/ World – These things do not change our worth. These are appearance, vitality, health, economic status, gender, race, age , job title, promotions, awards, adversity, relationship, family (marital status), popularity, number of children, school grades, mistakes, moods, jobs or athletic performance, skill levels and control over events. Since the society is preaching a different message, that is why probably in this part of the world we are “title” crazy. That is why life manual advised we should not conform but rather be transformed.

Love
What is love? According to life’s manual “Love is patient, kind, envies not, does not vaunt itself, does not puff, is not rude. Love is selfless and is not easily provoked. She does not keep record of evil, rejoices not iniquity, rejoices in truth. She believes all things, bears all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.

From this we can conclude that love is the attitude that wants what is best for the beloved at each and every moment. A decision and commitment made each day and a skill we can learn. I do not subscribe to the school of thought that suggests that love is of different types such as Agape, Philo etc. Probably because I have not read Hebrew version of the bible. Likewise I will suggest that love is not a feeling, I think it is a conscious daily decision we have to make, it is who we are. I think so strongly it is the building block of all types of relationship, it is not only between a husband and wife, it is the only knot that can bind all relationships.

We must understand that
Human tell lies, they naturally make promises that they cannot fulfill because of their limitations.

Num. 23: 19 “God is not a man, that he should lie neither is he the son of man that he should repent.

Without love it is impossible to relate effectively with one another.

Growth
Growth is a direction, not reaching a destination. It does not imply we will not falter, it means we are committed to becoming a better person. Forgiving ourselves and others so quickly and pushing ahead.