WHY WASTE TIME

The story is told in a Mexican fishing village where a tourist complimented the locals on the quality of their fish. He asked how long it took to catch them. “Not very long.” they answered in unison. “So why didn’t you stay out longer to catch more?” The fishermen explained that their catches were sufficient to meet their economic needs. “But what do you do with the rest of your time?” “We sleep late, fish a little, play with our children, and take siestas. In the evenings, we go to the village centre, see our friends, play the guitar and enjoy the evening breeze together.”

The tourist interrupted, “I have an MBA from Harvard and I can help you! You can start by fishing longer every day, sell the extra catches. With the extra income, you can buy a bigger boat, then a second one until you have an entire fleet of trawlers. Instead of selling your fish to a middle man, you can negotiate directly with the processing plants and eventually open your own plant. You can then leave this village and move to Mexico City or even New York City and from there you can run your growing enterprise.”

“How long would that take asked the villagers?” “Twenty or perhaps twenty-five years.” replied the tourist. “And what happens after that?” Well my friend, that’s when it gets really interesting,” answered the tourist, laughing. “When your business gets really big, you can start buying and selling stocks and make millions!” Really and after that?” asked the fishermen. “After that you’ll be able to retire, live in a tiny village near the coast, sleep late, play with your children, catch a few fish, take a siesta with your wife and spend your evenings with your friends.” “With all due respect sir, but that’s exactly what we are doing now. So what’s the point wasting twenty-five years?” asked the fishermen. The admonishment this week is for you to define where you are going in life and be sensitive enough to know when you are there, for where there is no vision human has tendency to be distracted by others opinions strongly swayed to accommodate what they think you should be doing. We are designed by God to become great in life, we are not human doing but rather human being. What we become is what we can see from the inside-out of our divinity.

MAKE IT COUNT

Life for so many people is summarized in strings of activities. I believe life can be lived with a sense of significance and purpose. Let’s consider these virtues this Monday morning:

1. Commit to a cause greater than yourself. You are not the center of the universe.
2. Value people rather than things. Relationship is more important than silver and gold.
3. Give thanks for what you have instead of complaining about what you don’t have.
4. Celebrate your everyday life. Life is a privilege. Always find joy in what you do.

Commitment: “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, where you go.” It is the commitment to unrelenting pursuit of your cause that produces excellence in life. Every obstacle is simply a course for you to develop your achievement muscle.

Perseverance: Resolute and unyielding, holding on steadily on a course of action in spite of difficulties, obstacles, suffering or discouragement. “And let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us.” Perseverance is not just an attitude rather a way of life.

Practice regularly: This is the key to mastery. Trying means learning, learning means improving, constantly improving means you will eventually become good in whatever your passion resides. The truth is that we all have these virtues in us. Keep dreaming, believing, as you put in your very best, for fulfillment is knocking at the door!

CONTENTMENT

The story is told of a store opened exclusively to women to assist them in picking their choice husbands. Among the instructions is a description on how to use the store. ‘You are permitted to visit the store ONLY ONCE’! There are six floors here and the attributes of the men increases as you ascend the flights. The rule binding here is that you may choose any man of your choice from a particular floor, or you may choose to go up a floor, but you cannot go back down except to exit the building!

A woman goes to the store to find a husband. On the first floor the sign reads: These men got jobs and love God. The second floor sign reads: These men got jobs, love God and love kids. The third floor sign reads: These men got jobs, love God, love kids and are extremely good looking. ‘Wow,’ she thinks, but feels compelled to keep going. Then she goes to the fourth floor where the sign reads: These men got jobs, love the God, love kids, drop-dead good looking and help with the housework. ‘Oh, mercy me!’ she exclaims, ‘I can hardly stand it!’ Still, she goes to the fifth floor where the sign reads: These men got jobs, love God, love kids, drop-dead gorgeous, help with the housework, and have a strong romantic streak. She is so tempted to stay, but she goes to the sixth floor where the sign reads: You are visitor 4,363,012 to this floor. There are no men on this floor. This floor exists solely as proof that humans are impossible to please. ‘Thank you for shopping at the Husband Store. Watch your step as you exit the building, and have a nice day!

The lesson for us this Tuesday morning is simply, at whatever stage of life we found ourselves as we in put the required efforts we must be grateful, be content with such that we have and learn to enjoy where we are on the way to where we journey. Things may not be as perfect as we planned but remember there will always be room for improvement.

THE ONE YOU FEED!

An old man told his grandson one day, ‘my son there is a battle between the two wolves inside every human. One is evil which gives birth to anger, jealousy, greed, resentment, bitterness, inferiority complex, unhealthy rivalry and competition, lies, deception and altered ego in us. The other wolf is good and gives birth to joy, peace, love, hope, humility, value, vision, kindness, empathy, truth and compassion’. The little boy thought about this riddle and asked ‘grandfather which wolf wins’? The old man quietly replied, the one you feed!

There is a growing battle in everyone to constantly draw the line between good and evil, to choose between what is right or wrong in every given situation. Everyone is confronted with the need to take decisions that can either make or break us. This is just an encouragement this Monday morning; we should learn to feed the wolf of goodness in us at every point in time so it can give birth to a life filled with joy, peace and fulfillment. We cannot afford to feed the evil wolf as the consequences will surely affect our health and emotional well-being. We can constantly feed the good to overcome hurts, disappointments, failures, betrayals, broken hearts and setbacks no matter how long we have held on to them when we learn to take each day as an opportunity to begin again. Paul says ‘one thing I have learnt to do, forgetting those things which are past, I reach out to new things’. Experiencing newness in life begins with a decision to leave the status quo (the mess we found ourselves). Make a decision today to start afresh by feeding the good in us so we can rise from the ashes of failure into God ordained beauty for our lives.

WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW

There was a story of a young man century ago who had a dream of going to the United States. He worked hard and saved everything he could to finally buy himself a ticket. The price took everything he had and soon boards a ship sailing for America. Throughout the trip, he would see people heading toward the dining room to eat. He knew he could never afford the cost of even one meal, so when he was hungry, he would go back to his room and eat from the paltry, dwindling supply of crackers and peanuts. Eventually he ran completely out of food, but he was determined to avoid complaining. He knew that in time he would soon get a job and eat all he wanted. Somehow he managed to survive the Atlantic crossing.

A couple of days before the scheduled dock in the New York Harbours, the ship captain asked, young man I have noticed that you neither come to breakfast or lunch or dinner. Is there some reason?” The young man responded, “Sir I must admit that I spent all my savings just to pay for this ticket and I didn’t have anything left over to buy any meal.” “My goodness,” the captain exclaimed. “I am so sorry that you misunderstood. The ticket includes all the meals! Some things the young man didn’t understand robbed him the privileges his tickets conferred on him!

Living a blessed life is what so many people have not reckoned with in our world. It has been said that we would all be remembered for two basic things, either the problem we were born to solve or the ones we created for others. We must begin from this Monday morning live consciously on the cutting edge and see life as a gift and a privilege. Too often, we tend to forget that those things we don’t reckon with have the tendency to affect us adversely. Offense, un-forgiveness can affect our emotional health. Living a life of joy, peace and fulfilments pays better than holding grudges. We must never allow those things we don’t know rob us of the opportunities to develop relationships with others. Remember, you can never become the centre of the universe no matter the opinions we hold about life issues. Make each day counts.

CORNERSTONE

Who believes what we have heard and seen? Who would have thought God’s saving power would look like this? The servant grew up before God, a scrawny seedling, a scrubby plant in a parched field. There was nothing attractive about him, nothing to cause us to take a second look. He was looked down on and passed over, a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand. One look at him and people turned away. We looked down on him, thought he was scum. But the fact is, it was our pains he carried our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us. We thought he brought it on himself, that God was punishing him for his own failures. But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him our sins! He took the punishment, and that made us whole. Through his bruises we get healed.

We are all like sheep who have wandered off and gotten lost. We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way. And God has piled all our sins, everything we’ve done wrong, on him, on him. He was beaten, he was tortured, but he didn’t say a word. Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered and like a sheep being sheared, he took it all in silence. Justice miscarried, and he was led off and did anyone really know what was happening? He died without a thought for his own welfare, beaten bloody for the sins of my people. They buried him with the wicked, threw him in a grave with a rich man,
Even though he had never hurt a soul or said one word that wasn’t true. Still, it’s what God had in mind all along, to crush him with pain. The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin so that he would see life come from it life, life, and more life. And God’s plan will deeply prosper through him. Out of that terrible travail of soul, he’ll see that it’s worth it and be glad he did it. Through what he experienced, my righteous one, my servant, will make many “righteous ones,” as he himself carries the burden of their sins. Therefore I will reward him extravagantly the best of everything, the highest honours because he looked death in the face and didn’t flinch, because he embraced the company of the lowest. He took on his own shoulders the sin of the many, he took up the cause of all the black sheep. Happy Easter!

NO WORRIES

A teacher was teaching on ‘stress management’ and she raised a glass of water while everyone present expected to be asked the ‘half empty or half full’ question. Instead with a beautiful smile on her face she inquired: how heavy is this glass of water? Answers called out ranges from 8 ounce to 20 ounce. She replied, ‘the absolute weight doesn’t matter, it depends on how long I hold it. If I hold for a minute, it’s not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I will have ache in my arm. If I hold it for a day, my arm will feel numb and paralyzed. In each case, the weight of the glass doesn’t change, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes’.

She continued, ‘the stress and the worries in life are like that glass of water. When we think about them for a while, nothing really significant happens, think about them a bit longer, it begins to hurt and when we think about them all day long, we feel paralyzed, incapable of doing anything creative or productive. You can’t afford to hold longer to hurt in your past relationships, any form of betrayals from people, criticisms from people in your seemly hostile environment. Don’t carry any longer for an additional hour longer excess baggage in the journey of life. You may never get to change someone’s opinion about you because people will always form their opinions about you anyway but your freedom lies in living your life with conviction. Face your future with faith, courage and hope. This week let go of known baggage in your life, family, career, academics, business and community casting all your cares, worries and anxieties upon God for He cares you

Ayo Daniels

7 MISTAKES OUR GENERATION MUST NOT MAKE

The generator generation. We know who we are, we were birth with the sounds of generators vibrating consistently through our ears. We have smelled the pungent stench of diesel and felt the noxiousness of carbon monoxide as we run to switch off the generator under the loud chants of “NEPA has brought light.”

For most of us the generator only came alive at night so that family members did not drown in their own sweat or because diesel had finished or in the famous words of my mother “the generator has to rest.”
The generator generation…our lives have been defined by the generator, it has shaped our culture, our landscape, our architecture, our everything, you can’t build anything today without asking, “where is the generator house going to be?” Some generator houses are even bigger than people’s houses…

The generator generation, we know who we are, we have been sick and tired of the loud vibrations for a long time. But sadly, it is our gift from a generation before us. A generation that failed us, one that gave us not hope but bigger and bigger generators.
But my question now is what does the generator generation do for the generations behind us? We have been inundated with stories of Nigeria’s prosperity in the past. But we have never seen it… the only thing we have seen is the steady and consistent decline of our nation. Sadly, we were too young to do anything about it. But now the baton is changing hands (at least we hope it is), we are the ones that are coming up next, some of us are already company managers, successful entrepreneurs, up and coming politicians, in various positions to make a difference…But the question is would we make a difference or repeat the same old mistakes? I pray not. But just in case, just in case we forget about the mistakes that generated the generator generation…here is a little reminder simply called…7 Mistakes Our Generation Must Avoid If We Don’t Want To Screw Up Nigeria Again!

Deadly Mistake #1: BELIEVING IN VISIONS First we were told it would be vision 2000, the millennium vision. This was when Nigerian would reach its greatness…then that got postponed to 2010 and now we have the optometrically cute vision 2020! Our generation has to realize the urgency of the situation. People are not looking for vision 2020…they are looking for vision now-now. What can we get done now…immediately…not in 10 years time or 5 years time or whenever another cute year comes along. The visions have to stop in our time. There is just too much to be done for people to be talking about visions or the future. We have to talk about what we can do now and then how it influences the future. Not the reverse, because the reverse has made us lazy.
So when we talk about fixing things like NEPA it should be with a sense of urgency, when we talk about fixing roads it should be with urgency. People want to know see what you can do now and not what you can do in the future…

Deadly Mistake #2: BELIEVING THAT PRAYER IS THE KEY
I know I am going to get in trouble with this one, but prayer is not the key. I mean if the amount of times a nation prays was directly proportional to its success and prosperity, then Nigeria will be #1 in africa the world. But sadly we are not, because prayer is not the key, it is actually an excuse that conditions us to wait around for someone else to solve our problems. It has made us lazy as a nation. American probably has fewer churches per square meter that Nigeria, but yet is more progressive than us. And it is simply because they pray but with action. I don’t believe God’s vision when he said pray without ceasing was for people to pray 23 hours a day and then spend 1 hour waiting around for a miracle to happen. It does not work that way…it reminds me of an excerpt from the classic Things Fall Apart, when Okonkwo’s father went to complain to the priestess Agbala about his poor harvest:
“Every year,” he said sadly, “before I put any crop in the earth, I sacrifice a cock to Ani, the owner of all land. It is the law of our fathers. I also kill a cock at the shrine of Ifejioku, the god of yams. I clear the bush and set fire to it when it is dry. I sow the yams when the first rain has fallen, and stake them when the young tendrils appear. I weed-”
“Hold your peace!” screamed the priestess, her voice terrible as it echoed through the dark void. “You have offended neither the gods nor your fathers. And when a man is at peace with his gods and his ancestors, his harvest will be good or bad according to the strength of his arm…Go home and work like a man.”
If God could talk to Nigerians today, he would probably say the same thing as the priestess and that is for us to go home, go to our communities, go to school and work! Not sleep in church all day wondering why things are not getting better. Because the fact is that God has heard Nigeria’s prayers, we don’t need to repeat it 7 times or sleep in the church. What we need to do is get out and make a difference in our community. Because prayer is not the key…prayer with LOTS (intentionally capitalized) of action is the key!

Deadly Mistake #3: ASSUMING PATRIOTISM IS GUARANTEED
Because a person is born in Nigeria, has a green passport and bears Chukwu or Olu or Mohammed in his name….does not automatically mean he owes his country anything. A country has to earn its citizens respect and patriotism. I repeat that…a country has to earn its citizens respect and patriotism.
It does not earn its citizens respect, by frustrating them with needless bureaucracy, by pilfering tax payers money, by setting up road blocks upon road blocks for them. No! it does so by doing the reverse, by showing its citizens it cares for them, about their image and about their well-being. By fighting for them when they are persecuted in other countries, but most importantly when they are persecuted in their own country!
Do not make this deadly mistake to assume patriotism should be given simply because one was born in a certain country. People are not patriotic to America simply because they were born in America, but rather because of what America has done for them.
Sadly, this is something that Nigeria has not gotten right, just take a look at our NYSC program! We have a national service program being mandated by a government that is not in the position to mandate it. When you provide mandatory free health care for your citizens, free Education for your citizens, Scholarship and interest free loans for your citizens, then you can mandate their service. But we don’t do any of the above and worst still we mandate their service rather arrogantly. One day in an NYSC office and you will understand what I mean by arrogantly, you will see how the officials talk down to students as if they are mosquitos that need to be swatted away…all you need is one day, or even one hour.
When a student comes to you to serve your nation, you should ensure that you treat that person with respect. You do so by extending proper customer service to them. But NYSC does the reverse. The customer service is terrible. Little wonder, why majority of NYSCers are relishing the moment that the program is over, because it has shown them in the 1 year or so they served…that they are serving a country that does not care about them. And they carry that feeling of resent with them after the service.
Our generation has to change this…we need to look to earn our citizens patriotism and respect. Our citizens are immigrating out of Nigeria in large volumes. Not because they don’t love their country but rather because they don’t feel the country is looking out for them. We have to create a country where Nigerians have a reason multiple reasons to be patriotic.

Deadly Mistake #4: MISCONSTRUING PAPER INTELLIGENCE FOR PRACTICAL INTELLIGENCE How many degrees we have, the number of distinctions we got in school or how young we were when we graduated is absolutely meaningless in the grand scheme of things. What matters instead is how we are able to transform our intelligence and our degrees into practical solutions for our nation. I mean we all know that Nigerians are the smartest people in Africa and the World sef, we have broken all the global university records that are there to break from youngest graduate to valedictorian and more. But yet, the degrees do not correlate to any form of improvement in our nation.
I think it is because we are focused on the wrong intelligence, the paper intelligence. What we need is to get off our addiction to paper intelligence and instead focus on real tangible intelligence. When William Kamkwamba designed a wind mill in his village in Malawi he did it without a high-school diploma but yet his impact was much more than thousands with PhD’s. Not to say that we don’t have Nigerians making that type of difference, but with our degrees and potential we should be doing way more. But I really don’t blame the students, our Universities do not help either. I’ll explain with one of many examples…
We all know that mobile devices are the future, more people are using mobile devices more than any time in the world. They are using it to access the internet, read books and even make mobile transactions. All of these are powered by Mobile apps, which are becoming the future. You would think that our universities would have made mobile app programming a core part of our national curriculum, but they haven’t and some Universities for example Covenant University even take it a step further and ban mobile devices on campus! So at the end of the day we have a first class upper computer engineer, with all the honors in the world draped around his poor neck, but yet he is not able to design a simple mobile app, that a 13 year old, high-school kid in Ukraine can design! That is sad….we need to avoid making this deadly mistake of paper intelligence and focus on practical intelligence that can help our nation!

Deadly Mistake #5: OVER RESPECTING ELDERS
Nigeria is an egotistic country….if you don’t believe me, then just open your local newspaper on the birthday of a famous politician. You will see that all your pages would be filled with praises from adoring sycophants. I have never seen anything like that, from the gateman opening your gate to the security guard guarding your house…everyone wants to be addressed as “Oga”or “Chief Something.” After some time it becomes quite comical. But, beyond the comedy is a very dangerous aspect. When a nation over respects its elders to the point that when they (the elders) are messing up, nobody below them can speak up…it leads to idea regression. So we end up accumulating a glut of inept older people, with smarter younger (might I mention respectful people around them), that are too afraid to speak up because of the thing we call respect. This over-respect is killing us.
If we are to avoid this mistake in our time, we would have to swallow a truck load of humility and accept criticism and ideas from anyone no matter who they are or how young they are. The phrase “do you know who I am” would have to disappear from our vocabulary, because to be honest nobody should care who you are, but rather what you can do to make their lives better…
PS: If I had my way, a bunch of the civil servants and university professors would be fired, not just because they are old, but because they have blocked their minds from receiving criticisms from subordinates and from getting new ideas. This is why our politics is run by older people repeating the same mistakes, because there is no fresh influx of ideas. Let us get rid of this shenanigans called respect! Nigeria is more important than a persons ego!

Deadly Mistake #6: FOCUSING ON INDIVIDUAL WEALTH
Banana Island and Parkview estate are one of the richest pieces of real estate in West Africa. But yet when it rains…both Banana Island and Parkview estate turn into rivers! These estates with their collection of multi-millionaires (in dollars not naira) living in the fanciest houses have not been able to bring their individual wealth together to address their estates flooding problem. This is the irony of Nigeria! And it stems from the misunderstanding that individual wealth in the midst of communal poverty is somehow still wealth. Sadly it is not…it is poverty and mass stupidity.
But people fail to realize that and are instead interested in filling their pockets and leaving nothing for their communities. So they buy the flashiest cars, but neglect to fix the roads they will drive it on…build the largest houses in their villages so that people can gawk and adore them, but yet the community is in shambles. Some even go aboard to spend this individual wealth…and that is where it gets ironic.
I attended the University of Houston (main campus), which was located smack dab in the middle of 3rd ward. Now 3rd ward is not the greatest neighborhood out there…it is technically considered a ghetto in Houston. But the irony is that the roads in 3rd ward are as good as the roads on the famed bourdillon boulevard. As a community 3rd ward is way richer than Bourdillon and that is a lesson. Because as rich as Nigeria claims to be, we are simply living on individualistic wealth. Until the community, the village, the facilities the roads start reflecting that wealth we would be poor. So we need to ensure the focus is not on individual wealth but rather on the wealth of our community. Only then would we acquire true national wealth.

Deadly Mistake #7: CONTRACT IS NOT A LOTTERY
When I was growing up I used to think that contract was cash given to Nigerian citizens lucky enough to get it…but who could blame me for my stupidity, the average Nigerian that I meet was always talking about the greatest and latest contract that was available and how one uncle or sister had hit the contract jack pot. So it is no surprise that when I attend speeches of successful Nigerian businessmen and women. The average Nigerian businessman vagues you out about the origins of of his wealth. He or she does not give you details or specifics about their wealth. Because if they did, it would sound like this..
“I got a contract, I chopped the money and I started my own business and I became rich. The End.”
That is why we rarely have well-written Steve Jobs like biographies of our wealthy, there is just not enough honest detail to create those sorts of books. Our generation needs to change that…our stories should be like the Linda Ikeji’s (lindaikeji.blogspot.com) and Jason Njoku’s (iroko.tv) of Nigeria…stories that are transparent and reflect hard work and determination. But more importantly stories that contain the details: how, when, where and what!
But before I get carried away with the story aspect of contract, let our generation not forget that contracts are created to be executed. The execution of contracts is what builds a generation’s legacy.
Imagine if the individuals contracted to build the Taj Mahal in India or the 7-star Palm Hotel in Dubai (the Burj Al Arab) pilfered the funds and created a substandard version of both properties or nothing at all…imagine what would happen? Let me tell you what would happen, they would probably become very rich, probably build a huge house somewhere, but that home they build will never be as magnificent as the Taj Mahal and it would not create a legacy and it will not make a country better or add to its economy.
This has been the issue with Nigeria for years, contracts that are meant to make the nation greater are instead pilfered to make an individual richer. If our generation is to make a difference, we would have to execute contracts, honestly and diligently. We would also have to execute grand contracts not so that we can steal more money, but so that we can make our country more greater[sic]…by so doing our legacy will survive for years.

Bonus Deadly Mistake: Asking What Village Are You From:
Whenever I introduce my friends to my mum, male or female and especially female. She asks me this question “where are they from?” I normally stare with a blank look, not because I don’t have an idea what the answer but because my mum wants to know the exact village they are from. Growing up, I never thought about anything like that, to me everybody that was black was Nigerian. But as I grew older I started learning that there were “ndi Yoruba,” “omo igbo” and “awon hausa dem.” And even within each of the major three divisions, there were subsets…the subsets and divisions where meaningless to me, but as I began growing up and experiencing the real world I started noticing them in companies, in ministries and everywhere. People making decisions based on ethnicity…decisions to hire and decisions to get married. The truth of the matter, is that we would need to see ourselves firstly as Nigerians before any other ethnic group break down we have fabricated. Until we do this, Nigeria, will just be a fragmentized shell of its true self….and yes this applies to the whole North-South power rotation BS going on…that has to go!
CONCLUSION: LEAVE IT BETTER THAN YOU SAW IT

All in all, if we are to make a difference, we would have to stop over praying, stop over respecting, stop focusing on good grades, stop focusing on being individually wealthy and stop fighting for contracts. We would simply in summation have to strive to do things differently by doing them better. Which brings me to my final point: Let’s leave things better than we met it.
That is the basic motto our generation needs to adhere to…Like seriously, leave things better…no matter how small. When you go to a toilet and you see it dirty, wipe it down and leave it better than you saw it. If you go to work and it is disorganized, seek for ways to improve it

-OfiliSpeaks

DISTRACTIONS

Disorder equals distraction. And clutter creates lack of clarity and dissipation of energy. Our ability to focus our energy, talent and efforts is paramount to our success in life endeavours. In the age we live, we are confronted with more distractions than ever before. Our professional and personal lives are somewhat intertwined. We must learn how to stand guard at the door of our very active minds. We will never achieve mastery in life by just doing which result in diluting and dispersing our valuable energy, time and attention. Organization may not equal clarity, but it contributes significantly to it. We live in an age that we are constantly being deluged with data. We have a large amount of “stuff” in our lives through the social network medium. Most of it may be good, but all of it also combine detracts from our ability to focus and drive our most desired results. We have to learn to keep tabs on what we allow in. Some may require close discipline all the way but developing checks through systems help to achieve an organized existence which gives us leverage in becoming more disciplined.

 Everything starts with the change in mind sets that clutter both the visible and the invisible kind SHOULD be dealt with. Disorganization is NOT your friend and never has been. Clutter costs a lot. It costs productivity while spending time looking for things that are out-of-place thereby causing yourself a distraction. Clutter also cost peace of mind because whenever you look at the mess, you develop overwhelming feelings which lead to fatigue. And contrary to what many people think creative people do NOT need to be disorganized. The more organization and less clutter we become the more we ALLOW creativity. You may not be able to go from clutter and chaos to order and organization this Monday morning, but you CAN start making the change today. Use your organisers, planners, calendars, technological devices etc. Clutter is toleration worth terminating. Commit this week to create more order and less chaos. Make consistent improvements in organizing your life around your work and life endeavour. Clean out some clutter each day. You can do it and you will reap the benefit of growing to become an effectiveness leader. We should learn to work within order to avoid chaos which most times results in crises. God admonished that all things in life should be done decently and in order.

LIVING FEARLESSLY

Have you ever wondered how animal trainers used to control a five-tonne elephant and keep it from running away? They did it by controlling the animal’s thinking. When a baby elephant was being trained, a rope was put around its leg and then tied to a wooden post secured in the ground. The elephant, which was not yet very strong, pulled at the rope but was unable to break it or to pull up the post. Eventually it gave up. From that point forward when the elephant’s leg was secured it believed it couldn’t get away-even though it was fully capable of escaping, and had been for a long time. It remembered its struggle. That’s one reason it’s said, ‘Elephants never forget.’ And we are like that too. Our thinking limits us, just as an elephant’s does. Usually it’s because of fear. The truth is fear can steal your dreams. You may be afraid of failure. You may be afraid of rejection. You may not want to make a fool of yourself. You may be afraid of trying because you believe you can’t succeed. If you give in to these thoughts and believe that you can’t achieve your dream, you’ll be right-and therefore unable to achieve your dream. Often what we fear has no connection to reality. But here’s the good news: Fear can be overcome. The first step to overcoming it is to believe God when He says about you: ‘…You are my servant; I have chosen you…do not fear, for I am with you…I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand’ (vv. 9-10 NIV).