Don't Be Cool. BE YOURSELF!

Hello Everyone,
I trust you are having a great day and just in case yours has gone as planned, don’t be sad; be happy. It’s all part of the grand plan. It will turn around for good. My colleagues and I had a brainstorming session at the office yesterday where we had to come up with CSR ideas for a prospect. In the course of the session, someone said something that may have appeared not to fly but when thought about critically made a whole lot of sense. I just had to develop it. I know it will help a whole lot of people. Ok by now you are on the edge and really wanting to know what it is that was said. Ok., Hey… ‘Don’t be cool, be yourself’.

Yep, That’s it - Don’t be cool. Be yourself.

Have you ever been in a place where you find yourself struggling to fit in? Have you for any reason being tempted do something (dress, eat, walk, talk or behave) in a particular way, so that other will think you are ‘cool’? Most times our desire for acceptance drives us to a point where we deny our true selves.

I have met people who told me they smoked ‘cos they felt smoking was cool without even thinking about the health implications of smoking. Someone even said ‘Oh all my friends smoke and I don’t want to be left out.’ Guess what? I think that’s a cheap way of saying ‘hey I have no identity…I have no value; throw anything at me and I will take it.’ But do you know that how you see yourself is more important than how others see you.

Do you know that you are beautiful as you are? Do you know that you don’t have to pick up vices just because someone else thinks it’s cool? Do you know that it’s more honorable to be yourself than to have the reputation of being ‘cool’? Truth is, it’s easy to live after the world’s opinion in the sight of the world. It’s also easy to be your true self in times when you are alone, but guess what?

The person with honor is the one who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of his personality.

Be whoever and whatever you are without shame.

Being yourself doesn't mean you are inferior. It only means you have a high sense of personal value. No one has a right to make you feel inferior. You are not inferior.

If you are ‘big’ and people call you fat…don’t get upset and look at yourself as horrible. I’m here to tell you that you’ve got the perfect size, shape and height.

If you’re short or have a small figure and girls wouldn’t date youu cos you’re short, too bad for them, they just missed out on a dynamite. Anyone bigger than you is too big. Anyone slimmer than you is too slim. Anyone taller than you is too tall. Anyone shorter than you is too short. You know why? ‘Cos you’ve got the perfect size, height and shape. You’re beautiful as you are.

Heeeeeey...you're smiling now, aren't you 8).

Mission Accomplished!

Don’t be ‘cool’. Be yourself.

Strength and Honor

Your Dog Can Teach You

Isn't it funny how much we can learn from dogs? Who says dogs aren't lovely? Get a Retriever (Labrador, Golden or Flat Coated) and you will know how lovely and honest dogs are. A friend sent the following piece. I hope you like it & learn something from it.

IF DOGS trained people, we’d learn stuff like:

• When loved ones come home, always run to greet them

• Allow the experience of fresh air and the wind in your face to be pure ecstasy

• Take naps and stretch before rising

• Avoid biting when a simple growl will do

• No matter how often you’re scolded, don’t buy into the guilt thing and pout. Run right back and make friends

• Delight in the simple joy of a long walk

• Be loyal

• If what you want lies buried, dig until you find it

• When someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by and nuzzle them gently.

Dont Give Up

I wrote this short piece three years ago. Someone might just need to read it now.

There are days when you face extremely tough situations. Days when your strength is weak and your visibility is deem. Days you feel life must be an error. You seek to weep but the tears holdback. Days you just want to give up but you know you afford to.

Hmmm! Dark days.

Yet in the darkness of those days, lies an element of light.

Life is a journey. You’re only driving through the tunnel. There’s light at the end.

Though the jewel you seek lies in the dark and deep; the darkest of all deeps; and life’s beautiful playground is turned into Pearle Harbor, you just must STAND FIRM.

YOU MUST NOT GIVE UP, NEITHER SHOULD WE GIVE IN; so that your Faith in who you are may find expression.

You were made to excel; an express image of excellence - that's You; built to win; raised to lead.

If all else fails, your Faith must not fail. It’s what you need to pull through.

Whatever the situation, it’s only a period…It Will Pass!

Your challenge never leaves you where it met you. It will either move you forward or move you backward. It’s up to you to decide which direction it takes you.

Victory belongs to those who believe in it….those who believe hard enough.

It’s all in your mind

A little over a decade ago, I heard a line from a movie that literally opened my thoughts about how powerful the mind is and how if functions. Over and over again people have written about the power of the human mind. That line for a long time influenced the way and manner in which I manage challenges. Although I cannot remember what movie it was, I remember very clearly the words in the line. They were the words of a teacher who had a group of special students and in one of his sessions with them said, ‘Your Mind is Your Power House.’

Take a minute to digest that line. Say it to yourself. Whisper it to yourself…‘My mind is my power house.’

True it is. Everything you accomplish or fail to accomplish starts as a seed in your mind. Your success or failure at that project, examination, or whatever pursuit it might be, depends strongly on how your mind is set. If your mind is set to succeed, you will succeed. It is said that whatever the human mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.

Your capacity to hit your target lies in the way your mind is set or made up.

Let’s use the sniper as a quick example. Once the sniper locks his target within his shooting range through his lens, there is very little that can be done to make him miss his target. That’s the same way the human mind works.

Once you have your mind set on a goal and you ignore all forms of distractions, you surely will hit your target.

Success, wealth, abundance, health, poverty, fear, shyness, e.t.c are all products of a mindset.

Adenike Oke was right when she said, “there is nothing as powerful as a made up mind.”
Strength and Honour

Meditation - Speaking Your Thoughts

Again, I was inspired to share my thoughts on this topic after reading Deolu Akinyemi’s thoughts.

For so long the prevailing thought was that all you do when you meditate is simply slide into a state of silence. Well, I’ve found out that this is not totally true. It is true only to the point where you process thoughts but you do not release them as words.

I have discovered that meditation is never complete without muttering or speaking softly that which you truly believe, are motivated by or hope for. When you mediate, you release words; words that come from the depth of your heart; words that reflect your thought process; words capable of changing any situation; words of Power – the dynamic ability to cause change.
Now, if it is true that we speak from the abundance of our heart and that our words are a reflection of our thoughts, then, the law of attraction must be very true. The law of attraction states that we attract whatever we consistently think about and repel what we give less thought to.

Put differently, YOUR THOUGHTS + YOUR WORDS = YOUR REALITY. Your Life takes the shape of your thoughts and words. You cannot separate a man from his words. Neither can you separate a man’s words from his thoughts. As a man thinketh in his heart so is he.

God demonstrated mediation at creation. The bible records that the Spirit of God hovered over the surface of the earth (God processed HIS thought) and at the point of fullness, HE released HIS thought (HE spoke). God spoke and that which was spoken became reality.

Meditation works. It sure does.

Imagine investing 15 minutes of your day meditating. I discovered the power of meditation in early 2003 and it practically fired me to the top. I moved from minimum to maximum. from scoring 17% to 71% (I will write about this some other time). I practically changed the course of my life through meditation. Meditation works. It does.

Remember ‘…ye shall have what ye say.’ Therefore, whatsoever is true*; whatsoever things are pure; whatsoever is of good report; whatsoever is honorable; whatsoever gladdens the heart; whatsoever makes you full of joy, meditate on it.

Visit Deolu's site there is a lot to learn from him.

Thanks for reading through.

Strength & Honour
Debo
*There is a difference between truth and fact.

Know Yourself

Perhaps, one of the most important and life changing lessons I have learnt in my stay on earth is that of 'self discovery'.

I realized that if it is true that Knowledge is power, then the foundation or the key to the acquisition of knowledge is self-discovery.

As a child I once heard one of my Father's friends say that 'the best thing that can ever happen to anyone is for them to discover themselves at a very early age.' True! Knowing oneself means coming into a place of awareness. This happens at different levels.

The most level is what in ancient Greek is referred to as *'Epigynosko' - A kind of knowledge or a state of being that depicts full/participatory awareness. At this level, there is no shade of uncertainty. You know who you truly are. For example, a child born into royalty may not really know his true status and thus may display contrary behavioral patterns.

However, the moment it dawns on him that he is royalty, his thinking changes. The change in his thought process will influence is behavioral pattern.

Self-discovery is a process. Moreover, like every natural process, such as growth or growing up, self-discovery takes time, comes with its own twists & turns and requires a conscious effort at recording ones behavioral patterns (including responses to challenges). I have reached a conclusion. One, which I heard is also shared by Oprah Winfery and that is ‘…People don’t change, they only grow into who they really are.’

Thanks for reading through.
Strength and Honour,
Debo.

*Epigynosko is only one of the three kinds of Knowledge

A Life oF Giving

This topic is one of the topics I have been inspired by *Deolu Akinyemi to share my thoughts on. I hope you learn a thing or two from it.

''All HE had was 'one son'. He gave him up and today, HE has a large family.''

Several people have come up with several ways of explaining the act of giving. Here's what I think.

I believe that in order to unearth the treasures God has bequeathed to us, we must adopt his own principle for 'having'. In giving, lies the uncelebrated path of abundance.

I believe that the act of 'Giving' is a magnetic field that attracts abundance and repels lack. However, it is important to note that our giving must be constructive, sensible and must satisfy an objective (e.g. meeting a need). I’ll give just one example and allow you reach your conclusion. Jesus (The Christ) exemplified the lifestyle of giving. He gave sight to the blind; He gave hearing to the deaf and to the dumb, He gave speech. In addition, He gave food to the hungry (remember he fed over 5000 men? Women and children not counted.) and life to the dead (remember Lazarus?). He also gave peace to the troubled (remember the man possessed by a legion?). Jesus gave and gave and gave. He was a perpetual giver. He gave all to all. At a point he had to give Himself. He gave so much of Himself; He had to give Himself.

With that single act of giving Himself, he has attracted hundreds of millions of followers, fans, believers. I am one of them.

Look at it this way; because one man gave his life, hundreds of millions of us, have ours.

My conclusion? Simple...'A Life of giving is a life of meaning'. What's your conclusion?

Thanks for reading through.

Strength and Honour,

Debo

*Deolu Akinyemi - www.deoluakinyemi.com