Purpose

3/30 The Law of Responsibility

Posted on by EDWINO

Great! It’s Day 3 of our #30BloggingChallenge! You are gradually drawing closer to the best of your life. No doubt about that!

In today’s post, we discuss the subject of Responsibility. I believe this is the single most important thing that moved me from a state of normalcy into a realm of exponential growth. Until I was exposed to the relevance of Personal Responsibility, I unconsciously lived life waiting for things to happen to me – and they did. The saddest part is I was almost always not happy about my experiences. Pathetic! Your life, however, after you’ve read this, should under no circumstance be left to happenstance. When you do, you stifle the powers within you that would otherwise make you great. There is no question that your greatness is linked to your personal responsibility. In Personal Responsibility, you take ownership of yourself.

Taking responsibility for your life is about accepting that you are responsible for where you are and that you are the only person who can do what it takes to get you out of where you are. When you accept the premise that there is nothing you can do about your plight in life, you become chained to the life you have. Your future is controlled by you and you alone, regardless of the shifting winds of change that are blowing all around you and regardless of what any other entity is doing.

Whether you ‘d be remembered long after you’re gone – for good or bad – has everything to do with your ability to take ownership or yourself!

If you are like most people, you surely have numerous “reasons” why you cannot be successful and influence your world. You might be thinking, Edwino, you have no idea what I’ve been through. You won’t understand. Well, my goal is not to understand your “reasons.” I only aim to help you remove those limits from your life; to help you reach your potential and fulfill your purpose. But truly, I can only help you that far if you alter what you’re thinking right now. See how you can do that here.

Before you go…

Make the rest of your life, the best of your life! Check out this insightfully lengthy post on Responsibility, published here on The Reality Hub.

1/30 What do you think of yourself?

Posted on by EDWINO

It’s Day 1 of our Win from Within series here on The Reality Hub, and I’m thankful you’re reading this. This is the beginning of a journey you’d always refer to as life-defining.

Today’s post is meant to give you a headstart into the rest of your life. I am confident that you are surely on the highway to your next level of success and influence!

What Do You Think of Yourself?

“We all will act consistently with our views of who we truly are, whether that view is accurate or not.” – Tony Robbins

What would it look like if your life turns out as you wish? It’ll be beautiful, wouldn’t it? Of course! But the sad truth most people need to understand is this: Wishes don’t win, actions do! Every time! But truly, your actions are greatly influenced by one subtle but powerful entity – your thoughts.

Who am I? Am I good enough? Do people like me? Am I the right person for this? Can I do that? How will I appear? What would others think of me? Am I ready enough? Do I qualify? Will it ever happen? Life-defining questions! Throughout your life, most of your answers to these questions will be to yourself. And that is where the danger is; over time, these answers get deeply ingrained into your subconscious, and thus become a hardened part of your being. They form the foundation of your self-belief. Subsequently, all your experiences – events, happenings, and encounters with people – will only affirm what you think of yourself. Thus, your interpretation of these events will always be in the direction of your self-belief.

What you think of yourself greatly affects what you think of, and how you see, your world. In the words of John C. Maxwell, “how you see yourself determines how you see others.” Your perception of yourself – which stems from your thought life – is the determining factor of your actions and inaction. It decides your relationships with others, and your responses to situations, and even affects how you interpret situations. What you think of yourself goes a long way to decide whether or not you’ll even pursue your life’s purpose, or forfeit it for a lesser life.

Self-Awareness

“I think, therefore I am.” – Rene Descartes

“Your ability is constant, but how much of it you use depends upon the identity you have of yourself.” – Tony Robbins

What you consider possible or impossible are rarely dependent on your capabilities, but a large function of what you think of yourself. For example, if you feel certain that you are an outgoing, outrageous person, you’ll tap the resources of behavior that match your identity. Whether you see yourself as a “loser” or a “winner,” will instantly shape which capabilities you access. To be self-aware is to be knowledgeable of who you really are. It’s the knowledge of your true self, minus all your wishes, ambitions, and clouded judgement. To be self-aware is to be well-informed of your ideal value as an individual; to be well-informed of what makes you, you. To be self-aware is to believe that you have something within you that can bless future generations. It is believing and knowing that you have everything you need to fulfill your life’s purpose.

Self-awareness is about

  1. Recognizing your Value

You are extraordinary. There is no one like you. You are the only you that was ever created.

  1. Recognizing and releasing your potential

You were created to solve a problem no one else can, and that is your potential. As such, you have been endowed with characteristics which will enhance your achievement of this task. In the words of Dr. Myles Munroe,

No man is born to live or die unto himself. God gave you the wealth of your potential – your abilities, gifts, talents, energies, creativity, ideas, aspirations, and desires – for the blessing of future generations. You bear the responsibility to activate, release, and deposit them. The next generation needs the treasures of your potential. Think of the many inventions, books, songs, works of art, and great accomplishments others in past generations have left for you. Even as their treasures have become your blessings, so your treasures must become your children’s unborn children’s blessings. Deliver your potential to inspire the children of our world to release theirs.

To be self-aware is to believe that you are capable of much more than you have already done.

  1. Recognizing what’s holding you back

One true mark of our humanity is limitation. We all possess limitations. There are some which you need to accept. You have no control over your place of birth, birth characteristics, or your year of birth. Also, no one has any control over how his life begins. Whiles some limitations are fixed, there are others we can alter, and yet others you have full control over. You have full control over the thoughts you think, the decisions you make, the actions you take, and your interpretation of situations. You are not limited by your experiences as much as you are by your interpretation of those experiences. What’s holding you back is really what you think of yourself. As aptly asserted by Henry Ford, “Whether you think you can or you can’t you’re probably right.”

  1. Believing in yourself

I believe in You. And I want you to succeed. I want you to thrive in success and influence. Nevertheless, much can’t be done if you don’t believe in yourself, too. Self-belief is indispensable in the success equation. To be successful, You must believe in yourself. Regardless of what the past has presented to you, you have the chance to rewrite your story. I hope you write a good one.

It’ll take time. Don’t give up.

Self-awareness takes time. Yet, it is a journey worth taking – it will form the foundation for your greatness. Over the years, my experiences have exposed to me what great orator I could become. However, even my mum would have failed to believe it if she was told about this ten years ago. My mum expressed her utter surprise when she had news of my decision to run political campaigns in college. She actually recalled to the family, how secluded and quiet I was even at age 12.

Growing up, however, I was privileged to be engaged in certain public gatherings which heightened my confidence. To mention a few, I represented my primary school at a quiz competition, I was chosen as master of ceremony for a Talented Kids event; my Dad also pushed me out of those limiting shells when he tasked me to be leading family meetings and events as first born. All these are experiences which have taken well over a decade to push me this high.

Before you go…

If we all did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves. – Thomas Edison.

Be intentional about self-awareness. Be conscious of your actions and reactions from today. Don’t just go through life; grow through life. Expose yourself to different experiences and people. Observe your responses to the different experiences. Take note of them.

Make the rest of your life the best of your life! Make a commitment to embark on the journey of self-awareness today. Your redefinition just began!

Why You Should Not Despise Your ‘Little’ Beginning

Posted on by EDWINO

Attitude is everything. You’ve heard it said time and again, and it’s absolutely true. Your approach to life today actually decides what future you create.

While it’s certainly fulfilling to release your potential, it is much more important what kind of attitude you uphold in the process. Think for a moment. Is your approach to life creating a bigger and brighter future, or crashing the seed of greatness within you?

In today’s blog post, you will find a reason to pursue a great life.

You are Extraordinary

Although great people in our various domains inspire and motivate us to pursue greatness in our own lives, they also intimidate us, arguably. Thus, fixating on the vastness of their present achievements could leave us feeling so insignificant to the end that we contemplate the relevance of our own ambitions. We virtually forget we’ve been fashioned with distinct Purposes.

But as you may be all too familiar with, you were created for a unique assignment; this assignment necessitated your being and distinguishes you from the lot. Unquestionably, there are hundreds of thousands of great people in every single sphere of influence; but your assignment makes you relevant because no one else gets to impact the world as you’ve been created to.

As you read this post, remember that nobody started life as a great person. Obviously, some of us had greater advantages and environments that were more conducive to achievement. But we all have a single similarity, to say the least: each one of us started life as a baby with closed eyes and no knowledge at all. The cold, hard truth, however, is that by our decisions, some of us have developed less impressive lives than others. The good news is that by our decisions, as well, we could exhibit the greatness latent within us.

Irrespective of your goal – from learning a new skill to building a fortune – if you’re indeed bent on hitting top notch, three basic rules cannot be downplayed.

Rule 1 commands: ‘Do not despise your beginning;’ Rule 2: ‘Do not despise your beginning;’ And Rule 3: ‘Do not despise your beginning.’

What then does it mean to despise? The American Heritage Dictionary enlightens:

Despise: to regard as unworthy of one’s interest or concern

To better understand such a strong word as despise, let’s consider what it’s not: to admire, to cherish, to love, or to esteem.

In today’s bustling world, it’s quite easy to despise your life without even realizing it. Simply put, you despise your life when you do not release your potential.

You may be despising your beginning by not creating, and not living by a concrete plan; by not applying the knowledge you’ve gained over the years, or perhaps by not making any conscious efforts to impact lives.

The crucial role ‘cherishing your beginning’ plays in the path to greatness can be clarified by the inspiring story of Abraham Lincoln, one of the greatest orators in American history. A sound description of Abraham Lincoln’s formally uneducated background wouldn’t exactly portray that he could become a successful politician, let alone arguably the greatest president in US history:

Born to an illiterate father who eked out a living on one dirt farm after another, Lincoln grew up in the backwoods of Illinois in a cabin that was initially doorless, floorless and bedless. When he was nine years old, his father disenrolled him from school so he could work on the farm.

Lincoln then had to educate himself. He walked long distances across the countryside to borrow books from people, then read them in his few spare moments.

As a child, Lincoln was praised for his exceptional feats of memory – but they did not come to him naturally. He had to put considerable effort into memorizing things – copying out whole passages from books multiple times, for instance.

He did this without external support; indeed, if he was caught reading when he was supposed to be working, his father would sometimes beat him and destroy his books.

Leadership: In Turbulent Times(2018)

As Lincoln’s story illustrates, hope in the face of daunting life circumstances ought to fuel us to reach for greatness.

You Need a Solid Foundation

Every beginning is of inestimable value – it’s quite unfortunate that few people discover this truth.
Your beginning serves you an opportunity to establish a strong foundation; your foundation determines how far you go in life.

Just as it would be suicidal to raise a skyscraper on a two-storey foundation, success in life depends on what foundation you build.

Foundations specify strength.

In your beginning, you get to develop such fundamental traits that fortify your foundation: Responsibility, Resilience, Courage, Focus, Adaptability, Positive belief systems, Passion, Persistence, Planning, Relationships, Balance, Generosity, Integrity, and Wisdom.

You get to build strong convictions and values and acquire knowledge.

In your beginning, establish a strong foundation. In your beginning, define your life.

Vision is Progressive

Timing is fundamental for fulfilment. In time, the world is framed, and so in time, we get to release our creative powers. In time, we appropriate all progress and change. Our response to time decides what we see in our lives, and as beginners, it’d save us a great deal to recognize this truth.

Your Vision, however great, cannot be achieved in a single day. It takes time. It is worthy of note, therefore, that the fulfilment of vision results from a series of goals accomplished over time.

Thus, you must understand that however BIG your vision, its accomplishment resides ardently in your daily progress.

One profound way to measure a man’s commitment to a vision is to assess his daily goals.

Those baby steps really matter. Do something daily to move your dreams forward.

Mastery is a matter of choice.

Recently, I came across a quote that struck me:

“Mastery takes as long as you want it to take.”

I chose to believe this quote, and it’s wonderful what great heights it inspires in my life, particularly in the areas of personal development and skill acquisition.

Mastery takes as long as you want it to take. In the same vein, the fulfilment of your goals takes as long as you want.

One thing is certain: there are some factors in the environment that may affect your progress, but these should not hold you down.
Decide what you want in your life, and pursue it with all diligence.

“If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you whatever keep moving forward.”
– Martin Luther King Jr.

Before you go….

Think for a moment. Wouldn’t you take crucial steps to develop a better you if you had a new beginning in the parts of your life that matter the most? I bet you would!

What can you do today to make your life better? What new actions and routines can you initiate to build a strong foundation?

This is your time to do exactly that! Instead of worrying about how unimpressive your present is; instead of focusing on the resources you lack today; rather than fixating on the BIG picture of your future, zoom in, and tune in to the present. Focus on today. Make the most out of it.

Decide to heighten your life today! Take Ownership of Yourself!

10 Questions You Should Answer If You Want To Grow

Posted on by EDWINO

1. What do you want?

2. Have you clearly written out what you really want to achieve with your life?

3. Do you have a mental picture of what you want to become?

4. Have you drawn a detailed plan for this purpose?

5. Are your daily decisions bringing you any closer to your Goals?

6. Are you nurturing the relationships necessary for the realization of your Goals?

7. Are you accessing the resources(books, podcasts etc..) necessary for your Growth?

8. Who do you consider to be your model?

9. Who have you chosen to trust? Whose counsel do you respond to?

10. What activities are you pursuing to improve yourself on a daily basis?

As simple as they may seem on face value, these 10 questions are crucial to your success in every facet of life.

What facets of your life need improvement?

Right questions get right answers, but not automatically.

Intentionally spend quality time this new week accessing your life. Seek from within you, sincere answers to these questions.

Your answers are a gateway to Growth and Change!

Make the rest of your life the best of your life;
Take Ownership of yourself!

​ON THE PATH OF GREATNESS I

Posted on by EDWINO

Have you ever imagined a world without telephones, movie theaters, recorded music or even electric lights? Well, the world was no different from that in 1847, when an extremely curious genius was born. His middle-class parents, in the bustling port of Milan, Ohio, had little to no idea, what creative genius they had begotten. The world apparently had not the simplest hint that he was going to light the World. I speak of Thomas Edison, the successful inventor, scientist, and businessman who received over a thousand patents in his lifetime. He was a man of Greatness.

Thinking of great leaders, we think of Washington, Lincoln, Churchill, and Roosevelt. Napoleon and Alexander the Great come to mind when we think of great warriors. Great scientists include Einstein, Edison, Archimedes, and Galileo. We all, in some area of our lives, have people we see as “Greats,” whom we look up to. 

Perhaps you’re already thinking:

  • What causes these people to stand out on the horizon of history? 
  • What causes them to rise above their contemporaries in our minds? 
  • What was it that caused their legacy to enlarge with the passing of the years? 
  • Could you possibly be as great or even greater? 
  • Could you also possibly take steps that would put you on a sure path of greatness?

 

If this resonates with you, read on.

Read More