"I hate Mondays!!!!" Now, I won't ask if someone has ever made that statement because that was an anthem I sang every single Monday morning. I said sang because am done with that and presently I love Mondays. I guess someone would be like "Did he just say love Mondays, I think he made a mistake or something". Well, to make things clear let me repeat myself I LOVE Mondays and I am going to tell you my secret on how I made that possible and also teach you to be a lover of Mondays. Deal?

Now, how did I make that transition from hate to love? Simple. I traced it down to the root cause. I asked myself why do I hate Mondays? The answer I got maybe the same as that of most people and it was this; It is the beginning of a new week and that puts an end to my most beloved weekend. Nice reason right but was this the real reason?

A mentor of mine once said in questioning, you should go beyond just asking one question to find the real answer thus I applied this principle. I asked myself if it is because is the beginning, I should hate Sundays the actual day the week starts so why Mondays? I realized it’s because that is when the week work starts. Next question why do I hate work? Because am lazy. Lazy! That can't be right am not lazy (this was what I was saying to myself) truth they say is a bitter pill and this was one I had to swallow. It took a while though but, I came to terms with it.

 I found my answer. So, what next? I had to work on it because what I was lazy at was not work but lazy at myself. I was lazy at doing the things to make me better, I was lazy at doing the things that will develop me. Until I realized this I was stuck with my hatred for Mondays and I remained at performing average and thus was an average person. I believe this is the same for most of us still hating Mondays what we don't know is that most people we admire today really love working hard.

Aliko Dangote, the richest man in Africa and according to Forbes the 56th richest person during an interview was asked if is true that he works 12 hours a day and this was what he said "I don't work 12 hours daily, but 18 hours daily". I was shocked when I saw this interview this man is the richest African for God sakes and he is not taking a break talk more of me I must be crazy to be lazy because come to think of it am not even number last on Forbes list(Forbes don't even know I exist). Bill gates once worked overnight and slept under his desk he was discovered by his secretary the next morning who went in to clean the office and that was when he discovered that he has being working for close to two days. He said that in his twenties never took a day off. Well, I am not saying we should stay awake all night and sleep under our desks but if you have being an admirer of Bill Gates and what he has achieved, I believe that is not a wrong step.

I studied most of the successful people in different fields and I discovered this holds true for all of them. They develop a strong work ethic different from the average individual and stick to them. It is said at some point hard work beats talent and this is true as it has being observed over and over again. These are the things I saw that made me become a lover of Mondays because let’s face it nobody ever made it by saying TGIF every weekend. I have thrown that phrase out of my register and now this is what I say TGIM (Thank God Is Monday) and guess what I now hate Fridays! It may sound funny to you but that is the way it is now because Friday's plan is to take away my beloved working week and bring in a lazy weekend.

So this was how I started a love affair with Monday it may not be what you expected but I hope you learn from it and apply it. That will be all for now so just keep working hard on your journey to success in whatever field you're in and I will definitely see you at the top.

For any resolve made to be a habit you need to have discipline and be committed to that new discipline otherwise, you will never ever get the desired results. This fact as established in our previous article poses the big question: How can someone develop discipline?  Now, I took a little time out, did a little asking around and observed that most of the people I approached associated lack of discipline with lack of will. I guess most people reading this article right now will think that is true. Well, it is not. People that are not disciplined in the real sense don’t lack the will. The only problem is that they are just willing You need something more than a will power. In the Christian community there is this popular saying that ‘The spirit is willing but the body is weak’  will-power can only be enough to get you started but you need something stronger than a will power called a ‘WHY power’.
 What is a why-power? This is simply the reason why you are embarking on a particular course. If you do not find a suitable reason why, you will always start up something new and quit eventually. Finding the reason why gives purpose to your quest. Rarely does a person with a purpose quit. There was a story of a lady whose son was trapped under a car, the weight of the car was crushing on her little boy, while folks around were trying to call 911 and calm her down, she pulled away from their grip, rushed and lifted up the car and pulled her son out, by herself.

Now in a different setting the woman is to lift the car. Would she be able to do it? I believe the answer is no.  So, what has changed? It is the same woman, the same car, the only difference is that no son to rescue.

Here is to WHY she was able to do it before. She saw her son who gave her a reason for being a mother, her embodiment of joy and happiness and probably her reason for living in a death trap, she had a reason and that was all it took. Finding a reason WHY gives an adrenaline rush to whatever you want to do the ‘why’ is much stronger than the ‘will’. That is why I say ‘when there is a will there is a way but when there is a why you will create a way even when there is no way’.

 If you have not found a reason why search deep within you to find one and this will be a great catalyst on your journey to success. So keep living at your full potential and see you all at the top!
 Kpahimee (that is goodbye in Igede language)

"I am overweight need to lose some weight", "I need to increase my capacity I will start reading a book  month" "I drink too much I need to stop". If you have ever made that statement or something similar to that, then you in luck because this is a specially designed for of you.


January was just like yesterday I believe most of us made some resolutions which we term the "new year resolution(s)". We made beautiful plans, wrote them down, some to increase our income, to stay healthy and fit etc. Now, my question is how many of us are actually sticking to the resolutions we made? I bet out of 10 persons only 1 or 2 will still be running with it.

 For some people it is at this point they would really grasp the true meaning of the quote that says ''It is easier said than done'' So why can't people stick to what they promise? Is it that they are not willing? Well, is not that they are not willing. The answer is simple. They don't have the discipline enough to propel forward.

Discipline is a very important component for the completion of any task, project or resolution. Jim Rohn once said "Motivation gets you started but habit is what keeps you going".
The quote above explains the reason why people go to seminars, events or religious programd

, get fired up and are moved to carry out resolutions but in the long run can't stick to it. True commitment they say is doing what you said you will do when the initial mode or excitement with which you said it is no longer there.

People at such events are only motivated to start by the excitement and energy of the environment, they did not make it a habit to continue with the new discipline.

Do you know why people quit easily? Its because they have made it a habit to quit so they don't need a motivation to quit it comes natural to them since is a habit. Quitting is also a habit that is learnt. Its not a trait embedded in the human DNA is what we learn as we grow. For any resolve made to be a habit you need to be disciplined and committed to that new discipline otherwise you will never ever get the desired result.


In life we must suffer one of two things, either the pain of discipline or the pain of disappointment or regret. It would be unfair to tell you to be disciplined without telling you how to be disciplined right? So, our next article will be focusing on just that so keep working towards success, see you at the top!

I'm fond of this adage that goes "You can't do more than you know" This simply means that, for you to perform beyond the level you are now, you need to seek more knowledge. Our previous article talked about 'The ability to identify opportunities available.' So the big question is, 'How to get prepared?'


GET THE RIGHT INFO
This applies to any field across the board, the first step however is to get the right information about your area of interest. How do we get this knowledge? Its very simple, from books, audios, videos, articles etc pertaining to your field of interest.

The huge problem is not finding the right materials, not with the internet around, you simply go online, punch your keyboard, and you will get a thousand results. The real problem is IGNORANCE. We  aren't willing to learn, we don't have the hunger to read and study.
Be a master or mistress of what you do
We now have this  popular catch phrase of "I'm not a book person" I don't know what gave you that impression but please allow me to lend you my ideology on what a book is. A book is a guide or a manual by someone who has being in a particular field for a long period of time say for instance the past ten, twenty, or in some cases, fifty years containing his errors, challenges, and how he was able to tackle and overcome them. Making him an authority in that particular field.

The fun part to all of this is that you don't need twenty to fifty years to digest the experience. It would take just a week or two if you are an average reader or maybe just a month if you not a fast reader. I don't know about you, but for me, that's quite a real deal to just let pass.


BOOK OPTIONS
If you can't get a book, how about an audio version or an instructional audio? We listen to music everyday I suppose, as we go about our daily routine with the headset a must have for some of us.  Imagine devoting just an hour of your music time listening to an instructional audio or book, you would be able to cover at least a chapter.
You'll be busy working as you listen while your subconscious picks up the information. Talk of making your time worthwhile!

SET A TARGET
If you make a commitment to digest at least one book a month, at the end of a year you'll have read 12 books, in 5 years time 60 books and if you keep up and make it a habit, you would be reading more than 1 book a month.


I have a friend who reads one book a week so in a year, he reads a total of 52 books! This is what he had to say "Imagine chancing upon a once in a lifetime opportunity and you are not able to capitalize on it, not because you are not capable but because you are just a few books behind meaning you lack the knowledge".

INVEST IN BOOKS
Successful people today capitalize on opportunities of tomorrow possible through the knowledge found between the pages and utilized it. Don't be left behind make the commitment today and insure your tomorrow. Keep working towards success, see you at the top!

Something funny happened to me yesterday on my way back home. I was kind of running late and wanted to get home on time so, I decided to use a bike(in my part of the world, we use bike as a means of public transport and is fondly known as "Okada"). I stopped an okada man and I told him how desperate I was to catch up with time and urged him to be fast. We took off at the speed of light, he was so fast one or two drop of tears fell off my eyes. Something happened on the course of our journey that was both scary and educative. We were approaching a junction which is popular for been busy and full of traffic. A traffic warden which is popularly known as "yellow fever" is usually, stationed at this junction to maintain order and easy flow of traffic but, for some strange reason none was present. You could imagine how the road was, it seemed like I was not the only person in a hurry, the whole world seemed to be in a rush. My okada man on the other I guess, was not observing the situation from my point of view, he was still moving fast, I wanted to tell him to slow down but, I hesitated, owing to the fact that I was the one that told him to drive fast and I don't want to come across as being inconsistent. So, I just held my breath and prayed nothing bad happened.
  I guess he was too fast and was not able to observe a young lady, driving a beautiful Hyundai Sinatra charging straight at us(by the way am so into cars so, even with the heat of the moment, I could observe that). It would have being a head on collision, but thanks to fate and also the sharp reflexes of my faithful okada man, we were able to maneuver and avoid that from happening. I was still trying to recover from the shock, and gather myself when a 2nd episode started. My okada man started exchanging words with the lady in the beautiful car. Lot of things were said but what really caught my attention was what the okada man said; "idiot! I no blame you, na opportunity cause am, if to say i get you for see me dey ride this okada" (what he was simply saying is he does not blame the young lady rather, he blames the fact that he did not have the opportunities the lady had).
 What he said got me thinking, after thinking deeply I realized something, he was right but only to an extent. Its not about opportunity, its about you being prepared. We live in a world filled with opportunity but you have the duty to find it. Opportunity usually comes veiled is your level of preparedness that will aid in you unveiling it for the world to see. Considering the scenario of my okada man and the lady in the car, they are both in the same country, more or less in the same age bracket, maybe not from the same background but still is not an excuse. As Fela durotoye once said "your background has not right to put your back on the ground". So, if they are in the same country, same age, I believe they were exposed to the same economic conditions, government and politcal system and opportunities. I don't think there was a special system designed to just favour a selected group of persons alone. Presently, there is a recession and believe me when I say its affecting everyone. It is those that can identify the opportunities on ground now, and capitalize on it that will be able to rise above the recession. Jim rohn explained this perfectly when he said "it is not the wind that blows your boat that will determine gyour destination, rather it is the set of the sail". Let me make this whole article as simple as possible with this; what happened does not matter, what you will do about what happened that will matter. So, let us all make a commitment to be able to identify an opportunity.
The next article will be focused on how to prepare yourself for the opportunities out there. And, for those of you that care to know, the rest of my journey was smooth and I arrived home in one peice.

Have you ever noticed something? As time goes by there is always an increase in number. Not long ago was the eightys, the ninetys, and now we are presently in the millennia to be precise is 2017, just yesterday it was 2016. Now, the second thing worthy of observation is the fact that as years go by, there is always an improvement. Transportation evolved from foot to animals, from animals to simple vehicles like bicycles, from simple vehicles to advanced modern day high tech vehicles. Presently man can travel to the moon and back and improvements are still going on. This trend of improvement can be observed in almost every field be it engineering, health, or music etc. Now, this gets me thinking on how well as individuals are we improving. Yes, the human race has overtime improved a great deal but, this improvement came as a result of few individuals who improved on their person value. What am talking about is how well have you worked on yourself to be better? Remember that old adage that says "everyday brings you closer to your grave" am not a fan of that quote but it is the bitter truth. When your short time here is over, you will only be remembered by the impact you made, this impact is a result of you improving on you as time goes by. A man was asked when he clocked fifty, how he was going to live the rest of his life and this was what he said "I will take the experiences of my past fifty years on earth and apply them to the opportunities of my next fifty years". This literally swept me off my feet, the man just came up to the perfect formula on how to get better. This simply means you accessing your performance from the past, find out were you got it wrong, and come up with a way to improve on it. It also means an increase in numbers(in this case your age), should also result to you being better person. So, the you in 2017 should be better than the you in 2016 and the you in 2018 should be better than the you now. If you think it is not Paramount to improve on yourself let me ask you this simple question before I leave; if you were given an open slot to chose two phones lets say an iPhone 6 or an iPhone 7 to be precise which would you chose? Well, maybe you are not into phones, let me use a car instead; if you were given an open slot to chose a car of your choice the two options are a Range Rover Discovery 2016 model or a Range Rover Discovery 2017 model which would you chose? If you can't settle for less when it comes to an inanimate product, if these inanimate products get improved as the year goes by, then why would you chose to settle for less when it comes to you? Don't sell yourself short be all that you can be.

The world we live in today is full of negativity, you will find people saying no, impossible, can't more often than you will hear them say yes, possible and can. So, what does this tell you? You should not expect more than that from them since is already a known fact. What becomes a problem is when you dwell on what they tell you and believe as reality. Les brown once made a statement; "don't let someone's opinion become your reality". Anything being said to you is a mere opinion and not a fact, someone telling you that is impossible for you to do this, or you can't be able to achieve that merely have an opinion which he or she is expressing. The fact is this, when someone is telling you that something is impossible, they are actually imposing their capacity on you that means is impossible for them so, they believe it should be impossible for you and if you agree with them you have unknowingly given someone the power to determine what you can or can't do. The important thing that matters is what you tell yourself, if you can look into the mirror and tell yourself "I know is hard is not going to be an easy path to take but I can do it and I will do it" believe me when I say that is all the affirmation you need. There is an old African adage that says "if there is no enemy within they enemy outside can do us no harm". If you can win the inner conflict of doubt that goes on in your mind, if you can kill that voice within you that keeps on trying to tell you is impossible and you can't do it, if you are able to say to yourself " yes I can and I will period!" What people outside will say won't be strong enough to deter you from what ever path you have chosen.