"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.

Its cool to live like Bill Gates isn't it? Or if you are into actors I guess it will be cool to live like Johnny Depp to be able to afford an island right? But, I believe w for us to do that we should ask the right questions. Mostly, we only care about the success story, we know the new stuff they have bought the place they went to for a vacation or their new contribution to a foundation but, there is something we forget how they made it all happen, we forget the struggle story which is the most important. Most stars we see to no matter the field they are in had different trials on their path to success which helped to mold them into the great monument of achievement they are today. The issue is the average mind don't see it from that perspective, they just want the fruit but they tend to forget you need to get your hands in the dirt and plant the seed, nurture through dedication and hardwork to produce that sweet succulent fruit of success. Any person that won a battle must have battle scars. Those scars are there as a reminder of what happened, what he saw, what he conquered and most importantly, to inspire him to cherish and respect that battle he won either from an addiction, poverty or what ever it was that the individual was going through. To make it simpler; no success came easy and if you not ready to face the challenge then, you can't be successful because is the challenges you face that makes you a champ at the end.

One of the greatest book I know is the Bible and, there is a quote from the bible I love and this is it; "as a man thinketh so he is". Now, this is true but what the real issue is if you ask me, is not how a man thinks but rather, what makes a man think the way he does. Most people don't know that the way they think can be shaped. What shapens the thought of a man are basically the things he has seen or heard during different episodes of his existence. In my last article I wrote on fear and I said that fear, is merely false evidence created by your thought process against the actuall reality. Now using the little child that is scared of the dark as an illustration, why is she scared of the dark? There is the possibility that she has either seen a Scary movie, read a goose bumps book or listened to a scary story told by an adult. Now, what do you expect her to think when you tell her to go to bed and you switch off the lights? I believe the answer is obvious, all the scary stories, movies and books now come to play and her mind produces that as reality. If she did not listen to a scary story or see a scary movie, her mind won't produce that reality. These also apply to adults what ever you have seen or heard about business, relationship, parenting etc your mind is going to pick up either consciously or unconsciously and work on them. This makes us scared of taking major decision that would greatly change our lives. The mind is like the body; if you were to feed on chocolate everyday you are mostly likely to get diabetes or become obese. If you don't feed the mind with the right books, audios, video or even pictures and you feed it with all the negative junks, your mind will act on those junks you fed it. This goes beyond just dealing with fear, it also applys to different areas of life. So, in conclusion feed your mind with good books, listen to positive messages from audios, friends, family, see a motivational video or picture and you will be shocked how these little habits will go a long way in propelling you to success.