SUCCESS SERIES PART 2: FOCUS ON WHAT YOU HAVE

In the parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30, Lk. 19), the Lord of the house gave talents to his Servants according to their different abilities – strength and intellect; to one he gave five talents, to another two talents and to yet another one talent. However, while the servants with five and two talents were busy investing and profiting from their talents, the man with one talent was earnestly imitating those who had none.

In the record of Luke chapter 19, the Master charged the servants to “occupy” till he comes, after giving them the talents. Has it ever occurred to you dear, that they could have been more people in the Master’s life than the three servants in question, however not “everyone” got a talent. Sadly also, ‘Mr. One talent’ chose to live like the people who did not receive anything from the Lord of the house; sitting at ease in Zion while his talent wasted in the ground. He was angry at his Master for giving his neighbours more talents than himself, instead of realizing how much easier it is to profit with less responsibilities than it is with plenty.

The lesson is; if we focus on what we have instead of comparing ourselves with others, we are sure to succeed in life. You may not be a ‘Jack of all trade’ but you can the ‘Master of one’ or some. That comes when you FOCUS and you are DELIGENT in ‘whatever your hand findeth to do’. You surely have a talent-skill, ability in something. It could be in music, acting, mechanics, electrical repairs, scholarly pursuits, leadership, and interpersonal skills etc, all you need to do is to put your heart to it and someday success will come knocking on your door.

SUCCESS SERIES PART 1; DO NOT LIMIT YOURSELF

‘SUCCESS’ means different things to different people, and for a lot of us we base our judgements or measurement on quite ephemeral stuffs; the things we possess. SUCCESS in its true sense is not measured solely by our mundane possessions, nor by the acquisition of the ‘goodies of life’ as we often call them- the cars, houses, good jobs, level of education etc but by the achievement of life goals. In simple language; the fact that you have a fat bank account, own car(s), have built house(s), hold a Ph.D or a D.Sc does not necessarily mean that you are successful, they are only signs that you have made some progress in life. For some, things like houses, cars, money are but inheritances and not progress accruing from personal efforts. And while others may have earned some of these things, their life may be far from fulfilled. The definition of success is very subjective.

Also, success is not achieved by competing with fellow men or trying to ‘out do’ someone else, but by trying to ‘out do’ yourself, by trying to be better than ‘who’ you are now. Discovering latent potentials only come, and are better utilized when there is an inward drive to do better, to improve on already achieved goals, to polish already known talents and refocusing of ideas and concepts (mindsets).

Why try and struggle to ‘out do’ someone else, thereby making yourself at best a copy cat in the process, while there are millions of ideas lying, wasting inside you. You limit yourself dear, to somebody else when your whole life and energy is powered toward being like or better than him or her.

The sky is large enough to contain all the fowls of the air – be you.  The pigeon may not be able to soar like the eagle, but it is bird enough to find a spot in the kingdom of birds. Stop the competition because it is not worth it: be original! You are good enough to stand on your own; on your own ideas, your own concepts and you are good enough for universal acceptance. All you need is; BELIEVE in yourself. Every time you stand before a mirror looking at the image of yourself, one question you should not fail to ask yourself is; ‘what/who do I see’? It does not matter what people see in you, it is what you see in yourself that counts. Success or failure in a man’s life does not answer to what people around him thinks, it answers to what he thinks of himself.

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One of the things that make me like Facebook is that, I get to laugh a lot whenever I'm around here; great friends, beautiful peeps, life changing preaching, crazy profile pixes, annoying but sometimes inspiring comments, disheartening political adverts (not all of them tho), quite ethnocentrisms and the whole lot... 

The most annoying yet funniest of them is, like Nigeria the ever changing Relationship status of some people; from "in a relationship" to "Complicated" to "Married" to "single" then "about to get Married" back to "single" and for some "Officially boy-friendless". HA!!!!!! na wa o. I tire sef. people don turn NEPA sorry PHCN??????????????????????? 

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE EVERYBODY!!!!!!!! O-JARE