A Tale of Two Sick Men #BeInspired

I saw this short story on Facebook and I thought I'd be nice to share it with you. Be inspired:

Two men, both seriously ill, occupied the same hospital room.

One man was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon to help drain the fluid from his lungs.

His bed was next to the room's only window.

The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back.

The men talked for hours on end.

They spoke of their wives and families, their homes, their jobs, their involvement in the military service, where they had been on
vacation.

Praying to a God I Don't Trust

So I woke up this morning to the darkness of my room. The darkness that has characterized my life for quite a while now. I stared into nothingness for a while before turning on to my right side to stare at the wall I could not see. Immediately, my brain alerted me that it was time to pray. I sighed. Not again. But by reflex I got up, put my t-shirt on and stepped outside to the corridor and before I could say Jack Robinson, my personal prayer session had begun. I knew I didn't want to but I just felt I should. I had no reason to, I thought. I'm tired of doing this every morning and still nothing has changed. Last I checked, none of my prayers had been answered. Could it be that all this was just fake? That religion is all but a blatant lie? I mean, I had read somewhere that someone said that religion is just man's excuse to explain what he can't comprehend. Nevertheless, I had this scratching feeling deep down that I should banish that thought.

My Take on Marriage

I'm not married. Too young for that but I have seen too many failed marriages and seen too many Hollywood movies condemning marriage to want to be. But we are currently doing a program on Marriage and Family in my final undergrad year so we learn something today that made me understand that marriages fail, not because it is a failed institution, but because the people involved have chosen to let it be. I mean, aren't there countless successful marriages out there? There are. My parents' marriage is a good example of a successful one.

First, people from failed marriages do not understand a lot about marriage.

How to Deal With Difficult People

You will agree with me that people are different. This difference in personalities makes some people compatible while some others aren't. You will also agree with me that no matter where we find ourselves -at work, in school, at home and in public places- we will always come across people who are difficult to relate with. Some of these people are proud while some others just lack good communication skills. You will also agree with me that it is important for you to know how to get along with people so that life can be much easier for you. The more able you are to adapt to people's personalities, the better your chances are at living a freer life. Here's how you can deal with such difficult people:

Help! I'm Addicted to Watching Movies...

Someone asked me to write a piece on how to curb movie addiction so here it is. I'm not much of a TV fan so I guess I may not know much about this but one thing I know is this "where your treasure is, there your heart lies." That's the basic principle that guides this sort of thing. You've got to search deep and ask yourself: "what are my priorities? what are the most important things in my life?" Once you're able to answer this question you're on your way to freedom.

Furthermore, the more time you spend doing more important things, the less time you have to watch movies. Also, it is important that you discipline yourself and learn how to pray to God everyday and study your Bible as well. In the process of doing this you begin to gain perspective on how important times is how much you need to invest and preserve all the time you have. You haven't got all the time in the world.

LET'S TALK ABOUT INTEGRITY

This topic of integrity is one topic that we definitely do not hear much about anymore or so it seems. This morning in our university chapel, our Pro-Chancellor talked about it. Listening to him made me realize how much of this virtue we are lacking nowadays. Few people can actually stand as persons of integrity when we look at it in the real sense of what that word means. And please don't tell me that it is hard to judge a book by it's cover, it ain't. In this present times it has become a norm for people to tell lies and cover up the evil happening around them. It's so sad. Furthermore, integrity should not be limited by situation. This means that holding on to your integrity should not be as occasion serves you. Rather, it should be constant. Integrity should be embedded in your personality and not your actions.
In case you have doubts on what integrity is, let me give you some definitions of integrity:

Do You Want Your Brain to Work Better? Here's How:

According to Dr. Richard Davidson, "Our personalities, thought patterns and emotional responses are wired into our brains". If your brain works well, your personality will be lovable, your thought pattern will be more impressive and your emotional responses will be more intelligent. So if you wanna learn how to improve your mental faculty and prowess, here's how. All these steps are as cited on Forbes, which is one of the most inspiring websites on earth.

1. Make your home and workplace more optimistic. Let your environment encourage your to be more positive.
2. Learn to express gratitude. Show people you are grateful whenever they do something for you.
3. Learn to compliment others. If you like what that lady's wearing, simply let her know. Compliment people. It will keep you positive and optimistic.
4. Do a mindfulness meditation. Become more self-aware. Choose a time when you feel the most awake and alert, sit upright, concentrate on your breathing, notice the sensations in your body and if you become distracted, simply bring your focus back to your breath.

HOW TO SAVE A LIFE

Gloria is a failure. She’s been a failure all her life. From primary school all through to secondary school, she’d always been an epic fail. She even failed at killing herself!

Gloria’s father has never hesitated to remind her of how much he hated her. He never failed to make her know that he wasn’t proud of her. He had given up. Since her mother’s death, she’d even become worse. Gloria’s father had brought her to yet another university admission exercise. She wanted to try one last time. But yet again, she failed. To her, this was the straw that broke the camel’s back. She headed back to the school’s guest house with her father but her father was too ashamed to be around her so he decided to head out again. This time, Gloria decided it was time to meet her maker. Life wasn’t worth living anymore.

HOW TO BUILD YOUR SELF-ESTEEM

Having a positive self-esteem doesn’t mean you are impervious to criticisms from people. It doesn’t mean you don’t feel hurt when people do bad things to you. It also doesn’t guarantee that you will become successful, but you know what; it will make it easier for you. There’s a fine line between a positive self-esteem and pride. Self-esteem builds your self-confidence. It helps you lead a happier life. It makes you enjoy what you do better, whether you are a student, a worker or even a parent. Having a positive self-esteem adds to you it doesn’t harm you. Positive self-esteem gives you more push and drive in fulfilling your dreams and aspirations. You want to learn how to have a positive self-esteem? Then follow these simple steps:

IS RELIGION KILLING US?

I AM ANGRY! I AM PISSED OFF! I am disappointed that I didn’t realize this earlier. Our religiosity is killing us. We have put too much emphasis on fate, the supernatural, predestination and all that stuff and we have forgotten that whatever becomes of us is ultimately determined by what we do.

I do not deny the impact that the unknown has on life but rather, I believe that the reason some people are where they are- in the dust- is because they have left too much to religious beliefs...

DON’T YOU FEEL INSULTED?

One of the worst insults I have ever heard in my life is that “to hide something valuable from a black man, just put it in a book”. You’ve probably heard it before too. And it’s true. Africans don’t read. IT’S INSULTING BUT IT IS TRUE. Some of us do but reading is not in our culture. It is not part of us. I once heard a colleague say that she’d rather buy makeup products than buy books. People would rather invest more on their outward appearance than take good care of what is inside.

From what I have learned, reading a book gives you express access to the author’s knowledge. For example, if an author spends 10 years researching on and writing his book, reading it means you have gained access to 10-years’ worth of knowledge for just a few bucks. So you see, reading the right stuff doesn’t take out of you, it adds to you. It gives you access to knowledge. It improves you. It opens you up to new things and shows you how much you don’t know and how much you still need to know.

Grab a book. Develop a reading culture. You’ll be better for it. It’ll make you a better person.

INSPIRATION: A Dream and a Plan.

While reflecting on a life well spent, Conrad Hilton said “to accomplish big things I am convinced you must first dream big dreams. True, it must be in line with progress, human and divine, or you are wasting your prayer. It has to be backed by work and faith, or it has no hands and feet. Maybe there’s even an element of luck mixed in. but I am sure now that, without this master plan, you have nothing”.

Just so you know, over the course of his life, Conrad- founder of Hilton Hotels- built an empire of 260 hotels.; 185 in the US and 75 across other nations of the world. Now that’s dreaming big and realizing it!

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH THE YEAR?

Counting down to the end of 2013 and I'm wondering if I have I actually achieved all I thought I would achieve when the year begun and the answer is NO! I haven't. But I still can.YOU STILL CAN!
On this first day of the 11th month, you'll need to sit down and evaluate all your choices and their effects on your life so far. Have all your choices given you the results you wanted? Have you had the year you planned to? You can still make the most of this year if you want to. It's never too late to do something you have always wanted. Have a productive November!

To a Child, Nothing is Impossible

I remember when I was still very little; I told my mother that the house I’ll live in will be completely made of glass. I had big dreams and all that mattered to me was that I was able to accomplish those dreams, not considering the several obstacles that I would face. I didn’t think too much about failure because it wasn’t even in the picture. Nothing was impossible and impossible was nothing to me.

Life went on and I grew up. I began to lose my sense of possibility and became more ‘realistic’. I began to face reality and my dreams began to diminish. They became smaller by the day until dreaming big or dreaming at all was alien to me. The truth is this happens to a lot of us. So many people had that possibility mentality and impossibility was nowhere near their thinking until life happened to them. They grew up; and in the process of growing up they lost their possibility mentality and their wild imagination.

Maybe you have come across children who demand seemingly impossible things from their parent. For example, we have kids who ask their ‘poor’ parents to buy them things they can’t afford. These little children go as far as demanding things their parents can only dream of buying. To the kids, what matters is getting what they want without considering obstacles and limitations. But we adults can take a cue from them. This is how we should be thinking.

Just because we’re growing or grown up doesn’t mean we should abandon the limitlessness of our minds and imaginations. Just because we are adults doesn’t mean we aren’t permitted to reason like children once in a while. To a child, nothing is unimaginable. Whatever can be conceived in the mind can be created by the hands. Live limitless! Live creative!

YOU CAN ALWAYS DO BETTER

The biggest problem some people face in life is the problem of expertise. They aspire to become experts at whatever they do and in the process forget that there is always a place in life for improvement. When eventually they attain the status of expertise, they are tempted to believe they have little or nothing to learn any more. In making reference to the Bible, we can read from the book of Philippians 3:12 where the Apostle Paul writes “not that I have already attained, or am I already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me” (NKJV). This statement was made by a man who wrote two-thirds of the new testament of the bible but he never even met Jesus personally. He had more than 20 years of experience in his work. He could be considered what in modern times we call an expert.

HOW TO MAKE FRIENDS

It’s good to make friends and keep them- and I’m saying friends, not acquaintances. Friends are people that are there for you when you need them. There’s a difference between friends and acquaintances. Friends stay with you when everyone else walks out the door. Acquaintances are people that you just happen to meet or know but you don’t necessarily have close ties with. Acquaintances are less intimate than friends are. Friends are those people you can share your secrets with and they won’t judge. Your friends even define who you are.

DARE TO BE DIFFERENT

Just because people are complaining that everyone is doing ‘it’ doesn’t disqualify you from trying. You can be different from the rest. You can stand out. Especially in these modern times where technology is only helping people do almost anything and making things easier, it’s now common place for people to sell the same product and offer the same services. For example, in my school, almost everyone is into photography so it’s now common for just anyone to jump into it because it is a trend. However, amidst the multitude of ‘aspiring photographers’, there are some who actually stand out amidst others. There are those who are slowly mastering the art. 

EASY WAYS TO RUN YOUR BUSINESS INTO THE GROUND

These are simple steps on how to kill your business quickly. If you’re wise, you’ll learn from them and do the opposite:

• Treat your customers like crap. This is the fastest way to kill any business, no matter how big it may be. Some businesses are dead even before they start because they refuse to acknowledge their customers. They forget that the customer is the boss and that he can fire you and substitute your business with another person’s. 
• Improper planning, preparation and consideration before taking action. Many business owners just jump into certain decisions that end up being the death sentence of their business. 

DON’T GIVE UP ON GOD

One of my best songs is Darwin Hobbs’ He’s able. That song encourages me each time I listen to it. It says that: “God is able to do just what He says He will do. He’s gonna fulfill every promise to you. Don’t give up on God, ‘cos He won’t give up on you. Whatever He’s promised He’s going to do. He’s not a man that He’d lie.”

Numbers 23:29 says that: “God is not a man that He should lie, nor a son of man that He should change His mind. Does He speak and then not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?” So many people have forgotten that God always has something bigger than our minds in His plans. We seem to forget that He doesn’t answer to us. He is God: The Almighty. We answer to Him. When He tells us He will do something, we should rest assured that He will surely do it. Not trusting him enough is calling Him a liar and a fraud to His face.

Leadership Development Series Part2: LEADERSHIP AND LEARNING

One of the outstanding setbacks any leader can have is the assumption of him having adequate knowledge and so does not necessarily need to know more. This will be his demise. A leader must be able to learn from every experience at every point in time, from everyone whether superior or inferior, past and present mistakes which led to the downfall of leaders who preceded him and even the mistake he makes. It will be foolishness for a leader to repeat the same mistakes which others have made. Also, you can learn from the success stories of other leaders.