Wake Up, Put On Your Shoes and Start!

It was Les Brown that said “Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears.”

A lot of people wait until when it is either too late or impossible to do something with their life. They have Phd when it comes to giving excuses.  They always have an excuse for not doing the right thing. When asked why they are still where they were some years ago, they would respond with almost the same thing: they will blame their failure on the fact that they came from an underprivileged background or because they went to a village school with low standard of education or simply because of the government of their country. It is however very unfortunate that this category of people failed to realize that nobody wants to hear their excuses. What the people want to know is Whether they have “arrived” or not?

There is a thousand, four hundred and forty minutes in a day and about nine thousand hours in a year. Time and good health are among the greatest assets in the world. Only a few people understand this, and even a fewer out of the few have decided to tap into the opportunity presented to mankind through time. Every person is born special and for a reason. It is either one fail to discover this reason or he is indirectly proving God to be wrong for creating him. Elbert Einstein was not far from the truth when he said: “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”

A quiet number of the successful people that are being celebrated today had been faced with unimaginable challenges. Abraham Lincoln was born and brought up in abject penury. He was faced with the worst obstacles you can think of through out his life time.  He lost eight elections, failed twice in business and suffered a nervous breakdown but at the end he was elected president of the United States of America. Helen Keller was also born blind and deaf yet she grew up to read, write and speak. She graduated with honors from school,  elected into women hall of fame and received presidential medal of freedom. You should also know that Dangote started with only $3, 000 but he’s the richest black man in the world today.

One of the many other reasons why this people succeed is that they had decided not to Lie down on their beds and analyze the color of the ceiling or count the number of insects that crawl on the wall, or complain about the barks of a neighbor’s dog.  They went out to harness their hidden potentials, those treasures buried in the mind of every individual by God.  They all did this because, like I wrote earlier, they were faced with problems and they also quickly realize that people were not interested in the challenges they were passing through. So the best way to get people interested is to actually get them interested. Nobody is interested in the challenges you are currently passing through but everyone will be interested in those positive changes you have decided to bring. I agree with John C.  Hagee when he said: “the world is not interested in the storms you encountered, but they want to know; Did you bring in the ship?”

“The greatest tragedy to befall a person is to have sight but lack vision.” Helen Adams Keller

Successful people posses some qualities that distinguished them from the crowd. They first of all have a vision, a dream, a clear idea of how the future will look like. They fully understood the danger of procrastination. Goal setting to them goes with discipline. They also strive to learn and internalize some principles of success. They have a special world view and are exposed to certain principles about life. Most of them are readers and good listeners. Failure meant the opposite of quitting. Failure inspire them to do better and greater things than the one they had initially failed in.  They are very positive people and that made them to always see possibilities. Finally, they understood that there’s an invisible yet powerful force that controls the universe and it’s the same force that controls their destinies. That force comes from the God Almighty.

Wake up from your slumber and start something with your life today. Tomorrow holds fulfilled promises and smiles.

Written By: Ewa Yakubu S.