News
Food for Living: Be the Best Version of Yourself
By Henry Ukazu
Dear Destiny Friends,
It is a known fact that everyone wants to be the best in any field or activity they engage themselves in. But truth be told; being the best is not easy; it takes a lot of hard work, perseverance, consistency and patience. One must put in the work to bear the name he wants to be reckoned with because nothing good comes easy, apologies to the legendary Bongos Ikwue.
Being the best in life is not just about people, it also extends to products, schools, hospitals, businesses, sports, etc.
To understand how the best works, imagine a football coach about to play a final match; will he use his second team or first team? A serious coach will surely go for his best team if he wants to win the match. Again, imagine, someone who is sick, they will look for the best of doctors to treat them even if that person is an enemy, if they truly want to be alive.
Let’s consider the definition of best. The new website Dictionary defines best as “something of the finest quality”. A closer look at the word “finest quality” will explain why every employer employs the best persons for a job. When you work with people who are talented, gifted and at the same time intelligent, the rewards and blessings are priceless.
I have been privileged to work with some intelligent folks, and I will say without equivocation that Abdulakeem Sodeeq Sulyman, Ohimai Amaize and Ebuka Uchem are some of the best exceptional beings on planet earth.
Again, there’s no doubt, we all want to be the best, the question we need to ask is. Are we ready to do the needful? According to Usain Bolt, “I trained 4 years to run 9 seconds and people give up when they don’t see results in two months.”
Now, you see it’s not easy to be the best in life?
Before you can be the best version of yourself, you must uncover your essential values, interest and passion that define who you are in life and the world.
Once you’ve identified the person you want to be, you can plan how to become the best version of yourself.
The benefits of being the best in life cannot be overemphasized. Being the best makes one unique, attracts fame, and makes one rich and successful.
One may be wondering how to become the best version of himself?
The first duty of a progressive mind is to know himself. No one, who doesn’t know himself can succeed or be the best in life. It’s like being successful in your craft. You can make money without loving what you do, but you can’t be successful without loving what you do. When you love what you do and what you do loves you, therein lies your authentic success.
Another way to be the best version of yourself is by being unique. According to Oscar Wilde, “be yourself because others are taken.” In our contemporary society, we see a lot of people trying to imitate other people just because they feel they are succeeding in their professions, business, or craft. These uniformed minds don’t know everyone is different. When you know what’s unique about you, you won’t spend time trying to be like another person. The person you are trying to imitate made himself by understanding himself.
Again, it’s like someone who is passionate about a cause or business. When you know what you love, it’ll be easier to develop interest in learning more, and trust me, there’s a certain level of spiritual blessing and ingenuity that comes to one who is working according to their purpose and passion. Other people might be engaging themselves in the business or craft, but their level of success and favour won’t be like yours. That’s why you can imitate someone’s style, but you can’t imitate their creativity.
Your ability to know what’s unique about you will make you make the right choice. It will help you to focus on what’s important, you won’t be distracted by the noise around you; you will meditate, spend your time wisely and network with the right people.
According to Dr. Yomi Garnett, “to get the best, one must do three things: resolve to think only the best thoughts, work for the best and entertain and expect the best results”.
Even the Bible knows the value and importance of seeking the best. In the book of life, the word says, “….whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things”.
When one is so focused on achieving positive results, the person won’t be concerned about focusing on trivial things. Most of the great people that made an impact in the world had a powerful mindset and they devoted their attention to noble activities.
Being the best does not come easy. One will have to go through pains just like gold and oil will have to go through a furnace to be refined.
Being the best is like working on a purpose, for which the journey and process of refinement might not be easy. Here, people might laugh at you saying you don’t have money, you are wasting your time and so on. Some might even say, you will die wretched working for purpose and advise you to be wise. Here’s my advice; regardless of the negative opinion or thoughts you may have, if you are truly convinced in your purpose, don’t give up. Maybe you are being tested. You may get a temporary side job to support yourself or family while working on your craft, but don’t lose focus on the big picture.
The moral here is, don’t worry about being famous or making money, the most important thing is being the best. When you are the best in what you do, your enemies will seek you, leaders, kings, queens, and influential people will seek you. According to Anastasia Soare “You have to become a master of your craft, and everything else will come”.
In conclusion, as you sojourn through life, affirm positive thoughts to yourself every day by saying, I am the best. Also, endeavor to give your best in whatever you are doing, even if you don’t succeed, be glad you did the best.
Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He works with the New York City Department of Correction as the Legal Coordinator. He’s the founder of Gloemi. He’s a Transformative Human Capacity and Mindset coach. He is also a public speaker, youth advocate, creative writer and author of Design Your Destiny and Unleash Your Destiny. He can be reached via info@gloemi.com
News
International Day of the Girl-Child: Sulaiman-Ibrahim Hosts Students, Vacates Seat for Momentary ‘Minister’
The Honourable Minister of State for Police Affairs, Hajia Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim, has hosted the students of Police Day Secondary School, Area 11, at the Ministry’s headquarters in Abuja, in celebration of the 2024 International Day of the Girl-Child, during which time she momemtarily vacated her seat for a JSS 1 student, Ehis Linus.
Her actions were geared towards proving young girls’ limitless potential to lead and shape the future, according to a statement by the Deputy Director, Press and Information, Mr Bolaji Kazeem, and made available to the National Association of Online Security News Publishers (NAOSNP).
The students were led on the visit by their Commandant, DSP Mariam Damilola Yusuf.
The Minister of State highlighted the importance of empowering young women by ensuring their good education counselling, and safety as well as active participation in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics. She reaffirmed her dedication to fostering an inclusive environment where every girl child can realize her fullpotential and contribute meaningfully to national development. Imaan encouraged the students to be serious about their education, increase their imagination, and creativity, and improve on their can-do attitude as well as think big toward the future.
In her words, “The ongoing RenewedHope Police Reforms within the primary and secondary schools in the policeecosystem is a strong commitment of the government to drive excellence in thepolice institutions and make them a choice school in the country.
The Minister added that through dialogue and encouragement, the event served as a powerful reminder of the need to invest in the growth and empowerment of the next generation of female leaders. As a special part of the celebration, one of the students Ehi Linus was allowed to temporarily assume the Honourable Minister role, symbolizing young girls’ limitless potential to lead and shape the future.
By Henry Ukazu
Dear Destiny Friends,
One of the fastest ways of making a headway in life is having the right attitude. A right attitude is priceless, and grants easy access to and from people. This is in clear contrast with a nasty attitude, which attracts distaste and repulsion.
Attitude permeates relationships with fellow human beings at work, school or public spaces. People can literally see our personalities, mindsets, behaviors through our attitudes.
As a Human Capacity coach, one of the qualities I look for in any person is attitude. When you show an attitude that portrays allegiance to money as opposed to learning, your potential of going far in life will be limited. You luterally show you don’t have the capacity to be loyal when the chips are down.
While exhibiting the right attitude, theee is the possibility of everyone not agreeing with you, however, it is advisable not to burn bridges because you never know when you will need them. You can only do this when you have the right attitude to life.
The right attitude is a currency just like relationships, network, social media and value though a lot of people fail ro realiae the fact. In my relationship with the high and mighty in society and men of influence and affluence, I have seen how they perceive and interpret certain acts. What ordinarily might not amount to anything from an uninformed mind might be the icing on the cake for the great man. For instance, if a resourceful person asks you to do a job, it will be wise to do it for free. Resist the temptation to ask for money.
That’s a great way of marketing yourself to the person involved. If they appreciate your work, you might be surprised to get a good opportunity that catapults you to unimaginable heights.
Also, if the great man asks you to do some work, instead of saying, this is an opportunity to make some cool cash, consider doing the work with the least cost just to make him a potential client. I recently met a young man online who is good with YouTube videos, I asked him if he could cut a video for me, the amount he called was on the high side.
Be advised, I know value has to be appreciated. What this young man didn’t know was that I was testing his attitude with the hope of working with him, but quite unfortunately he failed the test. I had to devise an alternative means to get it done for free.
This is why mentorship is very important. When you have good mentors, they will advise you to think and serve in the right manner. Most young people always operate from a lack mindset. They want to eat their cakes and have it. They fail to understand that there’s seed time and harvest time.
In my relationship with some of my mentors, I have bought nice perfumes, shoes, and luxury gifts to them in appreciation of their kind counsel. What’s important here is not necessarily the amount per se, but the mindset and attitude. Be advised, I didn’t ask for money. I had to show them via my mindset, I’m not a burden so they can feel comfortable relating with me.
As a matter of fact, one of my mentors once said to me, I give him more money than he gives him. When you juxtapose this with contemporary youths, most of them are merely concerned about what they can get as opposed to what they can learn.
It’s instructive to note that it is your attitude and not your aptitude that will determine your altitude. With the right attitude, people will see through your thought process and mindset. My late mother will always say, when someone is talking, look beyond their words and focus on what’s inside their heart/mind. It’s just like communication, your focus is not on what’s being said, but on what is not being said.
One a personal note, I have learnt to study the attitude and mindset of many of my mentors, elders, friends, mentees, and strangers and this helped me a lot to relate with them differently. When you know how people behave, it will be easy to work with them. Sometimes, some people wonder how I relate smoothly with people and get things done, it’s simply a matter of attitude. One of my mentors once said, a general doesn’t fight many wars at the same time, a wise general selects his battles. That’s having the right attitude and perspective to life.
To understand how attitude works. There was a young boy who behaved badly, and his grandfather, an elderly, wise pastor, attempted to counsel him. The Pastor said, it’s as if we have two lions inside of us. One is good and the other is bad, and they both demand our obedience to them. The boy responded, which one wins? The Pastor said, the one fed. What’s the moral here? In the journey of life, it is what we feed that grows. If you feed a lion, a lion will grow into a deadly beast. If you take care of a woman, she’s likely to act soft towards you all things being equal. In the same vein, when an evil desire demands to be fed, we must say no. This is true because what we feed ultimately controls us.
The interesting facts about this Pastor and young man are centered on perspectives. It is how you see life that life will unfold to you. When some people fail in life, while positive minds will see it as an experience in which they hope to learn something from it, negative people see it as failure which has limited them from moving to the next stage in life. Again, while some people experience pain differently, some others react negatively to pain and this in turn hurts them more.
In conclusion, I don’t know what your experience is, nor do I know what you are going through, but one thing I can guarantee you is that, when you have a great attitude, your disposition will surely change. You’ll go far in life when you have a nice attitude.
Today, I charge you to learn how to relate with people with the right mindset and see how your life will unfold for good. I will conclude with the words of Maya Angelou; “People may forget what you say, people may forget what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel” The only way to make people feel good is by having the right attitude.
Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He works with the New York City Department of Correction as the Legal Coordinator. He’s the founder of Gloemi. He’s a Transformative Human Capacity and Mindset coach. He is also a public speaker, youth advocate, creative writer and author of Design Your Destiny Design Your and Unleash Your Destiny . He can be reached via info@gloemi.com
By Eric Elezuo
The National Working Committee (NWC) of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has suspended its Acting National Chairman, Amb Illiya Umar Damagum and the National Secretary, Senator Samuel Anyanwu, for anti-party activities.
The party revealed its decision to suspend the duo in a press statement signed by the National Publicity Secretary, Hon. Debo Ologunagba, and made available to The Boss Newspaper.
The statement noted that the Acting National Chairman, who has been facing legitimacy crisis, and his Secretary, were found culpable with regard to the “letter addressed by them to the Court of Appeal in Appeal No: CA/PH/307/2024 against the Party’s position in the case involving the 27 former members of the Rivers State House of Assembly who vacated their seats upon decamping from the PDP to the All Progressives Congress (APC).”
While condemning the act, the party invoked Sections 57, 58 and 59 of the PDP Constitution, and suspended the officers, referring them to the National Disciplinary Committee.
The two officers are therefore, barred from attending the NWC’s meetings, activities and programmes, according to the statement.
Read the statement in full:
The National Working Committee (NWC) of the PDP has extensively considered the series of complaints raised against the Acting National Chairman, Amb. Illiya Damagum and National Secretary, Sen. Samuel Anyanwu particularly with regard to the letter addressed by them to the Court of Appeal in Appeal No:CA/PH/307/2024 against the Party’s position in the case involving the 27 former members of the Rivers State House of Assembly who vacated their seats upon decamping from the PDP to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The NWC condemned this anti-party activity of the Acting National Chairman and the National Secretary which is in gross violation of the provisions of the PDP Constitution (as amended in 2017) and their Oath of Office.
Consequently, the NWC, pursuant to Sections 57, 58 and 59 of the PDP Constitution, has suspended Amb. Illiya Damagum and Sen. Samuel Anyanwu as Acting National Chairman and National Secretary of the Party respectively and referred them to the National Disciplinary Committee for further action.
In the meantime, the two officials are suspended from all meetings, activities and programs of the NWC pending the conclusion of investigation by the National Disciplinary Committee.
