By Henry Ukazu
Greetings Destiny Friends,
Setting a record is the joy of every progressive mind, organisation, government and business. It cannot be overemphasized that everyone wants to set a new record. Records are being set daily in different sectors all over the world. For instance, Coronavirus has set new record of global health pandemic in USA and the world general because of the “new normal” it introduced. The new record has affected all businesses including but not limited to corporate organizations, hospitals, entertainment industry, and even the family circle is not left out. You can decide to set a record for yourself. To set a new record, one must be ready to break barriers and create new vistas, and as easy as it appears, it takes guts and extra-ordinary energy to achieve. During the course of this article, we shall be discussing practical examples on how we can set a new record for ourselves.
Setting a new record can be likened to having a new friend. Your circle of friends can either make or mar you. This is because they can either challenge you to do better than yourself or lead you to downfall. Despite having great friends/network around you, the greatest record one can ever set is overcoming himself. You may be wondering how can one overcome himself? Overcoming oneself simply means to do better than you did yesterday. It’s quite unfortunate many people compete with their friends within their network, family, and colleagues forgetting the fact that the best way of competing is engaging in healthy competition. Competing with oneself entails doing better than what you did the previous day, week, month or year.
It is interesting to note that those who you spend your time with will in some way determine how your life will be. Let us take a case study of married couples, once they are married, there’s a great possibility that either the husband or the wife will influence their spouse either negatively or positively. Furthermore, you cannot hang out with chicken and expect to soar. It is always good to look at your friends and see what they are doing and where they are heading to. Ask yourself, where will I be in five, ten years or more? What will make me feel fulfilled? In order to set a new record, you must exceed expectations by going over and beyond. By so doing you’ll be on the path of setting a new world record depending on your expectations. Moral: Choose your friends wisely.
Having said that the greatest form of competition is healthy competition, it is worthy of note that healthy competition is applicable where family members and friends inspire each one to succeed as opposed to trying to dim the light or trying to outsmart another person in a greedy manner. In setting a new record, it is important to know the kind of record you’ll like to set. Some people like to trend for negative reasons while some like to trend for positive reasons. The choice is yours.
Furthermore, there are certain qualities a rational mind must have if he desires to set a new record. One of the qualities is determination. You cannot take away determination from record setting. Some of us have some bad habits which needs to be thrown into the garbage bin. These negative habits can be the limitation factor why we fail to reach our peak. If you have colleagues who are only interested in having fun without balancing it with work, it will surely rob off on you.Avoid them. Spirits are transferable by way of association and influence. Hangout with successful people and you will be successful because the possibility of learning how they live their life is guaranteed.
Set boundaries.
If you are going to reach your highest potential in life, you need to set boundaries and limitations for friends and family members. People need to know what you stand for. If you don’t stand for anything, you’ll die for nothing Question: What will you like the world to remember you for? In the journey of life, you need to identify with the right people. It’s sad to note that sometimes, due to vested interest, progressive minds seem to associate with people who don’t value or identify with their vision. They are merely after what will they gain from them. They are therefore, concerned about their income, relationship as opposed to their mission and vision. These unholy associations are most times geared towards getting sponsors and potential partners to relate closely with. If you ask them why identify with such people, they would snap, ‘what if I lose my business?’ And I ask, what if you lose the vision, perception, image, brand and mission of your company?
Environmental Factors
According to John Quincy Adams, “if your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more and do more, you’re a leader”. If you truly desire to make in a difference, you must make sure you look past your environment. You don’t have to be limited by your environment. You have to be willing to separate yourself from whatever limits your thought process. You need to know what limits you from succeeding. Your greatest desire is to grow and you can do this by conquering new grounds. You don’t have to be stuck in what your environment offers you, neither should you be concerned of what community is saying. The law of the group says, ‘we associate with people with the way we see ourselves’.
As mentioned earlier, your vision and goal are what should rule your mind and life. If your community and friends won’t affect you positively between now and the next wenty years, there’s no reason why you should be around them. Your greatest concern should be the quality and not the quantity of people you have in your life. One loyal and impactful friend is better than ten general friends.
In conclusion, the higher you go, the more selective you have to be. Not everyone needs to be in your circle of lifestyle. You grow up to meet and associate with people, organizations, countries and leaders of thought and industry who identify with your values and vision. That is the notion you should have. You don’t have to relate or associate with people because they are related to you by family or blood. The best way to go around it is to treat them with respect while relating with them from a distance. They may feel bad, but guess what, you’re not responsible for others happiness; you’re responsible for your own happiness.
Food for thought: If you don’t get the wrong people out, the right people won’t come.
Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He works with the New York City Department of Correction as the Legal Coordinator. He’s the author of the acclaimed book Design Your Destiny – Actualizing Your Birthright To Success. He can be reached via henrous@gmail.com
