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Food for Living: Change Your Mindset
By Henry Ukazu
Greeting Destiny Friends,
According to Buddha, “Each morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most.” This is a very deep saying. Everyday we rise from the bed, we are given opportunities to succeed by creating new vision and products, but what we do with our time is what literally makes the difference. It’s very easy to blame others for our misfortunes, but the truth is if we look inward, no one can insult you without your consent.
One of the greatest powers we have as human beings is our choice. Just like we all have different taste buds, we also have different preferences in life. The difference between a great mind and a shallow mind is how they reason and understand life. Both of them have different visions and understandings. While one is thinking of leaving the comfort zone by taking a rational risk, the other is thinking of maintaining the status quo.
If we take the discussion a little bit further, the human mind is the second most powerful force or power. This is because if the world is telling you, you can succeed on a task, and you know, you can’t accomplish the task, you’ll definitely fail, but if the world is telling you, you’ll fail on the task and you are determined to succeed, you’ll definitely succeed because he that is in you is greater and stronger than he that is in the world.
In medicine, we were taught about different parts of the brains, for the case of this article, we shall limit our to four parts namely” the frontal lobe which performs cognitive functions. It controls our voluntary movement or activity. The parietal lobe processes information about temperature, taste, touch, and movement, while the occipital lobe is primarily responsible for vision. The temporal lobe is largely responsible for creating and preserving both conscious and long-term memory
Each of the lobes is controlled by the mind. Your success and failure in life can be attributed to many factors such as your thinking faculty, network, exposure, knowledge, and God factor amongst other factors. Amongst all this, the mind stands out because regardless of how other attributes work if our mind is not in alignment with our faith, knowledge, and network, we’ll fail.
The human mind is capable of achieving anything is desires if it plays by the rules. This is because our success and failure start in our minds. It’s quite unfortunate many of us have limited the power of the mind. If you believe you can achieve a particular task, you’ll achieve it, setbacks will only act as energizer to you.
To appreciate the how the mindset work, imagine wearing a pig a gold or jewel, the pig won’t appreciate it, rather it will make a mess of it, but give that jewel or gold to a rational mind who knows the value, you’ll see how the person will treasure it. That’s simply how mindset work.
The question we have to ask ourselves is how can we change our mindset? Changing our mindset is not hard, rather what is hard is remaining focused. You can change your mindset every now and then, but are you ready to commit to the new target? Every year, we make a new resolution to live a better life, stop procrastination, kick out negative habits and live a disciplined life, but within a couple of weeks and months, we see ourselves going back to the old habits.
The difference between a poor man and a wealthy mind is their mindset. A great man doesn’t limit his thoughts and vision towards life, but a poor man has no problem beclouding his mentality with lots of negative reasons or factors why a task can’t be done. Let’s share some examples of how we can change our mindset.
Learn to meditate
When you meditate, you develop your mind to opportunities. You see what other people can’t see. Very few people know how to meditate. There’s uncommon power in meditation. When you medicate right, your mind opens up many opportunities.
Focus on your long-term vision.
Always have the end in sight. It is the vision you have about life, that will inspire you to forge ahead when you face challenges.
Keep Your Circle Close:
Your network is your net worth, don’t associate with low minds who don’t have the vision of an eagle, rather associate with people who are smarter than you. Find people who reflect the values you want to adopt. As your own mind starts to change, it’ll become easier to connect with more positive people.
Challenge your thoughts.
You cannot change your mindset without changing your thoughts. Whenever you are faced with negative thoughts, always look for positive thoughts to counter it. Thoughts have power, if they are not uprooted, they have the tendency to grow and germinate and bear fruits which can kill your vision. Kick our negative thoughts from your mind. Stop being afraid of what could go wrong and start thinking about what could go right!
Affirm and Visualize:
Tap into the power of affirmations by daily affirming positive words into your life. I can’t overemphasize the power of affirmations. You can do it every day by speaking into your life when you wake up every morning. Whenever you wake up or each time you experience a challenge, affirm and visualize by saying, it too shall pass, it’s a matter of time. Creating a strong mental picture of where you want to be, reinforces the message in your brain. Nike has a logo that says “Just do it”. To them, all you need is the belief factor, don’t look at the reasons why it can’t be done, rather focus your mind on why it can be done. In order to affirm and visualize, dream it, think it, speak it, affirm it, and act it. When you affirm, you visualize yourself in the dreamland. You can a take tour, travel, or even chat with your idol just to have an experience of what it feels like being in the desired place or position.
In conclusion, it should be noted, you can’t give what you don’t have, neither can you achieve what you didn’t visualize. True success is by luck neither is it accidental, rather it’s a deliberate and intentional effort to succeed.
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 and President of gloemi.com. He can be reached via info@gloemi.com
Armed policemen have taken over the Wadata Plaza headquarters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Abuja, as tension continues to mount over the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting, which is expected to hold today.
Channels Television quoted an unnamed party official, who alleged that the police were deployed to stop the proposed NEC Expanded Caucus meeting.
Though some staff members of the party were initially allowed to go into the premises of the secretariat without any resistance from the police, they were later sent out.
Journalists were also been asked to leave the premises of the secretariat.
Some policemen were seen cordoning off Dalaba Street, which is the road leading to Wadata Plaza.
The Presidency has said there has been no change in the position of Senator George Akume as Secretary to the Government of the Federation.
“There has been no change in the status of His Excellency, Senator George Akume, as Secretary to the Government of the Federation,” Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, said in a statement made available to journalists.
The statement is titled ‘Akume Remains SGF.’
This followed multiple reports which quoted Presidency sources saying Tinubu had named his Special Adviser on Policy Coordination, Hadiza Bala Usman, to serve as the new SGF.
Onanuga said, “President Bola Tinubu, currently in Saint Lucia, has not made any new appointments.
“The information circulating about Akume’s replacement is untrue. Agents of mischief fabricated it.
“The Presidency advises Nigerians to disregard the fake news.”
By Henry Ukazu
Dear Destiny Friends,
It is everybody’s desire to be successful in whatever field of endeavour he finds himself. It can be in career, family life, business endeavors or personal development. But there’s absolutely nothing good that comes easy. Everything in life involves a lot of hard work, smart work, dedication, discipline, network, sacrifice, prayers, and determination among a whole lot if one is intentional to succeed.
Of a truth, success is not for the faint-hearted. In all honesty, everyone wants to be ahead of everyone, especially contemporaries and funnily enough, the average human being sometimes have a bit of ill- feeling when competitors arise or seem to outsmart them either with better quality or price. The good thing about this however, is that it makes one sit up.
Now, this brings us to the essence of today’s article. For anyone to be ahead of their competitors, they must fly like the eagle. Eagles are known for their powerful build, sharp vision, and fearless nature. They are highflyers, capable of soaring to great heights, and gliding for extended periods. Eagles are also known for their tenacity, using storms to their advantage to gain altitude. Other notable characteristics include their strong talons and beaks, used for hunting, and their protective nature towards their young. These are some of the qualities that make it unique.
The eagle is not regarded as the king of the sky for fun, no. The eagle flies so high because that’s where it gets a chunk of its strength. This ability enables the eagle to take its prey and predators alike to it’s abode where it will have enough emotional and physical strength to dismantle them.
I will be sharing characteristics of an eagle to enable us know why we ought to be like the eagle if we want to soar.
VISION
The eagle has a sharp vision. Their vision is so precise. They can see farther than any animal. They possess exceptional eyesight, allowing them to spot prey from great distances. As human beings, we must have eagle eyes to know what we really want, and what we don’t want. Vision allows us to go for what we desire and deserve. When we have vision, we won’t wait for anyone to tell us when to strike. We flow through the wind despite the waves and heavy current and associated challenges. When our vision is precise, it will give people clarity to understand how they can assist us.
Let’s take a closer look at great leaders of this world who have come and gone. There are many great leaders that came and went but one characteristic that is common in all is “Vision”.
Vision is a successful leadership characteristic
You must have a vision that guides and leads your team towards the organizations or societal goals. The vision must be big and focused. A big, focused vision will produce big results
FLIGHT
Eagles are known for their ability to soar and glide, using their large wings to their advantage. Eagles can fly up to an altitude of 10,000 feet, but they are able to swiftly land on the ground. At 10, 000 feet, you will never find another bird. If you find another bird, it must be an eagle.
An eagle doesn’t mingle around with the pigeons. It was Dr. Myles Munroe who said that. Pigeons scavenge on the ground and grumble and complain all day long. Eagles are not. They fly and make less noise waiting for opportunities to strike their next prey or glide with the current of the storm.
Great leaders are problem solvers. They don’t complain like the pigeons do. They love to take challenges as the eagle does when the storm comes. As human beings, we all have our strengths and weaknesses.
It’s always good for one to take any fight to their home ground where it will give them advantage over their predators. For instance, a fish is stronger in water, but weak on land, a lion is stronger on land, but weak in water, a monkey is strong on trees but weak on air. Just like an eagle is strong on air and weak on water and land. That’s why it always takes its prey to the sky where they have greater advantage to shine.
As human beings, we also must know what we are naturally good at, the ability to know this will enable us to maximize our strength and work on our weakness. We can only do this when we know ourselves and what we are naturally good at. Our ability to focus on our expertise and what we are naturally good at will make us unique and ahead of our contemporaries.
TENACITY
The eagles are known for their ability to withstand storms and use them to their advantage, rising above the challenges. Watch an eagle when a storm comes. When other birds fly away from the storm with fear, an eagle spreads its mighty wings and uses the current to soar to greater heights. The eagle takes advantage of the very storm that lesser birds fear and head for cover.
Challenges in the life of a leader are many. These are the storms we must face as leaders to rise to greater heights. Like an eagle, a leader can only rise to greater heights if he takes up the challenges head on without running away from it. This is yet another leadership characteristic.
As humans, we all will experience challenges and setbacks, however, the ability to apply strength will go a long way to show how determined we are to overcome the hurdles that pose as challenges.
FEARLESS
An eagle will never surrender to the size or strength of its prey. It will always give a fight to win its prey or regain its territory.
Successful leaders are fearless, so we are expected to fear no man, but respect all men. They face problems head on. We are supposed to have the eagle fearless mindset regardless of how big the problem may appear. Confront your fear and rise or face your fear and run. The choice is yours.
VITALITY NATURE
One of the strongest characteristics of an eagle is their vitality. Eagles are full of life and are visionary, but they find time to look back at their life and re-energize themselves. This happens at about the age of 30. What happens is that when the eagles reach the age of 30, their physical body condition deteriorates fast making it difficult for them to survive.
What is interesting is that the eagle never gives up living, instead it retreats to a mountaintop and over a five-month period goes through a metamorphosis. As humans, we are expected to reexamine ourselves, retreat to a safe zone. We can do this by fasting as Christians, we can also do this by learning new skills, volunteering our time and seeking for mentors who can hold us by the hand to show us how the appearance of life is not the reality of life.
In conclusion, as human beings, we are encouraged to be like an eagle if we want to scale through life.
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 and Unleash Your Destiny . He can be reached via info@gloemi.com
