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Food for Living: Christmas is for Joy and Appreciation
By Henry Ukazu
Dear Destiny Friends,
It’s that time of the year again when Christians all over the world celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. It’s Christmas!
Without mincing words, the season of Christmas comes with a special kind of feeling, and many people celebrate it in different ways. Some people celebrate it by spending a chunk of all they have laboured all through the year, while others celebrate it by traveling to be with loved ones.
One thing is sure however, Christmas is a season of love, joy, celebration, and thanksgiving. Some even celebrate it by reconciling with estranged friends, partners and family members.
Christmas comes with many reflections. While some are in a joyful mood, others revel in mourning or stock-taking moods. In all, great minds are always grateful for all the experiences they encountered during the year whether negative or positive, they believed it is a learning curve for them, but small and ungrateful minds will always find reasons to complain instead of fixing a problem.
The focus of this article is to celebrate life, celebrate achievements, celebrate family, friends, work, and even pain.
It is sad to note that most times we don’t take time to appreciate what we have, we tend to focus on what we lack. That’s human nature for you though. We fail to realize that not only do we attract what we focus on, what we focus on expands.
Celebrating life doesn’t entail buying luxuries, eating large, traveling or engaging in wasteful spending. While it is not a crime or sinful to give yourself such a treat if you have the means, it’s important to note that celebrating life entails showing love to the less privileged, to those who can’t afford the basic needs of life and celebrating people who made the year blissful for you. When you look at your environment, you will see people who need assistance, and your kind words, encouragement, food, money, etc. will go a long way to put smiles on their faces.
The year 2021 was truly an eventful one. Many businesses struggled because of the Coronavirus, many lives were lost, but even at that, there were success stories of great men and women who dared to succeed. They were not affected by the vicissitudes of life. They know that life will surely happen, but they prepared their mindset for the best while expecting the worst.
On a personal note, 2021 was an interesting year for me because of many experiences, opportunities and revelations that came my way. Above all, I am grateful I was able to finish strong. I don’t know what your storyline might be but I just want you to take time to appreciate the fact that you are alive and you have the capacity to attract what you desire if you are determined to work for your desires.
The biggest fun of celebrating Christmas is the fact that you are alive. Regardless of what your situation might be might, there’s somebody out there who is experiencing a greater challenge than you and keeping up a great attitude. The goal, therefore, is to be happy you are alive, your family is alive, your friends and loved ones are alive. I say this because provided there’s life, there’s hope. There were stories of wealthy people who passed on and their family and friends are grieving their loss.
So, as you plan to celebrate your Christmas, please take time to think of other people who might not be celebrating like you. Even if you can’t support them, offer a kind word by using empathy and emotional intelligence.
I strongly believe there’s something everyone is grateful for. Take time to reflect on the great strides you made in 2021, whether it is the fact that you got a job, graduated, married, began a business, had a baby, got admission, traveled, met a new friend, mentor, mentee, or for the mere fact you have eyes to see, mouth to eat and talk, legs to walk, hands to feel and ears to hear. Don’t you think it’s worth celebrating? Can money purchase them?
In conclusion, don’t allow anyone to make you feel inferior because of what they are showcasing. Nothing is permanent in life. In life, there’s no competition though overtaking is allowed. Most people who might have the goodies of life, might not be as happy as you. So, celebrate yourself if nobody celebrates you. If you say, you have nothing to celebrate, that means you have an ungrateful mind.
Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He’s a Human Capacity & mindset coach. He’s also a public speaker. 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
By Henry Ukazu
Dear Destiny Friends,
The importance of timing cannot be overemphasized. Timing is everything in life. It is critical to one’s success. You can lose your money and get it back in many folds. You can even lose your health and get it back all things being equal, but when you lose time, you can hardly get it back again.
The importance of timing can be seen in crops. Every crop has a season, a good farmer won’t plant maize when it’s time for oranges, nor will he plant pears when it’s the season for mangoes.
Time is very instrumental to the success and failure of anyone. Imagine having a meeting or interview at 9:00am and you arrive at 10:10am, it will take the grace of God to be interviewed. As an employee, apart from one not being able to diligently do his job, one of the fastest ways for an employee to lose his job is by being late to work.
When I was in New York Law School studying Taxation law, I did a course titled, the Problem of Timing. During the semester, I learnt about cash and accrued income. Let me do some academic exercise here. In cash income, just like the name entails, one is paid in cash as soon as the work is completed. It’s just like going to the market to make a purchase. One can either pay directly with cash or with debit or credit card. But Accrued income refers to revenue a company has earned by providing goods or services, but for which payment has not yet been received, one will have to do the work first before getting paid. This is applicable when one works in either a public or private organization where one is paid either weekly, bi-weekly or at the end of the month depending on the stipulated mode of payment.
It’s important to note that before the money is paid either in cash or accrued, one would have earned it. It’s just like one learning g before earning, and one will have to update to upgrade. These are just the practical principles that will work with life.
In the same way, in life there’s a seed time and harvest time. It’s a universal principle of life. Whether as a parent, entrepreneur, student or employee. As a parent, if you don’t train your kids very well, they will grow up to reflect the opposite of what you desire. As an entrepreneur when you invest in your business, you will get the reward in due time. As a student, if you take your studies seriously, your grades will improve, and as an employee, you stand to get promotions and opportunities when you add value to your work. In summary, one will have to put in the work before recognition comes on.
To understand how seedtime and harvest work, imagine where parents tend to like one child more than others just because they see potential in him, or he’s smart, hardworking or even creative. They fail to understand that every child is different and as such their timing can be different. Some kinds take time to develop.
I personally believe there’s something so unique about each individual which God has deposited in everyone of us. It’s just a matter of time for it to manifest. Your timing of manifestation is different from your siblings and colleagues.
Personally, I didn’t mature fast with my contemporaries. Overtime, I have seen much improvement in my personal and professional life. Maybe because I have added value to my work with the assistance of mentors and good friends, or God had to humble my colleagues and mentors . Why do I say this? During my formative years, I had little or nothing to show for it. I was looking at my contemporaries as mentor and seeing my mentors as small gods whose feat is unattainable, but now, the reverse seems to be case as I have developed capacity some of my colleagues are yet to attain, while I have even surpassed the achievement of my some of my mentors in some quarters.
In all these, they are all surprised how it happened. Some are yet to comprehend or articulate the feat. It’s just like watching a film where everyone slept and woke up to see the game and tides have changed. The secret behind it is the seed time and harvest time. I was probably learning the trade while in the wilderness, and when the training season matured and ripe enough to be harvested, I became attractive to almost everyone who loved the seed I was producing.
There are litany of examples of people, who have been in the wilderness during the seed planting season. Let’s take a case study of Joseph in the Bible, his journey to stardom took a little twist. Despite the travails he experienced in the hands of his siblings who sold him, his experience while in the jail, and with Portiphar’s wife, who tried to seduce him; they were all set ups for success. The moral here is Joseph seed time and harvest time was quite different, it wasn’t a smooth journey. Ordinarily, one would have cursed his siblings or his friends who were with him in prison and forgot him after they were released. But at the end of time, everything worked out for his favor. Joseph’s seed days were his dark days while in the wilderness.
Another inspiring story of note was that of Pastor Ibukun Awosika, the former board Chairman of First Bank of Nigeria. She once shared a pathetic story during her formative years of being in business. According to her, she sojourned for about 15 years. She cried because lines were not adding up for her and she wouldn’t do what her contemporaries were doing to get opportunities. At a point in her business, it appeared like she was in a race of own life because everything seemed to be against her, but at the appropriate time, lines began to fall in place for her. Appointments, business opportunities, favours and goodwill began to fall in place for her. Again, she had a fair share of seed time.
An interesting question I would like to ask you is, what’s your seed time? Have you ever been in the wilderness when you appeared to be fixed? It’s unfortunate many people are not willing to pass through the storms or experience seeds and harvest time. Amidst all these, one must do some work before they get opportunities. However, before such opportunities will come up, one will have to plant the seed.
In conclusion, seed time and harvest time is critical in the journey of life. Take a seat and determine what seed you would like to sow and what you’ll like to harvest.
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 Senate has suspended Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghen for six months over her sexual harassment accusation and other disputes against the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio.
The Senate also withdrew her salaries for the period of the suspension, as well as her security details.
The chamber however, soft-pedaled on the salaries and allowances of her aides, who it was argued would not have any source of livelihood within the period.
Globacom is welcoming new customers on its network with the introduction of the e-SIM. The e-SIM activated in any Gloworld shop or Dealer outlet comes with an introductory free 5GB data when the customer buys a data plan of N1,500 or more.
Customers already on other networks can now join the Glo network with e-SIM as an additional SIM. Existing Glo customers can also enjoy this “SIM-less” freedom.
With the e-SIM, customers no longer have to worry about space for a physical SIM on their phones. The e-SIM is a software-based digital chip built directly into smartphones or wearable devices, thus eliminating the need for a physical SIM card for customers.
The use of e-SIM enables customers to have seamless switching between phone numbers without a physical SIM. It is ideal for upwardly mobile people who travel frequently. The e-SIM also guarantees security, as unlike physical SIM, it is harder to remove from devices. It is also eco-friendly and reduces plastic waste.
Globacom’s launch of the e-SIM enables enables it to cater to high-net-worth individuals and enterprise customers, and it also reinforces the company’s commitment to providing seamless and future-ready services to its customers.
A customer seeking to activate the Glo e-SIM needs to check the compatibility of the mobile handset by dialling *#06# on his or her phone. If an EID number reflects on the mobile screen, the device is e-SIM compatible.
“The customer can then proceed to the nearest Gloworld shop or Glo Dealer outlet to migrate to e-SIM. The process takes only a few minutes and the customer can thereafter begin to enjoy the use of an e-SIM”, the Marketing Department disclosed.
