News
Food for Living: How to Be a Champion
By Henry Ukazu
Dear Destiny Friends,
Champions are made from something they have deep inside them-a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill.” (Muhammad Ali)
Everyone wants to be a champion, no doubt about that. Who doesn’t want to become a champion? Champions are always celebrated like celebrities; their fame and personality are always endearing. But who really is a champion? A true champion can be defined as someone who can transform their fear, stress, and daily challenges of business and life in order to keep things in perspective, and produce extraordinary results.
The first step to being a champion is to train your mind and body. This helps to build your self-confidence, self-esteem, and your thought process. Champions not only feel and see the big picture, they also imagine the hurdles, challenges and uncertainty they may arise in the process of actualizing their desires.
Before you can become a champion, you must have a purpose or be working on a purpose. That purpose might be an unpopular one. In working on a purpose, you must close your ears to the negative forces whispering doubts in your ear. You must arm yourself with your passion and positive mentality. This is because you cannot be a champion without knowing your passion. Once you know your passion, the onus is on you to develop it and always be positive towards the idea regardless of the adjustment you have to undergo in your journey.
In order to be a champion, you must have a strong personality, and be flexible. Even if you have experienced set back in your marriage, business, academic, or even professional life, you can still bounce back to the center stage and take the lead. As a matter of fact, it is the stories from your experiences that will make people believe you, and see if you learnt any lesson from the setback/challenges. Moral: Champions don’t emerge, they go through a process.
Some examples of the celebrated great men who became champions are: President Nelson Mandela of South Africa who fought against apartheid policy in South Africa. He was imprisoned for 27 years. He was later released, and contested to be South African President. He won. Abraham Lincoln failed several times in life, business, marriage and politics, but he never gave up. He later because the US President at age 51. Henry Ukazu, the founder and President of Global Empowerment and Mentoring Initiative was mocked, humiliated in a sarcastic manner by his supposed mentors due to his horrible writing skills, but today, he’s a prolific writer, public speaker and the author of a trailblazer book – Design Your Destiny- Actualizing Your Birthright to Success.
In order to be a champion, you must only aim high, you must have a deliberate and intentional plan because you can’t build something on nothing. You should have a clear plan on how to achieve your goal. What kind of skills and knowledge do you need? When and how do you want to acquire them?
Most people recognize a champion only when he steps up the podium, but they don’t realize he has become a champion before the announcement. In fact, he has become a champion years before that glorious moment. People don’t see the pains, mistakes, failures, sweats, sleepless nights and timeless investment in oneself and professional development. Champions develop themselves. They train themselves to produce the results they have. Champions have emerged from basketball, soccer, tennis, swimming, golf, track and field events, and others. We have seen champions like Lebron James, Mohammed Ali, Abedi Pele, Michel Jackson, Tiger Woods, Rafael Nadal, Usain Bolt, Roger Federer amongst others.
In the journey towards becoming a champion, you must find something to inspire you. It could be poverty, a sarcastic name tag that was associated with you, or a desire to bring a change if you are tired of the status quo.
Note that A Champion’s intent on self-improvement creates inner pressure to achieve the desired result.
The ability to seek improvement is reserved for only the most elite performers. Most people are not born with that desire for self-improvement. It is either instilled through relationships or circumstances. It is imperatively important you proactively improve yourself. Question: Are you constantly investing in self-improvement? If yes, what books are you reading? Are you working with a coach, or attending seminars?
Champions don’t announce themselves, rather their works announce them. Champions celebrate every achievement, whether big or small. Therefore, take the time to celebrate your victories.
Champions practice alignment. They always want to align themselves with fellow champions. They don’t waste your time hanging out with people who aren’t willing to put in the effort and the investment into their own success.
The number one most effective tool that we have in our box to become a champion is to follow the path of personal growth within all of our lives. Within our health, we must become the strongest version of ourselves. Within our finances, we must become the strongest version of ourselves. Within our relationships, we must become the strongest version of ourselves. Within our work, we must become the strongest version of ourselves.
Champions focus on the process, they are always present on their project. They continuously practice their habits like a ritual. They endeavor to be consistent, they persist, and most importantly, they show up regardless of the storm.
In conclusion, a champion is not born, he or she is created and cultivated. It is simply a skill that anybody can develop if they really want to live life on another level. Today, I charge you to be a champion in any field you are passionate about.
Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He’s a mindset coach and 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.
