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Food for Living: Navigating the Success Terrain
By Henry Ukazu
Dear Destiny Friends,
It is a widely held claim that success is a journey and not a destination. In truth, only complacent persons relax when they get to the promised land (success). When we talk of success, most people see the end product as opposed to the process and journey. Did you know that it is the process that makes success admirable? To understand how journey works, imagine solving a complex mathematical problem; it is the formula that enables you to arrive at the right answer.
Success is a journey, and is associated with many twists. One must navigate the storms and challenges that come with it. To understand success better, imagine the time and different ingredients a cook must have invested to prepare a delicious meal. When you wrongly add an ingredient, you are likely to get a different taste. That’s simply how success works. Again, imagine driving a car with “GPS” and you miss your route, your GPS is likely to take another route, that’s how success works. It takes a lot of twits.
The focus of this article is to encourage us to be strong in our pursuit of success. There will definitely be setbacks and challenges, but then, every traveller on the success route must know there is a price to pay. Personally, I always focus on the big picture, and by so doing, draws a lot of inspiration and energy to follow it through and win.
It should be noted that there is no single way to success. Your success might come from your network, strangers, family, academics, government, mentor, mentee, or even your enemy trying to pull you down. What is required is for you to recognize the opportunity that is presented to you and capitalize on it.
To navigate the terrain of success, you must first build and develop the success mindset. This enables you to learn and develop your talents and gifts as opposed to limiting your thought process through a fixed mindset.
A growth mindset enables you to have emotional intelligence which helps you to understand and reason with emotions without allowing sentiments to cloud your reasoning and understanding. Emotional intelligence makes you focus on other people by practicing empathy. It also enables you to explore other variables.
To navigate the terrain of success, first believe in yourself, then believe in your project/vision. This is the only way others can believe in you and your vision. Remove every doubt, and negative energy, and focus on the work at hand. Even when the journey is rough and seems impossible, always think about the big picture.
Another component one must bear in mind in the journey to success is courage. Not everyone will believe in your work, and that’s okay. You don’t need everyone to believe in your project, just the right people. It is like thinking everyone will like you. All you need is the right people to love you and you’ll be fine.
Curiosity is another great attribute for great minds to navigate the train of success. When you are curious to know why something is working and why it is not working, you are bound to explore other opportunities. When you are curious, you are likely to experiment new things by taking strategic and reasonable risks.
When you are curious, you will brainstorm on what is needed to generate ideas, engage in creative problem solving and learn through inquiry. When brainstorming is used for problem-solving in a team environment, it incorporates team members’ diverse experiences to increase the depth of the ideas being explored,
Brainstorming enables you to practice inquiry form of learning. It enables you to through the process of exploring the targeted issue by asking questions, making new discoveries, gaining a new sense of understanding, and fulfilling your own curiosities.
Other attributes needed to navigate the path of success are:
Competitiveness
Successful people are always competing with themselves as opposed to competing with other people. To navigate the terrain of success, you must nurture your project by focusing on how you can improvise your work when you face opposition.
Seek Out Mentors
To navigate the terrain of success you must ride with people who are more experienced than you. These people must have certain traits that have distinguished them. Study them to know what makes them tick. Ask them questions. Even if it means paying, please do. Read as much as you can about them. Research a lot about them to understand their thought process especially if they are relevant in your industry or what you’ll like to do.
Be Optimistic
This is one of the biggest qualities you will have as an individual. You just must be optimistic. If you lose all options never lose hope. Your optimism is capable of drawing people close to you. You can choose to be optimistic by practicing gratitude, patience, humility, and kindness and you also choose to be pessimistic; the choice is truly yours.
Check-In With Yourself Regularly
To increase your chances of success in life, you need to consistently monitor, evaluate, and adjust your approach, methods, and work on craft. This helps you to adjust to the realities of life.
Act
This is one of the most interesting aspects of navigating the terrain of success. Execution is very important in life. This is where most people fail, complain, and give excuses. One attribute that often separates successful people from unsuccessful people is simply taking action. Those who achieve success may not be smarter than those who don’t, but they make plan to act. Let me tell you, done is better than perfect when perfect is not done. Do you know that the value that you get from that first action will inspire you to continue on to the next project?
In summary, your success ultimately comes down to your actions, perceptions, and attitudes. There are a lot of tips out there on how to be successful in life, but unless you are proactive in doing the work that is required, you will find yourself settling for a life that wasn’t what you dreamed it to be. Having read this life-changing article, are you willing to take action? Are you confused? Do you need help in taking action? If yes, I can use assist you, kindly reach out with the email below.
Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He’s a Human Capacity & mindset coach. He’s also a public speaker, youth advocate and creative writer. 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
Dear Destiny Friends,
Every human being loves to get approval, either for the great work they have done or the ones they are doing. They love to be appreciated and admired. They also love to be given attention when they have something valuable to say or do. In all of these, one thing is certain, there is something special about us, and this special thing makes one unique, and ultimately attracts people to us.
Let’s face it, nobody will admire you, appreciate you, approve you and give you attention if you don’t have anything to offer. The reason most people associate with someone is because they feel or know there’s something they can gain from the person. It’s hard for someone to relate closely with someone who they don’t see potential value in.
There is no doubt each and everyone of us is unique, yes, there’s something unique about you. You can sing, you can write, you can dance, you can lead, you can serve, you can cook, etc. One can even be a good actor, athlete, comedian, or preacher. The list is literally endless. Now, what’s unique about you?
When you discover what’s unique about you, please do all within your reach to nurture and develop it. One day, the right person, who truly appreciates and knows your value will celebrate you.
I have a friend who is exceptionally skilled in writing and developing creative contents. I call him a genius because he can literally write a book within a week. How he does it is what I don’t understand. I was surprised when he once told me he wrote a book and manuscript in one week. According to him, he has been developing the contents mentally, but hasn’t found time to put his thoughts together, and when he finally gets his thoughts together, he was able to write the book and manuscript. This is a typical way of knowing a unique being.
Many, however, do not know what’s unique about them. We focus our energy chasing what is not chasing us instead of focusing on developing what we already have. It’s sad to see young and old people living their lives in an unintentional manner with a belief that somehow lines, favour or opportunities will fall in place for them.
Sometimes, we rely on other people’s affirmation and opinion, and accept it as our fate. For instance, just because one is tall, he might be told he will be a great fit for basketball without considering if the athlete loves basketball; again, just because someone is very intelligent, his parents will encourage him to major in a particular discipline, which is perceived as lucrative without considering if the person likes it pr not.
I once experienced this fate when my late dad inspired me to study taxation law in New York Law School, a major I detest with passion. It was like a suicidal mission for me because I do know, it will take miracle to graduate from the program. How I was able to get a scholarship for my grades and graduate in record time is a story for another day. I’m not wired as a finance person, I will better serve humanity in the social and developmental space where my skills, talents, gift and passion will be better utilized. And ever since I joined the space, I have seen results.
There are many cases where many people lose their identities without knowing they are unique. We are all unique in our individual ways. Just like there are several gifts and talents, we have different skills. When you know what’s unique about you, you will stand out and the world will not only appreciate you, but will celebrate you.
When one discovers the power of their uniqueness, we will gather strength to unleash it to the world. Uniqueness works in several ways. For instance, the mere fact that ten people are genius, talented, skillful or valuable in a particular work, the person with the unique gift is the person who will not only stand out, but will be called upon to do the work.
Let me share more insight. If ten people sing a particular song with a great voice, the person who is called to be a singer will receive a unique appreciation because he/she is working on purpose. That is why it is easy to see a lot of people venturing into a particular form of business, but the favour of the business will not locate them because they are not uniquely destined to do business.
Few years ago, one of my mentors shared a deep insight with me. He said that, as a trained medical doctor, he once observed that despite the fact there are hundreds and thousands of medical doctors practicing their profession. One fateful day, he noticed a particular patient was not responding to treatment despite all the medication that had been given to him by a nurse, his health was deteriorating, then another nurse came and administered the same pill a nurse gave the patient, and the patient began to feel better. What does that tell you? The second nurse was probably working in her purpose which aligns with her profession, and as such the corresponding success. This goes to show that when one is unique, it has a way of robbing off on their work.
Furthermore, he stated that Mariah Carey, Michael Jackson, and Beyonce are some of the gifted singers and dancers the world has ever celebrated. He went on to say that we have hundreds and thousands of musicians, but only a few have got the spotlight.
What does that tell you? When you are unique, the world will celebrate you. I have understood that the fastest way to get recognition in life is to work in areas where one’s strength and unique gift will better serve the purpose. This is simply because the world does not celebrate one’s weakness, rather, the world celebrates one’s strength.
In recent times, I have seen myself as a counselor and human inspiration. My counseling skills have enabled me to influence people to live positive lives. Overtime, I have realized that when people share their burden with me, they feel relieved after speaking with me. What amazes me most is the fact that even my elders feel comfortable to relate with me on a cordial basis. Maybe, I have a unique gift for counseling and educating.
Today, I am going to charge you to focus your energy and time on whatever will bring you the highest satisfaction. Even if you are looking for a job, applying for school, or seeking any opportunity, your focus should be centered on what you have that the job, school or opportunity will amplify. When you do so, you will be in high demand.
In conclusion, please affirm to yourself today, I am a unique being with a unique personality, purpose and gift.
Say to yourself, ‘I am original’, and refuse to be fake.
Again confess that your originality, authenticity and uniqueness will attract favours, blessings, opportunities from leaders and queens to you, and you will be celebrated.
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
The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has emerged as the Best Road Safety Agency in Africa. This monumental achievement corroborates the Corps’ almost four decades of dedication, resilience and passion towards safeguarding lives on Nigerian roads.
The Corps, according to a statement made available to the National Association of Online Security News Publishers (NAOSNP), received the award at the 3rd edition of the Kofi Annan Road Safety Award held in Elzuwini in the Kingdom of Eswatini, South Africa between 14th and 15th of April 2025.
You may recall that Kofi Annan Road Safety Award was initiated by the Office of the United Nations Secretary General’s Special Envoy on Road Safety in collaboration with Kofi Annan Foundation to immortalize the contributions of African illustrious son Kofi Annan who served as the Secretary General of the United Nations.
The prestigious Road Safety Management Award represents a badge of honour for Nigeria, and a pure testament of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s commitment to unflinching support for the Federal Road Safety Corps and his believe in the Corps’ potential to serve as a model for other African nations. Indeed, FRSC’s tireless efforts to reduce road crashes and promote safe driving practices have paid off, earning recognition across the continent.
The recognition further speaks volume, as well as justifies the giant strides Nigeria has made in ensuring safety of road users and her leadership role in the Sub-region.
Reacting to the recognition, the Corps Marshal, Shehu Mohammed said that it is a testament to FRSC’s unrelenting passion for road safety. He thanked the entire community of the motoring public, stakeholders, partners, and the Nigerian people for their support. Emphasising that together, the Corps was able to achieve the enviable feat because of the collective energy and all round support received from the motoring public.
The Corps Marshal also revealed that FRSC’s winning formula includes, innovative strategies, implementing cutting-edge road safety initiatives that drive results, collaboration, fostering partnerships with stakeholders to promote road safety awareness, community engagement, educating the public on safe driving practices, full deployment of technology and road safety protocols.
The award was received on behalf of the Corps and the Federal Republic of Nigeria by the Principal Staff Officer to the Corps Marshal ACM Meshach Adigizi Jatau.
A Chief Magistrate in the Rivers State Judiciary, Mr. Ejike George, has resigned his appointment.
He hinged his decision on the unease over the appointment of a Sole Administrator to oversee the affairs of the State.
His resignation was contained in a letter dated April 11, 2025, and addressed to the Honourable Chief Judge of Rivers State through the Secretary of the Rivers State Judicial Service Commission.
The letter was titled “Voluntary Retirement From Service.”
George, who disclosed that he had put in 16 years in the judiciary, said the appointment of a Sole Administrator is tantamount to a “quasi-military administration.”
He expressed dismay over the direction of the governance of the State, which he said is “alien” and “antithetical” to the values of the legal profession.
The statement read: “This present is intended to convey my decision to voluntarily retire my appointment as Magistrate of the Judiciary of Rivers State.
“This difficult and regrettable decision is informed largely by my discomfort with the recent appointment of a quasi-military administration to run the affairs of a modern state like ours.
“Milord will agree with me that this type of governance system is not only alien but also runs antithetical to our hallowed profession as legal practitioners and adjudicators.
“Having put in a whopping 16 (sixteen) out of my 22 (twenty-two) years of legal practice into this Judiciary as Magistrate under successive democratic administrations, I find it difficult to work with the current setting, as doing so would amount to a tacit and naive acquiescence.
“Thanks Milord, for the opportunity to serve.”
