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Food for Living: The Innovative Power of Silence
By Henry Ukazu
Dear Destiny Friends,
Are you one of theose that talks often, and hardly listens? Of a truth, you are doing yourself the greatest disservice. This is because one of the most powerful arsenals any articulate mind can use to disarm anyone is silence. It is also one of the most powerful forces on planet earth. If used very well, silence can be a game changer. It plays any role you want it to play for you; negative or positive. As a result, if you wish to be profoundly productive and be more calculating in your endeavours, you must imbibe the innovative power of silence.
As many that have understood the power of silence have used this resourceful element of time life for productive ventures. Some have made the best use of it the early hours of the mornings, which is when they plan their day as it is the time they get the most and best of messages. They pray, meditate and exercise when most people are sleeping.
Did you know that destruction is loud, while creation is silent? That’s how powerful silence works, and if you consider great achievers on earth or anyone else who has been able to achieve true success, you will realise that when they were building their craft, they didn’t announce their project neither did nobody hear about their work. The work announced itself when they finished it. That’s why it’s always good to work hard in silence and allow your success to make the noise.
Silence works in magical ways. From my personal experience, relating with great minds, I discovered that they have mastered the art of using silence to send their desired and intended messages. Sometimes, they respond, sometimes, they don’t. Either way, they are communicating.
Silence can however, be misunderstood. Did you know that someone can say yes to your request just to get you out of their line of concentration. You may be thinking you have won, but in reality, you have lost because either you weren’t patient enough or you were bothering them too much. This is mainly applicable when a mentee or stranger needs assistance from a mentor or benefactor.
That’s why I have always counseled my friends, mentees and anyone who cares to listen, whenever you don’t understand any statement, communication or question, get clarity as opposed to acting based on your understanding. If possible, remain silent when you can’t read in between the lines. You can also seek the counsel of an elder or someone you hold in high esteem to assist with advice. Trust me, there’s no harm in asking. When you ask, it puts you in a good light as opposed to keeping quiet and making mistakes due to your ignorance or assumption. I always counsel my friends, mentees and those who care to listen. In doubt, do not act.
Just like science, silence is an art. If you want to succeed in life, you must pay attention to little details, and this entails listening. Paying attention to details is a great trait of highly successful people. They know that a single step can make them derail, and a single step-action can be the turning point of their life. That’s why they don’t take anything for granted.
If you want to meet anyone, and you don’t have access to them, the first thing you should do is to study them very well from your corner. This entails studying their works, reading their books, listening to their tapes, watching their videos, reading their articles, observing their association and paying attention to the events they attend. All this might give you an idea of who they are. It is quite unfortunate many people don’t care to listen to understand, they are merely concerned about understanding or their own side of the story. They fail to realize sometimes in life, wisdom entails that not all rights must be claimed. Sometimes, you play the fool to get what you want. This is because you can lose an argument to win a friend. Again, not all truth has to be spoken always even though it’s always good to say the truth. You must know the right time to speak by looking at the emotional intelligence of the person or recipients of the message. All these entail listening because you have read the body language of the people.
Let’s talk briefly about the importance of listening. The number one importance of silence is the fact that it gives you clarity in life. When your mind is clouded, it will be hard for you to reason well. Your mental, psychological, and emotional mindset will be affected, when this happens, your level of productivity will reduce. On a personal level, in recent times, I have begun to adopt the power of silence by listening more and speaking less; observing more and showing less, and applying the principle of the less is more.
Silence helps you to make better decisions. Silence makes you a better listener. Great leaders ensure that they listen to everyone before they speak, and by doing so, they make an informed decision. Do you know you have two ears and one tongue for a reason? Yes, because your two ears are to listen more, and the one tongue to speak less. Even the tongue is caged and barricaded with a lock which is your teeth and a giant gate which is your lips. Still the tongue finds its way to air its opinion, and that is when necessary.
Silence helps you to concentrate well by paying attention, especially when you are in a noisy environment. Silence helps the mind to be creative, it gives better memory and ultimately relieves stress.
In conclusion, before you speak, listen to yourself, before you write, read it out, before you make a choice, meditate on it and most importantly, before you take any major decision, pray, and consult resourceful minds. In all these, you’ll experience the positive effect of silence.
Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He works with the New York City Department of Correction as the Legal Coordinator. He’s a Human Capacity and Mindset coach. He is also a public speaker, youth advocate and creative writer. He’s the author of the acclaimed book Design Your Destiny – Actualizing Your Birthright to Success. He can be reached 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.
