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Food for Living: The Power of Believing in Yourself
By Henry Ukazu
Dear Destiny Friends,
Whatever the mind can believe it can achieve it – Napoleon Hill
Please permit me to begin this article with an experience I had while studying Taxation Law at New York Law School as a graduate student. I literally had a hard time understanding the concepts of taxation because it was radically and fundamentally different from the usual law I was exposed to. To make matters worse, I didn’t like numbers because I wasn’t passionate about the major. I merely enrolled into the programme to please my beloved late dad who likes the major because of the money he believed will come to the family upon graduation based on the research and information he got from his friends, who were in the profession.
Because I loved my late dad with passion, I always tried to please him. I keyed into the programme. During my first semester, I took a perquisite class Income Tax as required, and I was required to get a B to enroll into the main programme. Guess what, I couldn’t get the required score. I planned to drop from the programme for a course I have interest in, but the Dean of the Faculty advised me to take another professor which I did, and to the glory of God I made it.
As soon as I settled for the main programme, reality dawned on me. I experienced the shock of my life when I couldn’t understand the complex nature of the course. I remembered one semester while I was preparing for the final examination I was confused as to what’s expected from me. I decided to check Facebook to relieve tension and I saw a post saying, you can never know what you don’t know. I say, yes, this is me. I can’t deal with taxation. I scrolled down again, I saw another post which said, “your desire for success should always outweigh your fear for failure”. I said, yes, this is so true. I will go with this positive statement and that became my best semester ever because I was awarded a $3,000 scholarship which earned me the friendship of the Registrar of the law school.
Fast forward into the programme, while I was having a conversation with the Registrar, he encouraged me with this statement, “Henry, never you lose hope because when you lose hope you have lost everything”. Why is this story important? In life, it is always important to believe in oneself. It’s easy to cast doubts and fear in the journey of life. If you are determined to succeed in life, it’s imperative that one must eliminate fear and doubts and replace them with faith, hope, positive affirmations and confidence. What we fail to understand is that for people to believe in you, you must believe in yourself. You must believe in yourself, and the first step in believing in yourself is overcoming fear.
Fear makes us lose hope, but and once you lose hope either in yourself or life generally, it will be difficult for you to succeed. Why am I saying this? Success and failure starts from the mind. As a mindset coach, I strongly believe that given every equal opportunity everyone is a potential achiever, because we don’t have dull, but undeveloped brains.
When we talk of belief, a lot of factors come to mind. Do you know that whatever you believe is what will come to you? If you believe in yourself, people will believe in you, if you show fear, people will find it difficult to work with you.
Depending on your religion, if you believe in the power of your creator, you’ll get what you want. If you believe in a false ‘god’, you will get the temporary result. If you desire to be a Governor, President, author, pilot, lawyer, Television anchor, judge etc., you can have your dream come through if you believe in yourself and work on it. Nothing is received on a platter of gold. By the time you do the needful, luck and the universe will align with you.
You may be wondering how this works? I will share with you a practical example of how the power of believing works with the mind. There was a story of a medical doctor whose mother was sick. The doctor gave his mother a pill to take, the mother told the son he wants an injection, the son said, the pill will do the work, but his mother refused and said, she normally sees people come to his clinic and he gives them injections and they get better. The son said, he has been practicing medicine for a decade and he understands what patients need because every case is different.
After much persuasion, the mother took the pill but her health didn’t get any better. At long last, the son secretly filled the injection syringe with way, and injected his mother. In less than 24hours time, the woman began to feel better. That goes to say that everything we do in life starts from the mind. It’s because the old woman believed in the injection as opposed to the pill, that’s why her health improved.
The same principle is applicable in life, and in anything one wishes to do, provided it is positive. Believe in it and own it. Refuse to believe in the noise outside. Don’t allow anyone to rent space in your head, telling you it’s not possible.
Furthermore, the power of belief is the key that unlocks your ability to consciously create your reality. I am a big fan of belief. My belief factor fuels my energy. If I want to meet anyone or get any position, I activate my belief factor and trust me, it has not failed me. I say this because if the position is for me, or if the person is meant to be my friend, I strongly believe the water we shall drink will not flow pass us. That’s how the belief factor works.
It is instructive to note that you can only manifest what you believe is possible. If you can’t see it in your mind’s eye, how do you expect to live it? You must visualize what you believe in your mind by saying, I’m smart, I’ll succeed, I won’t fail. I’m strong. I can do it. I’m worthy of love, etc. According to Henry Ford, “whether you think you can, or think you can’t, you’re right.”
In conclusion, the ability to achieve your highest aspirations and taste depends on two things: belief and action. While belief is the foundation which shapes our thoughts, action determines the roadmaps that will lead us to the final outcome.
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 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.
