Some reflections...

Hi there,

As this year runs to an end, I'm planning to wrap up my series on MEN THAT WILL SUCCEED. Twenty-three posts so far, and just one more to post. Thereafter, I'd try to share with you some of the most important lessons I learnt during the year. However, I'm around the point where I normally take stock and I've decided that this blog is one of my starting points. 

Beside the usual stats (which I check regularly anyway) I've made an analysis of the most frequently occurring (main) words in all of the posts that appear on this blog. The picture here is the result (reproduced above). Two things I make out of it myself. 

One, no matter how much we say or write in our lives, only a little will matter - really. Think of the 80/20 rule here. And it's been said that one of the ways to facilitate personal success is to identify the few activities or factors that drive outcomes the greatest, and then concentrate on them. 

Two, people are at the centre of our lives, and that's why relationships matter. This blog is of a more inspirational and motivational nature. Maybe that is why the two words, PEOPLE and FIRST seem to stand out the way they have. However, I can confirm to you that this was in no way deliberate, I just found that out after my analysis. Bottomline, in our quest towards personal development, achievements and success, whether we control for them or not, it is the people around us and our attitudes towards them that will make or mar us.

Follow-up on Two Major Things Part I

This morning I thought to start my day with some science-based inspiration (I do that quite often but not always). By that I mean to read or watch something that shares a profound truth with scientific proof. Usually I just think look up the first thing that comes to my mind. Now that is a bit crude and has led me to utter nonsense on a number of occassions. But I bet you that each time I find something exciting, like I did this morning, it's always worth sharing. 

For many centuries much has been said about how time is important and we should manage it, use it wisely, invest it and so on. But you hear or read very little about how our perception of time could actually influence us in no small measure. That happens to be the subject of these videos. The first is the animated summary and the second is the full talk given by Professor Philip Zimbardo. What touched me most in the presentation is how the professor shows the link between the fast-pacedness of today's society - our desire for control - and youth misbehaviour. That connection was subtly made when he presented the figures on school dropout rates in the US and how that is associated with seemingly harmless and fun-filled technologies! I couldn't help but link it with my January 26 post on the value of quiet.

  

 

MEN THAT WILL SUCCEED 16: They serve

Hi. As the year 2010 draws to a close, I believe you will also be taking stock. Taking stock of the things you did and did not do, the thinks you thought and did not think, the things you said and did not say and the places you went and did not go. I am doing that and in my thinking I ask my self one critical question: For how many people did I make things happen?

I can count a handful of those but as I reflected further, I came to the conclusion that making things happen for people is probably not the most important thing. Of much greater importance is making people! How many dreams have I helped to realise? How many people have I slowed down? How many people have I inspired or discouraged?

I am still taking stock and I reckon you want to do the same. For that reason I have put up the 16th part in my series on personal success. I have chosen this time for this because I strongly believe that it's all about service, whether we will find fulfillment or not. So I charge you to look back and see how well you've served and take a decision to do better in the coming year. 

What follows is the post MEN THAT WILL SUCCEED 16: They serve. In it I have placed a few books that helped me and that I think might help you too. The quotes in the post do not necessarily come from those books but they are by/about the same men whose quotes I have used. Feel free to leave your comments or questions. See you on the other end!

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‘None have one chance in a billon of being thought of as really great a century after they’re gone except those who have been servants of all’ 

(Harry Fosdick)

True success is in service: Being for others what you want others to be for you. Your willingness to serve others determines how much others will be willing to do for you. You will never find anyone who will do anything for you if you never do anything for anyone.

‘Life is a lot like the game of tennis. Those who do not serve well end up losing’ (John Mason)

Believe it on not, the more you desire to serve (and the more you actually serve) and serve well, the more you will be served.  Whoever you are, you must put others before yourself if you want to amount to something.  Imagine a manufacturer thinking of profits from the sales of his products before thinking of what his consumers will like.  You know as well as l do that his business is headed for disaster. 

Happiness and satisfaction come from knowing that you are making someone better.  Albert Schweitzer got it round when he said that the only ones who will really be happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.  Greatness, according to Martin Luther King, Jr., is truly measured in servant hood. ‘

' The measure of life is not in its duration but in its donation,’ says Peter Marshall, ‘everyone can be great because everyone can serve.’

‘The greatest secret of success is to find a need and fill it’ (Robert H. Schuller)

For 3 great, great things

O God, the Lord that brought me here

For being my Guide, the One in all

The only God who lives above

And says the things He wants to do

None of which will not be done

I choose this space and day and time

Three great, great things to thank You for:

Oluwatosin, who completes me

And adds much meaning to my life

Oluwasemiloore, the real 'big girl'

The child of the God of Psalm 50

And me, of course, a local boy

Whom you're leading to be great!

So much for 30 days

Exactly 30 days ago today, I took the riskiest step of my life so far. One that will define my essence for the rest of my life. It's very personal and highly costly so it's only natural for me to take account as I move along. What I stepped into will occupy me for the next 3 years, and toady the first month ends...

I look behind and count the days

"When did these pass?" I ask myself

And then my answer came,

so frank yet calm and still:

"When you were climbing up and down

Taking steps both right and wrong

Those 30 days took them all in

And passed the way of those before;

For pass they must - and go they will

if you have not planted in them."

O Lord my God help me I pray

In every day something to plant

That even though the day does pass

It grows my seed, that I may reap

Hmm...so much for 30 days!