Editor’s note: Nicholas Oluwaseyi, the ZENITHBLOG.com partner blogger, examines nine bold steps every aspiring individual must take to achieve greatness in life.
Nicholas Oluwaseyi is a young medical student whom God has favoured and committed a great vision of seeing mankind turn into eternal HOPE. He could be reached through his e-mail nicholasoluwaseyi6@gmail.com. You can also follow his blog http://ift.tt/2ep6whM.
More details in ZENITHBLOG.com’s step-by-step guide for guest bloggers.
Just like the trees need pruning from time to time, to remove the dead branches or areas where there is overgrowth, you and I also need to be pruned or reshaped at different times in different areas of our lives. We may not enjoy the pruning process but when it’s over, we’re much better off than we were before.
A group of students reading to acquire knowledge that will help them in the future challenges
You see, God wants us to be at our very best- spiritually, emotionally, and physically. It could be a bad relationship, an old wound from the past, or a negative attitude that keeps you from enjoying life to the fullest.
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It would be nice if we could see what God sees and say – “Yes God Let’s get rid of that dead branch” but many times we’re too afraid to give up what we know for something new that we just can’t see or understand.
The truth is you can be miserable dragging those dead things around or you can go through the pain of letting God “prune” them away even though it’s uncomfortable, the best you can do is let God prune you.
Don’t ever be afraid to surrender to God so he can prone the things that is hurting you and hindering you from moving forward in your relationship with him.
If we totally give ourselves to God, he will give us his best. It may not be what we thought we wanted, but it will be exactly what we need and it will be greater than anything we could have asked for.
So, to achieve greatness in life, these are the essential things every aspiring individual must know:
1. Consistency
The hallmark of excellence, the test of greatness, is consistency. Whenever I meet people, I do believe motivating them is the key to helping them. If I can get them in the right direction, I always think, they’ll find help.
I do try to give people reasons to work hard from things I’ve learned from feet of my mentors. My goal is always to inspire people so that they’ll be ready to charge hell with a water pistol. But I’m always left with disappointment the motivation I give don’t seem to last long.
I’m still a big fan of motivation but like my favorite author, John C Maxwell wrote –“motivation gets you going, but discipline keeps you going.” That’s consistency. It doesn’t matter how many motivation you receive, if you don’t have consistency it won’t last long I’ve learnt!
One of the reasons most of us don’t get consistent is that we don’t even know what to improve. The more tuned you’re into your purpose I’ve discovered; the more dedicated you’re going to be towards it. I’ve always believed that if we can break big tasks into smaller units, we can do than we could imagine. Specificity is what we want spring up consistency in us.
When you attempt too much, too soon, you’re almost guaranteed to fall short of your desired results. That’s demotivating. The secret to building motivational momentum is to start small with simple stuff. David killed a Bear before killing Goliath; many of us might think it’s only a little transition that happened between those two scenarios – NO. There was a gradual building up of confidence in David from the battle with the Bear; there was a faith that was moving consistently in him.
The best advice I’ve received as a young writer is to do simple stuff. Write fifty words a day and keep it in a folder. If I try writing 100 words after receiving motivation when my capacity is just 50 words per day, it will be demotivating. If I can be consistent with the fifty words for a month, I definitely know that’ll motivate me to do more. That’s the key in consistency, starting with small stuff.
I am MacGregor – I work on the same principle as people who train horses. You start with low fences, easily achieved goals, and work up. It’s important in management never to ask people to try to accomplish goals they can’t accept.
I’ve always been told – master the basics, repeat them daily, small discipline each day leads to great consistency. Life goes; goals are reached by setting annual goals. Annual goals are reached by setting monthly ones. Habits turn into action and with that we develop consistency.
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John Williams has been nominated for academy awards 45 times, winning 5 times. He’s been awarded 4 Golden globes, 5 Emmys, and 21 Grammys. When questioned how he has been able to achieve this, he said: “I developed from very early on a habit of writing something everyday, good or bad. There are good days, there are less good days, but I do a certain amount of pages it seems to me before I can feel like the day has been completely served.”
When he was questioned about writer’s block, he said it’s not a problem: “I never experienced anything like a block. For me if I’m ever blocked or I feel I don’t quite know where to go at the next turn, the best thing for me is to keep writing, to write something. It could be absolute nonsense, but it will project me into the next phase of thinking.”
When I pick my pen to write a poem, I would have written a lot of nonsense before something okay actually comes out. But one of my tutors has always reminded me – keep writing it will matter one day. This is not to writers alone; it applies to every areas of life. That’s it consistency, that small discipline everyday.
2. Reality of life
Sometimes in life, we have to accept some realities which aren’t easy. Many try to dodge them, but I don’t believe in that. It’s cowardice to try and take the smoother road which leads to nowhere. I wasn’t taught that way. My Lord Almighty never picked the easier road which would lead to nothing; He opted for death on the cross to redeem me.
Many people know they feel like screaming, but they have to keep quiet or else(the “or else” are many) yet, these people pretend as if nothing is happening and try to hide under the canopy of false smiles.
Every of our personal realities to face are different as we’re different. But despite our indifference; rich or poor, intelligent or not, from a city or a village, name it, we all have realities to face. Let’s check the 3 realities that apply to everyone.
3. Life is difficult
Life is difficult. Life is unfair. Before I started writing this, I already wrote an article for an online blog titled “Life is unfair”. In it, I made a statement about the unfairness of life and how we can’t allow it to limit us. It was much of an argument because I knew definitely some wouldn’t agree with me, but at the end of the article, I knew deep inside I convinced some. Life is difficult. Be bold to say it to anyone.
When I was in my premedical school, all our seniors did tell us that medicine isn’t hard but one day, I love this man, he stood up and boldly said it- medicine is hard. It was at that point I knew I was in for a real work; we don’t have to hide the realities of life because we want to ease pain of something – no! Medicine is hard, but you can be soft through Christ in you; that’s it.
Life is difficult, but you’re not difficult because you’ve a bigger God. Life is hard but God is bigger. Many Christians who always think like that will later find out on the way that there are trying times, we can’t continue to be babies and if you’ll get to anywhere substantial in life you’ve to know and accept this reality because it will put you in a safer position than the nonchalant ones.
Once we accept that fact – life is difficult, we begin to grow. We begin to understand that every problem is an opportunity. It’s then that we dig down and discover what we’re made of. It was when challenges came that Peter knew he had no faith, until he was sinking he never accepted and until he denied Jesus thrice, he never knew he didn’t love his Lord. Instead of letting our hardship defeat us, we welcome them as test of character. We use them as means of rising to the occasion.
Nothing worth having in life comes without efforts. Be ready, life is a battle. No matter who you’re, you must learn to fight and push. Life isn’t an automatic door that opens when we gets to its front. Life is hard but that won’t stop me.
4. Life is difficult for everyone
Even if we are willing to concede that life is difficult for most people, deep down inside many of us secretly hope somehow that this truth won’t apply to us. I’m sorry; no one escapes life’s challenges, failures or difficulties.
Life isn’t fair. I’ve had unfair things happen to me. I know you have too. I know if we can sit down together and talk, you’ve had myriad of unfair things happen to you. But you might be thinking; why me? Some don’t have difficulties, why me? It’s a lie.
As much as the student getting the last position has problems, the student who’s at the top of the class has more problems, if I’ll be objective enough. He’s got to maintain that position or he would be made jest of, he would suffer some jealousy, some unfaithful friendships and so on.
Rich or poor, intelligent or not, an African or a European, name it and I’ll bring it out for you. But like I always tell myself – life difficulties can’t stop me. Life can’t expand but God has given me the power to expand. That’s where the problem is, some contain their difficulties while the difficulties contain some, and choose.
5. Life is more difficult for some than others
When I was in my secondary, I had classmates who had 3 school uniforms and some even more. I knew my parents cannot afford more than 2, so it’s a reality I had to face. But in the same class, I had people that could only manage to have one. It’s difficult for some than others but it’s difficult for everyone. The playing field is not smooth but we can all score, that’s the beauty!
Those are the 3 realities that apply to everyone of us. Let me leave you with this final note:
6. Don’t make life harder for yourself
Your life is probably plenty difficult already. So you don’t have to make it harder for yourself. I would have only made life harder for myself then if I joined those who had 4 uniforms in dirty plays or if I felt inferior to my friends from city. So you can make life harder for yourself when:
7. When you stop learning and growing
I didn’t retract from my friends from cities, I got closer to them and started learning because I knew one day it wouldn’t count again where we are from, what will count most is where we are now.
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To someone reading this, who thinks he or she is dull, don’t move away from the intelligent ones in your class, get closer to them and learn from them even if it looks like you’re a Fool! Keep learning and growing or you’ll making life harder for yourself.
8. We make slower adjustments
As soon as I started learning from my friends, I started applying them. In fact, learning is not complete till you apply what you’ve been taught. If you’re slow to apply them, it’s either you forget them or you get embarrassed before applying them. I wouldn’t want to be embarrassed at an eatery before I learn how to use cutlery.
9. When we don’t respond to challenges correctly
You can be bitter or better. You can turn your lemon into lemonade or slurp them. The lemon will become sorer if you don’t respond well. I look forward to receiving your favourable reply.
Nicholas Oluwaseyi is a young medical student whom God has favoured and committed a great vision of seeing mankind turn into eternal HOPE. He could be reached through his e-mail nicholasoluwaseyi6@gmail.com. You can also follow his blog http://ift.tt/2ep6whM.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the editorial policy of ZENITHBLOG.com.
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