How to Profit from Your Fears (3)

Welcome to part 3 of this article. Celebrated motivational speaker and writer, Anthony Robbins said: “One of the greatest limitations for most people is their fear of failure.”

Nothing restricts people’s progress in life more than fear. In most cases, what distinguishes super achievers from under achievers is the extent to which super achievers manage their fears.

Super achievers don’t allow their fears to rule them, rather, they manage their fears, knowing full well that the only way to be ahead of the pack is to minimize their fears and maximize their faith.

The lifestyle of the under achievers is in contradistinction to that of the super achiever. The under achievers seem to have programmed their lives to be ruled by fear. They never aspire to do anything without thinking of the possibility of failure, defeat, danger or risk.

This negative type of thinking is so intense that they hardly see opportunities placed before them. Instead of focusing on the opportunities before them, what they are most concerned about is how things will not work out well. They can quickly figure out a thousand and one reasons things will not work out well, but they can’t look the other way to find at least one reason things will work well.

Many have got their mind so focused on the possibility of failure and defeat that they never consider the positive outcome of what they want to embark upon. All they are concerned about is the negative outcome. Their fears, their apprehensions outweigh their faith.

And whenever fears outweigh or dominate people’s lives, such people hardly achieve meaningful success in life, because those fears continue to hold them back from stepping out to achieve their heart’s desires.

If your fears have grown so wild that you cannot step out to pursue your heart’s desires, then you are not likely going to profit from your fears.

Fearful people achieve little in life because they allow fear to hold them back from achieving what they set out to achieve.

If your fears have gripped you to the extent that you cannot step out to do any meaningful thing in life, then you are not likely goig to profit from your fears.

The one and only Book of success, the Bible, says: “He that observeth the wind shall not sow; and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap” (Ecclesiastes 11:4).   

Life is About Investment

You cannot really achieve great success in life without stepping out to invest your time, money, energy, intellect, etc in a worthwhile venture. Fear stops people from taking steps that will lead them to greater heights.

The Preacher (writer of the Book of Ecclesiastes) rightly noted that people who focus on risks that may likely occur are not going to develop the courage and faith to invest.

It is true that risk is associated with any meaningful project you intend to invest in. it is also true that you cannot really achieve great success without overcoming difficulties, trials and obstacles.

The important thing therefore is not the absence of risk, difficulties, trials and obstacles. There will always be many of them. but it is only those who can develop the faith and courage to overcome that will actually achieve great success in life.

One reason we are not achieving our goals is that we focus too much on the present situation on ground. Observing the wind creates and increases fear of sowing. So it is with the cloud. When you keep focusing on the cloud, you will not be able to step out and reap what you have sown. Observer of wind and cloud cannot step out to reap and sow. That is what the Bible tells us.

The fact is, the global economic climate will always be stormy and cloudy. If you must invest, the best time to do so is NOW! Don’t wait for things to get better before you launch out. Things may not get better the way you are thinking, because there may never be a better time.

It is a big mistake to think that things must get better before you invest. Over the years, we have been complaining: “The economy is bad, the economy is bad.” Even now, we still continue to complain about the unfavourable economic climate.

But the question is: when will the economic situation be better? There may never be a better time. The better time is NOW. The economic climate has always been stormy and cloudy, yet some people are investing and prospering. 

SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE ARE THOSE WHO KNOW THAT THERE CAN NEVER BE A PERFECT TIME FOR INVESTMENT. THEY KNOW THAT THE BEST TIME TO INVEST IS NOW. THEY ALSO KNOW THAT THE EARLIER THEY INVEST THE BETTER.

Dear reader, you can profit from your fear if only you stop focusing on the unfavourable economic climate. WIND OR CLOUD, YOU SHOULD MOVE FORWARD AND KEEP INVESTING OR PURSUING YOUR DESIRE. The wind will always blow. The cloud will always form. But that should not discourage you from launching out.

Successful people are not intimidated by the same wind and cloud that are  restricting others from being the best that God wants them to be. You will always know successful people by the way they handle their fears. Many of them have so mastered their fears that they often take “dangerous steps that frighten the devil out of their way to success.”

There is a level of boldness you will reach that will make you to do things others are afraid of doing. I used to think that boldness supersedes talent. Talent is common. Everybody is endowed with one talent or the two. Prolific author, Stephen King noted, “Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.”

Indeed, talent is cheap because it is common. But what is not cheap is boldness (courage). And because boldness is not cheap, it is uncommon. It takes boldness to step unto the path of hard work.

Boldness or courage is not the absence of fear. For there to be real courage, there must be fear. Courage is being able to manage your fears in such a way that they don’t freeze you and hold you back from achieving outstanding success in life. Courage is associated with successful people. That is what puts them ahead of the pack.

When you have the courage to take “dangerous steps that will intimidate the devil out of your way,” you will not have a rival, competitor or opposition. Courageous people have no rival. They always stand out of the crowd.

To profit from your fears, you must have the courage to move past your fears and doubts and press your way on to success. One may be highly talented but if one cannot summon up the courage to develop and deploy one’s talent, one may not be able to achieve great success in life.

You may be planning and strategizing over the years on how you can bring your goals into reality, but these would not avail you if you cannot ginger yourself up to BOLDLY step out and work out your plan strategically.

ONLY THOSE WHO HAVE THE COURAGE TO STEP OUT OF THEIR COMFORT ZONE TO PURSUE THEIR SET GOALS CAN REALLY ACHIEVE GREAT SUCCESS IN LIFE.  Courage is superior to talent. A man of great courage with little talent will achieve far greater success than a man of great talent who has little or no courage.

To be ahead of others, you must summon up the courage to do the things others are afraid of doing. When you do what others are afraid of doing, you will get to the height they cannot get to.

Victors are men and women of courage who have refused to be held down by fear and have moved forward to achieve outstanding success. You can actually make fortunes from your fears by undermining them to the level that they cannot hold you down from walking into fortune.

Just summon up the courage to pursue your goal with the agility of a cat after a rat and you will run into fortune VICTORIOUSLY!  

   

No Menial Jobs, Only Menial Minds

Success is in the man, not in the job he does. It is not the job you do that makes you great; it is the quality of greatness in you which you bring to bear in your work place that makes you great.

It is not the wealth in the job that makes you wealthy; it is the “power to get wealth” which God gives to you and which you deploy that makes you wealthy.

History is replete with many people who achieved outstanding success doing jobs considered by many as “menial jobs.” But the truth is: THERE ARE NO MENIAL JOBS; THERE ARE ONLY MENIAL MINDS.

Years ago, Success Digest, a wealth empowerment business newspaper published in Nigeria, featured the story of a man who became a millionaire selling olive oil (“anointing oil”).

The man discovered that olive oil is a product his fellow church members and other churches need constantly. He became interested in it and took it very serious. From retailing, he gradually worked his way up to become a big distributor.

His breakthrough came after he struck a deal with a foreign manufacturer of the product to become their agent/distributor in Nigeria.

This success story is recorded in a country where selling is regarded as “menial.” The fact is, opinions do not change the truth. If a person can become a millionaire selling one line of product - olive oil- can we still maintain that it is a menial job?

It is our thinking that makes the job menial. There are no menial jobs. THOSE WHO CANNOT DO A PARTICULAR JOB SHOULD NOT DISCOURAGE OTHERS WHO WANT TO DO IT.

Don’t Look Down on Jobs

If you want to achieve massive success in life, do not look down on any job. IF YOU LOOK DOWN ON A JOB, THE JOB WOULD LOOK DOWN ON YOU.

Sometime ago, Success Digest featured the story of a man who ventured into “shit business” (waste collection and disposal business). But his venture into this business did not go down well with people who knew him (though these people would not give him a “better job” or give him money to establish another business).

The man turned his back against them and endured the taunting. With patience and perseverance, he excelled in the “shit business.” He later became a millionaire and an international figure.

The man narrated that after he became successful, a woman, one of the people that repeatedly taunted him, started coming to him to beg for money to pay her children’s school fees!

Dear reader, IF YOU LOOK DOWN ON A JOB, THE JOB WILL LOOK DOWN ON YOU. You may not like a job, fine. You may also not like the man behind the job, fine. But why not allow the man to do his own job?

Do not use your tongue to pull down those who are working and striving to make it work. A LOOSE TONGUE IS A MARK OF A LOSER. Don’t be a loser; be a winner. Use your tongue to build and not to destroy.

Do a Common thing in an Uncommon Way

When you do a common thing in an uncommon way, you become an uncommon person. Essentially, this is what always separates winners from losers. Winners do common things in an uncommon way. Winners turn around what people see as “ordinary” and make it extraordinary.

The job you are doing does not matter provided it is legitimate. IT IS NOT THE JOB, BUT THE MAN BEHIND THE JOB THAT MATTERS. How are you doing your job? Are you doing it in an uncommon way?

If you want to make a difference in your job, do your job differently. Don’t do things because you see others doing them. Be original. Be unique. Let your work stand out from those of others. WHEN YOU DO YOUR WORK IN AN UNCOMMON WAY, YOUR WORK WILL DISTINGUISH YOU AND CHANGE YOUR FORTUNE.

Do What Successful People Do

One great way to succeed in life is to do what successful people are doing and are making it. The problem with us is not that we don’t know the right thing to do to succeed. Our problem generally is that we find it difficult doing those things we ought to do to make progress in life.             

If we want to succeed like the rich, we should be willing to learn from them. It is not just a question of copying their lifestyle and doing the same job they do; it is a question of putting into practice the same principles they used to achieve greatness.

Dear reader, let me round off now by saying that greatness is in you and not in any job, business, vocation or profession. The fact that you are engaged in a particular business, vocation or profession does not make you great.

What makes a person great is the quality of greatness within the person. All you need do to become great in life is to bring to bear the quality of greatness in you into any business, vocation, profession or activity you are engaged in.

Don’t take the work you are doing for granted and don’t look down on any job. Anything your hands find to do, do it with all your might because in the final analysis, it is the quality of greatness in you which you bring to bear in your work that makes you victorious life!  

Keeping a Good Attitude

Many years ago, famous psychologist, William James said: “The greatest discovery of my generation is that people can alter their lives by altering the attitude of their mind.”

When things go wrong in our lives, there is always the tendency to go wrong with them, but when we choose to remain positive and keep making efforts toward achieving positive results, we will end up achieving amazing results!

One soccer match Nigerian soccer fans cannot forget in a hurry is the 1989 Junior World Cup semi-final match between Nigeria’s junior national team and its Russian counterpart, the USSR junior national team.

Seventy minutes of play, Nigeria had already conceded four goals! Everybody had lost hope that Nigeria would advance to the final of the competition. At Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, venue of the match, spectators had gradually started leaving the stadium. Here in Nigeria, especially in my own locality, we were already bemoaning our loss.

We concluded it was all over for Nigeria, but what kept us glued to our TV set was the manner Nigerian team was prosecuting the match. The played as if they were not four goals down. As usual, they were very much in high spirit. They had much of the ball control, but the goals were not forthcoming. They had excellent teamwork and they held their head high. They were ready to lose gallantly, so I thought.

But when it was eighteen minutes to the end of the ninety minutes regulation time, the goals they had labored for seventy-two minutes to score started coming. They came in quick succession until they cancelled the four goals deficit!

After thirty minutes of extra time to decide the winner, Nigeria won through penalty shoot-out! It was celebration galore at the end of the day.

What lesson can we learn from the victorious Nigerian soccer team? There are some vital lessons we can learn from here which we can use to achieve great success in our own lives. Among these lessons are:

1.   When the Game is Contrary, Play On

In life as in the game of soccer, attitude is more important than any unpleasant situation you are undergoing. The negative circumstances we undergo are not the reason we keep losing in life. The reason we lose in the game of life is the way we react when the game is contrary. Our defeat or victory is anchored on our attitude.

Epictetus said, “Men are not disturbed by things but by the view they take of things.” The Nigerian soccer players exhibited their skills and competence to the best of their ability. It was obvious, they were the better side, but strangely, the goals were not coming. Rather than scoring goals, they conceded four.

Ordinarily, having conceded four goals, one would think it would weaken their morale. Of course, one cannot lose sight of the sadness and pain they feel inside, conceding four goals in a match.

It was not that they were not conscious of the ninety minutes regulation time. They were. They were doing the best they could, yet, instead of reducing the tally, or leveling up the score, they conceded four goals after about seventy-two minutes.

In a crucial match of this nature, after going down four goals, it is not easy to reduce the tally, level up and go on to win. They had only eighteen minutes left of play.

Looking at the situation, it was obvious they were not sure they could level up or go on to win, but they were determined to fight on till the final blast of the whistle.

They turned the heat against their opponent, reducing them to a defensive-minded team. When the heat became too much, the goals started coming. The rest is history.

But dear reader, the vital lesson to note here is that your attitude is fundamental to your success in life. It is not the present circumstances that determine your destiny; it is YOU.

The lesson here is: when you are losing when you should be winning and when you are trying the best you can and the situation is still getting worse, don’t quit. Maintain your poise and play on. AS LONG AS THE GAME CONTINUES, YOU STILL HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY OF PUTTING EVERYTHING RIGHT.

When there is life, there is hope. Never give up, never despair. Keep fighting. You will emerge victorious, if you don’t give up.

2.   When Others Lose Hope, Keep Your Head 

When you lose hope in life, you have lost everything. HOPE IS WHAT YOU NEED TO KEEP FIGHTING AND PROGRESSING. Do not allow the present unpleasant situation to dampen your spirit.

Keep your head high and maintain a positive mindset. You need to realize that success lies at the other side of defeat. Just when you think it is all over, success is closer to you. That is why you must not give up when others have given up. YOU CAN WIN EVEN WHEN OTHERS HAVE WRITTEN YOU OFF; BUT YOU CAN’T WIN WHEN YOU LOSE HOPE IN LIFE.

So, when others lose hope, keep hope alive. “When men are cast down, then thou shalt say, there is lifting up” (Job 22:29).

3.   Wear Out Your Opposition

When you start to mourn and display signs of defeat, your opponent will capitalize on them to finish you. The secret of wearing out your opponent is to keep your spirit high even when the game is going contrary to your expectation.

Don’t catch cold, get up and fight. Turn the hit against your opponent. TO BE THE HIT, YOU MUST FEEL THE HEAT. That HEAT is the homerun or the onslaught you launch against your opponent to finally defeat him.

Wear your opponent out by refusing to show signs of defeat. Fight to the last. Give your opponent a good fight so that at the end of the day, he will live to remember your great championship fight.

Finally, I leave you with the advice of Joel Osteen: “If you want to give your enemy a nervous breakdown, learn to keep a good attitude even when the bottom falls out. Learn to be happy even when things don’t go your way.”

This is the secret of victorious living. Learn to keep a good attitude. By so doing, you will come across the opportunities for putting everything right and then you will celebrate your victory!

How to Profit from Your Fears (2)

Welcome to part 2 of this article. It was Ralph Waldo Emerson that said: “Fear defeats more people than any other one thing.”

Experienced medical doctors have also confirmed from their day to day practical experience in the course of dealing with their patients that fear kills many more people than diseases. 

A doctor has also explained from his personal experience that patients who have strong belief and desire to live stand a greater chance to recover from their ailments than patients that are apprehensive of their recovery and survival.

This, again, buttresses the fact that fear and faith play critical role in our lives and destiny. The Bible says, “If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established” (Isaiah 7:9).

The reason we don’t make as much progress as we desire in life is that we don’t believe enough that we can make the progress we have been yearning for. We allow our fear to grow bigger than our faith. And whenever we allow our fear to grow bigger than our faith, we put ourselves at the mercy of fear.

I come to realize that the main thing that is holding us down from making greater impact in life is the fear we allow to grow bigger than our faith. Anytime our fear becomes bigger than our faith, we are not likely going to achieve much in life.

During my undergraduate days at Ibadan, I once visited a family at Old GRA Ibadan. I met them cutting down and uprooting some of the beautiful flowers that adorn their premises.

“Why are you cutting down and uprooting those beautiful flowers that are adorning the premises?”, I asked.

“They are growing bigger than expected”, they replied. “If you don’t cut them down now, they would become a threat in the near future”, they concluded.

The same thing applies to our fears. At a manageable level, we can profit from our fears. For instance, when our fears are smaller than our faith, we are very much in control. At a manageable level, it is possible to build your faith bigger than your fear.

But when your fears have grown far bigger than your faith, your life will be dominated by fear and it will become difficult to achieve great success in life.

You may really desire to achieve great success in life, but because you allow fear to rule your life, you will not have the courage to step out to do what is necessary to achieve the success you desire.

THE BEST WAY TO PROFIT FROM YOUR FEARS IS TO MINIMIZE THEM. You may not be able to uproot fear entirely forever from your mind. They come and go. Like the flowers, fears keep germinating and growing in our mind. If you allow them to grow bigger than your faith, they will become a threat to your life and destiny.

It is your responsibility to keep pruning them, cutting them down and uprooting them. When you minimize your fears, you stand a chance of building your faith bigger.

The major obstacle or threat that is holding us back from being the best that God wants us to be is not the enemies of progress but the fears we allow to grow wild in our mind.

To profit from your fears, you should minimize them by ignoring them and refusing to be ruled by them.

God speaks to us countless times in the Bible: “FEAR NOT”, “FEAR THOU NOT”, “FEAR THOU NOT NEITHER BE YE DISMAYED.”

The reason God tells us not to fear is that those things we fear rarely happen. They only happen because we refuse to hearken to God’s commandment.

Fear is a weapon satan uses to destroy our faith. Satan knows that if he keeps watching our faith grow bigger and bigger, we would become a bigger threat to him and his kingdom. In order to minimize our faith, he tries all the time to supplant fears in our mind.

Don’t allow any fears satan plants in your mind to grow. Minimize the fears, prune them, cut them down regularly.

You need to realize that when God keeps telling us: “Fear not”, it is unwise to keep entertaining fear.

How to Minimise Your Fears

“Fear in a way springs from ignorance”, says Ralph Waldo Emerson. To overcome ignorance, you have to be informed. You need to constantly load your mind with positive thoughts.

Let positive thoughts dominate your mind at all times. Even when it seems your world is collapsing like a pack of cards, refuse to lose hope in life.

If you lose hope in life, you are finished. People who lose hope in life never have a fighting chance of surviving, not even to talk of succeeding in life.

During the great flood that hit our country, Nigeria in September 2012, several people who lost their properties, farmland and crops committed suicide.

Seeing that that they had nothing to fall back upon, they took their lives. This in a way springs from ignorance. We are not undermining the disaster in any way. To do so is to behave like the ostrich which sees trouble and buries its head in the sand.  

It is true that in life, more often than not, disaster, problems and unpleasant situations will occur. It is true that in life you may not be able to stay out of trouble completely.

But it is how we react right in the midst of disaster or adversity that matters. You need to realize that you are not finished until you have concluded that it is finished. But as long as you hold unto the faith that beyond the disaster you will achieve greater success, God will make both the unpleasant and pleasant circumstances to work for your good.

The disaster may be worse. The economic situation may be unpleasant. You might have lost everything you laboured over the years to possess, but you need to realize that your present condition does not determine your destiny.

The fact that you have lost everything does not mean it is all over with you. Our Lord Jesus Christ has warned us seriously that life does not consist of the abundance of things we possess. 

If you equate life with material possession, any time you lose your material possession, you are as good as dead, because you will be seriously depressed. And you may never be able to develop the faith that will earn you triple of what you have lost. Material possession is not the important thing in life. The important thing in life is FAITH, because by faith, you can have hundred folds of what you have lost.

That is why you must not equate life with material possession. Sure, it is better to be rich, successful and prosperous. This is what this blog, CFVL (Centre for Victorious Living) is teaching. CFVL teaches time-tested principles for success, prosperity and victorious living.

It is good to be rich and have plenty, but there is no guarantee that your riches will last. Those victims of September 2012 flood who lost their properties never contemplated losing their possessions in one sweep.

Sometime, the disaster you never contemplated can happen. That is why you should not pin your happiness on material possession.

Riches have wings. Just when you think you have got everything you want, you might lose them. It is possible to lose everything you have labored to build over the years. To doubt this is to live in a fool’s paradise.

However, what is worthy of consideration is that even when you have lost everything, it is possible to recover all you have lost. It is possible to acquire double or more of what you have lost.

Unfortunately, this is what many people fail to consider when they are hit with misfortune. They allow fear to rule their lives. The fear of the unknown, fear of survival and fear of failure are responsible for people’s failure in life.

WHEN YOU ALLOW THE PRESENT UNPLEASANT SITUATION TO INJECT FEAR IN YOUR MIND, YOU MAY LIKELY LOSE HOPE IN LIFE.

If you really want to profit from your fear, you must minimize the fear. Don’t allow your fear to grow bigger than your faith. When your fears start growing wild and bigger than your faith, cut them down, trim them or uproot them as the case may be.

It does not matter whether you have lost everything. You can still start all over again. You can still make it. You can recover all you have lost and you can acquire even MORE than you have acquired previously. Remember, we live in the world of possibilities. As long as you are still alive, everything is possible.

If you have been visiting this blog and reading the articles herein, I am sure you will equally agree with me that everything you wish to accomplish in life is possible. Stories abound of men and women who, through faith, rose from oblivion to stardom. You too can achieve great success in life. 

No calamity, misfortune, adversity or disaster can destroy your destiny. You can come out of your predicament successful, prosperous and victorious. The only thing that can mar your fortune and destiny is fear.

When you keep dwelling on the present unpleasant situation, fear will set in. Fear can make you to start doubting your ability to live victoriously. Fear can paralyse you and make you lose hope in life. Fear can make you to see life as unbearable.

The important thing about fear is not the fact that it can destroy lives and destiny, but that if you manage or handle your fear effectively, you can actually make fortunes from them.

When it comes to success, prosperity and victory, you have nothing to fear. It is true that no one is immune against fear, but it is also true that we can minimize our fears and cause our faith to grow bigger than the fears.

God has given all of us the power to do so. Whenever you want to embark on a project that will impact positively on people’s lives and on your own life, and fear sets in, refuse to listen to your fears. Ignore your fears. Refuse to believe your fears.

Make it a daily practice to diffuse your fears. Your fears must not grow bigger than your faith. Diminish your fears by filling your mind with positive/faith thoughts. If your mind is filled with positive and faith thoughts, there will be little or no place for fears to grow.

Use positive affirmations to undermine your fears. The following affirmations, when recited constantly, will keep your fears in check. Recite these affirmations at least ten times ever morning and ten times every evening:

• EVERYTHING I LAY MY HANDS UPON TO DO SHALL PROSPER.

•   IF GOD BE FOR ME, WHO CAN BE AGAINST ME?

•   ALL THINGS - BOTH THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY – ARE ORCHESTRATED BY GOD TO WORK FOR MY GOOD.

• THROUGH GOD I WILL DO VALIANTLY, FOR IT IS GOD THAT GIVES ME VICTORY OVER OBSTACLES AND OPPOSITIONS.

• I CAN DO ALL THINGS THROUGH CHRIST WHO STRENTGHENS ME.

When your mind is filled with the above affirmations, your fears will diminish and your faith will grow bigger. It is when your faith becomes bigger than your fears that you can courageously take the steps necessary to launch into great fortunes.

If you can manage or handle your fears by constantly minimizing them, you can make fortunes from them. YOUR FAITH HAS TO BE BIGGER THAN YOUR FEARS BEFORE YOU CAN HAVE THE COURAGE TO STEP OUT AND FIGHT FOR VICTORY. THE DAY YOU START MINIMISING YOUR FEARS IS THE DAY YOU WILL START MOVING OUT OF THE REALM OF IMPOSSIBILITY INTO THE REALM OF POSSIBILITY.

This has been the pattern or the pathway that super successful people continue to traverse. If you can follow suit by minimizing your fears constantly and injecting doses of positive and fear-killer thoughts, you will find yourself stepping out of your fears to do the seemingly impossible.

Get unto this path to victorious living today and you will be victorious now and ever!

PS: Please watch out for part 3 of this article which shall be coming your way soon. Don’t miss it!