2015 RESOLUTIONS.

2015 RESOLUTION

Again with our tool RESOLUTIONS... we are going to consider how we can be able to implement our resolutions in 2015 using the tool.

R- Respect

If you respect what you want, you don't compromise them for anything else. What are the things you want to achieve? where do you want to get to? State these in clear terms, one after the other in the order of preference. Be yourself, don't state because others want those, but because they are your wants and needs. I mean the most important ones after thinking through all. Just respect the things you set for yourself to achieve.

E- Ensure

Ensure your goals are definite,realistic and achievable. Ensure you commit yourself to what you want to do.After you know what you want in 2015, now Ensure it works. 
The truth is that apart from you, nobody really can get your goals for you. You are the sole player,you are the lead actor in your movie, all the other people are supporting actors or detractors,so if you don't play your part as such,then be sure your movie will not sell. That is why there is a need to believe and be committed and ensure it works. Purpose in your heart to make it work.

S- Strategy

Have a strategy to make it work. Make a plan. It is always better to avoid answering the why and the what her, rather focus on the how? Develop concrete steps to get to your destination. If you need to earn a masters degree this year, how are you going to do it? The leaps to get there should be a sure way to success and always have back up plans. If Plan A fails what next? It is equally important to analyse your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in order to help you make informed choices or decision regarding your strategy. 2015,Plan,Prepare,Act.

Resolutions

What were your 2014 resolutions? First of all let's look at the meaning of resolute. Being firm,determined,focused. So we can say resolution is being determined to do or not do something. You definitely can't go back on your words if you make a resolution. Lets look at 2014...

Were you able to implement them?

Probably no,there is nothing wrong with that but there is everything wrong if you don't know why you couldn't and if you don't look back and take stock of why you couldn't implement them.

If you don't assess and still go ahead to make new resolutions,then I may be correct to call you “A successful failure” You succeed in making resolutions but you fail to implement them mostly because you don't even bother to know why you couldn't succeed with the previous year's.

It is almost a week to begin another year and I'm sure many of us  know our new year resolutions.

But before that kindly let's look back and evaluate the year 2014. To help us better do this, I have developed a tool using the same word RESOLUTIONS.

R- Resolution

What were your 2014 resolutions? Were they realistic? Were they achievable? Were they precise?

E- Ensure

Did you ensure it worked? How committed were you towards achieving your own goals?

S- Strategy

What were your strategies in 2014? Were they helpful? What did you do differently?

O- Opportunities

What opportunities did you miss? What opportunities did you create? Where were these opportunities? Did they come only once? Why did you miss that? And what preparations did you make to grab new ones if any?

L-Look Up

Did you fight the battle your self? Did you need divine intervention? How did you go about it?

U- Understand

Did you really understand what you were about? Did you understand the game? Did you understand how to play it? What went wrong? How were you able to overcome this?

T- Try Again

Did you fall alongside? What happened? Did you try again or you just fell asleep at where you fell? What can change?

I- Important information

How were you dealing with information especially with the important ones?

O- Other people

How did you treat the people around you? Did they matter to you? Or it was all about you?

N- NO-

How did you react to the number of Nos you received” No I cant help,No I'm sorry. What was your reaction when the doors were shut before you?

S- Step back and get answers to your question.

Ask all the the questions in the world...You can use the 5W,1H approach to help you. What did you want to achieve? What went wrong?

Why couldn't you make it?

Who was suppose to help? Who obstructed you? Could it be yourself?

When were you suppose to do what?

Where did you do it? Could it be that you need a change of environment?

How did you do it?

These answers will help you develop different strategies for 2015.

Nana's Diary: Why I fell in love with Jonathan Seagull...

Jonathan Livingston Seagull was written by Richard Bach.

This book is about a seagull who discovered himself as an extra ordinary bird who could do more than just squabbling over food everyday. He pushes himself to fly higher above sea level tried to learn everything about flying. His fellow birds hated him because he was unwilling to conform to the norms of the normal bird,he was then expelled from his flock and became an outcast,but even there,he became pleased with his abilities and lived a happy life.

I fell in love with Jonathan Seagull because of the following great ideas I got when I read it...

Quotes from Stone and Hill...

After reading Success with PMA by Stone and Hill,I tried to understand these quotes.

“Have a definiteness of purpose.”

To get a clearly defined goal is a step forward. Stone and Hill put it as definiteness of purpose is the starting point of all achievement. And I couldn’t agree with them more on this. What I have realized is that,the world will change whether or not you choose to change it. God has given you the power to change it so you can control the direction it goes if you really want to, but the most important thing is to get your goal defined. I always say,If you don't know where you are going,anywhere can be your destination.

If you know where you are going,it helps you set your priorities right,you are able to avoid detractors on the way and move onto your destination.

Ideas from PMA..

Cont. Seven (7)of Seven(7) ideas from PMA..

Idea# 5: To become an excellent achiever,it takes practice,practice and practice.

Practice leads to perfection,practice makes man perfect,practice teaches best etc., are all common phrase I believe we have heard over and over since childhood. Many a time, we tend to think that we are so perfect in our fields that we need not to practice. But my research has shown that even the best motivational speakers/presenters in the world practice their messages/speeches before any delivery or presentation. It is very good to practice,if you don't the result is always emergency. And most emergency cases end up in the morgue.

Idea#6: Loving people and serving them is the greatest value in life.Sometimes we want to treat people who have maltreated us or offended us in the same vein, in other words pay them in their own coin. We often feel good when we pay evil with evil. I like the idea that You have to love people and not only that, but serving them. In reality it feels so good to be loved and cared for. What I have gotten from this book is the golden rule. If I feel good when good things are happening to me,I should also empathize with my fellow by showing love and serving them. There is a portion in the bible and I think it summarizes all that we need to on this earth. It states “Trust in the Lord and Do Good” Very simple phrase but carries very strong message.

Idea #7: Don’t see only the mote in the other fellows eyes,see the beam in yours.

Most people including myself usually are quick to judge others. It is very easy to criticize others because we sometimes forget our own faults or lessen ours whenever we try to compare ourselves to others. We think we are better of. But the idea here denotes that you repel others if you only see the bad in them. So it is better to remove the beam in our own eyes before seeing the mote on others. In other words we should try as much as possible to deal with our issues,only then,can we have the right to correct others. In correcting others,we should also be mindful of what,when and how to do it.

Ideas from "PMA"

After reading “Success through Positive Mental Attitude(PMA)” by Stone and Hill,(a book I recommend)I came up with seven(7) Ideas.

Four of them here (the remainder in my next post)

Idea # 1: whatever the mind of man conceives and believes, the mind of man can achieve.
This is the idea I personally have discovered to be very true and helpful in every area of my life.
Nothing is really impossible under the sun,but how to make it possible largely depends on how we use our mind. As soon as we are able to believe in our mind that,it is possible,then automatically our subconscious mind begins to work under that universal law,and off we go to the great land of achievement.

Idea # 2: God is always a good God.

God is always a good God is indeed an idea so important to me because it is so glaring that our deeds and actions don’t deserve the kind of love God keeps on showering on us. He is always a good God because even in our unfaithfulness,He still remains faithful. In our time of needs,He is ever present to deliver us and provide for us what we need. He has given us so much but yet we give him so little and He keeps directing our paths to right places. His showers are undiscriminating,he showers on both the poor and the rich,the sinner and the righteous,the old and young. Indeed God is always a good God.

Idea# 3: Self Motivators

The idea that you can really motivate yourself by words,and no one can say these words to you but yourself. According to this book,these words when repeated with frequency,rapidity and emotion,it affects the subconscious mind and causes it to react. However one needs to be careful on the kind of words he/she chooses as motivators or suggestions,because these words can make or break you, therefore it is imperative to select words that can put you on track,words that can get you going when the road becomes unclear, when it is tough,words that can move you out of your comfort zone to take action. Words such as “do it now” “Day by day,in every way,through the grace of God,I am getting better and better.” from Hill and stone's PMA can help a great deal.

Idea#4: something More.

Something more? Yes something more. I personally love this phrase very much which is in synonymous to the a phrase I often use “the extra factor”. Sometimes we tend to forget that the difference between success and failure is that added value,that extra thing you have to factor into your thinking. But then again it just doesn't come as magic,you have to work at it to be able to identify that something more and acting upon your discovery.

The World's Most Pressing Problem.

I was asked “what do you see as the most pressing problems facing the world today,and how do you feel this problem could be solved”.
I couldn’t just wait for a second to answer this question as if it was the moment I was waiting for. I know we all have different answers to this question and I believe there are lot of pressing issues in the world and how you answer this may very much depend on which side of the angle you stand at a particular point in time.

For me the most pressing problem of this world is the want of committed young people. Most of us are not committed to anything we do. We do things probably because we are forced to or the said thing to be done is attached with incentives.

Commitment to excellence,commitment to time and even personal commitment are zero on the young generation's priority list.

Commitment is mostly assessed by the action or end results. You can only tell someone to commit himself or herself to a cause,that is just a suggestion and will forever remain so as long as the person does not see the need to. I believe it has more to do with intrinsic motivation rather than extrinsic. But even with that,some external forces can ignite this.

What I think can be done is to start from the homes. Children learn best by what they see or examples and I believe parents are the first teachers of their children. And then to the schools. Most causes now are mainly on the shortcuts to be millionaires paying little or no attention to the moral and ethical values. The smartest get it all. If courses are channeled towards building certain values,it can help a great deal.

Some people see commitment as an agreement or contract, others as a pledge or promise but I always love to define commitment as an attitude towards someone or something. I believe if we are committed to what we say and do,all other things will follow suit.

My Dream

It was a Monday morning when Mr. Adams, our teacher entered, we all stood to respond to his greeting as was the culture. Lessons began as usual. “A doctor, Engineer, lawyer were the chorus answers to his question, what is your dream job? As he walked towards me, he asked, what about you Abby(My first name then)? Air hostess. I answered. Did I even know what that was? No, I had only seen a picture of an air hostess in a book my grandfather bought for me and I wanted to be like her because she was fashionable and classy.

As a child who didn't get easy access to  computers,reading materials and other things that made learning easier, I made up my mind not to let the next generation be victims of circumstances. After my first degree, I founded an organisation called DIF with the aim of bridging the wide gap between rural and urban education. DIF in collaboration with the Ghana Education service and the Ghana Library Authority provide rural pupils with practical lessons in reading and computer skills. Some of these pupils have never seen computers before yet they compete with pupils in the cities (most of whom have access to these things) in their final BECE.(Basic Education Certificate Examination)

Due to this project, I travel to many villages and this has helped me to understand the basic needs of humans, which include food that is mostly produced by farms. But the question is how do we provide this need when we all want fashionable and classy jobs,when most of our graduates look at nothing but white collar jobs in tie and suits?

One afternoon, I stood and watched food being off loaded. The answer to my “why” brought back childhood memories. Most of my mates and I wanted nothing to do with the plagues of farming because it was low class work, only done by those who were illiterate.
On our way back to Accra at about 11 pm, we witnessed a scene which was reported in the following morning's newspapers. Apparently the young women we saw that night were arrested for transacting illegal business (Prostitution). To my amazement four of them were university graduates. Immediately I realised education alone could not do the trick as I linked it to the answer I got from the village. "the youth don't want to farm so they go to city to make a living”.
Of course! Man must survive but how? So I decided to tackle the “how”.

In my search to acquire knowledge and skills to make generational impact, I came into contact with kanthari, an organisation that provides a springboard for social visionaries to transform concepts and conventions. At a session called concept transformation, I realised I could do more to bring social change in Ghana.

Food is a basic need of human,and where do we get this necessity from? The farm of course! So i believe if people are concerned with what they eat,they should be concerned with how and where the food come from. But unfortunately not many people are interested in the "where",that is why I want to be part of the solution to this problem. How? By transforming the mindsets of young women graduates to embrace farming as a means to sustainable livelihood through agricultural and entrepreneurial skills and also by empowering existing smallholder farmers to get equal value for their hard work.

With Gandhi’s quote in mind, I decided to be the change I want to see in the world by firstly, changing myself. I have now developed my farming skills by volunteering with Saigramam and Lend a hand, organisations into farming in India.

I have no doubt in my mind that, the farmer is as equally important as the lawyer and the doctor. If there is no farmer, we will not get food to eat. It is therefore imperative to make farming an attractive career.

I imagine a community where young women graduates are proud to be what I call Agriprenuers. (Agricultural Entrepreneurs) and small holder farmers benefiting from their work.

A Journey of 1858 kilometers, Begins With a Step @ Trivandrum.

It was sweet, sour and indeed, it did ignite the writing fire in me. All of a sudden, I started writing. Writing what? I wrote, though it came to me unconsciously. I didn't know what but later realized what I was having my experience on the rail. It took me two good days and nights and it all began when Sarita, my beautiful blind lady woke me up at 6:30 am on that fateful day.

“Nana, the auto driver is outside the gate waiting for you” said Salini, the administrative assistant. This was the second time she spoke to me that morning. The first time, she came to my room to check on me but i was already up, thanks to Sarita who set her alarm at 6:30 am to wake me up for the journey. At the second call, it was 2 minutes to 7 am and I couldn't matter any expression but Huh! Waiting?

It was a Friday morning and my 1,858 kilometer journey to Pune had begun. I remember saying goodbye to Odion and hugging my Sari-Sari, Erick, carrying my bag and Nelson walking me to the gate. As Salini and I entered the rickshaw (auto) to Trivandrum Train Station, a lot of things started running through my mind. Was I indeed ready for this journey? Was I prepared to spend a whole month in an unknown land all alone? What was the situation going to be like? The food and the room? It was a moment of mixed feelings. The journey lasted for only 25 minutes but it seemed to me an hour.

When we checked on available notice boards, we couldn’t locate our platform number. No notice, no announcement. It wasn’t yet 8 am so we waited in anticipation. For close to 45 minutes, nothing had been said to us. Salini, an Indian was lost in her own country so you can just imagine where I was in that very moment of anxiety. Maybe, few kilometers to my country; Ghana.

It wasn’t funny anymore; we had to find a way out, either by asking or going round reading every notice. “Ladies and gentlemen, train number 16832 from Kanyakumari to Mumbai will depart at 8:55am on platform number 3” Hmmmm a sigh of great relief from both Salini and I. Salini looked at her watch and the time was 8:30. “Twenty-five minutes to board?.” I said to myself. In a hurry, we moved to platform No. 3 waiting patiently to board at 8:55 am. At 8:45am, there came another announcement. This time it was a reminder that the train will indeed depart at 8:55 on platform No. 3 so we were not bothered because we were already on the mentioned platform.

At 8:55, we were expecting our usual comforting news but it did not,rather, this reminder came 5 minutes after 9 am and it was not comforting because the same lines were being broadcasted. “Ladies and gentlemen, train number 16832 from Kanyakumari to Mumbai will depart at 8:55 am on platform number 3”

I could just see the frustration on Salini's face and I guessed she could see mine too. We thought we had missed the train. Maybe, it was 7:55am and we mistook it to be 8:55am. Huh! what could have gone wrong this time? We started asking individuals around and apparently most of the people standing on platform 3 were also going by train number 16832. I heaved a sigh of relief, indicating, at least, an assurance that I hadn't missed my train.

At 9:10 am the announcer was on, reminding us of the change in time. This time, we are to take off at 9:25 am on platform number 4. But I missed one thing. I was waiting to hear “we apologise for...” but nothing of that sort happened."Whew"

When Salini and I climbed on the “wheel’s” unfriendly stairs with my big luggage to platform 4, at that moment I could only hope that was the final change of platforms.

Here we were on platform 4 waiting anxiously for Mumbai express train number 16832.

My favourite computerized announcer came again “Ladies and gentlemen train number... will arrive shortly.” It was at Trivandrum Train Station I got the real meaning of the word “shortly”. It meant more than just that.

“Shortly”, the train arrived and Salini helped me to check my details and Ajith, Kanthari's administrative manager had done a good job. Everything was in place and I could see my name on the printed list pasted on the train indicating my seat number.

I gave Salini a big hug and a kiss on her cheek showing how grateful I really was to her for spending almost three hours with me, from 6:30 am in my room to 9:30 am in my cubicle on the train.

I thanked her dearly from the bottom of my heart and soon Mumbai express train number 16832 departed and the 1,767 kilometer journey began.

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