THE S.P.I.R.I.T of greatness (4)

Ignorance is a deadly enemy of greatness. Those who seek greatness must loathe ignorance. Unfortunately, success has a way of breeding complacency.  Executive inertia sets in when leaders of an organization stop growing because they have stopped learning. Yet growth is a characteristic of a living thing. Everyone of us behaves in tandem with our deepest convictions which in turn shape our value systems and, by extension, our conduct. Our convictions and belief systems don’t just happen. They are products of the sources of our inspiration. The principle is unassailable that whatever or whoever inspires you can also instruct you. Whoever or whatever instructs you can give you direction. And whoever  or whatever directs you actually controls you. If your life can be said to be a puppet, the big question is, who pulls the strings?

Those who desire to be great must develop a voracious appetite for learning and personal development. The ignorant man is king over his own non-existent empire in the castle that exists only in his own imagination.

Read. Listen to inspiring messages. Attend relevant seminars even at your own expense. Invest in knowledge perhaps more than you do on your wardrobe. Valuable information properly deployed, will enrich your wardrobe. Instead of cursing everyone in the traffic, convert your car into a mobile learning centre. Learning must be a continuous experience both for the leader and the entire organization that he leads. Great leaders turn even innocuous events in the organization into learning experiences.

Whatever you feed into your spirit will affect your mind. Whatever affects your mind will shape your conduct. No wonder Jesus counseled His followers to be careful about what they hear and how they hear. Not every information available is valuable. Not everything in the airwaves is relevant to your destiny.

No one wakes up one day and becomes a criminal. Something must have inspired the tendency. Exposure over time to certain influences that at first appeared harmless like films depicting unbridled violence, explicit romantic scenes do send subliminal messages that get stored up in the memory of the individual awaiting experimental manifestation especially when those who portray such characters are the society’s idols!

Those who desire to be great therefore cannot afford to be flippant about what is generally regarded as entertainment. The word ‘entertain’ is not as innocent as it sounds. It has its root in two French words  “entrer” and “tenir”. “Entrer” means “to enter” and “tenir” means “to take hold of”. For anything to effectively entertain you, it must lay hold of your subconscious through certain subliminal suggestions and gestures that take root and eventually seek manifestation. This is why we remember well-told stories that paint pictures that we can identify with. It is why we watch a film with an emotional theme and presentation and unconsciously, we find ourselves shedding tears as the story cascades towards a denouement. It is the reason friends almost become enemies after watching a highly charged football match involving their opposing teams! In fact, several times, you will find people watching a match and actually kicking things around them. Therefore, whatever “enter-tains” you can inspire you. Our imagination simply responds to inspiration. Whatever inspires you off the job will affect your productivity on the job.

In the course of the journey to greatness, one of the key areas where drastic surgery is necessary is the area of relationships. We are all products of relationships. There is really no self-made man. God created us for relationship. He reinforced that position when he said it was not good for the man Adam to live and work alone without a help meet for him. Even God never works alone. He always works in concert with the Godhead. Jesus had a team of twelve that worked with Him.

God’s blessings come through people. So does Satanic affliction. Someone has been where you want to go. Your current dream is already someone’s reality. Someone already has what you are looking for.

However, not everyone that comes into your life is relevant to your destiny. You cannot be headed for London and then change your flight at the airport to one going to New York simply because you want to complete a conversation you started with a friend you saw at the airport! Scriptures counsel that “He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will be destroyed” (Proverbs 13:20).  Furthermore, it says that the righteous should choose his friends carefully (Proverbs 12:26).

There are two main types of relationship. Any relationship in your life is either empowering you or disempowering you. But one thing is sure. No relationship ever leaves you the same! Your life is too precious for you to waste it on toxic relationships that have no understanding of your vision or who, even when they claim to understand it, have no intention of helping you to achieve it.

Circumstances and stations of life may attract certain people into your life but relevance is the only thing that should keep them. People come into your life to encourage or discourage you, to empower or weaken you, to propel or distract you, to love or to hate you, to inspire or to “expire” you or to raise or bring you down! The Bible enjoins us in Proverbs 14 verse 7 to disconnect from a foolish man especially when his mouth has nothing of relevant wisdom to contribute to any issue.

Below is my template for filtering relationships in your life. It is culled from a chapter in one of my forthcoming books titled “The 60-SECOND MOTIVATOR”

Never spend quality time in a relationship where you do all the giving. It wears you out.

Never spend quality time in a relationship where you do all the taking. It devalues you.

Never spend quality time in a relationship that has no boundaries. It compromises you.

Never spend quality time in a relationship that does not respect your values. It frustrates you.

Never spend quality time in a relationship that is characterized by criticism and cynicism. It corrodes you.

Never spend quality time in a relationship that has no value for time. It kills the achiever in you.

Never spend time in a relationship that does not value grace in other people. It dulls your insight.

Never spend time in a relationship that places charisma over character. It grieves you.

Never spend quality time in a relationship that places pleasure above PURPOSE. It derails you.

Never spend quality time in a relationship that is not characterized by the fear of God.

It will destroy you…continued

Remember, the sky is not your limit, God is!