“Faith is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see.” Heb. 11:1 (NLT)

Faith is a powerful force that the whole of humanity is yet to embrace. Most people have read the quoted verse several times yet it has not been imbibed into their lives. So many people can afford to live below their God-given potentials because they have not been able to have faith in themselves and all that the scripture has said concerning them.

Think about this for a moment: “To believe in the things that you can see and touch is no belief at all, but to believe in the unseen is a triumph and a blessing.” - Abraham Lincoln. Absolute faith in God and oneself is one secret of achieving one’s goal and living a peaceful life on earth. There are so many things that have been said concerning us in the scripture but how many of us remember those promises when we experience any challenge? When pursuing your dreams, obstacles will surely come, but it is the depth of your faith that will determine whether you forge ahead or you pack it in.

Every human has the power within him to achieve any heart desire but it is the level of belief we have in ourselves that determines the result we get. People with faith are more relaxed because they are not anxious. They no that no matter what comes their way, the perfect result will definitely occur; therefore there is no reason foe the self-destructive emotions like stress, doubt, fear, insecurity etc.

In a life that faith abounds, doubt is never present. If your faith is not strong, doubt will break through. Man is a co-creator with God; the potential is unlimited. What is true of the great achievers in our history is true for us. Have faith that you too have infinite possibilities to create extraordinary things.

The world is full of people who started their dreams with nothing but faith. We have read several scriptural examples and our present world is also full of these people. If not for the faith of some men, the technological advancements we are all enjoying today would have been virtually impossible. it is now possible for man to visit the moon anytime because President Kennedy had the faith at a point in time. Several people did not believe him because it has never being done before. Because of his absolute faith, it didn’t take ten years for this to become a reality.

When you are in the state of absolute faith, you expect challenges. You know that obstacles are a part of the natural occurrences and you easily move through them. When you have this kind of faith, you do not allow anything to take you off track. You do not consider an obstacle a distraction or even a nuisance; you simply see it as part of the perfection of everything. In the face of adversity, you hold strong to your faith and are unmoved and unaffected as a result.

Napoleon Hill said, “Whatsoever the mind of man can conceive and BELIEVE he can achieve.” Faith is so important if you are going to achieve your dreams and vision. When following your dreams, I will want you to embrace this advice by Dorothea Brand, “Act as if it is impossible to fail!” And you will NEVER experience failure no matter what comes your way.

This is to your success this year.

Adebola Oni

When most of us are asked the most important possession in our lives, we tend to look at the big stuffs we have acquired over the years. We easily point to our cars, mansions and even the money we have being able to amass in large quantity. To us, these are the things that make our lives go smoothly. But if we ask a successful man what his prized possession is, we will all be amazed at his answer. His road to success was started by this little thing we all can easily overlook and he sees it as his daily companion. What is it? A journal! This is unbelievable but true.

The power of a journal should never be under estimated in our everyday living. If you study a successful person, you will notice they hardly go anywhere without this prized possession. This is because it is widely believed that the retentive power of the human brain is very low and one can catch an idea or inspiration anywhere. So if an idea comes to your mind and you don’t have the means of capturing it, it is likely to be forgotten. It comes back to memory immediately you see someone carrying out the same idea.

The faintest ink is better than the sharpest brain and this cannot be disputed. Write something down and twenty years from now, you will still be refering to it but store it in your brain and you forget it in the next hour or two. Any idea may occur to you that you may not even be able to carry out immediately it struck your mind, but who told you you won’t be able to implement it in years to come? If your ideas are noted in a journal, a day will come that you will have the capability to implement it. This is one of the secrets of the highly successful. They keep writing down all the ideas that occur to them until the day they have the wherewithal to carry them out.

Do you really want to be successful? The begin to copy the lifestyle of the successful. I know of someone who said he has written down so much ideas to the extent that for the next twenty year, he can never complain of not having anything to do. What if you are in this man’s shoe, how will you feel? If you are not used to this, please begin to practise this art and in no mean time, it will become a lifestyle. I learnt this some years back and it has helped me a lot. There are some ideas I generate that I couldn’t carry out immediately. All I do is write them down and file them somewhere I can make reference to later. Any where I go, my companion is always my journal.

“Be prepared” is the Boys Scout motto and ideas may come at any time so you must always be ready to jot them down. You never can tell if it is any of them that will change your life. This is one secret that will help you a lot if only you can put it to practice. Learning without acting is like not learning at all.

You will make it.

Adebola Oni

My friend Tony Clark has just posted an article on his blog, Success From The Net, and I have decided to post it here as well.

It is the first part of a Goal Series he has started.

I am sure you will enjoy this article.

Happy read.

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What makes life worth living?

What is so important to you that it is absolutely essential for an ideal life?

The answers to these questions point to your Key Elements — the fundamental drivers for everything that you do.

Why You Do the Things You Do

Your Key Elements drive you whether you are aware of them or not.

As you look back over your life, you will begin to see patterns emerge around certain elements. Many begin to surface around adolescence. Others have been with you for as long as you can remember.

These elements may manifest as values, passions, hopes, or dreams. They are the basic building blocks of the things you’ve accomplished, and the things you yearn for.

Every time you have a big achievement or feel a deep desire, it can be traced back to one or several of your Key Elements.
Start with the Basics

Like most things in life, the more you’re aware of something, the better your chances are to utilize it. Knowing those deep drivers is crucial to setting goals that are achievable. The more closely your goals tie back to your Key Elements, the more likely you will reach them (and in most cases, exceed them).

So the first step in the Goal Setting Success process is to identify and really understand your Key Elements.

The easiest way to identify them is to look for patterns in your life. See where they have been influencing your actions, and use those actions as clues.

Some are obvious. For example, if “family” is one of your Key Elements, you can see how you’ve made most decisions in your life based on “family.”

Take some time to sit quietly and reflect on the major decisions and turning points in your life. Look for clues as to what may have influenced them.

Observe yourself during an average day. What qualities help you make certain decisions?

Some other questions to ask are:

* What is central to an ideal life?
* What things make me feel the greatest satisfaction?
* What part of my life that if taken away, would have the biggest impact?
* What led me to the friends, groups, clubs, and activities I have chosen throughout my life?
* Who has had the biggest influence on my life, and what “tags” would I use to identify this person?

As you answer these questions, they will begin to point to your Key Elements. This becomes the foundation for setting goals that aren’t only achievable, but can become almost automatic.

Source: http://successfromthenest.com/content/goal-setting-the-key-elements/

Some years back, it suddenly struck me to note that almost all the things around me were the creations of people like myself. It is simply amazing to realize how much some people have changed the face of the earth and affected humanity.

Just take a minute and observe the things around you, starting from the clothes you are wearing. You can see the fabric and the beautiful colors and designs on it. This didn’t fall from the sky, somebody or people somewhere made it so by applying their creativity.

Now take a look at your shoes, wrist watch, tie, jewelry, etc that you may be putting on. Did you notice the different patterns, colors, designs, etc in them? What about the books in your bookshelf?

Again, take a close look at one of them. Can you observe how the contents are intelligently arranged to treat the subject the book is about? You can equally appreciate the page layout, design, the beautiful and attractive illustrations and cover.

These are only a few examples, the evidence of men and women’s ability to be creative is in everything and everywhere. Humans, including you are created with the capacity to be creative. We have the inherent power to conceive ideas and be able to bring them to reality.

Having observed all these things, it appeared I was the only one left without any creation to point at. So I decided there and then it shouldn’t be, for I must not fail to use my creativity to better humanity and create wealth.

Yes, absolutely no doubt about it, creativity brings you wealth and significance. The product of your creation is your marketable item to exchange for money. It embodied value which people are willing to pay for.

The more the demand for this item, the more of course your pocket gets fatter! Ask people like Bill Gates who have made and are continuing to make billions from their creations, they will tell you life couldn’t be sweeter.

Even if you are in an employment, your show of creativity on your job will definitely take you to the top of your career where you will command higher pay and respect because by it you will either be making more money for your employer or helping them to prevent loss of money - and that’s sweet song to employers.

Now friend, the ball is in your court. You must answer a simple question with sincerity. Like I mentioned earlier, I faced up to this same question years back and the answer that came up helped me to take the decision to live the rest of my life being creative as much as I can.

And without trying to be boastful, I have recorded huge success both in my bank statement and my personality profile since then from applying my creativity. More importantly, hundreds, perhaps, thousands of people have benefited so far from my creations.

This is the question: what have you created so far?

Before you answer this question, please know that creativity does not only imply the creation of physical products, intangible things such as service, work flow procedure or process, educational activities and curriculum, entertainment, games, music, etc are also products of creativity.

So what is your answer? This question is not to make you feel bad if you have nothing much to show, after all the majority of humanity are like that. Rather, it is to wake you up like it did me to the truth that you are a creative being. You can bring those ideas of yours to life.

You can create that system that has been occurring to you as the solution for that problem you have noticed plaguing the multitude of people in your locality. You absolutely can, otherwise your mind would not have conceived it!

Article Submitted By: Innocent Ibhaluobe of Success Principles