Life Lessons: 7 –Create a wall of greatness

This is the Lesson number 7 out of my 100 .Click here to read lesson number 6

I had the opportunity to attend the yearlong British Council’s InterAction Africa Leadership programme in 2007. The highlight of the programme was the contact seminar held in Senegal with participants from over ten countries across Africa and the UK. Each participant came with pictures of what made them proud of their country.

The pictures were posted on one side of the wall and it was an amazing sight to behold that massive wall displaying things that made up proud of Africa. It was so different from the poor, war dominated and AIDS stricken Africa that is usually portrayed by the media.

As I stood there and watched that “Wall of Greatness” I felt proud to be an Africa, in a manner I had never felt before. I saw Africa in a different light, I saw a beautiful Africa, an Africa full of hundreds of things to be proud of. As the tears rolled down my cheeks I felt the power in the “Wall of Greatness”.

Returning home I started creating my own wall of greatness, I went back into time and wrote up some of the significant things that happened in my life that I was proud of, great ones like when I gained a government scholarship for being one of the best students in my school and seemingly smaller and trivial ones such as the day I was finally able to wear a coloured shocks that matched my trousers instead of my regular and beloved white shocks. These were achievements that required me to go beyond myself, to achieve something I never felt I could.

Every time I face a new challenge in life or fear of failure, I turn to my personal “Wall of Greatness” and take in the feeling of pride I felt at those moments. The resulting surge of pride elevates my self-esteem and confidence to go on and face my latest challenge believing in myself that I am the master of my destiny and I am stronger beyond my measure, that I have done it before and I can do it again!

So go on, create your own “Wall of Greatness” and use it to make your past inspire you in the present so that you can, with confidence achieve what you wish for in the future. Do you have any experience similar to this? Share it below.

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Life Lessons: 6 – Know the difference between assets and liabilities

This is the continuing series of the 100 lessons I have learnt in life so far. This is the Lesson number 6 .click here to read lesson number 5

In both high school and the university I studied accounting and I actually majored in accounting at the University, so the words asset and liabilities and their business definitions have been no strangers to me. And I am very sure I am not the first person from whom you have heard these two words.

In pure accounting terms, an asset is defined ‘’as a resource controlled by the enterprise as a result of past events and from which future economic benefits are expected to flow to the enterprise’’ and a liability is defined as a ‘’current obligation of an entity arising from past transactions or events’’

But why should you bother to know the difference between an asset and a liability, well because I later realised that those definitions are fine for the dictionary and the balance sheet, but for ‘normal’ everyday life these are not the definitions to live by.

The definition that makes more sense to the life I am living is this one from Robert Kiyosaki’s ‘Rich Dad and Poor Dad’ an asset is ‘what brings money into your pocket and a liability is what takes money from your pocket. Simple! And that’s the definition you need. Why? Okay let me give you an example.

If you have a car, the Accounting and dictionary definitions will tell that you have an asset but if you go by Robert’s definition well it depends on whether its bring in money into your pocket or takes it out of your pocket. So if your car was a taxi working for you what is it? Or if it was you private car for which you buy gas for each day, what is it?

So my good friend, the next time you buy anything ask yourself ''Am I buying an asset or a liability?''. My advice: spend your time buying assets and not liabilities or you will find yourself driving your car in the rat race.

I will be happy to read your comment, post it below.

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Life Lessons: 5 – Procrastination Kills

I am writing the 100 lessons I have learnt in life so far. This is the Lesson number 5 .click here to read lesson number 4

Procrastination has been called the thief of time. and these are the names of its siblings: deferment, stalling, adjournment, putting off delay and postponement. I guess you know this family as well as I do.

If there is one disease I have, that cannot be diagnosed in the medical lab, it is the procrastination disease. I have battled and lost to this disease almost all my life. I have not given up the fight though and I am determined not to stop fighting, why? Well if there is one thing I am sure of after twenty nine years of existence, it is the truth that procrastination will do me no good in life.

The good news is that, I seem to find so many people who are also fighting this disease, knowing that I am not alone in the fight gives me the strength to keep on going on.

I once asked myself, what is the cause of procrastination? I did not do any research to find the answer for everyone, but for myself, I found out that I usually procrastinate doing what has to be done now mainly because I do not enjoy doing it. It was a simple matter of logic. If I have to do ‘A’ but puts it off and spend the time doing ‘B’, it simply means that I hate doing ‘A’ but love doing ‘B’.

So one way I try to fight the urge to procrastinate is to try to find something I will enjoy about ‘A’ or what I will enjoy after I have done ‘A’ . if there is nothing to enjoy about ‘A’ or after doing it, I try to create on for it. What I do is to make ‘B’ the reward for doing ‘A’. so I bribe myself to do ‘A’, by promising myself more time to do ‘B’ after I have done ‘A’.

It does not mean I enjoy boing ‘A’, but I look forward to the enjoyment of ‘B’ to get ‘A’ done. How do you handle your procrastination? Please share it below.

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