Greetings to my friends all over the world, it gives me a great pleasure relating with each and everyone of you.  I must  confess, you guys are the source of my strength. Your encouragement and prayers have been of a tremendous support to me. The comments, emails, feedback, text messages, and views just to mention a few I receive each time I write makes me wonder, if there’s really anything special when I write or blog which is new under the planet. Well, the feeling has been great especially the case where resourceful persons recommend the blog to their network. I must say, I really feel humbled.  I know, I have not been writing for sometime, please bear with me, the vicissitudes of life has caught up with me, to the extent, sometimes I have no life of my own. I have projects which am currently working on, and it has really eaten deep into my regular schedule of writing in addition to other events of interest I am currently working on. However, regardless of what am doing or pursuing in life, I will never leave my readership base and fans. We can’t be too busy for our friends, family and loved ones… It’s just so natural we have to respond to stimuli as at when due. And that’s the reason why I feel compelled to reach out to my esteem friends as we enter the last quarter of the year.

As we all know, the year 2015 is gradually coming to an end, and as such it’s imperative we tread cautiously as we approach the last quarter of the year.  In life, in order to make an impact, the end part of a journey is normally filled with trials, temptations, discouragement, struggles and disappointments, but as one of my favorite authors Robert Schuller said in his book Tough Time Never Last, But Tough People Do”.

During the analyse of this  discourse, we shall be looking at the holistic picture on how we can finish strong. Its imperative to know that, in life, the end justifies the means. Regardless of any endeavor of life, you are into, any living creature normally takes an inventory stock of the good/services he/she has rendered towards the last lap of the year in order to know if he/she is on the right track; if any amendments needs to be done; if the risk, experience, profit, mistake  has been worthwhile or encouraging. Same goes to students, business practitioners, doctors, farmers,entrepreneurs, parents, leaders, administrators, organizations etc. In order to fully understand this piece, I will appreciate, you picture your mind  on the just concluded The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) in Beijing, China.  A better illustration will be, assume yourself on track and waiting for the whistle to go off. Immediately the whistle goes, all the athletes on track will spring like a time bomb that just exploded giving in their best in order to be the winner and finally clinch the coveted price. I watched how Usain Bolt from Jamaica won the 100 meters final with 9.79seconds with his head beating Justin Galtin of USA who ran 9.80 seconds. The message here is that, Usain Bolt had a faulty start but was able to finish strong. I guess the meaning of this blog is beginning to make some sense to you.

Now let’s get into the nitty gritty of this blog, am really concerned about encouraging  the youths, business practitioners, downtrodden and people of interest who feel they are already out of the track. My message to you today is, you are still on track provided you are alive, never you lose hope, even if you lose all options never you lose hope. Yes, you may have made a resolution from January 1, 2015, or three, four, five or even ten years with hope you will be reaching your dreams or target, but from the look of things, it looks like your dreams seems to be hitting the rocks.  My message to you today is, you never know close you are to your opportunity if only you have given one more shot or pushed harder as you have been doing in the past.

In order to appreciate this blog, we shall be looking at some sub topics of interest which will help us to understand that life is not really filled with bed of roses, but it has its own source of thorns interwoven in it. However, with a positive mental attitude, you can still make it happen if only you play by the rules and give it your best shot.

FAILURE: In life, you will never never know the value of truth until someone lies to you, you will never know the value of money until you are broke, you will never know the value of trust, until you have been betrayed, you will never know the value of success, until you have tasted failure or repeated a class, you will never know the value family and good friends until you have no one to run to when you are in need. The list is endless. If you do your research very well,  you will know the founder of electricity Thomas Edison, didn’t get it right at the initial stage, he failed so many times before he was able to get it right. This leaves us with one message, failure is success turned inside out. It is a fact in life, no great man has ever achieved a great feat without failing, same is applicable to anybody who has made a great impact in life. I am tempted to say, failure is necessary part of success. In the case of Thomas Edison, he had to try so many times in order to make sure the circuits and wires were properly connected, also, he made sure, he was able to dot his i’s and crossed his t’s,  otherwise he won’t be able to able to achieve what he achieved. Another lesson inherent here is that, he never gave up. He kept hope alive. He also had a strong mental positive attitude, because, he strongly believed, the journey will be worthwhile  at the end.

The beauty of failure for visionaries is that, it makes us stronger. This is because, visionaries are leaders who believe, it’s not all about how many times you failed, but how many times you got up when you failed. Stories abound about great men who failed but got up, examples include:  Former President of USA, Abraham Lincoln  Martin Luther King Jnr, President Barack Obama of USA, former President of South Africa President Nelson Mandela, President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria, Oprah Wifry, Steve Jobs and Henry Ukazu. Of all these names, three names that interest me here are President Abraham Lincoln, Oprah Winfrey and Henry Ukazu. Let’s take them one after the other. Abraham Lincoln failed in business at the age of 22; at 23, he ran for legislature and was defeated; failed again in business at 24; he was elected to the legislature at 25; lost his sweet heart at 26; he had a nervous break down at 27; he was defeated for speaker at 27; defeated for elector at 31; defeated for congress at 34;elected for congress at 37;defeated for congress at 39;defeated for congress at 46; defeated for Vice President at 47; defeated for Senate at 49; elected as United States President at the age of 51.

President Muhammadu of Nigeria, lost his presidential bid three times 2003, 2007, 2011 and won in 2015. For Henry Ukazu, he was once told “shame on you” “You are from a different world” “I have to be hard on you” “Your grammar is bad” by his “supposed mentors“. Don’t ask me details, hopefully details might play out, but not now lol. Today, I have gotten so many admiration about my writing and empowerment skills, encouraging me to write a book. Though am not where I want to be yet, but I can definitely say, I’m not where I used to be, though, am still learning the skills.  In addition, I am currently writing a book which I have a target to publish before the end of the year all things being equal.

For Oprah Wilfrey, she was once told her boss, she’s not good on screen (television), and she was sacked from her job.  Today, she’s the second richest black woman in the world, though, she was once the richest and most influential black woman in the world. She didn’t stop there, she went ahead to have her own television program which the global world have come to celebrate and identify with.

What about Steve Jobs that faced humiliation when he applied for a job at Apple, today he came back to head Apple and made it what it is today. Reading this post will tell you something, leaders are visionaries who are never discouraged by what people say about them; quitters never win, and winners never quit.  Moral:  Success is a journey and not a destination! Don’t allow the world or people to define you, you have to define yourself by going out there and prove yourself. So, having failed several times is not a yardstick you can’t succeed in life or even meet your target before the end of the year.

How Productive Are You: Having laid a strong foundation about the topic, the big questions now is, how productive are you? Its easy for everyone to give excuse why he/she failed in life, but guess what, the world in which we live in today is a wicked one, where you are judged by your actions and inactions especially when you fail, not putting into consideration factors that led to the failure or even appreciating effort you invested in the work. But the interesting part is, your success becomes interesting when despite your odds you were able to still  able to make impact by succeeding in your chosen field of life. In order for you to make an impact in life, you need to go back to the drawing board to ask relevant questions, on why things are not working the way it ought to be working. This, you can do by taking inventory stock of what went wrong, how were you utilizing your time? Are you surfing the internet for irrelevant mundane activities, instead of researching? Are you using social media for fun instead of networking or learning? The last quarter of the year, no doubt if used productively can take one to the next level.

ATTITUDE: According to Keith Harrel in his book “Attitude is everything“. He stressed the importance of having a strong mental positive attitude regardless of any situation you are facing. Regardless of any work or project you are working on, you can never, and I repeat, you can never succeed in life without having the right attitude, mentality and orientation. Having the right attitude, transcends more than having skills. Attitude can be likened to the saying, you are addressed the way you dress. No employer will hire or keep any employee who has a negative attitude. Also, no customer will come back to a seller  with a wrong attitude. Whether you are  in business, school, relationship, sales, work etc your failure or success depends on your attitude. Therefore, to the extent the last quarter of the year has not been moving well for you, all you need is to put the right apron (Attitude) and watch out how everything will play out. Example: smiling, avoiding being arrogant, staying calm, and having patience will go a long way to even out life for you. The beauty of patience is not how long you wait, but how you wait during the said time.

Furthermore,  the last quarter or stage in life  should be used as a period of assessment and meditation. It’s a period one should look introspectively in the inner being of oneself or business as the case may be. For me, I am currently undergoing meditation and reflection about life and the near future. This reflection has led to meditate about life and as such has birthed a new book  which I’m currently working on, which I intend to publish before the end of the year all things being equal. I won’t say the title of the book, but the book is all about empowerment. Its a self motivational book with twelve 12 chapters.

One way, you can take advantage of the last quarter of the year is by taking at least ten minutes of  your time to meditate in addition to having pensive thought introspectively. You can do this, by asking the creator of heaven and earth to assist you in discovering yourself or business, relationship, academic progress, etc since he’s the creator of heaven. Just like, if you want to know how Microsoft works, you have to ask Bill Gates about it. For more information about knowing yourself, I will recommend you read Purpose Driven Life by  Rick Warren. Another form of meditation is practising emptying your minds in an isolated place where no no will disturb your peace and experience the stillness of the world. It should be noted that, meditation is for great minds. I have never seen any great man who doesn’t meditate.

So my good friends, regardless of where you are today, what you are going through in life, your expectations, mistakes, failures, intentions and desires e.g getting married, getting a job, making money, meeting deadline or target, or whatever your situation might be, please be assured, provided you have an optimistic mindset,  always think positive, in addition to believing there’s hope at the end of the tunnel taking inspiration from the above mentioned great names. Be assured, the universe is working for your success. Be advised,you need patience here.Don’t be hard on yourself, in practicing patience, its not how long you wait that matters, rather it’s how you long you wait during the period in question. Its not all who started a race  that is able to finish the race, overtaking is allowed. Sometimes we need to put  the car in  reverse mood, in order to re- direct our steps, sometimes we need to be on neutral ground to understand the situation we are into before we hit drive.

Furthermore, always bear in mind,  one of the best ways to understanding life mysteries is appreciating life, this is because, you don’t know what other persons are  currently going through especially at this last quarter of the year.  Still on appreciating life, I have a fervent prayer I normally pray God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference”. So therefore, always appreciate where you are at the moment, you don’t just know what the universe or God is shaping you for, just like the Book of life will always say, we are the clay while he (God) is the porter. Never you wish, you were like someone else, you just don’t know what their situation might be internally (Health, peace of mind, family) etc, because not all that glitters is gold. Some people may have died since January 1, 2015 with their wealth, beauty, hubby etc but you are alive, some would have been able to set up their business by now or even married, just like you are wishing you are like them, but perhaps, they may have died as of today, but here you are today still complaining about life, lacking one thing or the other, without appreciating what you have. Sometimes in life, we have to thank God for what did not happen, because assuming it happened, the miseries that might unfold in the near future will be heart breaking. So, to the extent, you are complaining you have no shoe, remember the story of man who was complaining of having no shoe, but when he saw a man who has no leg, he was humbled. Same goes to a businessman who has been complaining of having a poor outing just because he hasn’t made any sale for the day, but he was humbled, when a young boy reached out to him to sell his commodities, the man replied, never mind, I don’t have any money to pay you, but  the boy replied,no problem sir, all  I need from you is to hire me, I have hope one day there will be sales and you will pay me, the old man was deeply touched and humbled. Moral:  never you relent to failure until you have made your last attempt and never you make your last attempt until you succeed. So, continue praying until something happens  (Push), because you don’t know how close you are when you about are about to quit.

Finally during the 2004 presidential election, President Obama was the keynote speaker, during his speech which he centered on hope, he said he doesn’t believe in blind optimism, rather the said he we should always hope, “The hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes american have place for him; Hope in the face of difficulties; hope in the face of uncertainty;  the audacity of hope” he encouraged all citizens of american and everyone to always be hopeful because that’s all they have. Beloved, what’s the issue bothering you? What are your fears, why have you decided to give up? You never know how close you are to your success if you try once once. So please, I strongly encourage you to always hope and never give up in life until you die, even if you die, believe and be hopeful your spirit will go to God. What am I trying to say, in life never give up, because each day you wake up and breath  is an opportunity which God has given to you to succeed. The devil and his enemies will always and only try to paint illusions, fears and assumptions for you, but if you have faith in yourself and your God in addition to having positive hope, trust me you will only be fine, but you will definitely succeed in your dreams. THINK POSITIVE, BE MOTIVATED AND APPRECIATE YOUR LIFE