DANCING WITH GOLIATH

Merely looking at his burly figure, I knew that if he punched my face, my handsomeness would be distorted; and that if he grabbed my neck, I was more or less dead! So, going toe-to-toe with him wasn't anywhere close to being a very good idea. I needed another tactic to tackle him, to take away his strength advantage, to not lose the fight.

I chose the element of surprise. It was a calculated risk. It was either going to work or I was going to pay the price of failure. Either way, I had little or no time to settle down and come up with another plan; and, besides, what other tactic would work against the boy mountain in front of me, whose desperate spoil for a fight could already see him hurtling towards me in anger?

As he came in to tango with me and possibly hand on me one of those powerful fists of his, I crouched under him and grabbed him by the waist. Then, in one full swoop, using his momentum towards me, I moved slightly back, put as much strength in my legs as I possibly could, and lifted him sky high. And still in the same swoop, I banged him against the ground with all the force that I could muster!

Everyone was stunned...the bully, the crowd and even me! It even took me a while to realize my victory. But in the instant that it took me to realize it, I knew victory wasn't complete until I had stuffed the mouth of my fallen adversary with sand. So I started scooping and pumping sand into his mouth as he dazedly and frantically tried to fend me off. Within seconds my friends and some of his supporters had yanked me off him, and I found myself riding on the shoulders of my friends. It felt very good to win...for once!

True story. It happened when I was in elementary school.

We all have goliaths to face in our lives, and it doesn't necessarily have to be a person; it could be anything that causes us untold and painful distress. That we have such opposition though does not mean that our lives are over or that we can never make progress; neither does it mean that we must always cower in the face of whatever person or circumstance is bullying us. We cannot afford to give up.

I'm not implying that adverse situations that we face are powerless against us or cannot harm us. No. I'm instead advocating that every giant we come up against must have a weak point, which we can locate and take advantage of. If no such weak point exist, then it would imply that such a giant is perfect...but in truth there are no perfect people or perfect situations (good or bad) on this planet. So, the giant can be beaten, we just have to find out how. 

Running away from our challenges with the hope that someday or somehow they will eventually disappear is an illusion we simply cannot afford to have if we truly want to live satisfied or fulfilled lives. In reality, life itself isn't a joy ride until you're able to conquer your challenges and ride on them! We stay with what we accept and fight what we don't. And the giants before us we really cannot afford to accept, we just need to fight.

But our fight must be guided by wisdom...

1.  We should learn how best to apply our own strengths to any situation.
2.  We must never go toe-to-toe with our challenges but instead always look for better ways to tackle the problems.
3.  We must be willing to fight till the end and give it all we've got.
4.  We must show no fear and be confident in ourselves otherwise we would have already lost the battle before it has even begun.

This year, we need to resolve in our minds that those things that constantly bullied us in times past will stop being a recurring decimal in our lives. We've had a dance too many with them and it's time the dance came to a permanent stop.

Everybody Has a F.E.A.R!

Some people may choose to deny it and try to be all macho about it, but the truth is that every one of us have one fear or another constantly tugging at our hearts and minds from time to time. And there is a veritable reason why that is so...it's simply because no one has the power to do everything. We are imperfect beings and all have limits. We are all gifted, no doubt, may have ambitions or visions of what we would love our lives to be like, but it does not take away the reality that we all have limits. 

This awareness makes us skeptical about our plans at times, whatever they may be, and can really put pressure on our minds and lives. And if we're not careful, we could end up dreading certain days, moments and situations. We could end up believing that some things may never ever work in our favour or that we may never amount to anything. Well, in truth, that just shows that we are mere human.

The reality is that, irrespective of how we feel, we are responsible for what happens next in the midst of our fears. And, interestingly, fear itself carries within it acronyms that we could look at and decide if we want to make progress or if we want to stay put. We could either FORGET EVERYTHING AND RUN.....

 or FACE EVERYTHING AND RISE.....

The difference between defeat or victory in our lives will depend to a great extent on how we choose to handle our fears. We can decide to stop working towards our dreams or goals because of the foreboding we may have based on whatever facts or experiences we may have had...or we may decide to use our fears as the springboard to go forward no matter what. The choice ultimately is up to us individually.

But we must never forget...that nothing good and enduring in this life truly comes easy and that we will need to push ourselves a little bit more if we are ever going to excel or achieve some of our dreams. This life doesn't offer free lunches, it's one reality that we must all be willing to come to terms with. Every one of us will have obstacles to face, mountains to climb and battles we just have to win. If we truly value our lives and our dreams, we must be really ready to soldier on irrespective of the pains we may suffer along the way. Besides, any fear we have is what we choose to have and not necessarily what we should have. It's up to us.

This year, resolve in your heart and mind that you will give a few things a better go this time around. That exam you've been dreading for a while now because you've failed it a couple of times; that business you so love but somehow still has refused to pan out well for you; that relationship that keeps failing to be because you keep losing your guts; that job that you keep missing because you always lose your way at the last minute.

Everybody has a fear. But the presence of fear doesn't mean something is impossible to achieve. Fear is just a material that cloaks the reality of what is obtainable. I would rather you face your fears and rise up to the occasion that only you can.

What will you do now, my friend? Keep on running and stalling or take the bull by the horns and climb up your ladder of victory and success?

HERE WE GO AGAIN!!!

Happy New Year folks! Welcome to a new year, a new season and possibly a rewarding and very profitable twelve months for all of us. I see goodness, great things, breakthroughs and plenty, plenty testimonies on the horizon! It's going to be a good year, my friends, and I sincerely hope you're as hopeful and expectant as I am.

I bet you are. Quite a number of us have already made new year resolutions, while some of us have heard from some of our religious leaders that what we really need are new year revelations. Whether you have a resolution or a divine revelation as to how you want this year to run for you, it's all good. Our dreams matter to every one of us and achieving them is key to our fulfillment and sanity. We must achieve important goals this year, we must improve on what we accomplished from previous years. And as long as you see yourself walking up the ladder of success, that's all good.

But there's something I really need to bring to our attention here. Quite a number of us have stepped into 2015 with virtually the same mindset that we've had in previous years...the same mindset that didn't produce much for us in time past, and we just think it's all in the new resolutions and the new revelations. We probably think all we need to do is press the dream button and everything will start to fall into place.

Ehh...so sorry, but we will need to wake up from whatever sleep we're presently in and face the reality of how life really works. By now you should have realized that dreams do not automatically happen and that even after your new resolution and new revelation, something  needs to be added to them for your dreams to make it out of your mind and head into the world of reality. Something so obvious and key but yet so rarely given the prized attention it deserves. It's called SELF-DISCIPLINE and we are all going to need it in greater measure this year if we are ever going to see those dreams come true.

Self-discipline will ensure that journey we've started towards our dream does not end prematurely. It's the main fuel that drives us, most times slowly but definitely surely towards our dreams. No matter how much we've jumped and shouted about our new year resolutions and new year revelations, without cultivating this essential spirit of self-control, we may as well just wave a very big goodbye to our dreams for 2015.

Having self-discipline will help us reduce our excuses. Even when things don't really turn out as pretty as we expect them to, we don't lose focus because of this one very important virtue. Self-discipline helps build our character and confidence, helps improve our responsibility rate and persistence levels, it helps us to strive steadily towards our goals, helps to give good value to our work, helps us with our leadership thrust, can improve our businesses and can also help increase how and what we earn. Self-discipline will certainly have a positive effect on how we handle our time, and is guaranteed to help improve our happiness, marriages, families and friendships....if we will all be willing to put ourselves under some more control than before. Self-discipline will guarantee success if we will just calm down and let it be our mantra and pivotal principle for 2015.

Let's not repeat this year those things that didn't give us any success in previous years. Sometimes the vision, dream or plan could be great and mind-blowing, but because self-discipline is absent all that ends up being a waste and the year itself ends up being filled with frustrations and disappointments.

It was Walt Disney who said that, "All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them." I believe him. Not because it's a statement that bounces off positively inside my spirit, but because he has been proven time and time over that it is true.

I don't intend to be disappointed this year and so I'm ready to push my self-discipline levels up another notch in the different areas of my life that I've targeted need change. I need serious success and believe I will get it; but I will only deserve it if I'm committed to work hard towards it.

Are you ready? I am.