Never give up on your dreams

    Then and even now,  my parents always rang it in the ears of my siblings and I, the danger of ever giving up on anything not in the least your dreams. They would sit us down and proudly recollect the dreams they've had and how they worked to make those dreams a reality. One of my mother's quotes which I remember fondly is 'with dreams,  you have two  options , you could choose to lay in bed and keep on dreaming or you could get up and make the dream a reality '. If I may, I would like to add a third option,  that is giving up on your dreams half way through.

    Sadly,  a lot of people have chosen the third option which is  It is grossly inadequate to have dreams about what one desires or wants,  one must also be willing to pursue the dreams until they're realized.  This is where the problem seems to be,  because a lot of people lack the commitment to make those dreams come alive. I can recount stories from personal experiences and from what I've read about the danger of giving up on our dreams. J.K Rowling, the author of the famous Harry Potter series wrote her first book as a penniless,  single mother,  raising her child and typing on an old manual typewriter,  she approached twelve different publishers who turned her down,  can you just pause to imagine the scenario if she had given up after the 12th rejection?  Thank heavens she didn't,  and today her write up is famous all over the world and a recipient of multiple awards , Have you even tried to imagine the soccer world without the Argentine Superstar, Lionel Messi? He had s serious growth problem which threatened to put paid in his footballing career,  Thomas Edison,  the serial inventor famously tried and failed over 1000 times while trying to make the light bulb, have you stopped to consider what might have been if those great people we looked up to for one reason or the other gave in to their challenges and gave up on their dreams? There would be No Harry Potter,  No light bulbs,  No footballing wizardry to wow us to mention a few. 

    How to make your dreams come alive :

1.Be resolute:  Do not give up on your dreams, they are personal and No one can pursue them with the same kind of passion you have.  During the course of you doing this,  you are likely to encounter some derailers and naysayers,  the good thing is their opinion doesn't count,  your dreams will come true solely because of you and your efforts 

2. Discover your passion:  Understand what makes you happy and then design a way of bringing it to life 

3. Create a road map 

4. Work real hard. 

5 rules of life - An excerpt from the book Dumbing down our kids by Charles Sykes

Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it
Rule 2: The world won't care about your self esteem.  The world will expect you to accomplish something before you feel good about yourself
Rule 3: You will not make 40 thousand dollars a year right out of high school.  You won't be a vice president with car phone,  until you earn both.
Rule 4: Be nice to needs,  chances are you'll end up working for one
Rule 5; television is not real life.  In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs

Discover yourself, do not settle for mediocrity

    It kills me every time when I look around and see people that do not have drive,  focus,  no sense of purpose or ambition.  They are just content with passing through life like they never existed,  they just wanna lead mediocre lives. They have no idea why they are how they are,  why they are who they are or what is the God's given purpose for their lives.  These kind of people belong 'the living not existing class '. 'Do you belong to this class?' .

    There is a purpose for every life because if there wasn't,  such person won't be here anyways. But  surprising as it is, a lot of people have passed through this Earth without fulfilling those purposes and as a result,  they lived but never existed . Everyone has unique qualities and characteristics which sets them apart from the rest. These unique qualities are really meant to be a blessing to you and the world around you, the world needs You.
  To get out of this 'living and not existing group ', you will need to do these:
1. Develop the mentality of ' I do matter ': This is the very first step,  you have to realize that you're special,  unique and there can't ever be another you.
2. Develop a sense of purpose:  This comes with self discovery and self realization.  At this stage,  you have to be in the know of your innate qualities. This stems from discovering what you think is fun and many others think It's work,  never make the mistake of dismissing your talents as irrelevant because the world is in desperate need of it , it could really be anything; singing, dancing, drawing, public speaking, the list is endless. The next step is to set about developing them and trying to harness them into being a tool for making your life and the people around you better.
3. Be ambitious:  have you ever wondered why some people are up there while others are well, down there? The main difference between these two divides is AMBITION.  You have to know what you want out of life and make strategic,  step by step plans on how to get there.  Never settle for mediocrity. 'Blessed are those who know what they want out of life and are making plans to get there for their's is a lifetime at the top' - Solomon N. Akinsola
4. Surround yourself with positive people who can help make those dreams of yours a reality. 

The power of friendship

"Show me your friend and I'll tell you who you're " that's a popular saying,  and that's the rock hard truth.  The kind of friends you keep,  the kind of people around you more or less defines you. They could either push you to bring the best out of yourself and put you in the right path of achieving your dreams or lead you to the very deep end. There are countless stories of promising young folks who couldn't maximize and fulfill their potentials because of negative influence.  A bad friendship is more deadly than cancer because nothing hurts so much than seeing people who were made for the top, people made to make differences for one reason or other fail to get there.  I'll share a personal experience,  the fall of the year I graduated high school,  the fall of 2013, I had to move up country for my Cambridge A level studies.  It was something I dreaded because I've never at any point been seperated from my family,  but now I'll be going away for months,  it killed me. To make things worse,  I absolutely knew no one and for a couple of weeks after I got there,  I kept to myself, not saying a word to anyone.  One day,  after school had closed,  I was studying in one of the most secret places I could find, when suddenly I saw a girl walk towards me, I didn't read much into it so, I basically continued reading. To my greatest surprise, the fair  pretty looking lady was stood right in front of me,  she introduced herself to me, I mumbled a greeting.  Apparently,  she had resumed a week before,  she asked if she could join me and study together.  I concurred, and believe me that was the best decision I've ever made,  it turned out the girl was really really smart,  smarter than I ever thought perhaps even smarter than me,  but she really brought out the best in me, I had to really read a lot to keep up with her. Ever since that day, we were like co-factors,  always together,  and it reaped it's rewards, after about 10 months,  we took the exams and excelled,  and right now,  she's a medical student in one of the leading universities in Philippines.  We still keep in contact and I always let her know how glad I was that I met her. That's the most productive friendship I've ever had. If I hadn't met her, perhaps I wouldn't have done as well as I did.  You should be mindful of the company you keep and remember if it's not adding value to your life,  it's got absolutely no business in your life.

Let go the baggage

I woke up this morning,  as I glanced through my phone, one post I saw on my facebook feeds really struck me, it was made by someone who I believe is still being haunted by What she'd done in the past.  I've been a victim once or twice to that feeling,  at one time or the other, we've done things that we aren't proud of, but making mistakes is part of life,  but you can learn from it, you shouldn't let it define you

Do something today that your future self will thank you for