"REPEAT THIS AFTER ME..."

In case you have not noticed, this is my first blog post after getting married…but I don’t say, I just :whistle: I know I know…some might be asking… “So what?”…others might not be that blunt but they could be wondering…what difference does it make anyway? Well, time will tell. One thing is for sure though that I have experienced a MAJOR paradigm shift in my life and just like scrambled eggs, I will definitely not be the same again.

Out of the blue, an inspiration hit my heart of which I tweeted and tweeted for hours on end on Easter Sunday (Get these inspirational tweets under the hash tag [#MarriedManTweets] on www.twitter.com). For those in the Christian Faith, Easter is one of the most crucial ‘holidays’ in the Christian calendar. Easter Sunday is actually believed to be the day that Jesus Christ rose from the dead, three days after being nailed on the cross. That point alone has caused controversies the world over…and in fact the MAJOR point of hostility between Christians and other faiths is the CLAIM that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. I am told that it his historically proven that Jesus walked on earth and taught and that He was a controversial figure. I will not delve into that discussion today or any time soon.

Picking from the Christian faith (of which I belong), there are pertinent lessons that can be learned. I am not saying that it is from the Christian faith only that lessons can be learnt. The concept of this post however cuts across all walks of faith and I believe is one of the most important concept or ingredient one can adopt for success, wealth, significance and greatness…essentially to paint one’s Life Signature.

Sample this: You cannot be a Christian if you do not BELIEVE. Belief is a choice, in fact no one forces you to believe. Believe what? Believe that Jesus Christ rose from the dead and that He is Lord, and that He died for your sins, and that your belief in Him makes His death a scapegoat for your debt of sin, since everyone has sinned. That belief does not stop there, you follow it up with confession. Confessing is basically ‘saying the same thing that God says about you’. You believe and then you confess. Those are two strong ingredients for a Christian life. In fact every time you see a new Christian convert, they are normally led into a ‘confession prayer’ that starts with the preacher saying: “Repeat this after me…”

In the development of Life Signatures, BELIEF is an absolutely critical ingredient. Listen carefully. You cannot develop a life of success if your BELIEF SYSTEM is negative to success. The same applies to wealth. If you do not believe strongly that you ARE wealthy…you cannot achieve wealth. The same applies to significance. You cannot live a Life Signature while your belief system tells you that you are inconsequential and that you do not matter on earth. That is how critical belief systems are! You cannot create or design a Life Legacy while operating with limiting Beliefs!!

The second most critical thing is SELF TALK. What do you say about yourself? What do you call yourself? What do you see about yourself? What you say about yourself to yourself is an absolute critical aspect of designing a life of greatness. You will not rise to a level of greatness if your self-talk destroys or diminishes your greatness. If you have nothing positive to say about yourself, by all means just SHUT UP!! Stop the conversation of complaints and struggles…and calling yourself a ‘hassle-r’. “How are you doing Mr. X?” “Oh, am JUST TRYING, oh, I am JUST HASSLING, oh, I am JUST HANING IN THERE….oh am JUST…” You can fill in the blanks. Success has a language. So does failure. The language of success is Present tense, Positive, Personal and Passionate. Your self-talk is your own dosage of inspiration and motivation. Self talk however stems from your BELIEF SYSTEM…since you will not declare what you do not believe.

So how does one get a BELIEF SYSTEM for Life Signatures? Again, we will borrow from the Christian faith, and I quote:

"Everyone who calls, 'Help, God!' gets help."

But how can people call for help if they don't know who to trust? And how can they know who to trust if they haven't heard of the One who can be trusted? And how can they hear if nobody tells them?

And how is anyone going to tell them, unless someone is sent to do it? That's why Scripture exclaims, A sight to take your breath away! Grand processions of people telling all the good things of God!

Question is: Whom are you listening to? Whom are you hanging out with? Whom are you reading? What are they saying? Whom are you watching? What are they saying? Whose tweets are you following? Did you know that you are the average of the five people closest to you? What you hear about wealth, success, significance and greatness inevitably affects your Belief System. In fact what you hear on a consistent basis will generally form a strong belief system…and God knows this, that is why we Christians go for ‘fellowships’ and church services week in and out. Some people think that they can re-calibrate their belief systems instantly or miraculously. That doesn’t happen.

Others think that they can blame the government or their parents or teachers or someone else for their uncomfortable state they are in at the moment. That belief system will never give you a life signature…it will keep you there…since you have transferred the power to change from yourself to those you are blaming.

Still others think that they were never meant, or intended to live, love, matter and leave a legacy. That is so limiting but also so effective that they will never rise up above what they have chosen to believe.

The good news of course is that limiting beliefs can be replaced by empowering beliefs. We have talked elsewhere in this blog about the environment that you choose to keep. Does it hone your empowering belief system? Staying up all night flipping through the channels and watching Constant Negative News does not help your empowering beliefs…rather it strengthens the negative beliefs that you have kept.

Changing your belief System for wealth, success, greatness and significance is not the President’s prerogative, nor is it your wife’s! It is your responsibility. The Chinese Bamboo tree I am told is watered for four good years before it sprouts from the ground. That is just about the time you should take in cultivating empowering belief systems. Creating new and empowering belief systems is an absolute essential in designing a life of Legacy. You must dig in and pay the price of patience, relentlessness, focus and perseverance. The best time to plant a tree was like twenty years back…the next best time to have that tree planted is today.

There are two things you could do: Protect your mind or Feed Your Mind. Both are proactive activities. Over to you.

TO WED OR NOT TO WED...NOW THAT'S THE QUESTION!

From ever since time was created to date, the advent of weddings has always elicited charged emotions to the families and friends as well as the whole community of the bride and groom. As time has passed, weddings have become a multi million dollar business...well to the event managers and event planners, decorators and other service providers. Week in and out, weddings of different types and sizes take place, some reflective of a couple's dreams, others reflective of showbiz.

On this very day, at exactly 9:00 am EAT, my official wedding ceremony will kick off at Watoto Church in downtown Kampala, Uganda. This month for me is an exciting month.I have at least two major transitions taking place: I am getting married; and I am growing older at the same time. I was born on April 10th, so happy birthday to me too.
Well, lest you think that I have totally lost touch with the message of this blog, you will be a little bit surprised that I have this uncanny way of squeezing Life Lessons out of just about anything. Today's lesson or lessons are MAJOR as far as Life Signatures are concerned. The heart of the matter here is this: the unfortunate thing about most people who wed is that that is the only season in their lives that they sit down to DESIGN the kind of life that they want. Isnt that unfortunate? After the wedding is gone, and the guests have left, and the baby has come, what other time do you find an individual or a couple spending MONTHS ON END planning, strategizing, gathering resources, communicating, overcoming et all to design the kind of LIFE that they want? Does that happen often?
The marrieds who are reading this will bear me out that by the largest percentage, the last time they sat down to really scratch their heads on what they wanted was at thier wedding day! Yet, the wedding is just a day. The wedding is simply a doorway into another uncharted waters of your LIFE. I can guarantee you this, that if we all spent the time, the sweat, the thinking, the envisioning, the planning, the strategizing, and everything else that is needed to FOCUS on the kind of LIFE OF LEGACY that is wanted, and if we implement the same energy and drive we put into our wedding preparations, I gotta tell you this: the world, YOUR OWN WORLD will be a much better place.
Don't tell me you do not know how to make a strategic plan for life...especially if you are married. You should be having one! It starts with DESIRE. What do you desire/want to be, have, do or become? Don't tell me you don't have a desire...you DO! Now write that desire (s) down. Put no limits. One of the biggest impediments with my coaching students is that issue of limiting themselves. Well, take a look at weddings...do couples most often set out to have a wedding function that is directly proportional to their income? Hardly! Everyone dreams BIG, and that is what you should do with your life.

The second thing that most people do when they are planning for their wedding is to COMMUNICATE. After writing down your heart desire for the kind of life you want to lead, spread the message abroad...to the PEOPLE THAT MATTER. That is key. Of course thirdly you set a DATE for which you want to wed. Now that speaks of commitment. When I set my date, I gave myself the opportunity to overcome each and every excuse for my desire not to happen. Think about it this way...supposing my bride does not have a bouquet of flowers at our wedding...will that stop us from taking the vows? Will we cancel the wedding? The assigning of the date gives you a big picture kind of focus. That is the same thing you should do with your life. At what time, age or year do you want your net-worth to be a certain number of dollars? Set that date. At what time do you want to go on vacation at the Namale Islands? Set that date...you get the point?
Next, most people will select a wedding committee. This is extremely crucial. This committee basically charts out the STRATEGIC PLAN for the wedding. My question is....do you have a STRATEGIC PLAN for your own life that you desire? I heard Dani Johnson say the other day that  the strategic plan for 25% of Americans for financial freedom is the lottery! And we all know that when America sneezes....anyway.

The last thought is this....have you ever heard of a a couple that desired to have a wedding, planned for it and failed to achieve that desire? That is seldom what we hear! For the most part, what they desire and plan to do almost always comes to pass with an amazing degree of detail of their initial vision! That should teach as something today...should'nt it? That whatever we put HEART ENERGY on, with time, will come to fruition. Your heart's desires have Heart Energy on them...a HEARTSET. The question I am asking today is...are you going to wed or are you not going to wed? I am speaking of a life of Legacy. Now, the answer to that question will be reflected in your life five years from this moment...ladies and gentlemen, to wed or not to wed, now that is the million dollar question!

NO IS NOT MY ANSWER!

I was'nt going to do this post, however the events of the past few minutes have neccessitated it. Indeed, as I sit down and reflect on what has just taken place, I realize that there are two major lessons that I can share with you. My heart is overwhelmed, after being swang from on extreme to the next in a space of one hour.
This is the story. In less than three days from now, I will be getting married to Beth, my greatest friend and companion. This has been in the offing for quite a while, since the last quarter of last year. Well as you know, such a scnenario calls for planning, dreaming and visualizing.

There is one crucial aspect that Beth and I have kept locked in our minds for months now. I am sure she has seen herself in that particular aspect again and again and again. In our minds that was and is the ideal scenario that we really would love.

So what happened is this. A service provider calls me to a meeting (without Beth's presence), and treats me like a King. Anyway, after exchanging pleasantries, they tell me humbly and apologetically that what we desired will not take place...of course they gave me good enough reasons for me to let them off the hook, which I did. Lesson Number 1: Never make a decision that involves your fiance/wife alone, and then communicate the decision you made to her. Long story short, Beth was not amused. This is three days to the day, and I am busy saying 'Yes' to a cancellation before talking to Beth! Wrong move. My gal stuck to her guns, that what she wanted and budgeted and paid for was what she wants and was what she will get!
Now, in my mind, I had already accepted the 'NO'. I had already accepted the 'alternative' to the Desired. I did not exude enough staying power to counter the No. Not Beth! She totally refused to take No for an answer and stuck to her guns. Long story short, whatever it is the provider had said was 'IMPOSSIBLE' in a few minutes of 'discussions' with Beth, it now is possible.

Makes you think of how many times we accept what life gives us instead of what we really desire right? How many times have we heard that word NO and just accepted it at face value? This scenario has really taught me quite a bit. The question to ask here I think is "How Badly do you want it?" If you want it bad enough, you will not even entertain the No for an answer. There is no way that No will be a possibility! What a lesson I have learnt today.

But that is not all. There is another lesson that stems from this. The message of self awareness is absolutely critical. I came to realize how I respond as in individual. One of the reasons as to why I said yes to the No is that I tend to shun and avoid controversy like a plague. That is the way I am. Is that good or bad? That depends on how I manage it. However, you need to be absolutely AWARE about yourself. Your temeperaments and all. Jay Niblick is an Author of a book called "What's Your Genius", as well as the founder or Innermetrix.
He has a profiling system called DISC, that was developed somewhere in the 50's. His system is a software model that runs through your answers and profiles you accordingly. D is for Dominace, I for Interractivity, S for Stability and C for Cautiousness. In the situation at hand, my level of Cautiousness was greater than Dominance. Beth's Dominance was greater than my Cautiousness. You see, we need to be aware of these things. Both Beth and I have taken the DISC profiling and we have our results.
Guess what, You can also take the DISC profile test. In a space of 15 minutes in one sitting, Innermetrix will give you a 23 page PDF on your own profile. Isn't that good or what? The better part here is that it is absolutely free. In fact, Tony Robbins was so blown away with this idea that he provides the profiling at his website. I will admonish you to go there and do your own profiling. Once done, kindly post your comments here on your findings. I will really appreciate to hear from you. Find your profiles HERE, and have an awesome day!

GOD IS A GOAL SETTER-FINAL INSTALLMENT

This is what I know...that somebody can take the title of this post, and develop a book out of it. It is an Idea that you should consider implementing. I say this because I have'nt even scratched the surface of this message. You cannot exhaust God. 

My intention of these posts was to rank God up there above the greatest achievers, and to potray that for the most part He had INTENTION, took ACTION, COMMUNICATED his intention and ACHIEVED what He set to achieve, and so should you.

Those are some of the hallmarks of success, greatness, wealth and significance.Today's installment will take a look at Jesus as well as His predecessor. Of course there are discussions to date about the Identity of Jesus Christ...and His significance to mankind. 

One of the most undebated facts about Jesus is that He existed. Historical records prove that. I know of a Historian who never believed in Jesus and he went out ostensibly to prove from History that Jesus was a figment of people's imagination. 

Well, he ended up being converted after proving otherwise. His name is Josh Mcdowell. That Jesus walked on earth is not a myth, but a historical fact. History relates Him to us as one of the greatest teachers on earth.

Lest you get put off by my discourse, we are talking about Goal Setting-an important ingredient for success, wellness, greatness and significance. The first thing I teach people about Goal Setting can be summed up in this: CLARITY. Do you know what you are here for? Do you know what you want? 

Ok...do you know what you REALLY, REALLY DESIRE? John the Baptist came before Jesus. When asked about what his mission was, he not only knew what his mission WAS NOT, but he also had CLARITY of what that mission was. 

He never hesistated in giving the answer to those 'clarity questions.' The same applies to Jesus. He knew what he was up to, he knew why he was here. Infact, Jesus was one of those leaders with such clarity of purpose and desire that he spoke about who he was several times. "I am the door", "I am the good shepherd", "I am the way the truth and the life", "I have come that they would have life...", "I am the true vine"....and on and on.

No wonder, at this moment, Jesus is the 'loftiest idea in literature'. There is no question about it, He was and still is a massive success. Question is...are you CLEAR about yourself?

The second aspect of Goal Setting is Belief. We have already seen that God has greater belief than all of us combined. "While ye were yet sinners....Christ died". He believed against the pervading negative conditions. A goal setter does not set goals that are directly proportional to what he/she earns. A goal setter stretches himself, and like one person said, he sets goals that 'scare him a little, and excites him a lot!' This can only be done with great belief. There is no successful individual on earth who operated with unbelief.

Of course we have already talked about relentless ACTION. I see many sales books written about overcoming objections. Well guess what? God overcame Moses' objections again and again-relentlessly. He gave no room for failure. As you set your goals, you provide no room whatsoever for failure...yet at the same time you remain flexible to tweak your goal here and there.

God took action against opposition and objection, and so should you. The opposition and objection is always there and should be anticipated. ACTION is what creates momentum and gives your dreams some wings to fly.

Finally, an achiever must have a STRATEGY for getting what he wants. Look at Jesus. What was his strategy? Did it work? Has it worked? Is it working? All those questions have an affirmitive answer. The aspect of STRATEGY is what seperates new year resolutors from Goal Setters and Achievers. 

A goal is a dream with the strategy of accomplishing it. God's strategy was and always has been to choose a man, and and  use him for his purposes. Jesus became that ultimate strategy, the God-man that God worked through. Work is the four lettered word that is an ingredient for success. You must note however that this work was out of clarity...it was not just about anything. John the Baptist knew what he was not, and knew what he was, and focussed on it.

In this final installment of God is a Goal Setter, I will repeat the same admonishon I have given three times already. "Instead of sitting there and praying for a miracle, why not sit down and set some goals?" What is it that you Desire? What do you want to do? What do you want to have? What do you want to become? Write those things down.

"Have you built your castles in the air? Good! That is where they should be. Now go to work and put some pillars under them!" 

After all, it was God who said: Ask, and it shall be given to you, seek and you shall find, knock and the door shall be opened.

Thanks for staying tuned to my four sermons. Talk to you later.

GOD IS A GOAL SETTER-PART 3

When you start talking about God...only eternity will give you enough time to exhaust what it is that you are talking about Him. Mine is a finite mind, only seeing what is around me. His is an Infinite mind, not limited by two dimensional thinking, or even 3D and 4D. God's mind is INFINITE and unexplainable. You probably have heard SM Lockridge try to explain God...I will be posting that clip right here later on on this subject. In a nutshell, God ni mnoma (that's Swahili Slang for God is awesome!)

If you are smart enough, you will notice that the subject at hand is Goal Setting. It dawned on me some days back that God Almighty sets Goals. 

That God Almighty has great belief. That he COMMUNICATES, verbalizes His intentions long before they are achieved. That He exercises tremendous faith and patience. That He sees through his intentions (Goals). 

We saw in the second post that God in His wisdom and power and awesomeness created Seasons and times, and that He works miracles. We have seen that for the most part, the miracle is in the seeds. In a nutshell, God is awesome.

The very first time you encounter God a picture is painted. A picture of nothingness, void-ness. One person has called that state a soup of nothingness! Friend, that is where you need to stand when setting goals. You rise up and you see your soup of nothingness as far as your relationships, family, finances, fitness, lifestyle and others are concerned. God saw that soup but that was not it all. It says in His word that His Spirit brooded over the surface of the deep.

In other words, you need to acknowledge your current state. Then God started SPEAKING! Let there be, and there was! And so in a day, the earth was created from that soup of nothingness. In a day, the galaxies were made. In a day the vegetation was made. In a day, all the animals were made. In a day, time was created. In a day [MAN] was created. 

Asides: Come to think of it, as vast as the expanse, the skies and the waters are, God made them in one day. That is just about the same time God took creating a man!! Wow...that should tell you something, but I digress.In a nutshell, God ni mnoma, and God is a goal setter.

One of the distinguishing facets of a successful Goal Setter is that one bit called ACTION. We saw last time that Goal setting Doesn't work-you work. For the first time we hear or read about God, He is in constant RELENTLESS action. He is taking MASSIVE ACTION on the things that He decided to CREATE. 

Creation never takes place without ACTION. Some people have wonderful Ideas crossing their minds...and they never take action. Then later on, they see their ideas on the shelves of supermarkets cheaply implemented, and they say that their Idea was stolen. No, it was not stolen. YOU did not ACT!

God is a goal setter, and even Him in His awesomeness, He takes Action to see his desires come to pass. That is the gist of this post today: that you stand at the thresh hold of your soup of nothingness, let your mind brood over it, not in form of complaints and fear, but in bold creative thoughts of making things beautiful. Then take action necessary to replace your soup of nothingness with beautiful creation of your own.

Instead of sitting there and praying for miracles, go a step ahead and be SPECIFIC on what you want, then take some ACTION. Faith without Action is DEAD. Make that phone call, write that blog post, get the space on TV, newspaper, buy that book, take him/her out, write the CV (there are some people who are jobless right now yet they can't spend time refining and making their CV look cute. If you think I am wrong, just be part of an interviewing panel somewhere and you will bail me out). In a nutshell, DREAM and ACT, just like God did and God does.

This thought continues on the next post. Have a lovely weekend, and thanks for all the birthday wishes. I really appreciate.

GOD IS A GOAL SETTER-PART 2

Occassionally, I take a look at the Forbes list of the wealthiest people on earth by their net-worth. Sometimes I just picture a name that I consider big, and start looking at their position on that list. I like looking for Oprah and sometimes Steve Jobs on that list. That is when I am idle.Such like lists are accessed by millions of curious people every day.

It has been said that the wealthy and successful have two common traits; one, the habit and discipline of goal setting, and two, the habit and discipline of continous learning. That those two things make them rich. I know it is true. But come to think of it...we all have God above everyone, so by default God is the richest entity in the universe.

God is a mega-dreamer, God is a relentless lover and goal-setter. In the previous installment, we looked at the story of Moses...how God set a goal to retrieve one nation from another, communicated to Moses, and about eleven chapters later, achieved exactly what He said he would do.

Of course we know God as a miracle working God. However for the most part God cherishes Processes, God cherishes SEASONS....infact God operates in seaons, and has put the seasons in place. The habit of Goal setting is crucial for success, significance, wealth and greatness.

It is crucial. The goal setter however must understand the attitude of perseverance that waters the seeds of your goals until the season of fruition comes. That is relentlessness. God said: "For as long as Earth lasts, planting and harvest, cold and heat, Summer and winter, day and night will never stop."

As you focus on setting your goals, you must understand that Goal setting does not work-you do! You must understand that Goal Setting is not abracadabra performance of miracles. You must respect processes, seasons, and timeframes. You have probably heard about the Chinese Bamboo tree that has the toughest seed on earth. Guess what? God made it! This seed is watered for FOUR YEARS before it can sprout out of the ground. What if you stopped watering it on the third year?

Question: How long was God's goal for retrieving one nation from another? Answer: Four hundred and thirty years. A goal must have a timeframe, so God set it. Moses was appearing on the scene four hundred years after God set this particular goal. Wow! And you thought you had patience!

But hold it right there! Is'nt God supposed to be a miracle worker doing stunning stuff and displaying signs and wonders? Well that is a major facet of God. However, a large percentage of God's work is in respect to processes, seasons, and timings. Instead of praying for a miracle...maybe you could set some goals. The miracle is in the process. The miracle is in the seed. The miracle doesnt happen until there is action on the part of a human being.

Again I say, God is a Goal Setter, and He started it long before we started teaching about it. This thought continues in the next post.

GOD IS A GOAL SETTER!

At the beginning of this month (April), there was a Holiday for some special people on earth. It is called April Fool’s Day.

A story is told of one ancient conquering emperor who was travelling with his army by sea. Inevitably they broke into that seasonal discussion of claiming that there was no God.

He sat there silently listening as the heat of the discussion increased. Finally, they came to him and asked him for his opinion. He pointed at the vast sea, as well as the starts above and asked them “Gentlemen, who made all this?”

With that, the discussion came to a close. You might have thought that it was obvious that there is a God, but some people thought it wise to think otherwise.

Speaking of obvious things, I got seriously cracked up the other day while reading Stu Weber’s book, Tender Warrior:

“….I will never forget the January 20, 1992 cover of TIME magazine. It may be the strangest cover I have ever seen. The picture on the front isn’t strange: Two youngsters smile out at you-a boy and a girl. The little boy proudly flexes his biceps while the little girl eyes him admiringly. The bold headline below the picture asks: “Why Are Men and Women Different?” The subhead below proudly announces: “New studies Show They’re Born That Way.”

No kidding?

Well, blow me over! That’s “News”? That’s “New?” Ah the wonders of modern research. We have finally proven in the halls of science what we already knew in the hallways of kindergarten.

A scripture declares: “A fool says in his heart that there is no God”. So that’s why we have April 1^st. So anyway, I Just wanted to let that off my chest before I delve into the subject matter. There is a God and God is a Goal Setter.

The art of Goal setting must be mastered well. You must know what you want, write it down and go to work to achieve it. The first story I will use today for God being a Goal setter is Moses. Most of us have watched ‘The Prince of Egypt’. I could watch it a million times over just to listen to the sound track. It’s awesome. Anyway, God tells Moses that he wants one nation to come out of another (Goal setting), and then God tells Moses that it aint gonna be a joy ride.

Moses here is a representative of your mind. Your heart dreams big and declares, “I am so excited that I am earning USD 100,000 every year” Your mind goes like “Yeah right!” That is exactly what Moses did. He told God….’you are not talking to the right guy’, in essence that is.

However, God was unfailingly sticking to what He wanted to do, objections or no objections. God does not say one thing and then changes His mind over it. (Well of course if you want to be controversial, you will give me scripture references where he actually changed his mind, like that time he told Moses to step aside so he obliterates the unbelieving rescued bunch). But that is not what we are discussing. Generally God decided, put things in place, believed in Moses even when Moses did not believe in himself, and he accomplished exactly what he indicated he would accomplish.

In Exodus 3:22, God said in essence: “You will leave that place loaded; they will want to send you off gladly with lotsa stuff”. That was a Goal that was set. If you read later on after several chapters that is exactly what happened word for word!

Belief is important in Goal setting. God has great belief. God believes in you, otherwise you would not have been created. So if God is a Goal Setter, who do you think you are that you will succeed without the discipline of Goal Setting? So what are your thoughts? Is there a God? Is God a miracle worker or a Goal setter?

More on this study later! Have a great week-end.

EVERYTHING A DOUBLE DOUBLE

We are told by Personal Development gurus that creation is done twice. That anything that is was before it is. That is perfectly true. The house I am living in, someone SAW it, before it PHYSICALLY became. Someone else put down what the visionary saw into BLUE PRINTS. Then someone else was tasked with bringing the blue prints into a physical entity. My house was created in a visionary’s mind, and then finally it was manifested on the earth. Everything around me was created twice. Come to think of it, is there anything around you that was not designed? And if it was designed, was it not envisioned?

I have been in this season talking about mentoring. My focus has been pretty much from the point of view of a Parent Mentoring a child. I have wondered here loudly on whom amongst our generation has been mentored by their parents. Mentored specifically for success, for greatness, for wealth creation, and for significance. Is there anyone out there that I could link up with that was really mentored by your parent or guardian? I crave your input in this season.

One major and powerful aspect of mentoring is SEEING. Seeing what is before it becomes. Seeing can be a sharp and focused SPECIFIC, or it could be a ZONAL placement. An apt example is this: in the month of June 2011, I will meet my son…yes, my very own son, whom we have chosen to call Ethan. Ethan was such a wise man that to quantify and explain Solomon’s wisdom, it was said that ‘Solomon was Wiser than Ethan’. Now that is a SPECIFIC vision that I have for my son. I see him as wise. Ethan is also a Psalmist, and a member of a choir and band, according to his original name. That again is a meaningful SPECIFIC. Zonal placement on the other hand is SEEING your child as a great generality. A champion, a great man, a great leader, a great world changer and so on. This second type of SEEING will of course by realized by them becoming a MEANINGFUL SPECIFIC.

So SEEING is the first step in mentoring. By the way, that is why I would never encourage you to ‘judge a book by its cover’. You have no idea what one is becoming. It might never be reflected in the material and empirical items that meet your eyes now. SEEING is dynamite! It is powerful! When I have that sight, either SPECIFICALLY or ZONALLY, I then start operating in my words, actions and deeds from that reference, or from that vision. So I communicate to Ethan knowing that he is a wise psalmist, or a champion, or a leader although you might not be seeing it physically. Remember how the battle between David and Goliath went? David SAW the giant down, and so his actions and speech followed his vision.

In actuality, mentoring our children is not a 100 meter sprint. It is a long haul marathon. We mentor them UNTIL. Until the vision we have or saw comes to fruition. Disclaimer: you will not place a burden on your child to become who you selfishly want them to become, but you will allow them to be great in whatever noble endeavor that they are gifted to become. You do this UNTIL greatness, success, wealth and significance is the inheritance.

Moses was told to lift his hands up as Joshua fought. Whenever his hands were up, Joshua and his armies were winning. Whenever his hands were down due to tiredness, Joshua would be losing. So Moses had his leaders design a method, a SYSTEM that would not allow Moses to lower his hands, UNTIL he won.

On another occasion, Joshua raised his spear and held it against AI, and did not withdraw his spear UNTIL all his foes were vanquished. What vision do you have for your child? Better yet, what vision do you have for yourself? It is time to STAND and raise the spear and let it be known that you are STANDING. You are enforcing the SECOND CREATION of your vision. You choose to be relentless, STANDING UNTIL what you have SEEN becomes a PHYSICAL REALITY. Truth is, you would rather take your child aside and tell him how great a champion he is rather than let him watch Johnny Bravo the whole day. Your child will become exactly the same as who it is that is mentoring her. So is it Johnny Bravo? Is it Jerry Springer? Is it the Internet? Or is it yourself? The choice is yours, whether right or left the fruits are a sure reflection of the roots!