DON'T READ ANOTHER BOOK...YET

"The Men who have Succeeded are Men who have Chosen O N E Line... & STUCK TO IT!" ~Andrew Carnegie 

Time for new year resolutions. Most people look forward to the new year because it gives us a new psychological start. In fact, most people cannot wait to dump the disappointments and disillusionment of the year past. They looking forward for something new.

Here is the challenge, unless the old is done away with...we have no business looking to replace it with the new. We need closure before we can move on. You cannot move on well in building a life signature if you you have pending issues in your life.

What was not accomplished through the folly of procrastination this year cannot and should not be dumped ostensibly to take up a new challenge. It is folly. It is a fallacy...you will find that even with the new challenge, the same old personal punch that took you out is still strong, smarting from the previous defeat.

Some of these previous attempts are now laced with shame and embarrassment, and the best people want to do with such is shun them. No one wants to be associated with failed attempts and embarrassing situations. At least at face value, every human being wants to navigate very fast away from these things.

Now that is the biggest problem that we face. I dare say that this is why very many people fall into this trap of new year resolutions. Its an emotional euphoria that cheats you to pamper your failures and dump them, then pick up brand new challenges. This seldom works!

Let me offer some suggestions. Take an example of reading a self help book. You have no business reading another book if you have not implemented at least three quarters of what you are just reading or just read has suggested. In fact, I dare say you have no responsibility doing that.

I could say this: It is much more fruitful to read one book the whole year and implement each and every nugget that it gives. Take a book like 'Think And Grow Rich'. That is an old gem. If a life signatures visionary would just dwell on this book from January to December in 2013, read no other book, but on a daily basis, live a life that is relevant and espouses the nuggets of this book, you will be a bigger achiever in 2013 than those who have read 12 books a month and done nothing!

Knowledge is good, yet useless without action. In 2013, let us ruthlessly implement all the revelations that we have in the immediate now before sniffing around for more. In developing your life signatures, it is the action we take on our life signatures that will make us grow more than the more we seek to know.

Incidentally, I have found out that when we zero in on one aspect of a nugget and start implementing it, there is so much more to learn in it. In turn we become authorities in the subject. Authorities are heavier than experts...and authorities are what people are looking for.

In line of this, I propose that you find a theme for 2013 that your life is going to revolve around.Take some time and really, I mean really think about this.

That is the call for 2013. Will you answer it?

YOU WANNA CHUCK FACEBOOK THIS CHRISTMAS?

A very merry Christmas to you! I hope you are having a time of refreshing these holidays. Christmas is a tradition the world over. A significant one at that. It is important for us to understand why we are celebrating Christmas. 

I read somewhere that sadly, some people are no longer calling it Christmas, but just 'Happy Holidays'. Head in the sand, blind to the truth.

Speaking of traditions...there are some that are completely useless...and I am not talking about elaborate ones. I am talking about personal traditions. There are those that people find themselves doing again and again, yet they have absolutely no eternal value...or have no input in their life signatures.

A few weeks back, I dared people on social media to stay out of facebook and twitter for just a day. One friend rose up to the challenge. 

Disclaimer: I am not discrediting facebook and twitter or any other form of social media. 

However, it is time for us to check any form of tradition that we are engaged in against the value that it adds to our Life Signatures. Very many employees and visionaries spend hours on end on things that do not challenge them or add any value to their vision. Facebook can be one of them, twitter another, TV and newspapers another!

In 2013, it is absolutely necessary that we evaluate the importance (or lack thereof) of some of the traditional activities we engage in.

This evaluation should make us to cull some of these activities out of our lives altogether. Is facebooking adding value to me? How much value is it per day? How about twitter? CNN (Constant Negative News)? If any of these traditions, or let's call them addictions are not adding any value from us, we need to axe them out of our lives.

Is it simple? That depends with if you have a vision and how much you are determined to see that vision come to pass. The most important thing in this exercise is not the stopping or the culling or the axing of the tradition. The most important thing however is what we do IN THE PLACE of the culled tradition. 

If for instance I am chucking the tradition of spending two hours on facebook every day, what am I doing in its place? What value am I adding to my life signatures by the virtue of this exchange?

It is important to REPLACE old and potential killing traditions with new Value Adding activities. If we leave blank the swept slate, it is very easy to go back and do those same old things.

Have you ever sat down to evaluate the value of some of the activities you do per day, let alone per week? It is in the day that activities are done that form characters and tradition.

As people are reviewing the value of Christmas downwards, I wish we all take a look and reviewed the value of our traditions too. This is how we stay relevant to our vision.

A very Merry Christmas to you!

IGNORE YOUR PASTOR OR PROPHET ON NEW YEAR'S EVE

*Disclaimer: The Author does not by any means champion rebellion against spiritual authority in any way. It is the Author's admonition that the reader takes full responsibility for their outcome in 2013 based on their heart's desire.*

I can almost guarantee you that in January, especially at the new year's eve, very many pronouncements will be made across the globe for 2013. Here is my prediction on just some of the pronouncements you will hear:

1. 2013 will be the year of a double portion!
2. 2013 will be the year of rest!
3. 2013 will be the year of abundance and prosperity!
4. 2013 will be the year of recovering all that has been lost!
5. 2013 will be the year of breakthrough!
6. 2013 will be the year of divine favor and appointments!
7. 2013 will be the year of open doors....!

A preacher Delcaring

The list can go on and on and on. Normally it is someone in spiritual authority who makes these declarations, and then the spiritual subjects start aligning their lives in the year in anticipation for the fulfillment of the prophecies.

Notice also that all these prophecies are to their credit, always positive. To the best of my spiritual knowledge, prophecies are normally a double aged sword...cutting both the good and the bad...but I digress...

The problem however normally arises as the year progresses...more and more people realize that there is a very big chasm between these declarations and the reality on the ground. The year of favor for example turns out to be the year of pain and disillusionment.

The year of prosperity turns out to be the year of lack, struggle and financial ruin. The year of open doors turns out to be the year of closed heavens.

I have been having this gut feeling that as far as this subject is concerned, visionaries for once need to ignore their spiritual leaders and listen to Life Coaches! Now this is seriously controversial to the super-spiritual, so you better hang on as I explain.

The folly of making new year resolutions goes hand in hand with the mistake of waiting for someone to 'decree' what kind of a year it will be so we can follow. 

New year resolutions are normally emotional decisions (although very well meaning) that lack strategic plans, commitment, and accountability structures to see them through in the long haul. We need to move away from them as fast as possible and embrace the discipline of goal-setting.

New year declarations are normally inspirational statements spoken at a psychological new opportunity by a spiritual authority ostensibly to give direction of where the year would go. The following are some characteristics of these pronouncements:

1. They are always generic: A blanket declaration over a group of people seldom becomes a specific to all.
2. They are always one-time: Lots of emotions are pumped up at the beginning of the year. Sustained progress and achievement needs more than a one-time declaration by someone else over another's life.
3. They are never personal: It mostly is the pastor or prophet who makes the declaration (whether it is from God or not). It seldom comes from the average attendant of such an event. Seldom do the consumers of these declarations derive their own, they hinge on what is given to them. It is far more powerful for the vision to come from deep down inside your gut than from the mouth of a new year's eve prophet. Progress in 2013 will depend on how personal my vision is.
4. They always ignore structure: People are seldom admonished to do something to bring the declaration to pass, save from being in good books with God. People living by them subconsciously cede control and performance of their lives entirely to God. Yet we have already discussed here that God is a Goal Setter! Success in 2013 will heavily hinge on how much we recognize our importance in the process of progress.
5. They are always motivational rather than motivating:Something motivating causes you to take action immediately. Unfortunately for the most part the action we take with declarations is waiting! Something motivational inspires hope (which is important but not enough) and good feeling of expectancy.

You have a choice to wait for what your man of God says 2013 will turn out to be. You also have this wonderful choice to hire a Life Coach to help you design not just your 2013, but even the years beyond. Such a professional will help you track your progress, and help you get unstuck whenever things get thick.

• He will help you identify what really matters to you so you can wholeheartedly focus on it.
• He will help you clarify your Values, Mission, and Vision.
• He will help you set 360 Degrees Goals
• He will help you prepare a strategic plan of action for your goals,
• He will give you the necessary tools to attain each and every one of your goals.

With you till the end, a Life Coach

So, between your preacher and the Life Coach I am talking about...whom do you think has a better chance to impact your progress in 2013?

Between new year resolutions and Goals, what do you think will give you a better chance for success in 2013?

Between you taking personal charge of your destiny in 2013 and waiting for the preacher to declare what year it could turn out to be...which is the better option?

Think about that.

For the record, I preach a lot. You can catch me on 104.1Power Fm in Uganda every morning at 5:00 a.m. East African Time.

Have a thoughtful day, wont you?

THERE IS NOTHING CALLED 'BEING STUCK'!!

"There is no nation in the whole world that prospered from aid...how come that the western world think that Africans will be developed through receiving aid?" ~ Andrew Rugarisa, CEO Good African Coffee

You have most probably heard people saying that they are stuck. Maybe you have been 'stuck' yourself a couple of times.

Now I have an interesting question. Is it the only 'stuck' you have ever been in? Surely there are some other moments when you got stuck...but here is the thing...you never really stayed there! You are here because somehow you got unstuck.

Now ladies and gentlemen, right there is the comfort that we all should have, especially to the many people right now who are stuck one way or another. Stuck will go, and that is for sure!

Maybe someone helped you. Maybe you 'helped' yourself. Maybe, you out-waited on the 'stuck' and time just wore it down. Yet I am so sure that that stuck did not leave you the same! Like a friend of mine and fellow blogger Winnie Thuku wrote in her book titled 'Broken to be made whole', a stuck will always grow you.

One thing is for sure here...there is nothing in the whole wide world like being stuck!! Nothing! There is always something that can be done to remedy a 'stuck' situation. One of the reasons as to why we remain stuck for long is because we do not want to take the Quinine of a solution that mostly yanks us from our comfort zones.

Let me say this: We are either just out of a stuck, in a stuck or headed towards one. Why is that? Well this is life, and this is a fallen black world! The message is simple...deal with it...and deal with it at the earliest opportunity! Bible says not to be surprised when stuck happens as if something foreign is happening to you, because stuck is common to mankind!

Now, the most amazing thing about being unstuck is that for the most part, the answer, the key out of the predicament is seldom out there and far fetched. It is for the most part within reach, within grasp. We always seek out grandeur in getting out. The answer sometimes is normally simpler than we thought:

• Moses had his staff,
• David had his harp,
• Lawrence has his mouth,
• Africa, like Andrew Rugasira said, has minerals, oil, people, rivers and an awesome climate and soil.
• You and I have skills, talents, phone books, facebook friends, twitter followers, CVs, associations and organizations.

 The biggest reason as to why I stay stuck for a long time is that I am not willing to use the immediately available resources at my disposal. If I could just sit down at least two hours today and carefully examined what I have going on for me, even in my stuck situation, I would be amazed how many options I have, Indeed, I would be spoilt for choice!

Sometimes our thinking is too exotic, so we miss out on immediately available options.

At other times our thinking is so traditional, blinding us from seeing our deliverance in our own hands or vicinity.

The nature of being stuck sometimes psychologically emasculates us from taking action by virtue of feeling 'helpless'. So we transfer the deliverance to a deliverer. 

I have come to learn that for the most part, to be unstuck you have to be your own deliverer...all the others that come normally just do a patching up work...relieving you for few days before the cement solidifies with your feet in it again.

There is nothing like being stuck. All we need to do is to look more intensely inside...much more intensely than we look externally for help. There is always a way...there always will be a way. Your stuck today will be as irrelevant as the distant star in the sky above tonight few months from now.

Time to grasp something in the vicinity and break up the chains of our stuck!

Have an unstuck day, wont you? 

BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD

Nobody loves set-backs, well unless of course you have trained yourself to love them. We all love to try something and it works. We all love to plant and reap. We love to go to the ATM, punch the codes and walk out with cash.

In developing Life Signatures though, I have come to cherish the aspect of life having other plans contrary to ours. The human being always loves to be in control. We love to be in control of what we are getting, where our lives are going.

Failure Should not be the Undertaker

That scenario involves being in control of time. Many movies have been made espousing the concept of time travel. It just tells you how we wish we could control everything and thereby dictate the outcome of all our input.

The very fact that we are not in ultimate control of each and everything makes failure part and parcel of our lives. We do not know what weather will come out tomorrow...we do not know if the Bank Loan will come through, we do not know if the debtors will pay up. We do not know if the readers will read or the buyers will buy.

Here is the thing: The only way we can know is to do something about it. Life is structured in such a way to provide feedback against what action we take. We are seldom on point even after years of strategizing. We can always do better. That is how incapacitated we are as human beings.

And that is why I love going back to the drawing board, especially in our quest to develop our life signatures. Someone who wants to quit smoking might find themselves very many times back at the drawing board. The same applies to a visionary what it applies to an addict.

The point of the whole process is never to discourage us. We need to learn to be patient with ourselves and that small P word called process. Every time we find ourselves back at the drawing board, we are never without information of what happened last time we ventured out.

I need to salute every person out there who are back to the drawing board. Yes it is painful, but it is not empty. Some people are languishing at the drawing board thinking that it is the end of the world. No it is not! It is a punctuation. You went out the first time. Would you go back out there again?

Who knows? You might be back at the drawing board, or you might be headed all the way to the bank. There is only one way to be sure...embrace the drawing board whoever uncomfortable it is. Comfort, I have come to find out is the biggest enemy of success.

Pain, hard work, disappointments, setbacks, failure and all the negatives of our inspired actions towards success are the breeding grounds for life signatures. So you might just be in good company if you are going through one of this, albeit with the correct perspective of drawing board mechanisms.

What I am saying though is that we need to learn never to stay at that drawing board every time we either have been forced back there or we have taken ourselves willingly. We need to rise up once again...and again...and again. We might need to come back here many times...that is the mark of progress being made, of life signatures being structured.

Do not give up. Go!

TRY ABNORMAL...IT EVENTUALLY WORKS

Very many years back while a teenager, a certain guy in Kenya announced that he would be vying for the Presidency. Kenya had just legalized multi-party politics (an abnormal thing given the preceding decade of one party rule).

To very many people in Kenya, this candidate was abnormal to say the least. He was belligerent, represented war and revenge. According to one of the leading columnists at that time, Kwendo Opanga wrote in his column, 'The Week That Was', Raila Odinga 'is not even an orator'. 

Raila Odinga

At face value, the Odinga proposal was abnormal. Today...sometimes news is not complete in Kenya without the mention of that once abnormal name, Raila Odinga

I am learning that there is great value in what we deem 'abnormal', especially at face value. Very many people tell me that they are bored. I tell them that they are just too normal and plain predictable.

Nothing saps juice out of life like the known normal. That is why some relationships are on the rocks...there is no effort to delve into the abnormal. Of course the abnormal calls for effort...and for most people, the brain does not love that word effort.

To be honest, we love the predictable. We love the comfort zone. What we know, what we have always known. We seldom want to operate in the new.

Try going out today and jog if you have not done that for months. The results will be evident not only during your jog, but also after the jog. Your body has just registered the abnormal or out of the ordinary and is now complaining.

Try juggling some balls, even if they are two. That is cumbersome stuff if you have never done that. You give up in exasperation easily. Yet, juggling being an abnormal thing to do for someone who never has, is a very helpful exercise to the brain.

When everyone has the same tools, it might be the abnormal that might give you competitive advantage.

Indeed, as a visionary, I would bet that in building your life signatures, it is important that we find ourselves at least going out of the normal once in a while, sticking with the abnormal until we have mastered it. That way, the abnormal is not normal anymore.

Just ask Raila Odinga. Had he vied for the presidency before? No. Was it easy the first time? No. Was it cumbersome? Of course! Did he give up? No! He's still right there smack in the middle of the race. No doubt the man has grown.

That is what trying the abnormal will do for us. It will grow us. It is Maxwell who said that, "If we are growing, we are always operating outside of our comfort zones"...sometimes, we are our own 'Kwendo Opangas' if you will. Yet we have to grow this thick skin to insulate us from those who see us being weird when we engage the abnormal.

It was weird to drop out of Harvard in order to develop MS DOS to its full potential. Nobody is supposed to do that. It is abnormal to drop out of school. That abnormality made us Bill Gates of Microsoft, and Steve Jobs of Apple. Infact, the normal is so ordinary for anybody to notice you!

A great visionary always seeks to be in the face of that which scares them. That which is foreign to them. That which demands effort from them. That which is out of the normal and out of the ordinary. 

You might want to try the abnormal...chances are that with time, it will work, and you will grow.

Have a weird week, wont you?

IT IS NOT ENOUGH TO BE ENTITLED

“I've seen unproven upstarts riding in style, While experienced veterans are put out to pasture.” Solomon

A most recent theme that I have been writing about is that the world has changed so much from the day it began. That is a given, it goes without saying.

There are those days where some people deserved privileges. There are those days where others still were entitled to privileges. Look at the royals…all they needed to do to be entitled was to be born.

Now, there is a difference between being entitled and really possessing that which you are entitled to. It is kind of like respect. I used to have a boss that I had little respect for. Respect works in a way that by virtue of her being a boss, she was automatically entitled to my respect. She was in authority, I was answering to her, and she was responsible for guiding and giving me direction.

However, after that, respect is never automatic. It is earned. Ever heard someone say, “I lost respect for them?”

Everyone born of a woman is entitled to success. We are all entitled to live, matter and leave legacies. There is no exemption.

Indeed, there are some people who go a step higher than being born and actually do prepare so that they can become more entitled than others. Some create networks, some have what we call technical know who, still some earn degrees and ascend to higher levels of learning. It is all in a bid to increase the level of entitlement.

Yet there has always been a gap between entitlement and possession. That is why Solomon of old, that wise man from the East said that he has seen princes walk on foot and servants riding horses…

I have seen people that think am an absolute genius heading powerful corporate departments while I struggle to be relevant in society. I know of people who have heavy responsibilities in the corporate world come to me for help in a thing or two. They are earning serious dough at the end of the month, and I can only admire from afar.

The very boss who lost my respect some years back, I knew I could do far much better than she was. I was entitled…she was in possession. That is why you will always here this thing that life is never fair. It is true.

It is that great revolutionary Jesus Christ who said, “…The Kingdom of God suffers violence and the violent take it by force…” That statement is so on point and I know it applies to every person from each tribe, race, creed, gender and religious persuasion.

It is a violent world. You never possess it by being entitled…you have got to do something more than being entitled.

The doctrine of being entitled has people showing up with accolades and expecting doors to be opened for them on that basis alone. It has someone showing up with a Degree and look down on others without one, telling them that they are more entitled than them.

The results are always astounding. Solomon was right. The princes who show up thinking they are entitled are always trumped by the peasants who show up hungry, and violent. We spoke recently of having a thick skin and not giving a monkey what people think. That means you can be as gross as you want to be because you so badly want the chance.

So this is the way to go: As long as you are providing a solution to people...it makes no difference whether you are entitled to their audience, their acceptance, their hand in business by virtue of one thing or another. Solutions will trump any facade of the entitlement gospel. People do not care who you are, until they know that you can supply them what they want....

Have a solution providing week, won't you?

WHY 'I DONT CARE' HELPS A GREAT DEAL!

It has been said that people don’t care what you think until they know how much you care. Caring is supposed to be a good thing. It is supposed to be a virtue…some people use it as a value. Yet I could say that in the world of man eat man society, that ‘care’ could be a thorough impediment to success.

There is something called a ‘thick skin’. That means that you do not give a monkey what people think, let alone what they say! In other words, you are not moved by people’s opinions. Now, again you need to give a monkey about what they say and do…because sometimes ‘feedback’ is the breakfast of champions.

Geoffrey Semaganda, CEO Action Wealth

To be honest, the world has become more ruthless. Gone are the days were ‘it took a village to raise a child’. These days, less and less people take no notice when a child whom they do not know messes up.

Frankly, I care so much. I care not to mess around with people’s spaces. I care not to disturb the peace. I care so much. I care not to step on people’s toes. I care not to waste their precious time. I care so much. Some years ago, I would slaughter a chicken while in the village without batting an eyelid. These days, I just can’t bring myself to do that ‘heinous’ act.

This attitude of being so ‘careful’ especially about what they will say and do can cost a visionary so much. I attended a seminar few hours back dubbed ‘Action Wealth’ by one Geoffrey Semaganda. He moved from Uganda during the days of unrest and found himself in London…and years later, he is a successful business consultant, trainer, speaker, and author and has travelled over 20 nations. I loved what he told us. He said that if what opinions he holds are stepping on our toes, we should just call him an idiot and move on.

You see, Geoffrey has learnt to grow a thick hide that doesn’t give a hoot what you say or think about him.

Now developing that think skin does not come automatically. It doesn’t come while lying down somewhere waiting for the dream to materialize. It comes with intentionally going out there and literally ‘knocking on people’s doors’. The first several might show you the door, but who cares? At least you are in the process of activating your dream.

Curiosly, there is an underlying factor behind that caring attitude that robes us of success is fear. Fear of what they might say and how you might be depicted. For the record, people will always say things. That is why we have news and newspapers every day. There is no day you will wake up and find no news and newspapers…people always say things.

For a visionary to go places there is this simple process that ought to take place. We need at any one point in time find ourselves iterating somewhere in between the process:

• ·         Identifying the Dream: Clarifying what we want, refining it and sticking to it.

• ·         Strategizing on How to achieve it: That is what gives a backbone to the dream.

• ·         Taking action and growing a thick skin: Implementing the dream gives it life…and grows it further than our expectations. Without action there are no results.

So, if you are an individual who ‘cares’ so much, you risk sitting on your dream. The key thing to do would be on a daily basis, find ourselves doing something…anything that activates the dream we hold in our hearts.

Look, I have done embarrassing stuff in the past in the name of seeking help for my dreams. I have written proposals and thought people will be excited about my dreams and instantly fund them. I have asked for money from a dozen people. Frankly at times, I started caring when I was rebuffed systematically by the results. Yet great value is placed upon learning from our past mistakes.

However off the actions are, at least they are better than nothing. In growing a ‘thick skin’, we are talking about not giving up. We are also talking about looking at the embarrassment straight in the face and ask ourselves what we would have done better and go for it again…and again.

Let me say this: When it comes to caring, let us care for other people’s welfares…but let us not care so much what they will say or do to us when pursuing our dreams!

Have a caring day, wont you?