Happy Life Signatures Day!!!

Am Now Presidential Material!

So don’t you mess with me! 

I have achieved quite a number of milestones the few years I have been alive, but this one makes me more excited than ever! Would you believe it? Am now 35 years old! There is something about that number 35. I just love it! I have never felt so proud of the number of my years like I am about this one.

Constitutionally, I can contend for the Presidency of my country. So as you can see, I have entered a new era of my life, filled with so much potential!

In just five years, I will be 40! Would you believe that! It’s just the other year that I was the happiest teenager in the world after turning 18. Am telling you, days do fly!

“It is not the number of years in your life, but the amount of life in your years that counts” –Quote.

April is a very special month for me. It is the month that I got born, got born again, got married and also turned 35! It is in this month that I set foot in West Africa after living all my life around East Africa. 

It is also in the month of April that I will retire from using blogspot and proudly move over to my new website, http://life-signatures.com. This will go live on 10th April 2014 at 15:00 GMT.

To celebrate this fete, I have decided to call April 10^th Life Signatures Day! Why? Because I have been so passionate about the purpose of life for years now. I have researched on this topic and I am still a top learner on it. 

I need you to take some time and reflect about your life.

1. ·         Why were you born?
2. ·         Why are you still alive?
3. ·         Why are you where you are at this dispensation of time?
4. ·         What is your life purpose?

There is just one answer to all these prodding questions. You were born for a reason and for a purpose.

“There are two important days in your life: the day you were born, and the day you figure out why” –Quote

As you ponder on these (whether you already know your life purpose or not), I am sharing for free a 200-page E-Book titled “21 Commandments To Mastermind Your Comeback”. It will be available for download from http://life-signatures.com till the end of May 2014. Thereafter, it will be sold online.

I also want to take this opportunity to thank all the readers of Life Signatures for over three years now, 250 articles done. I have been changed since I started blogging, and I can only get better.

As people around the world send me birthday wishes, I send you my Life Signatures greetings as I encourage you to think about the reason for your existence!

Happy Life Signatures Day!!!

The Woowoo (But Crucial) Side of Success

To be honest, not all that can be quantified or counted is all that is needed as ingredients for success. You cannot measure a hunch. Neither can you measure passion.

Since so much has been written about success, I am willing to bet that for the most part, what determines success is mostly the invisible...the intangible and the Spiritual.

I am yet to meet or read about a successful person who was unspiritual (read did not believe in anything).

There are two major ingredients if you will be personally successful and satisfied to the degree that you will impact not just this generation, but also the next and the next.

First, You Must Be Called: 

This is as woowoo as it gets. To be called simply means to be ordained or set apart for something specific. Now, being called does not mean that you must accept the call. You could as well reject the call. Most successful people always have this innate knowledge that something or Someone somewhere has 'marked' them to do the extra-ordinary. They know that they are meant for something bigger and better.

I keep feeling this disquiet in my heart about my life. Who I am, where I am at, what I have done, where I have been and what I am meant to be. Frankly, as late as today morning, I know that there is a disconnect between what I am showing up as in this world and what I was meant to really be and to do. I know for a fact that I am called.

The beautiful part of this being called business is that everybody, including the madman out there in the streets is called!! No one alive is useless. I repeat, there is no one in the face of the earth who has been given breath for no other reason than to be counted in life. You too are called.

Then, You Must Be Separated.

Micheal Jordan

Micheal Jackson

Micheal Schummacher

Micheal Owen....

Apart from a name, they all have one thing in common. They were/are known for one Major Thing. You can easily say that they have been 'separated'. There are a million things that either of these guys could have done. But each of them chose and stuck to just one. One can easily argue that they 'heard the call', they answered the 'call', and they separated themselves for the call.

Micheal Jackson did not hang around football stadiums. He was mostly found in studios and concerts. Micheal Jordan did not hang around bars and orchestras. He was mostly found in the gymn and in the basketball court...save for that brief moment that he was in a baseball pitch and made no impact.

Separation requires discipline. This is where very many visionaries get disilluioned. Most visionaries are so bogged down with eking a living that they are no longer separate. The writer must write daily, the speaker must inspire weekly, the singer bust be in studio each week, if not each day.

She was my contemporary back in Nairobi. Both of us sensed (and still do) the urge to 'coach people'. She got started and so did I. She started writing about success and life...then one day along the line, she got 'separated' and started writing and instructing about courtship, dating and marriage. Ngina Otiende is so much separated that I take her advice and apply it in my own marriage. That is what separation does.

The Biggest Mistake.

One of the biggest mistakes made in spiritual circles is for people waiting for 'the audible voice of God' to instruct them to do something. Some guys are even waiting for the audible voice of God to tell them whom to marry (controversial, I know). A beautiful story in the Bible is of four guys carrying their paralyzed guy up a roof, razing it off and lowering him to Jesus for healing.

What if they waited for God to instruct them? God does the calling, you do the separation together with him.

Ok. I know that there must be balance. You do not just do things outside of 'God's guidence', neither do you keep sitting there waiting for him to 'speak'.

Can you sing?

Can you write?

Can you pray?

Can you inspire?

Do you love working with photoz?

Do you love chatting and giving people advice on line?

Then why don't you separate yourself? What are you waiting for?

New Year's Message: 4 Things About Passion

One thing is for sure...Passion is attractive! Nobody wants to recommend a passionless individual...we easily retweet or amplify passionate messages but shun the flat and ordinary.

I hate it (Strong word, I know) when I am not passionate. I do not like it when there is nothing am 'carrying' in the inside of me that I am passionate about. If you were to find me at my lowest point ever, it would be when I am passionless! Tweet this Please!

The Two Dimensions of Passion

Before I can talk about the three things about Passion, let me talk about the two dimensions of passion:

• Active Passion: If you have it, people want to join with you. They want to Identify with you. If someone else has it, you feel it, you are mesmerized by it, you see it in their eyes and you want to join them. Such passion is in action...not in speech only. 
• Snuffed Out Passion: Either gradually by circumstances or neglegence or directly and acutely by being denied of your rights. Nelson Mandela, goes without saying had this kind of passion. With him, as much as he wanted to have active passion while free, he was forced out of the picture. The worst kind of snuffed out passion is the one orchestrated by self! Click to Tweet Please

Four Things about Passion:

1.                  Urgency: Passion creates urgency more than anything. The good thing about this urgency is that it is positive urgency. When you are passionate about something, you always want to talk about time. Jesus Christ would ocassionally say, 'the time has come'...it would show that this urgency is set to drive us to do something within a 'window of opportunity'. 

2.                  Consistency: You will always know a passionate person by what they consistently do and talk about. If in 2013 I was an accountant, and in 2012 I was a blogger, and in 2011 I was a speaker (emphasis on was), then I have not mastered the use of passion. Passion although it denotes strong feelings of emotion is normally upheld by sheer consistency when the feelings are long gone. Consistency is the death knell to 'new Year Resolutions' that expire in February. Click To Tweet Please!

3.                  Purpose: To paraphrase scripture, "Zealousness is good with knowledge". In other words, you had better be passionate about something of value. To be passionate about #Arsenal football club and not be passionate about any other thing in life is useless. I can say that again but I won't. For example, I am passionate about enriching people's lives with motivating knowledge. You see, at the end of the day, it is good that your passion enriches someone else. Otherwise, there is no use of being passionate. Click To Tweet Please!

4.                  Determination: In a tweet the other day, I warned people not to unscrupulously swallow all the messages that the New Year’s ‘prophets’ will churn out as is tradition. The fact is that even with passion, you are going to face some setbacks and challenges. What you do when they come is what is important. To be determined simply means to make sure that what you started is finished, even if the first option did not serve you.

I know that there is a flurry of activities in setting new year resolutions once again. My advice would be simple:

Find out something of purpose that you can be passionate about and be determined to consistently live that urgency to the beneifit of yourself and the world in 2014. Please Click to Tweet My New Year's Message

Happy New Year!!!

SOMETIMES YOU NEED A GENEALOGY TO SUCCEED

Few weeks back, the world was awash with news that the Royal Family in England had welcomed their newest royal baby. One would argue that the only thing that baby needs to be successful is to be born. On the same day that that baby was born, several others around the world also made entry into our world...in total obscurity...well at least to the world media.

My question would be: Is there any major difference in terms of success between the royal birth and common birth? 

Well...isn't it obvious? The word here is guarantee. The royal child is guaranteed success because of the environment in which he will operate. Chances are that he might easily do well than the kids of common birth.

A gift to the world, born to succeed!

Yet that does not mean that other kids will not succeed at all. There are many common births that have registered unrivaled success, even much more than royal births. 

Sometimes, no...all the time, the thing that you need to succeed is a genealogy...son of or daughter of. In other words, what you need to succeed is to be born...guess where? In the human race!

That's it. All human beings, both low born or high born exist not to fail...but to conquer failure and succeed.

The madman on the streets,

The starving child in Ethiopia,

The barefooted child in Somalia,

The royal child,

The gifted,

The talented,

The skilled,

...

All those born of man are born to succeed. That's just it. The opposite just beats logic. Everything in nature is meant to thrive...and that's another fact.

What we do with this truth is what matters. Knowing this truth and walking in this truth is what creates a heaven and earth difference between the 7 billion people on earth, not where they were born.

True isn't it?

HOW TO KNOW YOU HAVE SETTLED FOR LESS IN YOUR LIFE

So, for the record, I am not in any way advocating for people to 'settle'. Almost everyone growing up looked forward for that time where they would 'settle down', preferably with a spouse of their dreams, a house of their dreams, a car of their dreams and wonderful kids.

Inherently, 'settling down' is one of the greatest longings of our lives. To us, settling down depicts maturity. It shows that we are ready to leave our childhood days and start projecting ourselves as adults. I kind of like that kind of a focus.

The Last Time Arsenal Won a trophy...

There is however another kind of settling that is so subtly tied to the one we long for. It is called settling for less!  Unfortunately, it hits most people at their death bed so severely how they settled for less in their lives.

 Stories abound of people who have had NDEs (Near Death Experiences) and they come out totally transformed! You can seldom find an individual who has had an NDE who got worse than they were previously. That is a given! 

Stories also abound from doctors who have witnessed scores of people die under their care. One doctor testifies of two types of people:

1. The Peaceful and Smileful: These are the types that welcome death. It seems as if they have some kind of power greater than death itself. It almost seems as if they are not afraid of death itself. They seem so sure not only of how they have lived, but also where they will live after the bridge of death. They are so at peace. So solemn a peace. If you would get into their heads, they are saying something like, "I am ready"
2. The Terrified and Mortified: These ones know that it is game for them. They show great fear for what is coming, and with the little strength they have left, they will fight death like a man fighting bees. There is great regrets in their eyes. They do not want to go. They do not know what awaits them on the other side. Of course they know there is the other side, their religious persuasions notwithstanding. If you would get into their heads they are saying something like "I wish I knew"

Which group do you think you belong to? If death was to come right now...which group do you think you belong to? Your answer will be determined by the following standards of living. Obviously, if you settled for less than your potential in life, you most definitely will be in camp two. 

But how exactly do you know that you have already settled for less than you deserve in your life?

1. You no longer aspire to achieve goals: Remember that thing about dreaming for a nice house, a cute spouse and lovely kids? The reason as to why you had those dreams is because they can be fulfilled. For the most part, nobody planted those dreams in your head....in fact, some of them came from deep within your soul. Yet you no longer pursue them. You have given up on them. Your greatest focus right now is to put food on the table and clothes on your back. You have settled for less than you were created for!
2. You are comfortable with where you are: It is one thing to give up on goals, it is another thing to be happy about and OK about it. The worst of those who have settled are those who are never bothered to say the least that they could be better. Your greatest desire every single day is for comfort. You have dulled all the wake up calls in your life and even to the extend of compromising your values, you will seek comfort. The opposite of this is what I call a holy discontentment. Just two days back I was asking myself this question, "Lawrence, do you think you have given up or walked away from God's original call in your life?". That question is not comfortable. I do not want to settle!
3. Your speech is full of 'those were the days': You are living in the past. You reminisce your past glory. "During our days, those were the days!" When you speech is punctuated by these kind of statements the whole time you are talking, you have given up on a dream, you have settled. Not that there is something wrong with remembering past glories. I like what Apostle Paul (whom many Atheists hate) says: "Everything in my past that was to my gain, I count it as loss...One thing I do, forgetting those things that lie behind, I press on..." Arsenal as a team should take a cue from Paul the Apostle. You cannot revel in past glories and call that success! That is settling for less!
4.  Your Academic Fires: You cannot remember the last time you self studied. You can only remember when you finished formal school and lit up your 'waste papers of academia' in a mighty fire. You have never taken initiative to read anything constructive about your area of specialization, or your passion. The best you read is news and gossip, especially gossip! You have no mentor, you are reading nothing about any great figure of change in our lifetime, you just stopped taking charge of your mental growth! You have settled.
5. What you hated, you now accept: You would never allow something to be done either to you or to other people. It would most certainly never be congruent with your values. Let me talk for example to newly converted Christians. You remember how you were so 'on fire' you would never watch TV? So how come these days you not only watch lots of TV, but you also have become so comfortable with shows that use nudity and obscenities? If this was not what espoused your values previously, you have settled for less. And no, don't lie to yourself that you have become wiser or more mature....you just settled for less!

So we all know what is going to happen when death comes. You will be fighting it like a man fighting bees...but where will you get that strength from? It will be one of the most painful deaths in the face of the earth. The truth is, anybody without a Life Signature falls in group two mentioned above. Which group are you in?

HOW TO MAKE EVERY DAY THE HIGHLIGHT OF YOUR WEEK

"Nothing will ever dominate your life unless it happens daily" ~ Dr. Mike Murdock

 
"Thank God it's Friday!"...two days later, 'Monday Blues'. Two days later, "When will the weekend come?". Repeat that process for half a life time and you have a wasted life to say the least! Who begun all this madness of looking forward for Fridays and hating Mondays? Honestly!

I tell you what? The reason why people long for Fridays and curse Mondays is that they have left their world (or the world) to dictate their pace. Pure and simple. At the very intention of creation, the purpose for the existence of a human soul was never to play second fiddle to creation.

The human soul is designed to rule, dominate, subdue and make the most of what has been created! That includes largely or centrally, every single minute of the days of our lives! The TGIF (Thank God It's Friday) crew in my submission are a rebellious bunch so subtly that they wouldn't guess! Here are people whose sole mandate is to dominate their environments yet they are so hang up with an escapist attitude looking forward for the weekend. You deserve rest when you have really worked towards your purpose!

It is a sorry day when 84% of the TGIF crew have nothing to show for the whole week in terms of being purposeful, fruitful, dominant and creative yet they are so looking forward for the weekend! It makes you think that the weekends are the most important days in our lives, which is wrong. Every single day is important.

My pastor used to say that the highlight of our week should be a Sunday! Today, I seriously beg to differ. The highlight of every created human being should be every single day of the week! Let me explain. If the highlight of your week is a Saturday, then psychologically, you will look down on a Monday. You might even curse it! What happens then? You become unproductive on that day.

"Building Security has notified us that there have been 6 suspected terrorists working at our office. Four of the six have been apprehended. Bin Sleeping, Bin Loafing, Bin Gossiping, and Bin Surfing have been taken into custody. Security advised us that they could find no one fitting the description of the fifth cell member, Bin Working, in the office. Police are confident that anyone who looks like Bin Working will be very easy to spot. They thought they had apprehended Bin Working sitting at a desk, but it was actually Bin Surfing trying to impersonate Bin Working. Bin Facebooking is still missing" ~CK Japheth

To make every single day the highlight of your week, here are some seven important things that you need to do.

1. Race Against Yourself:This by far is done by very few people. I am yet to find a soul that competes hard against themselves cursing a Monday and blessing a Friday! Find me one and I will show you a phoney! Ask yourself: Generally, what do I want to accomplish? Against what can I measure that accomplishment? How do I cascade it down to each day? How do I track my progress daily? This is what happens when I am racing against myself in any day: I look forward so much to the next activity with enthusiasm. When done and checked, I am a happy man. I do not have to wait for Friday! Every single minute is an opportunity to be happy and productive.
2. Have a daily theme: This helps a lot. If you can name your days, each day is bound to become a highlight. I have had some seasons in my life that I have had to name my weeks. When I am down in week one for example, I name week 2 as recovery and restoration week. Then I schedule my non-negotiables around restoration and recovery.
3. Schedule daily Habits: You see, my action/habit today forms who I will be tomorrow. Today is a seed for tomorrow. So you cannot curse a Monday, can you? That is being daft. You have a chance to every single day schedule purposeful activities that you must do. The TGIF crew know nothing about this. They think that this kind of life is for CEOs and COOs. Well, it actually is. The catch is your focus. If you think you are not a CEO of your own life, you are the living dead. You are also the COO, CMO, and all those titles that matter to yourself! Schedule daily habits.
4. Schedule Fun: "Schedule your pleasure because your pain will schedule itself" ~ Mike Murdock. I couldn't agree more! There is nothing wrong with Facebooking, Whatsapping, Tweeting, Pinteresting, LinkInning, Instagraming and blogging! These things are fun. The only problem is when 90% of employees start their days with Facebooking and checking which player has been poached by which team at how much! If you could have a schedule that you can use to be on social media as well as have fun daily, you will find out that each day becomes a highlight.
5. Review and Reward Yourself: Allocate yourself some marks on every activity that you have checked off successfully. Build a graph of sorts on this one. At the end of the day, you will know what 'Percentage' of intentionality that you achieved. So the following day, you will be able to know if you went up or down on yesterday's values. This is pure self motivation. It makes every day the highlight of your week. The TGIF crew have absolutely no clue how they performed on purpose yesterday, today and tomorrow. But they sure do want a weekend! Each day should be reviewed in terms of what you are accomplishing against what you set to accomplish in the first place.
6. Discipline Yourself: Well, this is a big one. No one will have a highlight if they are not disciplined. With discipline comes tremendous razor-sharp focus! That means you attend to your scheduled activity with all the due focus it deserves, against all distractions. You need to obey your timelines. Do not deviate from them. Do not extend an activity to the next. Live one day at a time. You cannot do 200 push ups in one day...unless you are an athlete. Be faithful to every activity that you have scheduled. Do not play God. I know you can do some multitasking and have two activities done at the same time, eg. driving and listening to something inspirational. Do not over do today, you are not dying in the evening.
7. Put a smile on someone's face: Make it a passion to make someone's day a highlight. This

   

   You can put a smile on someone's face today

   does not need for you to purchase a Benz for them. It is the little things that matter. A phone call, a text, a Facebook Photo...whatever. Just go out of our way to make someone happy today. That will give you a highlight in an instant. It works! Many people want to be happy....they do not know that the shortcut is to make others happy. In fact, subconsciously, I could say that the highest form of our existence as human beings is to matter to somebody else...to be meaningful to them...to impact their lives. It could be a colleague, a family member, a friend, someone younger than yourself, someone older, an employer or an employee. Find a creative way to put a smile on someone's face today. That, my friend, definitely is a highlight of your day!

So there you have it. Next time I hear you saying Thank God It's Friday....you better have a good reason for saying that!

WHAT YOU SEE IS NOT WHAT YOU GET!!!

"It is what you really see that will determine what you will get" ~ Life Signatures

We have evolved big time! I have always asked this question: Would you rather that the human race appeared on earth at once showing off iPads, iMac, iPhones, iPods and all these great gadgets of technology, than go through the processes we have gone through all these six thousand years?

That would be an interesting discussion. There are two major industries that are going hand in hand these days: the Coaching Industry and the Technology world. Guess what both agree on? It is that statement WYSIWYG. A professor of mine calls it ‘Wiswig’, which stands for “What You See Is What You Get”.  In the computer world, they add another thing called ‘Garbage in, Garbage out’, GIGO in short. Now, the reason as to why I am saying that what you see is not what you get has to do little with input, but a lot with potential. Focus is a powerful word. It is one of my labels in most of my blog posts.

The word potential however is so vast that I could literally spend months of Sundays talking about it. When you look at potential from the angle of ‘what you see is not what you get’, there is some kind of ‘deliverance’ that comes your way. Let me explain. Few years ago, a certain Senator of the United States of America visited Kenya. He spoke straight up and freely what he thought about the governing conditions of that country. Of course that did not go down well with the powers that be, and using their ‘mouthpiece’ (by the way, I wonder where this guy went!), Alfred Mutua more or less rubbished this senator and in a ‘diplomatic’ tone, told him off.

#ThatAwkwardMoment when the rubbished senator becomes the US presidents few years later, and poor old Alfred Mutua has to give explanations of what he really meant years back! That more or less makes my point. What you see is not what you get. But why is that? Simple; You are not God Almighty! The same principle applies to seeds. When you look at a seed…what do you see? You see a seed! But what do you really ‘see’? What you really see is in fact what you will get. So, when you look at a seed, you really ought to see a forest and not a tree!

I hope you are following. What do you really see in your life now? A certain young guy came to my facebook chat over the weekend seeking some financial aid. He tells me that he is a talented guy studying art in one of the prestigious arts institutions in Nairobi. Of course I could not help him due to where I was in relation to where he was, I asked him to seek help nearby.

Few days later on, he comes back to my facebook and paints a grim picture. Here is how the conversation went:

Him: me i'm not cool.

Me: it happens man...you will be just fine...not being cool is only temporary i assure you

Him: stop saying that dude, i'm serious here!

Me: So am I my friend…unless of course you wanna be in that condition forever?

Him: no!

Me: Great, so my point still stands. Let me ask you...are you talented in art...or you are skilled?

Him: i'm talented in art of course. why are you asking!

Me: because its time you started earning from it, don't you think?

Him: *audible silence…logs off. Maybe had power issues or internet bundle ran out*

Unbeknown to this guy, I need just about 10 illustrations to be included in my new book, “Permission For Greatness”. I have been shopping around for quotes and I can tell you this: that guy is seated on a gold mine! What does he really see in himself? And that my friend is the million dollar question. That question is not just directed to that guy. It is directed to all of us. What do we really  see? Am talking about looking deep into our God-given potential, taking it and multiplying with time…what do we really see?

What you actually see today is not necessarily what you will get tomorrow. What you see today are just facts: Jobless, homeless, rejected, alone, starving, ‘no man’, ‘no woman’, no money, no opportunities, no degree, no ‘godfather’, no expertise. Sadly, most people stop right there in their ‘vision’. They make conclusions of tomorrow based on the sad facts of today, and not on the true potential of tomorrow that offers ‘boundless possibilities’. Is it any wonder that we are warned not to despise the days of humble beginnings?

Most probably, what this guy on facebook is seeing right now is that if I cannot bail him out, I should stop asking him ‘maswali za clinic’, that is Swahili for ‘useless questions’. (I am not sure why Swahili is in English…but I digress). My point today is that we have got to start seeing with ‘eyes of opportunity’ than with the eyes of facts and reality. That does not mean we negate reality, it simply means we choose to seek out the best. I have had multiplied missed opportunities because I did not really see, but I just ‘saw’. In the words of Rafiki in Lion King, you have got to ‘see beyond what you can see’. I hope this makes sense.

Have a telescopic week, wont you?

THE BIGGEST FOUR-WORDED SENTENCE OF ALL TIME

Some years back, I heard a speaker say that the most unfortunate three words that a human being can ever utter are: "I don't Care!" I had been using those words like a cliche but hearing him speak, I immediately exorcised it from my vocabulary. Think about it. Why should you not care? Is it because you are selfish and self-centered? Probably. Is it because the 'results' are more critical than the people? Maybe. That sentence locates you.

In the recent past, we have talked about being VALUEable on this blog. We have said that it is far more fruitful to build value in yourself and what you offer than to seek for people to elevate you to heights of affluence. Think about that once again, because it is an important statement.

You see, the 'inside-out' message for all visionaries is simply key and foundational. When a visionary out-competes herself, when she can tell you without battling an eyelid and at a moments notice what her passion is, she is living the inside out message. A friend of mine Robert Bake calls it the 'lift speech'. If you met Bill Gates in a lift today and you had less than two minutes to share your passion so that he 'sees' it and 'gets' it...what would you say? That is another powerful statement worth reflecting on before you can continue reading. I am doing the same.

However, when all is said and done, the roots must supply sustenance to the branches, and the branches must yield the fruits. I believe with all of my gut that when we are passionately forming value inside of us, we automatically come to the level of using the Biggest Four-worded sentence of all time. Let me explain. People who are living the 'outside-in' message are always seeking for solutions from the outside instead of from their own souls. They say things like, "If only I can have a degree...", or "If only I had some money....", or "If only I had a king-maker..." And so on. You get the point.

The person who has been forming their brand and adding value to it over time will almost always say these four words: "How Can I Help"? Much as the focus in the foundation of this visionary was on the self, they are now at that position where they realize that the potential laden inside of them is for OTHERS. How can I help? This is said with absolute confidence that they have the wherewithal to provide the needed assistance...and if they cannot help, at least they have the necessary references that they can provide. Have you ever told off someone who told you "How can I help"? I doubt. And if you have, then you have surely doubted their SINCERITY. If you are doubting their sincerity to help, it is because they lack value.

Look, the world needs help. The moment we stop looking at ourselves with pity and notice that we need to come alive and offer solutions...that is the moment our Life Signatures become alive. When is the last time I asked someone, "Can I be of help to you?" How about you? That, my friend is another deep statement worthy of a week of reflection. How can i help?

THE CORRECT WAY TO SAY 'I HAVE NO JOB'

Let me ask you a question. What is the single most important thing in our present age that defines the worth of a human being? Think about it for a minute. Every time two acquaintances meet, after the usual small talk of 'What's up? How are you?', there normally arises that single most terrorizing question: "So what do you DO?". I have seen people so accustomed to this question that they normally start rumbling about its answer sometimes even before the question is popped. 

I have seen the light in people's eyes diminish immediately that subject is brought up. Others of course will look aside, ashamed to hold their friend's gaze who are waiting for an answer. I am thinking, sometimes "Would you marry me?", is less dramatic than, "So, what do you do?" In this day and age, our worth is gauged by how fast, eloquent and excited we can answer that question. Never mind those who fake it, they have already been influenced by how society's stereotype.

That being said, there are millions upon millions of woes all over the world. Those woes are faced not just once, but several times in someone's day, let alone a week. The woe is this very thing, the statement: "I have no job". Woe to you if you are to be married and you have no job. Your chances are slimmer than a cartoon that has been flattened by a train. Woe to you if you needed to be relevant in society and you have no job! Woe to you if you needed to have some 'Class'...and yet you are jobless. Woe to you if you wanted to make plans for a big life of affluence and yet you have no job! (Can you imagine the irony here?)

But wait a minute. Who gives me the powers right here to proclaim woes? Can you imagine the nerve? A man sitting somewhere in cyberspace dishing out pessimism faster than a food-processing plant. Well, if your fingers are pointed at me...I have you right where I wanted. The person to blame is not me, it is society. It is our society that expects us to excel by primarily having or acquiring a job. It is the self same society that would consider someone worthless just because 'they have no job'.

We have the whole thing backward! Instead of concentrating on WHO people are, we are more fascinated by WHAT they do! Think about this for a minute. The most impactful people around us are those who have FIRST of all understood WHO they are. Their WHO most definitely defines the extent of WHAT they can achieve! Wouldn't it be nice to replace that terrorizing question with a much better one? How about two guys meet, the normal small talk goes on and then we come to this part: "So, WHO are you man?" Ah! What a question! What a life defining question! Now wait a minute. There is still a wrong answer to that question...and guess what? It comes from the stereotype we talked about few moments back. I have seen that wrong answer time and time again especially when interviewing people for a job. "Who are you"? I ask. "Well, I went to blah blah blah University and I have a Degree in blah blah blah". (Read the Correct Way to say, "I have no Degree")

Would you shut up already! I asked you WHO you are, not what you have done! Can you answer that question faster than a Ferrari, more eloquent than Dr. Martin Luther King himself, and with much unction and conviction than TD Jakes posses when he's in the zone? If you can, I will tell you the right way to say you have no job. You ready? This is what you should say: "I am an SEO". A who? You asked. You are a Self Executive Officer! Makes no difference whom you work for or wish to work for or are not working for! Who said your worth is measured by how many hours you are able to trade your life for a paycheck?  Listen, we were all born for Life Signatures. To live to leave a Legacy and not to be forgotten soon after we 'expire'. Can a job give you a Life Signature? Well that depends on the correct way to say 'I have no Job'.

Sample this: It is a full-time job being a Self Executive Officer. An SEO is someone who knows exactly who they are. This alone takes half a life-time to find out (without relevant coaching that is). The real woe here is countless millions out there who 'have jobs' yet are as clueless as a cow on a new gate on WHO they are! Soon enough, the job is gone...kaput! Just like all jobs do. The real assessment of the story is: Do they have the job...or does the job have them? Nothing wrong with jobs. In fact, I take issue every time I have an opportunity to speak, with some 'Life Coaches and Speakers' out there who have read few lines of Kiyosaki going on crusading that jobs are useless, and we should all quit and move the the fourth quadrant! The next shut up is for such like people. Would you please shut up already!

I have always known that jobs are serious launching pads for people's destiny...if they endeavor to remain SEOs. SEOs without jobs are on the verge of a major break in their lives. Living as an SEOSEO and never resign from this post. The day you do, that is when 'you will have no job'.

So after winning the battle of a lifetime defining your WHO, the most important thing is to Accepting your WHO and distancing yourself from the stereotype in Society. That stereotype of branding who you are by what you do. It is at this level that some people become increasingly frustrated by WHAT they are doing. I have heard people with plum jobs saying, "Man, I am better than this....there has gotta be something much better I can do in life than this"! Holy Discontentment. My friend Bake calls it 'Divine Disobedience'. Selah!

Finally, the last leg as an SEO is to create yourself. This is where an Author called Jay Niblic has said that instead of changing YOURSELF to fit in a job (ever taken Engineering and ended up being a cook?), you CHANGE YOUR ROLE accordingly to fit to WHO you are. Are you jobless out there? Take  up your own vacancy and become an SEO. "How is that going to provide for food on my table and status in society"? You may ask. That is the million Dollar question. Instead of just putting food on the table and clothes on your back and a ring on your gal's finger...your reach will increase tremendously to cover the whole world.

Let me ask again: WHO ARE YOU?

PS: The latter part of this post was influenced much by Jay Niblic's book 'What's your Genius?' The SPIRIT and UNCTION behind the post is something I have always had for years on end...so you can imagine how ravenous I am devouring Niblic's Book. You are a Genius...your were born one, now you need to die one.

IT HAPPENED TO ME.

“Thereare a whole lot of things I stink at. I just make sure I don’t have to do them to be successful.”~Dr. Marshall Goldsmith

I really never mean to do this: Taking the intimate submissions of people and paste it hear as an example on the blog. I have learnt that although we are living in the age of social media, there are some things that cannot really be put out there in the public. I had a good lesson few weeks back when I posted something spiritual on my Facebook Page...only to fight with a fellow believer ON MY OWN WALL...about what was absolutely intimate, personal and crucial for me.

So when I address this following story, I do so humbly but soberly. I did not go looking for this story, but it came by my attention. The reason as to why I have to address this is that it happens multiplied millions of times all over the globe. It also happens not just once, but it is guaranteed to happen every year as sure as the sun rises and sets. It happened to me. It might also have happened to you, most probably.

It is that single event that is responsible for heartaches, anxiety, disillusionment, rejection, apathy and to some extreme cases, high blood pressure and even death. The most interesting thing is that many kids are exposed to it year in and year out. It is so paradoxical that something that is supposed to qualify the youth and give them direction to have depth and meaning in life churns out the side effects mentioned. A good percentage of the youth who escape the side effects always end up in life "just getting by". They live a life devoid of purpose and passion, they are not even bothered about Life Signatures, as long as they get by.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am talking about...EXAM RESULTS. I was privileged on Saturday 11th February 2012 to be on a show on 104.1 Power FM in Uganda called "Ask The Pastor". Now don't ask me if I am a Pastor coz I wont answer. The results for High School students who sat for their exams last year just came out last week. On the show, this young girl calls and in between her sobs, she wonders why bad things happen to good people. She has failed in her exams yet she prepared, prayed and believed God to pass. Her parents are disappointed. Her life is messed up (According to her). She does not know what to do. Believe me, that is just a sample of many others out there.

Can someone's life be defined by their failure or success in an exam they took in an is education system? You see, this is a crucial question. To be honest, I believe that all efforts to educate the youth and even adults are laudable. Education is a basic human need and even a right. It ranks up there with food, shelter and clothing. However, I believe that far more important is the definition of our WHY. There is a heaven and earth difference between a candidate who has failed their end year exam YET knows their Life PURPOSE...and one who has passed their end year exam and are still clueless as to why they were born in the first place.

The most unfortunate thing is to focus our lives on passing an intellectual milestone as the sole answer in having a better life. In fact it is unfortunate to focus on having a better life rather than having a meaningful, deeper and useful life. When we focus on surviving rather than thriving, we are selling ourselves too short. Can there be relevant and purpose-filled individuals despite their 'failure' in academics? Of course there are countless out there.

Our education systems and way of life are based on time-honored principles which if not altered become obsolete in themselves. The trouble is that these principles have become part of the norm and are not questioned at all even when they are wrong.

When students sit for 'major' exams and come out crying when results are announced...I submit that the problem is not the just the students...the problem is also in the Education System! When parents turn against their children regarding them as 'wasters of funds which would have otherwise done something constructive' just because they failed a one-month-exam...something is wrong, terribly wrong somewhere. When the self same parents spend gazillions of money in 'coaching programs' where kids are taught how to 'pass exams'...and not on who they are and their life's purpose...we are missing the whole point.

There is lots of folly in exposing kids to situations where they must work hard in what they are not good at since their success (read passing exams) depends entirely on those things. And it is absolute folly for us to OFFICIALLY BRAND KIDS FAILURES at many levels of their advancement (or is it disqualification) in their education. What message are we sending? That they are not needed? Imagine a 16 year old kid...with more than 70 or so years to go...being officially branded a failure! What a tragedy! But it happens...and It happened to me. There are lots of emphasis in this folly that even myself, after completing my High School with a Mean Grade of B-(Minus), and dad being disappointed by my performance, I offered to go back and make it better! Can you believe that? I had passed...but...sigh...anyway. Let me not get worked up here.

My message to all out there who have been labeled by an academic system is this: Your latter will be greater than your past. Though in our day and age you are affected by Academics, your life can never be defined by an academic exam, your passing or failing it. I think I read somewhere these words: I CAN is much more powerful and important than IQ. In anycase, for the most part, in academics, the exams will only test you on one thing...what you have learnt. What about your giftings, talents? What about your deep seated desires, dreams and passion? Do you think these are useless? No they are not. You think you failed? Your life begins now. Remember, there is a hidden hand in 2012. Go for it.

To all parents: You are doing an awesome job sending those kids to school, providing for them and being there for them. But know this. I have been a child before, and that is why I am passionate about this subject. Your child is not a failure just because they flanked in their grade. As much as we must not excuse laziness and lethargy on their part, we must not approach this subject with such brutal finality after they have 'failed'. I know it is not that simple, but that is why we are parents in the first place. Our job is to believe in our kids...mold them to success, significance and greatness relentlessly. Believe me, it is worth it!