Family Influence in Unlocking Greatness.

The role of family in unlocking greatness

We are all born into a family either we like them or not is not the first issue; we must recognize the role that family play in unlocking the greatness that is within us. We must consider some few things that will be relevant to this brief article.

I want to thank you for taking out time to read this as it will be a great help in the journey of unlocking the greatness within you.

Know your family history

We all have our genealogies, you have a father and your father has a father too. Sometimes, what we do in life unknowingly comes from our family history; there are some families that have very great business people, it runs in their history from their great grandfather as long they can remember, this can help you know the direction of a positive trend in your family and for you to take advantage of it.

I read a story many years ago about a lion that gave birth to a curb, along the line the lion lost its little cub. One day a Sheppard that was taking care of his sheep saw the cub and decided to take it with him. The cub eventually grow among the sheep and did everything like the sheep; eat grasses and behaved like them until one day that they went grazing and after eating they went to the stream to drink some water, there the young lion saw his reflection in the water and noticed that he was different from the rest. With this in mind, one day the young lion saw another lion (the mother lion) in the forest roaring and ran away eventually with other animals but started saying within itself; I look like that one and I think I can do what it did, but within itself he felt like a sheep. Eventually the young lion realised he does not belong among the sheep, that’s how the young lion found its true identity and started living the life that he was created to live.

There must be something good in your family and you can see it only if you look from a positive paradigm

You cannot truly chart the cause of your future properly, when you don’t know the path that has led from the past to the present. This knowledge gives you the courage to break boundaries, cross lines of limitations and create a new cause for your family, future and unborn generation.

Know your personal history

This is one thing we so often neglect in this part of the world, we just find ourselves that we are grown up and whatever we cannot remember is past and forgotten forever. This is why most people from this part of the world have it so difficult to write an accurate biography of their lives.

There are things in your childhood if we know, it can help us unlock the greatness that is within you. Some of the things you should know are;

The circumstances that surrounded your birth: if you read the biography of some great men, this part is always important in the story because it brings out the true picture of why things turned out the way they did in their life. For example the birth of Jesus Christ was one that had a lot of circumstances that surrounded it and it was very important to his life’s ministry and fulfillment, you cannot properly give that account without telling the circumstances that surrounded his birth. This was an indicator to the type of life he  would eventually live.

Know the story of your childhood: this is another very important thing that can help you unlock the greatness within. What you did at the formative stage of your life is very vital to the fulfillment of your destiny if properly understood. Some great men started what they became at a very early stage in life and this was an indicator to their great future. You can practically identify children that are creative, business minded, sport enthusiast, and even special/gifted children. If this traits are identified and encouraged either at that early stage or now that you are grown up it can be a key that will unlock that hidden greatness within you. 

Some examples of people who started early in life; Michael Jackson who started at the age of 5, Tiger wood at the age of 8 had already won a medal in the game of golf, Venus and Serena Williams become world champions in lawn tennis, started very early in life.  Our childhood interest should never be over looked as it plays a very vital role in unlocking the greatness that is within us, the rhythm of that unsung music in our soul. It is not too late to take a retrospect back and see what really excites you and how you can build on it.

I will like to conclude this way;

Never rest on the frame of your family success or failure; when you keep basking in old victories you will not know when you start losing present battles. Some people like to hold on to their family name and boast on what their family has achieved which is not entirely wrong but to be lost in it and forget that you have a life of your own to live and  to unlock your personal greatness becomes a misplaced priority of purpose. People who often boast and say “do you know who my father is?” are in themselves nobody. I watched the news one day and saw the son of a very prominent Nigerian politician, whose father once contested for the presidential election and won but was denied the privilege of ruling. A very well respected man in many spheres of life but after his death one of his sons was charged to court for defrauding a man in a business deal, collected money without delivering the goods, it was so shameful to watch on national television.

Also don’t let the failure of your family become an hindrance to unlocking the greatness that is in your soul, I believe that all men were born great and the challenge of life is unlocking that greatness that is within. I see you becoming that person of your dream, stay focus and keep at it, you will get there!

Felix Smith Aigbonohan

Peak performance coach

CEO, RAZOREDGE Coaching

www.maximumperformancecoach.com.

How to Use your gift to serve the world

How to Use your gift to serve the world

Often times we use the word gift to mean talent and its correct for both talent and gift can be used interchangeably to mean the same thing; the skill someone has quite naturally 

to do something that is heard for others to do.

let me once again thank you for stopping by and spending few minutes of your time to read this article, its aim is to assist you unlock that greatness that is within you, because I believe everyone was born great but it is not all who lived out the greatness that is in them, some did not unlock the rhythm of the unsung music within their soul maybe due to ignorance, that Is why I have devoted most of my time to help people in this life’s journey.

Gift is the talent that God (some people call Him nature, infinite intelligence, great mind, or even the universe, but I choose to call him God) deposited in us without us working for it. That is why we have many unsuccessful talented people in the world, just because everyone is gifted in one area or the other in life does not automatically make them successful.

Stephen King said that “talent is cheaper than a table salt. What separate the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of HEARD WORK”.

If you have read my previous article on whypeople fail, you will discover that laziness is part of it, not of physical strength but mental prowess. The talent deposited in us is in it crude state, therefore might not be appreciated by others. It is your own duty first to discover your talent and then to refine it. Notice the word used in relation to finding your talent is DISCOVER, which means something has been there but covered. 

The unveiling of that which is covered is referred to as discover. Nobody can do the discovering of your talent for you, not even talent hunt shows can help you discover your talent. What they really do in talent hunt shows is to refine and show the talent to the world. When you go for an audition, nobody tells you to sing, dance or tell a joke, it is what you can do, it is like the kick of an unborn baby called talent within you that prompted you to do what you did.    

The gift that God placed within you must be developed before sharing with the world (see my previous article on; the art of winning, to know the process of refining your gift). An unrefined gift can do little or nothing to impact your world and even bring to you no benefit to you. Let me quickly outline here four steps in talent development;

·    Recognize you have a talent/gift: no matter how noon gifted you may look or feel, you must know that God deposited in you something unique to serve your world, this is the first step in the right direction, no matter how gifted you are, if you don’t recognize it, it has no use to you or the world.

·    

     Constantly use your gift at any given opportunity: there is what is called the law of use and disuse which says that; what you use grows and expand and what you don’t use diminish and disappear. This is true in nature and from history. I love the teaching of Jesus Christ on this topic in a particular conference where he gave an illustration that is direct and clear about three individuals that were given talents to trade with, two of them made use of their talents and got profit out of it while the last one did nothing with his but buried it inside the ground. In the end the one that did not use his lost it and it was given to the one that even had more because he used his talent.

“To him that had much more shall be added but to him that had little, the one he has shall be taken and given to him that had much”

When I started in the area of public speaking, I sought for opportunities to speak whenever the situation warrants and eventually I have had opportunities to be in leadership positions that demanded speaking. Today I do it as part of my profession.

·   

    Develop your gift through learning: get education in the area of your gifting, either professional training or self help. When I say education I do not mean a degree which in itself is good, but I mean to gather as much information that can be useful in the development of that gift/talent. My question to you is; how many books have you read in the area of your gift since the last one year? You may say I sing or I am into fashion and designing, so we deal with skills and not books, then my next question to you will be how many people do you know or have read about in your field of profession that is currently living your dream? What is the name of the most successful person in your field? Who is the most celebrated personality in the area of your gift in your country and how did he/she get to that position? Having the answers to these questions is part of education but formal training is also very important.

·    

      Have a mentor: in the area you’re gifted in, someone who is currently doing what you are dreaming of doing. This might not be very easy as these people might not have the time or chance to directly mentor you but try the other way of indirect mentoring through books, tapes and any other material you can get from these people you admire. If you can meet them one on one, great! Most of my mentors, I have not personally met them because of distance or their schedules, but I always keep up in touch with them through various means, most especially books and these days through social media.

·     

     Have a coach: your mentor can double as your coach but most of the time it is not always so. A mentor tells you what to do but a coach helps you to see what you can do and the latent ability within you to do it.  If you can, get a professional coach to help you in this process. I will be glad to do that for you either paid for or for free, just visit my web site for more information about that. www.maximumperformancecoach.com

“Life is entrusted to men as a treasure which must not be squandered, as a talent which must be used well”- Pop John Paul II.

Talent is like salt and light. It is not useful to the person that has it, its use is in serving others, adding taste to people’s lives and brightening their dark world. There is nothing more truly in a talent than to love people, I read a Chinese proverb that says; “a candle loss nothing by lightening up other candles”.

“Talent was given to us to serve the world for free but when skillfully put to use can earn a fee”- Felix Smith Aigbonohan.

Do what you know how to do best till the people around you knows you can do it, continue to do it better till they start telling other people about what you do, don’t stop until you start earning a fee for what you love doing.

“When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would not have a single bit of talent and I could say ‘I used everything you gave me’- Erma Bomgeck.

This should be our goal in life. Live your dream, unlock the greatness within your soul, that unsung music, that great sermon, that untold story, the world greatest designs in fashion and art, that best seller book, that great business idea, the world record setter in sports and that life you ever wised to live are all possible if only you believe.

Felix Smith Aigbonohan.

Peak performance coach

CEO, RAZOREDGE Coaching

www.maximumperformancecoach.com

The Art of winning in life

The Art of winning in life

I would love to share with you an interesting thought that I know will be of great help to you in your journey of unlocking greatness. It is very interesting to note here that people do not win in life by chance or luck as some others call it but by conscious and calculated effort. You can check my previous post on “why do people fail in life” to get more information on that. One of the greatest assets of a winner is reparation.

Preparation

“Failure to prepare is preparing to fail”-Benjamin Franklin

Preparation is defined as the action of making ready or being made ready for use. This shows that if you are not prepared you cannot be used; therefore preparation gets you ready for use.

Preparation is acquiring relevant information, skills, to meet and surmount a challenge or goal at a given time. I have heard this statement over the years that preparation is the mother of performance which is very true because ill-performance can always be traced back to ill-preparation. One of the greatest enemies of preparation is procrastination. Some questions we should ask ourselves next should be;

How do we prepare?

There are different ways of preparing for different events in life, if you are a sports man, music performer, businessman or in academic circle, you will find out there are different activities you can engage yourself with in the preparation process, but there are underlining principles that is common to all of these professions; one of which is  the principle of learning. Yes! I mean learning the art of what you do.

We learn from various sources in life, right from when we were children. We learn from our parents, school teachers, church/mosque, seminars, workshops, etc, also we learn from nature and we learn from our experiences, the mistakes and success we've had over the years.

Every preparation should have an aim, target, purpose and should be time bound as no wise person will continue to preparing for an event forever. There is time for everything, a time to prepare and a time to do what you prepared for. It’s just like setting a SMART goal, a goal that is specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time bound, so also is preparation.

There are some qualities of a winner that you must possess for you so succeed in the process of preparation.

Determination: set goals and target for yourself with an absolute resolve to accomplish it.

Discipline: you must subject yourself to rules against your personal desires in order to attain a specific goal.

Dedication: you learn to give yourself totally to a cause you believe in and commit your time, energy, and resources to it. Patience and Perseverance is a must in the process.

You must know at this point that it takes more time to prepare and lesser time to execute your plans. Sports men prepare for weeks, months and even years for just an event and I will like to share a little insight to the preparation process of one of the world's legend in sports, Usan Bolt. He is the current world Olympic champion holder of 100 and 200 meters race winning 3 gold medals’ at the Benji Olympics 2008, he became the first in Olympic history to win both 100 and 200 meters race in a record times of 9.63 sec in 2012.

There is something you should know about his story, he went out first round in the 2004 Olympics at Athens, but he did not stop there as a failure, rather he hired two coaches, Glen mills and Arist Paul and went into the process of preparation again doing weight lifting, flexibility training, balance, speed and swiftness training. He trained 6 days per week for 3 years. Today he is a legend in his field.

Now you know it is not luck or by chance but by heard work and consistency in practice that helped him made his dream a reality.

You can now see that world champions spend greater parts of their time in preparation for that one event that will bring about all of their desires in life.

Even Jesus Christ spent 30 years of his life preparing for a 3 and half years of his ministry that has forever changed the entire cause of history.

Preparation is vital if success must be achieved, our failures are part of the preparation process we go through and our performance in life and in business always shows the level of our preparation.

Among other things you need in this process is a Coach.

A coach will;

Guild you in the process,

Help you focus on your strength,

Motivate you,

Challenge your limits and

Inspire you.

I will love to be that coach in your process. for more information on that, visit www.maximumperformancecoach.com.

Thank you for taking out your time to read this article, it will defiantly help you to unlock the greatness in you.

Felix Smith Aigbonohan.

Peak performance coach

CEO, RAZOREDGE Coaching

www.maximumperformancecoach.com

WHY DO PEOPLE FAIL IN LIFE

Why do people fail?

Lack of persistence When problems seem insurmountable, quitting seems to be the easiest way out. It is true for every marriage, job and relationship. Winners are struck but not destroyed. We all have had setbacks in life. Failing does not mean we are failures. More people fail not because they lack knowledge or talent but because they quit. The total secret of success lies in two words, persistence and resistance. Persist in what must be done and resist what ought not be done. Lack of conviction People who lack conviction take the middle of the road; and guess what happens in the middle of the road? You get run over. People without conviction do not take a stand. They go along to get along because they lack confidence and courage. They conform in order to get accepted even when they know that what they are doing is wrong. They behave like part of a herd. Rationalizing  Winners may analyse but never rationalize? that is a loser's game. Losers always have a book full of excuses to tell you why they could not. We hear excuses like; I'm born under the wrong stars. I'm too young. I'm too old. I'm handicapped. I'm not smart enough. I'm not educated. I'm not good looking. I don't have contacts. I don't have enough money. The economy is bad. If only I had the opportunity. If only I didn't have a family. The list can go on and on. Not learning from past mistakes People who do not learn lessons from history are doomed. Failure is a teacher if we have the right attitude. Failure is a detour, not a dead end. It is a delay, not a defeat. Experience is the name we give to our mistakes. Some people live and learn, and some only live. Wise people learn from their mistakes?wiser people learn from other people's mistakes. Our lives are not long enough to learn only from our own mistakes. Some people not only never learn from their mistakes but keep practising them till they master them. They become experts in making mistakes. Lack of discipline Have you ever wondered why some people never reach their goals? Why they are always frustrated with reversals and crises? Why is it some people have continued success, while others have endless failures? Anyone who has accomplished anything worthwhile has never done so without discipline, whether in sports, athletics, academia or business. Lack of consistency is poor discipline. Discipline takes self-control, sacrifice, and avoiding distractions and temptations. It means staying focused. Steam does not move the engine unless it is confined. Niagara Falls would not generate power unless it were harnessed. Poor self-esteem Poor self-esteem is a lack of self-respect and self-worth. It leads to abuse of ones self and others. Ego takes the driver's seat. Decisions are taken more to satisfy the ego than to accomplish anything worthwhile. People with low self-esteem are constantly looking for identity. They are trying to find themselves. Ones self is not to be found but to be created. Idleness and laziness are consequences of poor self-esteem and so is making excuses. Idleness is like rust that eats into the most brilliant metal. Fatalistic attitude A fatalistic attitude prevents people from accepting responsibility for their position in life. They attribute success and failure to luck. They resign themselves to their fate. They believe and accept the predestined future written in their horoscope or stars, that regardless of their effort whatever has to happen will happen. Hence they never put in any effort and complacency becomes a way of life. They wait for things to happen rather than make them happen. Success is a matter of luck, ask any failure. Lack of courage Successful people are not looking for miracles or easy tasks. They seek courage and strength to overcome obstacles. They look at what is left rather than what is lost. Wishes don't come true; beliefs and expectations supported by conviction do. Prayers are only answered when they are supported with courageous action. It is courage and character that is the deadly combination for success. This is the difference between the ordinary and the extraordinary. Felix Smith Aigbonohan Business & Personal development coach info@maximumperformancecoach.com

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