HOLDING ON AND LETTING GO

"All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on." - Havelock Ellis

Maximus was a brave king. Once, he had a fierce battle against another king, with a larger army. With just a few soldiers, he was defeated: he had to run for his life. He took shelter in a cave very depressed. His courage had left him. So, while he was blankly gazing at the roof of the cave. An interesting scene captured his attention. A spider was trying to weave a web across the cave roof. He watched as the spider would crawl up, a strand of web would break and the spider falls. But the spider refused to give up. The spider kept trying to climb again and again but falling repeatedly. Until finally, the spider successfully climbed up and completed the web. Maximus thought to himself, "If a small spider can face failure so bravely, why should I give up? I will try with all my might till I win". This thought gave strength to the defeated king. Maximus, got out of the jungle and assembled the remaining of his defeated soldiers. They fought against the large army, but was defeated still. But now, he would not give up his fight.

UNTO US A CHILD IS BORN

"He was created of a mother whom He created. He was carried by hands that He formed. He cried in the manger in wordless infancy. He, the Word, without whom all human eloquence is mute.” - Augustine

It's another December, twenty fifth. Another Christmas day. But like Benjamin Franklin said, “How many observe Christ’s birthday! How few, His precepts!” It's true that millions around the world celebrate today, many for the wrong reasons. How many really know and acknowledge the fact that He came to a world filled with pain, with a permanent cure. Or that He came to a world dark from the bondage of sin with His indescribable light to dispel forever the powers of darkness. He came to a world, and a people he made with a message of liberation.

SIFT THE GRAIN FROM THE CHAFF

"Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful." - Norman Vincent Peale

Christmas is an annual celebration commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, it is observed most commonly on December 25th yearly, as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people today. While the birth year of Jesus is estimated amongst many scholars to be between the 7th and 2nd BC, the exact date of his birth is unknown, and this controversy is the focus for many antagonists, but for the Church, that's not important.
Very many people today have succeeded in misinterpreting and misrepresenting the whole idea of Christmas, which is to celebrate the gift of redemption for mankind. Many have replaced it with unwholesome and destructive ideas. We should realize that, the presence of an inferior is a proof that there is a superior. The chaff is the inferior, the grain is the superior. The grain is the gift of salvation through Christ. Whether we chose to debate the date of Christ's birth or celebrate the work of salvation, the fact cannot be broken, Christ was born to redeem us, and He's alive today. For Christians this is the reason we're bold to declare our deliverance from the devil's bondage and pledge our allegiance to our Lord.

IMPORTANT NOTICE

Good day All, 

I want to take this time out to appreciate EVERYONE out there who has made WISDOM 4 WINNING relevant. For your continued support both prayerfully and for taking the time to read the daily W4W messages. I wouldn’t be here without YOU, YES YOU!

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WISDOM 4 WINNING

A DOG OR A RABBIT?

"The best thing to do when you find yourself in a hurting or vulnerable place is to surround yourself with the strongest, finest, most positive people you know." - Kristin Armstrong

A farmer once set a competition between his dog and his rabbit. He made a hole in one of his biggest fields, and hid a carrot and a bone in it. He wanted to see which animal would find them first. The rabbit was very cheerful and optimistic, and he threw himself into looking for the carrot, digging everywhere, totally convinced that he would find it. The dog on the other hand, wasn't as excited. After sniffing around for a bit, he lay down and began to complain how difficult it was to find one bone in such a big field. The rabbit dug for hours, and with every new hole the dog complained even more about how difficult this was, even for the rabbit. Meanwhile, For the rabbit, he thought that each hole dug was one less hole to dig. When there was no place in the whole field left to dig, the rabbit dug a tunnel to right under where the dog had been lying all that time. There he found the carrot and the bone.

WHERE'S YOUR UMBRELLA?

"Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe." - Saint Augustine

 

 

As a drought continued for what seemed an eternity, a small community of farmers were in confusion as to what to do. Rain was important to keep their crops healthy and sustain the way of life of the townspeople. As the problem got worse, a local pastor called a prayer meeting to ask for rain. Many people arrived. The pastor greeted most of them as they filed in. As he walked to the front of the church to officially begin the meeting he noticed most people were chatting across the aisles and socializing with friends. When he reached the front his thoughts were on quieting the attendees and starting the meeting.
His eyes scanned the crowd as he asked for quiet. Just then he noticed a little girl, of about eleven. She was sitting quietly in the front row. Her face beaming with excitement. Next to her, poised and ready for use, was a bright red umbrella. The little girl's innocence made the pastor smile as he realized how much faith she'd come with. No one else in the congregation had brought an umbrella. All had come to pray for rain, but the little girl had come expecting God to answer.

As we plunge deeper into the inner recesses of the year. As we clear out the garbage from the spent and used materials from January, and as most people rejoice, while other sigh and yet others are indifferent. I like to bring to remembrance, the need to see what

THE DECISION IS ULTIMATELY YOURS

"It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped." - Tony Robbins

It gets to a point in everyone's life, where we have to make that decision. To fulfill destiny or go with the popular opinion. Years ago I had a dream. I was driving with a pregnant woman and a little girl in the car. We arrived at a very narrow portion of the road, one car could pass at a time. Just then a reckless driver came in the opposite direction. I tried as much as I could to avoid him and remain on the road, because both sides were steep and the pit deep. Unfortunately, the car ran us off the path, into the steep pit. As I tried to sort out ways to to tow the car back onto the path I woke.

When I woke, I heard God say to me, "Fulfilling your destiny is tied to other people fulfilling theirs. Other people's destinies are tied to you fulfilling yours too, which is why you must fulfill yours." He went further to explain that, the pregnant woman would not deliver her child, and that the little girl would never grow up until I successfully pass that part of the road." That part of the road was fulfilling my destiny.

A NEW CYCLE

"Giving up on hope before the last minute is the worst decision you can ever take, because every passing second is a chance for a turn around." - Unknown

First of all I want to welcome everyone into another month. The final month in the year 2014. It is a privilege for everyone still alive today, to be alive. It's the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes.

Many months have passed, eleven months actually and we have experienced a lot of happenings within this eleven months. As a nation, a state, a community a family and even as an individual things have been to us in different levels. Things capable of shaking and rattling our foundations. Good things, not too good things and even bad things. Most of us have lost hope in God, our faith and His Word, because we feel abandoned, forgotten and deserted. Many of us have vowed never to trust God again. Some like the woman with the issue of blood, have spent all we have on illnesses and issues that seem to have refused to go away.

HOUSE ON THE ROCK, ENUGU - GOOD MORNING ENUGU

DON'T GET IT TWISTED, IT HAD TO BE GOD

"Faith is not the belief that God will do what you want. It is the belief that God will do what is right." - Max Lucado

A young man had experienced pain so much that people advised him to go for deliverance. Everywhere he turned, there seemed to be an issue. His slogan became, "it will get worse" because somehow problems he never thought about kept coming up. To crown it all, he was born again, devoted, committed and loved God wholeheartedly. This young man needed help, but the more he prayed the worse it got. He had goals to achieve but the year was almost over, and nothing seemed to happen for him.

One of the greatest lies anyone can be told is that, being born again insulates you from trouble. As a matter of fact, becoming born again attracts troubles: pressed down, shaken together and running over into your life. Sorry to burst your bubble. But one truth is, you become qualified for victory. Everybody that God wants to use has got to come out of a situation where it's got to be proven that it's God that's doing it. And the longer you wait for something, the longer your resources are dried up. The reason is because God's purpose for His children is shrouded in time. Until your appointed time for blessing, lifting and breakthrough comes, troubles will overshadow you.

GOOD MORNING ENUGU With DON MOEN LIVE IN ENUGU!

Good Morning Enugu

It's Good Morning Enugu, Join Edwin Biayeibo, House on the Rock, The Word House, and Don Moen

Come EXPERIENCE an ATMOSPHERE of worship filled with God's POWER like you've NEVER seen.

DATE: 7th December, 2014

VENUE: House on the Rock, The Word House Auditorium, 

MSP Bust Stop, Nkponkiti, Independence Layout, Enugu.

FEATURING:

Wow, J'Dess, Aijay and City of David.

Come With A Friend...YOU DON"T WANT TO BE TOLD!!!

FINISHING STRONG, 9: PAY YOUR DEBT

"The speed of your success is limited only by your dedication and what you're willing to sacrifice" - Nathan W. Morris

You must have come across the phrase, "A promise made is a debt unpaid", well The 9th P, of the the "Finishing Strong" series, stands for PAY.

You ask "What shall I Pay?", The answer is "YOUR DEBT", again you say, "I don’t owe anyone". I'll explain. It may be true that you owe no one in terms of cash or material possessions, but permit me to announce to you that you are a promise made to your generation. You did not just appear upon the earth, you were specifically sent to be an answer to a question. The solution to a problem. You owe your generation a debt of service, one that you must pay.

During World War II, England needed to increase its production of coal. Winston Churchill called together labor leaders to enlist their support. At the end of his presentation he asked them to picture in their minds a parade which he knew would be held in

WHAT DO YOU SEE?

"What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing. It also depends on what sort of person you are." - C.S. Lewis

Different people, in good faith, can look at the same fact and interpret it differently. The picture painted in our minds, from our observation of a situation is dependent on where we stand or how we're standing. This is one reason why one person makes a statement and another listener gets infuriated. Why? Perception. Two people can see a glass of water and argue all day that it's half full or half empty. And I dare say, that, both of them are correct, it depends.

Everyone has the right to their interpretation of situations. What is most important is your understanding or explanation of the situation. Even though, Job couldn't exactly understand why so much calamity befell him in quick successions, he must have interpreted it differently than his wife and friends did. No wonder, his wife asked him to curse God, and die. She must've pictured sin, guilt and fault as the cause but Job saw different pictures, which is why I believe he refused to curse God. Are you going through great pain, terror and terrible losses? Has everyone advised you to go for deliverance? Or have you even been told like Job's wife, to curse God and die?

WATCH THEM

"Think twice before you speak, because your words and influence will plant the seed of either success or failure in the mind of another." - Napoleon Hill

A farmer insulted his neighbor. Realizing his mistake, he went to the preacher to ask for forgiveness. The preacher obliged, but gave him a bag of feathers, asked him to tear the bag and leave it in the center of a windy market. After, he'd done this the preacher asked him to go back, collect all the feathers and put them back in the bag. The farmer tried but couldn't as the feathers had all been blown everywhere. When he returned with the empty bag, the preacher said to him, "The same thing is true about your words. You drop them rather easily, but cannot retrieve them easily."

You sure have heard the mantra, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me." Right? Well, just because it’s spouted by people doesn’t mean it’s true. As a matter of fact, the real translation is: "Sticks and stones may break my bones for a few days, but words can scar my soul for life." Now, that's better.

Yehuda Berg, once said, "Words are singularly the most powerful force available to humanity. We can choose to use this force constructively with words of encouragement, or destructively using words of despair. Words have energy and power with the ability to help, to heal, to hinder, to hurt, to harm, to humiliate and to humble."

WHAT'S IN YOUR HAND?

"The purpose of human life is to serve, and to show compassion and the will to help others." - Albert Schweitzer

Albert Einstein, made a remark. He said, "Strange is our situation here upon earth. Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to divine a purpose. From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know: that man is here for the sake of other men." What a remark indeed.

I see many people aimlessly jump from one career, or one job to another, most for thrill of it, yet others for the financial gains and still some more, to find happiness. This is vanity. Acquiring all the money in the world isn't fulfillment. It is bondage. Do I mean that money isn't good? Absolutely not. I could do with a lot of it now myself. However, my point is, that we're all born, made in God's image and sent to earth for a purpose - to help others. True happiness and fulfillment comes from living a purposeful life. For those wondering, how to find their purpose. The answer is, "What do you have in your hand?"

WHAT'S YOUR LIFE FOR?

"Destiny is no matter of chance. It is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved." - William Jennings Bryan

As news flooded in, early how's of Monday 10th November, 2014. The social media world replete with news about the tragedy. I kept wondering, if it was true. I didn't google or jump to the internet to verify, because I didn't want to realize it was true. After, I finally summoned up enough courage, I realized it was true. Dr. Myles Monroe had died. For a while, I tried to relate the revelation of the reality, we wouldn't be able to physically see or hear this great man of purpose again. As a matter of fact, Dr. Myles Munroe was purpose, personified

In this age, generation and time when the youths desire to be like a Whiz Kid, Davido, P-Square, Rick Ross, Beyonce, Jay Z, and so on. Many hardly ever thinking of really impacting their generation or finding the purpose they've been born. They all want to put on "blings", dance around beautiful ladies, and stand before flashy cars. I weep at this, because, like Myles, we all will leave this earth someday, and face our creator.

FINISHING STRONG, 7: PRODUCTS

"If you keep your eye on the profit, you’re going to skimp on the product. But if you focus on making really great products, then the profits will follow." - Steve Jobs

Products

The 7th P, of Finishing Strong is PRODUCT. I believe that when God blessed the man in Genesis and said, "be fruitful, Multiply, Replenish and Subdue the Earth" He wasn’t just referring to procreation of physical, flesh and blood babies, He also referring to mind babies - Products. I believe that, for one to be able to subdue the earth, he must first be able to convert his skill, talent or gift into a product. An invention. Something marketable.

As with many innovations, the originator of 3M's sticky yellow Post-its, didn't know what he had at first. Researcher, Spence Sliver was curious about what would happen if he mixed an unusual amount of monomer into a polymer-based adhesive he was working on. The result was an adhesive that would "tack" one piece of paper to another and even re-stick, without leaving any residue on the second piece of paper. The company had no use for the new adhesive until 3M's Chemist, Arthur

WHITE ON BLACK

"Black is the best backdrop, on which to paint white." - Edwin Biayeibo

 

It was Ralph Waldo Emerson who said, "do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." Someone else said further, to create a path to your destination when none exists already. Do the unusual. Many of us, have grown up to become adults with scars from the many battles life have put us through. Many have been burnt, others have been gutted, yet others have been roasted on the coals of life's challenges.

Welcome to IGnite With ED, IGWE!

It is my pleasure to CONFIDENTLY inform you that this is one program you cannot afford to MISS.

So allow ME PERSONALLY invite you to come

DISCOVER:

"THE STORY BEHIND THE GLORY"

At the INAUGURAL EDITION of, "IGnite With ED" - IGWE

THE BUMBLEBEE

"You cannot believe in God until you believe in yourself." - Swami Vivekananda

According to scientists, the bumblebee's body is too heavy and its wing span too small. Aerodynamically, the bumblebee cannot fly. But the bumblebee doesn't know that and it keeps flying.

When we don't know our limitations, we go out and surprise everyone, including ourselves. We look around and always find a list of many things we cannot do. It is said that, when Ford, told his people he wanted a V8 engine they told him it couldn't be done, he said to them, "do it anyway." Have you been told you cannot fly? Or have you been told that you're so different from the rest, that you're a failure already even before you start? Were you told no one will marry you the way you are? Welcome to reality. 

No matter how enlightened your opponents are on why they think you cannot do what you've been made to do, make sure you check with your creator to be sure you're hearing right.

SUSTENANCE IN THE COCOON

"A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials." - Lucius Annaeus Seneca

A man found a butterfly's cocoon. One day a small opening appeared. He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through a tiny opening on the cocoon. Then it seemed to stop making any progress, appearing as if it had gotten as far as it could. So the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. He continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time. Neither happened. The butterfly spent the next couple of minutes crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It could never fly. What the man, in his kindness and haste, did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the butterfly's struggle to get through the tiny opening were God's way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.

ARMOUR HONOUR

"What you would not have done to yourselves, never do unto others." - Alexander Severus

A farmer once sold a pound of butter to a baker. One day the baker decided to weigh the butter to see if he was really getting a pound, he found he wasn't. This angered him so he took the farmer to court. The judge inquired from the farmer what scale he was using. The farmer replied, "Amour honour, I am primitive. I don't have a proper measure, but I do have a scale."

The judge asked, "Then how do you weigh the butter?"

The farmer replied "Your Honour, long before the baker started buying butter from me, I have been buying a pound loaf of bread from him. Every day when the baker brings the bread, I put it on the scale and give him the same weight in butter. If anyone is to be blamed, it is the baker."

LOOK UP, BEFORE YOU KEEP THE BILLS

"Sometimes I just look up, smile and say, 'I know that was you GOD! Thanks!'" - Unknown

A construction worker witnessed from his position above his colleague, on a site struggling with an equipment. He - the colleague below - didn't know how to resolve the issue with the equipment, so he - the colleague above - wanted to help, but he had to get his attention. The enormity of the job on the site left everyone too engaged to have discussions, and he couldn't shout his name either. So he threw a one dollar bill. It went slowly through the air and gently landed in front of his colleague, but this colleague, whose attention he hoped to get, picked it up and into his pocket the bill went. That didn't work, the colleague on the upper floor thought. "I'll throw a larger bill." he thought. So he did. With, higher bills till he ran out of bills to throw. Yet the colleague didn't look up. All he did was pick up the money each time, and put them in his pocket not looking up one time. After careful thought, he decided to throw a rock at his colleague, so he got a sizable rock that would not cause serious damage and hurled it down. With a sharp reflex, rubbing his head from the pain he finally looks up. Then the colleague told him how he'd been trying to get his attention with the dollar bills all along.

FINISHING STRONG, 4. YOUR POT: NEVER UNDERESTIMATE IT!

"A fit, healthy body—that is the best fashion statement" - Jess C. Scott

Today, we will continue on the 10 Ps' to finishing strong as we examine the fourth of the Ps: it represents your "POT". I'm certain you must have heard the phrase "Liquid content only", it is generally a phrase indicating that a buyers purchase rights cover the content of a product and not necessarily its container. However, my focus here is on the container and not as much as the content. No matter how expensive a perfume is, if the container is broken it become lost - the content spills. Your POT, here, symbolizes your body.

As an adult of average weight, here is a breakdown of your bodily - your pot - accomplishment in twenty-four hours. Your heart beats 103,689 times, your blood travels 168,000,000 miles. You breathe 23,040 times, you inhale 438 cubic feet of air, you eat about 3.25 pounds of food, and you drink about 2.9 quarts of liquids. Also, you process 7/8 pounds of waste, speak 4,800 words: including the unnecessary ones. Then, you move 750 muscles, your nails and hair grows .000046 and .01714 inches respectively. You exercise 7,000,000 brain cells and many more. What an awesome container. Your body is the vehicle God has given you to achieve every great purpose under the sun, it is worth taking care of.

WHAT KILLED THEM?

"The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear." - Nelson Mandela

 

Death was walking towards a city one morning someone asked, "What are you going to do?"
"I'm going to take 100 people," Death replied.

"That's horrible!" the man said.

"That's the way it is. That's what I do." Death replied.

So the man hurriedly warned everyone he could about Death's plan. As evening fell, he met Death again. "You told me you were going to take 100 people," the man said. "Why did 1,000 die?"

"I kept my word," Death responded. "I only took 100 people. Fear killed the others."

YOUR WORTH DETERMINES YOUR PAIN 9; THE STEPS

"Transformation is a process, and as life happens there are tons of ups and downs. It's a journey of discovery - there are moments on mountain tops and moments in deep valleys of despair." - Rick Warren

Change is the only permanent thing. Processes abound everywhere; graduation is not an end but a commencement of something more laudable. More responsibility. However, every change initiates a movement to another phase.

In pregnancy, the process continues from fertilization to conception with several changes along the line. These changes cause terrible biological and physical discomfort to the mother: It is an uncomfortable experience. Understand that, the pain the mother goes through during pregnancy is nothing compared to that she experiences on the day of delivery. Not at all. This pain isn't meant to kill her, but to produce something new. If the developing foetus doesn't go through all the required processes it comes out deformed. The same way we become deformed if we don't go through the complete process of refining.

YOUR WORTH DETERMINES YOUR PAIN 8; THE REFLECTION

"A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials." - Lucius Anus Seneca

Many people go through many processes in life, and somehow, sometimes, they feel the process too long, or the heat too much. I like to see these seemingly unbearable circumstances as "The Process". The process isn't complete until the one controlling the process says it is. Each step of the refining process has it's significant job to accomplish, none is more or less important than the other. One step leads to the next.

The REFLECTION.
The refiner sees a clear image of himself after all the processes are complete, not before. This can ONLY happen when the process is complete. At this point, the gold attains its highest degree of purity! And that, my dear friend, describes God's loving intention for allowing us to be in the "furnace of affliction." As we trust Him to use our trials to cleanse our character and purify our hearts, we will begin to see the "silver lining." behind every dark cloud of "affliction" we experience.

YOUR WORTH DETERMINES YOUR PAIN 7; THE PURIFICATION

"As threshing separates the wheat from the chaff, so does affliction purify virtue." - Christian Nestell Bovee 

Have you ever been so pained, to the extent you ask the question, "Why me?". I like to say here, that no matter how painful your situation is, the right question to ask is, "If not me, then who?". It sounds crazy, but here's a truth. To make our gardens attractive, we cut the grass. To have a delicious meal we put ingredients through cutting, dicing and through heat. So also, for us to become THAT PERSON we're supposed to be, our refiner makes us go through; THE PURIFICATION.

The refiner continues to get rid of the impurities. Every time, with great skill and patience. He, the refiner, removes the dross, leaving behind gleaming and shimmering gold - purer and more precious than it was after the last process. To measure his progress, the refiner looks for his own reflection on the surface of the gold-filled crucible. The more dross removed, the less distorted his reflection.

FINISHING STRONG, 2; THE PAST

"Yesterday is in the tomb, tomorrow is in the womb, but today is within your thumb." - Pst. Ed

With the introduction to 10 Ps' to Finishing strong out of the way - yesterday's topic. Let me begin proper now. Quickly, we'll delve into the first of the 10 Ps' today.

The very first P talks about “the PAST”. In my many years as a life coach, trainer and counselor. I have had countless experiences of people walking up to me seeking counsel on issues that have seemingly put a stop to their progress in life and destiny. Most narrate their ordeal with so much passion, that I sometimes believe these issues happened a few minutes before I met them, or days before. But, usually I find it shocking to discover, by their information, that what they whine about to me are experiences of decades or more earlier.

FINISHING STRONG, 1.

"It is important to start right, but it is imperative to end well" - William Clubertson
 

I have come to notice that finishing - a task, project, etc. - can be very elusive. In fact, it is so much easier to start something, than to finish it - it's a different matter altogether to finish well. In the next few weeks, I will attempt to discuss what I have tagged the 10 Ps' to finishing strong; even though I do not think this list is exhaustive. I believe, that the points I'll talking about, form the core of what is required to finish strong in life.

There was a unique race in the Olympic games. The winner was not the runner who finished first. It was the runner who finished with his torch still lit. Thus, the race isn't just about completing the course but completing it well; with your torch still lit. An important thing to realize in finishing strong - whether your purpose and destiny - is that life is a Marathon, not a one hundred meters dash.

NAPPING IN THE STORM

"After a storm, comes a calm" - Matthew Henry

 

A young man applied for a job as a farmhand. When the farmer asked for his qualifications, he said, "I can sleep through a storm." This puzzled the farmer; he liked the young man. So he hired him. A few weeks later, the farmer and his wife were awakened in the night by a violent storm ripping through the valley. He leapt out of bed and called for his new hired hand, but the young man was sleeping soundly. So they quickly began to check things to see if all was secure. They found that the shutters of the farmhouse had been securely fastened. A good supply of logs had been set next to the fireplace. The farmer and his wife then inspected their property. They found that the farm tools had been placed in the storage shed, safe. Even the bales of wheat had been bound and wrapped in tarpaulins. The tractor had been moved into its garage. The barn was properly locked tight. Even the animals were calm and had plenty of feed; all was well. The farmer then understood the meaning of the young man's words, "I can sleep through a storm."

THE POWER OF PLANNING, 4.

"A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow." - George S. Patton

 

 

The way we spend our time is because we choose to spend it that way; there is nothing we do without choice. Although our choices might not always be deliberate or penned down. We have the choice to work or not. To write the report or not. We have the choice, to take the phone call or ignore it. However, each choice is based upon a reward; to be received or anticipated.

Rewards are what we expect to gain from undertaking, or postponing a certain task. If you didn’t receive rewards, you would not continue that behaviour.

One night four college students played till late night, hence did not study for their test scheduled for the following morning. In the morning they thought up a plan. They'd make themselves look dirty with grease and dirt. So, in the morning, they went up to the Dean, and told him how they'd gone for a wedding the night before, and on their way back the tire of their car burst and they had to hurl by themselves, all the way back and that they were in no condition to appear for the test.

It Begins TODAY, Be Our Guest at HOTR, The Word House, Enugu!

Be THERE!!!

THE POWER of PLANNING, 3.

"Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe." - Abraham Lincoln

Laura M. Stack, is a capacity development expert, otherwise called "The Productivity Pro" She said "Planning will keep you on course in achieving your goals and objectives."

Did you hear, Abraham Lincoln? "If I had six hours to cut down a tree, I would spend the first four sharpening the axe..." what an instruction. Dale Carnegie told a story of two men who were out chopping wood. One man worked hard all day, took no breaks, and only stopped briefly for lunch. The other chopper took several breaks during the day and a short nap at lunch. At the end of the day, the woodsman who had taken no breaks was quite disturbed to realize that, the other guy had cut more wood. "I don’t understand. Every time I looked around, you were sitting down, yet you cut more wood than I did.", he lamented. His companion asked, "Did you also notice that while I was sitting down, I was sharpening my axe?"

THE POWER of PLANNING, 2.

"The most important part of an attack is the planning." - Jarod Kintz

"Have you ever been in this situation?" Asked Gino Blefari, "You rush out the door because you’re late for a morning meeting. Didn’t bother to take your time and verify, if you had all the materials you needed for the meeting. Halfway into the meeting, it hits you. You had forgotten something vital. So you drive all the way back home to get it. You’re now even later than you were to begin with. If you’d taken just a few minutes to look around and check before running out the door, you could’ve saved yourself some time and trouble."

He then illustrated a very insightful narrative that drives the point home with riveting precision. He said, "A group of American car executives visited a Japanese automobile assembly line. They watched the cars go through the assembly line, which all seemed routine, but were confused by the process at the end of the line when the doors were put on the hinges of the cars. The Japanese process seemed to be missing a critical part. In the United States, a worker was hired to tap the edges of the car

THE POWER of PLANNING 1

"Someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago." - Warren Buffet

Planning, Alan Lakein said, "Is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now." Virtually everyone is aware that, if you fail to plan, then you have planned to fail. In fact, it has been a long standing adage. Yet, interestingly, if there is one thing that almost everybody falls short of doing, it's PLANNING. Especially in Africa. The harvest of a good and fulfilling life must be preceded by some conscious calculated efforts, reflected in a plan.

A funny, but instructive story was told of three fishes which lived in a pond. One was named "Plan ahead", another was "Think fast" and the third was called "Wait and see". One day they heard a fisherman say he would be going to cast his net in their pond the next day. Plan ahead, said,"I am swimming down the river tonight". "Think fast" said, "I am sure I will come up with a plan". "Wait and See" lazily said," I just can't think about it now".