Category: Follow Your Dream

U – Understanding

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Understand your strength, understand your abilities. Know your limits, don’t ignore your shortcomings. You are not perfect, you can’t do everything. No one is perfect and no one can do everything all by themselves. Many times we take on too many things, some which are way beyond our natural abilities and gifts.

I strongly believe that all things are possible but it’s not a blind belief. It’s a belief
-according to how God made us,
-according to what we are disposed of,
-according to our gifts and talents, and
-according to our natural inclinations.
No matter how a man loves children and believes he can get pregnant, it would only be a failed venture or one that “may” succeed amidst diverse unnecessary complications and problems. This is because nature did not bestow in him the natural prerequisites for a pregnancy, most importantly a womb. Pregnancy and childbearing is for women because that’s our natural dispositions and strengths. That’s how God made us.

When we channel our energies into our strengths and abilities, we will discover many projects and dreams we can actually accomplish under that particular canopy.
For. e.g. Personally I love singing and I love writing. I don’t have a very strong singing voice but I have a strong inclination towards words. It would be foolhardy for me to start dreaming that one day I could be the world’s best singer, going on tours and been famous. I may achieve that but it will be hassled with troubles and fits. In doing that I would have abandoned writing which I find easier to flow in. But if I follow my gifts, I will, in time, discover that there are many inexhaustible wonderful opportunities open to writers, authors and poets.

Understand your specific role as it relates to your dreams. Focus on what you do best and just do that. In writing for instance, some are good in prose, others in poems, some others in script writing, others in real life issues, wild life, thrillers, sci-fi, everyday events, etc., etc. You can dabble in any of these, once in a while, when the inspiration comes but don’t forget to major on your strengths. Don’t forget to do what you do best. This principle applies in every area of life. If your dream is to study law, teaching, engineering, pharmacy, etc. your first question will be- which area should I focus on based on my strengths and natural inclinations?
Your strength is the real you and that’s what people will love; not the one you are trying to be.

Understand your responsibilities and delegate what you are unable to do or not gifted in. It never hurts to ask for help; in fact, it’s arrogance to try and do everything by yourself when there are people who can and are willing to share the load. Give others the privilege and the joy of helping you. Don’t shut people out when they want to help you. Include them in your plans and let them enjoy being a part of you and your plans. At the end of the day, you’re not overworked yet the job gets done by some happy willing friends, families and/or colleagues. It’s a win-win situation for everybody.

Understanding is key if we must fulfill our dreams and aspirations.
#Shalom

Previous: T – Trials and Tests

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T – Trials and Tests

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Tests, trials, and setbacks may try to discourage you. Don’t be disheartened but instead, celebrate how far you’ve come. You’re may not be there yet but you have sure come a long way. Try not to dwell on what could have and many would haves, that’s the road to a pity party no one wants to come to. Instead, let the stumbling blocks be your stepping stones to something bigger and better.

For every dream and aspirations you have, there will always be wars to win and battles to fight. As they say, not every battle is for you. Choose the battles to fight but win the war. Choose the setbacks to respond to and carry on with your plans victoriously when it’s all over.

If it’s a waiting period, use it to reflect and learn the wonderful art of patience and perseverance. Use the waiting period to develop your inner character and stamina. Develop a thick skin and learn from your setbacks. Learn to smile and wave at the storm. In each test, there’s always a testimony, search deep and find yours.

At the moment, I’m also experiencing a setback in two goals I’m working on. It’s not a good place to be in but I’m also learning patience and trusting God that when it’s all over, something good and wonderful will come out of it.
#Shalom

Previous: Start Saving

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Do You Know Joni?

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Do you know who she is?

As a regular teenager in 1967,
She went out with friends,
Dived into a swimming pool,
A shallow swimming pool,
And broke her spine-
She became paraplegic, and
It drastically changed her life;
But… she met God,
And, He gave her a reason
To live, to love, to dream, to believe,
To share her faith and her story;
To rise above her pain,
And be a channel of blessings,
In every disability,
There’s a hidden ability,
We can use to glorify God.

Today, she’s a motivational speaker,
A wife, a painter, a true believer,
An inspiration to everyone.
I am amazed on how she paints,
With the brush on her mouth-
She’s just unstoppable!

Do you know who she is?
She is Joni Eareckson Tada

Daily Prompt: Toothbrush

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To Be The Best

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Hold tenaciously to the dream,
Don’t let it slip away with the clouds
Nothing comes by accident
No good thing comes without hard work

Substandard attitude is not an option
If we must reach for skies

To be good
Is not good enough
To be better
Is better than good
To be the best
In the best there is to be

Dream. Desire. Achieve.

Happy New Month.

Daily Prompt: Substandard

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The Real Neat Blog Award

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I have been nominated Adventures Of A Busy Mom for the Real Neat Blog Award! If you haven’t checked out her blog, please go ahead and do so. She is such an amazing writer, a very creative and devoted Christian mum and wife, with a cheerful, charming and charismatic personality. I always enjoy reading her posts.

Thank you very much for your nomination and I also thank everyone who has been reading, commenting, following, and supporting my blog. God bless you all immensely in every way.

Here are the rules for the “Real Neat Blog Award”
1. Put the award logo on your blog.
2. Thank the people who nominated you, linking to their blogs.
3. Answer 7 questions asked by the person who nominated you.
4. Nominate any number of bloggers you like, linking to their blogs.
5. Let them know you nominated them (by commenting on their blog, etc).
6. Ask your nominees 7 questions.

These are questions I was asked:

1. What is the main reason as to why you started blogging?
I started blogging because I love writing, I’m in love with words. And I’d love nothing more but to share my faith and inspire others through my words.

2. Explain one personality trait that gets you into trouble sometimes.
My forgetfulness. I forget a lot. If I don’t set a reminder, then be assured, I’ll forget it. From forgotten appointments to burnt foods, I’ve learnt to constantly use my phone reminder.

3. What is your proudest accomplishment?
Been a mother. Despite health challenges, having my two beautiful boys is the best thing God could ever give me.

4. Who inspires you?
First, Christ inspires me and my daily prayer is to be more like Him.
Secondly, my husband. He’s so mature and much more cool headed than I am.

5. If you could have chosen a profession other than your own, what would it be?
Architecture. I love drawing, designing and I love arts.

6. What item is at the top of your “bucket list”?
To publish my first book.

7. Share with us your favorite quote?
Not a quote but 2 scripture verses: “Nothing is impossible with God”, “Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God has shined”.

My nominees are:
Frank Morelli
Words in the Light
Fearless
Tachispeaks
Christina Apociask
Benjamin Lessard
Dronstad Blog

My questions for the nominees are:

1. What is the main reason as to why you started blogging?
2. Explain one personality trait that gets you into trouble sometimes.
3. What is your proudest accomplishment?
4. Who inspires you?
5. If you could have chosen a profession other than your own, what would it be?
6. What item is at the top of your “bucket list”?
7. Share with us your favorite quote?

God bless you all. Shalom. 🌺🌺💝💝

S – Start Saving

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Start saving. At some point you will need funds to harness certain opportunities and attain certain goals. So it’s never too late to start saving. Some of the ways you save money or raise funds are as follows:

a) Set up your personal website for the project and then offer deals and gifts to those who donate money to you.

b) Crowd funding is becoming quite popular and lots of money can be raised through it. Even politicians are resorting to crowd funding. There are lots of websites offering crowd funding. Top of the list on Google search are Kickstarter, Indiegogo, Rockethub, etc.

c) Meet advertising companies and offer to run their advertisements on your site for commissions based on the number of clicks on the advertisements.

d) Set up a savings account, ISA accounts etc. and designate an amount monthly, an amount you can commit to based on your incomings. If your aim is to raise £3000 in a year, then you have to put down £250 monthly. If that’s high for you, then reduce it to the amount you can afford and source other means of reaching the other part of the target.

e) Thrift Savings Contributions: This involves making a commitment pact with 2 or more persons. Each person contributes a certain amount each month and the lump sum goes to one person per month. The lump sum is taken in turns and it’s based on how much you contribute. The aim is that it affords you a lump sum quicker than you would have waited.
For eg. if your target is to raise £500 by May i.e. in 5 months. You would have to find 4 other people who would be committed to contributing £100 every month from January to May. Now if we have you John, Peter, Molly, Sue, and Janet, each of you contributing £100 each; in January when you all contributed £500 in the pot, that would go to you. Next month, the pot goes to John, third month it goes to Peter, etc. Instead of waiting till May, you get the lump sum sooner. But you have to continue your contribution till May so that the others in the group can get their lump sum as well.
Now let’s say Peter can only afford £50, then you’d have to find another person say Pam who would contribute £50 to make it up to £100 per month. When it’s time for Peter and Pam to collect their lump sums, they would take £250 each because each lump sum you get is based on what you put in.

You can use any or all of them to save and source for funds for your projects and plans.

Previous: R – Research And Risks

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R – Research And Risks

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Read about what you want to do. Almost everything we want to do requires some level of reading.

You have to determine the extent your own dream or project requires. Research about it, search the internet, the YouTube. Practically everything you want to now is on YouTube.

What’s the project about? Publishing? Writing? Designing? Life coaching? Politics? Whatever it is, there has to be some reading. And as already mentioned, some projects and dreams requires extensive and in depth research while some don’t.

Research and read other people’s reviews, experiences, opinions, suggestions, theses and analysis. Personally, reading reviews about a product has saved me a lot of unnecessary hassles. Invest in reading materials and adequately equip yourself for the journey ahead.
Research and reading is a continuous process. It never ends, you can never say I know it all now. There’s always something new to find out and to learn.

Risks. Having read and researched, be prepared to take risks. Be prepared to sail on uncharted territories. Risk is a necessary course in any venture. Sometimes it pays off, other times you make mistakes and glean vital lessons from the mistakes. Either way, it’s a win-win.

“But failure has to be an option in art and in exploration–because it’s a leap of faith. And no important endeavor that required innovation was done without risk. You have to be willing to take those risks …” James Cameron

Previous: Q – Questions and Questionnaires

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Roger Federer- “I believed…”

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“I guess it’s believe that I can achieve such heights… I believed that I could maybe come back. If you believe, you can go really far in life. I think I did that and I’m happy. I kept on believing and dreaming and here I am today…” said the 8th time Wimbledon winner.

If you believe it, it’s possible, it can’t be done and it can be achieved. You just have to work hard and keep dreaming, keep believing.

Congratulations Roger, savour the moment, it’s truly a well deserved title.

“To him that believes, anything is possible” – Mark 9:23

Daily Prompt: Savor

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Q – Questions and Questionnaires

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Question yourself and question what you’re doing.

 

 

 

Take your log, your data, your journals and your diaries like we discussed in M – Make Yourself Accountable and periodically assess your progress or otherwise. Look back, read your notes and your goals, see the pattern of events. The timeline depends on you and what your project is. It could every bi-monthly, tri-monthly or quarterly, whatever works for you.

Having done these, then review, reflect and find out what’s working, what’s not working, what can be improved and what can be discarded. Ask yourself critical questions and try to be as objective as possible.
Also print and distribute questionnaires and feedback forms to families, friends and anyone whose input or insight you deem valuable. Most people use Survey Monkey, it’s free and easily accessible. Collect all the results from questionnaires and assessments, enter them into a spreadsheet or any worksheet that would aid you analyse them, then make changes appropriately.

Previous: P – Prayer, Perseverance and Patience

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P – Prayer, Perseverance and Patience

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Pray about your dreams, your aspirations and how far you want to go in life. Pray about every detail of your plan. Don’t take anything for granted, pray about it.

Does your plan involve writing? Pray for unprecedented inspiration, wisdom, articulated thoughts , creativity, availability of time and resources, etc.

Does your dream involve job creating? Pray for your staff, the building, sourcing of equipment, legal and licensing issues, the local authority or whoever you need to see in furtherance to your plans, etc. Does your plan involve personal growth? Family issues? Your children? Your business/company? Your studies? Your walk with God? Your ministry? Whatever it may be, pray about it.
God is interested in every bit of our lifes and is never too bored with the details. You may say you don’t know how to pray, just take your plans, kneel down and talk to God about them. That’s all there is to it. Pray to Him and empty your desires and deep wishes to Him. “When we delight ourselves in the Lord, He gives us the desires of our hearts” -Psalms 37:4.

Perseverance and Patience. I have to briefly reiterate this point again, you need to persevere in prayer and in waiting. Every good thing takes a while to materialise. Be patient, don’t be in a hurry and miss vital issues and/or opportunities. In time, your patience, perseverance and prayers would surely pay off because somehow and in someway, God still answers prayers.

Previous: O – Organise, Priotise and Adapt

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Snuggle or Jump

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The journey of life depends on what I do with it and how I maximise it.

Either I snuggle up in the comforts of the known, shielded by a barricade, afraid to take risks, afraid to take a jump into the unknown thus, remain who I am.

Or, I let go of any mental inhibitions and embrace the unknown, then take a risky leap of faith into the vast sea of limitless and endless opportunities for that sure glimmer of hope of fulfilling my destiny… for failure is not trying and failing but failing to try.

In response to Sonya’s Three Line Tales Week 75

Picture Credit: Meghan Yabsley on Unsplash

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O – Organise, Priotise and Adapt

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To pursue and fulfil your dreams, you have to be organised. Organise your work, your plans, your timescales, your time.

Nobody stumbles upon success, no one achieves success by doing things in a half hazardous manner. If you don’t plan your time, anything can fit into it. Impromptu decisions a times are good but a lifestyle of impulsiveness will not get you far.

To organise, you have to prioritise. This will help you to know:
-Matters that are of “life and death” i.e. These are the deal breakers. If ignored, things might take a worse turn that you may not recover from. E.g. If my goal as a diabetic person is to lose weight, then going off sugary foods would be a do/die situation.
-Matters that are immediately important i.e. Though not a do/die situation but must be attended to.
-Matters that are not important now i.e. Though not important now but will be in the near future.
-Matters that can wait i.e. matters that can be accomplished anytime, there’s no timescale.

Lastly, you adapt your lifestyle to suit your goals and objectives. Some things has to go and a new lifestyle adopted. If your goal is to buy a home, then you have to reduce expenses and adapt into a lifestyle that saves more. To be the best in a course or maybe study more scriptures, a change from a lifestyle of idleness into more studying is important. This point is another crucial point. We cannot get from point A to point B without changes in positions, thoughts, habits and lifestyles.
Shalom 🌺🌺

“If you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything.”
“If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.” –Jim Rohn
“Nobody ever wrote down a plan to be broke, fat, lazy, or ignorant. Those things are what happen when you don’t have a plan.” –Larry Winget
In the end, it is important to remember that we cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are”

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N – Networking

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This is a very important concept. We need each other. You need people to achieve all you set your mind to do. You need connections, and connections lead to more connections.

This is where social media plays a massive role. Seek out social  platforms to meet new people and learn more things about what you want to pursue. This aspect is in three dimensions:

1. Make out time and meet likeminded people, people with the same or close dreams and aspirations. Experienced and established people in the field you are pursuing so you can learn from them. Listen to their stories, their defeats and victories, and learn.

2. Make friends with those that will challenge you with constructive criticism and assist you to harness your rare qualities, they will encourage you, advice you, question you and push you to your limits. Recognise those that draw out the best in you and get closer to them.

3. Meet and if possible make friends with your target audience and sample opinions. Do you know who your target audience is? Find them, meet them. Speak, interact and gain insight to what they hope to find in venture like yours.

Networking is key to growth, expansion and the realisation to every dream.

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M – Make Yourself Accountable

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Make yourself accountable and answerable to someone. First to God and secondly to any serious minded person or persons you think, who would help keep you in check. Keep updates, log books, diaries, accounts and records if possible.

In every business, there is the accounting department for accountability. In government, there are checks and balances, there is the police and security services, there is the opposition government. All these are forms of accountability, to keep the lust of men in check, to prevent anarchy, greed and avarice, embezzlement, despotism and nepotism.

Find an accountant, keep records and make yourself accountable. When it’s time for review(will write more on this later), your logs will be your reference points.
Shalom 🌺🌺

Previous: L – Live Your Life

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L – Live Your Life

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Live your life, don’t just exist while waiting for the fulfilment of your dreams. Yes you have it all planned out; yes, you’ve set your strategies and mapped out all the time scales.

 

Live your life. Don’t forget your immediate responsibilities with families and friends, don’t get holed up in WordPress and blogging that you forget and even neglect to meet the needs around you. Remember, you are still part of a family, a locality and a community. So get involved with something, get a job in the meantime, find an intermediary mini project, volunteer to do something and get busy while you wait.
Carry on and live your life while you wait to work through your plans in fulfilling your dreams.

“He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things he has not, but rejoices for those which he has”- Epictetus

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K – Kill Negativity

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Kill negativity. Kill pessimism. Kill the “can’t do it attitude.” Infuse positiveness into your day and optimism into your thoughts. Don’t let discouragement pull you back or disappointments put you down.

 

 

With God, all things possible. Believe it and let your mind dwell on it. A negative attitude gets no one anywhere but a positive attitude opens up opportunities.

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J – Journey With Joy

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Journey with joy. Remember it’s a journey, so one step at a time. Like every other journey, it may lead to more journeys or it may end at the culmination of the achievement of your goal. So relax, enjoy each process, each stage and get the best out of them. Lap up every step of your journey because you may not have any moments like that again.

Don’t postpone your joy and happiness to when you are one big celebrity with 3 million followers and lots of money. Whether 2 or 20 followers on paper or online, whether low profits margin or little funds raised; or whatever level you achieved in what you’re pursuing, celebrate it with joy, gratitude, bottles of wine and pat on your back. That achievement was deserved, and it’s truly a level accomplished.

It’s a journey, so give it time but don’t be idle; don’t be in a hurry and avoid hasty decisions. Every completed project that lasts a lifetime takes time. Neither the city of Rome nor the Eiffel Tower were built in a day. They took time and so does your dreams. Give it time, and keep doing something daily (See my notes on D- Draw and Do), in a few years, you would have achieved a lot. And you would certainly be glad you didn’t rush things.

“In the end, it is important to remember that we cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are.” –Max De Pree

Previous: I – Innovation and Ideas

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