Don't hope in vain

There is nothing wrong in dreaming, especially to dream about good things and about a bright future and, generally, to have a dream is seen as a good sign of a healthy well-being.
Equally,you must have hopes that dreams do come true. Again, there is nothing wrong in hoping for good things in life. A healthy lifestyle and, generally having hope, are seen as a sign of a healthy and a positive attitude.
But,what does hope, and dreams achieve? Has research shown us that by mainly dreaming and hoping for the best really work? How many people have succeeded by mainly sitting idly by as the world prospered and they sat aside and merely dreamed and hoped that their time will come? I do not know how many have actually come to the good without really getting stuck in and really working hard.
Don’t hope in vain.
The reality is that you must have faith in your abilities to work things to your advantage. If hope really worked, the world would have succeeded a long time ago to make mankind prosperous. If hope really worked then there would not have been any need to toil, to seek the truth. Hope is just a hopeless state of mind that is just used to substitute reality. The reality is that faith succeeds where human beings stop dreaming and start putting plans into perspective and putting them to the test. The reality is that hope is an idle state of the mind that induces make-believe scenarios and fake triumphs. People who have a concerted hope in promising action without much toil always promise that ‘next’ time it will turn out to be better. Asked to explain, they always emphasise that life without hope is hopeless.
Really?
Richard Branson did not believe in hope. At only 17, he latched at opportunities and chased wealth. Nelson Mandela did not hope that South Africa would be free, he worked hard, even in jail, for his country. Jesus Christ did not sit idly on the mountain and day-dreamed about the day mankind would live without sin-He died for the course. Obama did not only put his hope on his party, he rolled up his sleeves, cris-crossed across America to tell voters who he was and what he stood for.
Sports teams do not believe in hope. They train hard between competitive matches and then put in a great deal of hard work to achieve their desired results.
Africa hoped too much, then rotted in decay.
Right now, abandon hope. Stand up, let your mind put plans into action. Let your mind work to achieve results, not to play movies that will never help you to become your better self.

the company you keep...

I am sure you are still on your journey to the top, to the North Star, a succsesful destination, where only those who work diligently with their lives and with care are. If you are not on a journey there, and if you not already there, then on which path are you?
If it is not a journey to success then it is either of the following two, at life’s waiting station, or to a destructive destination. There can never be any other. Only those three.
If you are on a destructive path and need advice then please do so. Welcome to the world of the sensible. Waiting station? What are you waiting for? Look around you! The world is in motion, it is roving. People are busy, they are matching variables for success and compatibility, they are negotiating, they are putting two and two togather. Others, as we have seen,are doing the hara-kiri, they are on a path to nowhere!
One of the things that causes uncertainty in our lives is too much advice, or none at all. Some of the confusing advice we get comes from our friends. In the same vein, some of our friends do not give advice at all! These friends, we should ask ourselves, why are they our friends when they have no value to us? Surely you can not just move around with a baggage which has no use to you. What, then, do you do with friends with no use to you? What do they contribute to your journey to the North Star? Introspectively, how do you contribute to your friends’ success? What input do you give to them for them to realise their potential? What value are you to your parents, your children, your girlfriend, husband?
One of the best ways to determine this is in the ability to sift the chaff from the best. It will be advisable for you to sit down with a pen and a paper and get busy with work. In all your life, if you do not deliberatly sit down to map any situation then there is no purpose for you to live.
So sit down and work out who, among the people you know and chill with, among your friends, are of value to you. There are groups of people who have been seen spending, mostly, Sundays together drinking countless bottles of liquor. What good is going on there? If this happens four Sundays in a row then how many man-hours have gone by without profit in the lives of the group?
If you are really a person of substance who is thirsty for success, then you must possess the ability to get rid of people who retard your progress in life. Never allow yourself to be at a waiting station because your friends are still not sure what to do with their lives. Take charge of your life and of the friends you have. If you are not careful, your friends will be meaningless to you and your life will be worthless. Make sure you and your friends are aiming to the top, always! Never have a friend who contributes nothing of value to your course. This, it must be emphasised, extends to all those who are around you.

Don't prove a faulty point

Much has been written about having faith in your abilities already. But this does not mean that the subject is dead and buried. Far from it. The subject must be scrutinized and refined every time when there is a suspicion that our efforts in life are floundering.
A topic that is always partnered with faith in our abilities is focus. It is useless to trust and have faith in your abilities, work on them, hone them and then ready them for action only to let your mind go wandering away from your aims objectives. That will, and is, a total waste of valuable time.
The African child has lost so much through adults who are fighting the wrong war. All African’s abilities have been pinned on meaningless wars. Now, if you asked, who were the adversaries in these wars and we will all concur, African brothers and sisters. Valuable resources and expensive time were mutilated in the name of peace. The elders are fighting because they want peace, they say. How sad. Wouldn’t it be better to improve the economy, better the infrastructure, take children to school, hasten the remedying of the health sector, to pursue peace? What about agriculture?
There are so many, so countless beautiful opportunities to engage in, rather than to use the machete and the AK47 to achieve peace. And for the elders to use children is downright barbaric.
Now, let us start with you. When you have identified the abilities you have faith in and are now on the warpath to attain success put your mind to it. Concentrate and look only at the North Star. One morbid occupation many of the Africans entertain is the pre-occupation with the white male. Do not engage in anything to attempt to show the white race that Africans can do it. Do it to the best of your abilities and according to the aims and objectives which are meant to enhance, firstly, you, and then the community in which you reside. Let your accomplishments speak for themselves.
Don’t even prove a point to your alter-ego. Be faithful to your ‘I’ and your soul. Once you start having faith in your true and socially acceptable abilities, skills, techniques and your ability to focus, then you will see a change in your fortunes. Don’t start to childishly brag and boast, patting your self on the back, instead, lurch onto the next profitable course for mankind. Africa, at the moment, is going about it in the wrong manner. Don’t.

Don't hate, it is not worth it

Like it has been written before, there are elements and emotions that only waste mankind’s precious time, energy and the opportunity to prosper.
The problem lies not in those emotions, but rather in man himself. Although mankind is aware that it is easier to feel negative than to engage in meaningful behaviour, he still allows himself to indulge in that self-defeating tendencies, like hatred. Hate is one of those emotions Don’t hate, it is not worth it
Like it has been written before, there are elements and emotions that only waste mankind’s precious time, energy and the opportunity to prosper.
The problem lies not in those emotions, but rather in man himself. Although mankind is aware that it is easier to feel negative than to engage in meaningful behaviour, he still allows himself to indulge in that self-defeating tendencies, like hatred. Hate is one of those emotions espoused by man, though it is clear to everyone that nothing meaningful is derived from it. Or is this opinion false or wrong?
Let us sit down and look closely at this emotion. Hate is simply a tendency to want to loathe and detest someone or something. During the process the action is, most of the time, one-sided. Only the person who switches on hatred drives and feels the emotion. During that time, when hatred is in full-cry, they think nothing beautiful or prosperous against the perceived enemy. The enemy, on the other hand, is, maybe, oblivious to the activity directed towards them. And if they knew or were aware, they might as well ignore it because, frankly, they have nothing to do with it. Not that if they knew they would have something to do with it.
Let us go back to you. If indeed you have hated in the past, please share with us the good news. We are interested to know how did hating appease you? And did the offending person or object perish? We think not. The only person who suffered was you. Almost all the hated people and material are not on your person, and even if you hated your nose, what difference would it make? There is nothing you can do about it. The best remedy is to forget it, accept that is the way God created you and get on with your life.
Do not hate anyone because they do not love you. What do you lose in this regard? You still have your love intact, at least. You can still give it to someone deserving of it. Why do you hate the lady down the road because she said this and that about you? How about your productive colleague whom you wish was fired? Does your own work prosper because of the burning hatred inside of you?
No, you do not rectify matters by hating anyone. Instead hatred gnaws at your ability to think rationally. People who know of your hatred and are great thinkers start to steer away from you, for they detect this malignant disease eating at your heart.
There are simply no rewards for hatred. From now on accept the inevitable and pursue prosperity only. Why do you choose loosing emotions like hatred?
There is only one thing I want to declare right now. I love you all regardless of your standing to me. Thank you.

Give due praise

This must be one of the easiest things to do in life, giving praise to fellow friends, lovers, children and colleagues and all mankind. But alas, so many people think, sometimes, that it is a curse to do so.
Mankind, as it is prescribed by the Creator, must at all times strive to better all human activities around him.
That is why God bestowed each man with different disciplines from the next person. No one of mankind has all the talents and skills God can give, we are all different from one another. When all of us are involved in innovation, invention and service delivery then mankind prospers a million fold.
While there have been many breakthroughs in our lives because of brilliant inventions and creations, others have fallen by the wayside. There are races that proclaim to have taken civilization to a higher level while they denigrate other races and continents. Nearer to us there are acquaintances who have strove to raise their lives and improve their profiles. While we have applauded others, we have also failed to give due praise where it was necessary to do so. When we deny others praise because we fail to observe the beauty of their lives we also deny ourselves happiness and the ability to move forward as individuals, as a community and as a nation. Who knows, how far above could the lady down the road who is now a mere cashier at a supermarket could be had she been given all the encouragement and praise for the studious scholar she was earlier in her life? She might have been your child’s role model to be an astronaut. That hobo at the corner could have been a brilliant entrepreneur if his wife had supported his efforts.
How many parents know what exactly what their children are doing at school? How many of them have taken their child by the hand to accompany them to the child’s role model? Or even to the parent’s role model?
Who of us give praise our parents for the way they bring us up? Which couple exchanges words of praise and accolades for the love God gave them and their ability to stick to that love and their adherence to the pledge love one another?
It is now time to stop taking mankind for granted. The time has come to look whoever you adore in the eye and give praise for who they are and for the beautiful efforts they undertake to make life wonderful.
Envy has never been kind to mankind nor has it been man’s greatest asset. It is a tsunami-like phenomenon. Throw it into the trash basket where it belongs. Be a wonderful person, give accolades all-round.

Believe in the "I'

You will agree with me that if you really believed in your abilities you could have already achieved a lot of the dreams that you always haboured.
Now that you agree with me that failure to achieve much in your life was caused by the inability to believe in yourself, what remedies should we put in place to counteract the disbelief in your ‘I’?
What is belief? That must surely be the first discussion that we must engage in. Those of us who follow the Christian faith will know of an instance where God asked the world to believe in His begotten Son. It must be noted is that what God asked for is an emotional state of the mind. It is not a tangible object that you can buy or get from someone. You do not apply for it to be delivered from somewhere, nor are you expected to write an examination to achieve belief. No, belief is a decision taken by an individual after careful consideration in an element they want to put their faith in. With God there is nothing to examine, nor even in Jesus Christ. God is the creator and it is logical that the world must believe in Him.
Now for you to believe in your goals you must examine what goals are they and what are you going to use to achieve them. In this instance, your ability is the main point of focus. Do you believe in your abilities? If not, then look closely at the abilities you want to use to attain your particular dreams.
In the past it was suggested that you must know what your talents, skills, techniques and so forth are. You must also put your attitude under the microscope. Don’t haphazardly pu goals on paper without checking the vehicle you are going to use to attain them. You also need to know who will help you get there.
Network, know your ‘comrades-in-arms’. In life you can never achieve alone. Yes, you are alone, sometimes, when you do some of these things, but you need a synchronized effort from others. If you read about Motsepe, you will discover that there are people he would like to thank for their contribution in making him what he is now. Branson has influence all over, but surely he believed in the ability to sell himself before he made big in business. Khanyisile Dlomo(she has a new surname now)knows exactly what ability will win her contracts to make Ndalo formidable, and so does Motaung at Chiefs.
Do not be misguided like Mugabe is. He is using an immoral ability to achieve a dream that faded decades ago. Mandela, on the other hand, believed in his conviction that he wanted to play a part in getting rid of racial injustice in SA. Illegal goals and the misuse of abilities are not permitted because they are in conflict with society and God.
Go on and write down your abilities that you believe in, and then note the goals you can achieve with those abilities. Network and fortify your claim to fame and stardom. Now act, and start your journey to the North Star.