DON'T LET THE GOOD ONES SUFFER.

DON'T LET THE GOOD ONES SUFFER.

The world is littered with a lot of good people who in their corners are making the world a better place. However little or seemingly insignificant their efforts may be, they are having a positive impact on those to whom their actions and activities can reach and affect. Unfortunately, their number is doubled by their exact opposite.

These people live for a purpose; to see others become better versions of themselves, to help others grow in whatever endeavours they are in, and to spread and share happiness to everyone to whom they can. They are always on the battlefield for the human race doing their bit in making the world a better place for the few they can if not for all.

Chadwick Boseman was in a very tough period in his life working assiduously to promote the pride of the black race, Africa in particular, the public was not aware of his private battles until he left the stage for others to carry on.

Sound Sultan was battling a life threatening illness that wasn't known to the public when he took to the stage to lend a voice to the cry of the people during the popular #ENDSARS movement, one that eventually claimed the lives of many young Nigerians. He has always wanted a better society, and he did till his last breath. He was always vocal against the ills in the society, and bad governance, he was in that fight till he left.

There abound many stories of men who for the sake of other men, made sacrifices so others can live better lives, even in their state of vulnerability, weakness and in the face of death. We must not always neglect these people, and let them suffer alone. We may not be able to do anything to change their situation, but we can always show them love, and make them know that their efforts are not going to waste.

Our society today celebrates ignorance, idiocy, nuisance, and irresponsibility, we shouldn't be a part of that, rather we should seek to help the good ones, and not leave them to suffer.

Kudos to the good people, who are helping other good people to keep up the fight, do not relent in being a source of encouragement to them, and together we will all have a better world.

Happy New Month, Happy December. Merry Christmas and a happy new year in advance.

Kamikun John (Author, 366 days of wisdom)

SUCCESS IS JUST THE BEGINNING

SUCCESS IS JUST THE BEGINNING

Every man's desire is to be successful at the end of every endeavour, it is the ultimate goal. This success is not achieved by mere wishes or plan, but through determined and conscious actions toward becoming what we want to become. Success is not what we achieve at the end of something, it is what we become on our path to our destination.

Life is often unfair, but you have to succeed anyway, and a little success always open the door to more successes. As necessary and important achieving success could be, it is just the beginning of more work and greater efforts to a better self. Great success always come along with greater responsibilities and how these responsibilities are responded to determines subsequent growth.

Every new level we attain always require a better and higher version of our previous self, we cannot continue to operate with a lower version on an higher level, an upgrade is always inevitable for optimum functionality.

We must always seek to grow and develop our intellectual strength and capacity if we would continue the journey upwards, or else we remain stagnant with no progress whatsoever. Failures are not people who fail to succeed, but people who fail to grow.

You don't have to lose anything to be a failure, all you have to do is to take for granted what you already have. Life doesn't give you what you want from it, it gives you what you take from it. So, if you abandon yourself to the unfairness of life, you will be badly bruised and battered before you would get anywhere.

There never should be a point of relaxation, though it is a natural tendency for humans to relent when they attain certain heights, it sometimes is the reason for their regress. Never relent on your success it is just the beginning of more work.

John Kamikun (Author, 366 days of wisdom).

KEEP TO THE PROCESS

 DON'T SKIP THE RUNG.

Attempting to reach the top of the slab covering the entrance foyer on one of my construction projects, permanently resting on the edge of the slab is a ladder I have always used to access the top of the building.

This time I had gone round the parapet slab and wanted to descend the ladder, I felt I could skip one rung as they were close to each other so I can get to my destination faster, I could have gotten to my destination even faster than I thought but with regrets, luckily I was alert to the impending plucking off and quickly regained my balance, I would have landed awkwardly and sustained a serious injury.

Succeeding in life is like ascending a ladder, you must go one rung at a time. On our journey to the top, diligently following the process a step at a time, and consistently growing through it is the only guarantee for a lasting stay at the top.

As governed by the law of gravity whatever goes up, jumps up will surely come down no matter how long it stays up, but whatever grows up, stays up. If you attempt to jump or skip the growth process with the mindset of getting to your destination faster, you can actually make it there faster but you will not stay there for too long.

It may not be easy or convenient to go through the process, but going through the process will ultimately make life easy. It is the desire of everything to go up as there are more spaces up there than down there. A seed also desires going up, but it realizes that it can't stay up by going up, it decides to go into the ground and start the process of growing up. This seed births a seedling that eventually grows into a tree and in due time begins to produce fruit for the benefit of everyone who would have a need of it.

The process is as important as the destination if not more, because what we become on our journey to the top is more important than what we get when get there. It is what we become that gives us the strength, knowledge, experience and expertise to remain there.

Make the process your priority not the destination, DON'T SKIP THE RUNG.

John Kamikun (Author 366 days of wisdom)

LESSON FROM TWO FRENEMIES.

 THE TEETH AND THE TONGUE.

The teeth and the tongue are inseparable partners and cohabitants, so it seems, but in reality they can be separated but their separation does not come without consequences; pain and malfunction. No human being can live independently, everyone must depend on something and someone for survival. This may be in different forms, but it is very important for their growth and progress in different areas of their living and existence.

As close and inseparable as the teeth and the tongue is, they sometimes have points of disagreement, the teeth, though major protector of the tongue would bite or harm the tongue, this will initially cause the tongue to retreat from associating with the teeth, but it will return to the teeth for comfort and caressing, gladly the teeth will help the tongue in its healing process despite being the cause of the hurt.

There is a big lesson to learn from the relationship and behaviour of these two, they teach us what real progressive relationships and coexistence should be like. Humans are the most complex of all living creatures and the most advanced in knowledge, but there are a lot humans have learnt and will and should still learn from both living and non living creatures.

There is never a perfect relationship without the determined effort of the people in such relationship to be the perfect person for each other, irrespective of what the relationship is about. What makes relationships perfect is the willingness of the parties to be perfect in the relationship. There would always be differences and diversity of character, opinions, and thoughts but being able to manage those differences and diversities are the bedrock for a sustainable, progressive and perfect relationship.

Sometimes, when we are hurt by the people we consider our ally, those we regard as family and friends, and believe they cannot cause us any harm, it is not out of place to retreat from them just like the tongue would do after a bite by the teeth, but we must also think of what might be the cause of such attitude at that time, we must after a brief retreat return to discuss and understand their reason or cause for what they did.

Life cannot be fully lived alone, and there is no one who is not capable of offending another, but in spite of offences we must always look for avenue for resolution and reconciliation, because it is in living together that growth and progress becomes easy.

John Kamikun (Author, 366 days of wisdom).

STAY IN THE GAME

DON'T BREAK THE TRAIL

Sometimes, the journey of life is like a journey without a map. You embark on a journey with only a vision of your destination in mind not knowing how to get there, but following as the unfolding of time and events lead.

These journeys aren't always as smooth as expected and envisaged, and if we are not careful and determined, we might be tempted to abandon the journey, quit our pursuit, and rescind our decision to follow through to the end, but we would have wasted every resources and efforts that had gone into the journey until that moment.

Winning in life as in sports, does not come easy, and takes a lot of hard work, determination, dedication, and grit. It takes staying true to the course, the journey, the process irrespective of the circumstances, inconveniences, and challenges that may come our way. We must be ready to give our all to get to that desired destination.

Steve Jobs once said "You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life."

It is only an unbroken trail, a process that is followed through till the end that can lead to a destination of difference. The forward movement may not reveal the true importance of the journey, but a retrospective look at the journey from the destination will tell the true value and essence of it.

Trust your process, trust the journey, believe in yourself and be ready to give your all. Be a trailblazer, not a trailbreaker, the journey will not be easy, but not impossible, will be tough but, eventually will be worth it. Blaze the trail, don't break the trail.

John Kamikun (Author, 366 days of wisdom).

The Necessity of Patience

A SEASON AND A TIME

The wisest man to ever live; according to historical facts and evidences, King Solomon wrote, "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven." (Ecclesiastes 3:1).

Everything that happens in life happen in times and in accordance with seasons. When the season for a thing has come, its manifestation is easy, and if it does not manifest in that season, it would wait until another season. Manifestations never come out of season.

When you plant a seed of orange and it grows into a tree, there comes the time when it should begin to yield fruits, but despite having matured at a particular time it would produce no fruit until its own season. Life as in nature, is governed by laws and principles. You cannot overlook, neglect, or shun the laws and the principles of success and productivity and expect to be successful or productive.

When the time for a thing has come and the season has arrived, nothing can stop that thing from happening. It might be delayed but it can not but happen.

Patience therefore, is a key to happiness, fulfillment and a glorious ending. Like someone told the story of a man who was sent to a convention by his organisation, and when food was been served and he was consistently being passed by, he dragged the tray of soup from the server which resulted in his cloth being stained and soiled. Not knowing he was to be specially served on the high table as he was a guest of honour at that event.

When his time came to be on the high table, he was called upon but, he couldn't get up to go up because, he had dragged the tray prematurely and spoilt his cloth, his lack of patience brought him great shame.

Wait for your time, watch out for your season, when your time and your season comes never let it slide without putting it to maximum use. Your patience and hard work will pay off, but you must also be conscious of the arrival of your time and your season lest you become weary and give up.

 John Kamikun (Author, 366 days of wisdom)

START NOW, IT IS NOT LATE.

 STARTING NOW IS NOT LATENESS

Until a phenomenon, an action, a habit, a sequence, an inaction, an idea, a day, a week, a month, a year, a season is ended, another cannot begin. The end of something always mark the beginning of another, and sometimes until something begins the other will not end. Until you end procrastination, action cannot begin; until you end inactivity, activity cannot start.

Starting afresh is an opportunity presented to every human with the dawning of each day. Not starting yesterday does not mean starting today is late. In fact, there is no lateness in starting at anytime, the most important thing is to start.

New beginnings always come with the opportunity to start as a better person. It is not unacceptable to go into a state temporary resignation, but it is unacceptable to stay in that state permanently or for too long. You can rest but not resign; you can be quiet but not quit; you can fall but not fail.

As we continue towards the end of the year, and in this eighth month, we should remember what the figure 8 stands for; 8 signifies 'new beginning', it also depicts infinity (♾️): Endlessness of opportunities, limitlessness, continuity.

The world we now live in has thought us a lot about starting afresh, it has made us to understand that even at the end there is enough opportunity to start again, ask the Chelsea team of 2012. Even as the end draws near we can start something now that will bring us to where we want to be and give us what we want to have.

You started and quit, start again; you never started, start now; you are thinking of start later, start today; like a popular saying goes, "the best time to start was yesterday, the next best time is now". It is better to start late than to never start at all. Starting late is not lateness, it is only the latest, and the latest is the freshest, the newest, and the finest.

Tomorrow is gone with the ills and glitches it brought; today is yours to take charge, the canvas is clean and plain, start now to paint the tomorrow you so strongly desire. Start afresh, start anew and create the ending of your dreams.

John Kamikun (Author, 366 days of wisdom)

Go for it

GO FOR IT

You promised you were going to start in 2021, thirty-one days gone already and you are yet to start; you have been planning for it almost indefinitely, now is the time you get started; you were fired up to set the ball rolling, but you heard a discouraging comment and you gave up; you shared your dreams and intentions for the year but because you shared it with the wrong person, you were talked out of it. How long will you continue like this? How long will you be a shadow of yourself? How long should your manifestation be expected?

All you need to be successful is not the perfect plan, it is the starting plan. It is good to have a very good plan, but most importantly it is best to start even with the most skeletal plan. It is only an endeavour that is started that one has a chance to succeed at, no one ever succeed in a course he never started. If you will walk a thousand miles, you must first take a step; if you will finish, you must first start.

As Joe Sabah would say, "You don't have to be good to start ... you just have to start to be good." You may not be good enough for where you are going, but you are good enough to embark on the journey there, and as you journey along you become better and fitter for the destination. If you wait till you are perfect and ready to start, you may never start at all.

There is more to who you are, go for it; your dreams await your activation, go for it; you can become whatever you want to be, go for it; if you can dream it, you can make it happen; the only limit to what you can become is the one you set for yourself, never doubt that you can be anything you want to be, you are the only who would approve or disapprove what you want to be. Time waits for no one, go for that which your heart really wants, and you are sure to get it.

John Kamikun (366 days of wisdom)

PERSPECTIVES

WHEN YOU LOOK, WHAT DO YOU SEE?

When you look at yourself, what do you see? When you look at your situation, what do you see? When you look around you, what do you see? Sometimes, life is more about what we see and how we see, it is rarely about what is actually happening. What we see is chiefly about what is in our minds, the things we have fed our minds with, and the direction we have trained our minds to look.

Dale Carnegie once said "Two men looked out from prison bars, One saw the mud, the other saw stars." Neither of these men was wrong about what they saw, the only difference in what they saw is the direction of their gaze. Though they looked through the same channel they looked at different directions, one looked up, the other looked down.

The direction of your gaze is your choice to make, the gateway through which you have to look is wide enough to see what would impact your life the most. You can choose to look upward or downward, you can choose to see positivity or negativity, the situation is not what you see, it is what you choose to see that reflects in the situation.

Your standpoint is also very important and determines to a great extent the things that you see. If you are not seeing what you want to see, if what you are seeing does not impact your life positively, if your vision is blur, obstructed, or partial, you can change your standpoint.

You are what you see, and what you see is who you are. You can always see better by changing your standpoint and or the direction of your gaze. Never maintain rigidity when you need to be flexible; be in control of your life, do not let situations control you. Life is about perspective, and living with the wrong perspective is of utmost detriment to the fulfilment of your dreams and life purpose, so, adjust your perspective and things will fall in place for you.

Have a great and fulfilling week.

John Kamikun (366 days of wisdom).

BE THE MAN, NOT JUST SOME MAN.

BE THE MAN, NOT JUST SOME MAN.

Taking responsibility is a dreaded act for some people. They do not in any way want to be associated with being responsible for anything, they would rather be attached to someone who would be a frontliner than to be in the front themselves.

If you can't take responsibility for your life, for your actions and inactions, for the things you said, you can't become anything. Everyone who have become someone worthy of note or recognition are people who understood the power of taking responsibility.

You cannot always hide behind a veil and expect to stand on a stage; you cannot always be scared of the crowd and expect to receive a medal in front of them. If you must receive a medal in front of the crowd you must have performed excellently in front of that crowd to deserve that medal.

As Sigmund Freud would say, "Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom involves responsibility, and most people are frightened of responsibility." The first step to freedom is taking responsibility, if you can't be responsible for your life, you can not really be free.

Every action taken is always succeeded by a consequence. If you must move from where you are to where you want to be, you must be ready to bear the consequences of your actions, it is the price that one must pay to achieve greatness.

To all your actions, put a face; to everything you do or say, take responsibility; never hide behind a veil, decisions are meant to be taken, and mistakes are meant to be corrected. We were not born perfect, but we are meant to work towards perfection.

Be the man that can be referenced, not some man that cannot be traced; do not go unnoticed, ensure you leave a mark wherever you go. Do what you will be proud you did, and if you are not proud of what you did, learn a lesson or two from it. Don't just be somebody, be the person, BE RESPONSIBLE.

John Kamikun (366 days of wisdom).

HOW BIG IS THE BOX?

HOW BIG IS THE BOX?

Imagine you searching for something you have never seen before, and you were told it could be in a box, on finding the box you started unpacking it and after just a few minutes everything in the box was unpacked and you can't find what you were looking for. Would you quit your search just because you couldn't find what you were looking for in the box?

Sometimes, what we are looking for in a box is too big for that box. Our area of focus may need to either be readjusted or broadened, we must not limit ourselves to a particular place, pattern, or perspective we must go, seek, and think beyond what we are used to, our comfort and familiar environment into territories where we can fully explore the possibilities that may be available to us.

As Otto Perez Molina would say, "We cannot continue doing the same thing and expect different results." We cannot continue limiting ourselves to the box and expect to find something that is not in the box. If we expect a different result from what we have been seeing, we must do differently what we have been doing.

Are you tired of the life you currently live? Think outside the box; Do you get the same results you have been getting? Act outside the box; Do you want to experience a new life, an unlimited life? Look beyond the box. Inside the box there is safety, inside the box there is a guaranteed outcome, inside the box there are limitations, but when you look, think, and act outside the box, there are endless possibilities, outcomes are beyond our imagination, although there are higher risks outside the box, but there are greater successes. Do not be limited to the box it is too small for you, go, think, and act outside the box.

John Kamikun (366 days of wisdom)

As we begin again

 AS WE BEGIN AGAIN

Show gratitude

Gratitude is the show of appreciation for the good deeds we receive, it opens the door to more goodness, and give us more reasons to be grateful. Gratitude turns the little we have into enough. In the words of Melody Beattie, “Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.” No matter how bad our past may be, there are always reasons to be grateful; our present receives peace for the gratitude we show for the past; and gratitude brings us more goodness for tomorrow. Be GRATEFUL.

An opportunity to start again

Every new beginning is an opportunity to start afresh, it is a privilege to begin again on clean slates, to open new chapters, to erase the mistakes and errors of the past, and draw up new visions, dreams, and goals for the future. As Carl Bard would say, “Although no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.” The end you expect is begins now, START.

Be positive

Whatever your heart desire to do, whatever you want to achieve, whatever you have conceived in your heart, with determination, commitment, dedication and confidence you will surely achieve it. You must believe in yourself, in your abilities, skills, and talents. You must cultivate a positive mindset that whatever you do you can achieve. Never let your fears control you, rather let your mind be ruled by possibility that exists ahead of you. The future is bright, even when the situation become dark, never lose hope but turn your eyes on the bright side of life.

In conclusion

Be yourself, run your race, become the person you are supposed to be, live a life of impact, be a thank God person and not an oh God person. The purpose of life is to live a life of purpose, be PURPOSEFUL.

HAPPY PROSPEROUS AND PRODUCTIVE NEW YEAR TO YOU AND ALL OF YOURS.

John Kamikun (366 days of wisdom).