Archive for December 2007

IT’S A NEW SEASON: FACE YOUR GIANTS – YOUR FEARS AND FAILURES!

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“If you want to achieve the most you can, take your eyes off reality and take a peak at possibility” – Shelley Wake


I watched a movie through the mid night today and I was moved at the amazing story. The movie is titled ‘Facing the Giants’. I must confess it is easy to run away from giants than to face them. The good news is that when we face them is when victory could be ascertained but when we run away, we are a dead meat. In the movie, there was a coach of a football team who struggled all the way in his coaching career but was just faced with moments of fear, failure and rejection but he just was never ready to give up. He was going all the way and knew there would be a change someday. He used to have an old car, a failing team, no baby between him and his wife, failing relationships with those who used to back and support him in the past and everything was just not working.

A day came when he decided to stop running away from his giants but in faith and strong belief; face them, he started winning games, his career became one of a cynosure to all eyes, his wife became pregnant after the doctor had declared them hopeless (with a 10%) chance of a baby, he got a new car he never knew who bought it (he got to his car one day after work and he never saw the old one and only met a brand new truck with a little note on it saying it is his, with a receipt and car details in his own name. He was astonished and was crying for almost five minutes and was going around the car and couldn’t enter it. His football team went on to win the state championship that year – a place where all they’ve been doing in the past year was just to admire it. It was indeed a turning around.

Perhaps you have lost hope in that situation of your life; perhaps it seem as if no matter what you do, there is no way out; perhaps the pressure mounted on you is like killing you, perhaps you don’t know what else to do; peradventure things are just not going your way in all ramifications on life: My news to you is that it’s a new season. The old is gone with last year. Face your giants today. No one runs away from his giant and won the battle, no such person exists. We must learn to face our giants. If you are a student and all you get is average score all the time, its time to face your giant with courage and faith that you can make it this time. Why? Because it’s a new dawn, a new season, a new year!

Many have become dead at a bend thinking its an end; many have given up on the track thinking there are many more laps to go whereas it’s the last lap; many have fallen on the way side only to realize that its just remaining a little more. I read of the story of a great swimmer – a record breaker I think – who went to the North Pole to do one of her record breaking swim and had lots of people watching her. It was cold and the sight of everything pointed at impossibility. She trusted her ability and she dived in to start the record breaking swim that would spur her career to heights yet unattained for her. Her mother was in the boat that was just right beside her.

She was about swimming across the whole sea when she gave up and shouted “pull me out”. Her mother said to her, it’s just barely some meters away. She said, “I can’t take it any longer, at least I have broken the record up to this point – no one has ever done it to this point before”. Her mother answered, “You could as well finish it my daughter - it’s just barely some meters away. She couldn’t see because she had her head in the water and the sight of everything was while and almost snowy. Her request was granted and she was pulled out of the cold sea. When she got out, she shouted in disappointment, what remained for her to finish was just about 20meters away. Her mother was like “I told you”. Three years later, she went to the same place and swam the sea wide; this time, no stopping. Its not that she had something she never had the first time when she couldn’t do it but because she couldn’t face her fears.

“Strength does not come from physical capacity but from indomitable will” - Mohandas Gandhi.

Dear reader, it’s a new season, a new day, a new dawn, a new year! You can make it. Try again, don’t stop trying. It’s just barely some meters away; it’s not an end but a bend; its not 10laps more to get the gold but the last lap; it is not over yet; “There is nothing against you to fall down flat, but to lie there – that’s disgrace” – Edmund Cooke. Get up, for the fight; prepare for the run… “In a golf game, when you fail to hit the ball, its called ‘practice’” – Billi Lim. That’s my piece for you for this New Year day. I like the Nike slang “JUST DO IT”.

- Le dynamique professeur

You Carry Something On Your Inside

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"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us" - Oliver Wendell Holmes


There was a boy who went hunting for a bird and sooner than he could he imagine he was able to hold one in his hands and he was delighted. As he was about to turn away and go home, he noticed another colourful bird flying across his path and the bird soon stop on a stone very close to him. He was amazed at the beauty of the bird and as a result was anxious and couldn’t wait to hold it in his arms just like the way he is holding the one in his arms. He went forward and leaned cunningly to grab the colourful bird with his right arm while he held the other on his left. He missed and slipped; while trying to be careful so as not to fall flat to his face, he lost the bird in his hands. Immediately, the bird flew, he looked up only to discover, what he once had in his hands was a young specie of the one he was aiming at. The colours on the bird were just coming out and so still lie under its wings. He regretted as he lost both the one he was aiming at and the one he had in his arms.

Many of us are like that man in the story; we focus so much on what we don’t have while we have so great potential that lies within us. We carry that which the world needs; that which our generation earnestly awaits; that which will shake this planet for good. Lots of Potentials have been buried in the grave. Someone says “The richest spots on the surface of the Earth are not the banks or financial institutions we have in our world but the burial grounds” why? Because lots of people have died with potentials within them unexplored. In fact, some people think they are like the goats, chickens and cats that are born without a purpose on the surface of the earth only to walk around to and fro the whole earth in trial and error to see if they will make it. Absolutely wrong! We are all born with a purpose in life and once that’s discovered, we would fully understand and harness the fullness of our potentials.

Imagine a Nokia N95 phone newly bought and the owner just refuses to read the manual that comes with; its no doubt that the phone will be very much under utilized and the glory of the phone will be reduced to an ordinary phone. The day and night work of the manufacturer to make the phone a high-tech quality then comes to naught and void. Perhaps the owner will only be using it to sms and call while the phone can do lots of things ranging from taking pictures to video recording, mp3 player, internet surfing, to mention a few. The potential of the phone is being limited. I remember when my Dad, got his Nokia N95 phone, he said to me “Son, if one doesn’t read the manual of this thing, it will be highly underutilized and one will think he’s enjoying it; I will spend days studying this manual so as to fully harness it potential”. In fact you need to see what the phone has brought and done to Dad so far.

Like the owner of the phone who doesn’t know what the phone could do, many of us like that walk around without knowing how much lies inside of us. We are bunch of Gold on the inside if only we would just appreciate what we have and not focus too much on what we don’t have. Great Leaders of this world are people who understood what they were born to do and lived for it, the fact is that most of them even died in it. People like Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Mother Theresa, Abraham Lincoln, and Albert Einstein, to mention a few. You know those people and I am quite sure you are in love with the life they lived and you want to be like them. One thing you are yet to realize is that you are special, you are unique, you carry something the whole world is awaiting; you carry great potentials on your inside that can move mountains. Start dreaming it; Begin to believe it; Start confessing it; Start living it.

Yes! You are an embodiment of great potentials; you are gold on the inside.

See you at the top!

- Le dynamique professeur

There is nothing named 'CAN'T'

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The passion of my dreams and the fear of not making it through suddenly hit me as I approached the end of my Bachelors degree in the private school where I had my final year. I had plans within me of what to do. I had plans listed from A to D - as an avid planner. Plan A was to apply into Nanyang Technological University (NTU) for my masters, plan B was to apply for masters too at National University of Singapore (NUS), plan C was to continue in the private school where I was as they were about to start an MBA course with the same school I would be earning my degree from and plan D was to apply to another notable private school. I knew one of the plans will surely work out but I had a desire. I knew what I wanted.


I implored advice of friends and even people in my school then about my plans and what I get was a negation of what I wanted; some said, "just continue with this school and get your masters done" while some even said to me "you cant get into any of those schools - NTU and NUS - they are big schools, infact no one has ever finished from here and made it there". At first fear was about to grip me and was about losing hope of my dream in one of those prestigious schools. NTU then was the 59th best in the world while NUS was 20th best. I knew what I wanted, although, i wanted NTU more than NUS.


My plight went on until I met someone who was doing his masters degree in NTU who told me, its no problem, I should just apply and see what happens. As I took all the steps towards appyling, lots of people were saying, "its not possible". I personally almost agreed with them but I took the steps towards the application and here am I today, a bonafide student of the NTU - first semester gone and one more semester to go. As I am writing this, two quote came to my mind;


"Fear is necessary for courage to exist. Courage can only be manifested in the presence of fear" - Myles Munroe


"'can't' can only be found in the dictionary of the dead" - Le dynamique professeur


Simply because some people say its not possible does not make that step you are about to take impossible unless you consent to it. Too many people have allowed the people to undermine the potential within them. Perhaps your teacher has called you a C student and since then you have turned and average student and you are living an average life; as an average worker, an average student, an average husband or average wife with average kids; its high time you change your thinking. Nobody can give you any name without your consent: we have seen people change their names when they are up to stature simply because they dont like the names given to them by their parents. If that can happen, you can refuse to agree with whatever label, people may attach to you because of certain circumstance or situation.


You are born to be great. You are not born by mistake. No one has the right to give you failure or average as a name. IQ test still doesnt show who you are, its only a result based on one test out of many tests in life. "what you can do has nothing to do with what you have once failed in" likewise "what you can be has nothing to do with what you havent achieved". "whatever you can behold, is what you can hold; whatever you can picture, you can capture" - John Ekundayo. Dream Big! Who says you can live it? Map out plans! who says you cant make it? Go the extramile! who says its only meant for some people? When people try to discourage you, tell them, there is nothing named 'can't'. See you at the top.


Le dynamique professeur


Its your strength, not your weakness – Drew Boston Box II

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WHAT WE DON’T KNOW WE KNOW

The problem is half solved when the things you don’t know, are no longer elements of ignorance to you. It then requires the appropriate weapon for every battle. The reason why many people don’t get to overcome their difficulties is that they are sure they don’t know something and instead of doing something about it, they refer to it as “their weakness”. Some of them will say it like this “Its just my weakness, there is nothing I cant do about it” of “ever since I was born, it has been like this and it cant change; this is me”. WRONG! Whatever is it that brings you to the understanding of being sure of the things that seem to be your weaknesses is only trying to lead you to identifying solutions to them.

I was reading the book of my favorite author today (Understanding your Potential – Myles Munroe), and I got one thing from the foreword written by Jerry Horner; “People generally fall into three main kind of groups: the few who make things happen, the many who watch things happen, and the over-whelming majority who have no notion of what happens. Every person is either a creator of fact or a creature of circumstance”


Dear reader, do not allow yourself to become a creature of circumstance. Do not allow your so-called ‘natural weakness’ to hold you down in destiny. I was telling a friend today and I said, there is no one blessed with the gift of success in life, God has given it to every man equally. No one has it more than the other; the difference lies in those decide to make it in life and would not just give up until they make weapons of strength out of their weaknesses. Take a conscious step towards converting your weaknesses into strength today.


Seek Help; the things you don’t know be humble enough to learn from others. This starts from valuing the people with the knowledge not trying to criticize and discourage them. Going the extra mile is also a very important tool here. Do the ‘extras’ in making sure that you understand those things you wouldn’t just catch the first time. Those things that seem to be your weakness create strength out of them.


WHAT WE DON’T KNOW, WE DON’T KNOW

Someone once said “if you think education is expensive, why not try ignorance”. I must say at this point that ignorance is not an excuse. Some will argue, we can’t just do anything about those blind spots of our live, can we? YES! You can… Another person will say, “But these blind spots are natural, they are just part of us and we don’t know them. For the mere fact that you don’t know what you don’t know doesn’t mean you can never ever come to the knowledge of it – if only we are committed to moving forward. It’s like a blind man walking on the road without a stick in his hands and he’s about to hit his leg on a rock ahead of him; it’s obvious the blind man doesn’t know he has such a thing on his way. My advice for the blind man is; 1. Get a person to show you the way. 2. Get a stick to feel where you are going before every step.


Like I quote what Robin Sharma said in his book (The greatness guide), “the best things to do in life are the most difficult things to do”. No matter what, recognizing and discovering the blindspots of your life is never a waste of time. It can save your tomorrow. It can save the people around you. Ultimately, your vision becomes clearer with confidence. My advice in this column is that you seek exposure; attend seminars, listen more, be open to receive and not to critique, ask questions; never be shy or afraid to ask about anything you don’t know.
“Wisdom is too lofty for a fool; He does not open his mouth in the gate.” – The bible.
I will end this series with this wonderful poem from the book I am reading presently (Understanding your potential – Myles Munroe).


I am only one
But I am one
I cannot do everything
But I can do something

What I can do
I ought to do
And what I ought to do
By the grace of God I will do
- Jerry Horner
Virginia Beach, Virginia

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