Conquering Fear by Staying Outside Your Comfort Zone

Fear sometimes or oftentimes compels us to stay in our comfort zone. If each person is allowed to have their way, they would likely choose to stay right in their comfort zone, and never venture outside it.

One of the main reasons why many people fail to utilize great opportunities that can shoot them to stardom is due to their decision to remain right inside their comfort zone. They don’t want to have anything to do with the potential or obvious qualms that lie in wait outside.

Fortunately or unfortunately, no matter how hard we try to stay in our respective comfort zones, there comes a time when we have no other option than to get up, leave, and stay outside our comfort zones so that we can stand a good chance of achieving success.

Although it sounds odd, the truth is that our very discomfort zones are effective or sure-fire ways we can use to tackle and conquer very the fears that impede our progress.

If you need to move up the ladder to the next level in your life, regardless of the endeavor, then you must learn to draw closer to, get increasingly familiar with, and stay outside your comfort zone which, at the same time, happens to be the domain of your discomfort zone.

But how or where do you start tackling or conquering the fears that have gripped us and seemingly have the upper hand at the moment? You start by bracing yourself and getting outside your comfort zone.

Regardless of the situation at hand, take baby steps and start associating with the very things that you are afraid of—the very things you dislike, the very things you’d prefer to stay away from—whether it is reading, writing, going to the gym, or just anything at all.

Baby steps are like the little drops of water that are bound together but still make up the mighty ocean: baby steps are like the little grains of sand that make up each part of the Earth’s land.

Each baby step—which is actually action on/interaction with your discomfort zone—leads to increasing degrees of familiarity and positivity that would subconsciously and eventually “draw you in” to do and become what you’ve always desired. Being consistent with the baby steps leads to the goal—your dream!

Tackling or conquering fears by taking repetitive actions that are seemingly uncomfortable or outside your comfort zone

As odd, uncomfortable, or difficult as it might seem to go over or step outside your comfort zone, it can—and in many cases will—pay you rich dividends if you do it, especially in the long run and in important areas of your life.

Since some fears are somewhat aligned or intertwined with our dreams, we usually have no other healthier option than to stretch beyond our comfort zone by gradually exposing ourselves to the discomforts or fears which are, fortunately, also opportunities for personal growth.

Exposing one’s self to fears or discomforts is actually the same thing as exposing one’s self to the opposite of what they actually like doing, which, in most cases, is staying or living permanently in a comfort zone, without ever having a care in the world!

However, it is important to note that staying in your comfort zone, instead of staying out, can keep you far away from your own promised land—the eventual realization of your dreams.

Are you afraid of heights? If yes, then start navigating towards those heights instead of running away from them. If you need to conquer the fear of heights to achieve your dreams, then the earlier you start going towards those discomforting heights—instead of shying or running away from them—the faster and better things could move for you! Some of the greatest mountain and cliff climbers were once afraid of heights in the past—they had some fear and discomfort. However, they made consistent attempts to associate with and face their fear of heights; eventually, they ended up hiking on the highest mountains and climbing cliffs which are usually higher than the tallest buildings in the world. Many of the best wouldn’t have been able to achieve the astounding feats they achieved, if not for the fact that they made consistent efforts to face their fear of heights. If not for their continuous exposure to heights and consistent approach, they wouldn’t have been able to develop the power that enabled them to get rid of the fear of heights.

Maybe you’re not afraid of heights. Maybe you’re afraid of reading! Are you one of many people who hate opening and reading books? If your answer is “yes”, then it’s important to note that if you don’t love and become familiar with opening and reading your books, it’s going to be very difficult or impossible to achieve your dreams. If you need to conquer the fear of reading to achieve your dreams, then it’s best to start opening and reading your books instead of running away from them—make it a habit! Reading books is actually the opposite of what many people feel like doing; however, reading is necessary and the most important thing that should be done in order to achieve certain goals—especially, many big ones! If people can get rid of their fear of reading, they would be able to open and read books without struggling to do it. And this could lead to a whole new world: a full-blown personal transformation!

If you’re afraid of writing, then writing is what you need to get familiar with or make a habit of doing, without having to struggle so much: writing is what you need to gravitate to, love, and make your pal in order to conquer the fear you have for it. You need to start picking up your pen and make a consistent effort to write and write and write, instead of running away from it. Exposing yourself to more and more writing would help you to grow and eventually get rid of the fear of writing.

If you need to conquer the fear of public speaking to achieve your dreams, then it’s best to start navigating towards any opportunity that can allow you to speak in public. Stop the habit of running away when opportunities arise. Even if you don’t think that you’re ready at the moment, you can and must start preparing your mindset as best as you possibly can for any opportunity (opportunities are always hanging around, waiting for people to pounce on them). This will put you in the best shape to embrace any opportunity that comes around. Although exposing yourself to public speaking—or making public speeches—could be scary and are the opposite of what you normally feel like doing, deep down you know how important it is to you; therefore, use it to your advantage and rid yourself of the fear of public speaking.

If you’re afraid of exploring new ventures (instead of embracing them like some of the world’s people who have thrived on adventures and explored new worlds), then you need to conquer the fear of exploring new ventures! If you don’t start becoming familiar with and loving new ventures, you’d find it difficult or impossible to achieve your dreams that are tied to new ventures. Exposing yourself to new ventures might be the opposite of what you actually like doing; however, it’s necessary for you to gravitate towards new ventures, start associating with them, and take baby steps to grow until you get rid of your fear of new ventures.

Concluding words: advice

One of the most important lessons we can learn from the experiences of people who have lived outside their comfort zone—or embraced discomfort, but nevertheless achieved success—is that everyone has the ability to start tackling and conquering their fear until they start seeing light at the end of the tunnel, and eventually conquer their fear.

Don’t get me wrong: regardless of our individual levels of success, each one of us still has some level of fear or reservation towards certain activities or ventures. However, we—you, me, or anyone else—can greatly diminish or even completely eradicate such levels of fear or reservation if we take those available baby steps, move, and stay outside our comfort zone.

We hope that this post will encourage you step regularly outside your comfort zone in any way that you possibly can, whether it is little or big, or even both! A little way can include something as simple as doing push-ups a little bit harder during a workout, reading or writing a bit more every day, or working for a little longer when you actually feel like sleeping or don’t feel like doing anything—even when it can help you achieve your dreams. A big way can include something as terrifying or scary as climbing higher mountains or cliffs; or it can include something as challenging as reading a 500-page book or writing 20,000 words every week; on the other hand, it can also include something as stultifying as speaking in front of more than two or more people.

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Often, the Line Between Failure & Success is so Thin that We Hardly Know When We’re Right There

In a world of difficulties, hardships, challenges, and hustles, being a genius or achieving success often comes by making consistent efforts. But while making those consistent efforts, many people fail or fall off the cliff when they get to the tipping point which, if they could just add a bit more effort, would produce large effects and great success.

The thing is that, after giving their all, so many people fail to recognize when they’ve reached the tipping point or line between failure and success. The next time you feel like giving up, even though you’ve invested a ton of time, patience, money, and whatnot, persuade yourself to push a little bit longer because you might just be on the thin line between failure and success.

Every time we’ve tried and tried and tried and gone some distance, chances are that success is just around the corner, but we fail to recognize it because of a few or countless reasons: the line between failure and success is so thin that we barely realize that we’ve reached it or even passed it.

It’s unfortunate how lots of people have thrown up their hands or given up at a time when a little more effort, a little more patience, and a little more hustle would achieve the success they’ve been craving for since forever.

If we are not careful, the more the tide of challenges clears out, the more our impatience would wear thin, and we may hardly know when we’re just an inch away from success: sometimes, our prospects may seem darkest when they’re right there at the turning point to success—a point where many fail to recognize that a little more effort and persistence could turn hopeless failure into glorious success.

Failure only arrives eventually when we give up and decide not to continue trying any longer. Whenever you reach a point where start believing that you can no longer go on, then your self-discipline has begun to run out of gas; rather than throwing up your hands in defeat, move the opposite direction and persist just a little bit longer because success could just be around the corner.

Moderation Shouldn’t Serve as an Excuse Not to Do or Be Your Best

Whenever we make firm resolutions to develop ourselves or achieve our goals, we might have the tendency or be tempted to push ourselves way beyond our limit which is the maximum we are capable of doing or producing around a particular time.

Although it is true that our ambitiousness is a virtue we must use to the maximum or extreme, it is equally true that there is some danger involved in doing things to the extreme and going from one extreme to another.

Therefore, we must be prudent on how we handle or use moderation: if you’ve been struggling to work for one or two hours per day, suddenly forcing yourself to work for sixteen hours per day will likely not end with the desired outcome. In fact, it could end in a breakdown or wear out.

If you’re struggling to restrict your appetite by eating once a day or per two days, then suddenly imposing a 7-day fast on yourself would e stressful and likely not end with the desired outcome.

Find somewhere between the extremes—“the middle way”. Stick to it and work on continuously increasing it over time and when you look back, you will see progress. In fact, based on the results you achieve, you could decide whether to still stretch your maximum, your extreme, or your limit!

As much as it is advisable for everybody to push their limit and explore greater boundaries, we don’t need to put our lives, health, emotions, or environment at risk just because we want to achieve good or great results.

Subjecting yourself to extreme hardships could have some merits, but it may not always bring the desired sustainability we’d like to have over the long term. In fact, it could be downright dangerous to subject ourselves to certain extremes!

Using the extreme approach over the long term could wear you and your life out without allowing you to get close to your goals. In whatever you do, don’t waste time hanging around; at the same time, don’t become busy to such an extent that you’re literally sucking the life out of your own life!

Remember to apply moderation in all things—including moderation itself. And if you need to apply a more extreme approach, do so for a fair or short period of time, and in a way that could be beneficial to your goals.

Now let’s take a look at moderation from a different perspective: whenever people use it as an excuse to not do their best: whenever people make mediocrity out of moderation and deprive themselves of doing or being at their best.

Moderation is key but it can go bad if one forgets that going for little or much less can be a bad thing, and going to the extreme can also be a bad thing. Always remember that you can find somewhere between the extremes—“the middle way”—if you really wish to.

For instance, some moderation would be good if you’re trying to lift a heavy weight that you can barely lift off the floor. But what good does it serve you when you let moderation make you become comfortable with consistently lifting something that’s as light as a feather?

If you really want to work on your muscles, what’s valuable in bragging about lifting something that’s almost weightless? Why make mediocrity out of moderation and allow certain levels of moderation to limit your growth?

Beware of any type of moderation that allows you to stick to easy things that are well within grasp and, by so doing, doesn’t allow you to really grow. Furthermore, beware of any type of moderation that forces you to do something that you can barely do.

Generally, any moderation that lowers your standards could end up covering you with mediocrity: a male athlete who thinks that exercising once a week is great—because most of his friends exercise only once a month—will most likely stop challenging himself and become mediocre because of his misuse of moderation.

Although it can be important to inspire yourself by making comparisons with other people, it may be even more important to compare the state of your present self with that of your past self.

For instance, if today you’re still making the same output you were making a year ago when you started producing something, then perhaps you’ve not used moderation in a good or right way. It may be that you have even substituted moderation with self-congratulation.

The Earlier You Act, the Sooner You’ll be Through

Procrastination only stacks loads and even loads upon loads on us. Procrastination gives some people fewer loads to carry and some other people more, depending on their choices and actions.

Generally, many people have truckloads upon truckloads to carry and never seem to make headway with their duties and realize their dreams.

Only a few people are organized enough to act early or earlier on their stuff and get things done sooner—or even much sooner than usual! Yes, when it comes to getting stuff done on time, it is not compulsory or even advisable to copy exactly what other people are doing; however, it is admirable to imitate people in order to avoid procrastination at home, work, or anywhere in any endeavor.

If you really want to tackle procrastination effectively, the moment you realize you’re wasting time avoiding work or doing nothing, especially when you have a ton to do, immediately stop whatever unproductive thing you’re doing and just start acting or working.

“Thoughts” and the process of thinking usually get the most out of the people who lose to procrastination because, as they allow themselves to ponder over “starting” or “not starting” something, their resistance to “starting” increases, and sooner or later, this resistance to starting overwhelms and overcomes them, and they end up achieving nothing valuable or productive for a whole day, week, month, or significant period of time!

The trick of acting—instead of thinking (pondering)—works better than thinking

Acting early or earlier beats all unforeseen or hidden blocks. On the other hand, thinking or pondering sets us up for potential challenges that may overwhelm us, even when we’ve made a strong resolution to act on stuff earlier and get it done sooner.

“Acting early” is a trick that works because it ensures you maximum resistance against procrastination “at the onset”. It is crucial to make use of such a level of maximum resistance at the onset because the more we think about getting started and don’t act early enough, the more we become sluggish, allow time to pass by, and make it easier to procrastinate instead of actually getting started.

Once you always resist that urge or temptation “not to start” and you actually start performing a task—no matter how unpleasant it is—then you stand to gain some momentum and make it easier to start tasks and get them done instead of giving up and procrastinating.

Whenever you find yourself resisting or hesitating instead of acting early enough or earlier, then act immediately and deal with stuff early and “once and for all”. The earlier you act, the sooner you’ll be done with whatever stuff you act on.

An added advantage of acting early is that it creates more time to focus on new/other stuff and prevents thoughts of “unfinished business” from creeping up and rolling up and down the back of your mind.

Each little act of acting early can help you develop or establish and maintain a habit of choosing to start stuff early instead of allowing all types of stuff—easy, hard, etc.—to accumulate over the passage of time, as cobwebs do in a beautiful house.

If you adopt a habit or work ethic of acting early on stuff, you’ll eliminate or greatly reduce the impact of procrastination on your activities, goals, dreams, and life, and have more time and tranquillity at your fingertips.

The Hidden Value in Your Difficulties

Nowadays, people like dodging difficulties! In fact, it seems dodging difficulties or “looking for a way out” is the fastest growing norm of our time, especially as technology, AI, robots, and countless applications are always around the corner, waiting to be summoned and used to achieve results, quickly and effortlessly.

Although it may be pleasant to desire and experience only easy successes, if easy successes are the only successes you want, you’ll end up generally expecting quick, effortless results. This develops or strengthens a mentality that is weak against difficulties, and it can’t support resilience, patience, and some other important qualities that are crucial to survival.

A mentality that expects quick results—but is weak against the difficulties and the uncertainties of life—would also be unreliable when life hits you hard with challenges or difficulties; in addition, you’ll likely not have the mental toughness to withstand and overcome future difficulties, maybe even the small ones!

Although there is a big difference in value between easy successes and tough successes—which may even require sweat, tears, and blood—does it mean you should accomplish your goals by using only the most difficult successes, and neglecting or rejecting the easier or easiest ones?

Of course not! However, it’s important to note that you won’t stand much to benefit in the school of life if you deliberately avoid all difficulties without at least giving a thought or more about the potential values they may possess.

And yes, it may feel like a smart move to evade difficulties all the time. But the long term impact could end up limiting your potential and making you less potent enough to handle all possible scenarios of life, which include all positive and negative experiences of life.

Life contains a ton of load that we must carry, and the load can take a toll on anyone who is not fit enough to withstand its difficulties—not only its ease which, as we all know, can never be a problem!

Because we all most likely have big, ambitious, and demanding long term goals where our level and power of self-discipline grows strong and shines more in difficulties than in ease—this instills the greatest feeling of having accomplished something worth doing.

Without Patience, Even Millions of Resources & Sacrifices Would Take You Nowhere

Generally, no matter how urgently any pregnant woman wants a child, she has to be patient for nine months to have one. No matter how brilliant a college student is, he or she must spend at least the duration of their course before receiving a certificate and exiting school.

Patience is a great virtue we need most times in combination with self-discipline. For without patience, even millions of resources and sacrifices won’t help us achieve certain goals, especially long-term ones.

If you really want to accomplish long-term goals, be ready to subdue any feelings of instant expectation—exercise patience! Self-discipline might be a necessary additive to keep patience in check as you wait for days, weeks, months, or years to achieve a big result.

Although sometimes you can force results more quickly—by working harder or being more diligent—in many instances, great or impactful results take time and there is just no way on Earth to cut corners or rush to completion.

No matter how many resources you invest or sacrifices you make, without patience and probably self-discipline, you’ll just end up getting nowhere. Like undergoing necessary stages of development or growing from a teenager to an adult, some things only follow a natural order that we can’t control.

If you fail to recognize this and the things that need patience and cannot be rushed, you might not be able to muster and exert enough patience; even when you apply some patience, you might end up misapplying the self-discipline needed to keep your patience in check.

As a result, you might end up achieving nothing instead of eventually achieving something or anything. For example, there is a natural limit to the quantity of fat our bodies can burn per week without breaking down our muscles.

But if we try to rush the natural process by starving ourselves, then the most likely outcome is that we would end up not only going back to square one—or the land of nowhere—but we would put on some additional body fat or weight.

Even with immaterial things such as developing and controlling our minds to eventually radiate optimism, we can’t force ourselves to achieve results overnight.

Transforming or rewiring your mind and brain takes time, and no matter how much sacrifice, time, and resources you spend practicing meditation or reading books about mind or emotional control, you can’t evade a process that requires time.

Lack of sufficient patience might even cause you to lose faith in something that other people have tried and achieved results by remaining steadfast and applying patience.

Generally, people who have taken years or decades to develop a certain habit or trait shouldn’t expect to reverse it completely within a few days, weeks, months, or years.

Approach life with the belief and mentality that there is a process and time for everything and you will always do your best; but in so doing, you won’t allow impatience and its children—discouragement, frustration, etc.—to wear you down if the process is slow or moves slowly.

It would be as meaningless as a pregnant woman who is complaining that she hasn’t conceived a child, even when she is fully aware that her pregnancy hasn’t lasted up to nine months.

Acting a Fool to Fool Your Way to Success

During the search for success, one aspect that many people frequently overlook or undervalue is the fact that if we wish to move higher up in life and rise above mediocrity, then we must be ready to learn and grow by making a fool out of ourselves every now and then.

It’s difficult or almost impossible to accurately predict the future. Regardless, we need to make decisions—the results which we may either live to be happy with, live to be okay with, or live to regret.

Even when everything convinces us that our decisions would work out well, not all of them actually end up working well. Once anybody is ready to step outside their comfort zone and fool around to acquire more knowledge and develop, they will develop an intuitive understanding of the difference between what works and what doesn’t work.

This would lead to discovery of answers people don’t have or know. Time always proves that we may need to act a fool—not purposely or intentionally—before we become wise and successful in life. Yes, we may need to fool our way to success.

No one said it better than Dan Waldschmidt: “You have to look like a fool while you’re looking for answers you don’t have”.

You’ve probably gotten into a new environment and told everyone about your plan to build a big business, but unfortunately—despite your level of education, intelligence, effort, enthusiasm, and the professionals at your disposal—you couldn’t get the job done.

You couldn’t realize your aspirations. You couldn’t deliver the impressive performance you dreamed of and promised people. Why? Because you quit after eventually losing all your money and savings.

Notwithstanding, despite investing in a business and foolishly or unintentionally losing all your money, you may have learned some priceless lessons and gained great wisdom alongside the obvious disappointment.

In a world where we are born as infants destined to act a fool or make mistakes and grow or mature, it is natural and quite normal to fool or fail our way to success.

Those who think otherwise tend to do anything possible to avoid opportunities for learning and growth, especially when the opportunities have the potential to become riddled by errors and mistakes or susceptible to somewhat foolish or naive decisions and failures.

Although acting a fool, humiliation, failure, and rejection are anything but pleasant, in a world of challenges, growth, and development, such negatives end up making some people become successful and everything but failure itself.

The ability to act a fool and withstand failure and rejection—while continuously pressing on without giving up—is one of the major differences between successful people and people who fail to realize their dreams.

As disagreeable as it sounds, occasionally acting a fool can be part of the process of becoming successful. Fortunately, the more you expose yourself to failure, foolhardiness, rejection, or humiliation, the more comfortable you will feel when handling the issues they create.

Don’t Wait for Chances—Look for Chances and Seize Them by the Horn

The most successful people are not those who have waited for chances, but those who have searched for chances, besieged chances, conquered chances, taken over chances, and used chances to achieve greatness, even when the chances were seriously challenging.

In case you look for a chance and find one that is a negative situation or leads to failure, you can still use that failure as a teachable moment and later on apply any lessons you learn from it.

It is true that while looking for chances, we may run into negative situations. But we have to learn how to absorb the power of negative situations and infuse ourselves with energy that can propel us to success.

If you think it’s enough to only take advantage of the chances or opportunities that come to you, instead of looking for them, you may likely fall short of greatness which is mostly attained by looking for chances, and besieging and seizing them.

One effective thing you must do is learn how to press your buttons and move forward even when everybody around you or everyone in a negative situation sees only disaster.

Never forget that during apparently negative moments, when most people or everyone is besieged and seized by discouragement, you can still act unexpectedly and swiftly and seize chances in a way that can pull off a great victory.

We shouldn’t always ignore every negative situation and allow the crises they contain to become a waste. Crises could provide opportunities for us to achieve things we couldn’t achieve before or without crises.

If you observe the great successes or achievements of the past and present, you will clearly notice that, while looking for chances, some people stumbled across negative events which they seized and used to achieve success or push through much-needed reforms. We all can still do the same in our lives.

If you plan to use the chances you’ve found, but run into accidents or failures, you can still use them to your advantage

Have you become sick and are tied to your bed? Well, you now have time to write or think and develop more or better plans for your future.

Have you lost your relationship? Well, you now have time to look for a better one or even the best one out there.

Learn to look for chances in negative situations, seize their moments, and bring life to the plans that have been latent or sitting dormant in your mind.

While other people are shying away from every negative situation, and avoiding every trouble in a world that’s designed to be full of troubles, do the opposite: become your best version in seemingly difficult circumstances; turn tragedies or misfortunes to your advantage.

Don’t always focus on the negatives in some of the chances you seek for. Stop feeling disappointed and sorry for yourself. And never forget that life always moves on and favors the bold and brave who are able to seize chances even when they contain a ton of negativity.

We complain that we haven’t been given chances or opportunities, but we have—chances always exist, even in seemingly negative situations

At certain moments during our brief existence in this physical life, when we look for chances but run into frustrating or unfair challenges or trials, are we fond of running away from the adversity they throw at us or do we use the adversity to mount an offense that can lead us to success?

More precisely, do we look deeper into our problems and challenges in order to find opportunities or solutions that we’ve long been waiting for? If we don’t do so—in order to look for chances and take them—then it’s on us, and no one else.

When other people are waiting for chances, don’t wait; go out and look for them until you find them. And if eventually, you end up finding them but they are negative or challenging, instead of focusing on the negativity and disaster radiating from them, look further for positives and any opportunities.

Overcoming Obstacles by Using Obstacles Against Themselves

Overcoming an obstacle surely requires taking action. Action has many definitions…taking action does not necessarily require force or motion for it to be effective—implying that we can take firm action by not acting as the average person would.

Sometimes, the best or easiest way to overcome an obstacle is by halting, stepping aside, remaining a bit laid back, and even letting the obstacle advance towards you, instead of attacking it when the opportunity arises.

In many regards, inaction or dormancy is enough action. Everything doesn’t need to be as active or forceful as people or society would expect. We are at liberty to act in ways that would make any obstacle absorb its own power and destroy itself, but still work for us on the other hand.

Perhaps, your obstacle or enemy looks really insurmountable, as it did against Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, and many others who concentrated on overcoming obstacles by pitching love against hatred, and peace against violence, injustice, and intimidation. 

Some obstacles may be impossible to defeat, regardless of the action you take or the amount of effort you put in. Instead of using your own unlimited resources to attack, why not find a way to use your obstacle’s resources and adversity against its totality—against itself.

It hardly ever occurs to us that, in some cases, standing still or moving backward is the best way to advance

Actually, sometimes we need to take action. But we also have to acknowledge that inaction—restraining ourselves or “holding back”—might be the best action to eliminate the blocks on our respective paths.

Sometimes, each person needs to have patience or a bit more patience than the patience they have cultivated in their life: sometimes, we just need to wait for obstacles to dry up or fizzle out.

Sometimes, an obstacle might not require anything or much from you. As a result, taking any or too much action could become your own worst enemy and get you consumed when moving forward.

We wrongly assume that the only way we can progress, the only way we can win, is by attacking or moving forward, instead of pausing or standing—in fact, doing virtually nothing!

At the end of the day, what matters is whether the approach you use gets you to the place you desire. Although pausing, slowing down, or using obstacles against themselves may seem ineffective, it is different from doing nothing, and can often help to achieve a great deal.

Look closely and you may be surprised to find out that the bigness of your obstacles can, in fact, be an advantage for you and a disadvantage for your obstacles. It can help you push the tide against your obstacles.

Yes, we can use the things that seriously challenge us to our advantage and make them do the hard work for us. Sometimes, this would require us to calm down, leave our obstacles the way they are, instead of stressing ourselves to take every conceivable action.

Defeat is Nothing but Education—Steps to Become Better

Defeat precedes almost all types of success. In fact, it is a preceding feature of almost all successes. Defeat is a great asset when used to learn, improve, and become better. 

So there’s nothing shameful about being wrong or experiencing defeat when it has the potential to be eye-opening and elevate you from grass to grace.

There’s definitely nothing wrong with defeats that open up more pathways, provide new options, and continue to prove that problems are not problems—they are opportunities!

To a certain degree, most successes in life embrace some element of defeat and failure in one way or another. In fact, defeat and failure contribute to great successes.

In an imperfect world where there are many masters, but nobody is truly the Master—nobody knows it all—it helps to keep trying your best while tolerating failures, possibly many times over.

It’s okay to fail or experience defeat. Experiencing defeat may even be a good thing—a blessing in disguise—if you experience and learn from it without allowing it to defeat you.

When defeat or failure comes, go back to the drawing board and ask questions

Questions and answers are two sides of the same coin. Defeats raise important questions and lead to the discovery of many important answers.

Whenever defeat comes, don’t leave yourself to chance and become stuck and paralyzed as many others do. Ask yourself what you’re missing, what can be improved, what went wrong, etc.

Calm down, ask questions, look for answers, then learn and develop. Look at defeats as sources of breakthroughs because they put people in corners or situations that force them to think their way out and become conquerors.

Defeats often led and still lead to the discovery of alternative methods of doing things. It prompts inquisitive people to go back to the drawing board and gain more insight to find items or activities that are more productive or effective than the existing ones.

The only way not to benefit from defeat is by not learning from it

People usually fail in one way or another, all the time, but many don’t learn a thing or two. They don’t pay attention to the details and lessons in defeats or failures.

They don’t listen to the sounds of the problems that defeat or failure exposes. If they would, it could make them better and more prepared to seize many defeats or failures by the horn and achieve more success.

It’s high time we come to terms with the fact that every defeat or failure has the potential to give us valuable lessons and instructions on how to improve and become better, if we really pay attention and get inquisitive—ask questions.

Paying attention to defeats in a positive way can help to turn pessimistic views into optimistic ones, overcome obstacles, turn disappointments into opportunities, and prove what is right by showing what is wrong or unnecessary.

Achieving Success Despite Facing Obstacles that Hold Many People Back

Almost every now and then, we face obstacles—an unexpected, unfortunate, frustrating, and problematic issue—that prevent us from doing what we want to do.

Unknown to many of us, embedded in the issue or problem are benefits—benefits only for the person to whom the issue or problem is unique.

What do most people do with the issue or problem? They do nothing because it paralyzes them. They wish the issue would be just a mere empty thought, but it is reality.

Despite the reality of any issue, there is something that is highly valuable and equally/more of a reality: the possibility for you to succeed despite facing the obstacles that have held and still hold other people back.

Obstacles are usually general but, in a way, unique to each of us

The obstacles that block us are obvious and real. Every obstacle is somewhat unique to each individual because of the different or slightly different types of responses they elicit from each individual: hope, optimism, helplessness, pessimism, frustration, depression, fear, anger, etc.

Obstacles may include but aren’t limited to: race; height; age; size; poverty; high emotional stress; lack of confidence; inexperience; prejudice; skyrocketing costs of education; laws or regulations; crumbling, disintegrating, or decaying public/government or private institutions; etc.

Although we are dissatisfied with our position in the world, jobs, relationships, etc., and blame the economy, our bosses, and politicians when we can’t achieve our goals, we usually forget to fault our own individual attitudes or approaches to the general obstacles that many other people face but only a few overcome and achieve success.

In many instances, we need to face and work to overcome obstacles, instead of dodging them

When confronted by obstacles, and even failure, most people try to hit the road and run away. Even when they succeed in running away, it usually makes them become reactive, disoriented and torn apart.

However, if we look elsewhere, back into the past, or not too far away from us, we would notice that some individuals have turned the very obstacles we face into launching pads for success.

If you look elsewhere, back into the past, or not too far away from you, you would clearly sense and conclude that anyone can still succeed despite facing obstacles that hold many other people back.

If you read a little bit more history, then you would find out that earlier generations of mankind faced much more difficult problems than present or recent generations and were able to use the obstacles to progress, while most of us are still stuck in similar obstacles of the present-day.

Maybe we need to understand, appreciate, and discover how to use the obstacles that life throws at us

If we look elsewhere, back into the past, or not too far away from us and see the unimaginable obstacles and day-to-day frustrations that great men and women had to overcome before achieving success, we may need to change our individual perspectives about obstacles and learn how to use them for our own good.

If we look elsewhere, back into the past, or not too far away from us, and see the resistance, rivalries, stresses, drama, challenges, breakups, economic calamities, and pressures that some successful people had to experience and endure before achieving success, we would have a stronger mindset and more positive outlook on the obstacles of life.

Great and successful individuals find ways to transform obstacles into opportunities and weaknesses into strengths

It is inspiring to look elsewhere, back into the past, or not too far away from us, and see people progress further in life by using what should have held them backward in failure.

It is inspiring to look elsewhere, back into the past, or not too far away from us, and see great men and women of history use obstacles to fuel their ambition and create fortune from misfortune, instead of allowing discouragement and pessimism to take control.

If you conduct thorough research about people who achieved success and were outstanding, you will discover that successful or outstanding people come through obstacles in different shapes and sizes. They could be:

• basketballers who weren’t tall
• athletes who were too small
• members of a race who didn’t “fit in”
• musicians who were deaf
• footballers who were initially subpar
• bastards and immigrants who were “unrefined”
• dropouts who were initially ill-mannered
• disabled or dyslexics
• etc.

But what happened despite their background or the obstacles they faced? They put in more effort. They hustled to grow in areas where they were lacking. They practiced harder! They paid their full dues! They achieved success even though many—maybe, even far too many—in their shoes gave up.

Although the obstacles might have kicked them around a bit, they still used the obstacles as opportunities and flipped each one to their advantage. We can do the same: regardless of whether we experience difficulty in getting a job, while running on less money, fighting against discrimination, locking horns with a hater, etc., we can use obstacles to our advantage if we take a closer look at them.

Regrouping After Failure

Getting back after failure. Starting after quitting. Winning after losing. Regrouping after failure! No matter what you call it, it’s important not to allow setbacks or failures make us quit permanently, even when we temporarily give up on our dreams.

Quitting doesn’t mean you’ve permanently given up on your dreams; in most cases, it means you should quit using strategies and plans that are obviously not working for you. It means you should accept failure at the moment, temporarily, and stop to regroup on a more promising foundation.

Maybe you need to re-evaluate your product, target market, or overall marketing strategy. Maybe you’re focussing too much on customers who are not interested, so you need a change. Maybe your service or product doesn’t solve people’s problems, so you need to bring something else that solves problems.

No matter the area you’ve failed in or number of times you’ve failed, you can regroup to succeed elsewhere if you play your cards right. No matter what you’ve done right or wrong to attract failure, you can always regroup after failure. It’s never too late to start on the road to success.

Many people need to regroup by either fine-tuning their marketing strategy, finding a different or more promising product, or scrapping their entire service and concentrating on the things that really matter—the things that can keep your dreams alive.

As most successful people do, do whatever you need to do

No matter the necessary changes you need to make to get or keep the wheels rolling, go ahead and make them. It is better to quit, put aside all your past irrelevant effort, and start all over instead of continuing on a failed path that is destined to remain unproductive.

Many successful people experienced failure even after doing all they needed to do. Their failures prompted them to quit and regroup in another way, or elsewhere, and under a more profitable and promising setting that eventually attracted success later on.

Traf-O-Data (Bill Gates’ first company) failed because Gates and his partners weren’t able to make the company’s product work. Despite this, Bill Gates didn’t quit permanently.

Richard Branson was almost sent to prison when establishing his first Business, Student Magazine. He didn’t quit. Steve Jobs was fired from Apple in 1985 but regrouped instead of quitting, and found continuous success along the way.

Each person is likely going to fail at some point

Many successful people usually try a lot of things, but some or many of them eventually don’t work. Regardless of the positive or negative outcomes of their activities, successful people understand that may fail at some point; however, they don’t give room for failure to make them quit, permanently.

Successful people have the popular Japanese proverb at heart, “fall down seven times, stand up eight”. You should too: no matter how you fail, regroup after failure. Regroup with all you’ve got left on you.

Regroup and continue with what you were working on, or regroup and focus on something else that has a higher chance of yielding success. Regroup, stand up, and have great expectations for what comes next.

Conclusion/Advice

From the earliest of ages, it’s important to always realize that failing, falling, quitting, and regrouping are all parts of becoming successful or achieving success. In fact, failure is part of success.

Although failure is part of success, on the other hand, it could also be part of failure and lead to greater failure if we continue engaging in things that won’t/don’t work, instead of quitting and focussing on things that could work.

Stealing Away Little Time from Each Day can Still Help You Achieve Your Goals

Once we identify our goals and are ready to pursue them with all we’ve got, we have to take practical steps that may even require us to go through some form of “wear and tear” in order to achieve our goals. No matter what you need to do to achieve your goals, you will need time—probably sufficient time!

Some people who have sufficient time usually go all-out to achieve their goals, while some people who aren’t fortunate enough to have sufficient time usually slow down too much or stop moving towards their goals. So, if or when we don’t have sufficient time on our hands, what can we do to keep on covering ground and moving towards our goals?

If we still have our determination intact and on fire, we can still achieve our goals by stealing away a little time from each day and working on our goals while watching them take shape until they become reality.

Often, we think it’s the big steps that achieve immediate goals, but usually, it’s a series of small steps that eventually do the job

Careful observation of every great achievement proves that a series of steps—usually small ones—make up big steps and create great achievements. More often than not, dreams aren’t achieved overnight; they gradually take shape until they are eventually achieved in their entirety.

If you are someone who doesn’t generally have sufficient time, you can still do bits of stuff for some minutes or hours each day—or every day—and eventually end up achieving that big or great goal you so much desire. Never forget the saying: “little drops of water make up the big ocean”.

When you don’t have sufficient time on your hands, find a way to forcefully steal away little time from each day—or every day—and take “small small” steps which, when added together over time, create big steps and help to achieve goals.

Although the effort you make every day may seem small and even insignificant, it adds up over time and produces something great! Surely and eventually, “small small” steps and changes over time create massive results.

GOD Usually Starts at the Bottom, Not the Top

One of the greatest lessons I have learned from the extraordinary achievements of many people who found their life calling is that GOD usually starts working at the bottom, instead of the top in people’s lives.

If we aren’t yet at the top but want to make it to the top, then we have to start serving with the least we have and start serving the least people whom many consider to be the least important and least valuable in life.

In case you were born at a bottom or very low position in life, don’t be discouraged! You’re destined to be happy and great if your lifestyle is in harmony with GOD’s will and you obey His laws as He expects.

The fact that you are at the bottom doesn’t mean it’s not part of GOD’s divine scheme

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you…”—Jeremiah. 1: 5 (The Christian Bible); therefore, contrary to what many people believe, none of us were born by chance, and GOD planned all the events in our lives before we were born.

So if you were at the “bottom” of the ladder or are still at the bottom, your situation is in complete accord with GOD’s divine scheme which has all answers to questions you may be asking in regard to why, what, when, who and where.

GOD is in control of anything that is in accordance with his will, and He has reasons, plans, and purposes for your situation, even if it is at the bottom or bottommost level you’ve ever experienced.

You might not have a father, a mother, brothers, sisters, or anyone to help and elevate you, and everything might be stacked against you and has made you believe you will remain at the bottom and never realize there is a reason for your existence.

But it doesn’t matter whether you’re really at the bottom because that’s exactly where GOD usually starts from, instead of the top where most people think that GOD should start from.

GOD’s plans are perfect

You might be unhappy and unfulfilled as a result of being at the bottom, but never forget that GOD plans everything perfectly and doesn’t make accidents; so He understands why you have to experience that bottom level in order to get to the top level in the best shape possible.

The apostle Paul couldn’t have put these inspiring words together any better when he said: “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love GOD, to those who are called according to His purpose”—Romans 8: 28 (The Christian Bible).

Before you were born, GOD had planned that your life’s bottom and top scenarios would all work for good; as a result, you came into this world to eventually hit top form even though you might have been at the bottom for the greater part of your life.

GOD has definite plans for you to be great

Although GOD has plans for you to be great, it must not be interpreted that GOD plans for you to be great in the worldly sense—according to the material or worldly meaning of being great—which usually implies having great possessions of numerous expensive cars and houses or mansions, and attracting attention from all over the world.

You can actually be great at whatever you do without attracting attention from all over the world and being in possession of numerous expensive cars and houses: you can be a great teacher, a great writer, a great doctor, a great athlete, a great cook, a great dad, a great mum, a great neighbor, etc.

You may never become a world leader or the president of your country, but you can be great in your calling with the abilities and talents GOD bestowed on you, even though you may find yourself at the bottom which you will eventually come to realize is a temporary position that was put in place for a great purpose.

We Progress by Being Dissatisfied with Our Current Level of Progress

Wouldn’t you like to make more progress? If yes, then you have to always be dissatisfied with your current level of progress in life, no matter how high or low it is. To make the utmost use of dissatisfaction over your current level of progress, never be satisfied with your current achievements, and always assume or that your current level of progress can rise higher than it is.

Coupled with satisfaction, procrastination also impedes or halts progress. A popular adage says, “Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today”. This adage is great advice against procrastination. Some people don’t progress because they postpone things which they should be doing at the moment. The urge to postpone any important thing will hardly arise if we are highly dissatisfied with our current level of progress.

We prepare a recipe for disaster by putting things off until tomorrow when they can be easily done today. By making a habit of pushing things into the future, we fail, and may even fail many times over! Hence, we need to discipline ourselves and be more demanding of ourselves in order to be dissatisfied enough to get things done on time.

Dissatisfaction can help avoid procrastination

If you are always satisfied with your current achievements in life, then it would be easy to become complacent and a procrastinator. But if you’re always dissatisfied with your current level of progress, then you will develop a drive that can compel you to consistently look for ways to move forward and seek new things to achieve.

As long as you continue to believe in yourself and remain dissatisfied enough to strive for more accomplishments, then there would be no end in sight for your level of progress, and greater achievements and success would likely become your permanent companion. Only those individuals who are never satisfied with their current level make consistent progress in life.

Never assume that you’ve achieved everything; there’s always room to progress higher

The extent of your possibilities has no limits and can continue to expand in proportion to the new things you are willing to explore. Therefore, don’t rest on your laurels and never assume that you’ve attained perfection or reached the highest level of progress. If you continue working hard to expand your horizons, there would be no limits to your rising level of progress.

On the other hand, if you assume that you’ve achieved everything, idleness will creep in instead of progress, and you may end up robbing yourself of more blessings and higher levels of progress or achievements. Maintain a strong work ethic and continue moving forward in order to release more of your potentials, talents, and abilities from the spiritual world into this physical world.

Without Knowledge or Preparation, Zeal Could Lead to Failure

One of the reasons why some zealous or enthusiastic people fail to fulfil their calling is because they lack knowledge or preparation. Dr. James Dobson once said: “Enthusiasm is no substitute for preparation”. Proverbs 19: 2 (NIV, The Christian Bible) states: “It is not good to have zeal without knowledge, nor to be hasty and miss the way”.

Knowledge and preparation, which are important components in the formula for success, are often overlooked by some people, especially when they attempt to get overnight results. As a result, many people fail due to lack of knowledge or preparation.

To be Called is not Enough; Become Your Calling

Whichever area of aspect of life you feel that your calling lies, you have to spend time to acquire knowledge about it in order to become prepared and succeed; therefore, you may have to go to the library, read books, search the Internet, study under a teacher or mentor, and put in a little or lot effort to get much information about the subject of your interest.

Acquiring thorough knowledge about a subject or discipline will get you prepared and help you avoid failure

Many people want quick and cheap success without putting in work to prepare themselves. You will save yourself a ton of precious time and effort and make it easier to progress and achieve success if you gather as much knowledge as possible.

But if you lack knowledge and aren’t prepared to bend down and get knowledge about a subject, you will likely stumble around most of the time and constantly make mistakes, especially costly ones.

Consider the lives of many successful people whose life calling directed them to become medical doctors, pilots, lawyers, sportspeople, etc. They had to use up a lot of hours, days, months and years to train hard, study hard, or write many examinations.

The more time you spend acquiring knowledge and preparing for your calling, the more success you will experience

A lot of unnecessary challenges and heartaches will be avoided if you make up your mind to put in work or work hard and prepare yourself for whatever life endeavor you desire to engage in.

It’s about time you add knowledge and preparation to your zeal or enthusiasm and make it easier to succeed as you create your own destiny. Take your destiny into your own hands, even if it means avoiding too much leisure, teaching yourself, working as hard as you can, and doing the utmost to gain success.

To follow your life calling or achieve success can be challenging; however, you won’t be able to succeed without getting rid of challenges, barriers, and obstacles which can be eliminated if you acquire thorough knowledge and get prepared for the demands of your calling.

Many Opportunities for Success will Always Come into Your Life

Regardless of your circumstance or station in life, opportunities for success will always come during many occasions in your life; and if you are prepared, success will strike a chord between the best version of yourself and the opportunities that life will send your way.

Therefore, never ever give up and consistently working on yourself so you can be at your best. Always work on making yourself better so that there will be a good chance for your opportunities to meet perfectly with your best preparation and give you success.

Whenever our best preparations meet the expectations of our opportunities for success, we will be ready to achieve success. Life and GOD are fair to all people, regardless of their religion, race, sex, tribe, or social status, etc. With our expectations, great preparations, and hard work, we will always get opportunities to utilize, no matter how rough and tough life may be.

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Ecclesiastes 9: 11 of The Christian Bible states: “The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to men of understanding, nor favor to men of skill; But time and chance happen to them all”.

So, always remember that when it comes to sharing opportunities for success, GOD is faithful to His principles of Life: each individual will be given many opportunities for success during their lifetime; as a result, your big break can come at any moment! Therefore, always work on improving yourself or being at your best, and never lose hope.

To use your opportunities for success, you may have to leave or move away from your comfort zone

In many instances, you may have to leave or move away from your comfort zone and get into other terrains where opportunities for success will be waiting for you to exploit them in order to achieve success.

It’s quite unfortunate that people are usually skeptical or afraid of leaving or moving away from their comfort zone to seize an opportunity. Why? Because they don’t know exactly what is waiting for them on the other side.

Later, along the way, they blame Life, GOD, or bad luck when they fail to grasp a great opportunity that only required them to move away from their comfort zone or change their lifestyle in order to achieve success.

For many of us to achieve success, we may not only have to move away from our comfort zone into unfamiliar territory, but we may also have to accept a new way of life or change our attitudes or mentality about certain aspects of life.

If we aren’t careful, our refusal to change could cost us our opportunities for success

One big message that life keeps echoing is this: we have to change something if what we’ve been doing over a considerable or long time hasn’t been working: if we’ve had little or no results to show for our efforts, then it won’t be wise to continue doing what we’ve always been doing and expect great results. 

In order to get new and more positive outcomes, we actually have to try something else or start doing new things. If we can’t change or move away from our comfort zone, then we will likely not be ready to take hold of the opportunities for success that life has in store for us.

Don’t let excess relaxation, apathy, or lack of self-growth cause you to miss opportunities for success

Opportunities for success go hand in hand with destiny. Some individuals have had opportunities to succeed, but because they relaxed too much or decided to stop growing career-wise or in other regards, they ended up losing the opportunities they came across.

Imagine how your destiny would be thwarted if a good opportunity arises and you are invited to another town, but you refuse to go even though your destiny is waiting there for you. The opportunity could be a new business proposition or lead you to a future spouse or anything that is valuable and can change your life for good.

Many successful people wouldn’t have achieved great success if they had refused to change—if they had decided to remain adamant and stay in their comfort zones. New opportunities for success are paths to a whole new world and destiny out there; therefore, we need to be pliable, alert, and serious when we come across new opportunities.

It’s so unfortunate that when opportunities come, many people aren’t prepared; that’s one of the reasons why people end up blaming themselves by saying: “if only I had accepted that suggestion or proposal”, “if only I had agreed to relocate”, “if only I had made contact earlier”, etc.

Don’t let new opportunities for success meet you unprepared! Be prepared before time so that you can seize new opportunities for success when they come your way!

They Didn’t Allow Their Past Determine Their Future—Neither Should You

Your purpose or calling in life is associated with your natural gift(s) or what you are passionate about. Regardless of the challenges or lack of success you might have had or still have, stay grounded and continue to believe that your inner unlimited potentials will eventually outshine all challenges.

If you can keep on having faith, it will only be a matter of time before your faith will create an urge in your spirit and move you in a certain direction that will guarantee success in the future.

We were not created without a grand purpose. Destiny has a dream for each person to succeed at a certain time in the future; destiny has a throne for each person to occupy, but we have to be careful about what we listen to, whom we listen to, and whom we share our dreams and aspirations with.

There will always be people and doubters out there to discourage and convince you to lose heart or become indifferent to your dreams, aspirations, and your hopes to succeed in the future.

Some shallow-minded people just don’t like the fact that other people have big aspirations; in fact, what other people want to achieve is not something that shallow-minded people would like to hear, entertain, or discuss!

Even if negative thoughts and doubters give reasons why you should forget about your dreams as a result of the negative circumstances that seem to be obstructing you from materializing them, don’t allow panic and doubt to upstage your faith and take hold of the dreams in your heart.

Destiny still has success in store for you. As long as you continue believing in a positive future, and don’t pull a plug on your dream(s), no level of adversity or challenge will be able to halt your dream(s) from bearing fruit and materializing in the future.

Despite their past experiences, these individuals became successful in their future

• The biblical Joseph’s brothers hated him because he had dreams of becoming a great leader. They said to themselves: ‘’Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits…then we will see what becomes of his dreams”. He was thrown in a pit to die but was later sold as a slave and taken to Egypt where he eventually became a great leader and saw his dreams come to pass.
• A young Thomas Edison was told by his teachers that he was “too stupid to learn anything”. When he started working, he was fired from his first two jobs because he was regarded as a “non-productive” individual. Eventually, he became arguably the greatest inventor to have come to this world.
• Abraham Lincoln failed as a businessman and also failed in politics after going to the polls on numerous occasions; however, he eventually became President of the USA and is regarded as one of the greatest presidents to have occupied office.
• Albert Einstein—who wasn’t able to speak until he was four years, and wasn’t able to read until he was seven—was considered as “sub-normal” by his parents; one of his teachers described him as “mentally slow, unsociable, and adrift forever in foolish dreams”. Later in life, he was able to speak and read; eventually, he became arguably the greatest scientist ever.
• During the 1920s and 1930s, Robert Goddard, who has been regarded as the founder of modern design & operation, was severely criticized by people who believed that rockets would never travel in space; in fact, they disdainfully called his pursuit “Goddard’s Folly”. Eventually, rockets started traveling in space, and have been doing so time after time, again and again.
• From the result of medical prognosis, English writer and composer Anthony Burgess was informed that in a year’s time, he would die from brain tumor; good enough, the information wasn’t able to deter him from writing and believing in having a fulfilled future. Faced with death, he was writing energetically like someone who wouldn’t die in a year’s time. Before a year was over, he ended up writing five and a half novels. Eventually, the amount of work produced by Anthony Burgess during a comparably shorter period became nearly equal to the lifetime work of E. M. Forster, and almost twice the amount of work produced by J. D. Salinger.

Instead of believing that you can’t, always believe that you can!

Although you don’t have the mind of Joseph, Edison, Lincoln, Einstein, Goddard, or Burgess, you have the faith and ability to achieve incredible success in the future. Success is the result of always having belief and taking action; each person will always have an opportunity to do what it would take to succeed in the future.

Whenever your mindset tries to flip the switch in your head and convince you that you can’t or won’t be able to achieve success, always tell yourself that it will only be a matter of time before you achieve success, especially if you are aware of the actions you need to take to achieve success in the future.

It might not always be easy, but if you consistently practice positivity, you will become accustomed to having at least an appreciably high or higher positive mindset, if not the highest one. Always remember that practice makes perfect—the same applies when building positivity to such an extent that negativity won’t be able to weigh you down and drag you away from success in the future.

You become who or what you associate yourself with

Although you shouldn’t abandon all your friends, it’s advisable to spend time mostly or only with people who can make you a better person in the most important areas of your life. Generally speaking, be mindful of the people you associate and spend most of your time with, and how they influence your worldview.

In addition, be careful about the type of materials you expose your mind to. Read books, watch videos, or listen to programs that can make you a more positive person and give your mind an edge or added advantage over the negativity that usually influences and takes over most people’s minds.

Each Person’s Success Story is Actually the Success Story of Joint Effort from Various People

In most instances during the life of anyone who has achieved extraordinary success, the person encountered a helper, mentor, or guide who invested in their abilities and helped them achieve the extraordinary success they achieved. In some cases, a single person was encountered; in other cases, many people were encountered.

Regardless of the number of people encountered, each encounter was ultimately instructive and helpful. The truth is that, no matter how much we believe that successful people make it on their own, their success couldn’t be realized without the aid and assistance of others: every person’s success story is actually the success story of joint effort!

Every Success Story is, In Fact, a Success Story of a Joint Effort

It is rare to see someone succeed only by themselves, and without any major or minor help from one or more other people. Some people will willingly help you or contribute to your education, etc., while others might accidentally help you or contribute to your education, etc. No matter how you receive help, if you are wise, you will use it to succeed; always remember that it’s not possible to walk all by yourself towards success. No man is an island—this is a reality we have to accept.

As we march towards our individual destinies, each one of us is influencing another person/other people’s destinies in one way or another. Although your journey is unique, it is full of fellow sojourners, helpers and mentors who will help or strengthen you along the path; you might not always be able to find them, but you can be able to recognize them when they appear along your path, and you can gain from the opportunity of meeting such teachers, mentors, or helpers.

Your Helper or Mentor Might not Look Like What You Had Ever Imagined or Dreamed of

In many instances, we don’t need a helper or mentor who is as soft as we would like or expect; what we probably need is someone who doesn’t meet our expectations: we need someone who can challenge us, someone who can influence or even force us to think and act differently, but in a progressive and successful way—that’s exactly the type of person most of us need; after all, that’s the main job of a helper or mentor.

When Looking for Success, Be Ready to Meet or Look for Helpers or Mentors in Unexpected Places

Each person who helps or mentors us, serves a purpose in our lives. Helpers or mentors could arrive at an unexpected time, or just at the right time to help us or cheer us in regard to the important thing(s) we need the most. Even friends, old relationships that have dwindled down, and long-lost relatives may become the sources of motivation that we need to succeed. Each person who helps, mentors, educates or inspires you, eventually contributes to your success.

How Do People Find Helpers or Mentors?

How do helpers or mentors come across people’s paths? Sometimes it’s hard to see or tell where they come from, or how they appear, because they could appear seemingly out of nowhere; however, they could appear just around/at the right time. Meeting helpers or mentors might often look like an accident or a mystery but, it might likely be far from an accident or mystery.

Whenever we want something, especially if it would bring about greater good or benefits, GOD will set His universe in a way that will help you achieve it. If a person is determined to do what matters in order to succeed, the world will make room for such an ambition to be materialized. Although you might not be able to predict how your success will materialize, you can be prepared for the ingredients required to make it materialize.

When pursuing success, you will find a community of helpers and mentors who can motivate, educate and even champion you along the way. It won’t always be your job to locate or find where these people come from, but it would be your job to keep your eyes or awareness open. Helpers and mentors are all around you, and if you listen to your life as it speaks, you’ll be able to recognize them and be more prepared to accept the value(s) they have to offer.

10 important things you should “do” and 10 others you should “not do” in order to be contented and successful in life

Where do you think you will be in the next three or five years? Probably, you could be in the most beautiful city having fun with family or friends; or maybe, you could be on an Island you had longed desired to visit since you were a kid. If we take fortune out of the scenario, the plans and actions you take today will go a long way in determining the extent to which you will be contented and successful future.

To a great extent, your success lies in your hands. Regardless of how many definitions people have for contentment and success, contentment and success actually depend a lot on what you define them to be. Your definitions might differ a lot from the definitions of other people.

What makes you contented and successful in life is personal to you. Your siblings, partner, parents, and friends might have their own definitions of contentment and success, but their definitions will always remain their own; they aren’t meant for you! Whatever makes or will make you feel contented, happy and successful, is what your definition of contentment and success should be.

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Being contented and successful isn’t necessarily about having all the riches in the world, or winning every award. Actually, it’s all about personal fulfillment. One person might feel contented and successful traveling around the world, while another person might feel contented and successful pursuing their own passion in a country, city, or even a small village.

Although we might not always be able to give an all-encompassing definition of contentment and success, history has shown that there are certain things that can give and maximize one’s level of contentment and success, and make one more contented, productive, happy, and successful.

Generally, there are some things you must do, and others you must not do—“do not”:

10 important things you should do in order to be contented and successful

(1) Find what you like doing and engage in it

Oprah Winfrey once made a statement that has become a very popular quote: “You know you are on the road to success if you would do your job and not be paid for it”. In order words, if you would be happy doing your job without receiving payment, then you are on the road to success. If you don’t like something, then you would be wasting your time engaging in it.

(2) Always be positive and think big

It might be difficult to always feel big or great, but it will always be great to feel great. The danger most of us will ever face will arise because of our inability to think positively, and think big. Many people fall too short of their expectations because, from the very beginning, they aimed too low and were consistently negative along the way. Don’t always put away your dreams because of negativity, or because you want to follow an easier route that leads to nowhere. Have faith and unwavering thoughts that you will succeed!

(3) Balance or harmonize your work together with your life

Success could become as boring as it usually does whenever people concentrate or engage too much in what they like, and to such an extent that it takes over all other interesting things in their lives—they make their work or dreams take over their life instead of harmonizing the two together by providing time for both work and life. Don’t spend countless hours on your work or dreams to the detriment of your entire life.

(4) Be consistently active—always be willing to work

Every now and then, give yourself a task to do—be active! If we think about all the great achievements that a number of men and women accomplished and make this world a much better place, we will appreciate the benefits of being active and sticking to commitments. Leonardo da Vinci once said something like this: “It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and made things happen”.

(5) Be courageous enough to follow your intuition and take risks

If you strongly believe and desire to achieve something, then you might have a faint idea about what to do in order to materialize it. When you have sufficient belief and perception, no matter how little, don’t be afraid to take a step (or necessary steps) to get things going. Generally, you have to trust your own instincts in many areas of life.

(6) Establish positive relationships

The best societies, organizations, and institutions are the ones that have or cultivate positive relationships which lead to productivity and success. The best types of leaders or people have always been those who never cause commotions, and didn’t fight with people; they were friendly to everyone around them, and people liked them for their friendly nature.

(7) Always have faith—believe that you have the ability to succeed

Success depends a lot on how much imagine yourself achieving something(s)—achieving the unseen! In life you will always come across people who will doubt your abilities and give you reasons why you won’t achieve your goals and desires, most especially when you are yet to take a step; but regardless of what they think, do, or say, keep on having faith in your own abilities; then one day your hidden potential will come to light much to your utter surprise!

(8) Always educate yourself

We all know the popular wise words: “knowledge is power”. Indeed, knowledge is really powerful, and probably more than power too. Educating yourself with knowledge and skills could enhance your potential. In terms of financial success, studies have shown that the more knowledgeable or educated one is, the more like they are to make money. Not all types of education have to be formal; one can be educated on anything that can bring contentment and success.

(9) Set boundaries with certain types of people

Generally, be loving, caring, and have open arms, but don’t accept disrespect and abuse from people who normally emit negative vibes. The world has very odd and negative people, and it’s better to know when and how to handle some of their excesses which could infect you in the long run when you don’t straighten things out and early enough.

(10) Always be ready for the unexpected—anything can happen tomorrow

As long as you live, do all you can to acquire knowledge and understand how things work, but always keep this thought in mind: no amount of knowledge or understanding can take away the unexpected circumstances that each person will inevitably face tomorrow. Always have a Plan B in mind in case the unexpected happens.

10 important things you should not do in order to be contented and successful

(1) Don’t blame other people whenever things don’t work

Everyone will be able to taste true success if they put down their garments of excuses, stop making excuses, and start being accountable for most of the things they blame other people for. Most people have the tendency to blame others, and this usually delays collective progress.

(2) Don’t doubt yourself—don’t be afraid of failure

Your level of confidence today will continue to play a huge role in how contented or successful you will be in the future. Confidence in yourself can take you to the next level even when you are yet to achieve your dreams. Don’t pay attention to doubts. Whenever you feel discouraged, concentrate on positivity and ignore discouragement and doubt.

(3) Don’t put important things off

It can be difficult to change. Self-improvement and self-development are not always easy to initiate and do successfully. When things are difficult, it becomes easier to keep them for another day. Stop procrastinating, and start putting those important pieces together. To be contented and succeed at the highest level, you must stop putting off important things.

(4) Don’t think that you don’t have a choice

Regardless of any circumstance, there will always be a choice. Sometimes you might even have to choose between two things that look equally average, below average, or even bad. However, there will still be a chance to make a choice. In any situation, don’t sell your soul!

(5) Don’t always continue doing the same thing and expecting a different result—use new ideas

Although many people are aware that two plus two will always be equal to four, they waste all their determination and energy to make two plus two equal to five, or a number that’s much higher—this is illogical and unnatural! Albert Einstein said—and I agree—that insanity means “doing the same thing and expecting a different result”. The truth of the matter is that in many areas of life, if you keep using one approach, you will continue to get the same results, no matter how much you hope for something else.

(6) Don’t expect everything to always work out precisely the way want

People can be untrustworthy, and nature does things whenever or however it likes; so nothing is completely certain—this has been the way of the world since the beginning. Don’t trust anyone completely, and don’t always expect people to love or help you. On the other hand, do all you can to make things work, and leave the rest in the hands of people and Mother Nature. Note that everything will not always work out on its own; be creative and take responsibility for yourself.

(7) Don’t say “yes” when you are supposed to say “no”

The Christian Bible says, “let your yes be yes, and your no be no”. When you say “yes” to one thing, then at the same time you would be saying “no” to others. If you say yes to academics and examinations, then you must say no to “playing around consistently”. The major problem in our society today is that saying “no” is a great challenge for many people, and this has caused a lot of problems in organizations, businesses, and relationships because saying “yes” has led to lots of disasters. In many instances, refrain from using comments like “I am not certain”, “I might not be able to”, etc.

(8) Don’t mismanage your finances

Regardless of your income or how much you make, if you manage your money, your financial stability will be ensured and maintained over a long period of time. Keep track of your expenses in order to have insight and prevent overspending—or spending on irrelevant things. Take a critical look at your expenses in order to be sure your finances are not wasting.

(9) Do not compare your life with the lives of other people

It is quite unfortunate that many people measure their progress or success in life by comparing their lives with that of other people who live around or far away from them. Many people have the tendency to compare the negatives in their lives with the positives in the lives of other people. Instead of comparing yourself with people who are better off than you, think about all the homeless, poor, and severely ill people whom you are better off than—count your blessings! If you want to start feeling contented and successful, value your own life and the things you have, great or small.

(10) Don’t live in the past—live in the present, and concentrate on the future

There could be a lot of benefits gained from looking at past successes, and getting inspiration from them; however, one should be careful because if it gets to one’s head, it could make one become stagnant and not move ahead to achieve more success. Also, if one concentrates on a negative past, they could become much more negative and not achieve anything substantial in the future.

(Featured Image Credit: Pixabay.com.)

Talent is Only a Starting Point for Success; You’ve Got to Keep Working That Talent!

If you have a unique gift or an unparalleled talent for doing something, then you’ll definitely be recognized and distinguished from the rest of the flock.

In fact, that gift of yours could place you on top of other people and give you a great advantage that might last for a very very long time to come—but talent is only a starting point in any business. You’ve got to keep working that talent!

A songwriter, Irving Berlin, understood the truth behind the words in a statement attributed to him when he said: “The toughest thing about success is that you’ve got to keep on being a success”.

After gloriously climbing to the top, and reaching that enviable peak, if you lose focus and slack, other serious people who are steadfast would soon fly ahead of you.

One of the greatest writers in recorded history, Stephen Kings, once said: “Talent is cheaper than table salt. A lot of hard work is what distinguishes a talented individual from a successful one”.

The truth is that if you observe the lifestyle of hardworking people, you will also see a glimpse of hard work in many other aspects of their private lives.

You might have likely come across certain people who should have risen to the top, but they didn’t; they were in possession of all the talent a man or woman could ever want, but they ended up NOT succeeding!

Their talent made them stand out, but their lack of integrity made them sit on the ground. Meanwhile, the hardworking nature of a different category of people—who were once at the bottom of the ladder—made a way for them to overtake those at the front and reach the top.

The families, mentors, friends, and bosses of fallen stars often see their (fallen stars) obvious talents or gifts but wonder why they keep falling short of expectations.

At the starting point, their talent opened up doors for them, but the wrong choices they made and their lack of integrity shut the same doors that once opened very wide for them.

If you take time to consider the character and talent of Nehemiah in the Christian Bible, you’ll notice that he rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem within two months! It was actually an outstanding feat to achieve in that era of history: read further and notice how Nehemiah’s character and integrity stood out.

While many of his peers indulged in fattening their pockets – by lending money at extremely exorbitant rates (which people couldn’t repay), he cautioned them to do the right thing so that the favor of God would come on their nation (read Nehemiah 5:9).

Moreover, he said: “I did not act that way. I rather devoted myself towards completing the construction of the wall” (Nehemiah 5:15–16). Further chapters in Nehemiah highlight the character of some greedy merchants, which was found wanting, and made their talent and business lose appeal and success at the same time.

If you want to develop an attractive character and maintain success, do what is just and fair while you keep on working on your talent.

The type of faith that can deeply inspire you

This article is much longer than usual because it consists of contents from twelve of this website’s deeply positive and inspiring articles on topics that can strengthen one’s positivity and faith. There is actually an eBook for this article which can be downloaded by clicking here. The topics in the article or the table of contents in the eBook include these topics, plus two others:

1. Faith: the superpower that materializes desires & gives new life to dying ambitions

• The shield of faith
• Developing the shield of faith

2. Faith: still strong enough to alter today’s facts

3. Your outcome in life is determined by what you believe in: faith or fact

4. The reality of invisible worlds & life: physical & spiritual

• Evidences of invisible life
• The reality of the spiritual world, & life after death

5. How to develop strong faith

• Definition of faith
• How strong faith can be developed
• Certain things that can affect faith

6. How to influence your mind to attract your desires and a glorious afterlife

• Have a good intention to acquire what you desire
• Decide what you want
• Give unto others so that it will be easier for you to receive
• Make it a habit to always practice visualizing what you want

7. There is magic in positive thinking—always think positively!

• If positive thinking is effective, why can’t everybody do it?
• Is there evidence that positive thinking is effective?

8. Past events that disproved the impossible: one person’s impossibility is another person’s possibility

• Past events that illustrate how people who studied the impossible changed the course of the world
• The New York Times
• Nineteenth-century chemists
• Lord Kelvin
• Albert Einstein
• Stephen Hawking

9. How to turn defeat into victory by experimenting with different things

• Look away from defeat at the bottom of the ladder, and towards victory at the top of the ladder
• Everyone who truly turned defeat into victory, encountered and responded to one form of defeat or another
• Although it is barely impossible to succeed without encountering hardship and opposition, it is possible to use hardship to move forward and upward ever
• The lesson is this: gain or salvage something valuable from every situation—good or bad
• Instead of blaming people or bad luck, look at challenges or setbacks and learn from them

10. The fight of faith: why give up when time comes to fight this important battle?

• Despite our knowledge about positivity, why do many of us lose the battle of faith?
• So how can we acquire faith?

11. The importance of protecting your unlimited potential: a look at some unlimited potential achievements & quotes

• But what is the meaning of unlimited potential?
• Some of the greatest unlimited potential achievements in history
• Some popular and inspiring quotes on unlimited potential & possibilities

12. The universality of GOD’s power

• GOD’s power is so universal, it can be found in the smallest and mightiest deeds in creation
• The universality of GOD’s power also reaches the deepest part of the human spirit
• The universality of GOD’s power makes it possible for GOD to be contacted from anywhere in the universe—anywhere!

And now, to the content of the article itself:

1. Faith: the superpower that materializes desires & gives new life to dying ambitions

We live in a world that doesn’t give us too many ideas on how to face the challenges of tomorrow which come in a number and variety of forms, shapes, and sizes. Many people live through the day and sleep at night thinking about how they can make their living conditions better.

Every day we are haunted with questions about how we are going to handle one worrying thought or approach another worrying problem. Good enough, one of the greatest businesses of life lies in thinking and having faith in one’s self and the future.

If we have sufficient faith in ourselves, then we can control our thoughts to a great extent and be well on the way to controlling most of our circumstances. Faith is the superpower that helps people handle the positives and negatives that every day’s gifts and challenges bring: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen”—Hebrews 11:1 of the Holy Bible.

Just take a look around you and you will see men and women who, after years of hopelessly struggling, suddenly acquire untold wealth or materialize their most cherished dreams. Faith turned their dreams into reality, gave new life to their dying ambitions, and put them on the road to success.

Faith—deep belief—is a superpower that is usually inspired by someone or something; it always inspires certain people to turn defeats into successes and victories.

The shield of faith

Regardless of what people think regarding faith, one undeniable fact is that daily doses of positivity create a strong shield of faith against thoughts that tend to make us forget we have a hidden but strong dominant power sleeping deep within us.

GOD has entitled us to every good thing. Therefore, we should learn how to get used to expecting good things regardless of any situation at hand—we should expect nothing but good.

Victory doesn’t have to be followed by shaky thoughts of defeat: victory should follow victory. And how can we ensure that? By always feeding ourselves with positive thoughts, and having unshakeable faith in ourselves.

Remember that the shield of faith always has the ability to halt the effects of the negative thoughts that develop limitations against us. Limitations are as a result of accumulating negative thoughts for days, months, or even years.

We do not have to allow negative thinking bring any limitation on our lives. Remember that once acquired, the shield of faith will always dispel negativity and attract every good thing for us—it will move mountains for us.

There is every reason for you to understand that you are entitled to the everlasting generosity of GOD. Every substance and product people have used or created out of nature’s supply of abundance depends on the purity of positive thought or positive thinking.

Developing the shield of faith

When it comes to developing the shield of faith, the problem most people have is that they are not mentally strong; in fact, many people are mentally lazy. It is much easier for most people to follow the crowd rather than break free from them and follow a path that can be really beneficial on a long-term basis.

The greatest geniuses, discoverers, and inventors in all fields of life have been men and women who dared to break away from the traditional and normal routes of the common masses; they believed that there is no limit to what their minds can do; they stuck to their beliefs until they achieved their goals—even in the face of ridicule and criticism.

In addition, they never felt that they achieved everything after achieving just one success, or a few successes. There first successes and relentless persistence only made further successes materialize much more easily.

Continuously successful people know some things many people didn’t and don’t know: they have realized that they are part of a universe filled with abundance, and that the Earth as a part of it, shares the same properties as the whole universe from which they can acquire any right and thing.

Successful people know that the only threatening limitation is the inability to think and work towards the things that are desired; because of their faith, each step they made, regardless of circumstances, propelled them forward and upward ever—and they just kept on going, on, and on, and on. For instance, Edison didn’t just think about electric light, sit back/down and fold his arms. He thought about it many times over, and took many steps before finally inventing it.

William James, a famous psychologist, once stated: “The more mind does, the more it can do”. So we must keep looking and moving forward in order to continuously do more! Faith strengthens the ideas that release energy and makes people do much more than they ever did before. Actually, we can know and achieve more than we have ever known or achieved in the past.

Conclusion

Get up, stretch your mind beyond the usual extent; understand the superpower called faith; practice and get your own share of the unlimited supply which is available in nature.

There are unlimited ways through which the abundance of nature—GOD’s generosity—can get to you once you have sufficient faith. Don’t think that there are only one or few channels through which nature can send gifts to you. There are uncountable and unlimited channels.

Your job is to believe and have faith to the extent that your good desires are impressed on your whole mind—especially the subconscious mind. As you do this, you will develop the right mental attitude that will always expect and attract good things.

And the right mental attitude doesn’t fail; it only fails if we allow worry, fear, negativity and laziness conquer our minds. “According to your faith, be it done unto you”—the words of Jesus Christ.

2. Faith: still strong enough to alter today’s facts

If people have been altering facts, then faith can still alter today’s facts. Achieving greatness shouldn’t be guided only by what can be seen or sighted; it should go beyond that, and be governed more by what can’t be seen—the unseen: faith.

Even GOD’s word hinted in 2nd Corinthians 5:7: “For we walk by faith, not by sight”. Faith is rooted in the spiritual, while facts are more rooted in the physical; faith is superior to fact, and stronger than it! Fact is temporal and changeable, while faith is eternal and unchangeable.

Even history has shown that fact can become untrue. Decades ago it was considered a fact that malaria had no cure; in fact many people died because of it. However, that is no longer the case today.

In the past, it was considered a fact that iron/steel could neither fly in air, nor float on water; but today large quantities of iron/steel are flying in the form of aircraft. Also, large quantities of iron/steel are floating in the form of ships from one part of the world to another—carrying people and cargo anywhere they wish.

In the same vein, it was once believed in the past that mankind would never be able to set foot on the moon, but someone first did it! In the past there were no drugs for treatment of many diseases; however, there are so many drugs for treatment of many diseases today.

As it happens in every generation, it will continue to happen again and again: people of faith will discover many things and change many facts. Always remember this: if people and time have been altering facts, then faith can still alter today’s facts!

3. Your Outcome in Life Is Determined By What You Believe in: Faith or Fact

In the Christian Bible, 2^nd Corinthians 5:7 says: “For we walk by faith: not by sight”. The literal meaning of the above scripture is that we are meant to live our lives, have high hopes, and carry out actions on the basis of faith, which can be referred to as “the ultimate and unseen reality”. Having the heart to achieve things in life shouldn’t be governed only by the things we see with your physical eyes; it should go beyond that and be governed more by the things we cannot see physically—the unseen.

Faith, which can be referred to as “the ultimate truth”, belongs to the spiritual world, while “facts” are only limited to the physical world which we see with our physical eyes. Faith is superior to, and stronger than fact! Fact is temporal and changeable, but faith (ultimate truth) is eternal and unchangeable.

Even history has shown that fact can become untrue, even without divine or supernatural intervention. For example, it was a fact several years ago that malaria had no cure, and many people died because of it; but that is no longer the case today.

In the past, it was considered a fact that iron could neither fly nor float: but today, heavy tons of iron (in steel form) are floating and flying from one part of the world to the other in the form of ships and aircraft, carrying both people and cargo wherever they wish to go to. In the past, there were no drugs for the cure of several diseases, but today there are so many types of drugs and cures for various types of ailments.

So, if time can alter fact, how much more will your faith instantly destroy many of the things that are considered as fact today! Despise all facts, and rather believe in faith or “the ultimate truth”. Your physical experiences and that of other people should not guide your life’s journey. Believe in the ultimate truth about the supernatural ability that GOD gave man to turn unfavorable circumstances into favorable ones. Allow your faith and belief to guide you towards your GOD-given destiny.

In the scripture in Romans 10:17, the Christian Bible says: “The just shall live by faith”. This faith is based on how GOD sees ease and solutions to every situation and difficulty in this physical world. The scripture didn’t say that the just shall live by experience, night dreams, personal wisdom, skill or expertise! It said that the just shall live by faith!

Many people elevate their experiences, personal wisdom and skills above faith, ultimate truth and belief in the power of GOD to an extent that they constantly live in the realm of frustration and dissatisfaction. We have stated that faith (the ultimate truth) is superior to fact, and a lot of people know that the real battle of a man lies between fact and faith (ultimate truth). What is the difference between them?

Well, fact is a natural reality which has evidence only to the physical senses, and in the physical plane of existence; i.e. you can see, hear, feel, smell or touch it. On the other hand, faith (or ultimate truth) is supernatural or spiritual reality; and this reality is not always obvious to the body’s physical senses, i.e. you might not be able to sense faith physically, but it’s real.

Based on some people’s so-called “facts”, experience and expertise, there is/might not be any hope; but faith (the ultimate truth) says: “launch out your heart with hope”; and in many instances where faith was strong, the ultimate truth prevailed. Allow the truth to prevail in your life!

4. The Reality of Invisible Worlds & Life: Physical & Spiritual

It’s a bit shocking that in the midst of all the astonishing scientific and technological knowledge that has been discovered/invented over the ages, confusion and disbelief still abound regarding the existence of other invisible or inaccessible parts of creation; there is also uncertainty as to whether human souls live or exist before and after physical death.

Science and technology, which have helped in revealing that a lot of infinitesimal living things and particles that were once considered to be invisible, have both played a huge part in proving that everything, seen and unseen, is really alive—I mean REALLY ALIVE, and alive to such an extent that even people who don’t believe in the invisible or “spiritual” life seem to be drawn or gradually drawing away from the abyss of their disbelief in invisibility or spirituality.

In the present-day, nothing seems to be “that dead” or completely inexistent. Advances in science and technology have even made science-practicing atheists and other non-believers in GOD/spirituality have a rethink over their convictions which deny the existence of GOD and the spiritual and greater part of creation.

For thousands of years, many religious leaders, believers in GOD, spiritualists and spiritual mediums have always sounded it out, wide and loud, that all the things we see with our physical eyes are simply the result of invisible or spiritual life which has its roots in the Almighty GOD; and they seem to have been right all along before the age of scientific and technological advancement started proving this belief bit by bit.

It would do the world a lot of good if mankind could “harmonize” the “visible” life (here on Earth) with the invisible life (in the spiritual sphere) by cooperating with or properly using the spiritual power given by GOD; a power which continues to permeate through all creation in its seen and unseen parts.

Evidences of invisible life

Countless instances have proven how greatly limited the capability of man’s physical eyes and brain are to see and perceive, respectively. The brain, like the physical body is limited to this physical world’s space and time, and is not naturally able to see things beyond these limits. The human eyes are not even capable of seeing many “physical” things clearly.

Take a look at a drop of water: in many instances, it looks neat, clean and free from stain and blemish; but when viewed through magnifying lenses, the same water has been proven to contain millions of living organisms fighting and destroying each another.

Are there not innumerable bacilli in water and soil that have been found capable of causing lots of harm and destruction to human and animal bodies? Are bacilli not invisible to the unaided human eyes? Are there not energetic atoms and molecules in constant motion even though they are invisible to the human eyes?

However, these atoms and molecules immediately become visible when certain substances are viewed under magnifying glasses. Who would be able to state that nothing new will be discovered or seen after existing physical equipment are further improved upon?

Everyone would agree that if physical equipment are improved upon by 100-fold or 100,000-fold, other objects much smaller than bacilli and atoms of elements would also multiply in size and become viewable. More unseen worlds would become visible and unfold before the naked human eyes; even time travel, which has remained in the domain of fiction, could become a natural reality, and be pushed into the domain of non-fiction.

Logically, it can be inferred that the discovery of more unseen objects and worlds by science and technology would continue until “mysterious” or “spiritual” things become natural to mankind.

The reality of a spiritual world, and life after death

If we believe in the possibility of the invisible or spiritual world continuously unfolding before the eyes of mankind, we might want to ask: what is the next world or next life to come? What is life after physical death? Many people seem to be confused when they hear: “the next world”.

“The next world” can be regarded as the world that any person meets after death; or, it could be used to refer to physical and spiritual objects or life that can’t be seen or perceived by the human brain, ears, eyes and other senses that belong to our physical bodies.

The next world is beyond the detection of our physical senses. From the perspective of viewing bacilli, atoms and molecules—without considering many other forms of “life”—we would readily agree that there is no “cloak” or “wall” dividing this physical world and the unseen/spiritual world: there is no gulf.

All of creation and everything in it is interwoven and unified. There is nothing like “this world” and “that world”; rather, there is one uniform existence just like it was in the days when GOD seemed to converse more often with mankind than in the present age.

The concept of “this world” and “that world” or “the next world” arose, probably due to mankind’s inability to see everything that is visible and invisible. Probably this might be due to the fact that man looks upon himself as the center of importance in all creation, and also because he cannot see invisible organisms, invisible atoms, invisible angels, invisible nature spirits, invisible devils, invisible heavens, etc.

Invisible organisms and atoms were revealed by science, while angels, spirits and demons have been perceived by laypeople who have very sharp and refined sharp spiritual senses.

In holding a wrong perception of the invisible world, it can be rightly assumed that mankind has forcibly hindered its own spiritual progress. We would likely be on a better eternal path if we look at the different parts of creation (seen and unseen) as a single unit, and not try to draw a distinction between “this world” and “the next world”.

5. How to develop strong faith

Although faith in GOD is the greatest type of faith everyone should aspire to and acquire, faith in one’s self is very important and necessary in many areas of life. And to those who think developing faith in one’s self is wrong or bad, the best reply I’ll give is the one my greatest role model Jesus Christ gave his—then—faithless disciples who couldn’t heal a boy that was possessed by an unclean spirit; Mark 9:23 states: “Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth”.

Good enough, faith is not a respecter of persons or religions; rather, it’s there for anybody, and there for the taking! Faith is something that has to be cultivated and properly taken care of until (and even after) it matures and produces great works and wonders.

We can observe that despite the close relationship Jesus had with his disciples, they (only the disciples) were not able to cast out the demons that possessed a boy whose father previously brought him to the disciples; Mark 9:18 states: “… and I spake to thy disciples that they should cast him out; and they could not”.

Definition of faith

Faith can be defined as complete trust or confidence in GOD, someone, or something. It can also be defined as deep belief in religious doctrines based on inner spiritual conviction rather than physical proof. Faith is usually planted firmly in the heart, and is mostly strengthened on the basis of things that can’t be seen, rather than things that can be seen.

One of my best definitions of faith that supports the previous sentence can be seen in Hebrews 11:6 of the Christian Bible which states: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen”. Contrary to this definition, we can easily observe that too many people need physical proof in order to strengthen their faith; this is not the right way to develop faith.

Faith can either be positive or negative, and can shift between extremely positive and extremely negative limits. Each person has a certain amount of faith which can become more positive or negative, depending on how they cultivate it, and especially when they face the ups and downs of life.

Negative faith works against people, while positive faith works in favor of people. Each person will get results in life based on their faith, or what they deeply believe in: “For as a man thinks in his heart, so is he”―Proverbs 23:7.

How strong faith can be developed

(1) By regularly cultivating quietude or stillness

One of the best foundations for developing faith and unfolding more of the subconscious mind power or spirit is stillness, or quietude which leads to calmness or composure—the ability to be composed or relaxed regardless of the challenges and anxieties experienced in life.

Our almighty creator says in Psalm 46: 10―“Be still, and know that I am GOD…”. The lesson in this scripture is that the onus of being still or calm is on us (it rests on us), and depends a lot on how best we control our thinking and make our inner being “still” or “calm” to as great an extent as possible. One way to do this is to regularly practice quietude, composure or stillness, and seeing our challenges in a more relaxed or better perspective.

One illustration that can be practiced each day is to imagine you’re a great leader and your mind is a working place that has a lot of noisy thoughts as workers who are always obedient to your commands—even if at the moment it doesn’t appear so. (As one practices regularly, one would start to see the results when noisy thoughts become more and more controllable until they actually become quiet.)

Now, whenever you’ve made up your mind to keep noisy thoughts under your control, tell these workers that work is over, and you want them to close work and keep quiet so that you can instill some sense of calm that would benefit the whole environment or mind in which they work.

When practicing this, positive results might not be seen early on, but if one consistently practices quieting their thoughts every now and then—if possible daily—especially in a quiet place, then one would observe that they are gradually beginning to be more composed, able to control their thoughts more, and switch off the endless noisy thoughts that jump into their mind whenever they like. But the problem is that too many people have become so accustomed to concentrating on noisy distractible thoughts to such an extent that they have no time to cultivate qualities like quietude, stillness or composure which are strong foundations for faith in the subconscious mind or spirit.

People are too busy bothering about the next lottery, the next presidential election, the next big movie on TV, what they would like to wear the next day, etc.—and they bother about these things to such a point that they have no time to concentrate on the things that really matter. Always remember that that every daily mundane activity is to some extent completely trivial because they won’t matter in a few days or years from today; but many years from today, it will matter to you how you cultivate stillness and quietude today and the coming days.

No man or woman can successfully apply faith by harboring thoughts of worry or anxiety; yet every man and woman can use stillness, or quietude—which instills calmness—as a firm foundation for the development and stability of their faith.

It could be very harmful for those who desire to develop faith if they consistently worry and get involved in negative discussions that can make them cultivate negative faith instead of positive faith.

Why not practice for about 30 minutes every day. Practice sitting or lying down comfortably and peacefully—and remember you must stay in a way that wouldn’t make you feel discomfort in any part of your body. Let your mind become still. Remember: “Be still and know that I am God (Psalm 46: 10) is one saying; another saying that’s relevant to this post is: “Be still and know that you have strong faith within”.

If you can practice making your mind free of thoughts, worries, anxieties and doubts, then you will observe that in a month’s time you’ll be more still, calm, poised, uplifted, and quite a different person. Some people are not conscious of noisy thoughts, but noisy thoughts do exist, and can negatively affect faith, emotional and mental well-being—if not properly controlled.

(2) By regularly feeding on positivity

Naturally, depending on our past experiences, background and present experiences, faith could become more positive or negative. That’s why it’s important for faith to be nourished and cultivated in much the same way as a habit. Faith must be pampered, fed and carefully looked after, when feeding on positivity or persistent positive thoughts.

Also, if we want to continue developing faith, we must always be positive and repeat or re-affirm what we believe in until we obtain faith; we must re-affirm what we believe in until our beliefs are driven into our sub-conscious minds or spirits which are the greater parts of us. The sub-conscious mind, which is shielded away from all the noise that usually occupies the conscious mind, is the greater part of us which can work with our faith to produce great results.

Keep on repeating what you believe until it becomes driven or implanted in your sub-conscious mind, and then you will have automatic faith. Faith is not belief. Faith is something which usually grows or diminishes with us as we age. Many of us are Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, or Jews because our parents are/were Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, or Jews.

For many of us, we believe that what our parents believed was right, so our faith developed based on what our parents believed. But sometimes this type of faith diminishes when people get older and become exposed to other more convincing types of belief—one can see the difference between faith and belief in this illustration.

No matter how difficult things might appear to be, always tell yourself that you will overcome and achieve this or that—or that you firmly believe you will do this or that. You have to keep on re-affirming it or else you might not develop great faith. Faith becomes automatic when we consistently believe in something in a positive way, again and again until it sinks into our subconscious minds.

In much the same vein, if you repeat prayers time after time, then there would come a time when you would sub-consciously start to believe in them until the day your wishes come true.

The main work lies in convincing your subconscious mind to understand and cooperate. And once you’ve implanted that belief-turned-into-faith in your subconscious mind, then you don’t have to bother anymore because your sub-conscious mind will always remind your consciousness/conscious mind that you have faith, and you can do some particular things.

Even though there are many things you don’t have sufficient faith to do today, it doesn’t mean it’s over for you for the rest of your life. Keep on telling yourself with positive words and mind pictures that you believe one day you are going to do this or that, or whatever it is you would like to do in future; then in time, you will do it/them.

All successful people, and those who become exceptional researchers, millionaires and inventors are people who have faith in themselves; they have faith that they can do whatever they conceive in their minds. This is as a result of the fact that they believed in their abilities and powers first; and then by consistently believing in themselves, they generated the faith which made their initial beliefs come to pass.

If you keep on telling yourself that you are going to succeed, you will succeed; however, you will only succeed if you continue to be positive and calm, and don’t allow doubt or negativity step in and control your mind. Always declare success, and the results that will come may surprise you.

Certain things that can affect faith

When developing faith, there are certain things that one should always take note of:

• everybody has certain fears: some people are afraid of the dark, others are afraid of spiders or something, etc.

• some of us might either be aware or unaware of our fears: we have fears which are in our conscious minds, but our conscious minds are only about ten per cent of our whole minds, while the remaining ninety per cent of our minds are sub-conscious. Now, the problem is that the fear in most people is in their sub-conscious minds.

• sometimes we do things under unidentified compulsion, or we decide not to do things because of an unidentified compulsion: we don’t understand the reason why we are able to do certain things or why we are unable to do certain things. There is no reason on the surface: there is nothing that we can relate our decisions to. In fact, if we visit a psychologist, we might be surprised to find out that we have a certain fear, or are unable to do certain things because of something(s) that happened to us (coupled with other influences on our vulnerable belief systems) when we were younger.

• the reason for fear or the inability to do certain things is usually hidden from our awareness or consciousness (conscious minds) and works against us, or nags at us from our subconscious minds in which fear been implanted by virtue of always believing in fear and thinking about it over and over.

• negative faith, or fear doesn’t have to be conscious to be active. It is most active and uncontrollable when it is subconscious.

• throughout our lifetimes, we have been subjected to certain experiences. A person from an Islamic background would have always believed in what they’ve been taught, or that certain things are forbidden; on the other hand, people of a different religion, with different belief systems, would have been permitted to do things not permitted in the Islamic religion.

In relation to the point highlighted above, when it comes to the issue of faith, we have to evaluate how we were brought up—our past experiences, religious and family backgrounds, etc. Everyone would agree that if we grew up with people who possess superhuman abilities, we would have likely been influenced by them, and consistently believed in ourselves until we developed faith to display superhuman feats. The opposite would likely occur too, if we grew up with people who possessed subhuman abilities, or no ability at all.

Faith can topple an empire, and faith can build an empire as well. If you develop your faith by pampering it, guiding and controlling it, then it’s true that you can have almost anything. If you are yet to acquire faith, then you can’t obtain faith or make it work by dictating to it.

It’s not possible to force faith to work because faith is like a horse: you can lead a horse to a stream to drink water, but you can’t force it to drink—and so you can lead your faith by developing it gradually, but you cannot force it to appear suddenly. It needs to be developed, and it can be done.

Advice

How are you going to develop your faith? Well, it’s only a matter of practice. Think of a situation that makes you fear and then overcome it with faith by telling yourself each time that you can do it even if others can’t. Try your best, work and persuade yourself until you get your subconscious mind or spirit working on your side.

Remember that it might not happen in an hour, a day, a week or even years, but eventually it will happen: Rome was not built in a day; doctors, professors or scientists are not made overnight. They had to consistently believe and study to succeed, and so have you. There is no other easy or painless way out!

Always practice stillness, quietude and calmness, and remember that all types of challenges and problems that interrupt our thoughts whenever we are trying to think, work or do something, will not matter in a few years’ time. They are little irritations that should be relegated to their correct status as side distractions, and nothing more.

Stillness, quietude, peace, inner composure and tranquillity are there for you if you will take time to cultivate them. All you have to do is consistently refuse to take the issues of life seriously, and always believe in yourself. Be calm, and always remember that all these challenges are minor irritations and nothing more. They were sent by nature to test you, and they certainly do!

Practice calmness and look at your difficulties in a much better perspective. It may be annoying to find that you cannot do certain things today, but it is not of earth-shaking importance after all; rather it would be more earth-shaking if you start or continue developing your faith from today.

6. How to influence your mind to attract your desires and a glorious afterlife

As the years have been passing by, I’ve been acquiring most of the things I ever desired. By taking a look at the past, it’s obvious that positive thinking has been helpful in influencing my mind to attract the things I desired/desire; today, it still influences my mind to attract the things I still desire.

From personal experience, I can boldly say that the human mind operates in a way that follows a sensible pattern which is void of any form of mystery. There is nothing mystical about the powerful influence our minds have on other people and the environment around us. Read ahead in order to see things from my own angle: how capable each human mind is in making an influence that will attract or dispel the thing(s) it desires.

Although I admit that our experiences are different, value will be found in this chapter; it will enable you to tweak your mind in order to achieve better results in terms of attracting what you want.

Have a good intention to acquire what you desire

The quest for material things should go hand in hand with a desire to weigh the spiritual value inherent in acquiring them. In this regard, I advise people to acquire material things based on spiritual values which are capable of outlasting all the material thing(s) they wish to acquire.

It’s not a bad idea to become excessively rich, but it would be a delusion to become rich and lose spiritual or immaterial values like love, peace, soundness of mind, humility, etc. It has to be noted that our stay on Earth is temporary; therefore, strive for spiritual values by showing kindness, consideration and understanding for others, instead of becoming a thief or murderer; a slanderer or a blackmailer; a liar or a rapist; etc.

When you look for spiritual values while pursuing material things, the universe and nature will always support you, even when surrounding conditions are unfavorable. From experience and observation, there are certain important steps we should follow:

Decide what you want

You must decide exactly what you want; you must visualize or conceive it in your mind. What is it that you actually want? It might not be enough for you to say you want a lot of money, a lot of cars, a lot of houses, etc. You will get far better results if you describe “in detail” what you want.

For example, if you want a new car, then you must state other things about the car: the model of the car, the engine-type (automatic or manual), the color of the car, etc. The point is this: you must state extra things that will give your mind a firm image and “strong” impression that can influence it to attract what you desire during the time you are waiting for/expecting your desire to materialize.

After creating a clear thought about what you want, frequently picture it in your mind, and always hold that picture firmly.

Give unto others so that you will be easier for you to receive

After deciding what you want, go to the next stage: GIVE so that you can receive. If you make up your mind to give, then how much are you willing to give? If you desire to acquire a particular amount of money, are you prepared to help other people with a tithe, which is the same thing as a tenth of that money? Do you have a heart to assist other people who are not as lucky/fortunate as you are?

It might sound vain to say that you will give a tithe after you get money. Make it a habit to give out money, services, or any form of assistance to those who are in need. In so doing, you will be placing yourself in a favorable position, and influencing your mind to cooperate with the universal laws of giving/receiving—in order to attract your desire(s).

Make it a habit to always practice visualizing what you want

After you’ve made a decision on what you want—to get a promotion, to get a million dollars, to become an orator, to win a lottery, or whatever it is—then consistently visualize what you want. Let’s say you’ve decided you want a new car, then decide the type of car you want: the brand of the car, the color of the car, the passenger-carrying capacity of the car, etc.

Next, use a few minutes each day to relax both mind and body; immediately thereafter, use some extra minutes (ten or twenty) to visualize yourself in the car as if you already have it—there and then. Do not think of the car as something you might have, or could have, even though you know you don’t have it at the moment. Visualize yourself having the car.

As you visualize and always create a mental picture of it, it will become a blueprint that will be influential in attracting your desire(s). Create a thought that you can continuously pour energy into in order to strengthen it until it becomes reality. If leadership skills, power, courage and influence are what you desire, add them to the picture. After frequently visualizing your desires in your mind, you will observe that you won’t have any doubt(s) that you are going to acquire them.

It must be noted that visualization can be difficult if it’s something that’s new to you! Difficulties can arise because your mind hasn’t gotten used to producing sharp pictures of the things you desire; do not bother about this. The pictures you conceive do not have to be perfect in terms of having all the traits (qualities) of the things you desire. If you discipline your mind and make it a habit to regularly visualize what you want, your mind will eventually start to believe in the visualizations and produce amazing mental pictures for you to easily choose from.

Results will be obvious if you always live the thoughts of your desires in your mind, again and again and again, for a long period—say weeks, months, or even years. Whenever doubts arise, do not be discouraged; just continue to repeat your visualizations and positive elements will naturally color the whole process until you physically acquire your desire(s).

Keep on repeating your visualizations and everything will quite naturally look after itself. Don’t bother too much about what will happen; just have faith in the process of visualization and the right things will happen at the right time. As you visualize, FEEL that the money, car, or whatever you desire, is coming to you; the more positive you are about it, the faster the reaction will be.

If you follow these steps, the thoughts of your desires will be driven into the subconscious part of your whole mind, which is ninety percent of it, and nine times more powerful than your conscious mind which you use much more consciously and frequently every day. After a good period of time, your subconscious mind—which is the platform for signs and wonders—will miraculously materialize your desires.

Words of Advice

There are things that are much more valuable than money, cars, skyscrapers, and all types of wonderful material things. If you are wise, instead of using all your effort to strive and acquire an excessive number of material things, go the other way: rather strive to acquire spiritual values like Jesus, Buddha, Martin Luther, and other great people or leaders whose auras positively influenced the eternal destinies of millions and millions of people.

Desire to acquire abilities and virtues that will outlast your short earthly life and be of profitable use to you when you leave this world. Hammer this thought into your mind: no one has ever succeeded in taking a single penny or dollar into the next world; the more material things you strive to acquire, the more material things you will leave behind.

On the other hand, the more you help other people by doing good, the more blessings and spirituality you will carry along with you into the next life—after you leave this world. It is quite unfortunate that in the present age many people think that the most important thing in life is to acquire excessive amounts of money and other forms of material things. It is not possible to help others too much; and when you help others, you indirectly attract physical and spiritual blessings to yourself.

A lot of people in the world are in desperate need of help; choose to visualize and acquire material things in order to serve your fellow human beings. After this short earthly life, there is an everlasting spiritual life in which goodness and spirituality are the currencies in use, while the present-day money and material things are like the dust of this Earth. The choice is yours to make!

7. There is magic in positive thinking—always think positively!

It is widely believed that the unseen hands of fate influence the outcomes of many activities in our lives. On the other hand, positive thinking influences many outcomes too—it often goes to the greatest extent imaginable.

We have been informed by positive thinking books—and even the most popular religious book—that people’s outcomes are products of their thoughts—“as you think, so you are”. This saying has been proven by fact that two or more people with the same opportunities, produce different results. In certain instances, one or few people produce multiple times of the amount other people produce.

It won’t be difficult to see a connection between many results in real life, and the statements related to thinking, as contained in a number of books. Generally speaking, history has proven that the size of one’s happiness and general fulfilment depends a lot on the size of one’s positive thinking—there is magic in positive thinking.

If positive thinking is effective, why can’t everybody do it?

Much of our thinking is either little, or big; negative, or positive; or a mixture of two or more types of thinking. And results could be either extremely positive, extremely negative, or anything in between.

We are surrounded by environments that always attempt to pull us down—and if possible, tear us to pieces. Here and there, we are reminded that opportunities do not exist; and so we should be contented with staying in any available little position—this is a statement that is far away from the truth.

We are told that “whatever will be, will be”; that our destiny is out of our control: we are told that fate is in complete control. So we feed on all this, and gradually begin to forget about our most cherished dreams; finally, we choose to open our arms, lie down and wait for our day of exit from this world.

The society tells us there is too much competition at the top positions of life; and so we dare not waste any effort to attain to them.

Is there evidence that positive thinking is effective?

Is there any proof that positive thinking is effective?—Fair question. Proof comes from real life experiences of people around us, who, despite experiencing various degrees of ups and downs in life, achieved great success because they maintained a consistent positive attitude.

The theories about positive thinking have been tried, tested, and found to work wonders in many life situations. Don’t get it wrong: positive thinking could still encounter challenges and problems—but it will still lead anyone to experience the reality behind the popular statement that “all things work together for good”.

Conclusion

It is a great quality to have the desire to be successful. In order to build a successful life, we need the tool called “positive thinking”. Many of us read or come across positive statements and literature every day; but seconds after reading them, we lose the feeling of their real latent power.

In order to maintain and develop the power of positive thoughts and words, we need to be consistent in our positive thinking, which will be very effective if we drive it with consistency. Remember the saying: “As a man thinks”; not: “as a man thought” or “as a man used to think”; but rather: “as a man thinks”—consistency!

If you wish to benefit from positive thinking, be consistent in your positive thinking, and you will be happy regardless of your station in life. Develop an ever-increasing desire for positive thinking, and you will greatly enhance your chances for success—you will actually end up achieving success! The biblical David said: “as one thinketh in his heart, so is he”.

“Great men are those who see that thoughts rule the world”— Emerson.

“The mind is its own place and in itself can make a heaven of hell, or a hell of heaven”— Milton.

“Life is too short to be little”— Disraeli.

8. Past events that disproved the impossible: one person’s impossibility is another person’s possibility

In many areas of life, the study of things that were deemed “impossible”, actually opened up completely unexpected domains in many human endeavors—especially in science and technology.

Many events in recorded history have proven that what one person thought was “impossible”, was often regarded by another person as a “possibility”—actually, one person’s food is another person’s poison!

Past events that illustrate how people who studied the impossible, changed the course of world

It is sad to note that there were times in the past when certain reputable media outlets, professional bodies and scientists lacked positivity and belief, and declared that a number of scientific and technological ideas were hopelessly impossible:

(1) The New York Times

During the 1920s and 1930s, Robert Goddard, who has been regarded as the founder of modern design & operation, was severely criticized by people who believed that rockets would never travel in space—in fact, they disdainfully called his pursuit “Goddard’s Folly”.

An unforgettable incident occurred in 1921 when the then editors of “The New York Times” made a disgraceful statement against Dr. Goddard’s work: “Professor Goddard does not know the relation between action and reaction and the need to have something better than a vacuum against which to react. He seems to lack the basic knowledge ladled out daily in high schools”.

The editors believed it would be impossible to send rockets into space because there would be no air in space for rockets to push against. Unfortunately for the unbelieving editors, there statements have been found to be misguided and worthless for over several decades after they made unfair criticisms and utterances.

(2) Nineteenth century chemists

Chemists of the nineteenth century popularly declared that it would be impossible to find a substance—popularly known as “the philosopher’s stone”—that could turn lead into gold.

Back then, 19th century chemistry was based on the fundamental immutability of elements such as lead; fast forward to this generation and see the big difference because lead atoms can now be turned into gold.

(3) Lord Kelvin

Lord Kelvin, who is widely regarded as a prominent physicist, declared that “heavier-than-air” devices such as aircraft, would not be able to fly; also, he assumed that X-rays were deceptive, a hoax, and that the idea of the “radio” would be fruitless and without a future. It’s surprising to witness how much time has passed by, and yet all the things Kelvin thought were impossible, have become possible, and continue to remain so till date.

At the end of the 19th century, most scientists thought it was impossible for the Earth to be up to a billion years old. Lord Kelvin widely declared that molten Earth would take between 20 to 40 million years to cool down; his statement contradicted that of geologists/Darwinian biologists who claimed that the Earth could be up to a billion years old.

Finally, the impossible was proven to be possible after the discovery of nuclear force by Madame Curie and other scientists showed that if the center of the Earth is heated via radioactive decay, it could be kept in a molten state for billions of years—which the Earth’s age actually is.

(4) Albert Einstein

Initially, in the 1930s, Albert Einstein believed it would be impossible to make an atomic bomb.

Atomic physicists had already known that there was an appreciable quantity of energy located deep within nuclei—in accordance with Einstein’s equation, E = mc²; however, they wrongly assumed that the energy in each nucleus was too insignificant to use in making an atomic bomb.

On the other hand, atomic physicist Leo Szilard remembered H. G. Wells prediction in a 1914 novel titled “The World Set Free”, in which Wells predicted the development of the atomic bomb. According to the book, Wells believed that the secret behind the atomic bomb would be discovered by a physicist in 1933.

Fortunately for Szilard, after he came across Well’s book in 1932, it inspired him to develop an idea in 1933 by magnifying the power of a single atom through a chain reaction so that the energy generated from splitting a single uranium nucleus could be magnified trillions of times, and employed in making the atomic bomb.

Szilard conducted more experiments and held secret negotiations with Einstein and the then American President Franklin Roosevelt; this led to “The Manhattan Project” which was used to build the atomic bomb.

“Black holes” were once regarded as “science fiction”. In fact, Einstein wrote a paper in 1939 which “proved” that it would be impossible for black holes to be formed; yet, in the present-day, the Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray telescope have proven the existence of thousands of black holes in outer space.

(5) Stephen Hawking

The great cosmologist Stephen Hawking tried to discover a new law of physics that would prove that time travel is impossible; he called his idea “chronology protection conjecture”.

Unfortunately, after many years of research, he was unable to disprove time travel. In fact, contrary to his idea, physicists have demonstrated that a law which would prevent time travel is beyond present-day reality.

And because there is no law that can prevent the existence of time machines, physicists see the possibility to create time machines and do time travel in the near future.

Observation

Each person has the power to believe in all types of possibilities and not be affected by the negative beliefs and influences of faithless reputable media outlets, professional bodies, people, and even great scientists.

Conclusion

Knowledge is power: the reason why certain technologies were deemed impossible was due to the obvious fact that some basic laws of natural science were unknown; this created huge gaps in the understanding of science back in the day—no wonder many scientific and technological ideas were considered impossible.

Throughout history, time and time again, people who studied things that were deemed “impossible”, stretched and broadened the boundaries of science and life, and inspired other scientists to believe that anything is “possible”.

The ideas and technologies that are regarded as “impossible” in the present-day, will become possible in a few years, decades, or centuries into the future.

9. How to turn defeat into victory by experimenting with different things

Defeat is experienced by people from different backgrounds, age groups, religious faiths, levels of education, etc. Some people who have experienced defeat are surprisingly young, while others are older, or old. Still yet, others have little or no education.

However, they all have one thing in common: they have experienced defeat, with or without previously experiencing victory. Each one of them has encountered situations they couldn’t conquer, and many of them were eager and anxious for people to hear them out, and help if possible.

This has been the experience of many across the world. It is quite unfortunate that some people have even lost all they have, and have no other place to go, or person to depend on than Mother Nature.

Look away from defeat at the bottom of the ladder, and towards victory up the top of the ladder

If we take away our eyes from the experience of people who have been defeated, and move them up a bit towards those who—despite their defeat—continued to have faith and be positive, and ended up turning defeats into victories by trying/experimenting with other things, then we can learn a great deal of lessons that can positively impact our future.

Instead of surrendering to defeat, let us be positive and take comfort from the wonderful experiences of past defeatists who successfully turned defeats into victories in various endeavors of life: business, science, arts, writing, government, etc.

Most people at the top of every field rose from different types of conditions and circumstances: poor homes, rich homes, broken homes, luxurious homes, slums, etc. But they all had one thing in common: they experienced tough challenges and circumstances.

Everyone who truly turned defeat into victory, encountered and responded to one form of defeat or another

Irrespective of background and situations—good or bad—certain people who get knocked down and just remain on the ground without making any attempt to get up; on the other hand, there is a another category of people who react differently: they summon energy and make attempts to get up, bounce back, move forward and upward ever, learn a lesson or more, and forget about when and how they got knocked down.

If you read the lifestyles of great people who have lived on Earth, you will observe that many of them were engulfed by difficulty and negative losing situations. If you probe deeper, you will find out that each one of them encountered and overcame opposition, misfortune, discouragement and setbacks many times over.

Although it is barely impossible to succeed without encountering hardship and opposition, it is possible to use hardship to move forward and upward ever

Accidents and setbacks in many fields like aviation and medicine—just to name a few—have guided or inspired aircraft engineers and doctors to experiment with other things; this has led to better aviation and health services.

A basketball coach who wins some games and loses others, watches the videos of lost games, notes the details that led to defeats, and points them out to his team. In addition, the coach tries or experiments with other approaches or techniques until success is achieved.

The lesson is this: gain or salvage something valuable from every situation—good or bad

In any endeavor of life, nothing will really make or break us more than our attitude towards circumstances. Any person can turn defeat into victory. Always look for a lesson, and keep trying other things until you find what works out, or leads to success.

Although it’s true that the world is complex and full of challenges, it is also equally true that we often make things complex for ourselves and don’t want to figure out how we do so, or how to stop it.

We like taking credit for our victories, and want the world to know about them; but at the same time, we don’t waste time in blaming destiny and other people for each of our misfortunes or setbacks. Blaming others for everything can be destructive to everybody concerned.

On the other hand, don’t try to blame yourself to the extent of believing you will never be able to overcome defeat and become victorious. If we face our faults and challenges with a positive attitude, we will likely succeed on any stage. Being self-critical in a good way can actually help us build the faith, strength and efficiency needed for success.

The great Orville Hubbard once said: “A failure is a man who has blundered but is not able to cash in on the experience”. And how right he was, and still is! Victorious people and defeatist-turned-victors study challenges and setbacks and look at them as part of universal and eternal education. With time, they become the sharpest and most unbeatable people that could be found on Earth.

Instead of blaming people or bad luck, look at challenges or setbacks and learn from them

Without experimenting new things, many people fail to see opportunities that can make them grow bigger, stronger, and more self-reliant. Blaming bad luck never got anybody anywhere!

Another thing is that many of us use the same one or few approaches to do everything instead of experimenting or trying entirely new things. In fact, this is one of the greatest obstacles that makes it difficult for many people to turn defeat into victory.

Many of us need to try new techniques or approaches whenever we meet challenges or setbacks. Most of us have strong abilities, but without experimenting something new or fresh, we might continue to experience defeats because we persist and insist on using only one or few strategies that continue to be unproductive.

Yes, we must be persistent and insist on being active; but persistence is only one out of many ingredients of victory. In certain circumstances, we might have to try again and again with other alternatives.

It’s on report that Thomas Edison conducted thousands of experiments before he invented the electric light-bulb. The important lesson to note is this: “Edison conducted experiments”; not one experiment, but a couple of experiments—in fact, so many experiments.

He was persistent in his goal to develop a light-bulb which has stood the test of time—immortality! But was his success a one-way victory without hitches? No! His persistence paid off because he blended it with testing different experiments.

Persistence alone might not guarantee success in all situations; but if blended with experimentation, could guarantee a higher probability of success.

Conclusion

Many people go through life with a high level of persistence, determination and ambition, but fail to succeed because they remain rigid, and don’t like trying or experimenting with new approaches or techniques.

It is wise to keep focussing on our goals and not waver an inch from them. But if results aren’t forthcoming, then it is advisable to look for and experiment with an entirely new approach, or different approaches.

In addition, learn to see the good side of challenges. For all things will work together for good if you remain positive and do all you can to develop clear vision and thinking. Be courageous enough to criticize yourself constructively and in a beneficial way that can only bring out the best in you.

10. The fight of faith: why give up when time comes to fight this important battle?

The fight of faith is a very important battle in all areas of life. And the way each person handles their own battles will determine the outcomes of a lot of events in their life.

We start this chapter with a narrative about “king conscious” and “magician subconscious”; a story that will help buttress a few important points: A powerful magician (the deeper part of our mind: subconscious) once informed his king (the shallow part of us: conscious) that he had discovered a way to turn sand into gold. The king picked up interest, and knew that his kingdom would be on top of the world if the magician turned sand into gold.

The magician explained the process which sounded quite easy although it placed a demand on the king: he had to leave his habitation and office, and spend an unspecified number of days in a small building where the sand could be turned into gold.

Everyone knew it would be difficult—but not impossible—for the king to leave his habitation, lifestyle, official duties, and kingdom temporarily unguided for an unspecified number of days. It would even become more difficult for the king if his wife, counsellors or officers conspired against him and put someone else in power before his return. And if for any reason he ended up leaving the building before time, then the process would come to an abrupt end, and sand wouldn’t be turned into gold.

Finally—when the time came—after a few days of staying in the building for the operation, the king became weary and tried his best to remain in the building.

But alas, he couldn’t stay anymore; so he ended up leaving and not getting any gold. Moreover, he went back to his habitation and office, and thereafter, was called the most foolish king and leader of all time. Why? Because, with all the wisdom, and high status in society—or so he thought—he was made to stoop very low, and got nothing in return.

Actually, what the citizens of the kingdom didn’t know was that the king didn’t get anything in return because he was unable to meet up with a demand that was uncertain and required a lot of patience: staying in a small building for an unspecified number of days.

This story expresses the experiences of many people who are engaged in the fight of faith—the battle of conquering the mind and achieving important goals. This fight involves an interplay between the conscious mind and the subconscious mind.

Just a brief diversion in order to make something a bit more clear: At times when someone is walking forward, they won’t take notice, or they won’t be conscious of oncoming danger because their conscious mind is elsewhere. But at the same time when their conscious mind is elsewhere, their subconscious mind—the seat of memory—sees and records everything. This is one of the reasons why, if an accident or something dangerous happens, a gifted person can still “read” or “see” what actually happened from subject’s subconscious mind; a well-trained hypnotist can do the same, even if the subject wasn’t conscious, or didn’t remember what happened.

Now back to the story which can be interpreted in many ways; it has a lesson that can be summarized in one sentence: the conscious mind often behaves in ways that bottle up the great inspiration, power and genius residing within the subconscious mind. One thing that most people are either not aware of, or have failed to recognize is that the conscious mind can exercise negative influence on the subconscious mind.

If an individual consciously believes they will fail despite all the success they have achieved, they will end up failing; the reverse is also true—if an individual consciously believes they will succeed despite the failure they have been experiencing, they will end up succeeding.

The reason why some multimillionaires or rich people commit suicide, and poor people live happily is because their conscious minds held unto a certain belief to the extent that it sank into the subconscious and caused them to either be happy or unhappy—thus leading to other actions or consequences.

If a person doesn’t have any faith deep within (in the subconscious, or subconsciously), then it will be difficult to stimulate the subconscious mind and arouse the power or genius that usually sleeps deep within it.

Despite our knowledge about positivity, why do many of us lose the battle of faith?

Most of us grew up from childhood to adulthood, and have heard a lot of positive messages from religious teachers, motivational speakers, and mentors.

We have been fully aware of popular statements such as: “you shall ask for what you want, and it will be given unto you”; “verily I say unto you, whosoever shall say unto this mountain, ‘Be removed and cast into the sea’, and does not doubt in their heart, but believes that those things which he has said will come to pass; he will have whatsoever he says”; “The kingdom of God is within you”.

But despite hearing these statements and others, and thinking we believe, doubt usually comes with a big bang on our hearts, and most of us lose the fight of faith, even before it gets started.

It’ll be difficult to win the fight of faith (for example: against poverty) to become rich, if we always expect to be (or remain) poor. Doubting the ability to get a wish is like trying to reach the north by going directly to the east.

Regardless of any situation, if we always speak negatively to ourselves, we will end up building a great wall of disbelief against our progress in the future. And regardless of how hard we might work for success, if our thoughts are saturated with negativity and fear, our efforts will be neutralized, and it will be difficult to achieve success.

So how can we acquire faith?

Faith is something that has to be pampered, fed, nourished, and even looked after, if one wishes to get good results from it. In order to obtain faith, we must consistently believe in what we want to achieve until the knowledge and impressions of it are driven from the surface of our consciousness into the depths of our subconsciousness.

According to many reputable sources, the subconscious mind takes up about ninety per cent of the whole mind, while the remaining ten per cent is conscious, and not as powerful as the subconscious mind which is the seat of memory.

The thing is that if we always strengthen our thoughts with what we believe (have faith) in, especially in a positive manner and with a positive attitude, our powerful subconscious minds wouldn’t help but respond positively. And once the knowledge of our faith (deep belief) sinks into the subconscious part of our minds, then we will have automatic faith.

If anybody fights the fight of faith and succeeds in acquiring faith, then they wouldn’t have to bother about getting faith anymore because they will always remember that they have faith and can be able to do certain things, regardless of what others can or cannot do. If you keep on telling yourself, time after time, again and again, that you are going to achieve one particular thing or another—or whatever it is that you really want to do—then in time you will do it.

All successful people, millionaires, inventors and great achievers have a lot of faith in themselves and whatever they set their hearts to do. They have a lot of belief in their own capabilities; and by having strong and positive belief over a period of time, they generated the faith and power that turned their belief into reality.

So if we keep telling ourselves in positive way that we are going to succeed, then we will succeed—but we will only succeed if we keep declaring success to ourselves, and not allow doubt (negativity) to sink through our conscious minds and take hold of our subconscious minds.

Conclusion

What made great men and women to be as great as they were in their heydays? One thing is sure: they had a sublime belief in their destinies, and they successfully fought the fight of faith by believing so much in themselves, up to such a depth that their thoughts became powerful, occupied their whole being, and worked wonders.

11. The importance of protecting your unlimited potential: a look at some unlimited potential achievements & quotes

“Each one of us is born with the potential for the unfolding of our true self. When you deviate from the truth, you are interfering with the intention of something greater than you are; call it nature or a higher power”—Anonymous/Unknown.

Each human being has unlimited potential within themself, but not many are aware that life is full of immense and unlimited possibilities. But it’s a sad tragedy of life that many people watch their hidden inner unlimited potential die without ever being tapped to the greatest extent possible; the greater tragedy is watching unlimited potential live a limited life.

Despite the limits that reality attempts to impose on us, we still have to define and go for what we want instead of leaving everything to be influenced by the hands of fate which can in turn be influenced by human faith.

Regardless of the circumstances imposed on us—synonymous with how the earth covers the precious/untapped minerals of the Earth—we have far more unlimited potential than we are usually aware of; we have far more unlimited potential than the abilities we have been able to unleash.

If we can make effort to push/drive ourselves more, we will be surprised at the greater deeds we will be able to accomplish. Thomas Edison famously said, “When you’ve exhausted all possibilities, remember this: you haven’t”.

The truth is that many people don’t reach their full potential, while others are only satisfied with settling for only a portion of it. On the other hand, only few people really make a strong decision and effort to maximize their lives by fully utilizing their inner hidden treasures—their talents and abilities.

When doing so, they unleash that hidden unlimited potential which each human being has the opportunity to tap into and materialize great deeds. One very important question that needs a good answer is this: are we ready to tap into our GOD-given human unlimited potential?

It is important to note that people who accomplish great things believe they have unlimited potential and always make appreciable effort to locate it and tap into it more and more each passing day. Nothing great/new will ever be achieved, and no difficulty will ever be surmounted if we allow family, environment, society, or current level of faith or ability determine what we can or cannot do.

Always put it at the back of your mind that human potential is unlimited, and expands without limit whenever appreciable effort is put in to work and improve on it. We must always remember and believe that we have unlimited potential; and so we have to do our utmost best to protect our hearts with positivity whenever we meet challenges.

Don’t allow the pressure of self and society to influence your unlimited potential and make it fall: “if you think you are standing firm, be careful so you won’t fall”—1st Corinthians 10:12 (The Bible).

But what is the meaning of unlimited potential?

When indirectly referring to unlimited potential, many people say “the sky is the limit”; on the other hand, unlimited potential means something even far greater than that. Although unlimited potential could mean many things, it can be defined by some of the following enlightening statements:

• Unlimited potential means the ability, possibility or inherent capacity to go above and beyond any normal or existing level/extent.

• Unlimited potential means the ability to continuously and endlessly grow, expand and achieve greater things.

• Unlimited potential means the ability to always be positive and inspired in the face of current and future challenges, and never give up or give in until success is guaranteed or materialized.

The journey to tapping unlimited potential usually encounters many challenges which are generated from established traditions, status quos, norms, social expectations and value systems that try to shape, control and oppress natural human talents and abilities.

Even at the very beginning of life, infants and children receive a fair share of expectations from parents, siblings, family members, community and society; and in many cases, a lot of expectations end up stifling and limiting children’s hidden unlimited potential, especially in the future.

At the end of the day, unlimited potential is trapped and suppressed within many human spirits until it is suffocated, buried and lost—very sad. Regardless of what happens, we can always start afresh and be consistently inspired by the great achievements of the past.

Some of the greatest unlimited potential achievements in history

• Declaration (orientation) of human rights: Throughout history, countless number of people have either been treated as animals, or even less than animals. After centuries of injustice, religious persecution, and disregard for human lives and rights, human rights was declared and passed by law; this is one of the greatest achievements in history. A part of the earliest declarations in the United States constitution was drafted by Thomas Jefferson. U.S. Declaration of Human Rights (July 4, 1776): “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”.

• The Wright brothers achieved a great technical feat by successfully flying a plane in air.

• A successful journey was made to the moon on July 20, 1969.

• The invention of the telephone by Alexander Graham Bell who was 28 years old at the time.

• The invention of the radio by Nikola Tesla who was 35 years old at the time.

• The invention of the World Wide Web by Tim John Berners-Lee, an English computer scientist who first made communication successful between a HTTP client and server via the Internet on December 25, 1990.

• etc.

Some popular and inspiring quotes on unlimited potential & possibilities

• Abraham Maslow: “One’s only rival is one’s own potentialities. One’s only failure is failing to live up to one’s possibilities. In this sense, every man can be a king and must therefore be treated like a king”.

• Brian Tracy: “The potential of the average person is like a huge ocean unsailed, a new continent unexplored, a world of possibilities waiting to be released and channelled toward some great good”.

• Eddie Robinson: “The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential…these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence”.

• Joel Osteen: “No matter how many times you get knocked down, keep getting back up. GOD sees your resolve. He sees your determination. And when you do everything you can do, that’s when GOD will step in and do what you can’t do”.

• John Maxwell: “Successful and unsuccessful people do not vary greatly in their abilities. They vary in their desires to reach their potential”.

• Mary McLeod Bethune: “We have a powerful potential in our youth, and we must have the courage to change old ideas and practices so that we may direct their power toward good ends”.

• Paramahamsa Nithyananda: “Living enlightenment is being intense in every moment and responding intuitively to achieve your limitless potential for creativity and joy”.

• Ramtha: “You cannot see anything that you do not first contemplate as a reality”.

• Roger Williams: “The greatest crime in the world is not developing your potential. When you do what you do best, you are helping not only yourself, but the world”.

• Shunryu Suzuki: “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few”.

• Simon Travaglia: “The greatest barrier to someone achieving their potential is their denial of it”.

• Thich Nhat Hanh: “Because you are alive, everything is possible”.

• William Churchill: “Continuous effort—not strength or intelligence—is the key to unlocking our potential”.

• William Faulkner: “Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Do not bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself”.

• William W. Purkey: “Human potential, though not always apparent, is there waiting to be discovered and invited forth”.

Conclusion

Even Jesus Christ, who is a great signpost of unlimited potentials for humanity, best demonstrated the unlimited nature of the potential in mankind when he said, “Everything is possible to him that believes”—Mark 9:23.

This statement says a lot about the reality of human unlimited potential; it should challenge us to assess the negative beliefs we hold, which limit us whenever we face fears and limitations.

Don’t ever count yourself out of anything that hasn’t yet been materialized. Believe in yourself and the unlimited potential that lies within you; it is waiting patiently for your permission and any opportunity to be unleashed.

Don’t worry if you haven’t yet tapped into your unlimited potential. Keep on being positive, and do all that’s within your power—100%; for GOD knows your value and always saw from the beginning of time the great deeds your everlasting unlimited potential can achieve.

Therefore, always hold your head up high, and remember that GOD has placed within the universe a great plan and purpose for each person to accomplish.

12. The universality of GOD’s power

Each time I think about any scientific explanation for each wonderful act in creation, like the one that states sun rays travel over long distances to plants which use them to produce food for humans and animals, my mind instantly goes to certain Bible verses in Matthew 6:26, 28 and 30:

• “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow, nor reap, nor gather anything into barns, and yet GOD feeds them…consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin…GOD clothes the grass of the field…”.

There are too many things and activities in creation that do not sow, reap, gather, or do anything. Yes, many things in creation don’t seem to do any work; yet GOD either supplies them with energy, or sponsors their activities consistently.

Without help from GOD’s universal power, natural and spiritual activities wouldn’t/won’t occur. In reality, what work does the sun do to generate rays or sunlight? Or, what work does the Earth do to summon enormous quantities of sun rays from 150 million kilometers away from the sun?

What power does the sun use to make enormous quantities of light rays travel at a speed of 300,000 kilometers per second, and within 8 minutes from the sun to the Earth? What, what and what? We may keep asking until we lose count.

GOD’s power is so universal; it can be found in the smallest and mightiest deeds in creation

Have you ever considered the birds, lilies, grass, sun, and other things or activities; and also the amount of intelligence involved in their activities? Individually, how much intelligence do you think they have? Not much, right? Why? Probably, because they don’t know anything about chemistry, geology, physics, or science.

Can the birds, lilies, grass and sun figure out how water and carbon are gathered from the atmosphere and mixed with nutrients from the soil of the earth to produce sugarcane or starch? Regardless, no scientist has been able to figure out the force behind such activities, or other related ones. How do you think bananas and oranges would know how they grow? Of course, it’s likely they won’t be able to.

According to human knowledge, bananas and oranges have no sense when compared with humans who are widely believed to have as many as five physical senses. Yet, bananas, oranges, and many other plants receive starch into their cells, the cells of their roots, vines and leaves; and they continue to produce more and more.

The thing is this: GOD’s universal power brought everything into being; the foundations of not only the Earth, but all the countless number of physical worlds that science has been able to see (from afar) out there—and spiritual worlds too.

GOD’s universal power also placed distances between various lands and levels of atmosphere, and also between one star or galaxy, and another; moreover, the same power grows every animal and human being from infants to adults, or anywhere in between.

The universality of GOD’s power also reaches the deepest part of the human spirit

There is located within each person a mighty, resistless, and indescribable life force that can help everyone perform tasks that could even dazzle people’s imagination.

Constantly residing within us is the power of the ever-living GOD which we use every day but don’t often recognize, probably because we’ve gotten so used to using it that we believe it belongs to us. Yes it does. On the other hand, it belongs to, and is also answerable to someone far bigger than us. And there is no limit to what we can achieve if we use the universal power in harmony with GOD’s universal spiritual laws which are outside the scope of this article.

Any wish or desire that aligns with GOD’s laws and is patiently held in faith, would attract anything from the invisible and make it manifest physically.

The universality of GOD’s power makes it possible for GOD to be contacted from anywhere in the universe—anywhere!

The universality of GOD’s power makes it possible for us to realize our dreams after we contact it directly in our hearts through what many call “prayer” or “meditation”.

It doesn’t mean that whenever a prayer or wish is granted, GOD has been influenced by prayer. GOD cannot be bribed into doing things against his will. However, when a person desires something and prays earnestly in line with GOD’s will, they form a mental image which the universal power of GOD would begin to align with in order to manifest those desires physically.

Conclusion

It might be hard to believe that despite GOD’s busy schedule of handling the greatest works of creation out there in the universe, our affairs are not too little, insignificant and trivial for his power to be with-held from us. Probably, we are just one out of billions of other life forms that he created and ushered into existence.

If it doesn’t take anything for GOD’s power to encompass his angels in the divine or spiritual world, it won’t take him anything to consistently encompass us with his power in this physical world. GOD’s power is so universal and much available at each person’s disposal, as much as the sunshine, rain and wind are. Only a few people take advantage of it, while many others don’t know that the same power reinvigorates the very air we breathe.

Remember the wise words of King Solomon: “The beginning of wisdom is this: get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight; prize her highly, and she will exalt you; she will honor you if you embrace her”—Proverbs 4: 7 and 8. A lot of power is available to those who have done a good job at getting wisdom, understanding and insight which is widely available in every part of creation—the Earth inclusive.

The power of words

In the book of The Bible, “Hebrews 11:3” says: “Through faith we understand that the universe was framed by the word of GOD so that the things which are seen were made from nothing.” Everything you see, handle and feel, came out of words. In fact, words are the most powerful tools in the universe. Kingdoms and nations are ruled by decrees, ordinances or constitutions which are all written in words. Words have always been the greatest weapons at the disposal of every human being who has ever lived on earth. Actually, words are great assets.

Anyone who carefully studies the first book of The Bible (Genesis), will find out that GOD created the whole universe through the simple use of words. He stood before the land and waters, and declared that they should bring forth an abundance of creatures; he spoke to the firmament as well and it responded. On and on, GOD continued declaring words until the whole universe was set up. Most probably, there wouldn’t have been anything in existence if GOD hadn’t spoken. The method that GOD used in making everything manifest (physically and spiritually), was by speaking them out. Actually, everything was with Him before creation came into existence. You were created in his image and likeness, therefore you too posses the ability to speak out and create your own world (through the use of your own words).

Words are one of the most important tools you need on earth. Make optimum use of them! Each morning, make it a habit to speak into the day and declare the things you  want to achieve in future. You ought to always speak positively and declare the right words which will be more effective in the spirit world than in the physical world. All things (visible and invisible) have their roots/foundations firmly anchored in the almighty power GOD; for without him, nothing would have been created. If words, which  have spiritual power in them, cease to exist, then all things will disintegrate, become empty and void of any meaningful substance.

In the book of Matthew 8:8, a centurion made a remarkable statement which can reveal the powerful effect of words. He said: “I am not worthy that thou [Jesus] come under my roof, but speak the words only and my servant shall be healed.” A careful study of The Bible—all through—reveals that words have no respect for a barrier like distance: distance cannot prevent words from exhibiting the effects of their inherent latent power. Words are so powerful; that’s why you must make your thoughts, actions and comments to be aligned with the nature of GOD’s belief and words. Jesus said: “The words I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.” Words are spirit! Speak positive words in alignment with belief in GOD, and the spirit of GOD will make your spoken words become a reality and physically manifest the things you desire.