VALUES

a list of values and definitions

Accountable                            Takes responsibility for both actions and outcomes

Achievement                           Aspires to the highest levels of excellence

Authority                                 Possessing power over decisions, people, assets

Balance                                   Balancing time and effort between work, home, hobbies

Creativity/Innovation              Thinking outside the box; trying new ways of accomplishing a goal

Change                                    Looking forward to and valuing change, continuous improvement, doing things differently

Commitment                          Being bound emotionally or intellectually to a course of action, dedication

Competence                            Possessing the skill, knowledge and ability to effectively perform

Courage                                   The willingness to take calculated risks and step outside of one’s comfort zone

Customer Satisfaction            Achieving excellence in customer satisfaction

Diversity                                  Respecting a variety of cultures/lifestyles

Effectiveness                          Executing with precision to achieve results

Efficiency                                                Producing results in a timely manner with a minimal of waste, expense, or unnecessary effort

Fairness                                  Treating people and being treated equally

Faith/Religion                         Belief in a higher power

Family                                     Being with family, both quality and quantity of time

Fitness                                    Being physically fit; optimal well-being

Fun                                          Playfulness, ability to laugh and express humor, joking

Growth                                    Investing in lifelong learning, personal development, self-education

Honesty                                   Being truthful, sincere

Independence                         Free from the influence, guidance, or control of others

Integrity                                  Words and deeds match up.  I am who I am; no matter where I am or who I am with.

Knowledge                              Subject matter expert, educated via experience or study

Legacy                                     Making a difference today with tomorrow in mind, succession

Loyalty                                     Faithful to a person, an ideal, a custom, a cause or a duty

Money/Wealth                       An abundance of valuable material possessions, riches

Passion                                    Intense emotional excitement, boundless enthusiasm

Perfection                               Reaches the highest attainable standard, details

Quality                                    A standard of excellence

Recognition                             Giving and receiving acknowledgement for achievements

Simplicity                                                Lack of complexity, complication

Status                                      Holding a position of importance, high standing, prestige

Structure                                 Formality, processes, and systems

Teamwork                               Cooperative effort by a group

Trust                                        Firm reliance on the integrity, ability, or character of a person or thing

Urgency                                   Fast paced, swift, action orientated

Volunteerism/Service             Serving the community, non-profit organizations

Wisdom                                  Having deep understanding, insight, and knowledge, the ability to make good judgments

Rules Rules Rulesss!

Regardless of what age you are you can immediatly start making a change in your life because even though yesterday is gone, it really is not gone unless you have: learned from it and changed your habits.

So a few years ago I decided that it is important for me to build my life on the right things. I try to wake up every morning and look at the following list just to remind me of what my life is about and to set the tone for the day.


-Never get mad [be still in every situation and regardless of how bad it might be use your brain to find balance]
-Don't spend too much time with something you are not going to stay with [time is precious, emotions are precious]
-Dont ever do anything because you want to "prove something" to someone who anyone [because the truth of the matter is no one cares, nobody cares! and it just leaves you emptier]
-Take each day seriously [as a matter of fact take your vacation time seriously. Get up every AM and convince yourself that TODAY COUNTS!]
-The world has no place for weak people [motivational! you gotta keep moving and growing, if not you will become history!]

The formula for Success

I did not read this anywhere but it has seemed common sense to me. I believe everybody has a formula to success, regardless of who you are or the journey you have. Yes we all define success differently but fundamentally success is defined as "setting a goal and reaching that goal"

my Formula to my success
Discipline
Time management
Relationship with God

Why did I start this blog?

I knew I had to write about why I started blogging.

Why am I blogging? For myself or for others?

It didn’t take two seconds to answer that question: I am blogging for myself. Blogging is like journaling.

Sometimes I feel like I think too much, like I analyse too much… sometimes I wonder: is it possible to just… PAUSE!?

I guess blogging allows me to put down my ideas and thoughts. I realize that once I type it out, put it on paper… it does not clog up my brain activity anymore.

So I started blogging for myself but do hope whoever reads this will benefit from it in one way or the other!

I’ve come to realize that it is in writing about myself that I come to know more about myself, consciously realizing who I am and the direction I am going.

Oh yeah I also chose to start blogging because I need to better my writing.

The challenge of being behind

Imagine....

You are an extremely hardworking student, you are a 24 year old senior and are pursuing a degree in Biochemistry, so you can go to medical school.

One evening, after a 4 hour study period at the library, you are on your way to your apartment... you cross the street without looking twice and BAM, a drunk driver hits you and LIGHTS OUT... you are unconscious...

You wake up... look around... you are conscious, you are in a hospital, you remember what happened... you see a yellow button that allows you to call a nurse, you press it and 20 seconds later, the nurse shows up with her mouth wide open (she is extremely surprised you are up). You start talking to her and then you realize... it is seven years later... you were in a coma for 7 years....


now what?

You are now a 31 year old who missed out on the last 7 years of his life. Where do you go from here? Could you still pursue your ambitions?
The amount of knowledge and technology in the world has definitely advanced exponentially to the point where you are just too overwhelmed to be able to think straight....

honestly... What is the next step??


Fortunately, this does not happen often... but unfortunately it happens all the time.
We have people who live unconscious lives for years before realizing that the world is too far ahead of them...
they get to a point where they are tooo deep and it is too overwhelming to try to figure things out...

We live in a time of constant learning, for you to remain just average, you need to keep learning till the day you kick the bucket...

I was an OECD youth unemployment conference where they were talking about why so much youth are unemployed in Europe. Someone brought forth the idea that the youth of today are just too lazy especially because of all the technology and material at their disposal. trying to put it in their words "they do not really understand the concept of hard work or discipline"

Unfortunately I agree with this statement, of course not for all youth but for a majority... the lack of discipline is a serious problem in our generation. It honestly is not our fault because anybody could be in this situation, even our grandparents (if they were born in our time).

It is not our fault BUT it is our responsibility.

Time moves incredibly fast nowadays, i know for sure when I was younger time did not move as fast as it does today.
There is only one way to slow down time
 (slowing down time link)


Getting back into the Game
-Pick up a book and read (recommended book list link)
-make goals for your life, write them down and look at them every morning.
-honestly think of a way you can change the world (even if its in a little way)
-sign up for a newspaper that covers global events (i recommend WSJ)

**the best time to catch up or get ahead in the game is when there is chaos/a crisis. Why? because in times of crisis most people "slack off" For example, when the earthquake happened in Japan, alot of people around me started asking, what's the point of life if one day this is going to happen and blah blah... people decided that it is better to enjoy the moment instead of continue investing. well it is important to know that most stories are blown up so that fear will hit us and so the few and advantaged will accelerate while the majority slack off. So do not let any crisis give you a false assurance of "i can die tomorrow so let me just enjoy".  Move and move fast in the time of crisis

How committed are you???

How Committed are you?

In 2011 we saw a lot of uprising and people around the world standing up, ready to die for something they believed in… 

my question to you today is… At this point in your life is there anything you are willing to die for?

I am willing to die for my faith. I just don’t want it to be a slow painful death (like torture), a quick bullet to the head works for me but anything other than that... anything that brings and details enduring pain, i’ll have to rethink it...

But really… what could you die for?

"we're all $%^#@&"

This famous and profound line is from the movie: London Boulevard. The guy said it in response to the question: Any last words?

what does it mean that we are all $%^#*(@??

it could mean several things...

ask yourself if life is worth it all the trouble? Very few things in life are guaranteed and one that is definitely guaranteed is your death: 100%...

what are the pros and cons of life? let me do a half arse analysis. I realize I am still young but I am not going to be young forever. I saw a 90 yr old man a few days ago and I was like darn!!! no matter how much i try I will eventually get that old one day. i value my youth soooo much (toooo much) that i tried to figure out some benefits of being that old and unfortunately i couldnt come up with any.. please feel free to enlighten me if you have any. maybe i am just too pessimistic or cynical about this issue. or maybe i am just immature

Joys of life
-love
-friendship
-success
-accomplishments
-little pleasures (food, etc)



Challenges of Life
-death of a loved one
-sickness
-emotional pain
-physical pain
-


you probably have alot more things to add under these two lists. my task for you is this: do an evaluation and decide which wins.... if Joys win, what are you going to do? and if challenges win.. what are you going to do??


IN PROGRESS

An analysis of ignorance

Some people advocate never listening to or watching the news because of all the bad things we hear about everyday... this is basically advocating "ignorance is bliss" and trying to avoid the notion that the world can be (or is) a place of so much pain and wickedness... this page is to analyse the benefits and the drawbacks of this pursuit of happyness

What are the benefits? and the drawbacks... of I-G-N-O-R-A-N-C-E


Benefits
happy
no worries... or lessened worries
can enjoy life without the discomfort of empathy
can live in the moment without thinking about others and their problems
dont have to think or worry about the people suffering from hunger, earthquakes, crimes etc

Drawbacks
makes you selfish
out of touch
you are unable to have sympathy for others
makes you naive because in the end whatever happens out there could potentially happen to you


These points are not definitive but just the few that came to mind while typing this... based on the two lists in my opinion the drawbacks outweigh the benefits...

So this means I cannot accept ignorance. I need to be able to stay in touch with the present world but also be able to lead a happy, balanced and content life.

How do I do this?

I guess the only solution is to accept the world the way it is and toughen up. We gotta go out there and keep doing what we need to do despite what the world is turning into... 

We gotta be able to separate ourselves from situations, put ourselves in people's shoes, sympathize with people and value the lives and opportunities we have.

To be able to live a fulfilled life has something to do with being able to be tough. So toughen up as you pass through life.

The Division of peoples

There are two types of people: people who have a place to lay their head and people who don't.
There are 3 types of people: the haves, the have nots and the have not paid for what you have-- My preacher's line


we, human beings, like dividing ourselves into groups, if I told you to finish the sentence:

"There are two kinds of people in this world: _________ and _________?

How would you fill in the blanks? How would you divide people? how would you divide humanity?
by religion? believers and non believers? by color? white and non white?

please do that exercise and if you can be honest enough and would like to share, tell me/us how you "divide humanity"

Where could I live?

Where could I live?

I‘ve lived in several countries throughout my life: Mali, Nigeria, Kuwait, America and France. When people ask me “where is your preferred place?” my response is always: they are all good… they are all different. Where could I live? I believe I could live anywhere (not accounting for ethnic conflicts or conflicts whatsoever). Of course I do need some time to adapt and there are some basic things I would like a place to have for me to stay there. What are these?

- i need access to a gym (weight lifting and cardio), I can still manage if i do not have this as I would have one of those Terrel Owens elastic band things
http://www.build-muscle-guide.com/terrell-owens-bands.html

-electricity (24/7 please)

- fast wireless internet (at the house)

and most important

-SINGLE LADEYSSS (I kid.. I kid)

"I am American"

I think everyone should have an American passport, I mean we are all so influenced by the American culture that in a way we would not be wrong to say “I am American”. I have an American passport but I am not the typical American. I have a Nigerian passport too, but I am not the typical Nigerian. What is the typical American? What is the typical Nigerian? Please see below

Typical American

Has an American accent

Knows little about other countries/cultures

Is somewhat materialistic

talks too much

Typical Nigerian

Has a Nigerian accent

Loves soccer

Has some sort of beef with other Africans or people of other tribes

Talks too much

EDIT IN PROGRESS

New Year's Resolutions!!!

New years Resolutions

I only have two new years resolutions:
-go to sleep earlier
-eat more salad

It is important to mention that I do not believe in New Years Resolutions… why? evaluating oneself once a year is not enough. If you are serious about your life you need to evaluate your life at least once a month, anything less than this indicates a lack of seriousness on your part. 

Good luck