THINGS EVERYBODY SHOULD DO IN 2018

 *1. Pursue* something. Don't walk in the entire 365 days without having something particular in mind to achieve. Start a building project, buy a car, pay some school fees, start some job. Just do something!

 *2. Walk* with people wiser or stronger than you. In 2018, surround yourself with people who will inspire you, who will make you feel you can do better, who will challenge you on.

 *3. Check* your dressing or appearance. Don't put on 'anything' just because it covers your nakedness. Your appearance tells a lot about you. Iron your dress neatly. Don't wear dresses in the name of fashion or trend . Wear more decent but fitting dresses. This is the slogan: Simple but Classy.

 *4. Check* how you talk. Before you open your mouth, be minded of who you are talking to, where you are talking, when you are talking and also know that your integrity is at stake. In every situation, choose silence over speech unless you don't have any option.

 *5. Visit* old people's home to appreciate them also orphanage and children in need of special care.  Don't let them feel unwanted or neglected in the scheme of things.

 *6. In 2018,* be more prayerful. You can't live your life thinking things occur merely logically. There's a Supreme Being who makes things happen, pray to him.

 *7. In 2018,* start thinking or planning towards doing more for humanity.

 *8. In 2018,* always think Positive while being Realistic. When you see tigers praying to God, don't join them. You can be positive that they won't 'chop' you since they are praying but be realistic too that after the prayers, they'll remain tigers and God will feed them with flesh.

 *9. Buy*gifts for your love ones.    In 2018, try and do something 'small' for parents . You have no idea what  goes on in their minds  Let them feel you are not far off

 *10. In 2018,* Invest more, save less, spend less. Put your money into investment ventures. Do what the wealthy people are doing.Go into businesses that will give you the benefits of leverage. Such as Networking.It will help you to get more than one stream of income and residual gains.

 *11. Many known names have gone and live goes on. . The point is, don't work your life out. You won't take your work with you when you die. You are not as important as you think, calm down. Take time off wo rk, go and do medical check-up, visit your family, visit gardens or the beach and appreciate nature, etc.

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Thinking out of the box

In a small Italian town, hundreds of years ago, a small business owner owed a large sum of money to a loan-shark. The loan-shark was a very old, unattractive looking guy that just so happened to fancy the business owner’s daughter.

He decided to offer the businessman a deal that would completely wipe out the debt he owed him. However, the catch was that we would only wipe out the debt if he could marry the businessman’s daughter. Needless to say, this proposal was met with a look of disgust.

The loan-shark said that he would place two pebbles into a bag, one white and one black.

The daughter would then have to reach into the bag and pick out a pebble. If it was black, the debt would be wiped, but the loan-shark would then marry her. If it was white, the debt would also be wiped, but the daughter wouldn’t have to marry the loan-shark.

Standing on a pebble strewn path in the businessman’s garden, the loan-shark bent over and picked up two pebbles. Whilst he was picking them up, the daughter noticed that he’d picked up two black pebbles and placed them both into the bag. He then asked the daughter to reach into the bag and pick one.

The daughter naturally had three choices as to what she could have done:

1. Refuse to pick a pebble from the bag.
2. Take both pebbles out of the bag and expose the loan-shark for cheating.
3. Pick a pebble from the bag fully well knowing it was black and sacrifice herself for her father’s freedom.

She drew out a pebble from the bag, and before looking at it ‘accidentally’ dropped it into the midst of the other pebbles. She said to the loan-shark;

“Oh, how clumsy of me. Never mind, if you look into the bag for the one that is left, you will be able to tell which pebble I picked.”

The pebble left in the bag is obviously black, and seeing as the loan-shark didn’t want to be exposed, he had to play along as if the pebble the daughter dropped was white, and clear her father’s debt.

Moral of the story: It’s always possible to overcome a tough situation through out of the box thinking, and not give in to the only options you think you have to pick from.

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These Three Questions Help You Review and Reflect on Your Work This Year

Looking back on the past year can help you figure out where you want to spend your time and energy next year, whether that’s continuing your successes or remembering lessons you learned from failure. Ask yourself these three questions for a look back.

• What did you do this year that you’re really proud of? This can be anything from a hobby project to a promotion, committing to your personal fitness, or achieving a financial goal. Even if you haven’t had the best year, you likely have an accomplishment of some kind that you can remind yourself of to motivate yourself in the new year.
• What have you learned from your mistakes? Everyone makes mistakes, and thinking about how you can turn those mistakes into lessons for the future puts them in a more positive light.
• What are you willing to let go of? Maybe a goal you had at the start of the year turned out not to be that important to you, or perhaps a group or activity you used to be passionate about isn’t giving you the same enjoyment that it once did.

The end of one year and start of another is one of the best times to set goals or kickoff new ventures, but that doesn’t mean you should focus just on new ideas. This time is about change, so use it to realign where you focus your energy, which might mean pulling back from things that aren’t worth your time anymore.

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6 Things Effective Leaders Should Do to Inspire Their Teams

A leader’s job description can seem like an ever-growing list of bullet points, but the priority for CEOs, CFOs and staff managers alike is always the same: leading their team. The question is, “how?”
Employees will have challenging days. To get through them, they’ll need motivation, which leaders can supply by creating an inspirational environment, all day, every day.  
Finding ways to do this is not the easiest task, but it’s the right choice, always. Here are six basic steps to start motivating your staff: 

1. Be future thinking.

If your organization believes in promoting from within, let that be known. Scant opportunity for growth means little motivation for employees to work to their full potential. I personally sit down with every new hire at our home office within his or her first week and discuss, among other things, our promote-from-within culture.

I encourage workers to not allow where they’re at today to dictate how they think about the future. I personally have that belief in the way I look at my own life as well as how I look at an individual or a company. 

2. Share examples.

Speak of both failures and successes so your team can relate. At the annual sales conference for my company this year, I did not lead off by speaking of victories but rather of a time when I was unable to make a sale. This type of admission not only shows that I'm human, but also that my company doesn't gloss over struggles Share stories about people who have overcome adversity or obstacles and have succeeded. What one person can do, another can do as well.

3. Send messages designed to inspire. 

You never know whom your words will touch on any given day. So every message, no matter how short, should have an inspirational component. When speaking with employees -- whether one-on-one, in small groups or at a meeting of more than 100-plus, use the opportunity to connect and inspire. 

A word of caution, though: The ups and downs in an employee’s personal life can carry over into the office. This might impact the way an employee responds to even the most positive message.

4. Remember, good behavior is contagious. 

As leadership expert Ken Blanchard says, catch people doing something right. As a leader, when you do catch someone doing something well, praise the individual where others will hear Tell staff members to behave like an owner. When one employee took the time do extra research before making a decision on office furniture, it resulted in a lot of money saved. So I shared the good news with the staff. Putting the spotlight on this kind of behavior has a way of catching on and creates a positive and motivational work environment. 

5. Realize that consistency is key. 

It's impossible for employees to build a relationship with a leader who changes from day to day.  If you regularly promote positive, inspirational, motivational behavior, then that’s what you will see happening. This technique is the opposite of intimidation or manipulation, which are the lowest forms of management and leadership. Leaders must realize what they wish to promote  and stick with that message every day.

6. Just ask. 

What inspires one person might leave another cold. Make the effort to get to know your members of your team. For example, salespeople work on commissions. While many said larger paychecks motivated them, one team member found her inspiration in the things a paycheck would allow her to do (taking time off or going  to the kids’ soccer games).

So ask employees, “What’s your why?”  

You might not be able to use all of these steps in your organization, but by implementing even a few, you're telling employees you care. And that’s the best inspiration a leader can offer.

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Set your goals high, and don't stop till you get there

 I believe it is vitally important to not only set goals but to set goals that actually stretch you intellectually, psychologically and even physically. Take for example a high jump athlete who sets a goal to jump eight feet when the athlete knows that the current highest recorded jump is ten feet. If the athlete's goal is well within reach without extra hard training and dedication, what is the point of the training? 

If the athlete knows that with minimal effort that their easy goal is attainable, this does nothing to stretch, push, develop or enhance the athlete's ability. On the other hand, if the athlete sets a goal at ten feet one inch, they have set a mental expectation that they know they must strive to attain. And, they also know that the attainment of the revised goal will require a tremendous amount of focus, dedication, and perseverance. The same applies to every goal that one sets. If you know you can accomplish your goal without much effort, why bother in the first place? Does the attainment of a minimal goal help further your learning, skill, dedication or zest to keep moving 

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Make Continuous Progress Toward Your Goals with "Non-Zero Days"

Staying motivated enough to work toward our goals can be tough. The minutia of life can get in the way of our lofty dreams—which is where the non-zero method comes in. The idea is simple: do just one thing every day that help you move toward what you want to achieve. Even if that’s just performing one sit up or drinking a glass of water, at least you’ll have made some progress.

Here are some low-effort ways you can have a non-zero day:

• Eating healthier: Choose one meal in your day to be primarily made up of vegetables. 
• Working out: Do five push-ups or crunches or jumping jacks or stretches.
• Mental health: Spend one-minute practicing mindfulness meditation or breathing exercises.
• Relationships: Send one text, email, or make a quick phone call to someone you care about.
• In addition to committing to do one thing a day towards your goals, the non-zero method also focuses on creating a positive relationship with yourself

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Youthful age, the prime time

The time of youth is the prime time in anyone's life. It is a great privilege to be young. Many old people do envy the youth. They wish they could return to being young again, and that is why they try to do whatever they can, to look young.
Unfortunately, being young comes only ones in a lifetime. No one can be young more than once. As a lady, you cannot be "sweet sixteen" more than once. Once you pass the age of sixteen, it is clear that you can never be sixteen again. However, the time of youth is also the time of making choices. And the choices at this prime time of life are such that make indelible marks on one's life and destiny.
Choices that will mark your life out for greatness are made when you are young. On the other hand, choices that will predispose you to perpetual defeat and failure are also made when you are young. This is also the time that one lays the foundation of every aspect of future life, be it career, marriage, etc. The unfortunate thing about this choices is that whether they were made consciously or unconsciously, they are often irreversible. So what are you doing right now that you are still young, make the right choices now that you are young so that you won't live a life of regret. it's better you pay now and play later than play now and pay later.

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Confidence Boost

Many of us are suffering from inferiority complex, lacking the boldness to talk because we are busy thinking of what people will say.  Confidence is the ability to speak boldly, with morale and firmness. 
You are don't need to feel inferior over anything, we are especially created, we gat to love ourselves, appreciate who you are.  When you start appreciating and loving your self people will start doing the same to you.  So stand up from there, Be you  Be Real  And most especially have Confidence.

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Sacrifice for Success

If you don’t sacrifice for what you want, WHAT YOU WANT will become the sacrifice. And you will have to SETTLE for a life you DO NOT want.

If you aren’t willing to SACRIFICE now, for what you want, then you can guarantee that LATER you will be making sacrifices for many things you don’t want.

If you don’t work for it NOW, you will be working for someone who DID work for it, later. If you don’t put in the blood, sweat and tears NOW. Sacrifice your time, sacrifice your nights out, give up your treats… If you don’t give up everything that is holding you back, that will be reflecting back to you in your FUTURE.

That’s life.

Success will never come easy. GREAT results will NEVER come easy.

You might get lucky. You might get OK results. But long term, success requires SACRIFICE. EFFORT and DISCIPLINE.

The good news is, you rarely have to sacrifice anything that will give you long term pleasure.

Almost always, all you really have to give up are things that are dragging you down. The things that do nothing for your future.

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How to Create and Succeed at Personal Goals in the Coming Year

The biggest problem with giant goals is that they tend to lack immediacy. They often feel so big and so distant that it doesn’t feel like you can really make significant progress toward that goal any time soon, which leaves you feeling helpless and hopeless and thus abandoning the goal.

The trick is to break that giant goal down into small little steps, things that you can do today that will inevitably lead to the completion of your big goal and the success that you desire.

I personally like the method presented by Gary Keller in his book The One Thing, in which he specifically goes through breaking down a “big idea” goal into daily bits.

Let’s say you have a big five-year goal in mind. What’s the one thing you can do in the next year to make it happen?

Now, you’ve got this big singular thing you can do this year. What’s the one thing you can do in the next month to make that happen?

Now, you’ve got this big singular goal for this month. What’s the one thing you can do in the next week to make that happen?

Now, you’ve got a singular goal for this week. What’s the one thing you can do today to make that happen?

The answer to that last question is the most important one because it focuses solely on today. It centers you on something you can manage to accomplish today, not some big pie-in-the-sky challenge. For example, let’s say your five-year goal is to get your master’s degree.

The one thing you can do this year to move toward that master’s degree is getting into a master’s program and be ready for the start of your classes.

The one thing you can do this month to move toward getting into a master’s program is to prepare application materials for the master’s program at three target schools.

The one thing you can do this week toward preparing those materials is to figure out what materials you need to submit to those schools.

The one thing you can do this today toward figuring out what materials to submit your target program is to find schools with strong master’s programs in your field.

So, right there, you have something you can do today to get you started. It’s something tangible you can do right now. You can find a few schools that you might want to apply to. To achieve that one thing for the week, you’ll have to find the application and admission requirements for those schools and find ones that you’re likely to get into, and then during the rest of the month, you’ll be preparing those applications and getting them ready to submit. The rest of this year can be filled with other steps for getting ready, such as making temporary career changes to make room for this new initiative, and then you’ll move on in subsequent years to nailing that master’s degree.

Let’s take another one–let’s say it’s a weight loss goal. In one year, you want to lose a significant amount of weight.

The one thing you can do this month toward losing weight is adapt yourself to a healthier diet.

The one thing you can do this week toward adapting yourself to a healthier diet is to build a manageable long-term routine of healthy eating that you can stick within subsequent weeks.

The one thing you can do this week toward building a healthier eating routine is to eat healthy meals today and avoid unhealthy snacks.

This breaks the focus down to today. Your focus is solely on eating better today, nothing else. You’ll use the results from that routine over the course of a week to identify what works and build up an eating routine that really works for you through a bit of trial and error. At the end of the month, you should have a better routine in place that you can stick to, and if you focus on sticking to that routine and then gradually adding in some exercise (with later focused goals for a month), achieving that goal becomes inevitable.

Let’s use one more example. Let’s say your goal is to achieve debt freedom in, say, five years.

The one thing you can do this year to move towards debt freedom is to pay off your two biggest credit cards.

The one thing you can do this month toward paying off your two biggest credit cards is to make a big extra payment on the credit card with the highest interest rate.

The one thing you can do this week toward making a big extra payment on a credit card is to trim your food spending significantly. (Yes, of course, you could do other things, but the idea here is to pick a singular focus and this is a pretty good one.)

The one thing you can do today toward cutting your food spending is to make a meal plan for the whole week from the grocery store flyer and the contents of your pantry, make a grocery list from that meal plan, and go on your single shopping trip of the week. (This is effectively one thing.)

Right there, you have a singular action to focus on that will move you directly toward your overall goal. The key is to keep going with step after step after step, but the advantage here is that you have one single thing you can do today to make it happen.

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A Thief called DOUBT

Doubt simply means lack of confidence. The reason why most people end up living a life of regret is doubt. They doubted things that they could have done to change their history. They doubted things that they would have done to affect their generation. People are scared of starting something  new because they doubted them selves. You see, most people are afraid of the Thief that comes at night to steal their  stuffs. But there's a Thief in there mind, his name is doubt. This doubt has ruined more dreams than failure ever did. This doubt originates from the mind. In order to overcome doubt, the mind needs to be worked on first. The mindset needs to be changed. People need to embrace challenges. The nature of doubt is to always tell you that "you can't do it" now if you are among those that still have words ring in there mind, it's time to wake up. The future don't wait for people, the future belongs to people who works for it. Those that believe in themselves, those whose minds have been manipulated towards positivity.  Try the impossible in order to improve. You start overcoming doubt when you start doing things that you thought you won't be able to do. What are you waiting for, pursue that dream today.

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Patience as a key element of success

Patience is the state of endurance under difficult circumstances, which can mean persevering in the face of delay or provocation without acting on negative annoyance or exhibiting forbearance when under strain, especially when faced with longer-term difficulties. Without patience, genuine success can never be achieved. A farmer that plants a seed have to wait for almost a year for harvest. The same applies to entrepreneurs. Starting a new business, or a new career don't always yield the expected returns immediately. It takes patience to watch the business grow. In as much as you wait patiently, you also have a great role to play in nurturing the business. Just like a farmer that planted a seed, the farm don't just go to sleep. The farmer plays his own role by weeding the field to ensure that no wild leaf grows there while he wait for his crop. In the same way, a business requires attention and commitment. To be successful, commitment and patience are pivotal. It's amazing how most people can not wait for five years on a particular business but they are ready to work forty years for another person. Patience is a costly virtue that can never be written of in the pursuit of success. Remember Build to Last. If it Must Last, It Must Take Time.

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Narrow Your Goals Down to a Couple Areas You Actually Care About

 This is a great time to set new goals. If you’re hoping to be successful, lose weight, workout, learn more, get a promotion, be more confident, and finally organize your self, maybe you should just pick one or two at first. 

Read also>> See yourself for what you can become, not who you currently are

 we often fail our goals when we don’t have enough investment in achieving them. It’s not that we don’t want to learn something new or take that bold step. It’s just that we have other things we care about more. things that are actually pulling us down. When you divide your focus over a large number of goals, you can’t devote your focus or attention to any of them. Instead, focus on the goals that you’re most passionate about and worry about the rest later:If you want to succeed with your professional growth goals, choose one or two key areas of focus that align with what really matters to you. Capitalizing on the enthusiasm and energy you have for a goal will give you the drive to accomplish that goal. It’s okay to leave some other ambitions on the table and come back to them later when you have more space in your life to pursue it.

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Abraham Lincoln's letter to his son's teacher

My son starts school today. It is all going to be strange and new to him for a while and I wish you would treat him gently. It is an adventure that might take him across continents. All adventures that probably include wars, tragedy and sorrow. To live this life will require faith, love and courage.

So dear Teacher, will you please take him by his hand and teach him things he will have to know, teaching him – but gently, if you can, Teach him that for every enemy, there is a friend. He will have to know that all men are not just, that all men are not true. But teach him also that for every scoundrel there is a hero, that for every crooked politician, there is a dedicated leader.

Teach him if you can that 10 cents earned is of far more value than a dollar found. In school, teacher, it is far more honorable to fail than to cheat. Teach him to learn how to gracefully lose, and enjoy winning when he does win.

Teach him to be gentle with people, tough with tough people. Steer him away from envy if you can and teach him the secret of quiet laughter. Teach him if you can – how to laugh when he is sad, teach him there is no shame in tears. Teach him there can be glory in failure and despair in success. Teach him to scoff at cynics.

Teach him if you can the wonders of books, but also give time to ponder the extreme mystery of birds in the sky, bees in the sun and flowers on a green hill. Teach him to have faith in his own ideas, even if every one tell him they are wrong.

Try to give my son the strength not to follow the crowd when everyone else is doing it. Teach him to listen to every one, but teach him also to filter all that he hears on a screen of truth and take only the good that comes through.

Teach him to sell his talents and brains to the highest bidder but never to put a price tag on his heart and soul. Let him have the courage to be impatient, let him have the patient to be brave. Teach him to have sublime faith in himself, because then he will always have sublime faith in mankind, in God.

This is the order, teacher but see what best you can do. He is such a nice little boy and he is my son

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See yourself for what you can become, not who you currently are

“When you begin a new road towards success, you have to think of yourself differently. You absolutely must see yourself as who you can become and not who you currently are”
During my transformation, I focused on all the potential that I had and what I would look like in the future. I thought about standing on stages in front of thousands of people and doing something that filled me with joy and passion. I saw videos of thought leaders like Eric Thomas and told myself that I could live my life at the same level.
To this day, those thoughts have never left me and I never will let them go. Until you’ve been all the way to the lowest of lows, you’ll never know what it’s like to dream big.
You have so much more within you. Yes, people will laugh at you and think you’re dumb. The only reason they think like that is because they are pissed off at their own failures and misfortunes.

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