Monday 28 October 2013

5 Sources of Inspiration (Part 4)

A Progress Path
It’s simply beautiful to be here and I'm all fired up to share a couple of thoughts with you. But most awesome is the fact that you are over there eagerly awaiting the conversation to commence…that I value!
OK let’s go…
A while now I have been sharing on the topic: 5 Sources of Inspiration and I have already dole out 3 sources – Deciding, Planning and Beginning.
Ending this teaching at the third – Beginning – will cripple the cycle of inspiration and like the Buddhist saying goes to buttress this point, “there are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth – not starting, and not going all the way.”
That is, not beginning and not progressing; the latter being the fourth source of inspiration.
Progressing is a great source of inspiration. Not just progressing in terms of time, but advancing at a new gradient curve of learning, making new discoveries as you accelerate towards your goals!
The word “continue” carries a lot of dividend.
Quickly let’s look at two analogies in connection with the word “continue/progress:”
  1.      .    You start jogging along the block and then, you don’t stop but continue on this art of discipline, and on a daily basis you keep extending your effort. Not long the dividend begins to set in. You begin to notice an increase in oxygen circulation and gradual weight loss.
  2.          You couldn't face an audience of five persons because you were too shy. Then you decided to commit to the art of public speaking. You begin with a person or two, seizing every moment of interaction to learn something about rhetoric. Then you progress to three, four…though it’s challenging but you persist and before you are totally aware, you are addressing an audience of ten…fifty…a thousand. Suddenly shyness becomes obsolete.
Progressing is gaining mastery and ground in the art of your pursuit.
You shouldn't be expecting a baby when you had aborted the embryo.
Your decision won’t be achieved, your plans won’t be realized, and your beginning won’t gain credibility unless you are progressing.
Progressing is the oxygen in the wheel of attainment. It is what generates daily hope. It is the free-way between aspiration and actualization.
To move from point A to B, then you have got to be progressing.
Franklin Roosevelt echoed: “the only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today. Let us move forward with strong and active faith.”
Also, he added: “To reach a port we must set Sail; Sail, not tie at anchor; Sail, not drift.”
Now take notes because I did when I first heard this: Unhappiness is simply the lack of progress towards a preset goal and happiness is making progressive progress.

POINT TO RUMINATE ON: “I am a slow walker, but I never walk back.”

Authored by: Anointed Enoh


Monday 21 October 2013

5 Sources of Inspiration (Part 3)

Once again it is a pleasure to pencil down a few thoughts that we began three weeks ago. Hope you have been learning from the article(s). If you remember, I started with Deciding as the first source of inspiration and of course you tacitly agreed that this particular source has a short life-span, so we couldn’t dwell there for so long. So we advanced to the second of the source of inspiration – Planning.
But in closing our discussion last week I quoted the religious leader, Gordon Hinckley saying; “That you can’t plow a field simply by turning it over in your mind.”
Well, again this simply expresses the limit of staying so long on this stage of inspiration, so lets’ advance to the third source which is – Beginning.
The Dawn
Beginning – getting started on what you have been deciding and planning.
The German philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Geothe puts it this way, “whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius and power and magic in it.”
Turn that thought, those notes on paper into action.
Assembling thoughts from the intangible realm (deciding), penciling them down into 2nd dimensional format (planning), and then firing them up into the 3rd dimensional state (beginning) is a fantastic sequence of inspiration.
Imagine saying to yourself finally, “what I thought about for so long, I have finally started.” You can’t completely comprehend what will happen to yourself esteem when you can do this!
For instance, the idea of owning a personal library, the moment you walked into a bookshop to purchase your first book that could just be the first step of an incredible journey. Or the self-promise of committing to inspiration and learning; the thought of surrounding yourself with uplifting information, then that moment you enroll for the class/seminar and there you are seated, pen in hand, ready to pen down notes on a pad. Whoop! What a feeling.
You never know how well plans can go until you finally commit to the first step of the journey – executing.
Sadly, you never finish what you haven’t started nor do you achieve what you didn’t begin.
The mountain mover began by carrying away small stones. So…
Overcome the inertia. Step out and begin. Just start. “For anything well began is half-done,” says Horace.

POINT TO RUMINATE ON: There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth – not starting and not going all the way.


Authored by: Anointed Enoh

Tuesday 15 October 2013

5 Sources of Inspiration (Part 2)

A while before the dawning of 12th of October, 2013, I was awake to piece together notes for my Live Telecast teaching for 7:30am; suddenly it started raining torrentially and my body earnestly sorted the care of my bed and duvet… But then, a sense of commitment to my producer, viewer and you won’t let me be - to deliver on the promise I made last week to continue my discuss on the “5 Sources of Inspiration! So here is the article:
Last week I started out with the first source of inspiration, which is - Deciding.
Deciding is the start button. It is the initiator that triggers the inspiration process. But once it’s in place, then you need to follow through with the next source that is – Planning.
The Great Teacher Jesus speaking to His disciples said (I paraphrase): “If anyone would decide to build a house, won’t he first of all sit down to determine what it will take to fulfill his ambition…”
Planning is a terrific source of inspiration. It gives limbs to the decision you have made.
It provides decision with the necessary ability for it to be effective.
Really it’s grand to start seeing on paper what has only had its existence in the mental realm.
Just reflect a bit about any of these experiences:
·         You being able to finally present the blueprint of your business plan to a potential investor. Gosh! Imagine the feeling!
·         Putting together the last part of your thesis or seminar as a final year student.
·         Itemizing strategies that will help you develop a habit or eliminate a weakness.
Listen, it’s so exciting to start committing imagination and belief to paper.
It’s like having a support system – “for the soul cannot think without a picture.”
The lifeline of deciding ends and begins with planning.
Planning
That is the sequence…
Not planning leads to the breakdown of courage.
Not planning breeds unpleasant surprises.
Lack of planning makes decisions vulnerable to extinction.
As Antoine de Saint-Exupery quipped, “a goal without a plan is just a wish.”
Or in the words of the sage Benjamin Franklin, “that by failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
Planning means you’re armed, equipped, prepared and schooled for the third source of inspiration…
POINT TO RUMINATE ON: “You can’t plow a field simply by turning it over in your mind.”

Authored by:Anointed Enoh

Wednesday 9 October 2013

5 Sources of Inspiration (Part 1)

Hello Friend, how are you doing? Hope the pieces are gradually coming together – the good pieces I mean! At least just staying hopeful will trigger the necessary creativity to enhance your life.
For the next five weeks, I will be sharing both on our Telecast and on this site a fantastic material I just got out of my archive I have tagged “Five Sources of Inspiration.”
On this post I will just focus on the first source – DECIDING!
This is way it all begins. Taking a definite position possibly from the conventional way it has always been done.
Deciding maybe small or big, but that act of faith could simply be the moment that changes everything in your life.
Deciding is the force that creates the motion; the momentum.
Deciding is the pacesetter for any form of advancement.
You can wish all you can. You can guess all you can. You can even pray all you possibly can. But until you decide; the magic word – “until” you draw a definite mental line between being controlled and being in control, nothing will happen.
Anointed Enoh and some NN Fleet Commanders - Deciding
Deciding is the offshoot of all possibilities.
Maybe you have been dreaming of something; somebody you aspire to become or even something you want to do away with – a habit, a relationship, a job, name it. It begins with deciding.
Deciding means you have a hold on your life.
Deciding is the greatest quality that marks the distinction between you as human and any brute.
NOTE: A great advantage of deciding is that it begins the process of lifting your self-esteem. It creates a near feeling of accomplishment.
But of course not deciding has great consequences:
Indecision is the thief of opportunity.
Indecision means the doors are still closed or the opportunity should simply wait. It means what could be should wait or may never be.
Indecision robs you of any form of healthy self-esteem, makes you appear less human.
But when once you have decided then you need to follow through. That leads to the second source of inspiration….
POINT TO RUMINATE ON: Once a man has made a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.

 Authored by: Anointed Enoh