Monday 10 November 2014

Qualities of a Patriot


Who can truly be a patriotic citizen? Let’s begin by simply defining the word patriotism as love, respect and loyalty towards one’s country. Fortunately, every person whether he or she is aware of it or not, belongs to some ethic nationality which can be naturally traceable as its root of origin. This is a place where we should all call `Home,’ a place of emotional satisfaction and possible optimal security, but the irony remains that to every given privilege there is a corresponding responsibility associated with it. For that land, place, village, country to ultimately yield the necessary benefits towards an individual or to be specific, you as a person, then you should have played a committed role in ensuring that your ideals of a better nation become realities.
My aim is not to bore you with lots of literature, so let’s get straight to the points with some qualities and characteristics that will qualify you as a patriot:
  
Patriotism
       
Be True To Self
Patrick Henry, one of America Independence Advocate said that, “true patriotism is patriotism first at home.” It is absolutely impossible to give away what you do not possess; so in being a loving and trustworthy citizen, then it must naturally emanate from you. Nurture the qualities of good in you and at the same time consistently starve the tendencies of evil within you. Let `self’, yourself I mean assume the posture of an honest and sincere umpire that evenly regulates the tempo of morality within you. The denominator remains you can’t be true to anybody or a system if you are not true to self – yourself.
         Love For Your Country
It is impossible to transverse through difficulty with the aim of achieving a set objective without passion, in other words – love for that thing. To be a patriot you must love your country. You can’t be wishing in your heart that you were a citizen of another country and at the same time expect to be a patriot; just as you won’t expect much from a married fellow in terms of building a wonderful family who is devoting his or her time, energy and resources on other opposite sex. Love spells the word – commitment! You shouldn’t have an alternative dedication to another nation until absolute devotion is given to your mother land. Nathan Hale said this, prior to his execution by the British in 1776 during the struggle for the American Independence, “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.” Hmmm…with this phrase I need not say any more on this subject of love towards one’s own country.
          Contribute To Society
The proof of a value system is in the doing. For your goodwill to be measured then it has to be tangible. Society is filled with  sycophants and very selfish individuals whose primary interest are always self driven, even when it seems they are pursuing a noble course, it is always directed to them at the end. To make meaningful contribution and create lasting impact in your environs then your interest in contributing must be genuine. It is unpatriotic not to do; and it is unpatriotic to do with ulterior motive. So you must serve even at your expenses. Recently, over 200 scientists were at a close site of a nuclear reactor in Japan that was badly damaged by an earthquake just to reduce and stop further radiation to their country and world at large. What do you think happened to them thereafter? 
   Do What Is Right And Stand Up For The Right Of Others
Of all the qualities I have mentioned, this one usually seems to stand-out as the most pronounced characteristic of a patriot – doing right and standing up for justice. Though these all sound right but few comply with these standards to fortify the values that will build our nation. A patriot is constantly burdened with doing right and also fighting for the rights of the less privilege; so it is absolutely unimaginable for the fellow to swallow the pills of injustice and public oppression. In his mind is the search for the common well being of his fellow mankind, whether as a religious leader, scientist, public servant, labourer or an apprentice. He seeks consistently to champion the advocacy of a better humanity. To borrow the words of Socrates, “he is a citizen of the world.”
To conclude let me re-echo the words of Theodore Roosevelt, the dynamic and charismatic president of the United States: “Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official, save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he effectively serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country. In either event, it is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the president or anyone else.”    

Authored by: ANOINTED ENOH (Teacher and Personal Development Coach)





                                                                                                                                                                  

Tuesday 4 November 2014

The Mind Game (Part 5)

Hi. Trust you have enjoyed the series, “The Mind Game.” As for me, meditating and developing this teaching series has tipped the scale of my mental prowess and has enhanced my performance, effectiveness, and even my level of productivity.
I would even say it has further exposed me to the magnificent virtues of this substance that we all possess called the Mind.
I deliberately wanted to soak up your mental frame and prepare a rock solid foundation for the attainment of your aspirations!
Before, I; we engage another series, permit me to run a synopsis on the mind game that we had earlier addressed.
Enlightenment
We are all architects of our fortune. And the mind is the prominent device to execute this assignment.
Your mind is a part of you that you have absolute control over and in an approximate fashion has absolute control over you.
Thoughts are product of the mind generated by the process of thinking, that is, capable of using the mind to reason or reflect.
Now the truth is this, thoughts are not independent in form but an exact reflection of our very nature and circumstances.
Your life is sequenced by your thinking!
The first real principle in solving a problem is not looking over the foyer to cast blames, but caging yourself for a soulful reflection.
You are nothing without a productive thought.
You are a fabrication of your mental state.
Never think your thought is nothing; it is all that you are and all that you truly have.
Let me run you through some amazing line on the mind:

  • Thoughts are chemical. They can either kill us or cure us – Bernie Siegel
  • Thought is your only currency – Mark Victor Hansen
  •  Physical concepts are free creations of the human mind, and are not, however it may seem, uniquely determined by the external world – Albert Einstein
  •  Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind – Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • What we think determines what happens to us so if we want to change our lives, we need to stretch our minds – Wayne Dyer
  • A mind is a terrible thing to waste – The Talmud
In conclusion, hear James Allen on the efficacy of the mind:
A man’s mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild; but whether cultivated or neglected, it must , and will, bring forth…therefore let it be noted that the body is the servant of the mind. It obeys the operation of the mind, whether they be deliberately chosen or automatically expressed. At the bidding of unlawful thoughts the body sinks rapidly into disease and decay; at the command of glad and beautiful thoughts it becomes clothed with youthfulness and beauty.


POINT TO RUMINATE ON: “Let a man cease from his doubtful thoughts, and all the world will soften towards him, and be ready to help him.” 

Authored by Anointed Enoh

Tuesday 18 March 2014

The Mind Game (Part 4)


I have made bold to say that intended victories in life are first won in the mind realm. That is, if you want to have absolute control of your life, then you should take absolute control of your thought.
Somebody once said, the first aid to changing your life is changing the kind of thoughts you process on a daily basis.
When you think, you generate thoughts. And thinking as far as life is concern, is always a progressive act.
Thinking occurs both consciously and unconsciously. So, constantly your mind is always processing data, whether you are aware of this or not, the results are always in direct proportion to the kinds of circumstances that have been generated.
Brainac

Processing Brain
For instance, you keep thinking of an opportunity where you will meet with somebody that will help you achieve a particular goal. Over time what begins to happen is this, your inner circumstance begins to commandeer your external circumstance to respond to your internal need. You suddenly begin to attract all the needed provision to achieve your vision.
The Buddist believes that when a person dies without accomplishing a certain aspiration, within the world of the spirit he meets with others that had similar dream that wasn’t equally accomplished, then they begin to search for a human within the living world, incite the person with the dream and then begin to campaign all the needed resources for him or her to achieve the set objective….funny! Looks like another clever way to explain the process of translating a near impossible dreams to reality!
Hear James Allen: “The soul attracts that which it secretly harbours; that which it loves and also that which it fears.”
Listen, your present circumstance is in direct proportion or it’s an exact reflection of your internal circumstance – the state of your mind.
You must win this mind game – for men do not attract that which they want, but that which they are!
So to win, do the following:
1. Be Aware That Your Thought Has Powers.
Our thoughts hold enormous influence over our lives.
Just as in the game of soccer, that harmless looking round object called the ball has the power to determine the success or the defeat of a team, so does your thought – though assuming but very powerful in effect.
All that a man achieves and all that he fails to achieve is the direct result of his own thoughts.
2. Lift Your Thoughts.
The Great Teacher Paul, in his writing to the Philippian Church said: “Whatsoever things are True…Honest…Just…Pure…Lovely…of good report; if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things.”
Discipline yourself to focus your meditative might only on things and subjects that will naturally uplift your spirit.
A man can only rise, conquer, and achieve by lifting up his thoughts. He can only remain weak, and abject, and miserable by refusing to lift up his thoughts.
Don’t settle even on moderate thoughts!
3. Wrap Your Thoughts Around With Your Goals.
Jim Rohn said, “the ultimate reason for setting goals is to entice you to become the person it takes to achieve them.”
Give your mind expectations. Try to limit its activities to a given focus.
You can’t depend on circumstances to function. You can’t migrate like the birds, simply because the season has changed; pre-determine events by focusing your imagination.
With a decisive goal(s) in view, it is easier to always dominate the mind battle.

POINT TO RUMINATE ON: “We are all architects of our fortune.”

Authored by Anointed Enoh

Monday 24 February 2014

The Mind Game (Part 3)

On the previous parts of this series - The Mind Game; I have said that it’s possible to set out your formations, like setting new goals for a project or the year, conceptualizing a new vision, trying to initiate and enforce some new disciplines, but still, with all such noble efforts achieve nothing until victory is gained first in the mind.
Open Your Mind
With that opening phrase in mind, the law of the universe is this: no matter how fragile it may seem, the world of circumstance shapes itself to the inner world of thought.
If a person is just keenly a physically oriented kind of individual with less focus on internal subjects, then such a person is doomed to failure at all the deciding corners of life.
Hear James Allen – “man is buffeted by circumstances so long as he believes himself to be the creature of outside conditions, but when he realizes he is a creative power, and that he can command the hidden soil and seeds of his being out of which circumstances grow, he then become the rightful master of himself.
Earnestly you have to keep watch over the kind of thoughts that emanates from your mind, because they are responsible for forming your personal philosophy which in turn is directly responsible for the outcome of your life.
A wise man once said that thoughts are things. How true!
Society itself is a collective fabrication of the mentality of its citizenry. Now if the thought pattern of people is sufficient to reflect the state of a nation, then what do you think a certain thought-pattern will do to a single person. So it is a valid fact that the quality of any community is a direct mental framework or quality of its immediate indigenes.
My advice then is this: watch carefully the kind of thoughts you generate; Fight to preserve the sanity of your thinking. Don’t just allow any thought in and stay in your mind. Engage a screening process.
“Be cautious,” said a sage “for circumstances grow out of thought and any person knows this, who has for a given time practised self-control, will notice that the alternation in his circumstances has been in exact ratio with his altered mental condition.” Wow!
Professor of Anatomy at Harvard and Father of Modern Psychology in America – William James concluded at the end of his industrious career that, “the greatest discovery of his generation is this, that human beings can alter their lives by altering the attitude of their mind.”
Friend, you may be poor, your shoes may be broken, but if your thoughts constantly align and reason with kings in the confines of your mind, then one day you will dine with them in their very earthly palaces.
Remember the saying that what the mind can conceive and believe it can achieve.
Just thinking is work-in-progress, so once again be cautious!

POINT TO RUMINATE ON: “The soul attracts that which it secretly harbours; that which it loves, and also that which it fears.”


Authored by: Anointed Enoh

Monday 10 February 2014

The Mind Game (Part 2)

I started a series on the subject – The Mind Game and I stated emphatically that if we must win the numerous battles of life and make meaningful progress towards our goals then the mind game or battles must be to our advantage.
Amongst the many phrases that I mentioned, one which resonates a lot with me is the witty words of Sir Winston Churchill that “the empires of the future are the empires of the mind.”
This further goes to express how sacred the activities of the mind are, in terms of our well being.
In this episode, let me further emphasize a little more on the importance of securing dominant control of the activities of your mind.
On this, another sage has this to say, “What lies before us and what lies behind us, are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”
Another added that a man’s felicity consists not in the outward and visible blessing of fortune, but in the inward and unseen perfections and riches of the mind.
Don’t try to gain prominence by enforcing external changes at the expense of internal changes, because it will ultimately mean nothing has or will change.
Great Wall of China
For instance, Ancient Chinese had the problem of enemies invading their territories and they decided to do something about it. They built, still standing, one of the world’s longest structural projects – The Great Wall of China to protect its most volatile areas. Let me quickly and briefly provide you with some of the features of the Wall to help you understand the magnitude of the project:
·         Ranging between 15-30 feet wide and 25 feet high; though the highest point on the wall is over 5,000 feet.
·         The wall has more than 10,000 Watchtowers and each up to 40 feet tall.
·         It is said that the Wall can be seen from the moon/space.
·         As I earlier mentioned, it is the longest man-made structure in the world – over 6,000km long and considered the longest cemetery site because of the over 1million people that died during its years long construction!
But guess what? This Wall was invaded twice on the account of Barbarians simply bribing the gate keepers without lifting a weapon on those two occasions.
So what was the problem? Simple; premium was given to external activities, but internal ones were trivialized – like educating its citizens about the value of patriotism.
In the same vein, the mind must be taught or given expectation or else it will run anarchy.
The Legendary actor, Charlie Chaplin said of himself, “Even when I was in the orphanage, when I was there I thought of myself as the greatest actor in the world. You had to feel the exuberance that comes from utter confidence in yourself. Without it you go down to defeat.”
Seneca added, “It is the power of the mind to be unconquerable.”
Don’t ignore your within and don’t act at the expense of your internal processing.
Keep ensuring that your content is not compromised, that you are doing everything possible to grow your mind because for a fellow that has a lot of external glamour without growing him or herself internally, there is no hope of a glorious future.

POINT TO RUMINATE ON: “One of the early signs of sophistication is not giving way to all inclinations but rather sending your emotion to school so they will learn how to behave.”


Authored by: Anointed Enoh

Tuesday 28 January 2014

The Mind Game (Part 1)

Traditionally this is the season of renewed anticipations – goal settings, vision formations, resolution making, plans re-evaluation, more commitment towards objectives, etc.
All these are fantastic moves to ensure that you have a very resourceful year, but let me guide you through another path or let’s apply another tactics to guarantee still a fruitful year as these progressive elements are being added to the formation.
Mind Power
I will call it “The Mind Game,” make it the caption of this discussion.
Okay. Let me quickly address this subject, because we always think of mysticism whenever a discussion about the mind ensues.
Man is tripartite in nature that is, made up of three parts: Spirit, Soul and Body. Let’s focus on the Soul. The Soul is made up of Emotion, Mind and Will.
It is also important to note that we all have a Mind and that there is nothing so abstract about it; though still to a large extent the workings of the Mind are enigmatic in nature.
The Mind – is the seat of intelligence. It is the centre that generates thoughts, feelings, ideas, perceptions and stores knowledge and memories.
Succinctly, the Mind is the centre of all human activity. It interfaces the activities between the Spirit and the Body of man.
Back to the subject of our discussion – The Mind Game: for you to win the battle in life, then you have got to win the raging battles in the mind, for this is where the most controlling and deciding battles are fought in life.
As a matter of fact, life is constantly a mind battle. A fight between good and evil, light and darkness, strength and weakness, purpose and indolence, and the winner here takes it all.
Napoleon Bonaparte puts it this way, “there are but two powers in the world, the sword and the mind. In the long run the sword is always beaten by the mind.”
I decided to begin here, because most often it is not our goals, resolutions, plans or aspirations that are the problem but a very volatile state of our mind. Just as it is futile to sprinkle seeds to a land that is filled with thorns, so also is it of non productive value to deposit these well intended elements to an ailing mind that is filled with all manner of toxic components.
But, if the battle is won from within, then the external fortifications can’t withstand you.
To move outwardly then you need to gain internal motion. You can’t be standing inside and be wondering why your external efforts are not yielding dividend.
Prime Minister Winston Churchill beautifully puts it this way: “the empires of the future are the empires of the mind.” To gain prominence and status in the mundane, then you need to have secured this quality first in your mind without any iota of doubt or limiting belief!
So believe me, your mind is your most potent tool to battle your way through life’s uncertainties.

POINT TO RUMINATE ON: “The monsters of the mind are far worse than those that actually exist. Fear, doubt, and hate have hamstring more people than beasts ever have.”


Authored by: Anointed Enoh

Wednesday 1 January 2014

4 Concepts You Must Consider (Part 2)

Before I rush off to another topic let me dot down one more article to buttress what I had earlier shared as regards this amazing subject: 4 Concepts You Must Consider. Truth be told, there are things you cannot play elusive to, no matter how hard you may try. And I strongly believe these questions are amongst such concepts:
Considering
      1.  The Concept of Passion – What do you love to do?
      2. The Concept of Talent – What are you good at?
      3.  The Concept of Values – What is important to you?
      4. The Concept of Destiny – What were you born to do with your life?
It is no coincidence that a bit of the feeling of these concepts dances around our consciousness instinctively. I personally believe there is a reason for all these and that it lies completely within our onus to seek the appropriate response to all these important quests!
So let me just assist in aiding you address these concepts to your utmost benefit:
Under the Concept of Passion, I would say, “Reciprocate Love.”
Just respond to the love that you are feeling by doing what intuitively appeals to you. In the atmosphere of love, nothing is impossible. Love will engage all difficulties.
The Chinese philosopher, Confucius put it thus, “Find and do what you love and you will cease to work the rest of your life.”  And he was right!
Love has an ingenious characteristic, so be assured that there will be birthing of ingenious offspring. Just feed it and it will be expressed!
With the Concept of Talent, I would say “Developmental Mindfulness” is essential here.
It is not sufficient to be good at something; you must develop your competitive advantage that is, become skilled at what you are presumably good at already.
There is an adage that is true – “Talent is not enough.” Take the next bold step of refining your talent in something that has a more trendy advantage.
The enemy of best will always be good (the average), so stir the good-ness in you to become best-ness!
I would advise, indulge in “Consequential Thinking” when you are considering the Concept of Value.
Socrates quips, “before you act think of the consequence.”
The best way to ensure that you constantly uphold right values is to mentally process the outcome of every action before you act.
What looks good today maybe awful tomorrow; most grandchildren have spent a great deal of their life toiling to undo what their grandparents leisurely executed.
So think through before you embrace it as a personal value.
Lastly the Concept of Destiny, the simplest direct responses to the subject of what you were born to do with your life in line with our discussion is “Legacy Consciousness.”
If the thought of what you will leave behind after death hasn’t started haunting you, then you are just existing and not living.
We all were created to accomplish something specific here and you aren’t exempted.
There is something you possess all the qualities to do with finesse. Something you will naturally excel at if you just give to it a little of the attention you have devoted to only register presence in some other disciplines.
Find it. Do it. And the undertakers that will be hired to do your interment someday will be sorry why they have to co-deny the world the opportunity of never seeing you again.

POINT TO RUMINATE ON: “The creator has not given you a longing to do that which you have no ability to do.”

Authored by: Anointed Enoh