As l grew older especially when l was approaching the big 40 l was filled with a great sense of apprehension. Initially I thought l was having a mid-life crises, after pausing to take a closer look, l realised that actually l have been dreading every single one of my birthday’s for several years prior to approaching the big 40. I later discovered that this a classic symptom of fear caused by a feeling of being uncertain or agitated about the future.

The usual stresses in life such as job, personal challenges were keeping me in a state of trepidation. When I embarked on a journey to search for answers l discovered that while l was cowering in fear and wasting my time being idle. Successful individuals had managed to banish every ounce of fear from their lives!  In fact they are so fearless and excited about their future prospects they can’t wait for their next birthday to approach. I wondered how they had managed to achieve this?

Cindy Trimm revealed that her life is so exciting, she often feels that she can’t wait to wake up every single day. What’s more the next years in her life can’t come soon enough for her, she has planned upcoming exciting events in the next year, next 2 years, 5 years, 10 years etc.

According to Dr Trimm fear is caused by losing focus of vision and goals, it’s being led by what you see and feel. These are the external forces that create anxiety which can lead to fear. It may also be created by what you are listening to (radio), reading (newspaper) or watching (news on tv).

To eliminate fear you have to see, hear and watch something positive persistently. Reading the bible or anything positive such as this Blog. You also eradicate fear by identifying who you are and your purpose on this earth, being ignorant about this will create anxiety and discomposure in your life.

Creating a vision and setting goals in my life is what eliminated my fear, it changed my outlook about my future. Focusing on my inner goals in life enabled me to regain control and become optimistic about the future. When you create big dreams and believe in them wholeheartedly the excitement is immediate even though the dreams maybe in the future.

Successful people are not reactive to life they take control by planning their life.

 In order to achieve a state of mind that is focused on improving our lives, we need to learn to forgive. However there is a misconception about forgiveness that we all need to clarify in our minds. Forgiveness is releasing the unpleasant feelings that we may be harbouring about something or someone in our hearts.

 Choosing to unshackle ourselves from the adverse impression instigated by a particular situation or someone is forgiveness.  Forgiveness is so radical, that when real forgiveness has been accomplished, feelings of hatred or resentment are replaced by love. Although this may not always be an instant process but rather a gradual process.

Whether we choose to maintain a relationship with the offending individual after we have forgiven them is a very different subject altogether. This is where the misconception occurs. After forgiving we have to make a choice of remaining or terminating a relationship. We should never be pressured to remain in relationships that no longer serve us. If onlookers decide to assume that we have not forgiven on those basis, it is not our concern!

 Forgiveness is a very personal experience with the initial purpose of benefitting the forgiver. Allowing ourselves to forgive is not justifying the actions of the offender it’s about liberating ourselves. It’s never about the other person or whether what they have done is right or not. It’s about cleansing ourselves.

 When we decide to get rid of these negative feelings in our mind we are able to focus on being positive. Being positive enables us to become creatives and pursue our goals relentlessly and wholeheartedly.

 Forgiveness is an essential bible based principle practised by successful people. God knows how toxic harbouring unforgiveness is.  If not addressed, it might end up affecting you more than the person you are suppose to be forgiving.

I decided to always strive to forgive persistently as this enables me to focus on the right things  in my life and allows me to become super productive.

In a few of my Blogs l discussed how for the longest time, wondered why l was being motivated but still failing to transform my life. It occurred to me that, like most people l believed in the old adage that knowledge is power?  Contrary to popular belief, knowledge itself is useless unless you  change  your life after attaining that knowledge!

Sir Richard Branson the CEO of virgin business, aptly named his business “Virgin Group”. When he decided to venture into business he was a novice, which meant he had no knowledge at all of how to run a business. Yet today he is a very successful, world renowned business man! Furthermore Sir Richard Branson is not the only person who stopped pursuing knowledge to take action. Mark Zuckerberg the creator of face book is also known to have dropped out of college. He went on to create a social media platform that made him one of the richest man alive today.

 Although these individuals started as novices, they mastered that art of implementing acquired knowledge to be successful. They uncovered that acquiring knowledge without taking action is pointless. They did not stop acquiring knowledge, the new perspective was to absorb and implement knowledge immediately. Knowledge is only powerful when it’s supported by action!

I am very much aware that we are living in the age of information. Information which pretty much explains how to do anything in life, has become readily available for free online.  Yet I or we were still failing to achieve our dreams.  The reason being that, we only read, felt smart and assumed we had accomplished something, without actually implementing something new from the knowledge to improve our lives.

Knowledge is like faith, it’s dead without works and knowledge becomes useless when it’s not implemented for change immediately.

William Kamkwamba was an ordinary fourteen year old boy, who lived in a remote village of Malawi called Wimbe. William was passionate about learning but unfortunately, his father could not afford to pay for his education.  His education was terminated before completion due to poverty. Long after he had been forbidden school due to owing a large amount of tuition fees, William feeling dejected, carried on sneaking into the library and devouring books. He was hungry for knowledge!

In the midst of all this, his village was suffering a great drought and a colossal famine ensued.  Food became scarce. It led to immense struggling and suffering to obtain food.  People were starving in the village and William was deeply anguished after losing his adored pet, a dog which he could no longer afford to feed! Worst of all several people lost their lives in Williams village, it was tragic.

William started to wonder if he could use his knowledge to solve the problems he was facing. He occupied himself with more reading. His father, oblivious to William’s plight of searching for knowledge to solve the current problem, became incensed.  He felt exasperated that he wasn’t helping more with planting and sowing in the futile fields.

William was not discouraged he became even more convinced that he could create a solution to the problems, if given the opportunity. He pleaded with his father to let him try. 

His idea involved creating a windmill, which would draw out water for irrigation from the waterhole. His father vilified him all the more! William went as far as enlisting the help of his friends to implore on his behalf but his father wouldn’t hear of it.

 The situation got even more complicated because he required the dynamo from his father’s bicycle to necessitate powering of the windmill. Eventually his mother intervened and demanded his father hand over his bicycle to him.

With that he was able to create a working windmill that powered an irrigation system that saved the whole village from hunger. His father was proud of him the most!

 William who is now known as a famous innovator and engineer appeared on Ted Talks. He was asked how he was able to save his village and how he thought of this idea. He explained that he had come across a book discussing using energy and then he tried and made it work.

Stepping out of your comfort zone and trying something might be all it takes to achieve success. The secret to getting ahead is getting started (Mark Tweit). There is no friend as loyal as a book (Ernest Hemingway).

 Recently I watched a very old Oprah Winfrey TV show. A book called “The Secret”, which has also been made into a film was being reviewed. My attention was drawn to a couple that featured on this film. This couple was grumbling about a lack of intimacy in their marriage. At the time of watching “The Secret” film, they were seriously contemplating a divorce. After stumbling upon “The Secret” Film they not only managed to save their marriage but they began to enjoy a new level of romance and intimacy in their relationship.

Watching the film, enabled renewal of their marriage through applying new skills gained from watching this film. After implementing the newly acquired skills, their problems did not vanish into thin air! They changed their perspective and started appreciating their marriage. This illustrates the positive effect of procuring knowledge to solve problems. 

Creating a dream life is about maintaining a balance on everything that is important in life such as marriage, family, finance etc. Hence pursuing success at marriage is a very important aspect of living the dream.  

 Dr Miles Munroe argued that only one attribute was required for a successful marriage. Contrary to popular belief it is not love but attaining knowledge about how marriage works. Although his opinion could be construed as controversial, l considered that he had been happily married for 32 years when he made this statement.

 He was also a successful man at running businesses all over the world and he attributed all his success to gaining prior knowledge before executing new ideas.  He also interpreted that a numerous amount of unpleasant cycles and situations in life are repeated due to lack of information. He encouraged reading for personal success and to protect future generations as we will be able to pass on our learned knowledge.

It became apparent to me that successful people do not read for the sake of reading.  Reading is about  acquiring specialised knowledge required to undertake a new skill. This is what increases chances at being successful!

The goal of becoming successful is a marathon, a lifestyle and certainly not a sprint. Changing your life is about being intentional regarding daily habits. Success is hidden in your daily habits.

When you persist with the same actions for a prolonged period, success becomes inevitable. If success is hidden in your daily habits, it’s mandatory to reflect on your daily habits! Subsequently it takes introducing and maintaining one new habit at a time. Eventually moving to introduce another one, only after the last habit has been mastered.

Maintaining focus and persistence involves undertaking a challenge daily, and achieving small targets associated with attaining your life goal.  It’s not about focussing on results because if you focus on getting results you might start to feel impatient and this is not the state of mind required to acquire your dreams. (l wrote about this in my Blog titled patience).

Terry Saville noted that the difference between masters of success and ordinary people are the daily habits they engage in. In order to achieve life goals, you need to possess very specific daily habits and create time for practising these habits.  

Oprah Winfrey and other celebrities have furnished us with information on their routines.  They discussed the daily habit of waking up early to undertake specific tasks, before commencing a working day.  The tasks mentioned include objectives such as praying, meditating, reading, writing and exercising etc.

John Maxwell argued that a person working towards achieving their life goals should have an organised day. He revealed that he was able to determine if a person is headed for success or not by simply observing their daily habits on a single day.

 Scheduling thinking time ensures that you reflect on the actions you are taking and improve them. You are also able to reflect on the lack of actions and examine reasons for this to improve your outcome.

Success means constantly evolving and growing.

Once l got started on writing my Blog l experienced a big sense of excitement and accomplishment. l had finally managed to step out of my comfort zone and display my thoughts openly. Although l felt nervous, l understood that courage is not the absence of fear but advancing your idea despite the fear.

A while after, l started noticing that, there wasn’t much traffic at all to my Blog. Granted that this Blog is based on my reflections and aimed at personal development. Still I secretly hoped that people will start to take notice, but no one was even slightly interested.

It seemed that the more l wrote the less people were interested in reading my Blog. My excitement slowly started diminishing, the doubt began to sneak in. Suddenly this idea didn’t seem thrilling anymore.

 Reflecting on these feelings made me realise, what l was going through was not unusual or specific to me. It’s what everyone goes through. Often, once you get started you will have to endure a period where nothing seems to be happening.

 Terry Saville stated that we all have a lottery or microwave mentality, we wish for instant success. However we have to develop a crock pot mentality, we have to wait no matter how long it takes. Every successful person needs to learn the art of waiting!  Achieving success at anything takes lots of patience.

Being made aware of all this made me realise that, I could be patient and l was resolved to keep on writing.  It wasn’t about how many people were reading, it was about keeping me focussed to pursue my goal.

 There is evidence to support that being patient and never giving up leads to phenomenal success.

The other day, my associate related to me how devastated she was because the people in her life whom she thought were her best friends had berated her for being arrogant and conceited.

This associate of mine is diligent in striving for success, constantly improving herself and pushing the limits and boundaries of personal development and growth. She is relentlessly pursuing the journey of revamping her life despite all the challenges she faced.

 Apparently, this incident had troubled her deeply and l understood the reason for this. She is kind, would never deliberately seek to undermine or sabotage anyone. It’s just not in her nature!

However, because l was detached emotionally to the situation, l could see what she could not.

 Dr Miles Munroe observed that success is predictable! Commonly you can see signs of success before the crescendo of triumph. The signs were clear, evident and visible to me. After working hard to improve sometimes we often dump down our progress to fit in. The pain of rejection can be too much to bear!

On the other hand, Dr Cindy Trimm recalls that one of the first signs of success that she ever experienced was rejection. She argued that rejection is an indication that you have outgrown a relationship, it no longer has the capacity to support your progress or greatness.

 Dr Trimm goes on to illustrate that being rejected from your close ones is God’s way of delivering you from culture. Culture is what creates the paradigm and it is impossible to advance further than what your paradigm will allow. No-matter how many opportunities you get, you will always default back into struggle, so your paradigm has got to be shifted.

Rejection occurs because when people fail to control you, rejection follows. Subsequently, when God connects you to your true identity, you will stop asking for permission to be or do anything and this will be unfamiliar to your friends.

Rejection is required to maintain continual progress to success!

Successful populace believe in a higher power than themselves. They frequently petition their  requirements to God, the Universe and other religions.

I believe most success principles are bible based but there is no acknowledgement of this because of the negative implications of being associated with a religion. John Maxwell is a world renowned leadership expert,  who teaches skills based on these principles.

The law of attraction is a belief that you attract what you think about into your life. This is underpinned on a bible verse, as a man thinketh in his heart so is he (proverbs 23vs7).  Personally I don’t feel qualified to preach and any individual who chooses to read the Blog, should be made to feel welcome regardless of their belief because Jesus encouraged us to love each other.

Successful individuals are spiritual not religious, they acknowledge that a human being has a physical body and a soul which is attached to God or the universe.  The sovereign God, the creator possesses the universe in all its entirety and can grant all requests .  Provided, the soul understands Gods expectations such as exhibiting moral virtue. Being in touch with the spiritual side is what this is all about.

 The soul, being the mind can be connected to God. Once connected, you are able to communicate to God or the universe and petition your requests.  Subsequently after submitting your request, believe and receive. ( Matthew7 vs 7-8)

Florence Schivel Shinn revealed that, the desires of our hearts are already existing in the spirit realm. Our role is exercising faith until everything has manifested. Steve Harvey stated that the Bible is so effectual that some people have chosen a single verse and utilised it to achieve tremendous victory   over different challenges in their lives.

The process is simply ask and believe then wait to receive. Believing (maintaining your faith) is a big part of success principles. However taking inspired action or working towards your goal, engaging in personal growth, literally committing all, within your physical power is what is meant by waiting to receive.  During the period we wait to receive, our requests are being moved from the spirit realm to the physical side where we then to begin to experience them.

Yesterday whilst driving my children to school, a Disc Jockey on radio insinuated that imagining a million dollars and expecting it to appear is tantamount to foolishness!

Naturally l strongly dispute this statement. Clearly this is one of the reasons l always adopt to concentrate on faith building sermons as opposed to listening to the radio. I do make exceptions though when l have children in the car. Which explains why l heard this. In retrospect l am glad I heard this pessimistic babble as it emphasises and justifies taking action to protect myself from cynical influence.  Listening to the radio for a few minutes might appear innocuous whilst being counterproductive in achieving the state of mind needed to revamp your life.

I’m not sure how much transformation this Dj is desiring in her life.  l perceive that if you are determined to experience a fulfilling life, you have to implement what you have never done before! Doing what you’ve never done before involves using your imagination more often to create the life you desire.

Unquestionably, in the creation world everything was instigated by the power of the imagination.  Each and every product that we notice surrounding us was imagined into existence by a human being. Absolutely all developments in the human kind such as electricity, aeroplane , cars etc were created using imagination. Imagining is so vital that even school children are being taught to utilise this skill in their development.

 l also got to discover that dreams, (the drive for success)  in  life  are created by tapping  into the imagination.  I generated my dreams by simply imagining the kind of life l desired to have.

Subsequently l wondered if l was being indulgent and l deciphered that God speaks to us through the desires of our hearts and places dreams in our hearts.  I was blown away.

It’s not possible to be transformed into what you never imagined in your mind. Neither is it  possible to obtain or create what you never conceived in your mind.

Imagination makes it possible to visualise your future.  It a plausible success principle that l am implementing in my life. It is effective.