WHAT IS SUCCESS

Success is one of the most discussed topics on planet earth, and I am yet to see a man who has proposed in his heart not to be successful. I have written so many articles on success and from my experience I have come to realise that what I may term as success may be different from what you may term as success. For example Mr A might feel that becoming the MD of the Bank where he works would make him successful, and Mr B might feel that becoming the branch Manager would make him successful. Remember, they are both working in the same Bank but their success definition differs.

To some success might be all about having so much of money and to some success might be acquiring what makes them comfortable and to others it may be achieving what they intend to achieve over a period of time. To Zig Ziglar, he believes that being successful means having a balance of success stories across the many areas of your life. You can’t truly be considered successful in your business life if your home life is in shambles.

We all have our unique definition of success. This prompted me to interview over 20 of my friends to get their unique definition of success via My Weekly SHARE UR THOUGHTS (SUT) PLATFORM on BlackBerry Messenger (26CB3E0A) and Whatsapp (08139051353).

Below are the unique definitions I received from some of the participants of the SUT platform:

Success is impact.

1. Success is being able to make an impact in your society, world and being able to provide solution to the needs of the world. In total, putting smiles on the face of other people positively means you are successful. – Adedokun Adenike.
2.  I believe that success is not just being a blessing to you alone, but being a source of blessing to others. – Ojo Olademiji.
3. Success is not about how much money you make or how big your fame grows but how constantly relevant you are, how many lives you touched positively and how fulfilled you are. – Tolu Blaze
4. Success is using your God given talent and abilities to solve problems and being satisfied seeing joy in the beneficiaries. – Tosin Alaofin
5.  Success to me is doing outstandingly well in your area of calling or interest and being able to replicate it by affecting the life of others. -Tolulope Aladesuyi.
6. Success is not accounted by money but by the measure of impact. How many people you have been able to impact with your character and actions to life reactions and situations. – Olajuyitan Timilehin.
7. Success is when one is able to make others to greatness through his or her own accomplishment. – Timi Aladebola.
   

Success is fulfilment.

1. I have a goal, I worked towards it and it comes to fruition. If eventually I am satisfied with the result, I am fulfilled. – Remi Alade.
2. Michael Koledoye also believes that he is successful each time he fulfil his goals.
3. Success is fulfilment on Gods will and amount of Impact you can make in the life of others. – Olayinka Elizabeth Olushoga.
4. Success is living a life of fulfilment, finding purpose in life and fulfilling it. – Atobatele Sunday
5. Success is what brings happiness to you: what makes you happy and fulfilled. Success varies from one person/gender to another. Success to some women might being able to give their husband a male child, and to some men might be marrying their first love. –Grace Oke.
6. Success is being fulfilled in your calling in life, not necessarily having huge money, but making a positive impact in your generation. – Aladesanmi Taiwo.

Success is achievement

1. Success to me cannot be termed on wealth and monetary aspect alone.it is the satisfaction of oneself due to an achievement or accomplished mission. – Adenike Owolabi.
2. success is getting to the zenith of a place and staying there.in any field for instance, ability for you to stay relevant, useful and fulfilled and then keep being useful. It is not a one-time thing, it is a process. – Tolu Blaze
   
3. Success is the achievement of what you aim or intends to achieve. A student that determines to come out with a first class would only see himself as being successful in his education if he achieves coming out with a first class. – Aderemi Adeola.
4. Success is achieving what you set your mind to achieve. Whatever anyone wishes to do and pursue however small people see it. Once you achieve it, you are successful. – Emiola Olawale.
5. Success is when you having positive results in your dealings. Success is about not giving up, sitting tight, reframing your ideas, tackling your challenges and staying strong until you achieve all you desire to achieve. – Oyinda Ogunrinde.

Success is utilised opportunities.

1. Success happens when you find yourself where you are meant to be per time. – Sam Neye.
2. Success to me is the reaction between the opportunity I have and the effort I put into it. – Olalekan Obisesan.
3. Success is when opportunity meets preparation. Whoever prepares would definitely have an opportunity. Each day brings a new opportunity to be successful, and those that have been preparing use it to achieve success. – Tunde Alaofin.

Other definitions of success

1. Success from good research and conscious applicability is getting what one wants. Success above all is unique to each Homo sapiens. – Agbara Paschal.
2. Success is what we become when we understand life better, understand ourselves better, and understand people better and understanding that failing does not make you a failure. – Gabriel Ogunleye.
3. Success is being able to answer all my need and wants at the rightful time (at the point of rising of the need). –Olakunle Adeniyan.

I simply believe success is achieving all my goals. Remember goals are set in 10 areas of life, and they are Personal Goals, Spiritual Goals, Career Goals, Financial Goals, Family Goals, Friend Goals, Community Goals, Recreation Goals, Health Goals and Service to mankind Goals. Achieving my goals in each of these areas consistently makes me successful.

WHAT IS YOUR UNIQUE DEFINITION OF SUCCESS? SHARE WITH OTHERS.

(SERIES 4) 15 CRITICAL LESSONS I LEARNT IN 2013

LESSON 7 OF 2013: This year, I realised that many people are unhappy because they feel that they are not making spontaneous (what they are supposed to achieve in 4 years, they want to achieve in 2 years) progress in life. Many are sad with their life’s because they measure their progress and success level based on the performance and success of others rather than focus on personal development.

Like I learnt from Zig Ziglar, your progress in life is how you do what you do currently compared to the talents God has given you. November precisely, I was disturbed in my spirit because I taught I was not making any progress. During that period, an idea dropped in my spirit and I decided to type my name on google and check out for myself. To my surprise, I saw my articles on some blogs and about 3 writers made references to my works.

That moment, I decided to forget my worries and celebrate myself. That moment, I remembered how and where I started from, and I realised I have achieved more than what could make me worry. You have big plans (big dreams), you would still get there but you must realize that success come in small bits and until you celebrate these small bits, you will not get that big dream you have always imagined.

Celebrate your progress (be grateful for where you are now) while you aim higher and work harder for bigger success. I can’t wait to see you at the top.

LESSON 8 OF 2013: You cannot find true happiness and genuine success when you spend your time and resource doing the wrong things the right way. Many people fail not because they are not putting much effort in what they do, but because they are putting their efforts towards the wrong direction.

LESSON 9 OF 2013: Your ideas, business plans, initiatives, investments do not need to be perfect before you start them. I remember talking to a man sometimes in August and he told me somethings I would never forget. He said when microsoft started, they were so imperfect that almost all the Operating Systems they released then crashed, but they did not give up or stop there. They kept on developing new ones, and today they are by far better than where they started from. When blackberry started, they were not as fascinating as they are today, but they just kept on improving.

Many have ideas, but they are afraid of releasing them just because they feel the idea is not perfect enough. I remember when I was to release my first official article on my blog, I was scared and I wondered if people would ever read the article and appreciate it. I checked the words I used over and over again and at a time I decided to drop the article, but I am thanking God today that I did not drop it then.

I am thanking God not because the article was the best article I have written so far but because I have improved tremendously since I released that first article. Today I have published over 100 of my articles, and they have been widely accepted. Nobody is perfect, but you can near perfection with consistent practice. Start up that idea today and you would be thanking God like I did.

— Copyright © 2013 Seun Emmanuel Alaofin

(SERIES 3) 15 CRITICAL LESSONS I LEARNT IN 2013

LESSON 5 OF 2013:Early this year, I realised that achieving my set goals became easier than I expected. The secret is quite simple and funny. Write down all you plan to achieve, why you want to achieve them, how you want to go about achieving them, when you want to achieve them and the benefits you would derive from achieving them.

After writing down the answers, hang the why (reason for setting the goals), the how (how you intend to achieve them) and the when (the time you want to achieve them). As for the benefits you would derive from achieving this goals, tear that out and put it in your purse or wallet. This is the trick. Each time you are about to remove money from your purse or wallet, you would always see these benefits, and if they are truly benefits I am sure each time you see them you would get fired up to achieve your goals so the benefits can get within your reach.

I am sharing this secret with you because it has worked for me, and I believe it can work for you. This is my christmas secret, use it well to make your 2014 a more productive and planned year.

LESSON 6 OF 2013:Learning from other peoples experience makes a 4 years journey achievable in 2 years. Like my pastor would always say, experience is Gods slowest way of teaching his people and God uses mistakes to teach fools who are unwilling to sit at the feet of people that are above them to learn.

Early this month, I wanted to start a team for SEA Publication and I needed advise on how to make the team effective, productive and bring out industrious ideas that would move the publication to the next level. I decided to ask some few friends for advise and one of them was nice enough to give me an ebook written by Tomisin Ajiboye titled Asset Mapping 101. This ebook discussed ways you can bring out meaningful ideas from your team members using simple illustrations and examples. This book has given me ideas that would make my team more productive and I have started practising them. If I had not read that book, it would have taken me about a month or so to figure out ways to bring out the best from each of my new team members.

This year I have learnt a lot from books, Mentors and respectable people that have helped me become a better person. You also can move with respectable people, make meaningful and read useful books that would make you far better than you are currently. Its your Choice.

— Copyright © 2013 Seun Emmanuel Alaofin

GREAT THINKING REQUIRES GREAT ACTION

There are four levels of people I have come across:

1. Those that don’t think (poor thinking) and don’t take actions.

2. Those that don’t think (poor thinking) and they take action (always wrong actions).

3. Those that think (great thinking) and don’t take actions, or take wrong actions.

4. Those that think (great thinking) and take great actions.

It is actually true that some people are not where they are supposed to be today as a result of either not thinking at all or poor thinking, but there are so many people that think and bring out good ideas and still nothing positive is coming forth. A great thought without the right decisions to match the thoughts is just like time wasted over nothing which is the same as not thinking at all. A bad thinker with the enthusiasm to take actions cannot get anything positive from that action because it came out as a result of bad thinking.

Just the way good seeds bring forth good fruits and bad seeds bring forth bad fruits, so also great ideas bring forth good rewards and bad ideas bring forth bad rewards. Note that the good seed does not plant itself on the fertile soil; some actions and precautions must have been taken to plant the good seed on a fertile soil, nurture the seeds until they grow to bring out matured fruits. The seed being good does not mean that they would not be faced with challenges that might hinder it from bringing forth good fruits, but adequate actions helps to overcome such challenges.

Your quality of valuable thoughts must be equal to your quality of valuable action. Many have great ideas but the highest they have gone so far is to write it down, look at it for a while and throw it into the trash bin, giving excuses that they are too busy to work on it now, they would do it some other time, they don’t think they can get the available resource to work on it and so many other reasons.

I am sure you are thinking, of how you can start thinking right, and how you can match these great thoughts with greater actions:

Join me as I highlight eight (8) basic steps to take:

A. The first step is to decide to take your life serious; you must be willing to start using your time to produce meaningful thoughts. You must be ready to make those thoughts come out of you consciously and willingly. Task your brain, look within, there are so many good thoughts inside of you, provoke those thoughts, bring them out and let’s move to the next step.

B. Write down these great thoughts. The main reasons why your thoughts are best written down is the fact that you cannot put actions on all your thoughts at once, but you can actually write them down and go back to them when you are through with the one you are currently working on.

C. Make plans on how to achieve this thought. Look at the positive and negative sides of these thoughts. What would make this thought work out, and what would make it not to work out, and what possible steps can I take to ensure that I convert these negatives to positives. At this point, these thoughts become IDEAS and PLANS.

D. Do everything possible to fight of negative thoughts that tell you that you cannot achieve this ideas and plans. Always be filled with positivity and never make spaces for reasons why you would not be able to achieve these thoughts after concluding that these thoughts can be converted to ideas. Never give excuses because each excuse you make gives you a reason to give up.

E. Rub minds with like minds. One of the major factors affecting positive action taking is the people you meet and discuss your ideas with along the way. If you decide to meet people that don’t have plan for their own life, they would definitely make you like them but if you decide to meet people that have decided to make and take their life serious then you are on the course of taking the right decision.

F. Make friends with people that can help you achieve these plans. These are people that would give you part of their time, part of their human resources, part of their strength, part of their reasoning, advice, ideas and plan to ensure that you achieve this idea of yours. Join forces with them and work hand in hand to achieve all your ideas.

G. Determine to put all the necessary actions required to achieve this thoughts. Like I said earlier if you don’t match your thoughts with ideas, it can never be as successful as planned. Give it what it takes because it is worth it. At this stage, you have gone too far to stop now, all you need to do is put all the necessary action required for success and ensure that you take the right steps when taking this actions.

H. Put your entire plan before God. Great thoughts and greater actions might take you far, but divine revelation from God would take you farther than where your abilities can take you. Divine revelations from God bring ideas that give you divine speed, supernatural success and unmerited breakthrough. There is no genuine success without the magnificent power of God.

Note that it’s not about thinking much, but it’s about thinking right. Too much of thinking brings great distraction and stops one from achieving goals. It’s better to do one thing and put all the necessary actions involved to make sure you achieve it than to have so many thoughts and put mediocre actions into them thereby giving you less than average results.

There is a questionnaire below with self-assessment questions. Be sure to answer them and work effectively on them.

QUESTIONNAIRE

1. WHICH THINKING MODE DO I FALL INTO?

2. WHAT ARE THE QUALITIES THAT MAKE ME FALL INTO THIS CATEGORY?

3. IF I AM BELOW LEVEL 4, WHAT DO I NEED TO CORRECT TO FUNCTION AT LEVEL 4?

4. WHAT DO I NEED TO BE ABLE TO MATCH MY GREAT THOUGHTS WITH POSITIVE ACTIONS AND DECISIONS?

5. DO I HAVE GOOD FRIENDS THAT CAN HELP IN ACHIEVING MY THOUGHTS?

6. DO I THINK POSITIVELY OR NEGATIVELY?

7. HOW CAN I KEEP UP WITH THINKING POSITIVELY?

8. DO I GIVE EXCUSES OR DO I FIX EVERY ERROR?

9. DO I PUT GOD IN EVERYTHING I DO?

— Copyright © 2013 Seun Emmanuel Alaofin