Author: Conquestlane

Author of many inspirational books, among them are - 'Conquest in Adversity: the mystery of another spirit', 'Success unplugged, powered by conquest' and 'The Threshold of Life'. He is a techpreneur, Success enthusiast, and a senior partner at Conquestlane Global Services. A freelance web-developer, and a Google certified Associate Cloud Engineer (ACE). He is also doubles as programme Coordinator and @ bringbackourglory.org. He holds a bachelor of science degree from the University of Nigeria Nsukka. He is of the view that we can dare the impossible if we can imagine, and believe it is possible. This view informs his philosophy of life "imagine, believe, dare the impossible". He is happily married with children.
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Time Management Skill: A Crucial Success Essential

Time management

Good time management is an essential skill every success-minded person must acquire. How well do you manage time?  It may interest you to know that how well you manage time determines your impact in any space you are operating in. Time is of great essence in life. It is one invaluable asset that is instrumental to success. It is too precious to be wasted. So a good time management skill seeks to eliminate time wastage to the barest minimum. Time is what life is made up of and when we waste time we are wasting our life. 

If you love life, don’t waste time, for time is what life is made up of – Bruce Lee.

Interestingly, you can always leverage time, riding on its wings to the realm of success. How well do you manage time? Your answer to this fundamental question is a clue as to whether you are successful or not. So, I want to reiterate here that time management is one of the determinants of success. Good time management is a very important habit we must all cultivate whereas poor time management is one bad habit we must get rid of. If it is not taken care of could eventually lead to a life of failure and unfulfillment in the long run. For us to understand time management we must understand three attributes of time;

  • Time controls and regulates all the activities of man. Time determines every event and occurrence in life.
  • Time is no respecter of a person, every one of us under the sun has an equal number of time, 24 hours in a day.
  • Time is irreversible, once mismanaged it cannot be reversed or regained. No one can turn back the hand of time.

These attributes are reasons why we must manage time well. However, to evaluate your time management skill you must possess these five essential habits. These are five sterling qualities of highly fulfilled persons


Have a blueprint

A blueprint is like a road map to guide you in accomplishing your set objectives. A blueprint helps you to be organized in any project. Having a blueprint for every project is one of the surest ways to achieve set goals. It helps you to manage time well by allotting time to all your activities. A blueprint also helps us to carefully plan out our activities as it helps us to prioritize our activities. Hence, without a blueprint, your day will be a boring, dull, disorganized, and disjointed venture. Plan your life, and have a blueprint for each day. What is your blueprint for today?

Prioritize your activities

By prioritizing, I mean itemizing your ‘to dos’ or activities for the day, week, or month according to their order of importance. Ask yourself, what are those tasks that are very important to me? List them down; let them come first in the order of preference. You need to allot more time to very important ones.

On a scale of one to ten (1-10), what are the ten most important goals you want to achieve? Write them down according to their importance, starting with the most important ones. The idea is prioritizing your activities will enable you to give more time to your most important tasks. It will help you stay focused and improve your time management skill.

Stay Focused

It would help if you stayed focused to improve your time management skills. If you are not focused then you are distracted. Distraction aborts dreams and truncates destinies. Distraction is a loss of focus and it can lead to poor time management. It is all about losing focus on your priorities. Note that you must focus on your priorities, not on your trivialities. You cannot manage your time well when you focus on trivial issues. So don’t be engrossed in trivialities to the extent that you will neglect your priorities. 

For instance, if your study is more important to you don’t use the time for your studies to watch movies. Or if you have an appointment to keep don’t postpone it because you want to entertain visitors. These are all distractions. And whatsoever is not part of your blueprint is not a priority but a distraction.

Do not procrastinate.

Never put off for tomorrow, what you can do today – Thomas Jefferson

Procrastination is the avoidance of doing a task that needs to be accomplished. In other words, procrastination is the deferment of responsibilities for no tangible reasons. One universal attribute of procrastination is that it can take place in any area of an individual’s life. Procrastination is the thief of time. It robs us of our precious time. The truth is that if we keep on deferring tasks time will come when we will find it difficult to achieve our goals and we cannot beat the dateline because of pressures. And you cannot manage time well with this attitude of procrastination. 

Invest in time

Your time management skill is also measured by what you have achieved within a certain time frame. The extent to which you are able to invest determines how productive and secured your life will become over time. Investment empowers you to take charge of your future. Such a time is a time to sow expecting to reap in the future. A farmer through seed planting is investing his seed (lings) for a bumper harvest in the nearest future. If he or she refuses to sow during the planting season then he will have nothing to reap and the entire season would have been wasted. Don’t waste your time, manage it well by investing your time in something worthwhile. Invest in your health, self-development, education, and business projects, and acquire specialized skills that will help you find fulfillment in life.

Benefits of time management

 The way you manage time will determine whether you will be successful or not. There is time for every activity, so good time management entails doing the right thing at the right time. It also entails the speedy execution of projects when opportunities come. There are so many competitors lurking around to take advantage of your ineptitude if, and when you fail to deliver. Speedy response to these opportunities as they beckon with time is a veritable asset you must subscribe to.

Develop a culture of good time management. You must sharpen your time management skill. Time management skill helps us to work smart by bringing to bear our efficiency and organizational skills. It helps us meet the dateline of projects and to achieve our set goals and objectives. In other words, it enhances performance and productivity. Moreover, it helps in capacity-building as one becomes better in a specialized area over time. It is often said that time is money; hence, time management will help us to minimize waste and increase our net worth.

Final Note

What are you doing with your time today?  Manage your time well because time will tell whether you will succeed and find fulfillment in life, or not. Remember, time determines every event in life; time is no respecter of any individual; and you cannot turn back the hand of time. Utilize your time well if you want fulfillment in life. Be wise.

Imagine, believe, dare the impossible

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Fantastically Sophisticated

fantastically sophisticated

The key to succeed in a sophisticated world like ours is to fantastically sophisticated. The world is one complex web of human activities which needs sophistication to decode. Every facet of human life is enmeshed in sophistication. So it will not be illogical to say that in today’s digitalized world we are living a button or a click away from the future.

However, if you must strive to remain relevant in the scheme of things you must improvise. It is either you go for sophistication or you rust in life. Life becomes brute, blunt, rusty, and stagnated without personal development and upgrade. And to be fantastically sophisticated you must be open to improvisation in your business, profession or career, and in your academic pursuits – be more sophisticated. Even your thinking must also be sophisticated. You must think out the box. Acquisition of new skills, new ideas and knowledge through Personal development sharpens you and keep you relevant in a sophisticated world like ours.

As a teenager growing up was fun. We normally sit down together to discuss about issues bothering on life in the future. So on one of such occasions one of the guys as if he saw the future boasted. He did say that he would buy a television set which will be operated in the air when he grows up. However, few years later the much talked about remote controlled television set came into existence. Thus this young man’s prediction has now become a reality. Now we can conveniently operate the television set across space (air) via the remote control, without touching the gadget.

Radical Shift to Digitization

The world is fast becoming digitalized. Sophistication has triggered a radical shift from analogue to digital world; hence there has been a shift from the era of ‘black and white’ television sets with tuning knobs, to the era of high definition (HD) television sets, which one can operate through voice, gestures, and remote control. We have also witnessed a shift from the era of typewriter to that of computer typing and printing. There is also a shift from the era of fixed analogue telephones to sophisticated mobile phones.

Moreover, there are many far reaching and cutting-edge achievements or breakthroughs in science and technology. Like the nanotechnology, robotics engineering, artificial intelligence, aeronautical engineering, genetic engineering, and biotechnology etc. Indeed over the years almost every human field has improvised and embraced sophistication. Generally, there is now a sophisticated system of doing things in terms of research and operations, areas like medicine, engineering, architecture, transport, business, sports, journalism, and entertainment are all beneficiaries of this sophistication.

Therefore, for you to remain relevant in the scheme of things in a sophisticated world you must improvise. You must be open to improvisation in your business, profession or career, and in your academic pursuits – deep rooted sophistication. In order to do this you must go for personal development. Get more knowledge, get more experience and consolidate on them. Sophistication is the stability of the future. And with the trend of world events today only the sophisticated or those who can improvise on their experience will survive the future.

Sophistication Stands You Out

 In fact you must do the needful to distinguish yourself from others in everything you do. You must stand out from the crowd. Take for instance the Polaris or the North Star. Its brightness and position easily distinguish from other stars. Note, there are billions of stars in our galaxy but the North Star stands out by its position and brightness. One can easily spot and differentiate it from other (alpha ursae minoris) stars.

Another important attribute of the North Star, is that it is a guiding star. It is a dependable indicator of the direction towards the geographic North Pole, and so it is a reference point in navigation or astrology. One big lesson to learn from this is that once you stand out you will become a reference point. You will be a reference point to a lot of people who are eager to succeed like you. You will become a superstar, a role model, and a mentor because you are able to stand out in that which you do– whether in governance, business, academics, investment, or entertainment. And to do this you must be fantastically sophisticated.

Howbeit, you will only be a shining example to them when, and if you stand out. They will look unto you for direction and guidance once you stand out. Basically, to be a force to reckon with in any field you must be fantastically sophisticated, and this can be done through personal development. Of course, you will derive happiness and satisfaction in life when you have positive impact on people through your lifestyle.

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Unleash Your Talent: How to Explore Your Most Treasured Asset.

unleash your talent

One major way to open up the gateway to success and have a fulfilled life is to unleash your talent. Understand that your talent is your asset as long as success is concerned. It is common to hear people talk about a talented musician, actor, singer, speaker, writer or what have you. But the truth of the matter is that each and every one of us is endowed with at least a talent. We are all talented.

I remember vividly, a song we used to sing way back in Primary school. It goes like this;

One talent have I,
to take to the world;
While others are blessed
with ten of the best;
why should I complain
from duty refrain;
No never, no never,
Not I.

The above song captures the very nitty-gritty of this phenomenon called talent. We can understand from the song that we are all endowed with talents. However, while some are multi-talented, others can boast of just one talent. But we are all loaded with talents.

And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey – Matthew 25:15.

Furthermore, this scripture verse buttresses the fact that we are carriers of certain talents. Hence, we can invade the infinite realm and succeed in life with a little creativity. Talent in this regard, is that special (unique) skill or quality that is divinely endowed on people that makes them do things with ease and very well. Talents are special gifts that help people in fulfilling destiny. One universal truth about talent is that it is for the public good. It is for positive impact. An endowment or a gift becomes a talent only when it is beneficial to the general public.

Understanding Talent

Talent is of great importance to human existence. One importance of talent is that it opens, and ushers men into the realm of greatness.

A man’s gift (talent) makes room for him, and brings him before great men – Proverbs 18:16

People with talents are ‘a greatness time bomb waiting to explode. So, your talent becomes a vehicle you ride in to achieve success, fame, and greatness. Understand that the tendency to unleash your talent depends so much on your ability. That is why even though we are all endowed with talents, some are ‘not talented’ because they lack the ability to unleash their talents. The ability here is the capacity to harness and express your talent. You must have the capacity to harness and unleash these special skills or gifts for maximum global impact.

Discover yourself

Taking the path to self-discovery is unarguably a window to capacity building. You must take the journey inward to discover yourself. Until you discover yourself you cannot live life to its fullest. It helps you to know your self-worth and unleash your talents. You must look inward to discover your strength, passion, and talents, and harness them for maximum impact in life.

By doing this you will build the capacity, and acquire the ability to unleash your talent. Have you discovered yourself? Do you have an insight into your own nature and character? Not until you do that you can ever unleash your talent.

You need a Push.

You need a push in life in order to build the capacity you need to unleash your talent. Note that for you to have the ability to unleash your talent you must be pushed beyond your limit. You must go the extra mile to build the capacity. For instance, an elastic band when pressured or overstretched does not return to its original state. In the same way, your talent when stretched beyond the limit does not remain the same. The elasticity of talent sets in. Each time you go beyond your limit there is improvisation to your talent. You will learn new ways of doing things with ease, and very well. That is innovation and creativity.

I remember vividly the time I wrote my thesis and each time I submitted my work for supervision. My supervisor then will ask me to elaborate on my work. Each time he will always tells me to write and expand my work. And it paid off as I got the best grade in my project work. My ability was overstretched beyond the limit and I build the capacity for writing. Today, I can write with ease, and I have so much developed my writing skill, such that I can write a script ten times, and each time develops new content is it.

You need Mentoring

Another way you can build the capacity to unleash your talent is through mentoring. You need to be mentored, trained, and facilitated by someone who is well-grounded in such a field for you to acquire the ability. You need someone who takes a personal interest in your success and is committed to helping you reach your full potential. Also, it must be someone who inspires you to succeed, someone who has done what you want to do and you aspire to be like him.

Mentorship encourages capacity building through the impartation of specialized skills and knowledge, and the wealth of experience of your mentor. It is your connecting bridge to fame and stardom.

Banish Fear

Let’s say your mind is a treasure box, and inside it is great potential, (talents) that you must freely express or unleash for you to be successful in life. Now, what fear does is that it closes this treasure box and buries these wonderful talents, and makes sure you don’t unleash them. This is one major reason why many are unsuccessful today. Not that they don’t have talents but because of fear of expressing their talents.

Fear strips you of all your abilities to unleash your talent by making you doubt your ability. However, you cannot develop your talents without taking responsibility to unleash your talent. Banish that fear now and give it a try. 

Finally, what are you good at? What is your passion in life? Or what do you feel so excited about? Chances are that this is your talent. And to unleash your talent you must go beyond your limit to build the capacity and acquire the ability. Do more if you must achieve more.

Imagine it, believe it, and dare to succeed.