Category: Lifestyle

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Career Fulfillment: The Three Big Questions to A Rewarding Career

career fulfillment

Career fulfillment should be the dream of a career person. The utmost happiness and satisfaction you derive from your career should be the motivation you need to give your best in your career or professional space. Indeed, our career is an auspicious channel through which we can derive happiness and fulfillment in life. On the other hand, a person can experience a career crisis when such an individual can no longer find happiness and satisfaction doing the job or profession he or she has been trained for and intend to do for several years.

The Three Big Questions

In this post, we shall explore three pertinent questions you must answer if must have the happiness and satisfaction that comes with career fulfillment. In dissecting the topical issue of career fulfillment, I will model my approach after Warren Buffet’s three big questions on investment. Before investing in any organization Mr. Buffet usually carries out a careful analysis of the such organization. He will try to know the people in charge of the business, the philosophy behind the business, how it is run, how they handle the welfare of their staff, and how they treat their customers and suppliers.

After the intense analysis Mr. Buffet will ask himself these three questions; “Do I like them? Do I trust them? Do I respect them?” And if he gets ‘Yes’ in all the questions he will invest in the organization, but if he gets a ‘No’ answer even in any one of the questions he will not invest. This is one of the investment secrets of one of the richest men in the world today.

Similarly, you must do a careful analysis of your job or the organization you intend to work in. You must do a background check on how the organization operates. Ask insiders; sample their opinions and the feedback you get will give you insight as to whether you will have a fulfilling and rewarding career working there.  By asking yourself these important questions you are taking the bold step to mitigate the challenge of a career crisis. In fact, any question that is negative is a red flag to your career fulfillment and must be eliminated.

Do I Really Like This Job?

Do you really like what you do? Are you happy with it? You cannot be happy when you don’t like your job. There is no career fulfillment in doing what you don’t like or in not doing what you like. This is a pure clash of values and a career crisis at its extreme. And to derive a sense of happiness and satisfaction from your job or profession you must have passion for it. What do you have a passion for? You will find happiness and satisfaction in carrying out a job description that revolves around your passion in life.

Doing what you are told and not what you want to do may result in a conflict of roles. This arises when someone does a role that is in conflict with his or her training. It may result in redundancy a situation where one falls below expectations and is unable to meet targets or achieve set goals. Another reason why people may not like their jobs is a lack of interest. It is one of the manifestations of a career crisis. You cannot derive happiness or satisfaction from a job when you don’t have an interest in such a job. There are so many reasons that can make people lose interest in a job. One of them may be the monotony of duty. This is a situation where one has to do a particular role for a long period of time to the extent that it becomes so boring. 

Underemployment Negates Career Fulfillment

Career crises may also emanate from underemployment. Underemployment is a situation where someone is overqualified for a particular job position. There is no job satisfaction in doing such a job. However, many people will still go ahead to do such jobs just to keep body and soul together. They are not doing it because they love it but because they did not find the best job befitting their qualification. Under this kind of circumstance, the employee cannot be truly dedicated nor can such a person give in his or her best. 

The truth is that there is no career fulfillment in underemployment. Many people are neck-deep in career crises because of underemployment. In this era with an alarming surge in the unemployment rate, many will easily settle for even the meanest job just to bear the ‘employment’ tag. And the craze for the highly elusive ‘white collar’ jobs is not helping matters. Many are busy pursuing the few or no existing jobs out there. I have seen a case where more than a hundred thousand applicants applied for only twenty job openings. The only remedy to this kind of career crisis comes the moment people begin to look inward to tap into the creative content and unleash the entrepreneurial spirit. You will become a job creator only by doing what you like.    

Are you in Agreement with the Business Philosophy?

Another important question you must ask yourself is whether you fit into the business philosophy of the organization. What are the values and beliefs of this organization? Are you in sync with the core values, vision, and mission statement of the organization? You cannot find career fulfillment if there is a conflict or friction between your values and that of the organization you work for. 

The business philosophy of the organization does it promote a win-win situation where everybody both the management and the staff is happy and satisfied; or does it encourage a win-loss situation where the winner takes it all? Does the management have a genuine concern for the staff that they win as well as they do? Does the management have a good welfare plan for the staff? Do they owe their staff or pay as at when due? All these things form part of the organizational philosophy.  And there is career fulfillment and job satisfaction when a good welfare plan is incorporated into the business philosophy.

Understand that you can only find fulfillment in your career when you fit into the organization’s philosophy. Another way you can fit into the business philosophy of the organization is when you can set and achieve your personal goals. Ask yourself whether you can achieve your goals and objectives in such an organization. Take a closer look at your present job or profession. Does it allow you to achieve your set goals? If it does not then a career crisis is inevitable. Achieving your personal goals is one way you can find career fulfillment in your career. Hence, any job that does not allow you to achieve your personal goals and objectives cannot give you the fulfillment you desire. Consider letting go and moving on with your life.

Culled from my book “The Threshold of Life “. Get your Copy and Learn more about Career Fulfillment.

Imagine, Believe, Dare the Impossible.

TO BE CONTINUED…

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How to Maximize your Imagination for Optimal Success

maximize your imagination

One of the greatest gifts of God to mankind is the gift of imagination. Imagination simply means forming an image about a particular thing in your mind. It is painting mental pictures about something. Imagination has with it the power or force that can transform such mental pictures or images into reality. The level of success you will enjoy in life is determined by how well you harness and maximize your imagination. In this post, I am going to explain the power of imagination, and how to maximize your imagination for optimal success.

Our imagination is an audacious asset in achieving optimal Success. Hence, we cannot underestimate its great power. Even God himself, confirms the audacity of imagination.

… And now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined, (Genesis 11:6).

What do you imagine about your life? What picture do you paint about that business, project, contract, relationship, or life circumstance? Is it a picture of conquest or defeat; success or failure? You must understand that the power of imagination can drive you to succeed or fail in life depending on the image you paint in your mind. Moreover, when a man has a positive imagination, he has everything it takes to achieve in life. Imagination helps you see vividly your success before it happens. It helps you to demystify challenging issues of life. Imagination consists of hope, optimism, and enthusiasm. And these three elements work together to turn your all dreams into reality.



He did see it, that’s why it’s here – Lillian Walt.

A man once imagined and conceived a project in his mind. Along the line, he died and could not see to the completion of the project but his legacy lived on. However, exactly five years after his demise that project was completed, and at the dedication ceremony on October 1, 1971 someone remarked, “Isn’t it a shame that Walt didn’t live to see this”. “He did see it, that’s why it’s here” the wife replied. She told him that her husband had already seen the completion of the project right from the day he imagined it. He saw it vividly because he had formed the image and painted the picture in his mind. That project is Disney World; it is still a monumental testimony to the power of imagination.

A fulfilled and rewarding life is a function of imagination. Through the power of your imagination, you can transform circumstances, and turn your dreams into realities. Despite the challenges of life it is still possible to imagine plenty in the midst of famine, conquest in adversity, and optimal success in life when defeat is imminent. But it all boils down to how well you can engage and maximize your imagination.



How to Maximize Your Imagination

Maximizing your imagination is all about increasing the wavelength of your imagination. This entails stretching and maximally engaging your vision for a life of optimal success and fulfillment. It would help if you increased the wavelength of your imagination. One thing about imagination is that it comes with a sense of urgency. It comes with a can-do attitude. Once the image is formed and impressed in our mind, there is this feeling that we can turn these images into realities.

Power of Imagination

Possibly, you might want to ask; why are some people defeated in the battle of life? Or why do some people fail in life even with the power of imagination? Whatever we do we must understand that there is positive and also negative imagination. And that failure is a creation of negative imagination. Negative imagination is a creation of any mind manipulated by fear, and doubt. With such negative imagination the person sees nothing else but failure and defeat in life. All they see is the doomsday ahead of them.

A young man once told us that he doesn’t think he can pass a JavaScript test. Why does he think so? He has imagined a failure in his mind. We tried to persuade him not to quit, and that he can do it which he did. In the end, he was not successful. Why was he not successful? His mind was riddled with fear and doubt. Such is the power of our imagination. It functions like a camera the image we capture in our imagination is what we will print in real life. We cannot capture failure and print out success. If we capture failure in our imagination we will print out failure in real life. However, to avoid failure and secure our conquest over challenges we must deal with every negative imagination.

The Key to Optimal Success

… Casting down imaginations... (2 Corinthians 10: 5).

In any space you find yourself, arm yourself with positive imagination. It is the key to optimal success. You must therefore do everything within your power to cast down every negative imagination because it breeds failure in life. You must always imagine yourself succeeding in the midst of circumstances and challenges of life. No matter what always imagine conquest, success, breakthrough, and possibilities. And it doesn’t matter the impossible outlook of your challenges. Imagine yourself doing the impossible. Positive imagination breeds ideas, creativity, innovation, insight, vision, and originality which are all qualities you need for a life of optimal success and fulfillment. We must understand that our imagination carries with it the power to turn all our dreams into reality.



You can Achieve More.

In the words of Walt Disney, “If you can dream it, you can do it”. Finally, you can succeed and achieve greatness in life if you can maximize your imagination. What do you dream or imagine? The truth is that you can turn it into reality such is the power of imagination. The point is that we can do more, achieve more, and succeed more if only we can increase the wavelength of our imagination. Stretch your imagination beyond limits. Whatever you want to achieve is possible. Just imagine it no matter the prevalent challenges. If you can imagine it you can become it. GOODLUCK.

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How to Make Your Relationship Work

making your relationship work

In order to make your relationship work the golden rule must be your reference point. What does it state? The golden rule states that you must ‘do unto others as you would like them to do unto you’. Hence, the golden rule is about you putting yourself in other people’s position; feeling their pain when they are in pain, and rejoicing with them in their happiness.

The golden rule is the ornament of love. In fact, if you want to make your relationship work optimally you must learn to love others. The dimension of happiness and fulfillment released on the platform of love is unimaginable. Through love, you can find fulfillment in virtually every kind of relationship. Hence, we need love in the pursuit of happiness in our business, career, marriage, friendship, and other relationships. Love affects the way we think, behave, and our attitude, friendship, and relationship with others. And certainly, through love each and every one of us can bring positive vibes to any relationship.

Love conquers fear, hatred, bitterness, malice, unforgiveness, jealousy, envy, and other vices. All these are toxic habits and are poisonous to any relationship. So learning to love will free your mind from all these toxins. If they are not taken care of they can negatively affect the relationship. And in such relationships, we cannot find happiness and fulfillment. Hence, love functions as a relationship sanitizer.

Be Kind to others

The golden rule is anchored on five elements of love, namely; kindness, giving, sacrifice, tolerance, and forgiveness. We can express our love for others through our kindness. Have milk of kindness. Show empathy. This is how to make your relationship work. You must be kind to everyone you meet whether you know such a person or not. In showing kindness you must be ready and willing to help those in need. And in helping them you must be selfless. You must help people unconditionally without expecting anything in return. That is the true color and nature of love.

Kindness is also about appreciation. Appreciate those that have added value to your life. Appreciate your business partners, customers, friends, family members, and anyone who has brought happiness into your life. You can call on the phone, send messages or make arrangements to meet with them face to face, where you can thank them for the unique impact they have on your life. By appreciating them they will be happy and do more to impact your life positively. And on the other hand, the level of your happiness and fulfillment in such a relationship will be unimaginable. Hence, if you have been there before you will know that every show of kindness carries with it a weight of fulfillment. There is great joy and happiness in kindness.

Learn to give in any Relationship

Giving is also another channel to express your love for others and your relationships with them work. Do you know that the true test of love is in giving? Love is a two-way thing. It involves giving and receiving. In your relationship, you will definitely receive love when you give love. And in the pursuit of fulfillment, you must give to impact the lives of people around you in order to be happy and fulfilled in life. So, love entails giving back to change people’s life for good. 

Make Sacrifices to make your Relationship work

You can make your relationship work through the sacrifices you make to see others happy.  Sacrifice in this regard is inconveniencing yourself to see that others around you are happy as well. You can make your marriage and other relationships work by inconveniencing yourself to love others. Sacrifice entails cost, compromise, and deep pain. You must inconvenience yourself if you hope to achieve a win-win situation where every party in the relationship is happy.  Try and be flexible always ready to compromise and adjust if you want fulfillment and happiness in any relationship. 

So many marriages have broken up, relationships destroyed, friendships gone sour and many have failed in the pursuit of happiness just because someone refused to make the sacrifice. They refused to shift ground but wanted to dictate the terms of such relationships. In fact, for you to love you must be ready to inconvenience yourself. Happiness and fulfillment in any relationship thrive best in an atmosphere where people are willing to sacrifice.

Be Ready to Tolerate

Tolerance is also another important quality you must possess if you want your relationship to work optimally. Learn to tolerate people the way they are. Accept their faults; accept their weaknesses and this will help them to gain confidence in that relationship. Understand that we all came from different backgrounds with different values and traditions and this explains the variations in personalities. Hence, if you can tolerate people irrespective of their shortcomings it will help them overcome their weaknesses and gain confidence. On the contrary, intolerance breeds hatred and there is no happiness or fulfillment in an atmosphere of hatred.

You must Readily Forgive

Forgiveness is also another important virtue of love. It helps a great deal to make any relationship work optimally. Forgiveness is letting go of any past offense and grievance against your person. Understand that not forgiving those that offended you imply that you will dwell in your past. This is very unhealthy as any offense or grievance you refuse to let go of becomes a burden. It brings rottenness to your mind. I remember when we newly got married. I categorically told my wife that I am not perfect by any standard. And that I might offend her but pleaded with her that before I offend her she must find a place in her heart to forgive me. It has perfectly worked for us, and we are waxing very strong in our relationship.

So many marriages have broken up, relationships have gone sour, and friends have even parted ways because of unforgiveness. It is very important that you know when to forgive. When is the best time to forgive? Immediately, your partner realizes his or her fault and apologizes to you asking for forgiveness. Please forgive. Once you hear this powerful phrase, ‘I am sorry’ do not hesitate to say ‘I forgive you’. These three-worded phrases are massive game changers in building strong and happy relationships. So don’t be so proud to say them when necessary. Stop dwelling in your past, don’t hold any grudge or malice against anyone just forgive and let go. Obey the golden rule, love everyone without dissimulation. Remember, the person you love might be the key to your happiness and fulfillment in that relationship. This is the smartest way to make your relationships work.