5 Lessons I Have Learnt From Obama (2)

It is a pity I couldn’t continue this series immediately after the last one. The very morning I posted the last one, I got a call that I lot my grand father and had to travel out of Lagos and got stressed out when I came back. At a point, my laptop also crashed and was without any form of access for a while because I had to attend a Leadership Conference, Take The Lead, orgarnised by Daystar Christian Center

Now, the third lesson I learnt from Barack Obama is that to achieve anything in life, you must have faith in yourself or self belief! I have been looking at the case of Obama critically and I have been able to discover that he believed in himself and his ability to bring to pass what he has dreamt about. A lot of people believed that was a dream that couldn’t be achieved by person of Obama’s status but he never allowed their opinion to dissuade him from following his dreams. He was even called different names but he NEVER got discouraged.

This is an important lesson we all need to learn. A lot of people have lost faith in themselves and their ability to achieve something worthwhile in life just because of the opinions of others. A lot of people are going no where in life and their main preoccupation is to debar others from getting to where they are going, so whenever they see someone trying to do something, all they know how to do best is to shoot the person down. Will you allow those kind of people to shoot your dreams down? What will it be like coming into the level of such people when you should be pursuing your dreams?

Those who have lost faith in themselves, have lost all is a saying I learnt years ago and I have always believed that NOTHING is impossible for me to achieve. I always tell myself that there is nothing anyone has done that I cannot do. I only wish I have the mind for politics, I would have been longing to rule our dear nation one day, but I’m not sure I want to go that far, I care more about the impact than anything else

Determination or the will to succeed is another important lesson I have learnt from this hero of our time. If not for determination, I am not sure we will be celebrating Barack Obama today. Obama made up his mind to become the number one citizen of the United States and he was fully prepared to face all the odds until the victory is won. He withstood a lot of criticism, jests, name callings and so many things, but his determination did not wane.

Dreaming alone is not all it takes to achieve anything in life, it takes a lot of will power to also succeed because we will all come face-to-face with a lot of challenges or obstacles that will want to stop us by all means. I would have taken out the time to list all the obstacles Obama faced but he did not allow those challenges to stop him from winning his coveted price. The same will power should be entrenched within us, a never-say-die attitude that will enable us to follow our dreams no matter what comes our way.

Success takes a lot of determination and it is not for the faint-hearted. Like my Yoruba people will say, any pot that desires to lick pepper must first of all face the fury of the fire, so also is achieving your dreams. It doesn’t come as easy as it is being proposed by so many people. It takes a lot of hardwork and determination and you must be prepared to give it your all. Remember, “No pain, No Gain!”

Lastly, the most important lesson I have learnt and have decided to make use of is the need for FOCUS in all we do. I am reading “The Audacity of Hope,” a book written by Obama and I have found out that Obama was focused on achieving something right from the word go. From all I have read in that book, I discovered that a grand plan was laid to get him to the White House long ago and he was focused on achieving that alone.

A lot of times, we decide to achieve something in our lives and we find out that something else comes in and instead of facing what we want to achieve, we follow the new kid on the block and later realise we have been chasing shadows. This has happened to me on so many occassions and all thanks to Barack, I am making ammends. I have decided on what to do and what not to touch in years to come. I now have my eyes set on just one thing and that is inspiring people to follow their dreams and be their best

Focus is a word that we all need because there are so many distracting voices all around us and we can’t afford to be listening to all of them. I am sure Barack would have been called behind the scene to negotiate for some other position and if he had not been a focused man, he would have consented. This just reminds me of Income opportunities seekers who keep running after the newest means of making from from this and that and left frustrated at the end of the day. if you are in this position my friend, all you need is to be focused on ONE THING until you achieve it. This is an advice I got years ago, though I forget it sometimes, but I keep running back to it and I am going to stick it in my memory as from now on:

“Be like a postage stamp, STICK to one thing until you get there.”

I am sure we all have so much to thank the hero of our time, Mr. Barack Hussein Obama for the lessons he has thought us. What are you going to do with these lessons? The choice is yours

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Filed under: Positive Attitude

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