How To Improve Yourself In The Next 3-5 Years

It is absolutely human of us to want instant success, instant gratification, instant happiness and instant wealth. But on the other hand, it becomes another torment just thinking about what we are facing right now in comparison to our expectation of instant goodness of life. We feel that this deal is too good to be true after trying some things that are out of our comfort zone and expecting some good reward out of it.

When building your 20 one bedroomed apartment, it will take you 6-9 months depending on the factors of architecture and financing for its completion and maybe on the 9^th month with favorability swinging your side, you may get tenants filling all your 20 units. But wait, for you to enjoy rent, you have a loan to pay and remember the bank granting you a loan gave you a grace-period which is interest accrued and you must pay as an additional cost to your loan. It may take you, let say 3-5 years to complete paying the loan but is worth it? Yes, it is.

As patient as a certain landlord paying his loan for 20 units apartments so we ought to be patient to build ourselves in which your rewards will be experienced in 3 to 5 years to come according to your life purpose.  Let’s glide into the 7 take home points that you can bank on.

1.   Go the extra mile- Don’t ask permission to give more and better service to your family, your employer, your friends, your neighbors or even your enemies, just do it. Get into the habit of doing extra and in a special way and mark excellence. We should expect excellent things so we must contribute to excellence by going the extra mile.

2.   See value in people- Treat people with value, which instinctively means value yourself, then you will be able to value others and the value will return to you. In short, be human to all regardless of race, tribe and creed.

3.   Invest in yourself – You can never be better than who you are today without reading, studying and learning. It doesn’t mean you need a Ph.D. in what you do but to identify what is your purpose, then with the curiosity of a child start to ask the right questions to what you can do to achieve your purpose. You can enroll courses related to your purpose, attending seminars or just buy books which is the most inexpensive form of education- Someone spends the time to write them in order to add value to our lives (an investment made to you if you only choose to read these books)

4.   See value in what you do- with a purpose in hand, you will understand what you are doing is important. It may be your job, your salary, your loans/debts and your assets. Your job may be employment or your own business. You value it so that you can concentrate on bringing the value of excellence and we know that excellent things are surely rewardable. Your salary for the employed is the main source to build up your own financial dynasty for your family. Your loans and debts play a big role in bringing your vision of success much faster than your savings can do within the reason of investment not spending.  Your assets are the fruits originating from your job, your salary, your savings, your investment loans and your sole efforts of going the extra mile.

5.   See value in failure- There are many things we understand outside the arena of failure but we get something new something profound in our failure if we choose to look at it that way. Failure is not in a real sense permanent but a temporary defeat. It has a time limit in that it has a beginning and an ending. Like Robert Kiyosaki puts it Being broke is temporary, but poverty is eternal. Poverty is looking at failure like it is permanent – we are not learning, we are hopeless, we are resentful of other people’s progress and we loathe ourselves. That is poverty – burying your one talent in the earth and blaming everybody for your fear of failure. Failure being temporary is a guide with a universal language showing you the wrong way so that you can look further to the right road to your purpose.

6.   Try something new – It’s insane to do the same thing over and over again and expecting different results as well stated by Albert Einstein. Deliberately, go the extra mile to do something new but we must be clear about this. We must first learn about it, study it and practice it to achieve mastery and produce excellent quality from our service.

7.   Retire early – “I never resign until I die” (our African Politician mindset) should not be existing in our minds, our hearts or our purpose. Retire early means working hard with the purpose of being financially independent. It is earning from our inner resources without necessarily working because you have but because you want to.

8.   Bonus- Carry heavy- We should seek not to meet our daily needs, our monthly needs but our semi-annual needs and annual needs. We ought to focus on how to afford to live our lives unchanged at the face of unemployment or financial disaster that may occur in our lives. It is not about you and your family. Seek to be more productive, financially free, more generous, more supportive, more intelligent, more creative and more and more. Carry heavy means to build yourself to more dependable, reliable, loyal, positive and more faithful to meet your family, your friends, your neighbor and your enemies. Have something you in your pocket at all times- financial threshold in your wallet that can assist you or your fellow man’s needs.

Money attitude

Do you know what I saw today? Someone wrote in red on a two hundred shillings note ''pesa ni mapepo'' translation from Swahili - money is demonic. What do you make of that statement? Is money filled with evil spirits or is that person really dumb and thick in the head? Where, in any holy book, money is evil? For the love of money is the root of all evil, not money.

What comes from outside is not evil it is what comes from the inside that is evil. Mark 7: 15. Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them." 'Money is evil' is an attitude that is a money repellent - it is a self destruct attitude. Lack of money is the root of all evil and money is the root of all philanthropy. Money is not to be worshiped but it can be used to serve the owner who is you, your family, your friends and the world.

The reason why you are crying Njanuary is that you have such an attitude towards money. You hate money, you dislike money and you are disgusted by money and that is why money seems to slip away from your grip. The trivial many have the least of confidence when it comes to money or worse off where does it all go? They have little faith or none faith in themselves. They are really pessimistic about themselves and money. These are very reasons why money has killed many people, money has robbed people their joy and money has destroyed their own lives. To rephrase this better, people would kill to have money, steal other people's money and destroy people's lives with the same money. 

They attract thoughts of poverty and poverty itself in their lives. They have sown the seed of poverty and reap the fruits of sweet poverty. They get money and very little of it. And when money comes in a lucky break, they find a way to lose it all.

"Lazy hands make for poverty but diligent hands bring wealth:" King Solomon.

From this bible quote, we get that we reap what we sow or in other words, if you don’t like getting tired, poverty will never tire to knock on your door or bash into your home and make it stay with its unpleasantries of life. However, on the upside challenge, you must work hard on yourself be it mental or physical work. Work must be done in all diligence on yourself and your job.

I have found in my experience that income does not far exceed personal development. Now sometimes income takes a lucky jump but sure enough, unless you grow out where it is, it will usually come back –Jim Rohn. Personal development means working on your emotional intelligence, your optimism, your habits, your goals, your skills and knowledge, and your spirituality, as you are a spirit. Personal development is a life- learning course that requires constant self-evaluation and constant improvement in all aspects of life and one being finances. Money is the servant and you are the master. It must, in many cases, work for you not against you.

With money, it calls for our hard work, honesty and wisdom. Your employment, even though underrated in all respects of other people's perceptions, holds the key to greatness as long as you look for it until you find it. Diligent hands produce quality and quantity which translates to reaping more or more rewards. Your employed work is not the company’s job but it is your own. You are self-employed not employed whether you are working for a company or yourself.

Inferiority complexities and pessimism are the money repellents we must fight against. Poverty magnets, we don't want.

Finally, money is a good gift from God that must be mastered. Money is a reward for the work we do and two, it is a means of sustaining our lives and others. Yet again, it is a wonder that the same money also carries temptation. And I will repeat again for the multitude. Nothing outside man that enter him can defile but it is what that comes out of the man that defiles him. Do you blame your salary for your lack? Is money the cause of all your financial insecurity? Or is it definitely these loans, these taxes, these rent denying us the right to enjoy this good life?

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Liabilities into assets.

In the holiday seasons, there is one thing we need to know that January will always be January whether we are broke or not. We must assume the rightful powers and authorities over our lives. And one to do in conjunction with our creator is we better our liabilities into assets. Liabilities are things that take money from our pockets while assets put money in our pocket (Robert Kiyosaki's simple definition). There are two kinds of liabilities namely:

1. External liabilities are the Financial ones that take money out of your pocket. These are loans and debts, mortgage, car loan, advances, credit cards, payday loans ( one month repayable loans)

2. Internal liabilities are the mental one, the ones that are unseen or unsubstantiated as a liability. These are the negative emotions, habits and attitudes. These are anger, hostility, hatred, competition, fear, anxiety, worry, envy, jealousy, guilt, contempt, greed and dishonesty and other survival emotions, habits and attitudes that steal away your resourcefulness to your ideal world - your future.

The law of correspondence states that as within so without, as above so below. This refers to our outer world is nothing more than a reflection of our inner world. Our inner world is our mind, our heart, our spirit and our soul. What foundation have we laid on ourselves to become who we are today and that is why we are referring to them as internal liabilities.

A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. (Matthew 12:37) The Bible points the law of correspondence what is within you is revealed from your thoughts, your speech, your actions and motives.

Our mind, heart, spirit and soul brings out our personality and this is where our personality becomes a liability or an asset. Yet again, I am driven to define two words again but I will do it in another way. Assets are things that increase in value over time while liabilities are things that diminish in value. So our personality being the total sum of thoughts, habits and emotions, it is either invaluable personality or worth-less personality. In other words, our personality is either pleasant or unpleasant.

During our holiday joy of giving gifts to ourselves and everybody, we showed pleasantries to everyone which is quite commendable to do so in every respect but it must done under restraint. It is this sharp balance of giving and saving which brings us to the habit of frugality. As we enjoy our December holidays, we must be mindful about January. Create space for yourself and your family to get you through January - make sure you have your shopping that will get you through to the end of January.

In Kenya, January has a nickname called Njaanuary which comes from the Swahili word " Njaa" which means hunger. The word is merged with January. January is usually hotest month of the year and there is no rain for that ideal traditional farming. It is the driest month of the year in Africa -a famine month you can say. But the circumstances or conditions of this month is by no means to make us think that it is a tough month, no we are tougher than this month. Transmute your liability into an asset -your asset and stop blaming Njaanuary for your December spending.

How to transmute your liabilities to your assets

1. Change your personality from a liability to an asset - Get off the horse ride of the victim hood and ride the horse of victor. As I said earlier, get rid of negative emotions and habits and replace them with positive thoughts, emotions and habits. Practise virtues, good thoughts and emotions and build them up into habits that will attract the things that you want in your life. Develop a pleasant personality is an asset that will appreciate in value  and income every time it's in use. 

2. Stop blaming January for your December spending -You are in control over life and it is within your will to enjoy at the right place and right time. Do not be a victim of circumstance, accept the failure and learn from it and plan ahead. The next time January knocks your door, you will be ready waiting for him or her. Ha ha. We cannot control the nature of January but we have full control of our thoughts, ideas and perceptive about how to handle January.

3. Establish your laws, your values and your principles - Have your own values, laws and principles to govern over your thoughts, your emotions, your habits and your actions to get the right results. January may be the worst enemy but do not forget that the end of January does not mean your rainy months of blessings are on the way and you have not planted anything. Plant those values, those laws and principles into your mind, heart and soul to furnish your future with a year of 12 December holidays instead of 12 January famine months and say 2019 was a bad year. No, it is your fault, there is no such thing as a bad year, you were lazy to think. Get up and do something for you, you are not lazy. You have energy. You have life and full of it with talents and abilities unknown to you.

4. Financial skills are learnable - Be student, don't be follower. Let the past be your school and make the promise your future dear, the price will be easy to pay (Jim Rohn's qualifying words). What am I talking about. I am talking about you being financially independent. What does it take for you to be financially independent? Who should I talk to about this matter? When you begin to ask the right questions, you are on your way to a beautiful place where everything of beauty grows. Learn how to be financially independent is a wonderful gift you can give yourself and everybody who comes into contact with you.

5. Show gratitude -It is in the giving where receiving occurs. Giving a helping hand to those people who face a year of 12 January months. Share a part of yourself with others in dire need. This act of generosity goes up as thanksgiving and comes down as things falling into place -that is the greed, jealousy and envy together with negative mental enemies of mind will be vacated out of place. For negative thoughts and emotions cannot exist in a positive mind and vice versa. Therefore the joy of giving is complete and you will be happy to see that you have added value to that person in need. A good deed will never go unrewarded, sooner or later, the law of increasing return will work to multiply your service to rewards. 

He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” Matthew 17:20

Goal Number Two - Know your competence level

Hi People, hope you have scored the first goal that I suggested to you about establishing your primary goal, your definite purpose or aim in life. So let’s walk to knowing your competence levels.

I thank God, whom I serve with a clear conscience the way my forefathers did, as I constantly remember you in my prayers night and day - 1 Timothy 1:3

It was discovered in the 1969 that people were unaware of their competence (i.e. the ability of doing something successfully or efficiently) by Martin M. Broadwell but more often attributed to Abraham Maslowin in 1970s. It was first referred to as Four stages of teaching, then four stages of learning any new skill to now four stages of competence.And with this introduction, it brings us the concept that competency is teachable and everyone can learn to do what they want and achieve success. To dive into this, what are these 4 stages of teaching, learning and competence?

First, we have the unconscious incompetence as the the first stage of competence. This is the wrong intuition -the wrong understanding without proof, evidence or conscious reasoning. To bring it better it is not understanding that you are successful person or just not know what to do to be successful in what you want to accomplish. An individual, at this stage, is not aware of the deficit of knowledge and more so the benefits of such wisdom that could better their life. It is not knowing that you can live a better life than you are in now.

Second, Conscious incompetence is where the individual recognize their weakness but also lack the knowledge of how to improve the state of weakness to strength. This is the learning from mistakes and failures and learning how to be better to move to the next level. Most of us are in between these two stages for we see our circumstances as our limitations.

We look at life with our eyes not with our mind of imagination. Mistakes and failures are our success compass to our learning, correcting, teaching and profiting from these very mistakes and failures.

Third stage - Conscious competence is the complete understanding on what and how to do one particular job or business in a better and more efficiently. This happens after learning from our mistakes and exploring new ways to do that specific task and narrowing down to the best and most suitable way to do the specific task with efficiency and the best quality.

Imagination, visualization and concentration has been used to bring out our competence to the 3rd stage and with more strength to the 4th ultimate stage.

Fourth stage- Unconscious competence is the repetition of using the complete understanding through conscious thought until it sinks in the subconscious mind and thereby; the skill becomes automatic without conscious thought. For instance activities like driving, wearing clothes, walking, cycling, swimming, eating and other basic daily activities do not require conscious thought to perform the activity.

But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith -1 Timothy 1:5

This is the disparity of professional work and amateur work. This stage is acquired over time and repetition of a specific task until perfection is achieved. Everyone can become a professional at his/her field of work by having the urge to improve oneself, taking initiative to know how to do, persistently seeking the best way to do things towards the right results.

This is the sowing of seed of thoughts into the subconscious mind and reaping the right results. This stage is the true awakening of the giant within you who is your mind (your conscious mind + sub-conscious mind working in harmony to give you what you want.
Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8 Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life -Galations 6:7-8

Goal number one- Identify your primary goal of your life

Have you made up your mind about your goal, the primary purpose of your life? This is an interesting question because we always find ourselves wandering “what is our purpose of life?” from high school life to our adult life. And truth be told, it is right inside your DNA, you have the God-given answer to that question. Think about it for a minute.

You are a creator of your life, not just a manager of your life circumstances. I remind you, yet again, you are a magnificent creature walking the face of this Earth and you are destined for greatness if you just believe.

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth -Genesis 1:26

To conclude on this primary goal of your life, you ought to answer the following questions

1.What is your primary purpose in life?

2.Why is your life purpose so important?

3.do you intend to achieve your life purpose?

4.When do you think and believe you will achieve it?

Create your life now because you are a creature with the ability of creation. Take some solitude time, free distraction and think about what you want to do with yourself to make this world better place. And after this you will discover the acres of diamonds actually within your reach.

Invest in yourself

This blog is dedicated to improve you into a better you. I am suggesting that your first and most primary step in achieving any worthwhile accomplishments is to establish your primary goal. What is your primary goal in life? Have you given thought to it, do you wish your life to be better than what you are in now? Or do you want to continue bearing the consequences of accepting circumstances by not getting into action.

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:18. Goals are invisible to the world but they are real if you want them to be.

Goal 1. is to establish that you are a human, a fascinating creator walking the face of this Earth. Sometimes, we find ourselves being belittled by other people, circumstances, troubles, mistakes, accidents or fear. We think that we don’t deserve the good things in life. We think that we are worth LESS - inconsequential and yet we are not. God don't create a nobody but he create a somebody with a purpose.

I will give you my list of motivational quotes from great people that will establish that you are the most important person in this world.

1. Everyone has many talents for surmounting his special problems - Napoleon Hill
2. Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit - Napoleon Hill
3. What the mind of a man conceive and believe, the mind of a man can achieve- Napoleon Hill.
4. Love yourself first and everything else falls into line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world – Lucille Ball
5. Treat yourself with love and respect and you will attract people who show love and respect - The Secret.
6. You were born rich and your abundance is contained in your thoughts, so be good to yourself, choose magnificent ideas and cease permitting your physical world to control your thinking - Bob Proctor

With that, take a pen and notebook and write an elaborate primary goal that you want to become, you want to have and do. Carry that note pad, write a goal card and print it and stick it on your office desk and in your bed-room where you can remind yourself to re-read it. Carrying your note pad, your goal card or better yet write it on your smart phone or tab so that you can re-read to remind yourself about your precious desirable to be achieved.

So set your goal right now. It is the goal 1 towards to your realisation of abundance.

As we discussed about writing down your primary goal in life. If there was some difficulty, I would like to refer to the five quotes in the Goal 1 note which emphasizes that you are the most valuable in this world and actually you were born rich with talents that need your time to explore them.

When writing your goal, you must the what, the when, the how and the why of your primary goal.

Have one goal not multiple goals that will confuse and reduce your concentration and persistence towards the most important goal.

Time limit should be at least five years to achieve that definite purpose I am calling the primary goal.

Afterwards, remind yourself on it on daily basis with increased frequency of reading it as many times as possible. Print it on paper, stick it on your closet so that you can see it when you wake up and going to sleep. Have it on your phone WPS app or any note taking app and read it as often as possible.

Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things -Colossians 3:2 The Earthly things are ordinary things that we go through everyday. It is the monotony, the mediocrity and the predictable but things above are your dreams, your vision, your hope, your desires, your goals, your mission and your purpose. They are above the monotony, above the average and above the predictable results of our comfort zone.

If you don’t know how to write your definite purpose, then take time to read the book, Think and grow rich by Napoleon Hill and cultivate a reading culture as an investment to yourself.