Echoes from the past

I chanced upon a book written by a sage who lived between 1864 and 1912 titled ‘As a Man Thinketh’. So vividly did it illustrate the concept I discussed in my last blog that I decided to share some lines from the book in this post. You can tell the impact it left on me from the tone of this write up. My conclusion, coming off from that experience, is that truth is timeless, has no respect for age, race or geographical location. It works whether you live in the palaces of the Middle East or in the dungeon of Guantanamo Bay.

Come with me and let us ponder on some lines that echo from the past, peradventure you too, like me, may find some wisdom to help steer the direction of your life towards your desired destination.

On thoughts and character.........................

'Act is the blossom of thought, and joy and suffering are its fruits; thus does a man garner in the sweet and bitter fruitage of his own husbandry.'

'Man is always the master, even in his weakest and most abandoned state; but in weakness and degradation he is the foolish master who misgoverns his "household". When he begins to reflect upon his condition, and to search diligently for the Law upon which his being is established, he then becomes the wise master, directing his energies with intelligence, and fashioning his thoughts to fruitful issues.'

On thoughts and circumstances....................

'Man is buffeted by circumstances so long as he believes himself to be the creature of outside conditions. But when he realizes that he may command the hidden soil and seeds of his being out of which circumstances grow, he then becomes the rightful master of himself.'

'The soul attracts that which it secretly harbours; that which it loves, and also that which it fears. It reaches the height of its cherished aspirations. It falls to the level of its unchastened desires - and circumstances are the means by which the soul receives its own.'

'Circumstance does not make the man; it reveals him to himself. Men do not attract that which they want, but that which they are.'

'Law, not confusion, is the dominating principle in the universe. This being so, man has but to right himself to find that the universe is right; and during the process of putting himself right, he will find that as he alters his thoughts towards things and other people, things and other people will alter towards him. The proof of this truth is in every person, and it therefore admits of easy investigation by systematic introspection and self-analysis. Let a man radically alter his thoughts, and he will be astonished at the rapid transformation it will effect in the material conditions of his life.'

'Thoughts of courage, self-reliance, and decision, and decision crystallize into manly habits, which solidify into circumstances of success, plenty and freedom.'

'A particular thought persisted in, be it good or bad, cannot fail to produce its results on the character and circumstances. A man cannot directly choose his circumstances, but can choose his thoughts, and so indirectly, yet surely, shape his circumstances.'

'Nature helps every man to the most gratification of the thoughts which he most encourages, and opportunities are presented which will most speedily bring to the surface the good and evil thoughts.'

On thoughts and health......................................

'The body is the servant of the mind. It obeys the operations of the mind, whether they be deliberately chosen or automatically expressed. At the bidding of unlawful thoughts the body sinks rapidly into disease and decay; at the command of glad and beautiful thoughts it becomes clothed with the youthfulness and beauty.'

'Change of diet will not help a man who will not change his thoughts. When a man makes his thoughts pure, he no longer desires impure food.'

'There is no physician like cheerful thought for dissipating the ills of the body; there is no comforter to compare with the good will for dispersing the shadows of grief and sorrow. To live continually in thoughts of ill will, cynicism, suspicion, and envy, is to be confined in a self-made prison hole. But to think well of all, to be cheerful with all, to patiently learn to find the good in all - such unselfish thoughts are the very portals of heaven; and to dwell day to day in thoughts of peace toward every creature will bring abounding peace to their possessor.'

On thoughts and purpose..........................

'Aimlessness is a vice, and such drifting must not continue for him who would steer clear of catastrophe and destruction. They who have no central purpose in their life fall an easy prey to worries, fears, troubles, and self-pityings, all of which are indications of weakness, which lead, just as surely as deliberately planned sins (though through a different route), to failure, unhappiness, and loss, for weakness cannot persist in a power-evolving universe.'

'As the physically weak man can make himself strong by careful and patient training, so the man of weak thoughts can make them strong by exercising himself in right thinking. To put away aimlessness and weakness, and to begin to think with purpose, is to enter the ranks of those strong ones who only recognize failure as one of the pathways to attainment; who make all conditions serve them, and who think strongly, attempt fearlessly, and accomplish masterfully.'

On thoughts and achievement..............................

'All that a man achieves and all that he fails to achieve is the direct result of his own thoughts. In a justly ordered universe, where loss of equipose would mean total destruction, individual responsibility must be absolute. A man's weakness and strength, purity and impurity, are his own, and not another man's. They are brought about by himself, and not by another; and they can only be altered by himself, never by another.'

'There can be no progress, no achievement without sacrifice. A man's worldly success will be in the measure that he sacrifices his confused animal thoughts, and fixes his mind on the development of his plans, and the strengthening of his resolution and self reliance. And the higher he lifts his thoughts, the more manly, upright, and righteous he becomes, the greater will be his success, the more blessed and enduring will be his achievements.'

'A man may rise to high success in the world, and even to lofty altitudes in the spiritual realm, and again descend into weakness and wretchedness by allowing arrogant, selfish, and corrupt thoughts to take possession of him. Victories attained by high thought can only be maintained by watchfulness. Many give way when success is assured, and rapidly fall back into failure.'

On thoughts and visions and ideals........................

'The dreamers are the saviours of the world. Humanity cannot forget its dreamers. The world is beautiful because they have lived; without them, labouring humanity will perish. He who cherishes a beautiful vision, a lofty ideal in his heart, will one day realize it.'

'Cherish your visions. Cherish your ideals. Cherish the music that stirs in your heart, the beauty that forms in your mind, the loveliness that drapes your purest thoughts, for out of them will grow all delightful conditions, all heavenly environment; of these, if you but remain true to them, your world will at last be built. To desire is to obtain; to aspire is to achieve.'

'Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become. Your vision is the promise of what you shall one day be. Your ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil. The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream. The oak sleeps in the acorn; the bird waits in the egg; and in the highest vision of the soul a waking angel stirs. Dreams are the seedlings of realities.'

'The vision that you glorify in your mind, the Ideal that you entrone in your heart - this you will build your life by, this you will become.'

James Allen's As A Man thinketh.

The man in the mirror

Hi and thanks for stopping by. This second post is a continuation of the first one titled 'the law of the vital few'. I am very delighted at the the number of comments it received. In this post I’d like to share my views on the subject.

My take is that your results are largely dependent on your behaviour, in other words how you act within a given situation. Some people call this your attitude. How you behave on the other hand is a product of your thoughts determined by what you know about the situation. Put in another way, ‘what you know influences how you think which then affects how you behave and ultimately determines your results’.

Let us use an analogy by asking a classic question; trust me this is not a trick question. What comes first - the tree or the fruit? Without getting bogged down will all the twists, you would agree that the tree comes before the fruit. The bible says that a good tree brings forth good fruit and that one sure way to make the fruit of a tree good is to make the tree good. We can therefore say that fruits are nothing but derivatives of the tree. The same portion of the bible also says that a ‘good man’ out of the good treasures of his heart brings forth good fruits. That is a man’s fruits or in other words his results are derivatives of the man measured by what he has in his inside. One can conclude that your results are a mirror image of who you are. If you want to know who you are look at your results. If you what to change your results - don’t ! Embark on a journey of re-engineering your paradigms by challenging your beliefs about issues and seeking new knowledge.

Let me illustrate this better. Imagine waking up to a nauseating smell emanating from the wastes in your bin bag. Do you go applying deodorant to the house? No. There three things you should do

1. Get the rubbish out of the house

2. Open your windows to allow fresh air into the house

3. Apply you choice of deodorant

If you want to change your results, you need to get rid of those outdated information and paradigms that have outlive their usefulness. You need to open up to fresh information. We are in an information age and the world is moving at internet speed. Tomorrow’s landscape will be crafted by children who do not know a world without the internet. Are you preparing yourself to compete in that world?

You will notice that I have emphasized the word derivative; this is because it is a word I have just added to my vocabulary by reading from one of the pros of our generation – Robert Kiyosaki of Rich Dad Company. I will be devoting some of my future posts to share some of his views about the word derivative. For people that have been following the recession you know that one of the words that have been popularized and also blamed for the recession is the word ‘derivative’. For starters let me say that the word is not as devilish as it has been portrayed to be. At least you agree now that fruits are nothing but derivatives and I hope you now agree that your results are a derivative of what you know.

One concept that was expressed in some of the comments on my first post is the concept of randomness. I am inclined to be sympathetic with the concept to the extent that one can argue that the opportunities that come our way in the journey of life are products of random events however our ability to harness or even recognize those opportunities are anything but random. Furthermore my belief, which is also shared by most ‘great’ people I have listened to, is that if you want something bad enough and look for it hard enough it will eventually come to you.

Keep your comments coming and watch out for where this takes us next. Please use the comment field below.

Stephen Ayorinde

The law of the vital few

Hi and welcome to my blog. You have probably heard of the Pareto principle also known as the 80/20 rule or the law of the vital few. This principle states that 80% of effects come from 20% of causes. The reality of the law of the vital few is so pervasive in our existence that learning how to hareness its power can result in significant improvement in ones performance. For example 20% of your customers are responsible for 80% of your sales, 20% of your inventory are responsible for 80% of movements, 20% of your potentials are responsible for 80% of your results, only 20% of the things you do every day are responsible for 80% of your desired results, etc.

The part of this principle that really tickles my fancy and led to my starting this blog is the fact that the 20% vital few in any field are responsible for 80% of the results generated in that field. The distribution of world GDP shows that 80% of the wealth of the world are controlled by the 20% richest nations.

Quintile of Population____________Income

Richest 20%______________________82.7%

Second 20%______________________11.7%

Third 20%________________________2.3%

Fourth 20%_______________________1.4%

Poorest 20%______________________1.2%

Whether or not you believe in the exactness of the figures -80/20 or perhaps it is your view that money is not the only yardstick for measuring performance. Just take a look at any field and you will come back with the conclusion that only few people, companies, etc. are responsible for most of the results generated in their field. Think of the extraordinary results the Tiger Woods, the Orprahs, the Bill Gates, the Warren Buffets, the Nelson Mandelas, the googles, the amazons of this world command.

My question is: is outstanding performance the exclusive reserve of the few? Are some individuals born to occupy the reserved front seats while the rest of the world are destined to the back rows? Can just anyone decide to perform at top percentile levels? Why are majority of people stuck in the bottom 80% and struggling to get a bite of the 20% remnant? How may we go about improving our results to pro level?

Please let me know your views and I'll talk to you soon.

Stephen Ayorinde