The economy is causing cracks to people’s pockets, the news is cracking people’s emotions, the uncertainty is cracking people’s faith in God and in themselves and these cracks are causing leakages to the reservoir of the quality of life you ought to live, your health and wholeness, confidence and courage, your emotional state.

 Cracking is a common damage caused by stress in a material that can easily be exaggerated by other factors, including corrosion, fatigue, high pressure, and material of construction. Human being can also experience cracking and the human parts where this happens is at the joints; knuckles, knees, ankles, back, and neck.

I am not talking about structural cracks or cracks on material or the cracking that occurs in human bones rather l am referring to cracks that will leak out your content. Your relevance is tied to your content. The quality and quantity of your content can be compromised if you don’t guard it. Just the same way, you can develop and increase your content, you can also loss it through leakages.

Oftentimes we get caught up in what we thought we knew nothing about and we feel like we are suddenly being cornered into a fix. That is because we weren’t alert to notice the cracks before it became outlets, leaking out our contents. When it mutates into outlets, it becomes messy, worrisome, and disastrous.

Unless you rise up and take your position as the watchman for your life, you just might be losing precious things without knowing.  There are some who are opportune to see the cracks but decide not to pay attention to it on the premise that ‘it is just a crack‘.

 Sadly, some people don’t realize they are leaking out until they become empty, maybe because the cracks are not noticeable. The good news is a stranger may not see the tiny cracks on you but you can feel it, if you are sensitive to happenings around you.

 Some of the cracks could be;

1.    Emotional Cracks

2.    Financial Cracks

3.    Relational Cracks

4.    Spiritual Cracks

5.    Health Cracks

6.    Status Cracks etc.

  Ways to Detect Potential Leakage

·      When you experience increased anomalies around you

·      When you are not comfortable with whatever you are doing or about to do

·      When you begin to settle for less

·      When you no longer value the things that once gave you joy and satisfaction

·      When you become restless

·      When you are not recorded anticipated results

·      When you begin to find fault in everything and everyone around you

·      When you stop dreaming and start losing the essence of living

·      When you start competing with others and comparing etc.

Ways to Stop the Leakage

 The only way to stop the leakage is to seal up the cracks or close up the outlets but this will require the following:

1.    Pay attention to details in your life

2.    Periodic self-reflection will reveal gains & losses

3.    Inventory of your contents; Unusual skills, talents, abilities etc

4.    Set measures to guard what you have

5.  Have an unwavering faith in God.

 IT IS TIME TO RISE UP AND SEAL THE CRACKS ONE AFTER THE OTHER SO YOUR CONTENT IS PRESERVED AND REMAINS AUTHENTIC.

 See you at the TOP

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BE Hope- full

Hope is one subject that cannot be over emphasized in our world today. The subject of hope is gradually eroding the minds of the people because of the changing world and how impossible it is for many to access the basic life supplies. We are in the era where in quick successions challenges engulf many people and they get stuck or are slowed down in life because they have no clue on how to tackle the problems. Just about the time you think you are done with solving one problem, another shows up. That is why you must devise a means to stay afloat and always be in charge. This can be done when you plan with problems in mind. This is not you being faithless or pessimistic rather this is you stepping back to assess possible problems and obstacles and corresponding solutions as you progress in life. This is you doing your part to be resolute on not giving in and allowing God do His part. It is also you being fully aware that you need to put up a fight to get to your destination. As we journey through life, we don’t just stay hope-full but we are also saddled with the responsibility of giving hope to people around us and to the next generation.

You must learn to rest in hope, knowing that God can change things in your favour.

 Acts 2:26 ‘ I’m glad from the inside out, ecstatic; l’ve pitched my tent in the land of hope’.MSB

The above scripture reveals that David had a place of solace and that was the promise of God that never fails, this was his ‘Land of Hope’. 

Do you have a land of Hope? While you wait for the next supplies or for the next breakthrough, what do you do?

The Psalmist in Psalm 31:24 says ‘ Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the LORD’.

HOPE is the lifeline God is extending to you, while you wait for His visitation. 

For the purpose of expressing this message with clarity, l came up the the HOPE acronym below:

H – HIGH: Stay high in SPIRIT  no matter what you are going through

O – OPEN – Stay open to opportunities so you don’t prolong your wilderness experience

P – PEACE – Be Peace-full while waiting, so you don’t burn out or stress out.

E – ELIMINATE – Eliminate all set backs that will cancel out the reward of  Hope.

This could be a very challenging season, but your HOPE will cushion the effect on you and on the people around you, if you decide to be HOPE-FULL and extend HOPE wherever you find yourself. 

God will come true where your strength fails. You are divinely scheduled for a mind blowing turnaround, if you won’t quit too soon.

Spread the message of Hope. 

Shalom!

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Vision clarifies purpose, it gives direction to the leader and empowers the leader beyond his or her assets. It doesn’t allow you live by what you don’t have, else you will never rise up to what you don’t have. 

When you don’t have a defined path, it means vision is lacking because vision charts your path. Having a vision places a purpose on your goal setting activities. I am sure most of you already know this but today l will be discussing the impact of  vision on leadership.

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Influence doesn’t come to us instantaneously; it increases gradually. Nor does influence develop by accident. Instead, it grows as we purposefully take action to earn the trust and win the respect of others. In this post, I outline five actions essential for anyone aspiring to gain influence in their family, community, or workplace.

1) An influencer enlarges people.

If you want a quick-and-easy test of your leadership, simply look around at your people and ask: are they growing? As Alan Loy McGinnis said, “There is no more noble occupation in the world than to assist another human being—to help someone succeed.” Leaders make their people better, helping them to go higher than they could have by themselves.

2) An influencer navigates for people.

On whitewater raft trips, before travelers ever enter the water, the guide warns them of the dangers that lie ahead. During the voyage, before reaching particularly rough stretches, the guide pulls over to the riverbank and leads rafters uphill to show them upcoming rapids and whirlpools. That way, the rafters can see ahead of time the hazards they are going to encounter.

Like rafting guides, leaders have the responsibility to look ahead, spot problems, and inform others of difficulties looming in the distance. Additionally, leaders take responsibility for charting the course ahead. That is, they’re not only problem-spotters but also solution-givers. An influencer leads others through rough terrain that they could never navigate on their own.

As a leader, you can always make the trip faster by traveling solo. However, your goal as an influencer isn’t to be done first, but to have someone with you when you cross the finish line. The most rewarding success is shared success.

3) An influencer connects with people.

Singer/songwriter Joan Baez once commented, “The easiest kind of relationship for me is with 10,000 people. The hardest is with one.” Indeed, personal relationships demand large amounts of energy and commitment, and the skill of connecting with people often represents the missing link for those in leadership positions. For some reason, people in authority assume those below them are responsible for initiating contact. Their mindset is that, “I’m the leader; others should come to me.” Nothing could be more counterproductive to gaining influence.

Leaders have the responsibility to reach out to their people and to discover the personal agendas and needs of those they lead. Charisma does not come from having an outgoing personality. Rather, charismatic leaders are those who, whenever they enter a room, proactively search for ways to make others feel welcome and valued.

4) An influencer empowers people.

While enlarging people deals with their individual growth, empowering people involves their growth within the organization. Empowerment starts when we see great promise in an individual, and then speak encouraging, uplifting words in order to make them aware of their potential for greatness. Empowerment also means sharing your power, position, and influence with them so that they experience opportunities to grow that they could not arrange on their own. Finally, empowerment means showing others that you believe in them. Don’t just build them up privately; praise them publicly.  

5) An influencer reproduces other leaders

Plows and bulldozers are both useful machines for moving earth, but they operate in very different ways. A plow turns over the earth, stirs it up, and aerates it so that the soil becomes a good place for seeds to grow. A bulldozer scrapes up the earth and shoves it aside.

Is your leadership style more reminiscent of a plow or a bulldozer? That is, do you cultivate your people in order to maximize their potential for growth, or do you simply push them wherever you need them to go? Great leaders do not merely give orders to subordinates; they multiply their influence by developing the leadership capacity of their people. 

Action Item:

As a leader, use this 5 points of gaining influence and gauge your leadership style. Be sincere enough to rate yourself on a scale of 1-10 (1 – Poor, 10 – Excellent). Take action today. We all need to grow our influence as leaders.

Thank you for stopping by. Please share this message.

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Have you ever seen someone who started a project alone and took it to conclusion alone?

In Shared Thinking, you recruit other people whose thoughts will help you go far with your endeavours and you join forces with them. You don’t do solo thinking to go far. Most times, actually, in these fast-paced days, you need to be able to collaborate with other good thinkers to be able to have quick results.

3 key Differences between Shared Thinking and Solo-thinking

Shared thinking is good for innovation. Innovative thinking always utilizes shared thinking and not solo-thinking.

Note also that Shared thinking breeds maturity. When you are able to hook up with what another person has done, you grow in maturity. Other people’s experience will make it easier than you trying to get the experience first-hand.

Shared Thinking also returns greater value than solo-thinking. With shared thinking, your results are compounding. That is what you don’t get with solo-thinking. A set of good thinkers will always yield a larger result than one good thinker.

How To Participate in Shared Thinking

How do you encourage participation in shared thinking? First, value the ideas of others whether you like them or not. I have a whole lot in the video I recorded. 

Please watch and get the points here

Note that Shared thinking is you using the minds of others to think, for compounded results. Learn to use shared thinking more than solo-thinking. And also, feel free to share this article and video so more people can learn along with us.

The post Shared Thinking vs Solo Thinking (+Video) appeared first on Margaret Thomas.

In one of my videos. I mentioned that every worker has his or her tools. A worker without a tool can’t accomplish his mission and a worker without the right tools will exert energy, burn out and turn out frustrated without reaching the targeted goal. But the worker with the right tool and the knowledge of the usage of the right tool will be efficient, effective and will produce massive results.

We are created with the capacity to analyse, process information and solve problems and your brain is the tool for your productivity.  

Your brain is designed to keep you safe at all times. It can resist your true intent if you don’t practice how to keep it on track, foster holistic growth through the power of mindfulness.  

Mindfulness is maintaining a moment by moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings and bodily sensations and your surrounding environment.  

The ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we are doing per time and not overly reactive or overwhelmed with what is going on around us is the key to hacking your brain and keeping it in sync with your entire being. 

There are so many benefits of mindfulness. 

The goal of mindfulness is to wake up the inner workings of the  physical, mental and emotional processes. 

Ways To Hype Brain Productivity For Optimum Success

1. Solve the Problem of Mental Paralysis 

This is where you allow the brain to suffer mental paralysis induced by fear and doubts. The fear and doubts could be the products of past failures or the current circumstances around you. You must understand that the brain has the tendency to overvalue it’s first association when encountering a new thought or decision. This happens when you are trying to introduce a new idea to it, and this is as a result of the brain not being able to move away from your past.

Dwelling on the past makes it almost impossible to move forward. 

Employ the following ways to overcome this;

– Diversion Method

 Here you give the brain something else to think on, like new set of specific  goals. Well defined, and clearly written out in realistic terms. Be sure to break it down to doable plans because you don’t want the brain to overvalue your idea and shrink back into safe mode of trying to keep you safe from risk or harm just because the goal looks impossible. This method will ultimately move the brain away from dwelling on the past experiences you have encountered that probably didn’t go well. 

– Forward thinking 

Fear incapacitates the brain when you keep ruminating on your ugly past. So, be watchful of what your brain feeds off on and be intentional to feed your brain with the right information. Forward thinking is when you see opportunities where others see challenges. Don’t forget, we are designed to analyse, process information and solve problems but you will never see this happen until you engage your brain correctly. Remember, you must practice the concept of mindfulness; being fully present, aware of where you are and what you are doing per time. 

2.  Block Negativity 

Build positive energy around you and block out negativity.  Learn to hang out with positive people you admire and in no time, you will be emulating their principles/lifestyle.  Negative energy is a weight on your brain while positive energy spurs it up. It stimulates the brain and helps its efficiency.

If you associate with negative people you are likely to absorb thinking that is counterproductive to your goals.  

Beware of negative people because they carry negative energy that can cripple the productivity level of your brain.

3. Focus on A Task Per Time

I have tried multitasking and it eventually slowed down the pace of my accomplishing the goals l had. The key to swift accomplishment and high productivity is prioritizing and focusing on a top task and completing each one in the order of it’s priority. This doesn’t mean you don’t switch between tasks to get things done but when it comes to major projects or goals, it is advisable to focus so you don’t seemingly slowdown the pace at which the brain functions.

Train your brain to understand and follow your priorities. 

 

It is advisable to limit yourself to 3-5 top tasks per time. Others can be handled after the ones with the top priorities are completed.

4. Learn to manage your stress level

You don’t have to run away from stress, you just have to stay on top of it.  You have to know how to manage it so you don’t reduce your brain functionality. Find relaxing activities that  will calm your mind and engage in them. 

5. Get enough sleep

You don’t want to compromise your healthy habits.  Learn to give yourself enough sleep for optimum performance of the brain and your health in general.  You can sleep early so you wake up early hours of the following day to maximise your morning hours before the day unfolds fully with lots of activities contending for your attention.

When you are not oblivious of the pitfalls/limiting tendencies that your brain could manifest if not trained, and you consciously practice the power of mindfulness,  you will be able to tap into the power of cognitive efficacy which is effective thinking with clarity and productivity, and you will ultimately be operating at the top of your potential which is God’s desire for every human. 

Gen 1:26; “And God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness…”

You are created to be like God, think and act like Him. This is your MANDATE. 

Thank you for stopping by and please drop your comments,  suggestions and questions. 

I am Meg and I inspire using God’s principles. 

Happy Weekend!!!

– 

The post How To Hack Your Brain | Meg Thomas appeared first on Margaret Thomas.

According to John C. Maxwell,

“Reflective Thinking is the consistent act of evaluating past experiences to repeat successes and avoid failure.” 

So, please note this: If your organisation/business keeps recording repeated cycles of failure, you are not engaging reflective thinking.

Do you agree or disagree? You may want to check out my explanation in the video below. In it, you will meet the various questions you need to ask in reflective thinking to cut that cycle of failure.

Few more points in Reflective Thinking

Important Steps in reflective thinking:

1. Ask questions

2. Investigate

3. Create a forward plan

Please watch the video above for more details in reflective thinking…

The post THE PROCESS OF REFLECTIVE THINKING | VIDEO | Meg Thomas appeared first on Margaret Thomas.

Take for example, you could be tempted to reason that your life will reflect the tough economy in your part of the country. It could be true that the obstacles and harsh conditions are present and staring you in the face; but ‘Possibility Thinking’ is your tool to break through.

Remember Myles Munroe’s words; “the future you are looking for is trapped on your inside”. So, despite the situation around you, there is a tool within you for breaking out. One of the tools God has given to us is your mind; you need to know how to engage it during crisis. This is what ‘Possibility thinking’ is about.

Now, according to John Maxwell, “Possibility Thinking” is a way to see possibilities everywhere instead of limitations.

Read this: To be a possibility thinker, you must learn to be comfortable with failure.

Now, in the video below, I exhaustively explored “possibility thinking”. You will learn what you stand to lose if you don’t engage possibility thinking. You will learn how to engage it the right way. You will also learn more about being comfortable with failure and how it will help you in possibility thinking.

You will also learn about dreaming and making sure it comes to pass.

Please watch the video below:

Knowledge is power, friends. And it is needed for us to solve the problems surrounding us. Note also, that every problem is a mental problem. Changing your world starts with changing the way you think. It starts with you cultivating the right mentality, don’t forget this.

The post How Crucial is Possibility Thinking? (Watch Video) appeared first on Margaret Thomas.

Why do you have to think Strategically?

Simply, so you can set goals regarding your life, business, job, career and whatever. If you will like to make a difference from where you are, you must learn to cultivate a strategic mindset.

These are skills you will need for strategic thinking:

1. analytical thinking – this skill helps you analyse all factors on your table.

2. communications skills

3. Problem-solving skills – Strategic thinking is mainly about solving problems. Do you know that there is a problem? Have you identified it?

4. Planning and Management skills – This is the implementation level of strategy. This is where the problem is resolved.

You need to ask the right questions in strategic thinking. If you are in business, this is non-negotiable. 

Now, in this post, I have not included everything there is about Strategic Thinking. But I have made a YouTube video for better understanding of the topic. 

Please click the video below to watch

The post Engage Strategic Thinking to Control Your Future | Meg Inspires appeared first on Margaret Thomas.