Dear Destiny Friends,

Human beings are bound to face challenges whether they like it or not. The challenges of life are inevitable no matter how one tries to avoid them. According to Bill Cosby, “the only way to avoid criticisms is to say nothing, do nothing and be nothing”. This is impossible because they will surely talk about you whether you talk or not. This is simply how the challenges of life work. You can’t shy away from problems. In fact, the only time we stop facing challenges is when we are dead.

Just to let you know how one can’t shy away from problems in life; imagine one driving a car, and he is extremely careful, no matter how careful he might be, he can’t control the steering of another car behind or in front of him. The best he can do is to manage his car to minimize potential danger.

In the same way, problems and challenges will surely locate anyone no matter how careful they are on issues of life.

Challenges come in different forms; some of them are financial challenges, academic challenges, emotional challenges, health challenges, marital challenges, professional challenges, spiritual challenges and personal challenges. The challenges of life are unlimited, and managing these challenges is what makes us rational and informed beings. The way these challenges are managed can either mar or make the individual.

Overcoming these challenges are not as easy as one may think. This is where trusted friends, advisors, and mentors, who can assist in navigating through these challenges come to play. These people must be people who have our interest at heart, but more importantly, they should be people who are knowledgeable and experienced in such cases or subject matter. This is because a wise man learns from his mistakes, but a wiser man learns from other people’s mistakes.

In relating with trusted people, it’s advisable for one to be vulnerable. This can be challenging, but then it’s the risk one must take to get assistance. Vulnerability helps one to connect with people especially when one is relating with a matured mind with emotional intelligence.

Regardless of how one’s challenges are, challenges are not bad per se, there are certain good things that come with challenges. As a matter of fact, challenges help to sharpen one very well, it gives one a new perspective to life, help learn new lessons, creates opportunity, strengthens and makes one stronger.

As human beings, we experience adversaries of some kind which can lead to downfall. These falls can be devastating, and can make one feel traumatized. However, we should view these falls with gratitude rather than dismay. This is because of the inherent lessons contained in them. Isn’t it true that our disappointment sometimes can lead to our appointments, just like our trials can lead to our triumphs and our pains can metamorphose to our gains? If only we can maximize the inherent messages and lessons they contain.

To show you how you can benefit from your challenges and pains, sometimes, things will go bad for things to happen just like gold and oil will have to be refined and processed to be resourceful. In the same vein, milk goes bad to become cheese, wheat and corn go bad to become whiskey, gracie juice ferments to become wine, garbage goes rotten and becomes compost.

So, in the grand scheme of things, sometimes in life, things did not go wrong so you could get anxious, depressed, or suicidal. They went bad because it is part of the process of progress. Sometimes, the best comes after the worst. You will get better if you don’t get bitter. In some cases, things can go bad due to the mistakes and choices one made, and as you may know, actions have corresponding consequences.

In conclusion, I don’t know what may have gone wrong in your life; I don’t know the mistakes you may have made, neither do I know the challenges you may have experienced, but the good news I have for you is to stay strong, appreciate the challenges and the associated lessons it brought your way, while believing in God to help you to overcome. This is because sometimes in life, the creator of heaven and earth brings these challenges to us for reasons best known to Him. So when you can’t change it, kindly appreciate it with love because at the end of the day you will smile cheerfully.

Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He works with the New York City Department of Correction as the Legal Coordinator.  He’s the founder of Gloemi. He’s a Transformative Human Capacity and Mindset coach. He is also a public speaker, youth advocate, creative writer and author of Design Your Destiny Design Your  and Unleash Your Destiny .  He can be reached via info@gloemi.com

Dear Destiny Friends,

Every living being must eat to stay alive – fact; anyone who wishes to pass an examination must study – fact; he that must stay healthy, must pay attention to his health – fact, and whoever is desirous to earn money must work. The list is endless. The idea here is that life is governed by principles – a case study of whatever one sows, one must reap. As a matter of fact, when one abides by the principles governing anything, the principles are bound to work for them.

These principles are like faith. It is whatever you believe that will work for you. Let me elaborate a little; if someone goes to the hospital, and the doctor gives him a pill, if the person gets better, it is not necessarily the pill that heals the person, though it plays a role, what healed the person is the person’s faith. This is because if you don’t have faith in the pill, it won’t work. Healing can be spiritual sometimes. One must be healed in the mind first before the physical healing takes place. It’s just like a man of God praying for a sick person, the person will have to believe in the prayers before it can work for him.

The importance of this analysis is that before any success can be achieved, one must do the work. It’s unfortunate however, that some of us need opportunities, benefits, resources, money, and results, but are not ready to do the corresponding work. In this journey called life, one must work. It’s only when you work, you will be celebrated. Work comes in different ways; all that is important is for one to understand their assignment, and work diligently to pursue it to a logical conclusion.

It’s instructive to note that there’s nothing like a big or small work. Every work is necessary when there’s teamwork. Just like the father needs the son for errands, the son also needs the father for provision and protection. So, in any capacity you find yourself, just know that you are valuable.

To understand how value works with respect to dignity of labour, imagine the human system, if the anus decides to shut down, the whole body will be uncomfortable. Every part of the human body is indispensable. They must all work together for the human body to function at its optimal capacity. This is the attitude we should have when we are working.

The importance of work cannot be overemphasized. Your work makes it easier for people to identify with you especially in this 21st century when technology is the new normal. It’s easy for one to search the internet just to find out about somebody’s work. Just imagine someone pitching for funding to a fortune 500 company or making a proposal for funding to do some work on youth advocacy, but there’s nothing on the internet to testify to that effect. If you want to prove your passion for youth advocacy, there must be work to that effect.

On a personal note, I do tell my friends, I’m a lawyer by training, public speaker by interest, author by inspiration, and youth advocate by passion. The interesting part is that if you look me up, you will find relevant information about all the above-mentioned interests of mine, but the youth advocacy will be outstanding. So, you can see that my work speaks volume.

If anyone wants to assist you, the blessings will come from the work you do. This is because manna does not fall from heaven, men are the vessels. Do you know that when we pray to God for blessings, opportunities, favors or money, God answers with a plan. Yes, the plan is the associated work that one must do.  Let me share a practical example, if you want a chair, God will not do a miracle to provide you a chair, but God will provide the materials in the form of wood for you to make the chair.

It’s sad to see lazy people, who just believe in miracles without corresponding work. Some just believe God will send manna from above. Don’t get me wrong, these opportunities do come by occasionally, and when they do come, one will know it’s a miracle.

The journey of life isn’t easy, one must continually work smart and believe our work will align with our desires.

Sometimes, when we work, we don’t know when the results will surface. In some cases, we don’t even see the results. In such cases, one shouldn’t be deterred, provided you are doing the needful, the work will one day speak for itself. I remembered when I was working on my first book, it was like hell because of the intense research that went into the manuscript, but today, when I look back, I thank God for the grace.

When one work, one should also have the faith that the work will produce results. Sometimes, the answer to our prayers is tied to the work we do. One might be searching for answers in different areas, but the answer might be beside us. Sometimes, we look for destiny helpers, benefactors, opportunities, etc., what we fail to understand is that all we seek might be connected to the work we do. So, imagine when one decides to do nothing, how will something happen?

Furthermore, while it is good to pray, it is also good to work because they go together. While prayer releases God’s favour, work unleashes the force of man. We must be willing to work for what we pray for.

In conclusion, when it comes to work, have the mindset that at the end of the day, we will be remembered for the work we did. So, ask yourself, which legacy would you want to be remembered for? When you can answer these questions, you will be intentional with the kind of work you want your children to remember you for while you were on earth.

Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He works with the New York City Department of Correction as the Legal Coordinator.  He’s the founder of Gloemi. He’s a Transformative Human Capacity and Mindset coach. He is also a public speaker, youth advocate, creative writer and author of Design Your Destiny Design Your  and Unleash Your Destiny .  He can be reached via info@gloemi.com

Dear Destiny Friends,

There is no gainsaying the fact that everyone desirous of making impact in life must live a life of purpose. This is where knowledge and information come to play. It is these knowledge and information that will set an individual apart from his contemporaries.

I strongly believe, if one is not informed, they are ill-informed, and when they are ill-informed, they can’t perform well in any given endeavour. This is because information leads to reformation and transformation. We can therefore, confidently say that information leads to formation because everyone is a product of what they know.

Knowledge acquisition is one of the best things that can happen to anyone. People with knowledge are revered, and highly respected. Having knowledge is like having money. People from all walks of life will seek you.

There are different kinds of knowledge, and they include Revealed Knowledge, which comes from those who wrote the Bible and Intuitive Knowledge, which comes from the mind. It is the ability to gain knowledge without conscious reason or explanation.

Others are Empirical Knowledge, which is  information gained through observation, experimentation, and direct experience, rather than through theoretical reason or intuition; Authoritative Knowledge, which is the knowledge a man has because of his expertise in a particular field; and finally but not the least, Rational Knowledge, which is a form of knowledge that uses reasoning and philosophy to understand the world.

From this illustration, a decisive mind can see that knowledge is priceless. Knowledge is like education. It can provide security and access. Even the Book of life says in Proverbs 4:13, “your education is your life, guard it very well”; and in Hosea 4:6 that “my people perish for lack of knowledge”.

From my personal experience in life, apart from death, one of the greatest levelers of all time is education. This is because the child of a certified pauper can become a man of means tomorrow if properly educated. That explains why children from humble backgrounds ought to take their education very seriously, especially if they don’t have affluence.

On a personal note, I come from a very humble background, my late parents didn’t have the opportunity of acquiring a decent education, but they knew the value of education and endeavored to give me and my siblings a decent education. In retrospect, when I look back and see some of my contemporaries whose parents couldn’t give them a decent education, I bless my late parents because education has exposed me to lots of opportunities in the United States, and the global world in addition to granting me an audience with the high and mighty in society.

Sometimes, when I look at my modest achievement, I’m deeply humbled because I know it is the grace of God. Who am I to author two amazing trailblazers’ books, get featured and profiled by the New York Times, engage in high level conversation with leaders of thought and captains of industries. Apart from the grace of God, intentional seeking of knowledge, and wise counsel from mentors and strategically positioning myself have been some of the cornerstone to my success.

Imagine if my late parents didn’t give me a decent education and opportunity of travelling to the United States, most of these opportunities and exposure wouldn’t have been readily available.

When one is decently enlightened, educated and informed about life, their level of reasoning and understanding differ from an ordinary man. If one desires to go far in life, one must seek knowledge.

It is your knowledge that sets you apart from others.

According to Dr. Yomi Garnett, an accomplished Ghostwriter, “If you are a man of great knowledge, people will have great respect for you. If you are a man of great wisdom, people will have great reverence for you. And if you are a man of both, great knowledge and great wisdom, you will be the most eminent of men. But in real terms, people don’t care how much you know, or how much wisdom you have, unless they know how much you care.”

The moral of this quote is that despite the knowledge and information at one’s disposal, if one lacks empathy, their knowledge, experience and whatever they have mean nothing.

The importance of knowledge cannot be overemphasized. In our contemporary society, a fast way of attracting opportunities is by showcasing the knowledge at one’s disposal. It is so sad that many people don’t take time to read, research and learn new trends applicable in their industry, and in the world generally and as such, they find it difficult to fit in and grow.

It is instructive to note that when you seek knowledge, opportunities will seek for you. A major reason people are poor is simply because they are not solving problems and to solve problems, one ought to have understanding. Do you know that if you don’t have money, the reason is often because you are not solving a problem, or you are not solving enough problems, or you are not solving the right problem or you are not solving problems for the right people. Generally, we make money because we have something unique to offer to the world. Therefore, to solve problems, one must have knowledge and information.

We currently live in an age of technological, where skills, talent and creativity are in high demand. Any progressive being that desires to go far must be intentional in seeking knowledge. Successful acquisition of knowledge, information and understanding can lead to discernment and wisdom.

In conclusion, as you journey towards life, if you want to make an impact, seek opportunities, and earn more money, do yourself a favour by endeavoring to seek knowledge, wisdom, and information. You can’t get these by sitting on your sofa or staying in your comfort zone.

Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He works with the New York City Department of Correction as the Legal Coordinator.  He’s the founder of Gloemi. He’s a Transformative Human Capacity and Mindset coach. He is also a public speaker, youth advocate, creative writer and author of Design Your Destiny Design Your  and Unleash Your Destiny. He can be reached via info@gloemi.com