Adding Value

Adding Value: Need for Self Evaluation by Henry Ukazu

Published

8 months ago

December 2, 2023

Eric

Greetings Destiny Friends,

“The unexamined life is not worth living” – Socrates

One of the most valuable character traits one must have if they truly want to succeed in life, is honesty. If you don’t have this trait, please endeavor to have people who are honest working with you or in your family. If you have these people, please hold them very close because they are priceless.

In the journey of life, you can lie to others, but you can never lie to yourself. As a matter of fact, one of the highest disservices anyone can do to himself is lying to himself. It’s sad to note however, that some people live in deception by existing as opposed to living.

As a progressive being, one of the things you can do is to evaluate your life on a continuous basis. According to Socrates, “an unexamined life is not living”. Evaluating one’s life is very important, and this evaluation is not limited to one’s personal life; you can evaluate your career growth, spiritual growth, financial growth, personal and professional growth. It is generally stated that you cannot do the same thing repeatedly and remain the same. Whoever does that is insane. Hence the need to continually evaluate yourself whenever you embark on any task to know if it’s progressing well.

Every serious-minded entrepreneur, student, parent, leader etc. must take time to evaluate how the year fared for them. Evaluation helps to determine how well one is faring. Evaluation does not only apply when we fail, we can also celebrate our failures because it shows we are doing something. It’s sad to note that sometimes, we don’t take time to celebrate our wins no matter how small it is.

Evaluation comes into play when there are small wins. Do you think it’s easy to register a business? Do you think it’s easy to get accepted into a school, company? Do you think it’s easy to attend events and network with resourceful people? Do you think it’s easy to be alive? Do you think it’s easy to make a business post on social media? Do you think it’s easy to send a meaningful text message, email etc. to a resourceful person? All these involve process, procedures, and strategies because anything of value is done with process. So, celebrate your small win when you do the needful. Remember, nobody will celebrate you if you don’t celebrate yourself. You wear the shoe, and as such know how far you have come in life.

On a personal note, when I take stock of my life, I can confidently say, I have done reasonably well for myself. I have been able to hone some new skills in addition to having some new hits in my personal and professional career. I may not be a billionaire, but I have been able to author two books in addition to being recognized globally as a mentor, life coach, youth advocate, creative writer, and public speaker. These qualities didn’t come with me, I had to acquire and hone them by constantly evaluating myself and adding value to my life.

Furthermore, I do take time to evaluate the people in my life, my personal life, my career path, and spiritual life. In some cases, I ask trusted friends and family members to critically evaluate my life on where I am doing well and where I need to work on.

Above all, none gives me joy more than seeing my three-year-old son saying, daddy each time he sees me on television and social media for a good cause. The feeling is truly priceless. Imagine, being on the internet for a negative cause. The moral here is that I see how my video contents have truly grown due to constant evaluation.

Evaluating your life is a process that can help you check whether you are living your best life, or if it needs improvement. A critical way of evaluating your life is by asking yourself, am I leaning on the right side of the ladder? This question is very important because you might think you are leaning on the right side of the ladder only to get to the finish line and discover you were merely leaning on the wrong side of the ladder and that might lead to a disaster if not properly managed.

Here are some thoughts you need to ponder on. You must ask yourself, what do I want? Am I happy with the kind of life I’m living? What is the kind of dream job or life I would love to live.

1. Honesty

This is the most important trait one must apply if one is truly serious in the self- evaluation process. Self and professional evaluation starts with authenticity whether at the workplace, church, or political setting.

2. Alignment

The first piece of the reevaluation process is aligning your future goals with your current self. Alignment works with values, visions, and passion. When your profession, vocation and ministry are in alignment, one can be said to be living on and fulfilling purpose.

3. Humility

Humility is very critical when it comes to self evaluation and your goals, One must approach the entire process with humility. Life happens to everyone, and as such being amenable and dynamic to change is a great way to live through life. It takes humility to realize you may never achieve everything one desires.

As the year is winding down, take time to evaluate your business, family, career, spiritual life, and personal and professional life to know if you have fared well in those areas. Planning for the new year or season without first examining the mistakes of the previous year, will not make much impact if you haven’t learnt from your past mistakes. For one to achieve more in life, one must do or become more. Success in life is not a result of what you are doing, but what you are becoming.

In conclusion, as the year is about to end, you must endeavor to improve each area of your life by practicing self-examination, look inwardly and identify areas of your life that need to be modified and what needs to be eliminated.

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

Adding Value

Adding Value: Elevating Your Game by Henry Ukazu

Published

25 mins ago

July 27, 2024

Eric

Dear Destiny Friends,

The only thing you owe yourself in this life is setting standards and striving to raise the bar of the standards you have set” – Abdulakeem Sodeeq Sulyman

Permit me to write to you in another dimension this week. You may be wondering what I mean by another dimension. Another dimension I am referring to is because in this article, I will be shifting from the topic revolving around success, which I have concentrated on for the past few weeks. Thus, I crave your indulgence in traveling through this path with me on making your momentary success counts, and leveraging it to change your status in life.

There is a point I am fond of making – everyone is a candidate of greatness. But why is it that just a few of us attained greatness? The secret to this question is the title of today’s article – Elevating Your Game. This is because in any situation in life, be it in studentship, relationship or leadership; it is a natural principle that we would be required to do beyond what took us to get to the level we currently are. The ability to discern this principle is the major game-changer in the lives of great people.

Someone once said, “Life consists of many gears, we may later find out that most of us have many gears unused.” What does the sayer of this wise words mean? The sayer is trying to reveal to us that we are blessed with enormous potential; latent talents, unidentified intelligence and underutilized capacities! We cannot get to the next phase of life if we have not deciphered the messages our current situation is passing to us, and if we have not carved meanings out of life.

As a progressive mind, you must have known that every new thing you attempt to do, and eventually did is an investment to yourself, a value-addition exercise, undertaken to bridge the gap between who you are and who you have the potential to be. It is quite unfortunate that some people give up too early on life simply because what they wanted has not manifested. What people who do that forget is that life is a journey; the need to make the journey adventurous and worthwhile gives birth to redefining how you want the journey to unfold anytime you reach a milestone.

Life is filled with twists and turns, no doubt, and one of the things I have learned from the direct narratives of great people, either through my interactions with them or reading their biographies, is the principle of striving to make the days ahead of us better than our previous days. What do I mean by this? Great people always elevate their games. They designed some parameters for themselves to measure how they are progressing in life and determining if they are reaching their goals.

Truth be told, my dear reader: You cannot claim to be fully alive if you cannot look yourself in the eye and clarify where you are on the ladder of greatness! You should be able to tell yourself if you are bad, poor, fair, good, better, best, excellent or perfect – though, perfection cannot be claimed by anyone; it can only be attributed to those who have harnessed their ingenuities to change the world!

It is not possible for me to become the prolific writer that I am today if I didn’t elevate my game. I was told that I wasn’t fit to survive – let alone thrive – in the intellectually challenging system of the United States, but I rose beyond that limit. One of my dear mentors, who groomed me through the world of writing, Dr Yomi Garnett, was underappreciated in the country of his birth; but because he switched the gears, elevated his games, he is one of the world’s most celebrated ghost writers alive!

To round it off, dear reader: Today, I am imploring you to ask yourself what you need to do differently; ask yourself what you need to do beyond what you are doing currently. Life’s best outcomes is a culmination of questions about what we have the capability to do but not yet done. That’s why somebody reasoned that “An unexamined life is not worth living.” And I will add to it that cultivating the habit of questioning yourself about your life, your standards and values, will set you apart and challenge you to elevate your game.

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@glo emi.com

Adding Value

Adding Value: No Pain, No Gain by Henry Ukazu

Published

7 days ago

July 20, 2024

Eric

Dear Destiny Friends,

Suffer the pain of discipline, or suffer the pain of regret.

Nothing gladdens the heart more than success. With success, making an impact in the society and being a blessing to others become much easier. As a matter of fact, one gets a listening ear because every other person believes they have experience to share which can impact their lives.

The interesting thing about attaining success is that, in most cases, the work is done in secret. It’s just like a website designer who does most of the work at the back end via coding or use of templates, and when the work is completed, the website will go live. The impact of this analysis is that the website designer will experience pain fixing the website for people to have ease navigating it.

In the grand scheme of things, most people celebrate the glory, but they don’t take time to appreciate the associated pain that birthed the success. It’s instructive to note that every success has a painful story, and every painful positive undertaking, with value normally has a successful ending. Therefore, it’s important for one to accept the pain and get ready for success because there can never be success without a corresponding pain.

The sad reality of life however, is that many of us are not ready to undergo the pain of success.

Every successful person travels a painful journey. Suffering, in more than a literary sense, is an integral and essential part of any real pursuit of success. Nothing about success comes easy, but every perseverance attached story has the potential to have a successful ending. You may as well accept suffering as a traveling companion, rather than resist it, and create more struggle.

Did you know that a single book, song, skill, or movie can make a difference in life if properly done? If you understand this principle, you will know that success in life comes with associated pain.

Did you know that success has a psychological pattern? It is working hard in silence and allowing the positive outcome to make the noise. To understand this philosophy, imagine an author who published a trailblazer book; the process of writing the book might be tedious; he might have experienced numerous sleepless nights, reading and researching, but when the work is finally released and appreciated, most people won’t understand the amount of work that was put in at the back end.

To understand how the pain of success works, imagine how tired you feel when you reading, but notice that you never get bore when on social media gallivanting and having fun. Again, imagine a pregnant lady in labour, her pain will be over when she delivers.

Note that in the journey of success, one must surely experience pain, and there will be the urge to give up; one might even lose relationships, doubt themselves, their decision, their knowledge, and experience untold fears of failure.

There will be situations that foretell discouragement and encouragement juxtaposed, but never get deterred especially, if you feel and heard right on the project and vision.

In summary, just like the rewards of success can be great, so will the corresponding opportunity cost be, but in the end, it will be worth the effort. So, accept the pain, understand that it is the path to success, and keep moving forward with unwavering determination.

As you navigate the inevitable challenges and hardships, remember that your success story is being written one page at a time, and it will be more glorious because of the pain you’ve overcome.

Adding Value

Adding Value: Go the Extra Mile by Henry Ukazu

Published

2 weeks ago

July 13, 2024

Eric

Dear Destiny Friends,

“One of the most important principles of success is developing the habit of going the extra mile” – Napoleon Hill

“Going the extra mile is the habit of champions…it’s the key behavior that separates the professionals from the amateurs, and the champs form the chumps” – Gary Ryan Blair

The journey to greatness is not a joke. It’s not for the faint hearted because it takes a lot to be great. Whoever wishes to achieve success must dare to succeed. It’s either one dies trying to succeed or they don’t try at all, and still die. So, why not take the risk to succeed by going the extra mile.

Did you know that giving success a try is like wooing a lady. The worst one will get is a no, which is an indication to restrategise and start again, and apply the principle of going the extra mile. Going the extra mile is a strategic step in business, and a risk worth taking for the unfolding of maximum success.

If you ask a thousand and one persons, their desires in life, you will be surprised at the responses you will get. But if you ask them what they are willing to do to get to their desired destination, you will also be shocked to know that some of them, if not the majority of them, are not willing to go the extra mile. It’s sad to note that most people want to go to heaven, but they are not willing to die. How ironic can that be?

It’s sad to see promising people settling for less than they deserve. It’s pertinent to note that the top is scanty while the bottom is crowded. If you want to associate with the top 1%, you must distinguish yourself by going the extra mile. Per Gary Ryan Blair, “Average is over. Mediocrity is a death sentence. You must embrace the fact that for you to remain competitive, relevant and of value…you have no choice but to go the extra mile and always exceed expectations.”

Most of the successful people we celebrate today dared to succeed by going the extra mile. They didn’t succeed because they were lucky, though luck contributed to some extent, but the greater part of their success can be attributed to the extra work they did because the more they explored opportunities, the luckier they got.

If you truly want to succeed in life, you must be intentional in going the extra mile. Nothing happens in life if there’s no action. Every action comes with a corresponding reaction. When you go the extra mile, most people will see and reward you generously in due time.

On a personal note, I have taken the extra steps in the pursuit of success. Writing a weekly article is not a joke. Being an author of two books and a co-author is quite tasking, being interviewed by New York Times, being on television several times, partnering with the United Nations Development Programme amongst others did not come easy. All these acts didn’t happen overnight; they happened because I went the extra mile, and my extra work attracted the opportunities.

So, if you are interested in succeeding, you must be intentional in going the extra mile.

It’s instructive to note that your success in life will come because of the corresponding effort you are willing to put into your work. This is called going the extra mile. It should be noted that, on this extra mile journey, there are usually no traffic jams. It is a lonely stretch, and takes so much effort.

According to Gary Ryan Blair “The distance between those who achieve their goals consistently and those who spend their lives and careers merely following has everything to do with one’s ability to go the extra mile.” So, for those, who work in a corporate environment, the fastest way to get the attention of your boss is to go the extra mile. When you go the extra mile, management will notice you, your boss will notice you.

Gary Blair further stated that “It’s simply not enough to just show up and do your work. Superior performance is not, never has been, nor will it ever be, the by-product of ordinary efforts.” He further stated that “The masses are always foolishly on the lookout for a new gimmick, a shiny new performance hack, a shortcut…but the truth is, the quickest way to advance your career, earn trust, persuade people to buy from you and to be first in line for new opportunity is by developing the habit of going the extra mile.” — Gary Ryan Blair

Going the extra mile does not entail working extremely hard, but what it really means is doing just a little bit more strategically. So, if you are advised to work eight hours a day and you work ten hours, that’s extra mile; if you are supposed to resume work 9am and you resume 8am that’s extra mile; if you are supposed to leave 5pm and you leave 6 or 7pm, that’s extra time you can use to do some work. In all of these, your boss and management will notice you are investing in the company and in yourself and you might be surprised when you are rewarded with financial and managerial position.

Going the extra mile also means showing people you care. For instance, sometimes, people care less about your money, they need your presence and attention. In customer service, the extra mile means asking a customer if there’s any other thing you can help the person with. You can give your clients a little more to show appreciation. This helps to set you apart from them. According to Nelson Boswell, “Here is the simple but powerful rule… always give people more than they expect to get.” – Nelson Boswell

Going the extra mile in life and in your career, endeavor is not about fantasy. It takes love to go the extra mile for what you like. It’s on a few occasions some progressive minds engage in careers they don’t really like just to pay the bills. In some situations, when they get what they want, they tend to follow their passion. Gary Blair was right when he stated “Going the extra mile is about love; it’s a passionate obsession with excellence. It is the result of good intention, uncompromising standards, sincere effort, intelligent design, attention to detail and skillful execution.” — Gary Ryan Blair.

It is easy for one to say he’s passionate about a cause, but one might not be involved in any activity. It may surprise you to note that people see those that participate. The easiest way to show people you are interested or passionate about a cause is by showing your work.

Let me share a practical experience with you. In 2019, I was invited by Harvard University for an information session to study master’s in public administration program, from my understanding during the interview session, my trajectory path played a critical role in considering me for the admission because I have worked as a Case Manager, written articles, published a book, and had videos which portray my interest in leadership and human capacity development. Why is this important, despite studying taxation in New York Law School, I wasn’t passionate about the tax major.

Assuming I settled for a Taxation job, it will be hard for me to align my profession, vocation, and ministry. As a matter of fact, I turned down a good paying job by the New York City Department of Finance to work as a Tax Associate for a low paying Case Manager job which offered almost three times less pay compared to the New York City Department of Finance.

In retrospect, do I regret my decision, no, as a matter fact the Case Manager job has continued to serve as a litmus test to my passion for humanity. So, I’m going to ask you a question by Gary Blair, “What is the one thing you can do to persuade people that you are the one for the job, the one thing you can do to earn someone’s vote, the one thing you can do to persuade people to open the doors of opportunity? The answer is as simple as it is profound. Develop a reputation for going the extra mile.” The moral here is that whenever you go the extra mile, there’s this feeling one normally gets knowing fully, they have done their part for posterity to judge.

I will conclude with a quote from Gary Ryan Blair to assist you in going the extra mile. “To win big in life, the solution is simple. Go overboard…do everything you can to overwhelm, over-deliver and overcompensate, and you will overcome any obstacle that stands between you and the goal you desire.