passion Archives - TalkAfrique

November 20, 2012November 20, 2012

How to be Lucky in Life

I fell in love with this anonymous quote that says “you are not a write-off yet until opportunities cease to exist” the very day I stumbled on it. Ever since, I have made it my guiding philosophy in life. Opportunities beckon daily, but whether we are able to recognise them or not is a different ball game altogether. Opportunities are dressed in different robes and they come in different sizes and shapes. The question then is: How prepared are we when they appear?

I have heard many people say that some people are lucky in life. What is luck? Luck simply means opportunities that meet with adequate preparation. Many wander through life without preparing adequately for their opportunities when they come. Nothing happens by accident. Every occurrence in life has its significance. It leaves us with one lesson or the other. Perhaps this why John Maxwell said in his book Failing Forward that there are no mistakes made, only lessons learnt. Do you learn from your daily occurrences? Or do you just see them as just happenstances? Whatever happens to man (positively or negatively) has one lesson or the other for the future. Continue reading “How to be Lucky in Life”

April 19, 2012June 2, 2012

Soccer Passion in Men

I have observed with keen interest in recent years the level of passion exhibited by men of all ages , status, color et al for soccer. Though I admit being a soccer fan, but cant find my place amongst the myriad of men who seems to live for soccer viz-a-viz their respective club sides. It is a common trend to observe loyalists of a particular club using items and symbols associated with there clubs to identify themselves in public especially following a winning encounter with an opposing side. Sometimes, patriots goes as far as betting with cash or kind to support there club’s victory ahead of a match. No wonder, sports especially soccer has been identified as a ‘tool’ for national and international integration.

Why cant similar or more passion be shown to those you live for, to those you work for, to those you love so much than for soccer, that which just satisfies your craving for entertainment and adds little or no value to your welfare and those of your family? by Solomon Johnson

Continue reading “Soccer Passion in Men”

October 4, 2011October 9, 2011

Your Wealth is in Your Passion

Everything a person needs to be wealthy is in his passion. What he needs to move from point zero to point hero is all within his reach. But human seems oblivious of his precious possessions that are before his eyes, while he is busy with a search for what is not lost.

Usually, several factors are responsible for the search for what is not lost. The factors range from societal conventions, peer influence to fix-it-quick mentality, among others. For instance, societal conventions have placed some professions such as medicine, law, engineering, etc. above others. So many people tend to believe that their licence to wealth is to study one of these courses. As good as the courses may be in terms of their potential to help one acquire wealth, they are not sufficient to make one wealthy. After all, there are poor doctors, lawyers and engineers in the society. Professions do not make people rich or wealthy. It is what one makes out of a profession that determines where one will stand in the society, not necessarily because one is into a particular profession. Continue reading “Your Wealth is in Your Passion”

June 1, 2011June 1, 2011

What the Successful Have in Common: Passion

Earlier in the Series

Passion is defined as an intense emotion that compels feeling, enthusiasm, or desire for something. My own definition for the purpose of this chapter is the ‘type of feeling you feel about something that makes you feel like you’re really feeling some feeling’.

Passion is the single most important quality shared by all successful people in life or if you like, people who are making real significant impact in some areas in life. Everybody can be okay in something; we can all be average in one thing or the other, but crossing the line of just average to genius doesn’t just take everybody anyhow, it takes individuals with this intense feeling about what they set themselves to do.

My big brother won National Best Teacher Award in 2010. When my sister called to inform me, I wasn’t shocked at all because when I dug deep into his award and considered the way he handles his profession, I could see it happening several years back. His passion for teaching is intense.

With a degree in accounting and commerce, he could strive to secure a high-paying job with a financial institution but he rather chose to teach in elementary school. Surely, that is not what I would choose. To him, there’s not a single day he regrets what he does. He’s not the type of teacher who pupils sleep in class because of the level of enthusiasm with which he executes his duty. Some may envy the physical award that was given him, but I know that what he cherishes most is the pride of living as a National Best Teacher for the rest of this life. That is passion.

If you’re passionate about what you do, it should show in every aspect of your life, not life at the Continue reading “What the Successful Have in Common: Passion”