READING BOOKS; A FUNDAMENTAL REQUIREMENT FOR THE ATTAINMENT OF SUCCESS

 

A BOOK,  AS A DEVICE TO IGNITE IMAGINATIONS......

If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking. Try and exploits new books so as to reach the peak of your endeavour - Emperor Jay 

       Reading is a complex cognitive process of decoding symbols in order to construct or derive meaning. Reading is a means of language acquisition, communication, and of sharing information and ideas

    All of the books that we will ever need to make us as rich, as healthy, as happy, as powerful, as sophisticated and as successful as we want to be have already been written.
 People from all walks of life, people with some of the most incredible life experiences, people that have gone from pennies to fortune and from failure to success have taken the time to write down their experiences so that we might share in their wealth of knowledge. They have offered their wisdom and experience so that we can be inspired by it and instructed by it and so that we can amend our philosophy by it. Their contributions enable us to reset our sail based upon their experiences. They have handed us the gift of their insights so that we can change our plans, if need be, in order to avoid their errors. We can rearrange our lives based on their wise advice. All of the insights that we might ever need have already been captured by others in books. The important question is this: In the last 90 days, with this treasure of information that could change our lives, our fortunes, our relationships, our health, our children and our careers for the better, how many books have we read? Why do we neglect to read the books that can change our lives? Why do we complain but remain the same? Why do so many of us curse the effect but nourish the cause? Those who wish for the better life cannot permit themselves to miss the books that could have a major impact on how their lives turn out. The book they miss will not help! And the issue is not that books are too expensive! If a person concludes that the price of buying the book is too great, wait until he must pay the price for not buying it. Wait until he receives the bill for continued and prolonged ignorance. There is very little difference between someone who cannot read and someone who will not read. The result of either is ignorance. Reading is essential for those who seek to rise above the ordinary . We must not permit anything to stand between us and the book that could change our lives. A little reading each day will result in a wealth of valuable information in a very short period of time. But if we fail to set aside the time, if we fail to pick up the book, if we fail to exercise the discipline, then ignorance will quickly move in to fill the void. Those who seek a better life must first become a better person. They must continually seek after self-mastery for the purpose of developing a balanced philosophy of life, and then live in accordance with the dictates of that philosophy. The habit of reading is a major stepping-stone in the development of a sound philosophical foundation. And in my opinion it is one of the fundamentals required for the attainment of success and happiness.



   The benefits of reading books cannot be overemphasized; 10 benefits, among others, of reading books are outlined below:

 1. To Develop Your Verbal Abilities

Although it doesn’t always make you a better communicator, those who read tend to have a more varied range of words to express how they feel and to get their point across. This increases exponentially with the more volumes you consume, giving you a higher level of vocabulary to use in everyday life.

2. Improves Your Focus and Concentration

Unlike blog posts and news articles, sitting down with a book takes long periods of focus and concentration, which at first is hard to do. Being fully engaged in a book involves closing off the outside world and immersing yourself into the text, which over time will strengthen your attention span.

3. Readers Enjoy The Arts and Improve The World

EXPERT explains that people who read for pleasure are many times more likely than those who do not to visit museums and attend concerts, and almost three times as likely to perform volunteer and charity work. Readers are active participants in the world around them, and that engagement is critical to individual and social well-being.

4. It Improves Your Imagination

You are only limited by what you can imagine, and the worlds described in books, as well as other peoples views and opinions, will help you expand your understanding of what is possible. By reading a written description of an event or a place, your mind is responsible for creating that image in your head, instead of having the image placed in front of you when you watch television.

5. Reading Makes You Smarter

      Books offer an outstanding wealth of learning and at a much cheaper price than taking a course. Reading gives you a chance to consume huge amount of research in a relatively short amount of time.  Books at home have been strongly linked to academic achievement. 

6. It Makes You Interesting And Attractive

This goes hand in hand with reading to become smarter. Having a library of information that you have picked up from non-fiction reading will come in handy in any academic or scholarly conversation. You will be able to hold your own and add to the conversation instead of having to make your excuses and leave.  You will be able to engage a wider variety of people in conversation and in turn improve your knowledge and conversation skills.

7. It Reduces Stress

 Reading reduces stress. Subjects only needed to read, silently, for six minutes to slow down the heart rate and ease tension in the muscles. In fact it got subjects to stress levels lower than before they started. Why read

8. It Improves Your Memory

 “Typically, when you read, you have more time to think. Reading gives you a unique pause button for comprehension and insight. By and large, with oral language “when you watch a film or listen to a tape, you don’t press pause.” The benefits of this increased activity keeps your memory sharp and your learning capacity nimble.

9. To Discover and Create Yourself

 we should read slowly, with love, openness, and with our inner ear cocked. He explains we should read to increase our wit and imagination, our sense of intimacy–in short, our entire consciousness–and also to heal our pain. “Until you become yourself, what benefit can you be to others.” With the endless amount of perspectives and lives we can read about, books can give us an opportunity to have experiences that we haven’t had the opportunity to, and still allow us to learn the life skills they entail. Books are a fast rack to creating yourself.

10. For Entertainment

All the benefits of reading mentioned so far are a bonus result of the most important benefit of reading; Its entertainment value. If it were not for the entertainment value, reading would be a chore but it needn’t be. Reading is not only fun, but it has all the added benefits that we have discussed so far. Much more enthralling than watching a movie or a TV show (although they have their many benefits as well), a good book can keep us amused while developing our life skills.

EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT OF TIME; A LEADING FACTOR OF SUCCESS

Time is of great essence to man; One of the equal gifts God gave to all men was time and the way we use it today determines how our tomorrow will be. One of the resources we can't get back is time so we should maximize each second to its fullest. - Emperor Jay 
 

 Spending a little time learning about time-management techniques will have huge benefits now – and throughout your career.
       

Before delving into the lesson, here is a story to illustrate Time Management and Setting  of priorities.
     A professor stood before his class and had some items in front of him. When class began, wordlessly he picked up a large empty jar and proceeded to fill it with rocks right to the top, rocks about 2" diameter.
He then asked the students if the jar was full? They agreed that it was.
So the professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them in to the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles, of course, rolled into the open areas between the rocks. The students laughed.
He asked his students again if the jar was full? They agreed that yes, it was.
The professor then picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else.
"Now," said the professor, "I want you to recognize that this is your life.
The rocks are the important things - your creator, your family, your partner, your health, your children -anything that is so important to you that if it were lost, you would be nearly destroyed.
The pebbles are the other things in life that matter, but on a smaller scale. The pebbles represent things like your job, house, or car.
The sand is everything else, the "small stuff."
"If you put the sand or the pebbles into the jar first, there is no room for the rocks.
The same goes for your life. If you spend all your energy and time on the small stuff, material things, you will never have room for the things that are truly most important.
Pay attention to the things that are Important in your life and spend time on the Important.
Some of the Important's are:

• Spend time with your creator (God).
• Spend time with your Family.
• Spend time with your People.
• Spend time for your Customers.
• Play with your children.
• Take time to get medical checkups.
• Take your partner out once a while.
• Take time to renew yourself.
• Find time for maintainance.
• Spend time on Preventing than on Solving Problems
  Take care of the rocks first - the things that really matter.
  Set your priorities, the rest is just pebbles and sand.

                        DEFINITION

Time management is the process of organizing and planning how to divide your time between specific activities. Good time management enables you to work smarter – not harder – so that you get more done in less time, even when time is tight and pressures are high. Failing to manage your time damages your effectiveness and causes stress.

It seems that there is never enough time in the day. But, since we all get the same 24 hours, why is it that some people achieve so much more with their time than others? The answer lies in good time management.
The highest achievers manage their time exceptionally well. By using the time-management techniques in this section, you can improve your ability to function more effectively – even when time is tight and pressures are high.
Good time management requires an important shift in focus from activities to results: being busy isn’t the same as being effective. (Ironically, the opposite is often closer to the truth.)
Spending your day in a frenzy of activity often achieves less, because you’re dividing your attention between so many different tasks. Good time management lets you work smarter – not harder – so you get more done in less time.
Time management refers to the way that you organize and plan how long you spend on specific activities.
It may seem counter-intuitive to dedicate precious time to learning about time management, instead of using it to get on with your work, but the benefits are enormous:

• Greater productivity and efficiency.
• A better professional reputation.
• Less stress.
• Increased opportunities for advancement.
• Greater opportunities to achieve important life and career goals.

Failing to manage your time effectively can have some very undesirable consequences:

• Missed deadlines.
• Inefficient work flow.
• Poor work quality.
• A poor professional reputation and a stalled career.
• Higher stress levels.

Time management is an oxymoron. Time is beyond our control, and the clock keeps ticking regardless of how we lead our lives. Priority management is the answer to maximizing the time we have. Our days are identical suitcases—all the same size—but some can pack more into them than others. No one has a magical ability to make time, but if our lives have direction, we can make the most of the moments we have been given.
Time stewardship is perhaps a leader’s greatest responsibility. In the words of Peter Drucker, “Nothing else distinguishes effective executives as much as their tender loving care of time.”

How do we maximize the precious minutes given to us each day? Learn and emulate the five characteristics of people who use time wisely:

1. They are purposeful.

People who use time wisely spend it on activities that advance their overall purpose in life.  By consistently channeling time and energy toward an overarching purpose, people can most fully realize their potential.
We cannot reach peak performance without a peak purpose. Purpose enlivens all that we do. In fact, I believe the two greatest days in a person’s life are the day they are born and the day they discover why. Uncovering purpose helps to refine passion, focus efforts and sharpen commitments. The cumulative result is to amplify achievements.

2. They are committed to values.

People who use time correctly underscore their values with the time they spend. By acting in accordance with their beliefs, they find fulfillment. Failure to identify values leads to a rudderless existence in which people drift through life, uncertain as to what they hold dear. Clarity of value is like a beacon of light, guiding the way through life’s twists and turns.
When extended to an organization, values inspire a sense of broader purpose. They make work worthwhile. In an organization, if vision is the head and mission is the heart, then values are the soul. Values endow day-to-day operations and transactions with meaning.

3. They are attuned to their strengths.

People who use time correctly play to their strengths. By doing so, they are most effective. People don’t pay for average. If your skill level is a two, don’t waste substantial time trying to improve because you’ll likely never grow beyond a four. However, if you’re a seven in an area, hone that skill, because when you become a nine, you’ve reached a rare level of expertise.
As Jim Sundberg says, “Discover your uniqueness; then discipline yourself to develop it.” You are blessed with a unique set of skills and talents.
Find them, refine them and let them carry you toward success.

4. They are choosers of happiness.

People who use time the right way choose happiness by prioritizing relationships and recreation. While choosing happiness may seem simple and obvious, far too many people are trying to prove themselves and validate their worth. These people chase after power and prestige, and along the way their friendships wither, their family is ignored and they skip vacation after vacation. In the end, any success they earn is a hollow and lonely achievement.
Family and friendships are two of the greatest facilitators of happiness. Prioritizing time to cultivate relationships is a hallmark of a healthy leader. Likewise, scheduling leisure combats stress and allows us to delight in the hobbies that bring us joy. In the end, happiness is an inside job. We are wise to surround ourselves with family, friends and fun, but ultimately we determine our internal response to the people and circumstances in our lives.

5. They are equippers.

People who use time properly equip others in order to compound their productivity. They realize the limitations of individual attainment, and they build teams to expand their impact. By developing an inner circle of leaders and investing in them, wise time-users multiply their influence.
Equippers recognize that legacies are carried on by people, not trophies. They pour themselves into the lives of others and watch the ripple effect of their leadership spread through those they have taught and mentored. Equippers seek significance over the long term, which causes them to have a vested interest in the success of their successors.
As much as we would like, we can’t find more time—it’s a finite and constantly diminishing resource. But we can learn to spend time wisely.

Dear readers, it is high time we improved the way that we use our time, effective time usage will averts failure in our endeavour in all facets of life.

Thanks for viewing this blog and make sure you check back for subsequent inspiring posts.
Best Regards,
Dara James

HOW TO ATTAIN YOUR DESIRABLE SUCCESS

Success is not a destination but an on-going journey. The doing is often more important than the outcome. - Arthur Ashe

   
When rail roads were first invented engineers started to notice that the rail lines break at different points with no apparent reason. When they investigated further they found that sunlight resulted in the expansion of the metal forming the rail causing a pressure that breaks the line at its weakest points.
       As a walk around, rail roads were redesigned to include slots that allows the expansion and contraction of the metal without breaking it.
So you might be asking yourself what does this has to do with reaching success?
The moral of the story is simple, it illustrates that reaching success is only a matter of failing first then modifying your approach to become successful!!

              Success comes after failure

       Of course there might be few people out there who succeeded from the first attempts but the majority of successful people failed many times before they managed to reach success.
A very large percentage of billionaires faced financial troubles at many points in their lives and some of them even lost all of their money and had to start all over again.
Learning is all about making mistakes first then knowing how to avoid these mistakes in the future. You have to do things wrong before you can learn how to do them the right way and thus in order to reach success you must first know how to not become successful.

Do you remember the first time you tried to ride a bicycle or use a skateboard?
How many times did you fall? How many things have you done wrong?
I am sure you fell tens of times yet you kept learning until you knew how to avoid your mistakes.

Why do people fail to succeed?

       So if success is all about learning and avoiding mistakes then why don’t all people succeed?
Simply because most people feel bad and become depressed when they experience their first few failures!!
Instead of continuing the learning process to learn how to avoid their mistakes those people stop at one point, form false beliefs about life and become depressed!!
     The only difference between those who succeed and those who don’t is that the first group continue to the end until they learn how to avoid all of the mistakes they were doing while the second group feel bad and stop trying.
To summarize it all, here are the exact steps you need in order to reach success:

• Do something!!: People who procrastinate or those who wait for the right time never make their first attempt and so never succeed. People who fear to try or fear success itself never reach anything too.
• Look at failure differently: Failure is nothing more than discovering that you are not following the right approach. Without failure you would never know about the mistakes you did and success can never be reached
• Avoid the mistakes and try again: Right after your failure give it another try after fixing the mistakes you did in the previous attempt

I am not saying that success will come after the second or the third attempt but what I am promising you is that you will surly reach success if you kept trying and trying.

MOTIVATIONAL STORIES OF SUCCESSFUL PERSONALITIES

                          MOTIVATING STORIES OF SUCCESSFUL ICONS.

       If you are serious about being successful in life then you can do nothing better than educating yourself about the inspirational stories of successful and famous people.
      Many people who want to achieve success in life, career or business fail to do it because they don't know what it takes to be successful and how the road to success looks like. They just see the final result, which is the successful person, without having any idea about what this person went through.
By knowing the motivational stories of successful people you will learn how the road to success looks like and your chance of succeeding in life will become much higher.

Motivational stories of successful and famous people.

Below are short and quick motivational stories of some of the most successful people that can help you know a lot about the approach required to reach success.

                                                          NEVER GIVE UP!!!

• Soichiro Honda Success story: Soichiro Honda is the founder of the company Honda which is one of the well known large automotive companies. Honda's story starts when he went for a job interview to work for the Toyota company. Honda was rejected and was told that he is not fit for the job!! The man didn't give up and decided to create a company that competes with Toyota and so Honda was born!! If there is anything we can learn from this inspiring success story it would be to never give up.
  
                                            BELIEVE IN YOURSELF!!!
  
• Stephen king's motivational success story: Most people know Stephen king the famous writer but few know about his life story. Stephen's first novel was rejected almost everywhere it was submitted to the extent that he threw it in the garbage!! His wife got the story out of the garbage and insisted that he submits it again and in the end he became the Stephen king we know now!! There is a very important lesson you must come up with from this motivational success story which is that rejections should make no sense at all if you believe in yourself.
  
                             FAILURE IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO DO EXPLOITS!!!
  
• Thomas Edison motivational success story: Thomas addition's success story is one of the stories that can motivate anyone after experiencing failure . Thomas failed about 999 times to invent the lamp before he succeed in doing it on the 1000th attempt. When people asked him how did you manage to keep going even though you were failing all the time he replied telling them, each time it didn't work I used to say I discovered a new way how to not invent the lamp. Thomas Edison success story should make you conclude that failure should never stop you even if it occurred more than once.
   
                                DON'T BE DISCOURAGED BY ODDS OF LIFE!!!
• Oprah Winfrey's success story: One of the inspirational stories that really motivated me the first time i read about it was the success story of Oprah. Oprah is one of the most popular TV icons nowadays and she is also one of the richest women on our planet but this is not how her story began. Do you know that Oprah was fired from her job and was told that she was not fit for TV earlier in her life?
  
                                       REJECTION SHOULD NOT STOP YOU!!!
  
• Bill gates success story: Bill gates the founder of Microsoft is one of the most inspirational business leaders living these days but do you know that his idea of creating a computer that has a graphical interface and a mouse was rejected when he first submitted it to another company? some people even say that the papers of the project were thrown in his face!! Now he became Bill gates!!

Certainly these success stories are not told for the sake of entertainment but they are told in order to inspire, motivate and encourage people to succeed in work, education, business and other facets of  life.
The most precious lessons you should deduce from these inspirational success stories are:

• Rejection should never stop you.
• Failure is not a problem at all.
• People who reject you know nothing.
• Believing in yourself is the key to success in life