…To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world… Jesus Christ in John 18:37
For we know that all things work together for good to those that love God and who are the called according to His purpose – Apostle Paul in Romans 8:28
To succeed significantly in life, we must learn to deploy the power of connections. Every man’s current level of success is a function of the degree to which he has been able to make connections. Simply put, you are as successful as your connections permit.
Connections come to play at various dimensions of our life. Even if you have an idea that is designed to save the world from its trajectory towards self-destruction, it is guaranteed not to fly unless you can connect it and its message to those who need it. This is why businesses spend more heavily on marketing than they do on actual sales. It is a given that before anyone parts with money to buy a product, he must first have connected with it emotionally. All buying decisions are first emotional decisions before they are economic decisions. We like to first process emotionally whatever we purchase in order to convince ourselves that our money is well spent.
Our life is a series of connections. We are often faced with the challenge of connecting our ideas and products with people, emotionally and physically. All advertisers know this as a rule. This is why adverts are designed to appeal to our sentiments and desire for gratification in one or more areas of our lives which the product addresses. Before there can be business, solutions must first connect with problems. Emotional and social intelligence define your ability to connect with people. You got married because you first connected with a significant other.
However, the greatest connection you will need to make in life is the connection with your Maker and yourself. Your discovery and capacity to do this will determine what you bring to the table in your relationship with the rest of creation. There are four things that you must successfully connect with within you. To get the full benefit of anything or person in creation, you must also connect with these four things in them. Everything in creation succeeds or fails depending on how they manifest those four things.
The first is identity. This is perhaps the greatest battle a person has to fight in life. Your identity is the YOU that you bring to the table of negotiation in a world that is constantly trying to help you redefine yourself and reshape your value system to suit their definition. More than any other thing in life, the unsatiated quest for identity discovery and definition has led more people to depression and suicide than any other factor in human history. The unfortunate thing about this is that it is a gap that must be filled. Consequently, if you don’t know who you are, the environment, your background, your peers and your circumstances in life, good or bad, will give you a definition of who they think you are or who they want you to be in your relationship with them and you will be compelled to comply. The conflict of identity is responsible for putting people in the competitive jealousy mode that leads to either an inferiority complex or a superiority complex, each of which affects them at two extremes of manifestation. Anyone who is comfortable in his own skin does not feel inferior or superior to anyone. They simply bring the best of themselves to the table daily. They are comfortable with failing as much as they love to celebrate and manage the sometimes-dizzying heights of success. Identity is the seed of character manifestation. It is why a snake bites without having to explain itself to anyone. When a lion roars, it is all the introduction you need to the king of the jungle! When you hear “snake”, you think ‘venom’. When you hear “lion”, you think “predator”. QED. Identity always derives from SOURCE. To know who you are, you must first recognize WHOSE you are.
Identity helps to discover and unveil purpose while purpose helps you to express your identity. In knowing who you are, you are in a better position to understand and embrace your essence, the WHY of your life and the meaning of your existence. The world is full of colossal failures and frustrated people who are in the futile pursuit of purpose when they have not first defined WHO they are. Your life essence is wrapped up in your identity. You cannot find purpose until you find and embrace your identity.
Purpose is a sense of mission that helps you find answers to the WHY questions which life constantly confronts you with. Why am I married? Why to my current spouse and not someone else? Why am I not happy on my job? Why am I working? Why am I in my present location? Why should I invest in this business and not another? Why do I want to have a certain number of children? Purpose is the preview of your success story that gives an insight into what your success index is designed to be. It also gives meaning to your history and your experiences. Purpose helps you to define your assignment and the limits of your capacity, helping you to know where to strengthen and where to minimize in your life. It gives specificity to your tasks. A man of purpose is also a man of priorities. He understands that life will always have many assignments to be done but he is also wise to know that they cannot all be done by him. Before you begin an enterprise, always find an ennobling WHY around it. Many of us are wandering generalities who simply “follow the flow” of what seems popular and acceptable even when it flies in the face of our core convictions. The discovery of purpose in life and subsequently any pursuit, is your permanent cure for distractions and needless experimentations because it is the only thing that helps you live a life of priorities and to keep the main thing the main thing. Purpose is the answer to all your worries and anxieties. Your job may pay your bills and put food on your table, but the purpose you find on the job is what determines the degree of your success in your career. A wise man once said that where purpose is not defined or known, abuse (read “abnormal use”) is the inevitable result. I define abuse as what happens when there is a disconnect between intentions and outcomes. Abuse is not only the result of unknown purpose. It is also what happens when purpose is known but discarded in the course of pursuit. Purpose is the compass of vision, the rail that guides the train of destiny to the intended destination.
Like identity, purpose is assigned at the creation of a thing or the beginning of an enterprise if the product is not to malfunction or if the enterprise is not to derail… to be continued.
Remember, the sky is not your limit, God is!
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