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Success

The 2016 Rio Olympics have come and gone but the stories and after-tastes linger. Usain Bolt is celebrated for his triple-triples (3 gold medals in 3 successive Olympics). The video of the transformation of Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time is now popular.  It shows how reconciliation with God can set one on the path of peace and happiness. If a much celebrated Olympian could fall apart, many people can!
However, even as a celebrated swimmer, Phelps began preparing for Rio in 2014.
The Nigerian Olympians made the news. Their outfits were not ready, hotels were not booked, flights were not arranged. The event must have come as such a terrible surprise. The participants were largely self-trained, self-motivated, and self-sponsored. The soccer bronze medal “against all odds”  earned the team the applause of the world.
The Kenyan representatives, after 6 gold, 6 silver and 1 bronze, refused to enter Kenya with a triumphant entry: the event management was a historical flop for them. It is reported that some of the government officials in charge have been arrested.
An African president was said to have ordered the arrest of his participants at Rio. Would you consider it a surprise to find Nigerian names among the representatives of Bahrain then? Or to find that most of the representatives of the Arab nation were Africans?
For some years, I kept wondering what the best definition of success could be. Cars? Houses? Vacations? Or high-handed indulgence? Then I heard this from Sam Adeyemi, “Success is the achievement of goals!”
“Wow! So simple; so meaningful!”
If you have no goals, you would not be able to call any achievement a success!
I was fine with that till I heard Sam Adeyemi’s mentor, David Oyedepo, “Success is the achievement of goals in succession.” He explained that if your goals do not grow, you cannot be successful. That means that if I set a goal to earn $100 monthly and I leave it at that forever, achieving it may not be called success after some time. After all, the gnawing effect of inflation ensures that yesterday’s dollar is always stronger than today’s. Or shall we call the Nigerian  soccer team a success for winning bronze 20 years after winning gold?
If we could follow the national teams for the next two years, we would be able to tell the successes of the 2020 Olympics long before the games begin.
How? Why?
PREPARATION!
Some nations will begin preparation immediately. They will provide training facilities and place their athletes on salary–no man goes to war at his own expense (1 Corinthians 9:7). When they hold their national celebrations, their President would set new goals for them: x gold, y silver, z bronze!
Looking beyond the nations, in our individual lives we need to work out our success too!
– Set growing goals
– Prepare all it will take to achieve them
– Do not wait for luck
“MEN OF ACTION ARE FAVORED BY THE GODDESS OF GOOD LUCK” ― George S. Clason, The Richest Man in Babylon

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One comment

  1. May God give us leaders good enough to embrace proper planning as opposed to ‘fire brigade’ kind of planning that has reduced us from a prosperous enveloping country to a depressed pseudo developed sleeping giant of Africa.
    Keep writing, posterity will vindicate you.

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