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VISION AND FEAR(5) Posted 11/2/2006 6:25:02 AM Fear and Vision (5) There is this German proverb that says, "Fear makes the wolf bigger than he is." I can never forget an experience I had several years ago. The austerity measures of the late seventies had spilled over to the eighties in Nigeria. Jobs had started to be scarce for qualified and skilled young university graduates. One of the nation’s conglomerates was recruiting. It advertised for Management Trainees with a Masters degree as the entry point. It received over two thousand applications, short listed five hundred for aptitude tests and eventually invited fifty of them for oral and final interview. The lucky candidates were split into five batches to be interviewed everyday Monday to Friday. I was one of the lucky candidates. In my batch were nine others. Each with a burning vision to be a part of this progressive company. We were treated to a snack on our arrival as we were ushered into a tastefully furnished air-conditioned room. If any of us had not dreamt of working in this company at this time, I believe they changed their minds. As soon as the ushers left, I experienced a scene I would ever live to remember. A palpable fear fell on the group. These MBA holders from reputable universities succumbed to the spell of fear. What was supposed to be a fact-finding chat to determine the possibility of these top guys entering into a working relationship with the company was seen as a war. Even though the company tried hard to provide a non-threatening environment for us, my colleagues gave in to fear. I thought I had a responsibility over the group, so I spoke to the group, reminding them we were some of the nation’s best heads. If any of us did not make it, I said, it would not be because we were not good. As I spoke some of them were clutching tenaciously to management books. One was busy going over a little book on current affairs. Another visited the toilet. One brushed aside my plea, wondering who had made me a class prefect. I watched as these eggheads saw the interview as a big deal. Fear had made the wolf to appear bigger than it really was. Two weeks after, twenty of us reported for the company’s orientation programme. None of the candidates in my batch made it. It was a calamity. Fear had magnified the challenge to a war. They fell when they should have stood; they lost when they should have won. Refuse today to allow fear magnify the challenge to your vision. The challenge is not as big as it looks. (0) Comments

VISION AND FEAR(4) Posted 11/2/2006 6:23:41 AM Fear and Vision (4) Are you looking for wisdom to be able to chart a worthy path for yourself and the society? Look for it everywhere except in the house of fear. Someone has said, "Where fear is present, wisdom cannot be." (Lactantius) I am sure you will not find it difficult to believe that if you have ever been under the grip of fear before. Fear seems to send your creativity on holiday. You no longer can think straight again. You have become so overwhelmed that the eyes of your mind become darkened. With the mind blackout, you can hardly see the way out. You become a slave to initial reaction as you act on whatever comes to your mind. Visionary people know that they cannot think right from a position of fear. They know how important wisdom is to their cause. They need to constantly make wise decisions in the pursuit of their dreams. A perpetual position of fear is dangerous to any vision. You will do well to face your fear and not run away from it. Fear is a tyrant and a despot. It will rule your life and ruin your vision. You must never forget this: What you fear comes to pass more speedily than you hope. Let me quote from Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear. "I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain." Frank Herbert, Dune - Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear" That should be your litany as well. Whenever fear has gone there will be nothing. Amazing! So, face your fear. Let it chart its own course. But if fear points north, follow south. Never forget that fear is ephemeral. It is there today and gone tomorrow. But you will always remain. That is if you have not allowed fear to destroy you. (0) Comments

VISIO AND FEAR(3) Posted 11/2/2006 6:22:01 AM Fear and Vision (3) Another of man’s greatest fears is the fear of failure. How many times have you had it said, “Success has many fathers; failure is an orphan”? We live in a crazy world. We over dramatize failure as if it were an end. Bad news sells. Newspapers, televisions, radios and the Internet compete for prominence in disseminating news of astounding failures. We read and hear of people that fall from grace to grass. Of popular politicians that lose to underdogs because they dare to stand for something; of rich men that lose it all to bad judgments; of homes that crash because of one indiscretion; of businesses that lose out while blazing a new trail… We might think we are trying to prevent future failure, but in essence we are killing the society’s venturing spirit. In our nation today, majority of people believe it is too risky to try new things. We are more likely to maintain the status quo than to inspire change. We hate to rock the boat because the society is inpatient with failure. A footballer displays inspirational plays and becomes an instant celebrity. He loses form in a couple of matches and the song changes. He becomes a subject of ridicule. No one remembers his heroic past. We only live for the moment. If only we would stop to learn from Winston Churchill, the War-time Prime Minister of Britain, we would realize that success is not the absence of failure. Success, in the words of Churchill, is moving from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm. Visionaries do not see failure as the end of their dreams. It is a part of the process. In fact; a vital raw material for their success. That explains why they make failure a friend, a partner and a teacher. From the hard lessons of failure a visionary leader learns to sharpen and redirect his skills, set new goals and move against the odds with greater determination. It is therefore not possible for great visionaries to fear failure. Challenge your fear of failure today by taking that step that will change your life, family or the society. If you fail, good for you. You will have learnt from the experience and be better positioned for a sweeter victory tomorrow. And if you win, you will have learnt sufficiently from the victory to prepare you to challenge even greater fears. (0) Comments

VISIO AND FEAR(2) Posted 11/2/2006 6:20:32 AM Fear and Vision (2) It was Lovecraft that said, "The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown." Fear is not new to mankind. It is mankind’s oldest emotion. We have learnt to fear anything and everything. We fear darkness, height, water… We fear pain, rejection, poverty… We fear death. We fear speaking in public. We have phobias. Some have phobia for cat, fish, dog, dust… We talk about our fear with reckless abandon. We are quick to express our fears in glowing terms. How many times in a day do you say, “I am afraid” or “I fear”? These phrases have become vital part of our vocabulary. For most of us our induction to fear started early. We feared dad’s return from office. The sound of his car or his voice sent shivers down our spines. We feared school because of the teacher’s whip, recklessly administered at the slightest mistake. We feared injection, being reminded of the accompanying pain. Some of us feared mom’s tongue lash. Others feared rejection by classmates. Some of the fears were ridiculous. I remember fearing that I might not be able to write in cursive. I had started out like everyone else writing my words in separate disjointed letters. I watched in amazement and in envy as my older siblings scribbled words after words in cursives. I tried as much as I could but my words never looked like they were ever going to be like those of the older students. I gave in to fear and gave up on the ability to write in cursives. I hope you still remember that cursive is the “rapid handwriting in which letters are set down in full and…connected within words without lifting the writing implement from the paper.” One of my primary school teachers showed me how unfounded my fears were. She told me she started out like that too. And then she said. “Everyone starts out like that. Then with constant practice, you gain proficiency. One day, you will write very well in cursives, I promise.” I agreed with her and my fear evaporated. Two years after, I won a city-wide writing competition. Fear losses its grip once accurate information becomes available. Once the unknown becomes known there is no more reason to fear. Dear listener, think about this: Your fear may not be more real than the fear that I might never be able to write in cursives. Your fear – indeed most fears – may be as ridiculous as that. For example, why do you fear dreaming big about yourself? Why do you fear that you might never be able to make a major contribution to the society? Why do you fear that you might end in failure? Acknowledge your fear but face it with hard facts of history and expose its shallowness. In the face of overwhelming evidence, most fears lose their potency. You need not allow fear rob you of possessing a great vision for change. (0) Comments

VISIO AND FEAR(1) Posted 11/2/2006 6:16:28 AM Fear and Vision (1) This week, we shall be looking at another enemy of vision. Its name is fear. Fear is an emotion experienced in anticipation of some specific pain or danger. It is a future pain carried into today. It is an anxious feeling that what is not may be. Anytime there is a doubt about the future, fear becomes inevitable. The torment of fear is demonstrated more in the limitations it places on a man and the society that he bears influence over. A fearful man can only go far but not farther. If he dreams at all, it will be a little insignificant dream. Fear of failure is more dangerous than failure itself. The man who fails has learnt a lesson that probably will stand him in good stead with future challenges. The man who fears failure has no experience to draw from. No man has won big without being daring. And no daring man allows fear to gain ascendancy over his heart. Fear of the unknown is one of the reasons there are few dreamers. A dreamer creates a picture of the unknown and lives it out as if it were real. That’s too much for the fearful. There are just too many things that could go wrong. You can’t just trust people to live up to expectations. No one has ever done this kind of a thing before. This is just not the right time for such a dream. How can I possibly raise such a huge sum? The banks would not lend money for a thing like this. There is just no way Ann will agree to marry me. I am not just in her class. The litany goes on and on… More than a psychological state of mind, fear is a spirit. It is a spiritual force that seeks to underguard our lives and frustrate our daring spirit. The torment of fear is awesome. Its pain is far reaching. It incapacitates and weakens our resolve. It increases the size of our challenge beyond its real proportion. It is the reason we stand like ants before the giants of our challenges. It is the reason why we sit when we should stand; why we stand when we should crawl; why we crawl when we should run; or why we run when we should fly. Someone has observed that there are 366 admonitions not to fear in the scriptures. One for each day of the year. There is even an allowance for the leap year! This is God’s way of safeguarding the dreams he has placed in each of our hearts. Our dreams are as good as dead when we allow fear to rule in our hearts. So, face your fears – all of them – today. Refuse to bow down to its tyrannical rule. Decide to be on top of your fear. Tell yourself there is nothing to fear about today. Refuse to carry the pain of tomorrow into today. The challenges of today are enough for you than to borrow into tomorrow. Let me leave you this morning with a quotation from Franklin D. Roosevelt: in his first inaugural address as US president. He said and I quote: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself - nameless, unreasoning, unjustified, terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.". (0) Comments

Weekend Posted 10/29/2006 12:13:12 PM Was in Douala this weekend.left Buea for Douala on friday morning. On the whole it was a gr8 weekend! learnt a lot too. (0) Comments

Well,Well.. Posted 10/25/2006 1:25:18 PM It rained a lot yesterday here in Buea,Cameroon. I was able to do some useful work much later in the day though at the NGO where i'm having an internship. Had dinner with a couple of friends at a canteen. Three of them are Dutch and one is Estonian.I guess i'm d odd man out.But it was quite good to learn more about their cultures and lifestyles.i've known them for about 4 weeks now and i'd say they are quite great people. Got to run now. Do have a great day. It's been majorly sunny today,and i'm loving it! (0) Comments

Hello Posted 10/25/2006 12:38:32 PM Just dropped by to thank all of u who have either requested 2 be friends with me or who have honored my friend requests. look forward to knowing u guyz better. (0) Comments

ON LOVE Posted 10/23/2006 7:21:52 AM When you love people,you love them as they are, not as you wish them to be,not as you hope to help them become, but as they are. When you love people, you love them bcos they are who they are;not loving in order to change them, not loving as a way of remaking them. But loving bcos you love. when you love people,you love them, warts and all.Not blinding urself to their faults, not denying their imperfections,but loving in spite of. Loving another person is to commit oneself,with no guarantee of return.To love another is to give oneself,with the risk of rejection.To love another person is to reach out in the hope of love and awaken love in the heart of the other. Love is not dependent on the nature of the one loved but on the nature of the one who loves.Love is not contigent on the beauty of the loved but on the appreciation of the lover.Love is not conditional on the constancy of the beloved but on the fidelity of the one who loves. When you love someone, nothing matters half so much as to accept the other person;to reassure one another; to hearand answer each other;to look deeply into the other's soul and to show your own. To love someone is to affirm that she is worthy, to bid him to live life freely, to leave her with all her freedom intact,to recognise his dignity as a person, to invite her to grow,to oblige him to be fully what he is, to inspire her to be all that she can be. -TEIHARD DE CHARDIN. (7) Comments

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General Comments paladine Posted 10/26/2006 2:56:52 PM Hey Lotus,thanks for the comment. i'm gud. BlueRain Posted 10/23/2006 6:44:01 PM welcome new friend! Bree306 Posted 10/23/2006 4:02:51 PM Just stopping by to welcome you to New Blog. Great post on Love. Please login to post a comment.