NO to myself, YES to my future!

23 Sep, 2016 - 00:09 0 Views

The ManicaPost

Arthur Marara : Motivation for Success

We so much want a good life, yet few of us are prepared to make sacrifices for it. Time has proved that many of the NOs have suddenly turned into YESS. This was at least one of things that I heard during my first day on campus at the University I attended, that it was a place where all NOs automatically become YESs.

At first I thought it was a joke but indeed after observing the behaviours of some people, I realised that some people had actually incorporated this mindset and made it their lifestyle. Back from campus, and let’s have a look at the wider picture. Earlier on before close of 2013, I did an article on Taking charge of the year. One of the instruments you can use is the word NO. If you want to be great in life you need to learn to say NO to yourself. This might sound harsh but wait until you read some thoughts below.

Learn to say no to yourself

Many people have learnt to say NO to other people, but have never learnt to say no to someone; YOURSELF. We are so much used to an easy life, whereby we give in to our feelings, emotions and the heat of the moment and choose to take the easy way out. Well, the easy way out will lead to unease in the long run. The bulk of the problems we are facing today are due to people who could not say NO to themselves.

We read so much of popular people who are involved in sex scandals. The concept of small house has even been established with some people openly boasting about them, and possibly financing them more than they do the “main house”. The honest truth is that no one is forced to be corrupt, and no one is forced to have a small house, but the challenge with most people is that we choose to do what is easy. We choose a permanent solution to a temporal problem, and in the long run we only realise that we were filling a hole by digging another one. In all these instances, a NO to ourselves will make a great difference.

There is always an easy way out

If you want your life to be easy, then it will be hard on you, but if you want your life to be easy, learn to be hard on yourself. This is what unfortunately the world has not taught us. The world has taken and teaches us the easy way out.

Adulterers are often celebrated at the expense of people who do not go that route. The entertainment has also become so explicit such that we have to be reminded every time that it’s explicit and parental control is requisite, yet we are ‘expected’ to consume such material, and possibly feel good thereafter.

The challenge parents are facing now is that of weird behaviour on the part of their children which has emanated from the various sources of entertainment the bulk of which we finance through pocket money, and do not care to follow up in the name of “space, or privacy”.

Let’s face it, this is what is happening in our country, continent and globally. The choice is all yours, to go with the tide or to go against the tide. All of this is resident in the word NO. The easy way out is that you do not have to endure the pain of discipline, you just do what is convenient at the moment regardless of the possible consequences, or even without giving due attention to the possible consequences of the actions or inactions.

Temptations will always be there

Everyone looks for a defence to a failure or possibly misdemeanour, and one of the common explanations is that of a “temptation”. Temptation is always knocking on your door every day. There is no new temptation on the planet. Money has always been there since time immemorial, and the crime of theft was always there, bribes did not start now, and sexual temptations have always been there even during the biblical time of Rahab. There are temptations for every level.

Everyone is not a thief

Thieves always think that everyone is a thief. The same applies to those people who have “small houses”, they think everyone is doing it, the same with corrupt people, they think everyone is corrupt. Get out of the blanket and stand out. You can say NO to the continuance of the habits, you can say NO to oversleeping, and you can say NO to habitual lateness, you can say NO to corruption at an individual and corporate level. It takes less energy to say NO than to say YES.

The power of Yes and No

In the court room, a question that invites a Yes or No answer is called a leading question. This is the favourite for Attorneys as it allows you to lead a witness in a particular direction. . Some people could have been much in a better situation had they said NO to that seemingly nice and innocent business opportunity, or to that get-rich-quick scheme. Basic word we hear and possibly use every day indeed, but often misused or not used.

The future begins right now

We are so much told about the future as some event or even possibly a place far off, but the reality is that the future is here, and starts right now. The confusion you are leading with your life will not be wiped off by the passage of time into the “future”. The future is a product of our actions and inactions now. You need to learn to say NO to yourself and by doing so you give BIG YES to your future. There are many enticing activities that do not take us far, but they are of an ‘exciting’ nature.

Endure the pain of discipline

It has often been said, it is better to endure the pain of discipline than to endure the pain of regret. One minute of discipline can save you thousands of minutes of embarrassment.  Stay blessed and be a blessing. #Thought of the week; “When you are saying ‘yes’ to others, make sure you are NOT saying NO to you yourself” [Paulo Coelho]

Arthur Marara is an Attorney, Author and Speaker. He is also the author of the Personal Development Toolkit, Keys to Financial Freedom, The Power Within, and Keys to Effective Time Management. Send your feedback to [email protected] or Like his page on Facebook, or Whatsapp: +263 718 867 255

 

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