Bukola Edem
I gather that Africa is the richest continent; most endowed with natural resources but guess what, it is the poorest in the world. On the flip side, Europe is the second smallest continent in the world, not having anything close to the wealth of resources Africa has, but it is about the richest continent in the world. What is the problem here, what is the cause of this dysfunction? The mind-set.
Wikipedia describes the mind as a set of cognitive faculties including consciousness, perception, thinking, judgement, and memory. It is usually defined as the faculty of an entity’s thoughts and consciousness. It holds the power of imagination, recognition, and appreciation, and is responsible for processing feelings and emotions, resulting in attitudes and actions.
Mind-set is everything and that is why the bible says in Romans 12:2, “… [to] be transformed by the renewing of our minds”. Meaning a total change, a complete turnaround can occur when there is a change of mind, a paradigm shift in your mind.
Next question someone might ask is, how does a change of mind-set happen? I like to answer that with this quote from Henry Ford- “Whether you think you can or you can’t, you are right”. Mahatma Gandhi once observed, “Your beliefs become your thoughts, your thoughts become your words, your words become your actions, your actions become your habits, your habits become your values, your values become your destiny.”
So let’s reverse that, to get to my purposed destiny,
- Have the right values put in place
- These values will come as a result of habits that have been nurtured
- These habits are a result of your actions
- Your actions are products of your words
- Your words are an expression of your thoughts
- Your thoughts are a result of your belief
To change your mind-set into positivity and productivity; you need to work on this chain. First is your belief, which in turn, will affect your thoughts. Your way of thinking will produce the kind of words you speak, and these words will move you to taking the correct steps in the right direction (action). Action in the right direction consistently, will develop a habit of success, which in ripple, will develop virtues values to extensively bring you to a good place in every aspect of life.
