ENDURANCE: SMALL GOALS WILL GET YOU THERE.

I just recently started back running after taking a break from it for quite some time. I remember I was up to 5 miles non-stop  I was so proud of myself, but life happened and I got really busy and distracted. Once you stop it’s really hard to get your endurance back up, so I started back running this past week. 

Now everyday that I would get out and start running I would look at my distance watch and just say let me just make it one non-stop mile today... every time I would get exhausted. I would look at the watch and get so frustrated that I was that tired and not even halfway there. I’d get so disappointed I would just start to walk. This happened over and over again, then a friend of mine said, “it’s not about speed, its about endurance.” I thought about those scriptures that say, “the race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong...it’s to the one who endureth to the end.” So yesterday I started running and decided not to look at the watch, not to watch the time, but to just focus on what was right in front of me, one step at a time. The task at hand was not looking up but just thanking God for where I was at that moment. Before I knew it I had run two miles. I had to thank God for those two miles, it wasn't five, but it’s a great start for me to get back to the five.

As I celebrated with my hands in the air, it made me think of life in so many ways. It made me think how we set out with these huge goals for ourselves and they seem so hard to reach. They seem so impossible, and when we have small victories we don’t even stop to notice them, we don’t stop and say, “God thank you for where I am right now.” Life and its circumstances distract us, and we get frustrated because we feel that we’re running out of time. You may not be at your goal yet, but what you need to know is that with each step you get closer. Take some time to stop and thank God for where you are, stop focusing so hard on the finish line and enjoy the race.  Each step toward your goal is a victory, you can’t get overwhelmed with how far you have to go... you just need to focus on one step at a time. Keep going.

Tyler Perry.

IT'S TIME TO BREAK THROUGH.

First, let me just say thanks for another great weekend for Temptation. The movie is doing just what I hoped it would do. It is speaking to marriages and relationships all over. Thank you for seeing it in the theaters. It really is changing lives.

Now on to why I'm writing. It's about 6.am here. Really quiet. The kind of quiet where even a still small voice can sound like a scream. I was sitting here thinking about the first time I took a flight on a small private jet. Many of you know that I'm an aviation buff. I love planes and flying. That's crazy, seeing as how my passion for it started out as a way to get over my fears. And my first flight was my scariest.

That morning, when I got to the airport, it was cloudy, raining and cold. I told the pilots that I was a nervous flyer and asked how the weather was. He said, "it’s rough down low but great up high." Now I'm looking at the sky, it didn't look so great up high to me. But I said a prayer and got on. We took off. It was so turbulent. I was bouncing all over the place. I sat there thinking, "Why would they tell me the weather was fine?"

After about ten minutes of being bounced around I asked the pilots why it was so rough. They told me that it would get better as soon as they were allowed to climb higher. I asked who was holding us at that altitude and they said Air Traffic Control. There were a lot of planes in the area and for our own safety we had to stay at that altitude. I sat down, bouncing around some more, white knuckled and all, until the flight attendant told me that we had just been cleared to climb higher. I felt the plane pitch up and the thrust of those powerful jet engines kick in. We bounced around some more. It seemed to have gotten worse. Visibility through my window was non-existent. I was about to ask them to land and let me off the plane. But then we broke through the clouds. There was the sun and the air was so smooth that it didn't even feel like we were moving.

By now, I'm sure you're wondering, "why am I reading all this?" Well, I’ll tell you. Flying through rough weather is a lot like making it through life. Sometimes there are a lot of dark clouds, a lot of bad moments. So bad that you want to give up or turn around like I wanted to. Sometimes you can't go higher because something or someone is trying to hold you back or you're being held at that altitude for your own safety. Sometimes you’re not ready to go higher. God is protecting you from yourself because he knows that you can’t handle going higher. Sometimes he’s hiding you, preparing you to be ready. (That gave me a million thoughts. I’ll save that for another email). Sometimes it's so dark you can't see which way to go. But just like air traffic control had to give us permission to go higher, this morning I wanted to give you permission to go higher. Climb!! The weather is so much better up there. The sun is shinning bright up higher. Stop living your life so low.

Now it's not going to be easy to get through those clouds. You’re going to have to hold your head up and use all the strength in your soul to get through, but you will. Use prayer as your fuel and go higher. You have just been given permission to climb higher. Fly above it all.

Tyler Perry.

Why Nobody Wants To Hire You.

 15 reasons why HR people don't want to hire you. 

I decided to compile some of the comments my professional HR colleagues were giving why “some people don’t get that job they thought they were qualified for”. Some of the points they highlighted, I totally agreed with and some I don’t . 
But it is always better to err on the side of caution 


1. You're not a magical renaissance machine willing to work for less than what you're worth- 
(Unless you are in a highly technical field, don’t go asking for N500,000 per month salary as an entry level Graduate/Trainee. Pay your dues first with experience!!!) 

2. You don't already have a job (Most employers want to hire a fully baked professional not someone they have to teach the job) 

3. Your CV is terrible (Terrible as in VERY TERRIBLE, full of grammatical errors. Always edit your CV periodically) 


4. You aren't qualified (You were either over qualified or under qualified for that Job Role) 

5. You have a stupid email address (Could you believe a young job applicant; who was supposed to be a graduate holding a fine Degree; coming in with an email address like skinnybone@rocketmail.com, strongdick@yahoo.com or pagan-pope@hotmail.com? *Hmmn* 
Even if you have such 'stupid' email addresses, that doesn't mean you cannot open another more "responsible-looking", address for official/professional use !!! 

6. You're late. (The mere fact that you are late for an interview tells me that there is a likelihood that you are a disorganized person who doesn’t plan ,which employer would want to hire that type of individual 

7. You lied about your Qualifications and Job Duties (Believe me, HR people can sense the lies) 

8. You're not passionate- (There is no life in your speech, it is either you are tired of life or life is tired of you *lol*, the interviewer is trying so hard not to fall asleep. 

9. You look like a jerk online (Google your name and see what come up) 

10. Get a LinkedIn Profile and update it (Network through Facebook and LinkedIn) 

11. You lack confidence 

12. You're just had a bad interview 

14. You're inarticulate (The HR person is trying to understand what you are saying, it’s like you are speaking Latin/French which he doesn't understand) 

15. You're just not likable (You come across as arrogant or cocky) *hmmn* 

Finally, you might be shortlisted for an interview...you pray hard for success...you get there and you perform very well...and then you go home to wait for their call. On the day the HR man calls to inform you of the good news (you have the job!) It is either he hears Shakira comes on stage with her hips that don’t lie...or maybe Davido starts dancing ‘Azonto’.... as your ring-back tune? Anyhow, the company man might end the call before you even answer it OR YOUR NUMBER IS NOT REACHABLE. You would think you missed a call but unknown to you, you just missed a job. There are many reasons people lose job opportunities, including trivial ones like this. 
In the end, some youths would complain that there are no jobs or that they applied everywhere but no one called them back for interviews. 

Share with your friends, SO WE DON’T PERISH FOR LACK OF KNOWLEDGE .