REFLECTIONS FROM THE SECRET PLACE PODCAST WITH CHRISTIE OLOKO

Success in life is God's ultimate desire for every one. However, whether or not you eventually succeed is your choice to make and to do to succeed, when to succeed and how to succeed are all equally choices to make. Many people have the desire to succeed in one area of life or the other but are not willing to take the lead. The situation is even worse among our teeming youths in the society who think success is just some stroll in the pack. Research has however shown that many people; youths and adults alike do not know how to lead themselves, many church folks particularly find it difficult to use their brains to think and take personal intuitive to do the right things that will guarantee them success. when confronted with life challenges and life choices, it is common place to find many make statements like "l believe God for breakthrough" or "I'm waiting on the Lord for His intervention" Now don't get me wrong, I certainly believe in God's leading and I equally believe in God's sovereign power to work miracles in every situation, nevertheless, a careful look a scriptures prove to me that for every miracles that God worked, there is the divine dimension involving God as well as the human dimension involving man. it is always good to think in absolute collective terms, but if you do not equally know how to think in individual terms that requires you to take personal responsibility for self leadership, that will be a good recipe for disaster. Self leadership is an essential must have skill to make part of your skill set if you desire to achieve any worthwhile goals and actualise your dream. Further reasons to make you see the need to horn your self leadership skills will include but not limited to the following undermentioned: (1)You need self leadership to help you minimise the tendency to roam aimlessly in life instead of reigning in life.(2) You need self leadership to overcome the temptation and habit of continuing to wait in abeyance for success to happen without any effort on your part(3)You need self leadership to guarantee you the capacity to survive in the journey of life particularly in this post COVID 19 pandemic era(4)You need self leadership to conduct yourself confidently, courageously and boldly in the midst of life circumstances and not remain fearful, doubtful, hopeless and timid in times of adversities.(5)You need self leadership to enable you be willing and ready to scale new heights in life and rise to new horizons even in the midst of every adversities of life(6)You need self leadership to enable you to find, follow and function in line with God's purposes and plans for your life and not continuously swerve from one plan to the other all the time thereby breaking ranks(7)You need self leadership because without it you don't qualify to lead others whether as a spouse in your family or as a pastor or minister of some sort in your place of worship or as a worker in your organisation whether in government, civic or corporate settings(8)You need self leadership, because it will help you in your relationship both with God and men(9)You need self leadership because it ensures your prosperity and recovery and recovery of all of your God ordained heritage.(10)You need self leadership as the hinge on which doors can either open to you or be shut against you in life(11)You need self leadership as the catalyst on which your capacity to graph opportunities revolves(12)You need self leadership as the foundation to protect you and all of yours from satanic incursions.(13)You need self leadership as the fulcrum on which the quality of the life you choose to live will rest(14)You need self leadership because without it, you will not be able to go far in life and work(15)You need self leadership because it will guarantee you safe arrival at God's ordained destiny for you here on earth and in eternity. I trust that these reasons I have outlined in this episode will make you begin to take the issue of self leadership serious.

Hello, welcome to the Reflections from the Secret Place Podcast. My name is Christie Oloko your host and as always I am glad to have you with me. Today I will be sharing on the topic :YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE OUTCOMES OF YOUR LIFE. Growing up and becoming successful is your responsibility. Becoming an adult vest on you the sole responsibility for your future. The truth is that you cannot move from your present level of life to another without taking full responsibility. The level of responsibility you are willing and ready to take will determine your impact and income, it will also determine your status and success, your results and rewards. You need to become more responsible from today and you need to begin to do whatsoever positive things that are required of you to achieve all you desire in life. Responsibility simply means being RESPONSE ABLE, in other words, it refers to the state of being able to respond to the needs that arise within and without your environment and in your life generally. You are absolutely responsible for everything you are today and you are responsible for whatsoever you will become tomoro. You are responsible and equally accountable for whatsoever you think, what you say, what you do and what you don't do. You can dream big dreams, set wonderful goals, learn to control both your conscious and unconscious mind, improve your self concept and actions, but none of these activities will give you any lasting results until you embrace personal responsibility. You've got to quit blaming other people for your situation! Whether it be your parents, spouse, children, sibling or friends for what ever you think they have done to you or not done for you that you think is responsible for who and where you are in life now. Yes they may not have been there for you when it mattered most, and now that you have realised that these people are not and may never be there for you, what should you do? Are you just expected to continue to sit down and bemoan your situation? No, that will be absolute foolishness! You are totally responsible for the OUTCOMES of your life! At this juncture it is important that I bring out the distinction between being responsible and being accountable; as some people may think that they mean exactly the same thing. But research suggest that these concepts are quite different mindsets. Being accountable means you are answerable and willing to accept the outcomes or results of the activities around you. But responsibility goes much further. It is the mindset that says "I am the person who must make this happen" it means staying on top of problems or on top of your game and not assuming some one else will step in. Going forward in this episode I will like to give you some action points and they are your task for this week if you don't mind, I will like you to go back to where ever you wrote your goals for this year 2020. Revisit that goals sheet or goals booklet as the case may be and critically look at the things you wrote down. Scrutinise them again! What are the goals you are yet to make any move about? Say for instance, your financial goals; what is the goal you st for your self to achieve this year and what have you done so far? Usually, a lot of people write down their goals, say like realizing 50 million naira or dollars, depending on where you are and what you wrote and that is all they have done so far about that goal, just writing it out! They have not taken any other responsibility to do any other things that will make them realise their goals and achieve their dreams. Now it is important to note that what so ever amount you wrote as your financial goals will not just stroll into your bank account or pocket just because you wrote it out. There are things to do and things not to do to achieve your goals and dreams and those things are your responsibility solely and squarely. For you to achieve your desired goals and dreams, You've got to embark on the journey of doing and not doing.

In this first episode of the Reflections from the Secret Place weekly Podcast, I will like to start off by talking on Courage. Courage is the fundamental virtue that is needed by every achiever. Courage is the fundamental virtue that is needed to have success. Courage is the fundament virtue that is needed to prosper in every area of life. Having said all of the above so far, I will like us to look at a few definitions or descriptions of courage: it is the ability to overcome fear in the process of the accomplishment of tasks or achievement of your set goals; it is the strength that is required in order to face up with challenging moments of life without giving up or wobbling; it is the strength in the face of pain and grief; it involves a decision to take the right action in the face of risk, temptation and persecution. Courage is a strong force required to propel you to progress, grow, excel and have breakthrough all round. We will need to develop courage in various areas of life, hence we will need courage in the following areas: Spiritual Courage: this involves developing strength in your inner man. Mental Courage is having the mental stability and intellectual wherewithal to face up with situations in times of challenges. It means to be in control even in the midst of challenges. Emotional Courage is being emotionally intelligent, being able to put your emotions under control. Moral Courage has to do with refusing to lower your moral standard, it means to be not easily moved or shaken; Social Courage has to do with being able to flow with others and showing them the way and leading the way. One of the greatest wants of our age and generation is courage to stand for the truth we know, courage to do the right we know to do, courage to become all that God has destined us to become and courage to achieve all that God has destined us to achieve. It is said of Cromwell one of the army generals of the yesteryears that when he had gathered some raw troops being much in doubt about their courage, he determined to put them to the test before employing them in active service. He therefore placed a number of soldiers in ambush, in a wood through which he had occasion to lead his new regiment and when these rushed out suddenly upon the new levies, all the timid among them turned and fled. These Cromwell sent to their homes as unfit for his service and so commenced the training of the men who became known to history as his "Ironside". In our society today one glaring need is courage, on this occasion of the first episode of the Reflection from the Secret Place podcast, I can not say it better than i have already said, I declare to my audience therefore that one virtue that is needed to become an achiever is courage. I trust that this first episode makes sense to you, blesses you and puts you on the trajectory of success in all of your life's endeavours.