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THE MOMENTUM | E-ZINE, APRIL 2018
Optimal
ADVANCEMENT
A
dvancement is a necessary virtue and pre-requisite for
an excellent lifestyle. Advancement means making
progress; forging ahead; making headway; scaling
higher altitudes. Every person has the right to make advancement
but only few do advance to their full potentials.
Most oen, we advance to a certain level and mediocrity sets in.
We begin to settle for the available. is, because, the available at
every stage of growth is usually better than the previous, hence the
distraction. But that would mean we're being sub-optimal in the
realization of our potentials.
Sub-optimality can never be at par with excellence.
For you to attain optimality in your advancement, your approach
must be Aligned, Balanced, Commensurate, Deliberate and
Evolutionary. is is the A – E strategy of optimal advancement.
ALIGNED
Alignment in its simplest form means a position of agreement.
is simply means all your actions and inactions must be geared
towards achieving some desired feat.
Every of your decisions must be in consonance with your journey.
e months or years spent on engagements not in sync with your
journey is a waste of a part of one's life. at's expensive!
ere's no greater waste of time than to do with zealousness, what
needs not be done at all. Let go of distractions and let your efforts
be coherent with your desired destination.
BALANCED
e principle of balancing the need to meet today's demands with
the need to invest in the prospects of tomorrow is unavoidable.
It should not be automatic to give sole priority to the prospects of
tomorrow and neglect the needs of today. Advancement must be
balanced. Excessive focus on the prospects of tomorrow will result
in ruined health, broken relationships, et al.
It is worthy of note that the needs of today drive our economic
engine and that of tomorrow has the capacity to de ne our
economics in the future. Both are important and priorities should
be set aright. We cannot afford to burn the candle upside down.
ere is no automatic priority; situation ethics apply and balance
must be maintained. Advancement is Balanced!
COMMENSURATE
Commensurate refers to proportionality of efforts with desired
results. Your input must be corresponding in magnitude, in
degree, in proportion with your desired level of advancement.
Efficiency is comparing your output to your input. While it is
possible to be sub-optimal in your output (due to other factors),
you cannot afford to be sub-optimal in your input.
Your results (output) is a variable dependent on your input. You
must put in an effort that can produce the desired result. Input
must be corresponding with desired output.
DELIBERATE
ere is the story of a man who lost his job and lamented to his
clergy saying: “I just lost my job and my wife gave birth suddenly!”
How impossible? Can one give birth suddenly? Isn't it a process? It
takes up to 9 months. So also, is advancement.
Advancement must be well thought out. It must be consciously
and intentionally pursued. ere will be unpleasant setbacks and
attractive distractions but they are what they are – distractions. It
is the conscious and intentional will-power that will keep you
going.
And advancement obeys the law of time. erefore, if I need maize
today, I must have planted it about three months ago. If I needed it
in three months' time, there's no better time to plant it than now.
EVOLUTIONARY
In an era where the surge for immediate grati cation and quick
xes is everywhere, it becomes hard work to be patient with the
natural order of things. Still, growth is evolutionary.
We've allowed the way success looks from the outside direct our
thinking of how it should exactly be internally. We believe it is
more revolutionary than evolutionary. e truth is, the reverse is
the case.
Just like the transition from childhood to adulthood. We advance
from learning how to sit, to crawling, to standing, to walking, to
jumping, to running, et al. e transition isn't revolutionary! It is
an evolution. It is a process. And so is advancement. We must be
patient with the natural order of things.
is is a call to a journey of an excellent lifestyle. A lifestyle that
negates mediocrity; that seeks no revolutionary quick x; that
exhibits willpower to be optimal and is patient with natural order.
Welcome to the optimal lifestyle. You're on earth to be optimal, do
so!
Samuel BADA.
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