You Matter in Essential Matters

One sure thing I would be grateful for in 2012 although the year may be quiet a young one is the privilege to have presented me with very challenging issues and debates on morality, existence, essence, conscience, beneficence, origin, destiny, values, etc. These are hard questions philosophers and the best minds all through time have fought and pried into. Some critics mock life and deny such pursuit's essence yet haunt for life's meaning in the bosoms of their own quiet hearts and minds. No human being has ever escaped the need to grapple with these tough issues. The main argument to me over the past few days has been whether all this grandeur and order is a fact of matter plus chance plus time or that the evil and difficulty to grapple with all the complexities of life is a noble deliberate plan of a higher transcending being. It may not be easy to just choose one but we have to if we must live, it may be a choice of faith or reason but eventually you MUST decide a world-view to live with.

Each of these fundamental positions begets principles that anchors on it. Paradigms are fundamentally conceived from whether or not life in itself proceeds out of randomness or it is purpose-driven. These two key world views make a huge difference in how we make all life decisions. We all have a choice to believe in either one or worse off abstain from deciding at all but the truth will still remain that all your decision ever to be made will borrow counsel from your sub-conscious belief of origins.

I asked a senior colleague I respect his options very much today for example his world view and all the answer I got was, you will be very confused if I share them with you. The simple question that came to me was, is he confused by his own position because suggesting that your position may leave nothing but confusion seems to suggest to me that you only have a confused position. And I must say I honestly understand his position because many over years have tried to understand and have not found truth but vague standards as it may be in many instances. But a less obvious question stems out from his answer, maybe I have not much understanding to comprehend such matters of essence and such great value yet.

I decided to write this post because of the second question I came up with. Are we as a society running away from objectively and honestly seeking TRUTH because of the complexities and sensitivity that may be around it or we are just taking on assumptions and rumours of other people gullibly? It is quiet possible to get a response such as these things may only be decided as matters of faith and thus it should be left at that. Good as it may be, I wonder if matter of faith may stem from TRUTH and assuming not, does such matters of faith affect and contribute to Socio-economic development in any way?

Without being philosophical the answer is clearly YES! As a matter of fact, such things as we call faith is the foundation for all the systems that we have; education, financial, religious, just name them. Are matters of such importance and such varied implication been left to individual preferences and personal feeling to decide? Maybe prisicely so.

I post this article to insight the curiosity of all of us into matter of essence and great implications such that we may begin to consider the foundation once again because if the foundations are destroyed, what could ever be built? I entreat serious engagements on debates of essence. We advocate a position as we have found TRUTH but that does not in any way stop your own search. I think we only lose when we lose the passion to find TRUTH. I urge that we seek answers wherever it may be found even in the corridors of doubts. I humbly employ people to openly share with such zest their findings as with the zest truth was sought. Let us all have a course to think of such things as:

1. Eternity and Existence
2. Morality and Essence
3. Accountability and Conscience
4. Values and Ethics.

Let me end this with two quotes, the first is from Goethe who was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath who says, "If you want a wise answer, ask a reasonable question" All I entreat is that you may find questioning matters of essence important and not one to run away from as the case may be now. Let us approach these issues boldly with reasonable questioning. 

Finally is a quote from the lyrics of a song from the movie The Crow which is a 1994 American action film:

"We walk the narrow path
Beneath the smoking skies
Sometimes you can barely tell the difference
Between darkness and light.

Do we have faith
In what we Believe?
The truest test is when we cannot ...
When we cannot see ...

The campaign is to test that which may have been called faith and to find what truth is. Join the cause for you matter in the search. Many cannot see, and those who are sure of the light must bear witness of it! We must seek through our hearts, minds and souls and every clue would be needed.

HAVE A BLISSFUL YEAR BEING SURE OF SUCH THINGS AS MATTER!

Managing Time in 2012

The year is still queit young, a much approriate time to talk about time management. It's five days out of three hundred and sixty five and that may not sound much but that is like 120 hours since we began the year. Time gets pretty much interesting as it is broken down into its fundamental units. Time perfectly presents itself as fleeting in its basic units. The message of this blogpost is to spell the critical need to guard and prudently use the passing seconds because they are the hopes we pray for and passionately resolve on.

The summary of someone's life is the time they spend on earth. The rich and poor, the old and young, male and female and the pretty and ugly are all blessed with a common good: The same duration of time within the day. Such space of eternity is given to the sons of men to do as they will and find most pleasing. The truth nevertheless is that such use of the minutes produces a ripple effect which in the end set the tone for someone's destiny. Below are some useful lessons to learn about time and how to effectively manage yourself within the given space of duration in 2012.

1. We all have very little control over time in itself. The very first lesson on time I want to share with you is the need to know the old time proverb, time and tide waits for no man. No man has the powers to control time. Time is a universal principle and general truth no one can alter. What we all have to control over is ourselves within the time given. Time management therefore becomes primarily a self-management process.
2. Time Management is only important in relation to a vision. If there is nothing to do, there is no worries about what you do with the time you have. How well to structure time is secondary to what all this time is going to be used for. A vision begats Time consciousness. A hopless person is one who mismanages time simply because he or she has too much to do very little.
3. Time is the only currency of Life: The only gift we all naturally possess is time which we exchange for any other gift. We must therefore understand time is to be traded. Time is a means to TRADE for whatever one may desire. We trade with time for an education, trade time for a paycheck, trade time for relationships, trade time for spiritual upliftment. Time must be best understood as all we have to exchange for all we may ever desire. Cost of things must therefore not be measured in monetary terms but in value of time used or wasted.
4. Discipline and Self-Control are the only personal tool that makes all others tools work: You may use a to-do list, daily planner, organizers, time action machines after you have master discipline and self-control. These other tools are wonderful in themselves and I recommend at least one for you this year. But I want you to know that none of them achieves anything on its own. It is eventually you who decides to do what you have set out to do with these time management tools.
5. Plan the next day before you sleep each day and examine how worth that day has been: Avoid the trap of falling into the busyness of life with a little plan then you try to figure out a plan in the midst of the heat. Determine before each day what you will use that day for in respect to your bigger vision. Don't leave any day to chance because in such is a great temptation to waste. Determine how relevant each day has been by its contribution to your ultimate vision for life and set the tone for the next day with a plan even beforee its dawn breaks.

A wise man once appropriated the life of man and divided it into morning, afternoon, evening and night. His morale was as fast as the day goes down so shall the life of a man go down quickly. But his lesson was this, manage the morning well because it contains the strength of the day, the hopes and the aspiration, use the afternoon fruitfly because it is the heat of the day and the time of aggressive work. Watch the sunset because it is when the day ends slowly and efforts receeds, sleep at night because all that could be done in the day has been done. I share this story because we are still in the morning of the year, let each quarter of this year be a time bound for the day of the year and find a good cause to use each part of this year for.

Finally, time is God's gift to humanity and how we use it is our gift to God. 2012 as a package of every big and small thing desired and gotten depending on how well we value and use time in relation to the big picture. Never forget the Irish for they say, "Time is so precious that it is dealt out to us only in the smallest possible fractions-a tiny moment at a time."

I pray you find value in 2012 because you will learn to use time optimally because to snatch the passing moment and examine it for signs of eternity is the noblest of occupations as said by Halle. Never forget that even 80% effectively use of time wastes an approximate 15 years of your life. Give no place to little wastes of time. Let focus drive you to ultimately achieving your goals because you will guard the fleeting seconds and minutes.

PEACE

I know so many declaration, affirmations, resolutions and themes of the year have already gone forth. Very noble are such act because it gives us direction and focus for the days ahead in the year. In the midst of all our pursuits do I want to share briefly a common theme we all share as human being, Africans and  Ghanaians more importantly. This is the theme of PEACE.

I pray I can share this message loud enough to the ends of the world this year. Maybe we indeed will when God grants us the leave for The Eagles' Wing National Peace Tour 2012. This theme of peace is very important to us as Ghanaians because whatever the year may be to us; open doors, double possibilities, great breakthroughs, mega manifestations, it will only be achieved in an environment of peace. Peace is not an option in 2012, it is a need for us! The year 2012 presents us with the opportunity to either strengthen our claim as the beacon of hope for Africa's development and democracy or to delete the small credibility hard fought with the last two decades.

I believe in the peaceful nature of Ghanaians that is why I share this message to remind us of our nature of being accommodating and peaceful. My message of peace for the year is that all may find:

1. Inner Peace first: We can only radiate the peace we have within. Thank God this season provides us with a time to reflect on the birth of the Prince of Peace. Seek Him, endeavour to find him, find peace for your soul because that is where it all begins from. No one can give unless he/she has!
2. Let us all Advocate for Peace: It is our collective responsibility to advocate for peace this year. Talk about it to your small groups and to your big groups. Cease every opportunity to share the message of peace to anyone who will listen. Sharing it enough will make us hear enough to seek otherwise.
3. Forbid your glory to be used only as an instrument of violence: Violence wax great by patronage. Cease to be used to sow, water, garden the seed of violence in any form imaginable.
4. Power chaser should do it in the spirit of national interest and not selfish ambitions: No person ceasing power by any means such as will breed violence is worth patronage because he/she knows not the purpose for wanting such.

We all have a duty to our homeland, to build and defend the heritage once won for us through the blood and toil of our fathers. Above all, we have an exercise in will to make, to choose for our dear nation. May we with prejudice to none choose the best man for Ghana based on issues and in the spirit of peace.

LONG LIVE GHANA

LONG LIVE PEACE IN GHANA

LONG LIVE PEACE FOREVER MORE