One of the most precious things God created is time. So, make sure you use it well. You can actually be busy doing nothing in particular.
Ladi Ayodeji
Everyone should know that every minute counts. It is a fact of life that time waits for no one. Time is not a respecter of persons. Once lost, time can’t be regained; you only try to make up for lost time. You can’t regain it.
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Invest your time, it is very limited and you can’t have enough of time. We all wish we could extend our day beyond 24 hours so that we can accomplish more. One of the most precious things God created is time. So, make sure you use it well. You can actually be busy doing nothing in particular.
Most people would tell you they are very busy, but they have nothing concrete to show for it. What you produce by being busy justifies the time you spend on that particular thing. Even, if you decide to rest or sleep, you are busy doing something. If you idle away and waste your precious time on nothing in particular, you are busy doing nothing. Most Nigerians are not time-conscious. They spend hours on things that could be done in minutes.
For evidence, most of the traffic gridlock you see on Lagos roads are caused by minor disputes between vehicle drivers, over the right of way. One car blocks the road because another vehicle claims the right of way. Precious time is wasted on needless disputes that could be avoided if one driver could just let go. In government offices, gossip is the order of the day. Workers spend working hours doing nothing because they know they’d get paid at the end of the month. We reward lack of productivity and glaring inefficiency in the Nigerian public service.
The truth is that most people in this country don’t like to work. It has been so because we are not accountable. We have a culture that celebrates wealth without work. Government workers stop work and are often set to go home an hour before official closing time. On Fridays, after some workers go to mosque, they don’t return. In the civil service, it is a fact that malingering is common among workers. That is why the sector is not productive. God help you if you need an urgent service from a government office!
Go to the vendor’s stands in the mornings and watch able-bodied youth idle away, arguing over European soccers stars. You wonder why these young men can’t get themselves busy with something productive. My questions to these folks: can’t you think? Education enables you to reason properly. It broadens your intellect and worldview. Why should you spend such precious time of the day at the vendors’ arguing about soccer? Only a lazy youth can be jobless in a commercial city like Lagos. I stand corrected. If you don’t know what to do, I give permission to chat me up on WhatsApp, I’d give you free counsel on what to do.
Let every minute of your life count. God has deposited something inside of you waiting to be discovered. The miracle you need is not in a church or prayer camp. It is within you. Think hard, pray hard for divine revelation. Go to career counselors like me, they’d tell you how to maximize your potential. Learn to task yourself. The human body is naturally lazy, it doesn’t want to work. You have to push it. Opportunities may not drop; you may have to create your own opportunity.
Many young people spend all their time in churches or prayer meetings. It is good to worship God, but you just have to work, if you hope to create wealth. There’s no sweatless prosperity anywhere. Of course, if you sow, you’d reap a harvest according to Biblical principles, but you can’t live on that alone. You have to be productive to get by in the world. I am a firm believer in the prosperity principles as taught by the Bible, but I believe that you should balance this great teaching with work. Faith must be backed by work.
If your mind is idle, it becomes the devil’s workshop. If your hands are free, they’d be available to do mischief. Negative thoughts tend to occupy an idle mind. That’s why it is called the devil’s workshop. I often say God never creates a useless person. Never! God is highly productive. With God every second counts. We are just a few days to the end of the year. Time starts flying, or so it seems once we hit the ember months. If you are not careful, you’d discover, to your surprise and embarrassment that you didn’t achieve anything this year.
Therefore, it is not too late for you to roll up your sleeves and tighten your belt. Hit the ground running. Look for something to do. Do everything legitimate that can fetch some bucks. Don’t wait for the ideal job. Any job is just good for this moment, just to get busy. If all you can make is enough to feed and pay a few bills, it is not a sin. Just get busy.
Sometimes, you may have to swallow your pride. Get down from your high horse and pick up that lowly paying job, just to survive for the moment. It is not your fault that the economy is bad. Find a way around it. The politicians who ruined the economy have nothing to offer you but excuses. Ignore their false promises and do something for yourself. That’s the best admonition I can give you at the moment. Always, necessity is the mother of invention. That’s how it is. Out of scarcity, lies plenty and abundance. All it takes is a resourceful mind to dig deep for that gold hidden in the belly of the earth, for that black gold (crude oil) buried in the belly of the ocean. Only the deep can call to the deep. You have to be a deep thinker to do something truly extraordinary.
If you put extra effort in your thought or in deep thinking, nature will definitely reward you in due season. Nothing good comes easy; nothing comes of nothing. Unless you are busy doing something productive, you will live in abject poverty and your life would be miserable. You’d have no one to blame but yourself, if in a world where even the physically challenged are excelling in sports, business and every endeavour under the sun, you continue to idle away and waste your destiny.
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Weekend Spice:
“Most folks are about as happy as they make up their mind to be.”
– Abraham Lincoln.
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Ok folks, enjoy your day and stay motivated.
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Ladi Ayodeji is an Author, Rights Activist, Pastor and Life Coach. He can be reached on 09059243004 (SMS & WhatsApp only)