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VAIN ACHIEVEMENTS

THE QUEST FOR ACHIEVEMENT
THE desire to achieve is an inherent human attribute. It is natural for people to seek to have more satisfying jobs, cultivate more empowering relationships, or make more money. Good. Everybody desires to get more.

The human desire for more is what drives progress and advancement in society. In the absence of such a desire, apathy will be the mainstay of human existence. Can you imagine living in a world where there is no electricity, water closet or motor transport? Have you considered a world without hospitals, television or pressing iron? Oh, how primitive that would make the world! But the drive for achievement releases inventions that enhance the human experience.

However, achievement must be substantial. It must have strong pillars. Any building that does not have strong pillars will not endure the storm when it comes. It is important that while we strive to achieve more, we do not sacrifice the pillars that make our achievements worthwhile. Don’t strive to live without having a life. Long life without wisdom is vain. Don’t pursue houses without building a home.

ALIVE BUT WITHOUT LIFE
LIFE is uncertain, death is sure. The surety of death makes life a transient experience. The reality of death means that life is lived once and for all. When you die, you are closed to all opportunities and possibilities of life. Because of this, many people are afraid to die. The fear of death creates an obsession for survival.

But what is survival without significance? What is life without meaning? Living without significance makes life empty. It makes life meaningless. While we must be grateful to God for the gift of life, we should also live to make our lives count. That way, we shall have true satisfaction in life. We shall gain contentment that derives not from our achievements but from the depth of our being. Don’t just stay alive, live with meaning. Build a legacy.

WEALTHY WITHOUT WORTH
WHEN you are wealthy, life can get comfortable. But nobody dies and goes away with their wealth. “For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs” (1 Timothy 6:7, 9-10, NIV).

Don’t make the pursuit of wealth your utmost priority because “Life is not measured by how much you own” (Luke 12:15, NLT). Anytime you have to make decisions about wealth, ensure that you do not trade your being for the material things of this world. Remember the question of Jesus, “What do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?” You are worth more than anything and everything in the world. Don’t trade rich relationships, peace of mind, dignity and godliness for anything.

OLD BUT NOT GROWN
IN THE Bible, Proverbs 4:7 states, “Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding.” Proverbs 23:23 also instructs that we should “Buy the truth and do not sell it; get wisdom, discipline and understanding.” Age does not necessarily confer wisdom. Experience is not a reliable currency for wisdom. Yes, long life is a blessing from God but God does not want us to live long without wisdom.

Wisdom is something that you buy – not with age but with discipline and understanding. It comes when you dedicate your life to the pursuit of truth. You become wise when you sacrifice convenience for discipline; when you give your time to pursue knowledge which is true, pure, noble and virtuous. If you are old and bereft of wisdom, then what is the point? We’ve got to pursue knowledge that illuminates our minds and makes life worthy. Don’t just accumulate age. Also read, listen and learn.


HOUSE WITHOUT HOME
IT IS gallant to work hard to secure a roof over your head. But what is a house without a home. The home must be a place of love, support, affection and peace. If you invest in building a house without nurturing an environment where people can experience inner satisfaction, then you are as good as being on the streets.

Everyday, when you rise up and go out there to work hard, you return home at the end of the day. So if your home gives you stress, how can you wake up with renewed strength and energy to go back to work the next day. Don’t live in a nice house that produces stress, turbulence and negativity.

© 2012 Terry Mante
Personal Development Network (PEDNET)
Accra, Ghana

DON'T LOSE YOUR HEAD

OUR POSTURE at the point of success will determine the extent of sustainability. We must have an intentional response when the times are good. It’s one thing achieving something and it’s something else maintaining what we achieve. You don’t relax when you achieve your objective.

Politicians who fight hard to win elections would have a great deal of work to do to keep the confidence of their supporters by keeping to their campaign promises and meeting the obligations of the office they occupy. After months (if not years) of planning and preparation towards the wedding, the couple would have to do a lot more to ensure that the marriage succeeds. Starting a business is a great thing to do but sustaining it is a much greater task to accomplish. Finding a job is tough but securing the job you find is no mean task.

On September 16, 2006, Otabil and Associates – an executive growth and leadership consultancy – hosted a leadership seminar at Coconut Grove Regency Hotel in Ghana’s capital city of Accra. At this seminar, highly-respected motivational speaker and CEO of The HuD Group Dr Yaw Perbi poured out the following:

• The president of the largest independent steel company Charles Schwab lived on borrowed money the last five years of his life and died broke.
• The president of New York Stock Exchange Richard Whitney served a jail term in Sing Sing Prison.
• Albert Fall, a member of United States President Harding’s cabinet was just pardoned from prison so that he would die at home.

The grace-to-grass experiences of these once-great men may be seen as unfortunate. I don’t know what caused their ‘downfall’ but I’d say that when you are at your best, you must not lose your head. When a person achieves a feat, there is a tendency for them to allow complacency, pride and wilderness into their lives. It is quite intriguing that many people begin to walk down the road at the point of their greatest achievements. When you take your blessings for granted, you end up losing them. You must endeavour to be a good steward of all the favour and goodwill that come to your fold. It is not uncommon to find people who get promoted in politics begin to siphon public funds into private coffers. Definitely, such characters would not end up in a good place.

It takes a good attitude to handle the good seasons of your life. Good moments will not last if you don’t condition yourself to perpetuate them. The difference between those who give up or mess up and those who consistently progress is neither in the intricacies of challenges that confront a person. To me, the real difference is in the way we respond to situations. I pray that your accomplishments in life will stand the test of time; that you will not end up broke, in jail or in hell.

To have enduring success, there are three ideas I want you to keep in mind:
• How you begin life is not as important as how you navigate your way through it. Your final destination in life is a manifestation of how you sail through life. It is your responsibility to ensure that you experience the kind of life you desire.
• Your mental predisposition determines how you interpret your experiences.
• Fortunes will wither away if we don’t guard them diligently.

Don’t let success get into your head. Always remember that there is more ahead. You can do more. Don’t throw away what you have worked so hard to achieve. Use what you have achieved as a stepping stone to the next level of your life. Be like the prolific Christian apostle Paul who told the Philippian church, “… I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead.” Hold on. Go ahead.



© 2012 Terry Mante
Personal Development Network (PEDNET)
Accra, Ghana

CHOOSE YOUR RESPONSE

Note: This piece is culled from Terry Mante's book titled Attitude is Everything! Enjoy

THE winds of life always blow. Sometimes they blow towards the direction we are headed so we ride along comfortably. It is also possible for the winds to blow contrary to your course. Such a situation can inhibit your march to success. When you face opposition, what do you do. In his ministry, the Apostle Paul who is regarded as the most influential leader of the early church faced vehement opposition. He was battered, imprisoned, chained, criticised, betrayed and conspired against. In spite of all that, he told the Corinthian church that, “We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; perplexed, but not forsaken; struck down but not destroyed” (2 Corinthians 4:8-9, NKJV).

Paul admits his storms but refuses to allow them to dictate the course of his life. In his moment of despondency, he acknowledges the grace of God as his strength and declares that “when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Inside out
You don’t have so much control over what happens to you but you can certainly determine your response to what happens to you. If (s)he refuses to marry you, it doesn’t mean your end has arrived. The end comes if you do not see beyond that person and move on. If you’ve messed up in any area of your life, don’t close the pages yet. You can begin a new chapter of your life. Irrespective of what happens, it is always possible to choose your response. When you fall, you can choose to either remain down or rise up. Don’t be reflexive in your reaction. Consciously choose your response.

From gloom to bloom
There is a man whose life gives me and many others so much inspiration. His parents were broke. His mother died when he was nine. His first attempt at business drove him into huge debts when his partner died suddenly. His initial bid to become a legislator in the local assembly failed miserably. There were times he had to walk several times to borrow textbooks just because he could not afford any means of transportation. Later on, he tried to secure the vice presidential slot of his nation but even his party’s nomination eluded him. He is someone whose life saw vicissitudes. It would be reasonable for any person who experiences this kind of life to count themselves as complete failures. The gentleman I’m talking about is the fellow we all know as the sixteenth president of the United States. Abraham Lincoln.

President Lincoln had every reason to terminate his life. But he did not! He chose to focus on his future possibilities rather than his immediate challenges. Like Lincoln, you too can decide to focus on the possibilities of your life and turn your stumbling blocks into stepping stones. He used the experience of his personal pain to take America through the soreness of the civil war which culminated in the capitulation of the despicable institution of slavery.

Go through
See your problems as signposts on your road to success. Matthew Ashimolowo entreats that, “There must be a process before prosperity. Tea bag must go through hot water to give off its flavour” Sally Aw Sian does not mince words when she says, “Life’s challenges spur you on to greater efforts, train you to meet subsequent challenges and finally provide you with the moral and spiritual fibre to avoid arrogance in success and despair in failure.”

Your present crises are part of your preparation towards your intended destination. See the advantages in them and learn the necessary lessons. Life is a journey; and that journey is not smooth. On the road of life, you will certainly encounter potholes, speed rumps, bridges and gutters. You have to manoeuvre your way through these impediments to arrive at your destination. When you hit a road block, don’t retreat. Keep moving!

© 2012 Terry Mante
Personal Development Network (PEDNET)
Accra, Ghana

REMEMBER YOUR ORIGINAL DREAM

ONE OF the most exciting things that can happen to any person is to conceive a dream, particularly one that begets restlessness. A restless dream is one that moves you to act. It is a dream that does not make you live in peace until you take steps to pursue it.

Restlessness provokes you into action. When your dream provokes you into action, you are driven by optimism, passion and excitement. At this stage of your pursuit, you are aroused by your dream. You are very much in love with your dream. You believe it is achievable. Nobody or nothing can stop you. You have enough energy to surmount every obstacle that comes your way. You talk about it all day to everybody who cares to listen. It becomes your central focus.

Then beyond the excitement phase, routine steps into the picture. The routine phase is when you get so used to everything you’ve been doing. Here, things seem monotonous, uninspiring and ineffective. Somehow, your initial passion evaporates and boredom takes a seat in your life.

In this routine phase, many people lose faith in their dreams. They park themselves on the side lines of their pursuit and watch boredom drive their dreams away. Have you seen how two people who are crazily in love with one another lose their zest for the relationship and fall out of love with each other? It is very common to see a man do everything he can to win the love and commitment of a woman only to get tired after few months into the relationship. Or a woman puts up her best behaviour to win the attention of Prince Charming only to realise later that the Prince is just as human as other men.

Routine does not mean loss of essence. It just means that you have conquered one stage in your journey towards your dream and that it is time to move on to the next level. When you feel tempted to abandon your dream because of boredom, cast your mind back to the beginning and ask yourself if this is where you initially set out to be. If you do this with sincerity, you will realise two things. First, you have moved from where you were earlier. You have certainly made progress. Second, you will see that even though you have made progress, you have not fully achieved what you set out to achieve.

When you draw these two conclusions, you will embrace the fact that there is still something ahead. Where you are is not your dream land. The dream land is still in front of you. As human as we are, we would experience the flatness of boredom but we should not allow it to drive us to apathy or retrogression.

What can you do about your dreams when routine sets in and introduces you to boredom? I say to you, remember your original dream. The most dangerous threat to your dream is not boredom or tough challenges. The most dangerous threat to your dream is forgetfulness. Forgetfulness would make you lose focus on your dreams. It will make you concentrate on the challenges along the way and the convenience of giving up.

The next thing to do is to step up. To step up means you should lift your game. Operate at a new level. Upgrade your knowledge. Connect with new people. Adapt to new technology. Pray for spiritual renewal. Learn new skills. Stepping up reinvigorates you and gives you new enthusiasm. It moves you closer and higher to where you want to go. If you step up, your capacity will inevitably expand to accommodate the next level of your dream. Remember, the junction of boredom is not your destination.

After stepping up, make a solemn commitment to see your dream through. Decide that you will not give up until you win. Your original goal is always the main goal. Don’t settle for anything less than your original goal. Let it be your minimum standard.


© July 2012 Terry Mante
Personal Development Network (PEDNET)
E:: terrymante@live.com
Accra, Ghana

INSIDE OUT: How to discover yourself from within

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us – Ephesians 3:20 (NKJV)

Power that works in you
It is intriguing to see how babies grow up to become strong and responsible adults. Babies are pure, innocent and fragile. They are so vulnerable and defenceless that even the slightest denial of care and attention could jeopardise their life. In spite of their fragility, they grow to become agile men and women.

Just as a baby who is abandoned cannot evolve to experience adulthood, so will intellect, desires and capabilities that are not tapped remain in eternal cold storage. Responsible parents who know that their children will eventually become adults provide the children with clothing, shelter, food and everything else necessary to ensure that they grow healthily.

When you look at your life, what possibilities do you envisage would pour out? What are you capable of becoming which you are not? What are you doing about these possibilities and capabilities? Are you exploring or ignoring them?

A single word to describe these possibilities and capabilities is POTENTIAL. If you ignore your potential, you cannot maximise your life. But if you explore it, you will experience a full life. The destiny of every person is not in a country, religion or someone else. It is buried in your potential. Your job is to pursue it and exhume it.

Fire that burns in you
Famous American civil rights activist Martin Luther King (1929-1968) challenged that, “A man who won’t die for something is not fit to live.” First century church leader Paul was so driven by the desire to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ that in spite of warnings of imprisonment and hardships, he didn’t make a U-turn. He audaciously responded, “I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me – the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.” Fanatic?! Crazy?! Disillusioned?!

What in the world will make people want to sacrifice their lives for a cause? For King, it was a desire to see an end to racial segregation in America and the rest of the world. In Paul’s case, he was ready to preach God’s word even to death. In every human being, there is something that drives us. This inner drive differs in every person.

It is called passion. Passion is an understanding you have which no one around you has. It is an interest you have that consumes you. It is a job you will gladly do even if nobody recognises or rewards you for it. Passion is the first thing you think about when you wake from sleep. It is that which makes you extremely happy or sad. It is that segment of the news which always catches your attention. Passion is the dominant theme of your conversations. Passion is not something you study for in school or emulate from others. It is something you are born with. It is inherent. It is at the centre of your being. It is part of who you are. Everybody has it. You have it too.

Tools that sit in you
One thing that became very clear to me when I was in high school was my literary ability. I realised that I scored excellent marks in subjects like History, English, Social Studies and Economics without much struggle. Somehow, I knew how to present facts and write essays in a way that impressed my teachers. I guess it was also because I often read texts and notes on those subjects.

For Economics, I read all the notes and skipped all the graphs and diagrams – every one of them. With regards to Mathematics, I never studied on my own until I had assignments to complete. Even with the subjects that I was inclined to study a lot, I scored higher marks in answering essay-type questions than in answering multiple-choice questions. I often wondered why. Also, I was not particularly enthused about Science and Mathematics. I only studied them because they were required courses. And that was a grave bother to me.

Now, connecting the dots, everything makes sense to me. I have discovered that I am naturally wired for literature. I am not wired for science or arithmetic. Neither am I for music or athletics. Your wiring or natural inclination to be good at something is called talent. Talent is the instinctive, inherent and intuitive ability to perform with ease and finesse in a particular field. Again, talent is not something you learn. It is something you are born with and it lies within you.


TALENT is your vehicle. Passion is your fuel and potential is your destination. The good news is that, all three are found in you. Discover, develop and deploy your talent. Feed your passion and work to become the best you can be.


© July 2012 Terry Mante
Personal Development Network (PEDNET)
Accra, Ghana

THE TRUST FACTOR IN RELATIONSHIPS

JUST as a door will not swing without hinges, so will any relationship that is not fastened with trust become comatose. Your level of trust for your partner is an indication of how confident you are about your relationship. Without trust, you will not have enough faith to invest for the sustainability of your relationship.

In spite of the critical role of trust in relationships, many people do not take steps to cultivate trust in their relationships. It is often taken for granted that because love is present, trust is not a matter to be worried about.

However, I think that because of how important trust is, it should be on the front page of conversations between partners. Don’t take it for granted that because you love each other, trust is a matter of course. Indeed, many relationships that break up as a result of infidelity started on the platform of love. Love alone is not enough to make the relationship strong. As a matter of fact, the reason many break ups hurt is because at the time of the break up, the love ball still rolls.

If you don’t deliberately institutionalise elements of trust, when winds of pressure blow over the relationship there is likelihood that both you and your partner will be blown away. Trust is not something you assume. It is the product of a system of honesty, openness, accountability and respect.

HONESTY
IF BOTH you and your partner are honest to each other, there will be a semblance of trust in the relationship. Honesty is about fairness, truth and moral uprightness. The best way to inject trust into any relationship is to tell your partner the truth at all times. Anytime you tell a lie, you are digging a hole of distrust and suspicion. No matter how difficult the situation is, you will be better off telling the truth. While telling a lie may seem convenient in a moment, truth will triumph in the long run.

OPENNESS
THIS is a thorny issue in many relationships. Should you be able to answer your partner’s cell phone when it rings? Is it acceptable to read text messages on your partner’s phone? To what extent must privacy be allowed in relationships?

In a business partnership, it is normally expected that parties will be transparent to each other about everything they do in relation to the business. In romantic relationships however, both parties commit their lives to the relationship. Therefore the logical thing to do in this regard is to be transparent with your life. Such transparency could help build intimacy and minimise incidents of suspicion.

As much as possible, people in relationships should not hide things from each other. If you commit to a relationship (especially marriage or one leading to marriage), you must work to get to a point where you learn to communicate with your partner in such a way that even in your privacy, there is transparency. Transparency removes shades of doubt and insecurity.

ACCOUNTABILITY
WHEN it comes to accountability in relationships, two ideas are important – responsibility and explanation. Responsibility is the degree to which you are obligated to your partner and the relationship. Explanation is the clarification you give to issues and situations.

Are you willing to let your partner in on why you couldn’t answer your phone all day? Will you tell your partner about the nature of relationship you have with members of the opposite gender? Accountability is when you answer to issues that are of concern to your partner – not only because your partner asks, but also due to your own desire to ensure that your partner understands.

RESPECT
RESPECT is about esteem. It is the level of admiration you have for each other. It is the amount of deference you give to each other. Do you seek each other’s views when making important life decisions? You may not always agree with their views but it’s a way of saying, “I cherish your advice. You are intelligent enough to advice me.”

Respect is also about not taking each other for granted. For the long-term sustainability of your relationship, it is imperative that you constantly find ways to demonstrate that you feel honoured to have the person as your partner. Let them know that you are proud of them.

GUARD TRUST
TRUST is not something you leave to chance. You must treat it like a garden. Cultivate it, nurture it and you will reap a great harvest of unbroken love in your relationship. No amount of trust is enough for the lifetime of a relationship. Each day in the life of the relationship is an opportunity to invest and deepen trust. If you don’t pay attention to this on daily basis, it could slip out. Trust is the fuel that keeps the flame of love ablaze.


© 2012 Terry Mante
Personal Development Network (PEDNET)
E:: terrymante@live.com
T:: +233.268.816.545
Accra, Ghana

MAKING CAREER CHOICES

VEHICLE FOR LIFE
A CAREER is a vehicle that carries us through our journey of life. Without a career or the prospect of one, life can be boring. Much of our socialisation from childhood through adulthood is geared towards securing for us stable and successful careers. Our education, values, lessons and skills acquired through the course of our lives are intended to enhance our career prospects.

A good career provides a means by which we participate meaningfully in the affairs of life. It can be an important stream of income and a source of confidence and satisfaction for many people.

JOB
FOR MANY people, the idea of a career has reference to their job. A job is any activity you are paid to do. This may have nothing to do with one’s education or aspirations in life. So long as they are being paid for something, they have life going on for them. The only consideration when it comes to a job-career is the financial benefit.

People who view career with the job mentality become frustrated in life when they are unable to secure an arrangement that offers them financial rewards in exchange for their services. This mentality is the reason unemployment has become such a notorious economic and social menace. Most of the time, people complain about unemployment not because there is nothing to do but that there is no activity for which somebody is willing and able to pay them.

PROFESSION
MANY times, I have had people approach me to help them find jobs. Then I ask, “What kind of job?” To such a question, I hear a response, “I read Economics so anything in that line will do.” While I admit that there is nothing wrong with seeking to be engaged in an activity that matches your education, I feel it is myopic to limit your options in life to what you study in school.

A profession is what you are trained to do. You are a lawyer because you attended law school. You cook because you have studied catering. You teach because you are a product of a college of education. You are a nurse because you have been trained in a nurses training college. You are an accountant because you studied accounting in school. You sew because you have learnt fashion and dressmaking.

The main platform for engagement by people with the profession mentality is their training. Their claim to life is their education. They cannot dream beyond their education. Such manner of thinking becomes an obstacle for those who are not well-educated. For highly-educated people who are profession-minded, they are not able to access the broad range of opportunities that education provides. Their scope of productivity is bounded by their education. If this is how you think, what will you do if you graduate from a course and you discover that there is no employment vacancy in that field?

MISSION
MY IDEA of a career is not just a job or a profession. A career is not just about earning an income. It is about pursuing the essence of your life. It is becoming what you were born to be and doing what you have been destined to do – mission.
If we see career as a mission to be fulfilled, none of us will ever complain of unemployment. Every individual on the face of the earth was born with a specific mission. The mission is the work of your life. It is a God-given mandate. If you focus on it, you will never feel unemployed.

It is that mission which helps us to live with meaning and make a significant impact. Our real career is to discover our mission and fulfil it. Yes, a job will give you income and a profession will unleash your skills and competencies but they will not guarantee you fulfilment. A mission however, will give you fulfilment and everything else that a job and a profession offer.

So instead of merely pursuing jobs for the pay and professions because of our training, let’s order our lives this way – find your mission, train yourself for your mission and get paid for pursuing and fulfilling your mission. To find your mission consider your talent (natural abilities), passion (heart yearnings), personality (unique attributes) and experiences (life realities).

The purpose of a career is not only to help you make a living but to give you a meaningful and value-enhancing experience of life.


© June 2012 Terry Mante
Personal Development Network (PEDNET)
E:: terrymante@live.com
T:: +233.268.816.545
Accra, Ghana

READING FOR COMPREHENSION

WHEN I was a high school student at St Peter’s in Ghana’s eastern region town of Nkwatia-Kwahu, I had a mate who was extremely good at memorising notes given to us in class. Sometimes, while I would be busy struggling to make meaning out of certain topics, this guy would appear from nowhere and begin to recite from memory the entire lesson notes in a matter of minutes. Whenever he did that I got shaken a bit, that what I was finding difficult to absorb was a piece of cake for another person.

Yet, most of the time I performed better than he did in examinations. I never understood why I did better than someone who could recite all his notes from cover to cover. But now I know why. My friend often read with the sole objective to memorise the words of his notes without seeking to understand the concepts the words represented.

Literacy confers the ability to read but not necessarily the ability to comprehend what you read. It takes a sense of purpose and consciousness to make sense of what you read. Don’t take it for granted that because you are literate, you will understand everything you read. Effective reading is an art which can be learnt and perfected through series of practices.

Before you begin to read anything, set your objectives. Why do you want to read this material? Is it for entertainment, inspiration, information or relaxation? Setting an objective right from the beginning helps you to know what to look out for while reading. If you read without any conscious objective, you will only end up accumulating facts that do not make sense to you.

You should establish some linkage between what you read and your life or career. If you determine how relevant what you read is to you life, education or work, you would most likely stay focused and definitely grasp something useful from your reading.

Again, before you read actively, you must have a feel of the particulars. Look out for the name of the author, the publisher, place of publication, number of pages, title of work, number of chapters and the central theme that the work covers. All these will help you to decide whether or not the material is worth reading. It will also help you to establish a degree of confidence and familiarity even before you begin to read.

Another recommendation is to engage the material with questions while reading. In your mind, employ the use of questioners such as how, why, when and what. Sometimes you can even decide to play the devil’s advocate by challenging some of the things you read and see if the script can defend itself by the time you get to the end. Or you could get cynical with phrases like ‘and so what.’ All these approaches will help you evaluate whether or not your objectives are being met throughout all your stages of reading a particular text.

Taking notes is another way to ensure that your reading is not a futile venture. You can take notes in different ways. You could write your impressions unto a separate medium such as paper, word processor file or personal blog or use a highlighter to mark important sections of the text. This approach ensures that you focus on portions of the text that are important to you, thus gleaning meat from it.

If my prescriptions do not work for you, it means you are probably not taking care of something – yourself. Yes, yourself. You must know your best context or atmosphere for reading. Some people read better in the night when everything is serene. Others like to read when there is some noise at the background. There are people who require the radio to be on or some music to be played when they are reading. Some also like to read continuously for hours without any interference while others prefer to read amid intermittent breaks. What about you? When is the most conducive time for you to read? Within which circumstances is your mind alert to grasp things you read? If you examine yourself well, you will know. Then you can read and understand.

Reading to understand is so critical in the knowledge because your effectiveness will be based on what you understand. If you can’t understand what you read, then the one who does not read is better off in the sense that you would have wasted your time – another critical factor of production in the knowledge economy. Don’t just read. Read to comprehend.


© June 2012 Terry Mante
Personal Development Network (PEDNET)
Accra, Ghana

WRITING RIGHTLY

WRITING is a means by which we produce and share knowledge. In the knowledge economy, people who have mastered the art of writing set the agenda for societal discussions and determine the direction and pace of change. Much of what is discussed on radio and TV is gleaned from newspaper articles, journals, reports produced by government agents and civil society or books.

Writing is no more a specialty for secretaries, journalists or professional authors. It has become a prerequisite for meaningful participation in all spheres of human discipline. Listen to Professor Kenneth Davis of Indiana University:

“In this knowledge economy, writing is the chief value-producing activity. But you may not be writing as well as you could. That may be because you think writing requires a special talent.

In fact, writing is a process that can be managed, like any other business process. If you can manage people, money, or time—then you can manage your writing.
And you can profit from the result.”

Yes, you can profit from the result of sharpening your writing skills. And no matter your training or your field of work, it is an imperative that you learn to write and write well. How can you write and write well? How can you write in a manner that makes sense to your readers?

CONCEPT
WHETHER it’s a report, letter, book, SMS, an e-mail or essay, every write-up must encapsulate an idea. If you are not clear about what you want to project, how can you write to make sense to your readers?

Writing is not just a matter of putting words together on a piece of paper or a computer screen. Writing is the use of words to convey meaning. Before you draw your laptop, tablet or pen to scribble something, clarify the idea in your mind.

CONTEXT
WITHIN my scope of activities, I do write-ups for academic, corporate and personal purposes. When it involves academics, my diction, tone and even formatting are different from corporate and personal write-ups. For instance, I do not make use of first person pronouns when I do academic write-ups. Similarly, in corporate write-ups, I use a very formal tone which contradicts the cordial tone I use when I am writing informal stuff.

You can identify the proper context by asking yourself the following set of questions:
1. What do I want to achieve with this write-up?
2. Who am I primarily writing this for?
3. Who else is likely to read what I am writing?

These questions will help you to define the scope and boundaries of what you write. A teacher who prepares lesson notes for students will definitely write in a context different from a note meant for the head of school. So will a man who seeks to win the heart of a lady use a romantic tone to draft a note for her. Understanding context is the key to communicating effectively through writing.

CLARITY
THE objective of getting the context right in any writing endeavour is to achieve clarity. Clarity ensures that the concept of the writer is understood by the reader in exactly the same way that the writer intends it to be. Remember, in writing it is better to imprint your ideas on the minds and hearts of readers than to merely impress them with your words or style without any understanding.

Don’t forget that unlike speaking, you will not have the benefit of physical presence to explain yourself when something is not clear in what you have written. Ensure that your choice of words, style and tone of writing combine to make your work meaningful to at least your core target.

CREDIBILITY
ONE crucial thing writers do not leave to chance is the authenticity of the material they produce. Authenticity preserves the integrity of your work and strengthens it to stand scrutiny. How do you make your work authentic?

1. Be an example of what you write about. For instance, journalists who write to expose corruption in their countries must ensure that they themselves are upright and incorruptible. If you write a medical journal that cautions people about the dangers of tobacco and nicotine, you must not ever be seen smoking. If your lifestyle contradicts your writings, nobody will take what you write seriously.

2. You must also cover your bases through intensive research. Good research will help you to know different faces of your concept and enable you to deliver a balanced output.

3. Be humble enough to admit that you don’t know it all. Therefore, do well to acknowledge all your sources of information. Failure to do that will make you liable for plagiarism. And if you must know, plagiarism is the highest form of intellectual dishonesty.

Having a credible script does not mean everybody will hail your work. It just means that nobody can discredit you. Any disagreement or reservation will simply be a matter of opinion.


© 2012 Terry Mante
Personal Development Network (PEDNET)
Accra, Ghana
E:: terrymante@live.com
T:: +233.268.816.545

The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination - J. K. Rowling

"...some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default."

"...personal happiness lies in knowing that life is not a check-list of acquisition or achievement."

Author of the Harry Potter series, J. K. Rowling delivered Harvard's 2008 Commencement Address. I am glad to present to you what she said. Both the text and the picture (above) were sourced from http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2008/06/text-of-j-k-rowling-speech/ Hey, take note that all the emphases are mine. Feel the inspiration, grasp the challenge as you read.



President Faust, members of the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers, members of the faculty, proud parents, and, above all, graduates.

The first thing I would like to say is ‘thank you.’ Not only has Harvard given me an extraordinary honour, but the weeks of fear and nausea I have endured at the thought of giving this commencement address have made me lose weight. A win-win situation! Now all I have to do is take deep breaths, squint at the red banners and convince myself that I am at the world’s largest Gryffindor reunion.

Delivering a commencement address is a great responsibility; or so I thought until I cast my mind back to my own graduation. The commencement speaker that day was the distinguished British philosopher Baroness Mary Warnock. Reflecting on her speech has helped me enormously in writing this one, because it turns out that I can’t remember a single word she said. This liberating discovery enables me to proceed without any fear that I might inadvertently influence you to abandon promising careers in business, the law or politics for the giddy delights of becoming a gay wizard.

You see? If all you remember in years to come is the ‘gay wizard’ joke, I’ve come out ahead of Baroness Mary Warnock. Achievable goals: the first step to self improvement.

Actually, I have wracked my mind and heart for what I ought to say to you today. I have asked myself what I wish I had known at my own graduation, and what important lessons I have learned in the 21 years that have expired between that day and this.

I have come up with two answers. On this wonderful day when we are gathered together to celebrate your academic success, I have decided to talk to you about the benefits of failure. And as you stand on the threshold of what is sometimes called ‘real life’, I want to extol the crucial importance of imagination.

These may seem quixotic or paradoxical choices, but please bear with me.

Looking back at the 21-year-old that I was at graduation, is a slightly uncomfortable experience for the 42-year-old that she has become. Half my lifetime ago, I was striking an uneasy balance between the ambition I had for myself, and what those closest to me expected of me.

I was convinced that the only thing I wanted to do, ever, was to write novels. However, my parents, both of whom came from impoverished backgrounds and neither of whom had been to college, took the view that my overactive imagination was an amusing personal quirk that would never pay a mortgage, or secure a pension. I know that the irony strikes with the force of a cartoon anvil, now.

So they hoped that I would take a vocational degree; I wanted to study English Literature. A compromise was reached that in retrospect satisfied nobody, and I went up to study Modern Languages. Hardly had my parents’ car rounded the corner at the end of the road than I ditched German and scuttled off down the Classics corridor.

I cannot remember telling my parents that I was studying Classics; they might well have found out for the first time on graduation day. Of all the subjects on this planet, I think they would have been hard put to name one less useful than Greek mythology when it came to securing the keys to an executive bathroom.

I would like to make it clear, in parenthesis, that I do not blame my parents for their point of view. There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction; the moment you are old enough to take the wheel, responsibility lies with you. What is more, I cannot criticise my parents for hoping that I would never experience poverty. They had been poor themselves, and I have since been poor, and I quite agree with them that it is not an ennobling experience. Poverty entails fear, and stress, and sometimes depression; it means a thousand petty humiliations and hardships. Climbing out of poverty by your own efforts, that is indeed something on which to pride yourself, but poverty itself is romanticised only by fools.

What I feared most for myself at your age was not poverty, but failure.

At your age, in spite of a distinct lack of motivation at university, where I had spent far too long in the coffee bar writing stories, and far too little time at lectures, I had a knack for passing examinations, and that, for years, had been the measure of success in my life and that of my peers.

I am not dull enough to suppose that because you are young, gifted and well-educated, you have never known hardship or heartbreak. Talent and intelligence never yet inoculated anyone against the caprice of the Fates, and I do not for a moment suppose that everyone here has enjoyed an existence of unruffled privilege and contentment.

However, the fact that you are graduating from Harvard suggests that you are not very well-acquainted with failure. You might be driven by a fear of failure quite as much as a desire for success. Indeed, your conception of failure might not be too far from the average person’s idea of success, so high have you already flown.

Ultimately, we all have to decide for ourselves what constitutes failure, but the world is quite eager to give you a set of criteria if you let it. So I think it fair to say that by any conventional measure, a mere seven years after my graduation day, I had failed on an epic scale. An exceptionally short-lived marriage had imploded, and I was jobless, a lone parent, and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless. The fears that my parents had had for me, and that I had had for myself, had both come to pass, and by every usual standard, I was the biggest failure I knew.

Now, I am not going to stand here and tell you that failure is fun. That period of my life was a dark one, and I had no idea that there was going to be what the press has since represented as a kind of fairy tale resolution. I had no idea then how far the tunnel extended, and for a long time, any light at the end of it was a hope rather than a reality.

So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realised, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.

You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.

Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations. Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way. I discovered that I had a strong will, and more discipline than I had suspected; I also found out that I had friends whose value was truly above the price of rubies.

The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive. You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity. Such knowledge is a true gift, for all that it is painfully won, and it has been worth more than any qualification I ever earned.

So given a Time Turner, I would tell my 21-year-old self that personal happiness lies in knowing that life is not a check-list of acquisition or achievement. Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life, though you will meet many people of my age and older who confuse the two. Life is difficult, and complicated, and beyond anyone’s total control, and the humility to know that will enable you to survive its vicissitudes.

Now you might think that I chose my second theme, the importance of imagination, because of the part it played in rebuilding my life, but that is not wholly so. Though I personally will defend the value of bedtime stories to my last gasp, I have learned to value imagination in a much broader sense. Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation. In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathise with humans whose experiences we have never shared.

One of the greatest formative experiences of my life preceded Harry Potter, though it informed much of what I subsequently wrote in those books. This revelation came in the form of one of my earliest day jobs. Though I was sloping off to write stories during my lunch hours, I paid the rent in my early 20s by working at the African research department at Amnesty International’s headquarters in London.

There in my little office I read hastily scribbled letters smuggled out of totalitarian regimes by men and women who were risking imprisonment to inform the outside world of what was happening to them. I saw photographs of those who had disappeared without trace, sent to Amnesty by their desperate families and friends. I read the testimony of torture victims and saw pictures of their injuries. I opened handwritten, eye-witness accounts of summary trials and executions, of kidnappings and rapes.

Many of my co-workers were ex-political prisoners, people who had been displaced from their homes, or fled into exile, because they had the temerity to speak against their governments. Visitors to our offices included those who had come to give information, or to try and find out what had happened to those they had left behind.

I shall never forget the African torture victim, a young man no older than I was at the time, who had become mentally ill after all he had endured in his homeland. He trembled uncontrollably as he spoke into a video camera about the brutality inflicted upon him. He was a foot taller than I was, and seemed as fragile as a child. I was given the job of escorting him back to the Underground Station afterwards, and this man whose life had been shattered by cruelty took my hand with exquisite courtesy, and wished me future happiness.

And as long as I live I shall remember walking along an empty corridor and suddenly hearing, from behind a closed door, a scream of pain and horror such as I have never heard since. The door opened, and the researcher poked out her head and told me to run and make a hot drink for the young man sitting with her. She had just had to give him the news that in retaliation for his own outspokenness against his country’s regime, his mother had been seized and executed.

Every day of my working week in my early 20s I was reminded how incredibly fortunate I was, to live in a country with a democratically elected government, where legal representation and a public trial were the rights of everyone.

Every day, I saw more evidence about the evils humankind will inflict on their fellow humans, to gain or maintain power. I began to have nightmares, literal nightmares, about some of the things I saw, heard, and read.

And yet I also learned more about human goodness at Amnesty International than I had ever known before.

Amnesty mobilises thousands of people who have never been tortured or imprisoned for their beliefs to act on behalf of those who have. The power of human empathy, leading to collective action, saves lives, and frees prisoners. Ordinary people, whose personal well-being and security are assured, join together in huge numbers to save people they do not know, and will never meet. My small participation in that process was one of the most humbling and inspiring experiences of my life.

Unlike any other creature on this planet, humans can learn and understand, without having experienced. They can think themselves into other people’s places.

Of course, this is a power, like my brand of fictional magic, that is morally neutral. One might use such an ability to manipulate, or control, just as much as to understand or sympathise.

And many prefer not to exercise their imaginations at all. They choose to remain comfortably within the bounds of their own experience, never troubling to wonder how it would feel to have been born other than they are. They can refuse to hear screams or to peer inside cages; they can close their minds and hearts to any suffering that does not touch them personally; they can refuse to know.

I might be tempted to envy people who can live that way, except that I do not think they have any fewer nightmares than I do. Choosing to live in narrow spaces leads to a form of mental agoraphobia, and that brings its own terrors. I think the wilfully unimaginative see more monsters. They are often more afraid.

What is more, those who choose not to empathise enable real monsters. For without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves, we collude with it, through our own apathy.

One of the many things I learned at the end of that Classics corridor down which I ventured at the age of 18, in search of something I could not then define, was this, written by the Greek author Plutarch: What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.

That is an astonishing statement and yet proven a thousand times every day of our lives. It expresses, in part, our inescapable connection with the outside world, the fact that we touch other people’s lives simply by existing.

But how much more are you, Harvard graduates of 2008, likely to touch other people’s lives? Your intelligence, your capacity for hard work, the education you have earned and received, give you unique status, and unique responsibilities. Even your nationality sets you apart. The great majority of you belong to the world’s only remaining superpower. The way you vote, the way you live, the way you protest, the pressure you bring to bear on your government, has an impact way beyond your borders. That is your privilege, and your burden.

If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice; if you choose to identify not only with the powerful, but with the powerless; if you retain the ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have your advantages, then it will not only be your proud families who celebrate your existence, but thousands and millions of people whose reality you have helped change. We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.

I am nearly finished. I have one last hope for you, which is something that I already had at 21. The friends with whom I sat on graduation day have been my friends for life. They are my children’s godparents, the people to whom I’ve been able to turn in times of trouble, people who have been kind enough not to sue me when I took their names for Death Eaters. At our graduation we were bound by enormous affection, by our shared experience of a time that could never come again, and, of course, by the knowledge that we held certain photographic evidence that would be exceptionally valuable if any of us ran for Prime Minister.

So today, I wish you nothing better than similar friendships. And tomorrow, I hope that even if you remember not a single word of mine, you remember those of Seneca, another of those old Romans I met when I fled down the Classics corridor, in retreat from career ladders, in search of ancient wisdom:
As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.
I wish you all very good lives.
Thank-you very much.


Source: http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2008/06/text-of-j-k-rowling-speech

THE ART OF LISTENING

How can you speak if you have not listened? What will you say if you have not taken time to listen? - Terry Mante

HEARING AND LISTENING
HEARING and listening are not the same. Hearing is the act of perceiving sound. It is involuntary and simply refers to the reception of sound or what is technically referred to as aural stimuli. Listening, on the other hand is a conscious and selective activity which involves not only the reception of sound but interpretation as well.

Hearing doesn’t require effort. You could sit in a room and hear the sound of the engine of a moving vehicle. For you to discern the make of vehicle, you have to listen by paying attention.

VIRTUE OF LISTENING
LISTENING is a means by which we derive content and ideas for speech. So how can you speak if you have not listened? What will you say if you have not taken time to listen? Listening is more important than talking. When you listen, you learn. You beef up your knowledge. You understand. You get inspired. Don’t be in a hurry to have your voice heard. By all means there will be time when your voice will be needed. But really, you gain the right to be heard only after you have listened to others.

CATEGORIES OF LISTENING
THERE are two broad categories of listening you must be aware of – passive listening and active listening.

When you have little motivation to listen carefully, you engage in passive listening. Passive listening is the kind of listening you do when listening to music. For instance, you don’t need to understand the lyrics of a song to enjoy or dance to it. Indeed, you can concentrate on other things while you listen to music.

However, if you were listening to a lecture or a talk broadcast on radio or TV, it would be possible for your mind to drift (or think about other things) and not be conscious of what is being said. In my high school History class, I was once called by my teacher to answer a question. I got up and I had no clue about the question. I didn’t know what the question was. Meanwhile, the question had been asked to the hearing of the entire class. I was in the class physically but mentally I was far away. Disgracefully, I had to tell Ms Baiden and the class that I didn’t know the answer. I couldn’t bring myself to say that I was not paying attention.

The way to cure such a situation is by active listening; which involves listening with purpose – to gain information, receive insights, obtain directions, share interests, understand others, solve problems, etc. This requires a lot more effort than hearing or passive listening.

LISTENING WITH PURPOSE
THE purpose of listening is not just to hear but to understand – to grasp the idea the speaker is attempting to transmit. Follow these time-tested techniques and you will improve your listening skills:

1. Spend more time listening than talking. One thing that I find irritating is to be interrupted while I’m following a discussion or a news story on radio. And it gets even more irritating when the person asks, “What did they say?” Instead of listening, they ask questions or comment on the discussion without getting the full import of what is being said. Don’t talk when the speaker is still talking. Wait, listen before you comment or ask a question.

2. Do not dominate conversation. Typically, a conversation is a verbal exchange of ideas or thoughts between two or more people. It is important that you allow the other person or people to express themselves. The less you talk, the more you listen.

3. Plan responses only after others have finished speaking NOT while they are talking. The temptation to think of what to say next while a person is talking could interfere with your listening efficiency. Relax and listen. When the person finishes, you will definitely have something to say. Even if there is nothing to say, the fact that you listened is a big deal.

4. Keep conversation on what others say, NOT what interests you. If you want people to enjoy talking with you keep the chat on issues that interest the person. Don’t focus too much on yourself.

5. Take brief notes. I hardly listen to a lecture or a sermon without taking notes. This practice helps me to concentrate and crystallize the ideas the speaker tries to put across.

6. Provide feedback. There are several ways to provide feedback while listening – nodding, smiling, gesturing, eye contact and so on.



© 2012 Terry Mante
T:: +233.268.816.545
E:: terrymante@live.com
PEDNET
Accra, Ghana

SPEAKING WITH PRECISION AND CONFIDENCE

Confidence is not born out of mere desire. It is cultivated through practice. - Terry Mante

CHALLENGE OF SPEAKING
THE ABILITY to speak is a universal human endowment. Ordinarily, every human being knows how to speak. However, many people do not know how to effectively communicate through the words they speak. This challenge becomes accentuated when one has to speak to a group of people.

Speaking to communicate effectively may be a natural gift for some people, but for the rest of us it is an artistic skill that can be learnt. Even for those who are naturally endowed with the gift of the gab, there is still a need to learn how to use their gift to communicate effectively.

Everybody who so desires can cultivate the ability to speak to people in a manner that makes sense and resonates with the people.

CONFIDENCE TO SPEAK
MANY people find it tough to speak in public because of fear – the fear of making mistakes, the fear of not making sense, the fear of offending people and the fear of being rejected. Nevertheless, this fear could be overcome. Here are some guidelines on how to overcome your fear of speaking:

1. Esteem yourself: Many people shy away from speaking in public because they feel inadequate. They have low regard for themselves. They freeze in the presence of others. They feel uncomfortable when they are the centre of attention. If that is your challenge, you should learn to appreciate that you are as human as everybody else and that no one is more human than you are. You can control how you feel by seeing yourself as a valuable person.

2. Equip yourself: In speaking to people, one thing that self-esteem cannot replace is knowledge. Before you can speak confidently on a subject, you must have command over it. Command is established by consistently filling yourself up with knowledge through voracious reading, active listening and intense observation. If you do this continuously, you will be ready when the time comes for you to speak.

3. Expose yourself: To be a confident speaker, you must speak. A speaker speaks. Avail yourself of opportunities to practise speaking. Volunteer to do the prayer, be the MC at your family get-together and say the vote of thanks. In conversations, let your views be heard after others have spoken. If you do this often, you will eventually learn to overcome your fears and establish yourself as a good speaker. Practice makes perfect.

DELIVERING EFFECTIVELY
SOMETIMES, when I see certain public officials make speeches on TV I feel pity for them and their listeners. They have a script on the lectern, tilt their head slightly so they can keep their eyes focused on the script and read with a fumbling voice. Their speech writers give them good scripts but they deliver the scripts poorly.

Every public speaker will tell you that the first few seconds or minutes always present a baggage of diffidence and uncertainty. Those who do not cave in in those initial moments are the ones we celebrate as outstanding speakers.
Effective public speakers act confidently. Confidence is not born out of mere desire. It is cultivated through practice. Even when you don’t feel confident, you must act confident. When you act that way, you infuse your audience with confidence and create an atmosphere that boosts your own confidence.

Celebrated speakers also know how to use non verbal elements of speech to drive home their message. Social psychologists and communication experts have found that non verbal communication constitutes about two-thirds of all communication between people. Learning to use non verbal cues would add flavour to your speech.

NON VERBAL CUES

1. Eye contact: This regulates the flow of communication. It signals interest in others and increases the speaker’s credibility. People who make eye contact open the flow of communication and convey interest and concern.

2. Facial expressions: Smiling transmits happiness, friendliness, warmth and liking. So if you smile frequently you will be perceived as more likable, friendly, warm and approachable. Smiling is contagious and makes people respond favourably. They will be more comfortable around you and will want to listen more.

3. Posture and body orientation: You communicate numerous messages by the way you pose and move while you talk.

4. Vocal: Speaking in a monotone voice will present you as boring and dull. You must vary the pitch and speed of speaking.

© 2012 Terry Mante
T:: +233.268.816.545
E:: terrymante@live.com
PEDNET
Accra, Ghana

CRAFTING YOUR MESSAGE

Having a message is not sufficient to make the communication process a resounding success - Terry Mante

MESSAGE
AT THE heart of any communication endeavour is the message. There is no communication without a message. However, having a message is not sufficient to make the communication process a resounding success. It is the manner in which the message is prepared, the medium used to transmit the message, the credibility of the sender, timing of the message and state of the receiver that define the success or failure of the communication process.

Your message is important. That is why you must be particular about how you cultivate and deliver it. To ensure that your message is appropriately packaged and presented, you need to take care of the content and context.

CONTENT
EVERY message is packaged in words and symbols. These words and symbols are what we refer to as language. Language is the tool used to formulate the ideas that the originator of a message seeks to convey. If you want to bridge the gap between your intended message and actual interpretation, you must definitely work on your language. Two elements of language are critical.

First, grammar. Every language is governed by rules that must be observed by all users of that language. If you want to transmit a message in a particular language, ensure that you are well-versed in the rules of the language. You must also know how to apply these rules to make your message comprehensible.

If you communicate in English for example or any other language for that matter, you have to be conversant with subject-verb agreement, tenses and parts of speech (noun, pronoun, adjective, verb, adverb, preposition, conjunction and interjection). If you want to fix your message, you must fix your grammar.

The second critical element of a language is diction. Diction refers to the words you use to communicate your message in a manner that is clear, correct and effective. When you communicate, your goal is not to prove how many “big” words you can amass. Your goal is to ensure that you are understood. However, to have good diction you must expand your array of vocabulary. This will broaden your word options and help you to choose the appropriate words to transmit your message.

CONTEXT
IMAGINE your colleague at the office approach you with a grimace and a fisted arm with a message, “I congratulate you on your promotion. I look forward to working with you.” How would you receive such a message? With a pinch of salt I guess. This shows that in a message, content must be delivered in an appropriate context.

Context is the way the message is delivered; it is called paralanguage – the nonverbal elements in speech such as tone of voice, look in the sender’s eyes, body language, hand gestures, emotions, etc. Context or paralanguage is so powerful that if it is not well conceived by the receiver, the message will be distorted. Context projects the character of a message.

As an author and publisher I know that no matter how good a script is, poor presentation will water down its acceptability on the market. Font style, font size, typeset, design, binding style and print quality influence the character of a work of literature.

COMMUNICATION INFLUENCERS
THERE are four factors that could have an impact on your message.

1. Noise: These are extraneous factors that interfere with your message. They compete with you for the attention of the receiver.

2. Attitude: Don’t focus on yourself. Focus on the other party. If you focus too much on yourself, your message will achieve nothing but conflict and confusion. Watch out for defensiveness (feeling that someone is out there to get you), superiority (the feeling that you know more than the other person) and ego (making yourself the center of attention). Remember, attitude is everything!

3. Culture: Culture is the totality of knowledge, beliefs, arts, practices of a person or group of people. If you don’t have a fair knowledge of the culture of the receiver, you will likely send a misguided message.

4. Situation: Once, in my university days, I proposed to a lady friend right in the middle of examinations. While I was busily negotiating for space in her heart, she was wondering, “So Terry, how are you preparing for the next paper?” No wonder I was bounced. Be sensitive to the environment when you want to transmit a message.


© 2012 Terry Mante
E:: terrymante@live.com
T:: +233.268.816.545
PEDNET
Accra, Ghana

COMMUNICATION 101

For communication to be branded effective, there must be a synchronisation of intention and interpretation - Terry Mante

COMMUNICATION is the exchange and flow of information and ideas from one person to another; it involves a sender transmitting an idea, information or feeling to a receiver (US Army, 1983). Communication becomes successful only if the receiver understands and interprets the information or idea exactly the way the sender intends it to be.

Ineffective communication breeds conflicts, turbulence and failure in relationships, businesses, families and communities. Learning to communicate effectively could be your launch pad for success in the corporate world and in other aspects of life.

CHALLENGE OF COMMUNICATION
THE MAJOR challenge of communication lies in ensuring harmony between intent and interpretation. It’s one thing to have an idea and another thing to communicate the idea in its exact form. Communicating an idea in its exact form means the sender says clearly what they have in mind and the receiver understands exactly what the sender means and gives appropriate feedback.

For communication to be branded effective, there must be a synchronisation of intention and interpretation. The evidence of synchronisation is in the feedback that the message generates from the receiver to the sender. If the original sender perceives that the feedback is in line with the message sent, then it would be safe to conclude that the challenge of communication has been overcome and the goal achieved.

GOAL OF COMMUNICATION
HAVE YOU ever suffered the ordeal of sitting through a lecture where everything the speaker says goes above your head? What about reading a book so full of technical jargons that make no sense to you? That is ineffective communication at its best. When you speak, your objective is not just to impress or to be heard. When you write, you don’t just write for people to read you. You must speak and write to be UNDERSTOOD, just as you want to UNDERSTAND when you listen or read.

The ultimate goal of communication is to understand and be understood.

PROCESS OF COMMUNICATION
COMMUNICATION is not a knee jerk activity that happens when you deliver one big strike. Really, it is a process that follows a chronological pattern whenever it occurs. Here is a four-step process for effective communication:

1. Thought: Every communication process begins with a thought. Thought is the actual idea or information that the sender intends to transmit to the receiver. It exists in the mind of the sender. A thought may take the form of a desire, decision or intention.

2. Encode: A man who desires to have a romantic relationship with a lady may express it in many ways. Some men would call the lady very often or take her out for lunch or dinner. Others would go right ahead and tell the lady what they have in mind. Through these actions, the man sends a message to the lady that “If you give me the chance, I will show you true love and take good care of you.” The conversion of thought to words, symbols or actions for onward transmission to the intended receiver is called encoding.

3. Decode: A lady who receives dinner or lunch advances would interpret these gestures. She might think the man is just being nice and play along or get the exact message the man is sending across. At the decoding stage, the receiver translates words, symbols and actions into concepts they understand.

4. Feedback: Feedback is the response or action that is generated by the message. It is usually at the behest of the receiver. A lady at the receiving end of a man’s advances evaluates the man, his manners and his message. She then makes a decision and communicates the decision to the man. The decision which is sent back to the original sender is the feedback. Communication is not complete until feedback is received by the original sender.

BUSINESS OF COMMUNICATION
COMMUNICATION is often seen as a specialised function reserved for journalists, marketing professionals, public relations executives and career public speakers. In many organisations, corporate communications is reserved for a department with specialised personnel.

However, communication is everybody’s business. It is a critical success factor in personal and professional development. Each of us must constantly seek to enhance our communication skills. It is our business.

© 2012 Terry Mante
PEDNET
Accra, Ghana

STAGES OF ACHIEVEMENT 2

"Don’t drown in excitement when you achieve something good. See beyond the excitement of the moment and think" - Terry Mante

RECAP OF PART ONE
Many people wish to experience the joy, fulfilment and satisfaction that accompany remarkable achievements. The process of achievement is analogous to the process of having a baby. If you want to achieve something in your life, the first step to take is to conceive an idea or a dream. After conception, you must acquire the capacity to go through the gestation phase of your dream.

If you are interested in seeing the full piece, use this link: http://terrymante.blogspot.com/2012/03/stages-of-achievement-1-conception-and.html. Now I continue from where we left off in part one.

GESTATION
GESTATION is the period between conception of a dream and actual fulfilment of the dream. Gestation phase could be the most uncomfortable stage on your way to getting something realised. During the gestation period, you need to guard your dreams against two major obstacles.

1. Abortion: Abortion is any activity or intervention that culminates in the death of your dream. This is usually done to rid the dream carrier of stigma, discomfort or criticism. This usually happens if the carrier has neither the maturity nor context to pursue the dream.

If you have a dream and you believe your dream is appropriate, then you have to be careful not to abort it, irrespective of the pressure that mounts. Don’t abort your dream. Hold on to it with patience and persistence.

2. Miscarriage: When your dream terminates involuntarily at a stage prior to its manifestation, it is called miscarriage. It is when you lose focus on your dream and stop pursuing it. It happens not as a result of a deliberate intention to stop it but you just drift away to focus on seemingly easier-to-pursue objectives and in the end you lose your dream.

If you don’t take deliberate steps to protect the dreams of your life, you will lose them. You have to make a conscious effort to prevent any accidental death of your dreams.

DELIVERY
AFTER successfully going through the gestation period, you get to the point of delivery. This is where you begin to see the manifestation of your dreams. You begin to see your ideas bearing fruits. A pregnant woman who carries a baby in her womb for nine months gives birth not to a man or a woman. She gives birth to a baby, and then nurtures the baby to eventually become a fully grown man or woman.

Likewise, after working so hard on your idea or dream, results begin to show in bits. No matter how big your dream is, your results will come in trickles. What you have to do at that time is not to despise the little results. You must have the excitement of a woman who gets a newborn baby at the end of a challenging period of pregnancy. She forgets all the pain and discomfort of pregnancy and labour and receives the newborn with joy.

If you work so hard and you have little results, don’t lose steam. Every great person was once a baby with complete innocence. What you have to do is to be glad and move to the next stage of your achievement process.

PARENTHOOD
IT’S ONE thing giving birth to a baby and another raising that child to become a healthy and responsible person. Responsible mothers don’t abandon their babies. They make it a point to nurture them with values and principles that make their children grow to become responsible adults.

If you give birth to a dream, you have to be responsible enough to nurture it to a level where it becomes sustainable and significant. You need a great deal of managerial and leadership capabilities to grow your achievements into huge significant feats. Don’t drown in excitement when you achieve something good. See beyond the excitement of the moment and think about how you can make your achievements great and monumental.

RELEASE
IN FEBRUARY 2012, Ken Ofori-Atta handed over his executive functions at Databank to his long time friend and colleague Keli Gadzekpo. What Ken did is what every good parent does. They procreate, raise their children and release them to lead their own lives. Ken led a group of people to start the company in 1990 and after two decades of growing the entity to become a leading investment bank in Ghana and West Africa, he decided to step down and allow the company to have a life of its own.

When you achieve your dream, grow it. Institute systems that will facilitate the growth of your idea. Don’t die with your achievements. Don’t just work for success. Work for a successor so your works continue to touch humanity long after you depart this earthly realm.


© 2012 Terry Mante
PEDNET
Accra, Ghana

STAGES OF ACHIEVEMENT 1 - Conception and Gestation

“For many women who get blessed with the fruit of the womb, the feeling of ecstasy, fulfilment and satisfaction replaces all the discomfort that tagged the pregnancy and the painful pangs of labour.” - Terry Mante

YOUR BABY
IN JUNE 2008, when young Jamie Lynn Spears, sister of US pop singer Britney Spears had a baby, she described it as “the best feeling in the world.” For many women who get blessed with the fruit of the womb, the feeling of ecstasy, fulfilment and satisfaction replaces all the discomfort that tagged the pregnancy and the painful pangs of labour.

“The best feeling in the world” is the feeling you get when you commit your ability, effort, intellect and emotion to accomplish something remarkable. Many people spend their lives in pursuit of that feeling. It is a feeling that is difficult to describe with words or even gestures but when you get it, you know it. It comes when you get your own baby – when you achieve a dream you have held long in your heart.

That feeling doesn’t come naturally. You work your way to it. You do things to get it. You move through different stages, just as a woman passes through different phases to get a baby. I’m going to use the analogy of having a baby to illustrate how you can achieve your dreams and experience true fulfilment.

CONCEPTION
CONCEPTION is the first step towards having a baby. A baby is the product of a conception – when a sperm fertilises an egg to begin what we call pregnancy. Likewise, if you want to have a baby of your own, you must conceive. You must grasp a dream and couch it in concrete terms. You must have a clue of what you want. It is called idea. To conceive an idea, few things must happen:

1. Maturity: A lady who has not gone through the stage of puberty (where she has her menses) cannot conceive and have a baby. Neither can a male who has not reached the stage of puberty (when he can release sperms) make a woman pregnant. Until a person matures to the stage of puberty, there is no way such a person can conceive.

To conceive an idea worthy of pursuit in your life, you must necessarily attain the stage of maturity. Maturity is a stage of life where you are fully grown and developed with enough mental, physical and emotional capacity to bear the responsibility of carrying a dream. Mature people have the capacity to come up with compelling dreams that become their objects of pursuit.

2. Intercourse: The fact of being mature does not automatically engender conception. Maturity gives capacity to conceive. Intercourse activates capacity and enables a person to conceive.

In your mature stage, you must be able to effectively engage your emotional, mental and physical capacity to process information, thoughts, mistakes, failures, discoveries, national events and everything that has ever crossed your path. The evidence of your engagement with life will be packaged in the dreams you pursue and the ideas you hold on to.

3. Context: Conception is moderated by context. Take the case of a twelve year-old in junior high school who gets pregnant. At that age and stage of life, getting pregnant may not be the smartest thing to do. The person might have the physical maturity but may not have enough financial and mental muscle to carry the weight and consequences of pregnancy.

When you desire a vision, it is essential that you examine the context before you begin to run. Context is measured by timeliness, opportunity, resourcefulness, consequences and life station. Without a proper context, your dream could be a terrifying nightmare.

GESTATION
BETWEEN conception and birth, there is a space of time. This space of time is called gestation. Loads of changes occur in the life of a pregnant woman – physiological adjustments, dietary specificities, new exercise routines, maternity clothing and so on. A pregnant woman behaves differently from when she was not pregnant or another woman who is not pregnant. She has to adjust her lifestyle in order to protect the baby she carries in her womb.

Likewise, a person who is pregnant with a dream must know how to go through the gestation phase of that pregnancy. The gestation period is the time when you discipline yourself to adjust to a new lifestyle for the sake of your dreams. If you want to protect your dream and ensure that you deliver that dream safely, take note of the following:

1. Place: A pregnant woman makes regular visits to the hospital for pre-natal care. Those visits are critical to the success or failure of the pregnancy.

When you have a dream that means so much to you, you will go to the right places. The right place is where you find experts, mentors and like-minded people who believe in your dream, know how your dream can be nurtured and will be willing to offer whatever you need.

2. Diet: Pregnant women who want to deliver healthy babies are cautious about what they take in. Some things they take in are completely new to them. Sometimes, they stop taking in certain things they enjoy because it could harm the baby in the womb.

Any person who is pregnant with an idea must reorient their appetite. They must have a desire for new knowledge. They must reorganise their value system and adopt a culture that facilitates the dream they carry. They must also be willing to suppress their appetite for things that could hinder the success of their pursuit.

Note: For the concluding part of this piece, use this link: http://terrymante.blogspot.com/2012/03/stages-of-achievement-2.html.

© March 2012 Terry Mante
PEDNET
Accra, Ghana

TRAITS OF CONFIDENCE

“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. Never give it.” – Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962)

IN THE introduction of my book Winning with Confidence, I broadly define a confident person as one who is strong-willed, independent and God-focused.

STRONG-WILLED
TO BE strong-willed means you are unbending. I like to explain it in these three terms:

1. Conviction: To have conviction means to be certain and unwavering about your dreams, beliefs, principles and values. Lack of conviction would produce inconsistencies and instability in your life. To have crystal enduring results, it is useful to be firm in your heart. You must be sure of what you want and live your life in pursuit of it.

2. Commitment: When you are confident about something, you sell yourself to it. There is no better way to express confidence than to commit yourself to what you profess to be confident in. being merely aggressive is not as solid a sign of commitment as proving that you are committed. You show commitment by devoting your talents, time, intellect and other resources to what you believe in.

3. Character: Character is who you are at all times. Your conviction would dovetail into your personality. For you to be the same person at all times requires that you have conviction. Your confidence gives you the nerve to hold on to your values and moral principles in the midst of the most tempting situations. When you have a consistent personality, you earn the trust of people.

INDEPENDENT
TO BE independent implies that you are in charge of your life. Three qualities define an independent person.

1. Sense of responsibility: Every human being living on earth has a divine task to perform. It’s up to us to recognise this task and spend our lives fulfilling it. Once you discover your assignment, it must become imperative to you. People who grasp their purpose in life would not be tossed by every new wave that hits town. The main thing that should drive your life is your purpose.

2. Self-motivation: A confident person knows what they are about in life so they are able to initiate action. They develop the capacity to launch themselves into their dreams. They don’t wait to be told what to do. Internally-motivated people acts out of their own conviction and understanding.

3. Sense of security: Here, I am talking about emotional well-being and liberty. One of the most basic needs of humans is to be accepted by others and be treated with respect and dignity. When people accept and respect you, it boosts your confidence. Nevertheless, not everybody would accept you at all times. That is why you must be content with yourself. Really, when people’s high opinion of you is contrary to how you feel about yourself, they will eventually be empowered to abuse you. If the abuse persists, you are likely to lose your sense of value. I agree with former US First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt that, “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. Never give it.” To ‘never give it,’ you must learn to accept yourself.

GOD-FOCUSED
THERE is no better confidence booster than having God as the ultimate reason for your existence. To be able to do this, three conditions must be fulfilled.

1. Deliverance from sin: This kind of deliverance is known in Christian circles as salvation. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, “salvation of a person or their spirit is the state of being saved from evil and its effects by the death of Jesus Christ on a cross.”

Sometimes, people do not radiate confidence because of their personal inadequacies. No matter how hard you try, you cannot obliterate your imperfections. But Jesus offers a solution. By His crucifixion, our sins are taken care of. He shed his blood to wash away our imperfections. If you admit your weaknesses and offload them to Him, you will be liberated from their hold

2. Delight in God: By taking pleasure in the things of God, your deepest needs and aspirations will be met. With such needs met, confident is what you will be.

3. Desire to please God: Anybody who truly desires to please God is 100 per cent assured of peace, prosperity and blessings.

IT IS my hope that your journey of life will be a confident march; one that you would really relish.


© March 2012 Terry Mante
PEDNET
Accra, Ghana