Daily Reflection

By Rev Fr Samson Ejiofor Asadu

A)    AcknowledgementsThe first question which occurred to me on the reception of the invitation to come and address you was, “Why the choice of me from the coterie of priests in Catholic Diocese of Nsukka?” I got only one answer, “Divine predilection is often mysterious.” If not so, why should God choose Israel out of the whole nations of the world; David instead of Eliab; the cowardly twelve, as the apostles instead of the faithful and courageous women; Peter, who denied his master as the head of the apostolic college instead of the courageous John who witnessed Calvary, Fr Samson Asadu instead of any other highly gifted and experienced priest, my lack of experience notwithstanding?  The answer is that divine predilection is often mysterious. I thank God for this rare privilege.
More still, many of you are already in “the professorial bracket”, and others are highly placed on the rungs of the intellectual ladder; some even taught me; yet from the echelon of your intellectual careers, you decided to condescend to listen to a talk by an intellectual dwarf like myself, who is not considered to be an expert in anything yet! Well, God manifests his strength in weakness. I thank all whom God used to choose me, especially Prof V. C. Okore  and Prof A. A. Attama. My prayer is that God who allowed this choice of me and who also promised us support in moments of psychological trepidation may help me to deliver beyond your expectations.
I cannot begin this address proper without expressing my gratitude to Rt Rev Msgr Dr Taddeo Onoyima, the Vicar General of the Catholic Diocese of Nsukka and the Chaplain I of St Peter’s Chaplaincy, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, under whose care and guidance the hands of providence chiseled me and brought in contact with the university community. He always gives me the encouragement to accept to face challenges in my life, my shyness and fear of my shortcomings notwithstanding.



B)    INTRODUCTION
The title of my address is: IDENTIFYING WITH THE SPIRIT OF SUCCESS. There are two key words in our theme: spirit and success. On the one hand, the word, spirit, has its etymological root in the Latin spiritus- breath;  spirare- to breathe, blow. In the Hebrew Bible, the word translated spirit in English is the Hebrew ruach or the Greek pneuma which means breath, wind, that which gives life or animation to something. Most English Dictionaries see it as an animating or vital principle held to give life to physical organisms or a supernatural being or essence or a soul. Spirit, therefore, suggests that which animates a person’s faith, life and action; that which moves a person to greater depth and perfection. It is the deepest values from which one’s actions in life flow. On the other hand, success, according to J. Maurus, is doing your work the best you can; making better this good old earth by doing your noblest in every life endeavour. (Maurus, 1987:318-319). Identifying with the spirit of success, I should think, implies making success the animating force of all your actions. The question is how does one make success the spirit of his life? I will try to enunciate some nuggets of the spirit of success, the adherent to which indicates the one who identifies with the spirit of success.

C) SUCCESS AND ITS NUGGETS
1.  HAVE VISION/PLAN: “An intelligent plan is the first step to success. The man who plans knows where he is going, knows what progress he is making and has a pretty good idea when he will arrive. Planning is the open road to your destination. If you do not know where you are going, how can you expect to get there?” (Maurus, 1987:316). Success is not an accident, it is not merely luck or fate. It is a progressive realization of a predetermined, worthwhile goal (Maxwell, 2008:28).  In 1953 at Yale University, 3 percent of the graduating class had specific written goals for their lives. In 1975, (22 years later), researchers found out that the 3 percent who wrote down their goals had accomplished more than the other 97 percent put together” (Maxwell, 2008:29). Your goals must include others; must be specific, measurable, attainable and realistic-  a five quality-based goal.

2. ACT, NOT JUST PLAN: Success comes to the man who dares to act; it rarely goes to the timid who is ever afraid of the consequences and remains hopelessly a prisoner of procrastination. According to Russel Conwell, “Success is reached by being active, awake, ahead of the crowd, by aiming high, pushing ahead, honestly, diligently, patiently; by climbing, digging, saving, by forgetting the past, using the present, trusting in the future; by honouring God, having a purpose, fainting not, determining to win and striving to the end.” (Maurus, 1987:317). It is clear that the man who goes for what he wants will get it quicker than the one who waits. Noah did not just wait for his ship to arrive, he built one. The best way to overcome procrastination is to eliminate all the reasons and excuses for not taking immediate action.

3. CULTIVATE THE “YOU-CAN-SPIRIT”: Here I recount the beautiful words of Walter D. Winter, “If you think you are beaten, you are; if you think you dare not, you don’t; if you’d liked to win, but think you can’t, it is almost a cinch you won’t; if you think you will lose, you are lost; for out in the world we find that success begins with a fellow’s will; it’s all in the state of mind. If you think you are outclassed, you are; you’ve got to be sure of yourself before you can ever win a prize. Life’s battles don’t always go to the stronger or faster man, but soon or later the man who wins is the one who thinks he can. Most people only use about 10 percent of their potential; if they use as much as 25 percent, they are called geniuses. If we can go from 10 percent of our potential to using 20 percent, we could double our productivity and still have 80 percent of our potential untapped. Look up and find a model; give up certain things; fire up, that is, push to go beyond the already acquired, to go further, to reach the most advanced levels; show up for the match between you and challenges; and then you can go up the rungs of success.

4. OVERCOME THE ENEMY CALLED AVERAGE: I read in the Information Bulletin, the official newsletter of University of Nigeria, that the Vice-Chancellor, Prof Bartho Okolo, in an address delivered at the leadership retreat of the University held at the Grand Hotel, Asaba, urged the staff of this institution “to divorce the culture of average performance and strive for excellence at all times….” In his words, “My personal mission is to ensure that we all become apostles of excellence at the University of Nigeria, reflecting it in all our doings.” Following the Vice-Chancellor, I say in strong terms, that we should not only pursue excellence but should declare a nuclear war against “average”. “Average” is our common enemy!

5. DEVELOP THE HABIT OF REGULAR REFLECTION: “Unexamined life,” according the great Greek Philosopher Socrates, “Is not worth living” It is important you make out time to keep a regular appointment with yourself. This would help you to examine how much clearer you move forward.  Soldiers retreat in order to advance. You MUST, once a week or once a month seek a peaceful and anointed spot in other to hear much more clearly how to go ahead. Giving yourself an appointment of a few minutes will not only help you to go ahead with a clearer vision but will improve your health. Harvard Cardiologist, Dr Herbert Benson conducted a study on the therapeutic effects of regular meditations. He discovered that “people who practise meditation once or twice a day experience a measurable reduction in the extreme signs of stress, for example, blood pressure, heart beat and sleep patterns.” (Champlin, 2004:5)

D) OTHER CONSIDERATIONS: As you adhere to the above 5 nuggets of success, it is important you consider the follow points which could be regarded as handmaids of or ancillary to the nuggets of success.
1. TALENT IS NOT ENOUGH: Often people overrate talent. As a result, great achievements of people are always attributed to their talents. Talent is necessary, of course, but talent alone is not enough! There are highly talented persons who are not highly successful. Conversely, there are highly successful persons who are not highly talented. While I recognise the contributions of highly talented persons to the society, I maintain that talent is not enough and in a sense everyone is talented; for no one person is perfect and there is no person who is absolutely talent-impoverished. It is effectiveness that converts talent into results. Following the thoughts of John C. Maxwell, I make the following propositions of effectiveness that convert talent into results: belief strengthens your talent; passion energises your talent; initiative activates your talent; focus directs your talent; preparation positions your talent; practice sharpens your talent; perseverance sustains your talent; courage tests your talent; teachability expands your talent; character protects your talent; relationships influence your talent; responsibility strengthens your talent; and teamwork multiplies your talent. Talent is God-given and as long as there are people in the world, there will be plenty of talents. What makes the difference between successful and unsuccessful persons is the effectiveness with which the former give a little extra and go beyond the status quo. As such, employers are not really looking for merely talented people but talented-plus people. Growth comes from building on talent. Talent is just the status quo. Go beyond the status quo, latin for “the mess we are in” ( Maxwell, 2007)

2. TIME IS PRECIOUS: We have so many books on how to use limited resources to satisfy unlimited human wants, but a few on how to live on 24 hours a day. One respect in which we are created equal is that each person has twenty-four hours each day. The genius is not even given an extra one second. The difference is that great achievers know how to live on 24 hours a day. The greater control you exercise over your time, the greater achievements you make. One of the best ways to control time is to learn how to say no and consistently follow your schedule: supposing you devote two hours to a research daily, it would be two hours a day, fourteen hours a week, sixty hours a month and seven hundred and thirty hours a year! You could have wasted you time in the past. Do not worry, there is a miracle about time. No one goes into debts. No matter how you wasted yesterday, you will still be given another 24 hours on a new day! Therefore, do not waste your tomorrow wondering on your yesterday. Opportunity is always where you are, never where you were. (Cf. Mason, 1973)

3. EXPECT PROBLEMS: Any path that has no problems leads nowhere. There may be several types and colours of rubber bands but the one common thing is that they are only effective when they are stretched. Problems stretch us and make us more effective. The good news is that the human spirit is capable of great resiliency and resourcefulness in the face of apparently refractory problems or adjudged insurmountable barriers. So show up in match between you and your difficulties. You may even fall in the course of facing your challenges. But I would like you to know that the difference between a man who identifies with the spirit of success and the one who identifies with the spirit of failure often lies in the fact that the former will profit by his mistakes and try again in a different way, while the latter bemoans his mistakes in absolute despair. Never surrender your vision to noisy negatives. Obstacles, for successful people, are but a call to strengthen their resolve to achieve pre-set worthwhile goals.

4. PRAYER IS VERY IMPORTANT: There is this disparagement between religious demands and the so-called secular engagements. But the truth is that every good work done on earth is the work of the Lord. For the spiritual person there is but a thin line between sacred precincts and work place. Therefore, as you do the work of the Lord, do not forget the Lord of the work. Amazing things start happening when you start praying. To work all the time and forget prayer amounts to a heresy of action.

Conclusion: There are too many factors in life over which we have no control. The truth is that there are limits to what our finite intelligence can achieve. But my emphasis is that within the limits of our ability, we have total freedom. Determinism and free-will are both a part of life, but it is better to make the most of what we can do than to bemoan what we cannot do. Success can come to him who waits, but the person who goes for what he wants, gets it all the quicker.  To identify with the spirit of success means that you have to enter into the arena of action, determined to give yourself to the cause which will better your lot and that of mankind.
Furthermore and in particular, you should always remember Hippocrates of Cos (460? – 377 BC) generally regarded as the father of systematic medicine and the original author of the oath usually taken by students of Medical and Pharmaceutical Sciences and I quote him, “... I will follow that system of regimen which, according to my ability and judgment, I consider for the benefit of my patients, and abstain from whatever is harmful and mischievous. I will give no deadly medicine to any one if asked, nor suggest any such counsel; and in like manner I will not give to a woman a pessary to produce abortion. With purity and with holiness I will pass my life and practice my Art....” This oath also shows that your work is not merely a profession; it is not merely a means of livelihood; IT IS A VOCATION to save life.
Finally, some years back you were admitted into the University of Nigeria, Nsukka as first year students. Then, you celebrated your matriculation and friends applauded you, “CONGRATS, you are now lions and lionesses!” This year, you graduate with academic laurels from the prestigious University of Nigeria and friends who still live to witness this epoch making event pat you on the back and still exclaim, “CONGRATS, you have distinguished yourselves in character and learning!” May I join my voice with theirs and echo, “CONGRATULATIONS!!!”
But remember, my dear young pharmacists, that as you gather to celebrate your exit from the University of Nigeria, you are at the same time singing an introit into another realm of existence, namely, the larger world. Every induction ceremony to mark a finale inheres in itself a matriculation ceremony to mark an epoch! Thus, years back you were first year students of UNN, this year you are first year students of the “”World University” in which only the dead are said to have stopped learning. As you enter into the world, have an open but critical mind. Please do not quit after the first victory. Success is continual. It is not an event that has come and gone but a continuous journey, an on-going process, the positive results of steady forward movement. Therefore, all of you who are taking oath today are not celebrating success as an event that has come only to pass into history. Always bear in mind that it is not the rich pharmacist you should properly call a successful pharmacist, but he who knows how to use with wisdom the knowledge he acquired to better his life and that of the good old earth; he who knows how to endure hard times with serenity; he who fears sin more than death and he who is not afraid to die for his cherished values.
May the Lord Jesus go before you to guide you; behind you to guard you; above you to bless you and within to inspire you. AMEN! I THANK YOU ALL.

REFERENCES
Champlin, J. (2004). Slow Down, Five-minute meditations to de-stress your days. Nostre Dame: Ave Maria Press, Inc.
Mason,J.  (1973). An Enemy Called Average. Benin City: Joint Heirs Publications
Maurus, J. (1987). A Source-Book of Inspiration, Quotations, Anecdotes, Humours & Proverbs for Teachers, Writers and Preachers. Bombay: St Paul Press
Maxwell, J. (2007). Talent is Never Enough. Nasshville: Thomas Nelson, Inc.
-------------- (2008). Be All You Can Be, A Challenge to Stretch Your Potential. Mumbai: Jaico Publishing House.