MENTAL WEALTH

By
Stephen Akintayo
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Stephen Akintayo is a Nigerian author and Digital Marketing Consultant,
Entrepreneur,

Business/Relationship Coach, TV/Radio Host, and Philanthropist. He is

currently the MD/CEO of Gtext Group, a leading firm in Nigeria whose
services span from digital marketing, website design, bulk SMS, and online
advertising, to media, e-commerce, real estate, consulting, and a host of other
services.

He was born in Gonge Area of Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria to Mr. Victor
and Mrs. Deborah Akintayo, in an impoverished environment with no
electricity or potable drinking water. After his father's business crumbled,
feeding became the biggest challenge of his family - whilst in primary school,
he scavenged for his lunch. His passion for philanthropy was birthed by his
humble beginnings. In his words; "My surname was poverty. Hunger was my
biggest challenge." Stephen spent the first twelve years of his life living in
the forest of Maiduguri (along Danboa road). The living conditions were so
bad that he slept on a mattress for the first time at the age of 13. As a result of
the family's struggles, his primary school education was spotty.

Things got better in secondary school, though his mum had to borrow money
each term to pay his school fees. His future looked very bleak. At 16, he read
his first business book, Rich Dad Poor Dad, and that propelled him to his
achievements. He started the business a year later, selling GNLD food
supplements (introduced to him by his cousin). Not long after, he ventured
into his first online business, selling eBooks he bought for $10. From there,
he did a dozen more businesses with varying degrees of success. His major
inspiration for doing business was his mother. He wanted to succeed to
compensate a very hard-working mother who denied herself everything in
order to educate her 5 children. A day before hosting one of his most
successful Student Trade Fairs, his mother died of ovarian cancer! This was
the toughest season of his life and business career.

Stephen Akintayo's story is indeed a grass to grace one. His singular regret in
life is that his hardworking mother died before she could witness some of the
good works God is doing through him today. One of the companies he
founded, Gilead Balm Group Services, has assisted a number of businesses in
Nigeria to move to enviable levels by helping them reach their clients
through its enormous nationwide database of real phone numbers and email
addresses. It has hundreds of organizations as its clients including
multinational companies like Guaranty Bank, PZ Cussons, MTN, Chivita,
amongst others.

He is also the Founder and President of Infinity Foundation and Stephen

Akintayo Foundation, indigenous non-governmental organizations that assist
orphans and vulnerable children as well as mentor young minds. The
foundation has assisted over 2,000 orphans and vulnerable children and has
also partnered with 22 orphanage homes in the country. In December 2015 he
started Mercy Orphanage through Infinity Foundation to care for victims of
Boko Haram insurgence in the Northern part of Nigeria. Stephen Akintayo
Foundation focuses on Financial

Grants with an initial grant of $2,500 to 20 entrepreneurs in 2015, and plans

to grow that to $1.4m annual grant by the 5th year; projects like Upgrade
Conference and The Serial Entrepreneur Conference with thousands of
attendees who benefit from high-value knowledge from exceptional speakers
and consultants.

Stephen is also the founder of Omonaija, an online radio station in Lagos

currently streaming 24 hours daily. His first degree is in Microbiology from
Olabisi Onabanjo University. He is a member of the Institute of Strategic
Management and a professional member of the Institute of Information
Management.

An ordained Pastor with Living Faith Church Worldwide, he is happily

married to Mrs. Olabisi Akintayo and blessed with three children.
To invite Stephen Akintayo for a speaking engagement kindly email:
info@stephenakintayo.com or call: 08180000618.
IMPORTANT LEGAL STUFF

This book is © Mr. Stephen Akintayo. All Rights Reserved. You may not sell
this book, give it away, display it publicly, nor may you distribute it in any
form whatsoever.
While reasonable attempts have been made to ensure the accuracy of the
information provided in this publication, the author does not assume any
responsibility for errors, omissions, or contrary interpretation of this
information and any damages or costs incurred by that.

This book is not intended for use as a source of legal, business, accounting, or
financial advice. All readers are advised to seek the services of competent
professionals in legal, business, accounting, and finance fields. While
examples of past results may be used occasionally in this work, they are
intended to be for purposes of example only.

No representation is made or implied that the reader will do as well by using

any of the techniques mentioned in this book. The contents of this book are
based solely on the personal experiences of the author. The author does not
assume any responsibility or liability whatsoever for what you choose to do
with this information. Use your own judgment.

Any perceived slight of specific people or organizations, and any

resemblance to characters living, dead or otherwise, real or fictitious, is
purely unintentional. You are encouraged to print this book for easy reading.
However, you use this information at your own risk.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Mental Wealth Concepts 5 Chapter 2: Understanding Mental

Wealth 40 Chapter 3: Ways to Invest in Your Mental Wealth 46 Chapter 4:
Mental Wealth Skills 59 Chapter 5: How Mental Health Creates Mental
Wealth 68 Chapter 6: Self-Regulation 71 Chapter 7: Self-Leadership 84
Chapter 8: Generating Mental Wealth 110

Chapter One
MENTAL WEALTH CONCEPTS
Introduction

Mental Wealth is created from learning ways to look after your mental health.
This makes you more resilient and increases your overall wellbeing. It also
means you are more equipped to support your friends and your community.
Mental wealth is about building positive wellbeing in individuals and
communities. It is just as important as mental health. While mental health is
the physiological functioning of the brain and nervous system, mental wealth
is how successful you are at managing the content of your mind. This
Chapter gives you a good understanding of the main concepts in mental
wealth. These are the main ideas and terms that are central to mental wealth.
These include: mental, mental health, wealth, positive wellbeing, individual,
and community.

Mental Concept
Mental describes anything having to do with the mind, just as physical has to
do with the body. In other words, mental has to do with three elements,
namely: the intellect, the mind, and the brain.

1. The Intellect: Intellect is a term used in studies of the human mind. It

refers to the ability of the mind to come to correct conclusions about what is
true or false, and about how to solve problems. Intellect shows how much
intelligence an individual has. It is the mental equivalent of athletic ability or
fashion sense. So, someone is an intellect if he or she has great intellectual
ability, just as an athlete is someone who has great athletic ability.

Intellect is something everyone has in some degree. It is a person’s ability

that manifests in physical or mental power or skill needed to do something, to
think or believe something or have an opinion or idea about something, and
understand or to know the meaning of something that someone says,
especially ideas or a suggestion or plan for doing something at a high level.

The intellect is the mental equivalent of athletic ability or fashion sense, so

someone is an intellect if they have great intellectual ability just as an athlete
is someone who has great athletic ability. Intellect is something everyone has
in some degree. If someone talks down at you, it is an insult to your intellect.
Your teacher might say you have a sharp intellect if you have the ability to
figure out difficult problems.

An intellectual is a person who has a lot of knowledge and prefers to think

about things on an abstract or theoretical level rather than a practical one.
2. The Mind: The element of a person that enables them to be aware of the
world and their experiences, to think, and to feel; the faculty of consciousness
and thought.

The mind is the set of thinking faculties including cognitive aspects such as
consciousness, imagination, perception, thinking, judgement, language and
memory, as well as noncognitive aspects such as emotion. Under the
scientific physicalist interpretation, the mind is housed at least in parts in the
brain.

3. The Brain: This is an organ of soft nervous tissue contained in the skull of
vertebrates, functioning as the coordinating center of sensation and
intellectual and nervous activities. The brain is the power-house of the
intellectual capacity of a person.

It is the portion of the central nervous system that is located within the skull.
It functions as a primary receiver, organizer, and distributor of information
for the body. It has a righthalf and a left-half, each of which is called a
hemisphere.

Health Concept
Health, as officially defined by the World Health Organization (WHO), is a
state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, not merely the
absence of disease or infirmity. Health in humans is the extent of an
individual's continuing physical, emotional, mental, and social ability to cope
with his or her environment.

The six dimensions of wellness are: physical, emotional, spiritual,

intellectual, environmental and social. They are discussed in greater detail
below. Physical: Maintaining a sound substantial body through regular
exercise, proper nutrition, sleeping well and avoiding harmful habits. The
social determinants of health influence the health of populations. They
include: income and social status; social support networks; education;
employment/working conditions; social environments; physical
environments; personal health practices and coping skills; healthy child
development; gender; and culture.

There are seven domains of health, namely: physical health, social health,
emotional health, occupational and financial health, spiritual health,
environmental health, and intellectual health. 1. Physical health: Physical
health is defined as the condition of your body, taking into

consideration everything from the absence of disease to fitness level. Physical

health is critical for overall wellbeing, and can be affected by the individual’s
lifestyle as it relates to the person’s diet, level of physical activity, and
behaviour — such as smoking.

Physical health can be determined by many things, but some major

components can include: physical activity, nutrition and diet, alcohol and
drugs, medical self-care, and rest and sleep. Healthy physical activity can be
determined by leisurely physical activity, like hiking, or structured exercise,
like playing sports.

A balanced diet, proper sleep, and cutting down unhealthy habits such as
smoking, alcohol, and drugs are some of the key physical health factors that
can promote mental wellbeing. Physical wellness is the ability to maintain a
healthy quality of life that allows us to get the most out of our daily activities
without undue fatigue or physical stress.

The Top 10 Benefits of Regular Exercise

• It can make you feel happier.

• It can help with weight loss.
• It is good for your muscles and bones.
• It can increase your energy levels.
• It can reduce your risk of chronic disease.
• It can help skin health.
• It can help with relaxation and sleep quality

• It can help your brain health and memory.

2. Social health: This is commonly defined as your ability to form

meaningful relationships with other people and interact in healthy and
positive ways. The way you connect to the people around you, adapt to
different social situations, and experience a sense of belonging all contribute
to your social health.

Signs of good social health include:

• Balancing your social and personal time.

• Being your true self at all times.
• Engaging with people in your community.
• Treating others with respect.
• Maintaining and building strong relationships with friends.

Social wellness is important because the positive effects of developing and

maintaining healthy relationships are endless. People who are socially well
enjoy huge health benefits and might even live longer. A healthy social life
can enhance the immune system's ability to fight off infectious diseases.

To take care of yourself while caring for others:

• Ask for help. Make a list of ways others can help.
• Get organized.
• Try to take breaks each day.
• Keep up with your hobbies and interests when you can.
• Join a caregiver's support group.
• Eat healthy foods, and exercise as often as you can.
• Build your skills.
Social characteristics of a healthy person:

• Listens as well as speaks.

• Wit and sense of humor sans mean-spiritedness.
• Avoids gossip.
• Interested and curious about things.
• Open to new experiences (healthy ones)

Poor social and economic circumstances affect health throughout life. Social
and psychological circumstances can cause long-term stress. Continuing
anxiety, insecurity, low selfesteem, social isolation and lack of control over
work and home life, to mention a few, have powerful effects on health.
6 Health Benefits of Being Social

•It adds years to your life. It turns out that being social really may be able to
influence how long you live.
•It reduces the risk of stroke.
•It boosts your immune system.
•It encourages good habits.
•It reduces or delays your risk of memory loss or Alzheimer's disease.
•It helps to relieve pain

To cultivate the habits of social wellness, follow these seven guidelines:

i. Practice Self-Care. Finding balance in life can be difficult at times, and we
are much more prepared to deal with obstacles if we are in a good habit of
practicing self-care. Selfcare embraces basic needs such as getting enough
sleep, bathing and brushing your teeth, eating healthy, exercising regularly
and avoiding negative coping mechanisms like smoking or over-drinking.

It also includes: using positive-coping skills to manage stress, self-soothe and

relax through fulfilling or creative outlets like hobbies, crafts, art, sports
activities, hiking, dancing, and social interactions with friends. You may also
choose to engage in activities that nurture you emotionally, mentally, or
spiritually, such as meditation, yoga, therapy, journaling, taking classes in
areas of interest, spiritual retreats or attending religious services. ii. Know
Thyself. Get to know yourself— identify your needs, preferences and values
and

communicate them to the people around you. Knowing who you are, who
you want to be and where your boundaries lie supports you to engage in
positive relationships with people who have similar interests and values, and
can relate to you while encouraging your growth.

iii. Do not Criticize, Judge or Blame. People can easily get caught up in
self-critical thinking, which perpetuates low self-esteem, contributes to
depression and anxiety, and inhibits social interaction. No one wants to be
judged, criticized or blamed, and if those dynamics are present, it can indicate
an unhealthy, and potentially abusive, relationship.

iv. Own Up to Your Part. In every relationship, there are two people
involved and each contributes to any situation that comes up, whether
positive or negative. Take responsibility for yourself in disagreements or
conflict by using “I” language and don’t push all the blame onto the other
person. When an individual argues for the sake of being “right” rather than
trying to understand the other side, the other person may feel invalidated or
unheard. This can result in resentment, further conflict and the eventual end
of the relationship.

v. Rekindle old friendships and nurture relationships with people who

are respectful, positive and supportive. No human being is perfect.
Everyone gets caught up in the challenges of daily life at times, and
rekindling old relationships that have been positive ones in the past is a great
way to strengthen your social support system. Maintaining friendships with
individuals who respect, love and accept you for who you are is crucial to our
social wellness.

vi. Do not be a flake! Be mindful of the commitments you make and keep
them. Know your limitations and do not spread yourself too thin. Before
making a commitment, be sure that you can realistically meet that
expectation, taking into account and prior commitments and self-care.
vii. Appreciate Yourself and Others. Giving more energy to positives than
negatives helps

to keep us happier, healthier, and more hopeful. Regularly acknowledging the

positive qualities that you see in yourself and paying genuine compliments to
others you care about feels good all the way around. The power of positive
thinking can go a long way.

3. Emotional health: This is a person's ability to accept and manage feelings

through challenges and change. Someone who is emotionally healthy can
allow their emotions to be digestible. The mundane hassles of daily life offer
opportunities to practice responses, rather than reactions to allow emotional
health to flourish.

Emotional well-being refers to the emotional quality an individual

experience. Emotional wellbeing is influenced by a variety of demographic,
economic, and situational factors. For example, the onset of the COVID-19
outbreak lowered emotional well-being of many by 74%.
Depression, anxiety, stress, poor body image, grief, loss, a major change in
your life such as becoming a new parent can all affect your mental and
emotional health and day to day living. Sometimes, it is hard to know if what
you are experiencing is depression or sadness, worry or anxiety.

Emotional health and wellbeing describe how we think, feel and relate to
ourselves and others and how we interpret the world around us. ... Good
emotional health and wellbeing is not only about feeling confident and
happy, it is also about being positively engaged with the world and having a
strong sense of self-esteem.

Good emotional health helps you see the best in yourself despite challenges.
More energy. Having a positive outlook makes you feel more energized and
helps you focus and think more clearly; whereas, poor emotional health
depletes your mental resources and leads to exhaustion.

Also, emotional health is an important part of overall health. People who are
emotionally healthy are in control of their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
They are able to cope with life's challenges. They can keep problems in
perspective and bounce back from setbacks.

4. Occupational and financial health: Occupational wellness concerns the

compatibility of one's innate talents, interests and aspirations to a path of
training, employment and career development and satisfaction. This aspect of
wellness involves awareness of the wide variety of career opportunities
available, exploration of interests, skill areas, values and needs, and how they
relate to a career choice; choosing a career direction that reflects one's values,
preferences, interests and skills; developing effective job search strategies
and skills; and understanding the relationship between one's career choice
and the other parts of one's life: family, spouse, leisure activities and friends.

Occupational wellness inspires us to prepare for work in which we will gain

personal satisfaction and find enrichment in our life. Your attitude towards
work is a crucial influence for occupational development. Occupational
wellness allows you to explore various career options and encourages you to
pursue the opportunities you enjoy the most. This dimension of wellness
recognizes the importance of satisfaction, enrichment and meaning through
work.
Why Occupational Wellness is Important
Developing occupational satisfaction will allow you to communicate your
values through involvement in occupational activities that are gratifying for
you. It is also important to identify workplace stress in order to practice
conflict management. Conflict management is key to achieving an optimal
level of occupational wellness. Choosing what your career will be is a very
important life choice. Working takes up a majority of your time during the
week, so the way you feel about your work contributes to your overall well-
being.

The Route to Occupational Wellness

When you embark on the route to occupational wellness, you will discover
what occupational opportunities are out there and which opportunities suit
you best. Maintaining occupational wellness allows you to develop unique
skills and talents that are both personally and professionally rewarding.
Below are some suggestions to begin your journey to occupational wellness: ▪
Reflect on yourself and your occupational needs. What occupational tasks do
you enjoy? What

occupational tasks do you find burdensome?

▪ Explore both paid and un-paid work and volunteer opportunities that
interest you. ▪ Practice open communication and proper conflict management
with your colleagues. ▪ Set realistic career goals for yourself and constantly
work towards accomplishing these goals

Financial wellness involves the process of learning how to successfully

manage financial expenses. Money plays a critical role in our lives and not
having enough of it impacts health as well as academic
performance.Financial wellness refers to the “overall financial health of an
individual” and is sometimes used interchangeably with financial well-being.
Employee financial-wellness programs are work-placed programs thatboth
“access and support” the financial wellness of employees.

Majority of employees feel financially well: Employees who rate their

financial wellness positively are more likely to feel that they can effectively
manage their day-to-day finances, pay bills while saving for future goals, and
that their retirement savings are on track
Financial Wellness includes the capacity to manage, invest and conserve
one's financial resources and interests. This aspect of wellness involves the
development of a satisfying ability for selfmanagement, planning and
judgment as well as the acquisition of knowledge and information about
financial matters. Financial wellness involves the cultivation of the ability to
provide for the worldly needs of self and loved ones and this contributes to a
sense of security, competence and personal credibility. It involves the process
of learning how to successfully manage financial expenses.

Habits that Build Financial Well-Being

▪ Spend less than you earn. Bolster your savings and reduce your expenses.
▪ Save for future spending. Get yourself into a habit of saving.
▪ Only borrow what you can afford. Do not deny yourself anything that you
need, but avoid

spending for extravagantly.

▪ Grow your money.
▪ Boost your earning capacity.
▪ Protect what you have.
A financially healthy employee is most likely healthy overall since he or she
stays on top of preventive care and budget for medical emergencies. This
balance enables them to catch problems early on and therefore spend less on
treatment.

5. Spiritual health: Spiritual wellness provides us with systems of faith,

beliefs, values, ethics, principles and morals. A healthy spiritual practice may
include examples of volunteerism, social contributions, belonging to a group,
fellowship, optimism, forgiveness and expressions of compassion.

The Basics: What is Spiritual Health? Spirit is what cannot be defined as part
of the body or as part of the mind. Spiritual health is achieved when you feel
at peace with life. It is when you are able to find hope and comfort in even
the hardest of times. It can help to support you as you experience life
completely.

Dimensions of wellness. There are five main aspects of personal health:

physical, emotional, social, spiritual, and intellectual.
Since spiritual wellness involves one's values, beliefs, and purpose, it can be
achieved in several ways—both physically and mentally.
▪ Explore your spiritual core.
▪ Look for deeper meanings.
▪ Get it out.
▪ Try yoga.
▪ Travel.
▪ Think positively.
▪ Take time to meditate.

6. Environmental health: Environmental Health is the branch of public

health that focuses on the interrelationships between people and their
environment, promotes human health and wellbeing, and fosters healthy and
safe communities. It is the branch of public health concerned with all aspects
of the natural and man-made environment affecting human health.
Environmental health is focused on the natural and built environments for the
benefit of human health.

As a fundamental component of a comprehensive public health system,

environmental health works to advance policies and programs to reduce
chemical and other environmental exposures in air, water, soil and food to
protect residents and provide communities with healthier environments.

Environmental hazards increase the risk of cancer, heart disease, asthma, and
many other illnesses. These hazards can be physical, such as pollution, toxic
chemicals, and food contaminants, or they can be social, such as dangerous
work, poor housing conditions, urban sprawl, and poverty.

The three P's principal determinants of health worldwide are population. The
principal determinants are interrelated. The poverty, pollution, and

three P's are interrelated: Population growth is associated with poverty, and
both poverty and population growth are associated with pollution.

The ways we can maintain environmental health include:

▪ Hand hygiene, such as washing your hands.

▪ Covering your nose and mouth when coughing or sneezing. ▪ Having good
personal hygiene.
▪ Making sure you provide the older adult with good personal hygiene. ▪
Using proper food preparation and storing food.
▪ Keeping dishes and utensils clean.

The five pillars of environmental health are: ▪ Disease control,

▪ Water,
▪ Sanitation and hygiene,
▪ Built environment,
▪ Occupational health, and ▪ Food safety and hygiene.

7. Intellectual health: The intellectual dimension of wellness encourages

creative, and stimulating mental activities. The intellectual dimension
encourages creative, stimulating mental activities. A well person expands his
or her knowledge and skills while discovering the potential for sharing one's
gifts with others. An intellectually well person uses the resources available to
expand one's knowledge, improve one's skills, and create potential for sharing
with others.

Intellectual wellness is being open to new ideas, thinking critically, and

seeking out new learning opportunities and challenges. There are numerous
ways to increase your intellectual wellness. A good way to do so is by
learning a foreign language.

Why is intellectual wellness important? Intellectual wellness encourages

learning, and also stimulates curiosity. Curiosity is important because it
motivates you to try new things and develop an understanding of how you see
the relationship between yourself, others and the environment.

Mental and intellectual health encourages engaging in stimulating creative

and mental activities and developing knowledge and skills. It involves
discovering your potential for sharing your gifts with the world in meaningful
ways. Using your mind to create a greater understanding of yourself.

Seven Simple Steps to Increase your Intellectual Wellness

▪ Read for fun.

▪ Debate an issue with a friend, but choose the viewpoint opposite the one
you hold. ▪ Improve your skills for studying and learning.
▪ Learn a foreign language.
▪ Play a game.
▪ Play a musical instrument.
▪ Write down your thoughts or journal frequently.

Intellectual skills are defined as the methods an individual can use to evaluate
or organize information and data. In the taxonomy, intellectual skills such as
reasoning, problem solving, concept formation and creative thinking were
categorized in terms of increasingly complex behaviors. The categories of
intellectual skills were comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and
evaluation

Four Areas of Intellectual Development

Children grow and develop rapidly in their first five years across the four
main areas of development. These areas are

i. Motor (physical),
ii. Language and communication,
iii. Cognitive, and
iv. Social/emotional.

The following are some simple ways to expand both your intellectual and
emotional intelligence capacities.
▪ Expand your horizons.
▪ Be imaginative.
▪ Pleasure reading.
▪ Train your brain.
▪ Consistently learn.
▪ Physical activity.
▪ Get enough sleep.
▪ How you dress.

These seven domains or dimensions of our health and wellbeing as seen

above are important as an integration of our sense of wellness.

WELLBEING AND POSITIVE WELLBEING

Wellbeing is a wider concept encompassing components of physical, mental,
emotional, and spiritual and cultural wellbeing, all linked to people we are
connected to, and the environment in which we live, work and play.

Positive Wellbeing is defined in the world of positive psychology as a

condition where a person is living his/her life with happiness, engagement,
and meaning. In other words, you feel good about what is happening in your
life, you feel a sense of connection to others around you and your life has
meaning to you.

Feelings of wellbeing are fundamental to the overall health of an individual,

enabling them to successfully overcome difficulties and achieve what they
want out of life. Past experiences, attitudes and outlook can all impact
wellbeing as can physical or emotional trauma following specific incidents.
The different types of wellbeing include:
•Physical well-being.

• Economic well-being.
• Social well-being.
• Development and activity.
• Emotional well-being.
• Psychological well-being.
• Life satisfaction.
• Domain specific satisfaction.

If you have positive mental wellbeing you are able to feel relatively confident
in yourself and have positive self-esteem, feel and express a range of
emotions, build and maintain good relationships with others, and feel
engaged with the world around you.

MENTAL HEALTH
Mental health is a state of mind. Everyone has mental health, just as we all
have physical health. It is an important part of our overall health and
wellbeing.
Having positive mental health means we have strong relationships, and cope
with everyday stress in life to reach our full potential. We have good mental
health when we have positive relationships, can cope with everyday stress,
can work or study and are developing our own potential.

Poor mental health can include high stress levels, general unhappiness with
life, and ongoing low levels of depression and anxiety. Some people who
experience poor mental health for a long time, trauma, or who are highly
distressed, may meet the criteria for being diagnosed with a mental illness.

INDIVIDUAL
Individual is all about being a single entity that cannot be divided. It is a way
of referring to a person. Each individual has individual strengths and
weaknesses. It is particularly of being a person separate from other people
and possessing their own needs or goals, rights and responsibilities.

COMMUNITY
Community is all the people living in an area or a group or groups of people
brought together by geographic boundaries who share common goods and
interests. An example of community is an area in which different households
live and share common facilities and infrastructures, local laws and
guidelines for business, schooling and other governmental functions. There
are other communities of people who share the same interest or passion as in
profession or career who undertake the same activities in trying to bring
about positive change.

WEALTH
Wealth in its simplest terms, is the value of all the resources that are
possessed by an individual or society. The meaning of wealth is context-
dependent. An individual possessing a substantial net worth is known as
wealthy. In other words, someone's wealth is determined by the aggregate
value of everything the person owns that can be exchanged for money, goods,
or services. Similarly, a community, region or country that possesses an
abundance of such possessions or resources to the benefit of the common
good is known as wealthy. Individuals and countries measure wealth
differently.
Similarly, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the measure that countries
usually use to measure their wealth. GDP is a measure of economic output,
which is the value of all the goods and services that an economy produces in
a specific period of time. The more a country produces, the wealthier it is
from a purely economic standpoint.

Individual wealth is usually measured as net worth, which is the value of

your aggregate assets after subtracting the value of all your aggregate
liabilities. If the value of your assets exceeds the value of your liabilities, you
have a positive net worth. We will focus on individual wealth for the rest of
the book.

Generally, economists define wealth as anything of value that captures both

the subjective nature of the idea and the idea that it is not a fixed or static
concept.
Defining wealth can be a normative process with various ethical implications.
This is so because wealth maximization is often seen as a goal or is thought
to be a normative principle of its own. A community, region, or country that
possesses an abundance of such possessions or resources to the benefit of the
common good is known as wealthy.

The United Nations defines inclusive wealth as a monetary measure that

includes the sum of natural, human, and physical assets. It further explained
that natural capital includes land, forests, energy resources, and minerals.
Human assets or capital is the population's education and skills which can be
described as mental wealth. Physical assets or capital includes such things as
machinery, buildings, and infrastructure.

Various definitions and concepts of wealth have been asserted by various

individuals and in different contexts. Therefore, the meaning of wealth is
context-dependent.

CHARACTERISTICS OF WEALTH
1. It must possess utility. It must have the power to satisfy a want and must
be desirable. Of the three qualities which render anything an article of
Wealth, or, in other words, give it value, the most striking is the power of
producing pleasure or of preventing pain. The utility is a necessary
constituent of value. no man would give anything possessing the slightest
utility for a thing possessing none; and even an exchange of two useless
things would be, on the part of each party to the exchange, an act without a
motive.

However, utility denotes no intrinsic quality in the things which we call

useful; it merely expresses their relations to the pains and pleasures of
mankind. And, as the susceptibility of pain and pleasure from particular
objects is created and modified by causes innumerable, and constantly
varying, we find an endless diversity in the relative utility of different objects
to different persons, a diversity which is the motive of all exchanges.

2. It must be limited in supply. It may appear inaccurate to apply this

expression to any class of things, as it belongs to all. There is actually
nothing which, strictly speaking, is unlimited in supply.

For the purposes of Political Economy, everything may be considered as

unlimited in supply in its existing state of which people may have as much as
they please for the mere trouble of taking it into their possession. For
example, air and sunshine are essential for life. Though we cannot live
without them, we do not consider them as wealth because they are available
in large quantities by nature. Such goods are known as free goods.

For economic purposes, the term-limited in supply always involves the

consideration of the causes by which the existing supply is limited. The
supply of some articles of Wealth is limited by insurmountable obstacles.
Whenever, therefore, we apply the words limited in supply as a comparative
expression, to materials or concepts which the quantity can be increased or
diminished, we refer to the comparative force of the obstacles which limit the
respective supplies of the objects compared.

3. Wealth should be transferable. That is, it should be possible for us to

transfer the ownership from one person to another, and from one generation
to another. To give it value means to express that all or some portion of its
powers of giving pleasure, or preventing pain, are capable of being
transferred, either absolutely, or for a period. For this purpose, it is obvious
that it must be capable of appropriation; since no man can give what he
cannot refuse.

The sources of pleasure and preventives of pain which are absolutely

incapable of appropriation are very few. The things of which the utility is
imperfectly transferable may be divided into two great classes. The first
comprises all those material objects which are affected by the peculiar mental
associations, or adapted to the peculiar wants, of individuals. There are many
things, such as clothes and furniture, which sink in utility in the estimation of
everyone but their purchaser, from the mere fact of having changed hands.
The second class of things imperfectly transferable includes the greater part,
perhaps all, of our personal qualities. This classification, which places talents
and accomplishments among the articles of wealth, may appear at first sight
strange and inconvenient; however, it certainly is different from that of most
economists.

4. It must have monetary value. The definition of wealth, as

comprehending all those things, and those things only which have value
require us to explain at some length the signification which we attribute to the
word Value. This is because the meaning of that word has been the subject of
long and eager controversy. We use the word, "value", in its popular
acceptation as signifying that quality in anything which fits it to be given and
received in exchange.

Also, value denotes a relation reciprocally existing between two objects, and
the precise relation which it denotes is the quantity of the one which can be
obtained in exchange for a given quantity of the other. It is impossible,
therefore, to predicate the value of any object without referring expressly or
tacitly to some other object or objects in which its value is to be estimated.

5. It may be external. For example, the goodwill of a business is external

wealth. Certain firms enjoy a lot of goodwill of the customers. The copyright
of a book is another example of the point that wealth is external.

CLASSIFICATION OF WEALTH
Wealth can be divided into two broad categories namely, tangible assets and
intangible assets. Tangible Assets: These are things that have value in and of
themselves. A tangible asset is an asset that has a finite monetary value and
usually exists in a physical form. Tangible assets can typically always be
transacted for some monetary value though the liquidity of different markets
will vary. Tangible assets are the opposite of intangible assets which have a
theorized value rather than a transactional exchange value.
Examples of tangible assets include gold, land, houses, cars, boats, artwork,
jewelry, and all other durable consumer goods with recognizable value in the
marketplace.

Intangible Assets: An intangible asset is an asset that lacks physical

substance. In contrast to physical assets, such as machinery and buildings,
and financial assets such as government securities. An intangible asset is
usually very hard to evaluate. Examples of intangible assets are:

• Knowledge: Knowledge begets skills, and skills are tools which help you
earn, and earn well. When you earn well, are wise to save, and have the
finesse to invest wisely, your wealth grows.

With proper perspective you apply skills to all aspects of life, not just in
making and multiplying money. You expand your skills to hobbies, interests
and other fulfilling activities, all of which enrich your life.

Knowledge is also seen as wisdom. Wisdom helps you set your priorities
right. The more you gain knowledge, the more you realize how little you
know. Knowledge is not limited just to the tool necessary to make a living
but to expand your horizons. You expand your skills to hobbies, interests and
other fulfilling activities, all of which enrich your life.

Knowledge also means the realization that there is more to life than to
multiply investments. Amassing wealth for the sake of hoarding is useless.
Money has to move. You share the results of your hard work with others.
You earn the wonderful feeling knowing you can, and do, help others and
support all the good causes you believe in. Knowledge helps you never lose
the sight that we did not bring it with us, and it will not go with us.

• Patents: A patent is an exclusive right granted for an invention, which is a

product or a process that provides, in general, a new way of doing something,
or offers a new technical solution to a problem. To get a patent, technical
information about the invention must be disclosed to the public in a patent
application

A patent for an invention is the grant of a property right to the inventor.

Patents are granted for new, useful and non-obvious inventions for a period
of 20 years from the filing date of a patent application, and provide the right
to exclude others from exploiting the invention during that period.

An example of a patent is the right from the federal government to produce

and sell something for a certain number of years without anyone copying it.
A patent is a protection against copying the production method used to create
a product of any type.

Patents are not just abstract concepts. They play an invaluable, practical role
in everyday life. By rewarding ideas, patents encourage the development of
innovations and new technologies in every field.

• Copyright: This refers to the legal right of the owner of intellectual

property. In simpler terms, copyright is the right to copy. This means that the
original creators of products and anyone they give authorization to are the
only ones with the exclusive right to reproduce the work. Copyright is a type
of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to make copies
of a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a
literary, artistic, educational, or musical form.

Copyright is a legal means of protecting an author's work. It is a type of

intellectual property that provides exclusive publication, distribution, and
usage rights for the author.

• Franchises: A franchise is a type of license that an organization also known

as the franchisee in this instance, acquires to allow them to have access to a
business's also known as a franchisor, proprietary knowledge, processes, and
trademarks, in order to allow the party to sell a product or provide a service
under the business's name. The franchisor is the original or existing business
that sells the right to use its name and idea.

The franchisee is the individual who buys into the original company by
purchasing the right to sell the franchisor's goods or services under the
existing business model and trademark. In exchange for gaining the
franchise, the franchisee usually pays the franchisor an initial start-up and
annual fees.

Franchises are a very popular method for people to start a business, especially
for those who wish to operate in a highly competitive industry like the fast-
food industry. One of the biggest advantages of purchasing a franchise is that
you have access to an established company's brand name. This means that
you do not need to spend further resources to get your name and product out
to customers
• Goodwill: Goodwill is created when one company acquires another for a
price higher than the fair market value of its assets. For example, if Company
A buys Company B for more than the fair value of Company B's assets and
debts, the amount left over is listed on Company A's balance sheet as
goodwill.

Goodwill works to enhance people's dignity and quality of life by

strengthening their communities, eliminating their barriers to opportunity,
and helping them reach their full potential through learning and the power of
work.

• Trademarks: A trademark is a symbol, slogan, design, word, or

combination of elements that identifies an organizations’ goods or services.
The purpose of a trademark is to distinguish these goods or services from
someone else's.
• Trade names: A trade name is the official name under which an
individual as a sole proprietor or a company chooses to do business. A
trading name is the name under which a business trades or is known by. In
Nigeria, trading names must be registered with the Corporate Affairs
Commission (CAC) as a business name.

Registering a trade name legally is an important step in branding for a

company, but it does not provide an unlimited brand name or legal protection
for the use of the name. The practical function of registering a trade name is
primarily for administrative and accounting purposes, such as filing a
corporate tax return with the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).

Wealth as a concept can be classified into four namely personal wealth, social
wealth or collective wealth, national wealth, and cosmopolitan wealth.

Personal Wealth (Individual Wealth)

An individual’s wealth consists of both material and non-material goods.
Thus, the wealth of the person includes such material things as land, houses,
furniture, machinery and so on. Not only that, if a person has some shares in
companies or bonds which require others to pay money to him, they should
be included in his personal wealth. On the other hand, if he owes some debt
to others, it should be regarded as negative wealth and so subtracted from his
gross wealth. Then we get the net wealth of a person.
Suppose a person is running a firm. The goodwill of his firm may be
considered as his immaterial wealth. We have to remember one thing, namely
that wealth is external. The personal or internal qualities of a person should
not be considered as wealth. For example, a play-back singer may have an
excellent voice. It is a personal quality and internal to the person. The voice
of the singer is not wealth because it is internal. It is not wealth but it may be
the source of wealth to the singer. Another example of internal quality is the
ability of a surgeon.

Social Wealth (Collective Wealth)

Social wealth consists of all these goods that can be enjoyed by all members
of a society. Social wealth includes: public roads, public parks, public
schools, government hospitals, public libraries, museums and so on. In short,
it includes all kinds of public property and ownership. Most of these things
are called collective goods, i.e., goods that are not in private ownership.

National Wealth
National wealth is the cumulative wealth of all the individuals and the wealth
of the institutions of the state. National wealth includes individual wealth as
well as the collective wealth of its members. That is, besides individual
wealth it includes all kinds of public property, such as roads and canals,
buildings and parks and water work.
The wealth of a nation includes free goods. For example, the rivers of a
country should be taken into account in considering national wealth. The
wealth of a nation can be increased by hard work of its people, labour is an
important source of wealth. It is generally believed that the wealth of a nation
can be increased by a proper division of labour.

Cosmopolitan Wealth
Cosmopolitan wealth is the wealth of the world. It belongs to no one nation in
particular. A common example of cosmopolitan wealth is the ocean. Just as
rivers are important elements of national wealth, the ocean is one of the most
valuable properties of the world. Similarly, scientific knowledge and
mechanical inventions may also be considered as cosmopolitan wealth. This
is because, scientific knowledge wherever discovered, soon becomes the
property of the world. Hence, it is better to consider it as cosmopolitan wealth
rather than as national wealth. The same thing is true of mechanical and most
other inventions, for example, the mechanical inventions that were made
during the Industrial Revolutions soon became the property of the world.

TYPES OF WEALTH
Understanding the types of wealth will help you to know what type of wealth
you already hold, and this will help you decide what you want to focus on
next in your life. Research shows that families that have sustained wealth
over more than three generations often have a different view and definition of
wealth. These successful families see wealth from four different perspectives,
of which money is only one.

The proverb “shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations” is pervasive

across many cultures. It effectively communicates the concept that the wealth
created by one generation is seldom sustained through another two
generations. These families often do not consider the other types of wealth
that exist beyond money and their importance to long-term sustainability.
Successful multigenerational families treat money as an important tool but
not the only one. They also focus on recognizing and nurturing other types of
wealth. These are self or human capital, relationships or social capital, and
values or cultural capital. This development is critical in successfully
transferring wealth from generation to generation.

Wealth as Material Comfort

The first type of wealth is what we commonly understand as material wealth,
which translates to financial wealth. Some are born into rich families, some
into not-so-rich families. Just by being born in a rich home, somebody
acquires all the wealth, without any effort. Why does this happen, when
somebody else has to toil all his life to make money? This is why some
people inherit material wealth, while others do not. The younger generation
who do not inherit wealth tends to blame the parents who did not leave
material and financial wealth for them. Financial Wealth, in the form of
material comfort, is one type of wealth.

The most typical, but also the narrowest definition of wealth is financial
capital which is what we naturally think about when we hear the term
‘wealth.’
To most people, financial wealth is financial freedom which is the ability to
enjoy what you like, when you like, with whom you like in terms of spending
money. This is complete freedom from financial turmoil and worries which is
one of the chief causes of suffering within the majority of people’s lives.

Financial wealth consists of understanding and mastering fundamental

concepts like investing in assets against liabilities, spending on necessities or
luxuries, budgeting as in consciously allocating money, financial literacy like
reading, podcasts, events, etc., surrounding yourself with financial masters,
long term and short term, as well as successful behaviour change.
If these fundamentals are constantly being worked on and improved upon in
the things you undertake then financial wealth will not be a problem for you.
These fundamentals have withstood the test of time and absolutely work as
long as you do.

Picture yourself in the future where you never have to worry about money
ever again. Imagine how that would make you feel, how that would change
your interactions with the world and people around you, how that would
change your family situation, so on and so forth. It would be an amazing
feeling. It is absolutely possible to achieve this kind of life one day as long as
you make a commitment to the process of mastering financial wealth as well
as the other types of wealth.

Wealth as Health (Physical wealth)

Just having money is not sufficient. Some people may have a lot of money,
but they cannot eat well or they do not have the time to eat. They may have
diabetes or high cholesterol. Some people have a very good, beautifully
decorated home with a very comfortable bed, but they have insomnia and
cannot sleep. Of what use is that wealth? That wealth is nothing. So, the
second type of wealth is health also considered as well-being of the
individual, which relates to physical wealth.

Some people do not have money, but they have enough to eat, and they are
healthy. They get plenty of grains, and they have whatever they need. Like
many farmers, generally they may not have any money, but they have plenty
of food. Anyone who goes to them is fed. They can feed the whole town.
They can sleep well. This is the second type of wealth.

The physical wealth which is also referred to as physical health is the glue
that holds all the other types of wealth and one’s life together. Without the
health and physical vitality of our bodies, we can achieve none of the other
types of wealth, or at least not in a wise and long-term way.

The majority of people fail to understand that health is true wealth. They fail
to invest in their bodies and minds and are not aware that this is even a
worthy pursuit in terms of achieving all types of wealth.
Physical wealth consists of understanding and mastering the right
fundamentals, which include proper nutrition, proper sleep, proper training
and movement, health literacy, a healthy environment involving people and
place, as well as an understanding of energy systems that involve breaking
down and repair.
We all have the ability to achieve all 4 types of wealth associated with
physical wealth within our lives and an interesting thing occurs when we do
get to this point, we begin to feel the wealth of fulfillment.

The wealth of fulfillment is what occurs when all 4 of these wealth types
intersect and are constantly being improved upon. This is the place where we
all want to be.
Keep in mind, each of these types of wealth takes years to master, and, in a
sense, you could view this as a lifelong process that does not end because
there is no destination to these types of wealth. There is only constant
improvement.

Each of these types of wealth requires years of dedication, practice, humility,

learning, understanding, networking, so on and so forth to master so get
started immediately and do not fall into the false belief that they cannot be all
worked on at the same time.

Wealth as Success
The next type is wealth as success. Some people may be born into a very
wealthy family, but any responsibility placed in their care becomes a failure,
and anything they do flops. It may be a simple thing, but it is not a success.
Wealth as success dwells in the mindset and enables a person to be victorious
and successful in any action or role. You can determine this by asking
yourself such questions as:
▪ Do you have the right mindset or do you have negative thinking?
▪ Is your mindset holding you back?
▪ Do you need to spend more time with personal development or motivational
podcasts? Positive mindset and attitude are important to have this wealth as a
success. A positive attitude and or mindset defeats failure and
disappointment. So, you do not start any assigned responsibility with, “What
if it does not work?” Tell yourself, it will work or that it will be a good
success. Before doing something, if one says, “What if it does not work?”
and only thinks in a negative way that it would not work, that it would not
happen, then throughout their lives, they plan, they think and think and think,
and worry and worry, and nothing happens. Life just finishes, without
acquiring anything. Taking life too seriously does not help anybody or
situation.

Wealth as Courage
This wealth makes life a play, or a game. You are adventurous. Even before
embarking on the project you are looking forward to achieving the expected
outcomes.
Being afraid of achieving the right results, being afraid of making mistakes,
being afraid of doing anything in life are clear evidence that one lacks the
wealth of courage. Lack of courage means lack of wealth. Somebody may
have a lot of money, but if he or she does not have courage, there is no fun in
life. One’s whole life passes, and yet there is nothing. It is good for nothing.
Someone may not have any money, but the courage in them and the force in
them show that they are rich in something.

Wealth as Friendliness
Having a caring attitude and having a sense of belonging is wealth. You may
have the other types of wealth, but you still feel as though you are in a tight
compartment if you do not have a sense of belonging. If you cannot put
yourself into every situation and adjust yourself, you will still feel alienated.
That is what happens at most parties. Many rich people go to a party just to
show off how rich they are, but they feel so out of place and suffer a sense of
loneliness; just look at the parties that go on in the world, most participants
do not have a sense of belonging. They do not have naturalness. They do not
meet with their hearts, but with the shields inside them. Friendliness is
missing. It is like a battlefield actually. Parties are not supposed to be like a
competition ground or battlefield where everyone goes in with a shield. It is
wealth when all participants are in an atmosphere of friendliness.
Wealth as Skill
Another wealth is having different skills and talents. Some are good at
writing, some are good at arguing, some are good at debates, some are good
at music, some are good with instruments, some have wonderful voices, some
have a great talent for cooking, some are talented in bringing up a child, some
are good at administration, and still others are talented in completely different
things. If it is only by an effort that we achieve things, then the hundreds and
hundreds who put in their best efforts should all achieve their goals. But do
they? If we all get our wealth just by our efforts, then how many millions
must not be putting in the effort? But this is not true. They should all have got
what they wished to achieve if it was just a matter of effort – but it is not so.

Social Wealth: This refers to your sense of relationships and dignity. Social
wealth largely comes down to how you interact within the social world such
as feeling connected, sharing your dreams, finding partners, engaging in your
communities, finding solutions, overcoming challenges and making a
difference are much more apt to happen with a strong network of quality
relationships. The natural world is filled with lessons, if only we observe it
with full awareness. Be as humble as the grass, then nothing can touch you–
nothing! No one can humiliate you. In the eyes of the Divine, those who
serve creation are true kings and queens. Walk like a king, and be a perfect
servant.
Social wealth is one of the most underrated types of wealth that exist because
we naturally do not think of status as a form of wealth. We understand that
status has value but we never make the connection that it is actually a type of
wealth.
Social wealth consists of understanding and mastering some fundamentals,
including the art of persuasion, reputation, a high-quality character, body
language, an understanding of human nature, and an understanding of
psychology

Wealth as Memory of the Source

The eighth type of wealth is the memory of your Source. Our life is in
compartments, in pieces. We only know that we were born. But we do not
know how we were born. Normally, from age three or four onwards, we
begin to know whatever is happening, though our memory is very short. It
appears this is the only life, as we are not aware of our source.
The moment you become aware of your Source and your infinite past, your
whole life changes. It is like somebody suddenly becoming aware of how
wealthy he (or she) is. It causes a shift in the awareness. Suddenly, you
become aware, “Oh! I have several billions of naira or dollars in my bank
account!” Your style of working will change immediately! This is the
awareness of the Source. You do not even have to remember all the drama
that you went through. It is enough if you just remember the Source. The
memory of the Source is a great wealth. It makes life one continuous stream
not in pieces.

Wealth as Safety
Considering the hierarchy of needs, safety is the second highest priority for
people, just above food and water. Many people take personal safety for
granted but not having to worry about it as a form of wealth.
There are some ways money can buy you safety. You can pay extra to live in
a nice area. At the extremes you could even hire a private security guard or
live in a gated community. Money also gives you the ability to move if you
need to.

Wealth as Time or Freedom

Time wealth or freedom is defined as having your own time to spend how
you want, where you want, with whom you want.
Generally, time wealth is what the majority of people really want along with
the other types of wealth. However, time wealth is something that is rare in
the modern day for the majority of people because they spend all of their time
dedicating their resources, both physical and mental, to earning money.
Time wealth consists of understanding and mastering such fundamental
concepts as earning money outside of a traditional job structure, an
understanding that time is finite, as well as an understanding of how the
majority of people trade time for money.

WEALTH EVALUATION CRITERIA

The wealth evaluation criteria comprise a useful tool to help an individual to
self-evaluate all areas of life and find ways to improve them in order to live a
healthier, happier, and harmonious life.

Each category is ranked 1 through to 10. As an individual you can rank where
you are in each area of your life. Keep in mind when you are ranking each
area of your life that 10 is where you want to be as every normal individual
desire to be at the peak of every wealth evaluation criteria.
1. Spiritual/Inner Self: How much time do you give yourself for the
development of your

spiritual life and/or inner reflection? Do you feel connected to others in this
way? Is your soul at peace?

2. Physical Health: What is the state of your physical health? Do you care
for yourself with regular exercise (strength, cardio, flexibility), good
nutrition, and quality sleep?
3. Mindset: Are you your own best cheerleader or worst enemy? Do you
tend more towards “can do” or “too hard”? Remember, what you think is
where you go. Practice more positivity. Smile more, laugh more. Get your
mind right!
4. Family: Do you have quality family time? Do you connect well with
friends and family? Are there relationships that need attention and/or repair?
5. Professional: Are you happy in your profession (or retirement)? Are you
accomplishing what you want? Is your profession a good fit for your talents?
6. Financial: Are your finances in order? Are your financial needs being
met? Have you set aside savings and/or contributed to your retirement
accounts? Do you have big debt to settle
– and have you made a plan and budget?
7. Circle of Genius/Social: You are influenced by whom you spend the most
time with. Do you have friends or a group who inspires you to be the best you
or do you hang out with people who want to tear you down? Shift your circle
to make it an inspiring part of your life.
8. Adventure: Adventure can be anything that takes you out of your daily
elements and brings a new adventure. Big or small, adventure brings joy and
excitement! Are you getting enough of these?
9. Love: Have you told or shown the people that matter to you most that you
care about them? Are you actively showing signs of love for those around
you?
10. Impact/Legacy: Legacy is what you will leave behind and always
involve the relationships you’ve had in life and accomplishments you’ve
made that affect/benefit others. How are you contributing to your own
legacy?
IMPORTANCE OF WEALTH
One cannot underestimate the power of wealth. Wealth gives you the power
to live the lifestyle that you truly want, not a lifestyle that you are compelled
to live. It does not matter if you desire to live in extravagance– a multi-
million naira/dollar lifestyle or if you choose to live a life of basic living. You
still need wealth to acquire and maintain an optimum lifestyle for you and
your family. When we refer to the wealthy, we are referring to those who
have continually sustained high levels of financial and emotional control in
every aspect of their lives.

The main reasons wealth is important include:

I. Financial Freedom
Financial freedom is the ability to live life the way you truly desire without
financial or emotional
strain. The greatest benefit of wealth is financial freedom. Financial freedom
is much more than
being debt free. Truly wealthy people understand that money is just a tool for
manipulating their
reality.

When used properly, money can create and expand options and opportunities
in our personal and professional lives. It can also support the elimination or
decrease of the expected and unexpected challenging situations. Financial
freedom is also the core supporter of the additional benefits listed below.

II. Greater Opportunities and Options

The more wealth you generate, the more options and opportunities that
emerge for you. These opportunities and options are usually of higher quality.
They generally add greater value and diversity to our lives. Usually, many of
these opportunities and options are often exclusive to the wealthy and largely
unknown to the general public.
In terms of material possessions, higher quality options are usually more
exclusive and generally retain or increase in value over time. Therefore, upon
resale, the wealthy will usually recover the cost of the purchase and
potentially make a profit.

III. Healthy Retirement

Wealth plays significant role in retirement. There comes time in our lives
when we are ready to retire from active career pursuits or business ventures.
It is at this point that wealth will play a major role in maintaining the standard
of living that we have designed and built for ourselves. This is where all your
investments and planning into your wealth, health and happiness pays off.
Your retirement represents the rest of your life and the achievement of an
optimum lifestyle will allow you to enjoy it the way you want without the
burden of debt or financial restraint.

IV. Increased Time Leverage

Generally, we all live with the same 24-hour day. As individuals, we can only
physically do so much. The wealthy always have the capacity to use money
to make more money, as well as use money to leverage time. They achieve
this by simply paying to have things done. They usually have systems in
place including technology and human resources that automate and manage
many aspects of both their personal and professional lives.

The wealthy engage people who control and organize their day to day
operations for them. Such team usually consists of managers, assistants,
gardeners, house chores and laundry as well as private chefs. They use
private travel agents, who arrange every business trip or vacation to the finest
detail.

Tasks, whether simple or complex, can take hours, days, months or even
years to accomplish. However, the wealthy can financially afford to have
each task completed by the appropriate professionals in a much shorter time.
With the ability to leverage time, the wealthy are not always required to be
involved in the immediate process. Therefore, they only need to do the things
that are exclusively required of them. This allows extra free time to move on
to other things such as creating more wealth opportunities or just enjoying
life as they so desire.

V. Helping Others
On a more personal level, for those of us that have the privilege to see our
parents live out their final years, there is no greater joy and honour in life
than the financial ability to provide them the best comfort, care and support
they need.
Generally, wealth facilitates support from the wealthy for charity to the
people in need and for the development of the society. One of greatest gifts
associated with acquiring wealth is the ability to give back to society. This
may include helping individuals in need or supporting community groups,
charitable organizations, funding community events, as well as needed public
infrastructure that will help strengthen social and cultural values.

VI. Support of Higher Quality Health

Wealth is a major supporter for optimum health because it gives you the
financial freedom to make healthy choices and avails you of any existing
health and fitness resources. Unfortunately, in our market place today, the
healthier food choices are more expensive than the damaging processed
varieties. Fitness, sports and recreational supplies and equipment can also
carry hefty prices. As a result, those who experience lack of wealth have
limited access to most average and higher-level resources that support a
healthy lifestyle.

At some point in life some people are forced to deal with known or
unexpected health issues. In many such cases, the issues may be extremely
costly and not all health insurance coverage includes all expenses. When
dealing with any health issues, it is important that all focus and energy is
invested into the recovery process and not consumed by the stress and
anxiety of dealing with any financial strain due to the lack of money.

The wealthy are not limited with the expenses for treatments, medications,
accommodations, as well as for travel or any other required expenses. For the
un-wealthy, the lack of money to take care of these expenses become a major
issue and, in many cases, it becomes a serious limitation. Hence, acquiring
optimum health help enjoyable and long-term lifestyle through the following:

•Higher Level of Care: There should be no surprise that the wealthy in

general, usually live longer. Due to the abundance of money they can fly
around the world to access the most advanced medical and surgical resources
that exist. This in turn provides access to world renowned doctors, specialists
and experts from around the globe. For this reason, they are not restricted to
local hospitals which often experience limitations in quality resources.
•Food and Diet: The wealthy have the privilege to eat as healthy as they
desire. There is no secret to the fact that healthier food is more expensive.
Additionally, the wealthy have access to a higher quality food selection that
is not always available to the general population.

In many major cities, there are elite food service companies that cater
exclusively to the wealthy. These services provide the highest quality food
available in the form of private food delivery including meal prep services.
Also, many of the wealthy have personal chefs who specialize in preparing
the healthiest foods for the diet of their choice.

•Fitness: There is no limit to the level of fitness training available for the
wealthy. They can choose between elite gym memberships or personal
celebrity fitness trainers.

VII. Education and Self-Development

With respect to higher education and self-development, the wealthy have
access to educational institutions of the highest standards and popularity.
When the wealthy have struggles or just want to take life to the next level,
they seek personal coaching from professionals.

VIII. Challenges & Crisis Management

We can never totally avoid crisis or even general challenges that life throws
our way. However, being wealthy provides the financial resources needed to
prevent, eradicate or at the very least, reduce the seriousness of most
unpleasant situations
It is important to always sustain a higher level of wealth than what you think
you need because you never know what financial demands the future holds.

As amazing as life is and no matter how well we position ourselves we still

need to deal with unexpected challenges from time to time. These unexpected
challenges can consist of health issues both physical and mental, tragedy,
loss, natural disasters, legal issues and the list goes on. In some unexpected
situations, you may be forced to rebuild your entire life.
If faced with any of these challenges you want the financial ability to rebuild
as quickly and efficiently as possible with minimal disruption to your life, the
life of your family and everyone else involved.

•Legal: Depending on the situation, you may not always be able to eliminate
it entirely, but having the financial resources to hire the best legal team
available will greatly increase your chances of minimizing it.
•War and Natural Disasters: The wealthy have the ability to quickly
evacuate from almost any situation. When there are warnings of civil or
political unrest or the potential for life threatening weather conditions, they
simply leave without difficulty. Whether they leave by private transportation
or use public transportation, they are not restricted by the lack of money.

Also, there are some situations that occur without warning such as natural
disasters, terror attacks and so on. For the super wealthy, they have access to
elite classes of insurance that are not generally available to the non-wealthy.

IX. Support of Happiness

We all know that the core of true happiness comes from within and is heavily
influenced by our mindset. However, the lack of money can dampen
happiness when we are forced to do without the things and experiences that
we truly desire. For many of us our happiness can be seriously stripped away
by stress and anxiety associated with financial debt or the risk of it.

Having wealth supports happiness by allowing you to live the lifestyle that
you truly want for you and your family without suffering from financial
strain. The biggest problem with wealthy people that are unhappy is that they
are trying to live a lifestyle that they think they want instead of the lifestyle
that they truly desire. This usually results from the need to compete with
others in their respective social class instead of focusing on their own desires
and purpose in life.

It is important that you target the things and experiences that truly generate
positive and long-term emotions instead of the common short-term
superficial joy which will quickly leave you dissatisfied.

Chapter Two
UNDERSTANDING MENTAL WEALTH
Introduction

Generating mental wealth is the focus of this chapter. It builds on what was
treated in the previous chapter. The following main concepts have been
treated here for maximum benefit of every reader. Mental wealth
Mental wealth shows how successful you are at managing the content of your
mind. Mental Wealth builds on the core need to rediscover the meaning of
life and finding happiness by changing the way you think, which cascades
through your emotions, behaviors and life.

Mental wealth can be considered from two dimensions namely mental capital
and mental wellbeing.

1. Mental capitalencompasses both cognitive and emotional resources. It

includes people’s cognitive ability, their flexibility and efficiency at learning,
and their emotional intelligence, or social skills and resilience in the face of
stress.

Mental wealth from mental capital dimension therefore captures the key
elements that establish how well an individual is able to contribute to society
and to experience a high quality of life.

2. Mental well-being, on the other hand, is a dynamic state that refers to

individuals’ ability to develop their potential, work productively and
creatively build strong and positive relationships with others and contribute
to their community.

Mental wealth is about building positive wellbeing in individuals and

communities, and raising awareness of issues surrounding positive mental
health. Mental wealth encompasses the health and wellbeing of an individual
or a community.

Components of Mental Wealth

Mental Wealth is created by learning ways to look after your positive mental
health. Positive mental health is a state in which we are developing our -
physical, emotional/mental, spiritual, occupational, environmental,
intellectual, social, and spiritual potentials, working productively, and
building strong and positive relationships, as well as contributing to the
community and having a real sense of purpose in our lives.

Generally, mental wealth focuses on how we stay well mentally and

emotionally. The key to mental wealth is building resilience to enable us to
cope with whatever live throws at us. Taking some time to invest in our
positive mental health can help us live richer, more fulfilling lives, and
empowers us with more mental wealth.

Mental Wealth is all of the mental and emotional resources which help us
function in our daily lives. The amount of our mental wealth is determined by
our ability to make the most out of who we are. Our thinking and learning
abilities play a huge role in in how efficient and flexible we are at learning,
understanding, and figuring out things.

But even more important is what we actually learn - the knowledge and skills
we acquire throughout life such as our self-awareness, emotional control,
empathy, communication, social, conflict resolution, and stress reduction
skills. And what we learn is determined by the opportunities and the
experiences we have throughout our lives which are directly influenced by
the quality of the settings where we live, learn, work and play. The more
mental wealth resources we have, the better we can function.

Persons with high levels of mental wealth love being alive and live life to the
fullest of their capacity and ability. It should be noted that each person’s
capacity and ability is unique. Persons with high levels of mental wealth
actively work to develop their potential. They are resilient and bounce back
quickly from difficult or stressful experiences and situations. They engage
with others at home, at school and in the community. They have a sense of
purpose in life and frequently feel inner peace.

FACTORS THAT DETERMINE MENTAL WEALTH

Mental wealth and positive mental health are based on five major factors:

•Our biological make-up. These are the genes we received from our parents
and how they develop over our lives.
•The quality of our home, school, work and neighbourhood environments;
•The experiences we have and the learning which takes place throughout our
lives;
•Our attitudes, beliefs, and values;
•The efforts we make every day to build a positive mental health

THE NEED TO BUILD MENTAL WEALTH

Mental Wealth equips individuals to deal with life and work in a positive and
healthy way instead of succumbing to anxiety, depression, stress, and fear.
Similarly, Mental Wealth equips businesses to produce mentally tougher and
stronger leaders and teams by reducing the impact of mental health on
performance

The two dimensions of mental wealth are intimately linked throughout life
and across different areas of life. A positive emotional state or approach to
life is associated with greater curiosity, more flexible thinking and a greater
openness to learning. And these qualities are particularly important during the
development of mental capital in childhood and adolescence.

Early learning in children can increase their resilience to stress and common
mental disorders. Later in life, this resilience helps to engender well-being at
work and into old age. And older individuals who report higher levels of
well-being also have better cognitive function, even when adjustment has
been made for other possible explanatory factors, such as socio-demographic
variables, health and lifestyle.

Thus, how a nation develops and uses its mental capital not only has a
significant effect on its economic competitiveness and prosperity, it is also
important for mental health and well-being and social cohesion and inclusion.
They are so closely linked, mental health and well-being should both
therefore be considered in decision making situations.
If you cannot wave a magic wand and make life’s challenges go away, then
the only way forward is to realize that these challenges are your life. Mental
Wealth sets out practical ways to enable you to help yourself. The overall aim
is to unlock access to your internal resources, enabling you to do more than
cope with the stresses of life, but to see things differently, change your
mindset and improve your resilience. Building mental wealth peels back the
layers, getting you to think about your thinking. Once you have clarity, self-
improvement follows effortlessly. It is about instilling positive habits, with
the benefits rippling way beyond work.

Learning ways to look after your positive mental health creates what is called
Mental Wealth. This makes you more resilient and increases your overall
wellbeing. It also means you are more equipped to support your friends.
Mental wealth is just as important as positive mental health.
Mental wealth and positive mental health are critically important to us and
have a major impact on our path throughout life. They affect our quality of
life and our level of prosperity as well as how well we are able to contribute
to society. They also determine the level of our resilience. That is, our ability
to respond positively to stressful situations or experiences.

Similarly, mental wealth and positive mental health are the foundation to the
wellbeing and good functioning of families, schools, and communities. The
level of mental wealth and positive mental health in a community determines
the level of positive behaviour, social cohesion, community safety and levels
of criminality, citizenship, economic competitiveness, and the overall
prosperity of the community.
Investing in your mental wealth helps to prevent mental illness and mental
health issues by helping you to understand:

•how and why you ‘show up’ in the way you do, day to day;
•how this changes in response to stress
•how to build your resilience and mental strength to better deal with life’s
challenges

WHAT INVESTING IN MENTAL WEALTH INVOLVES

The human mind is beautifully complex. It is the source of mental health
problems arising from negative patterns of thinking, behaviour and self-
communication. These negative patterns can be prevented through better self-
awareness, self-communication, investment in self-development and the
learning and application of essential life and leadership skills.
Our Mental Wealth determines how we stay well mentally and emotionally.
The key to that is building resilience to enable us to cope with whatever life
throws at us. Taking some time to build our mental health can help us live
richer and more fulfilling lives.
There are daily actions we can do that will build our mental wealth and
increase the level of our positive mental health and that of others in our
communities. We need to invest time and effort in doing them every day.

1. Connecting with the people around us: These include our family
members, friends, coworkers, neighbors, members of our religious
affiliations, at home, work, school, and in our neighborhoods. Be supportive
and accept support when you need it. Think of these connections as the
cornerstones of your life. They will enrich you every day and are vital to our
well-being.

2. Preventing mental disorders: The reduction of trauma, the building of

resilience, and addressing substance abuse would all have mental health
payoffs. There is a good level of knowledge on how to prevent some
psychiatric disorders. The home, school, and integrated medical services all
contribute to this wealth. The workplace needs to prevent burnout and
chronic stress that detracts from the valued meaning of one’s occupation.

3. Early intervention in mental Disorder: Like any other disorder, early

diagnosis and the initiation of appropriate treatment is valuable for mental
disorder. Diagnosis must be carefully made and unnecessary treatments
avoided in order to do so.

4. Belief in recovery: The adoption of a recovery model over recent years

has been an antidote for the hopelessness that many patients, families, and
caregivers have had in relation the outcome of chronic and most serious
mental illness.

Indeed, some can recover without extensive and ongoing treatment if they
live in a supportive and understanding community that will embrace them.

5. Cognitive enhancement: Although controversial from an ethical

standpoint, many people are trying to enhance their mental abilities, even if
haphazardly or illegally.
This includes using medication or street drugs to increase focus, technology
to boost our intelligence, exercise to increase brain health, and nutrition or
hormones to go beyond our natural abilities. The key to this quest is to
determine if the benefits outweigh the risks and if they are available
equitably.

6. Keep learning and trying something new. You can rediscover an old
interest. You can sign up for that skill training. Take on a different
responsibility at work. Learn to play an instrument or how to cook a new
dish. Learning new things builds confidence.

7. Curiosity. Making efforts to be aware of the world around you and how
you are feeling inside. Catch sight of the beautiful or unusual. Take time to
savor the moment, whether you are walking to work, eating lunch or talking
to friends. Reflect on your experiences every day.

8. Being Active. Walk, run, or cycle. Play a game. Garden. Dance.

Exercising makes you feel good. Be sure to also eat a nutritious, balanced
diet and get enough rest every night!

9. Learn to Give. Do something nice for a friend or a stranger. Thank

someone. Smile, open a door for someone, say hello. Volunteer your time.
Support a worthy cause. Your happiness really is linked to the wider
community.

Chapter Three
WAYS TO INVEST IN YOUR MENTAL WEALTH

Introduction
Just as weinvest time and effort to increasing our ‘financial’ wealth so that
we can provide for our physical needs, we should also invest time and effort
to increase our ‘mental’ wealth so we can provide for our mental and
emotional needs. When you really think about it, the amount of our mental
wealth and positive mental health determines to a great extent, our quality of
life, our ability to increase and/or maintain our financial wealth, and the
overall prosperity of the entire community.

Meeting Emotional Needs of Mental Wealth

1. Thoughts affect feelings. Knowingly or unknowingly, our feelings affect
our behavior. Hence, we need to monitor our thoughts for a better quality of
life. Focus on the positive thoughts that work for you, and let the negative
ones go. It is also important to watch out for errors in thinking such as black
and white thinking, catastrophizing, overgeneralizing, personalizing, mind
reading, and many others. Allowing errors in our thoughts results in a waste
of energy and attention.

The person you decide to be today determines who you will become
tomorrow. Your physical appearance can draw others in, but your state of
mind is what keeps them there. So many individuals settle with who they are
after poor decisions are made. They do not challenge themselves to be bigger,
better, and brighter. If they do, they will definitely be bigger, better, and
brighter.

Be bigger. Challenging self to be the biggest and most vibrant personality in

the circumstance. This will show others that happiness is a choice and
success is a lifestyle.

Be better. Challenging self to be better than the person you were yesterday
no matter how bad you think it is. It motivates you to study the habits and
lifestyle choices of those you admire.
Be brighter. You need to let your mind and the way you carry yourself light
up the world around you. Know that you deserve this and promise yourself
you will not let yourself fall between the cracks. Be the best you know you
can be.

2. Attention training. Always be aware of where your focus is. We tend to

focus on things that confirm our existing beliefs about the world. If we see
the world as nasty, we will look for examples to confirm this. This is known
as confirmation bias. Be aware of what you focus on as it grows and seems
more real. You will discover that the alternative may be true too if you focus
on it.

3. Understand that most thoughts are garbage. Research has shown that
adults have over 80 000 thoughts every day and most are a waste of one’s
attention. Hence, it is very important to learn to let go of certain thoughts,
especially those that will not enhance your reaching your goals.

4. Do not take thoughts seriously. Thoughts are not necessarily facts.

Hence, learn to dismiss such thoughts. There will be more along the way to
cloud your mind before you know it.

5. Contain your worries. Worry has a nasty habit of creeping into your
thoughts and twisting them until your mind has created a worst-case scenario.
Worrying can spoil your day and stop you from living a full life. To support
yourself in worrying less, try these two things.

•Firstly, agree with yourself that you will only worry about things that you
have some control over.
•Secondly, if you feel worried give yourself a 30 minutes time each day when
you can allow yourself to worry, worry, and worry. When the 30 minutes are
up, you can leave the worry behind and take it up again the following day.

6. Real worry vs hypothetical worry. When you worry, ask yourself if you
are focusing on a “what if” worry (hypothetical – it might not happen) or a
real worry. An example of real worry would be your laundry machine
breaking down. It requires attention now. Know the difference between real
worry and hypothetical worry and let go of the hypothetical worries.

7. Do not try to be a mind-reader. One of the biggest issues is that people

who care too much about what other people think, as well as people who like
to doother people’s thinking. For example: "He must think that I am not a
serious and hard-working person." It is really important not to do anyone
else’s thinking but your own.

Trying to work out what someone else is thinking is never going to work out
well. So, focus on what you are thinking, focus on what is right for you, and
then let go of what other people think of you. You need to understand that
what other people think of you is not your problem, but what you think of
yourself really is.

8. Know your stressors. The first step towards optimum mental health is
knowing what stresses you out. Your stressors may be lack of time, an
overwhelming workload, a fractious relationship. Whatever your pressure
point is, stress can burn you up and turn your energy to ashes. To keep your
flame lit, get to know your triggers. Once you know them you can take steps
to reduce them and look at alternatives to the stressor.

9. Express your feelings. Expressing how you feel is vital to mental health
and mental wealth. Bottling things up never works. Eventually, the feeling
you are trying to suppress will come out sideways. Sometimes, it is good to
have feelings. There is nothing right or wrong with a feeling. Speak to a
friend or loved one and tell them how you feel. Speak to a therapist if you
feel you need professional support. Or start a journal where you check in with
yourself daily and write down what is happening in your inner world. You
will feel the relief of unburdening yourself.
10. Prioritize self-care. This is about putting your own oxygen mask on
before you help others. You may feel it is selfish to put yourself first when
there are other people who need you, but without selfcare, you won’t have
anything to give others. Self-care means ensuring you sleep and eat well, take
some exercise, and build in some time to relax or meditate. Tune into your
needs and aim to meet them where you can.

11. Stay connected. It can be so tempting to tune the world out and isolate
yourself as an antidote to the 24/7 demands of life. Yet part of the definition
of mental health is “making a contribution to your community”. Staying
connected with people – friends, family, groups, or even volunteering for a
good cause– can build the feel-good within.

12. Try something new either for fun or for helping a situation. Doing
something just for fun helps reduce anxiety or worry. You can decide to build
a new structure or concept. You can also try your hand on drawing objects
you admire. Writing a story, you may have heard from older people for
younger generations can be a very fruitful adventure. So also, is painting,
dancing, acting, and knitting. Choose something that makes your heart sing.

Do something you love just for the sake of it, not because you have got a
deadline to meet or a boss to impress or a point to prove. Having a project
can give you meaning and purpose. It can put the spark back into your life.

13. Taking the pressure off. A lot of frustration in life is caused by

expecting perfection. Having incredibly high standards that you expect
everyone to meet can often lead to feelings of disappointment. Self-pressure
can be even worse. Your inner slave-driver can torture you with the things
you should do or not do; the things you must do or must not do; and the
things you ought to do or ought not to do. Never lose sight of the bigger
picture.

Stress feels really intense at the moment but in retrospect, we are able to see
things more clearly, more rationally, and with less emotion. Remind yourself
when you are in the ‘thick of it’ that you will not always feel this upset.
Perspective can strengthen emotional and mental health but helping us to feel
more rational and in control of the situation. We are able to think more
clearly when we take emotion out of the equation.
These inner slave-drivers leave you feeling as what you do will never be
enough. That is exhausting and can lead you down the road to anxiety and
depression. Taking the pressure off yourself and giving everyone permission
to be imperfect, can be so freeing. Accept that you are good enough just as
you are.

Meeting Social Needs of Mental Wealth

Social wealth or status is one of the most underrated types of wealth that exist
because we naturally do not think of status as a form of wealth. We
understand that status has value but we never make the connection that it is
actually a type of wealth.
Social wealth consists of understanding and mastering the following
fundamentals:
• The art of persuasion
• Reputation
• High quality character,
• Body Language
• An understanding of human nature
• An understanding of psychology
This is by no means a comprehensive list of all thefundamentals but these
one’s listed above cover the majority of what social wealth or status consists
of.
Social wealth largely comes down to how you interact within the social
world. Yes, it also deals with luxury cars, houses, appearance, and so on;
although, it mainly deals with what kind of character you create and how
others interact with this character and perceive it.

Generally, social wealth relates to connectedness and how you fill your social
and emotional needs by interacting with others. Social wealth is the total
value of the resources that you have to meet your social or emotional needs.

Social connection is the currency of social wealth. Social connections can be

defined as people you frequently interact with whether it is face to face, on
the phone, internet, etc. It fulfills emotional necessities like sharing and
belonging. Under normal circumstances, an individual feels validated when
with people such as family, friends, colleagues and sometimes even strangers.
In other words, Social connectedness is the measure of how people come
together and interact. At an individual level, social connectedness involves
the quality and number of connections one has with other people in a social
circle of family, friends, and acquaintances.
Social connection is social wealth. It plays a critical role in building any of
the other dimensions of wealth because you cannot survive on your own
efforts or resources alone. In other words, you need other people around you
to survive.
The following efforts and actions will help strengthen or build your social
wealth: ▪ You need to cultivate existing and new personal and professional
relationships. ▪ You need to be clear about what you do and don’t stand for,
as well as what you will and will

not do to build your financial wealth.

▪ You need to be comfortable in your skin when it comes to the material
components of your
wealth, especially since there will likely always be someone who has less
than and more than
you.

Some of the biggest traps that keep people away from achieving social
wealth: ▪ Lack of persuasive skill
▪ Negative social reputation
▪ Low quality character
▪ Ignorance of human nature
▪ Ignorance of psychology
▪ Obsession with material wealth

Meeting Physical Needs of Mental Wealth

Under normal circumstances, without the vitality of a healthy body, it is hard
to create and maintain the other kinds of wealth. This is probably the reason
for the oftquoted phrase, “Health is wealth.” Physical health is the condition
of your body, taking into consideration everything from the absence of
disease to fitness level. Physical health is critical for overall well-being of an
individual, and can be affected by a person’s lifestyle as reflected in the
person’s diet, level of physical activities, and other behavioural tendencies.

Physical exercise, nutrition, sleep, and rest are some of the key elements of
physical health and, thus, physical wealth. It is therefore important that
individuals pay close attention and take necessary actions to meet the
physical needs that translates to mental wealth.
As an individual, you need to be cautious enough to resist actions or
endeavours that continuously make you to compromise your physical health.
Resisting such negative habits or avoiding negligence in efforts to prevent
any negative health issue is the price you have to pay in order to experience
any of the other forms of wealth, especially financial wealth.

To achieve and or maintain physical health, you need to:

•Drink more water and fewer sugary drinks. The body is primarily composed
of water, so staying hydrated is crucial to your physical health. ...

•Exercise regularly. You can do the necessary simple exercises in your house,
and walk-out routines in your neighbourhood. You do not necessarily have to
become a gym member to exercise.
•Eat more fruits and vegetables and less of pastries and other fast food.
•You need to get a good enough night's sleep. Eight hours is the
recommended standard.
•Good hygiene and sanitisation need to be given the required attention. Wash
your hands regularly.

Meeting Spiritual Needs of Mental Wealth

For an individual, spiritual wealth comes from within. Your spiritual wealth
is your awareness of the combined effects of your contentment, mindfulness
and spiritual self. That is, things that you can have at all times.

True spiritual wealth is something that you can control. Material wealth, on
the other hand, tends to fluctuate. It is influenced not only by internal factors,
such as poor financial decisions, but also by external factors like the
economy, natural disasters, and a host of other issues beyond your control as
well. When you find the balance between spiritual wealth and material
wealth, that is where the magic lies.

When you are on a spiritual journey that has led you to discover the calling of
being in service, it only makes sense to pursue a living in that calling. For
some individuals, that often causes an internal dilemma. You need to
understand that you can strike the balance between being spiritually of
service, as well as being financially successful.
You need to:
▪ Know how in tune you are with your beliefs about money and what you
need to do to stay

present in the moment while you work to design your future.

▪ Know how aware you are of why you are making the decision and choices
you make. ▪ Know how aware you are of what is fueling your desire for the
financial, social, time and

physical wealth you want to experience and pass down to the generations
behind you. ▪ Know how aware you are of what interrupts your efforts to
focus on each kind of wealth.

Meeting Time Need of Mental Wealth

Time wealth, also considered as time freedom is seen as having your own
time to spend how you want, where you want, with whom you want. Time-
Wealth is the term use to refer to the value put upon the currency of time.
Time wealth is what the majority of people really want along with the other
types of wealth.

Considering the fact that time spent cannot be recovered, it is logical to

describe time as an unrenewable currency.
Hence, the human interaction with time-wealth creation falls into the
following four categories.

▪ Selling Your Time

This is the basic level in all cultures. Before one can buy something, the
person must have something to offer, they must have a currency, which
represents their time. For example, when a young person wants to earn an
income to meet financial needs, the person can decide to offer services to
another person who requires services of the young person and pays the young
person a pre-determined amount of money as compensation for the time the
young person spends rendering the service.

This way, the young person hours of life are bought from him, and he is
selling the only unrenewable resource, his time. This is more or less the
system in which a majority of the world’s population live. You need to
understand that it is possible to sell your time for more money, but the bad
part about this is that you cannot get more time, because time is un-
renewable.

▪ Selling Your Knowledge

Investing your time into building up a base of knowledge. As an individual,
you can invest your time to acquire knowledge as a professional in any field
of study, whether as a lawyer, an author, a medical doctor or a mechanic,
essentially all specialized knowledge. This knowledge then can be sold at a
much higher rate than selling your time directly.

For some professions, rather than people buying your time, they are buying
your knowledge. This affords the person the possibility of much more
freedom and time retention, especially as technology has created avenues for
disseminating that knowledge for sale without much time being involved. For
instance, selling an audiobook requires no extra time once it is created and
posted online. But for some professions, once inside of this system, it can be
hard to find a way out because the specialized knowledge is contained within
the individual. For instance, a medical doctor’s services cannot be effectively
delegated. In other words, the doctor has to be in the office being a doctor.

▪ Creating Investments
Under normal circumstances, this level can provide a lot more time and
freedom for the individual that is living in the knowledge level. By finding a
way to create a system where paper money begets more paper money, this
creates Time-Wealth because the money is making more of itself without
time being used to create it.

This can be through the obvious options such as buying stocks or starting a
business. What holds many people back from stepping into this level is the
fear of loss. Perhaps the doctor is comfortable selling his knowledge, why
risk it by expanding his practice, bringing in extra doctors and freeing up all
his time? He could get embroiled in a lawsuit because of someone he
partnered with. There are too many risks! Perhaps the stock will fall, or the
business will fail. These are the concerns that keep people living in the
knowledge level.

This can at times pay off very well and create immense Time-Wealth and
personal freedom for those who overcome the fear and launch out into the
Investment level. It gets carried over to the next generation.

▪ Receiving Inheritance
The fourth level only comes because someone previous has gone through the
first three levels, then they have passed the investments to the next generation
without that generation having to go through the first three levels themselves.

For a young person who does not have any special knowledge to sell and has
no investments, has to sell time offering services for money to be able to
acquire the desired skill or knowledge. The young person can be provided for
by parents to acquire the required skill or knowledge at this stage of life
instead of selling his/her time to make money to acquire the skill or
knowledge. The provision by his/her parents have given him/her the desired
skill or knowledge which is a form of Time-Wealth in a few respects.

Similarly, to separate money from one’s spiritual life is ignorant because

money is simply a representation of our time and how we spend our time is
very spiritual indeed. For instance, when an offering plate is being passed at
church, by putting your money, the money can pay for some time of work by
some other person. Time is represented by money. This has vast implications.
Considering time and money from this perspective gives an individual a high
value for time.

If you put tremendous value upon time, and seeing time as un-renewable, you
will understand the need to effectively and efficiently allocate your time. You
need to ensure that no bit of your time must be wasted, rather every bit of
your 24 hours in a day should be enjoyed and spent wisely.

Time wealth is about your capacity to deliberately spend your time doing
what you want, when you want. The key is to make sure all of your time is
not being spent on earning money to build wealth. Since time wealth is about
flexibility and freedom, your job is to create the circumstances that enable
you to experience this, regardless of where you fall on the income and wealth
spectrum.

MEETING FINANCIAL NEEDS OF MENTAL WEALTH

Financial Wealth measures the value of all the assets of worth owned by a
person, community, company, or country. Financial Wealth is determined by
taking the total market value of all physical and intangible assets owned, then
subtracting all debts. Financial Wealth is a great amount of money, property,
possessions or ideas. An example of financial wealth is the money, property
and business ventures ofNigeria’s Aliko Dangote or America’s Donald
Trump.

A critical consideration of the difference between wealth and money shows

that Money is simply the currency needed to exchange for goods or services,
while wealth is the abundance of money or material possessions. You may
not have a lot of money, but you consider yourself wealthy far beyond cash
or possessions.

Hence, true wealth is the ability to live life on your own terms. It is freedom.
Money itself is not wealth, it is a vehicle or a tool you can use to achieve
financial freedom, to go after the dreams you did not think were possible, to
design your life in a way that makes you feel alive and fulfilled Essentially,
wealth is the accumulation of scarce resources.

The best way to take care of yourself, your family, and your favorite causes
begins with a healthy relationship with money and a sound blueprint for
financial success. In other words, as an individual, you and your family
actively contribute to planning the financial life you want for yourself and
your family.

To get to where you want to be, it is important to know where you are now.
Financial health is more than the size of your portfolio. It includes things
such as planning for the future, protecting your family, and comfort and
confidence around past and present financial matters and self-care.

How to build financial wealth

▪ Create a budget. Understanding how you're spending your money and

where you can cut back is essential to saving and growing your wealth.
▪ Pay off any high-interest debt.
▪ Build an emergency fund.
▪ Invest as much of your income as you can.
▪ Reduce your living expenses where you can.
▪ Avoid “lifestyle creep”
▪ Negotiate your salary
Building financial wealth is important for a healthy retirement. Financial
Wealth matters because it can enable you to continue living even if you don't
have a source of income for a while. It is extremely difficult to build wealth
by contributing money from your paycheck once you have a family and kids.
It is not impossible, but difficult.

MEETING PROFESSIONAL NEEDS OF MENTAL WEALTH

Mental Wealth reveals an approach to workplace mental health and wellbeing
that is proven to actually get results. Despite having a huge impact on the
productivity, profitability, and culture of organizations, there is very little
guidance currently provided to managers and leaders on how to effectively
manage workplace mental health and wellbeing.

What does exist is often focused on the legal aspects of minimizing the risk
that it misses the psychology of workplace mental health and high
performance and actually ends up creating risk for workplaces. Mental
Wealth is a guide for managers and leaders on how to manage employees
who may be experiencing mental health issues in the workplace.

Some of the essential foundations include:

• Dispelling myths about workplace mental health.
Stigma is a negative stereotype. Stereotypes or negative attitudes that we
have about mental health problems are often created from things we see in
movies, on the news, on social media, experiences we have, or the way we
were brought up.

Discrimination can then happen if we treat people unfairly because of this

stigma. This is not right because we all go through tough times. The good
news is, we can change this. Stigma thrives on misunderstanding and myths
that we believe about mental illness– so let us change that by learning myth-
busters
•the factors that cause and contribute to mental health issues,
•the impact those factors are having on workplaces,
•the benefits of addressing mental health appropriately, and
•7 Pillars for a mentally Wealthy Workplace.
Mental Wealth also includes case studies and practical strategies that can be
implemented for immediate results.
Chapter Four
MENTAL WEALTH SKILLS
INTRODUCTION

Mental describes anything having to do with the mind, just as physical has to
do with the body. Mental has to do with the intellect, the mind, or the brain.
In order to complete tasks successfully, you should have knowledge, ability
and competence. These qualities, known as skills, can be developed to help
you gain expertise in a specific area. This expertise can translate into greater
success in your career and other areas of life.

WHAT ARE SKILLS?

Generally, skill is a term that encompasses the knowledge, competencies and
abilities to perform operational tasks. While some skills are developed
through life and work experiences, some other skills will need to be learned
through study in addition to life and work experiences. There are different
types of skills. Some skills may be easier to access for some people than
others, based on things like dexterity, physical abilities and intelligence.

Skills can also be measured, and levels determined by skill tests. Most jobs
require multiple skills, and likewise, some skills will be more useful for
certain professions than others.

CATEGORIES OF SKILLS
There are several categories of skill that an individual might decide to
develop. Below are examples of types of skills and the kinds of competencies
an individual could gain by mastering a skill type: Life Skills, Job Readiness
Skills, Leadership Skills, and Organizational Skills. Life Skills
Life Skills are skills needed by young people passing through early life
development stages to successfully navigate the multiple risks to their
development. Young people must be armed with a broad spectrum of
knowledge and essential skills described as Life Skills to be successful in
every area of endeavour.They need to develop ‘life skills’ to put what they
know into practice and to make informed choices, especially about risky
behavioural decision making situations. Life skills are also transferable
between jobs, life events and situations. Some personal life skills include:

• Values
• Self-Awareness
• Self-Esteem
• Critical Thinking
• Creative Thinking
• Refusal
• Cooperation
• Curiosity
• Perseverance
• Communication
• Assertiveness
• Adaptability
• Negotiation
• Studying
• Making a household budget
• Balancing accounts
• Basic finance skills
• Creating a grocery list
• Cleaning and tidying
• Organizing the home
• Laundry
• Making an organized list
• Shopping for yourself and others
• Parenting
• Painting
• Empathy
• Creativity
• Initiative
• Flexibility
• Staying motivated
• Time Management
• Managing stress
• Sense of humor
• Driving

Job Readiness skills

Job readiness is having the skills to find work. It is seen as being able or
having the capacities, with little or no outside help, to find, acquire, and keep
an appropriate job. It also applies to an individual being able to manage
transition from one position to a higher position in the same organization as
well as to move to a new job in another organization as needed.

It is also being able to manage future work life changes. Employers of labor
look for candidates with skills that can add to the workplace to ensure a job is
performed properly and the worker is able to adapt to handling increased
responsibilities. Job readiness skills include:

• Confidence
• Reliability
• Honesty
• Integrity
• Verbal communication
• Non-verbal communication
• Ability to meet deadlines
• Written communication
• Persuasion
• Negotiation
• Technical skills
• Organization
• Presentation
• Accounting
• Finance skills
• Reporting
• Time management
• Customer service
• Mentoring and coaching
• Maturity
• Patience
• Ethics
• Interviewing
• Diplomacy
• Scheduling

Leadership skills
Leadership is a process by which an individual or an executive can direct,
guide and influence the behavior and work of others towards the
accomplishment of specific goals in a given situation. Leadership is the
ability of a manager to induce the subordinates to work with confidence and
zeal. Leadership is the potential to influence behaviour of others. It is also
defined as the capacity to influence a group towards the realization of a goal.
Leaders are required to develop future visions and to motivate the
organizational members to want to achieve the visions.

The following leadership skills are required by every individual looking

forward to a leadership position
•Solving problems
•Decision making
•Business intelligence skills
•Delegating
•Critical thinking
•Holding productive meetings
•Strategic planning
•Conflict resolution
•People managing
•Offering sound advice
•Active listening
•Professional observation
•Imagination
•Administrative skills
•Attention to detail
•Rapport building
•Analyzing data
•Collaboration
•Team leadership
•Developing employees
•Prioritizing
•Budgeting
•Innovation
•Business agility
•Providing feedback
•Change management
Organizational skills
An organization is described as an idea of putting things together in a logical
order. On the other hand, an organization is a group of people who work
together to achieve a pre-determined objective, goal or target. Organizations
exist because people working together can achieve more than a person
working alone.

Organizational skills are the abilities that let individuals stay focused on
different tasks and use your time, energy, strength, mental capacity, physical
space effectively and efficiently in order to achieve the desired outcome.
In business environments, leaders must have the ability to organize both
inputs and corresponding outcomes. Some organizational skills include that
help with this include:

• Setting goals
• Multitasking
• Implementation skills
• Ability to follow directions
• Categorizing data
• Coordinating
• Project management
• Information analysis
• Digital competency
• Developmental planning
• Reasoning skills
• Logic
• Reading comprehension
• Productivity
• Appointment management
• Event coordination
• Planning milestones
• Design skills
• Organization of thoughts
• Office management
• Resource delegation
• Inventory
• Data processing
• Filing and record-keeping
• Assessment and evaluation

How to improve your skills

To Improve on something is to make that thing better. This could be done to
increase the value or good qualities of the concept under consideration.
Improving your skills provides tremendous benefits in both your professional
and personal lives. Improving your skills can open new doors to better
opportunities. There are a few steps that you can take to improve your skills:

1. Make a list of the skills you wish to improve

2. Dedicate yourself to improving your skills with investments
3. Set SMART and honest goals and milestones
4. Get a coach or mentor
5. Have a plan for improving the skill
6. Get some support
7. Monitor your progress
8. Have fun with the process

Make a list of the skills you wish to improve

Some skills are in more demand than others. Before you begin, make sure
that your efforts are worthwhile with a skill that you will use. You can do this
by making a list of all the skills that you need to enhance your life and career.

Dedicate yourself to improving your skills with investments

Understand why you are improving your skills, what motivates you and be
prepared to make investments of time or money in skill development and
training.

Set SMART and honest goals and milestones

Be honest about your skill level and realistic chances of improvement and
create skill development timelines. Your goals towards improving your skills
should be SMART. That is, the goals should be simple, measurable,
achievable, realistic, and time-bound.

Get a coach or mentor

Follow the people that you admire who are good at doing what you wish to
do as your role models and mentor. If possible, seek a relationship with them
and contact them when appropriate. Seek counsel from them as much as they
are available to you.

Have a plan for improving the skill

With established goals and milestones, you need to set out a plan or process
to achieve them. This could take the form of breaking down skill
development into stages, levels, or specific training initiatives or practice.

Get some support

Having a strong support system is a great asset when it comes to developing
skills. Think about participating in activities through a professional
organization, leadership training classes or other events that connect you with
people who can support you.

Monitor your progress

Put in place a self-assessment criterion using a standard self-assessment
model as well as develop a system for feedback. You can record yourself, ask
others, or benchmark your performance against suitable models.

Have fun with the process

Add fun strategies to your process. Skill development and learning new
things can be an enjoyable experience. But you can make the most of it by
having fun along the way.

Some workplace skills to constantly improve

The workplace provides opportunities to practice and improve on the job
skills. Some highly desirable skills for the workplace include the following:

•Problem-solving: Running into problems is almost a certainty in rapidly

changing environments. You will be valued more with your ability to
efficiently solve problems.
•Communication: Others need to understand and appreciate the information
and messages that you transfer. This includes the content as well as the intent.
•Teamwork: Although there may be separate units, businesses function as a
team. Your ability to work within the team becomes part of your job
performance.
•Time-management: Being able to manage your time when performing
multiple tasks is also a determinant of your job performance.
•Organizing and planning: Your job becomes much easier with proper
organizing and planning of activities.
•Learning: The ability to earn helps not only you but your employer as you
are able to add value by performing new tasks.
•Decision-making: In any business, there are decisions made daily that affect
how the business operates. The better you are at making good decisions, the
more valued you become to the employer.

How to Highlight Your Skills

Employers are looking for evidence that your skills meet the company's
requirements. When highlighting skills on your resume, you need more than a
list of your qualifications and accomplishments.
▪ Skills on a resume
Here a few steps to follow to highlight your skills.

1. Customize your resume for each position

2. Include the keywords that match the job description
3. Describe your skills with examples
4. Include appropriate soft skills that you believe to be needed for the job
5. Include quantities with your achievements
6. Include strong verbs and action words
7. Your narrative should be proud but not boastful

▪ Skills for a cover letter

The skills you include in your cover letter should match those that you collect
from the job description as well as your basic job skills: How you highlight
your skills depends on your situation and the job for which you are applying.
If you are changing jobs or industries, you can wish to introduce a brief
narrative of your transferable skills. The strongest way is to highlight your
past achievements as they relate to the job for which you are applying.

Chapter Five
How Mental Health Creates Mental Wealth
Introduction

Learning ways to improve and maintain mental health creates Mental Wealth.
This makes you more resilient and increases your overall wellbeing.
Wellbeing is a wider concept encompassing components of physical, mental,
emotional, and spiritual and cultural wellbeing, all linked to people we are
connected to, and the environment in which we live, work and play.

Understanding Mental Health and Wellbeing

The two main aspects of mental development namely, mental capital and
mental well-being. Mentalcapital encompasses both cognitive and emotional
resources. It includes people’s ▪ cognitive ability;
▪ their flexibility and efficiency at learning;
▪ their ‘emotional intelligence’, or social skills and
▪ resilience in the face of stress.
The term therefore captures a key dimension of the elements that establish
how well an individual is able to contribute to society and to experience a
high quality of life.

Mental well-being, on the other hand, is a dynamic state that refers to

individua ls’ ability to develop their potential, work productively and
creatively, build strong and positive relationships with others and contribute
to their community.
However, the two concepts are intimately linked both throughout life and
across different areas of the project.
Positive emotional states or a generally positive two main aspects of mental
development are ▪ mental capital and mental well-being. Mental capital
encompasses both cognitive and

emotional resources. It includes people’s cognitive ability; their flexibility

and efficiency at learning; and their ‘emotional intelligence’, or social skills
and resilience in the face of stress. The term therefore captures a key
dimension of the elements that establish how well an individual is able to
contribute to society and experience a high quality of life. Mental well-being,
on the other hand, is a dynamic state that refers to individuals’ ability to
develop their potential, work productively and creatively, build strong and
positive relationships with others and contribute to their communities.
However, the two concepts are intimately linked both throughout life and
across different areas of the project.

Positive emotional states or a generally positive approach to life are

associated with greater curiosity, more flexible thinking and a greater
openness to learning, and these qualities are particularly important during the
development of mental capital in childhood and adolescence. Early learning
in children can increase their resilience to stress and common mental
disorders. Later in life, this resilience helps to engender well-being at work
and into old age. And older individuals who report higher levels of well-
being also have better cognitive function, even when adjustment has been
made for other possible explanatory factors, such as socio-demographic
variables, health and lifestyle.

Thus, how a nation develops and uses its mental capital not only has a
significant effect on its economic competitiveness and prosperity, it is also
important for mental health and well-being and social cohesion and inclusion.
Because they are so closely linked, mental health and wellbeing should both
therefore be considered when developing policies and designing
interventions. Evidence on childhood learning difficulties shows that, left
untreated, very small initial differences in the sensory processing systems
used by the brain in learning can lead to significant problems later in life.

To prosper and flourish in a rapidly changing world, we must make the most
of all our mental and material resources.
Individuals as well as countries must learn how to capitalize on their citizens’
cognitive resources if they are to prosper, both economically and socially.
The two major groups of mental wealth skills every individual should aspire
to possess are selfregulation skills and self- leadership skills.
Mental wellbeing encompasses a person’s sense of positive feeling about
their life situation and their personal health, both physical and mental. Each
person is unique. Some individuals who experience mental health problems
may still enjoy a good quality of life and mental wellbeing.

Some people may not have a specific mental health problem, but experience
poor mental wellbeing and quality of life. Attitudes, behaviours, expectations,
and relationships are key in promoting wellbeing and in the experiences of
individuals who use mental health services, and in the experiences of their
families, careers and friends.

Mental Wealth Skills

The two major groups of mental wealth skills every individual should aspire
to possess are selfregulation skills and self- leadership skills.
Self-regulation has been shown to have important implications for individual
trajectories of health and well-being across the life course, while self-
leadership is seen as the capacity to set direction and make decisions to
positively drive your own performance.

Chapter Six
SELF-REGULATION
What is Self-Regulation

Self-regulation is concerned with how you control and manage yourself your
emotions, inner resources, and abilities. It also includes your ability to
manage your impulses. It is the second of the three key areas of personal
skills that make up emotional intelligence.

It is the ability to understand and manage your own behaviour and reactions.
Self-regulation is a critical skill for people of all ages. It is the ability that
helps us to control our behaviours to make good decisions for the long-term,
rather than just doing what we want in the moment. It is also the skill that
allows us to manage our emotions when we are feeling angry, disappointed or
worried. These can be difficult for adults but are significantly more
challenging for children and young adults whose brains are still growing and
developing.

Self-regulation is important for development, as it helps with learning social

skills. Across a wide variety of fields, self-regulation has been identified as a
contributor to adaptive and adverse outcomes in people of all ages namely,
children, adolescents, and adults, and affecting such emotion-influenced
behaviors as coping skills, social competence, interpersonal relations, and
self-esteem, as well as impulsivity, self-control, self-discipline, mind
wandering, and time management, among a significant list of other
behaviours.

Self-regulation involves taking a pause between a feeling and an action. It

involves taking the time to think things through, make a plan, wait patiently
as the situation requires.

The 5 Elements of Self-Regulation The five elements of self-regulation are ▪

Self-control,
▪ Trustworthiness,
▪ conscientiousness,
▪ adaptability, and
▪ Innovation

Self-Control
Self-control, an aspect of inhibitory control, is the ability to regulate one's
emotions, thoughts and behavior in the face of temptations and impulses. For
every individual, especially young people, self-control is a cognitive process
that is necessary for regulating one's behaviour in order to overcome negative
peer pressure and achieve specific goals. It is the ability to manage your
actions, feelings and emotions.

Self-Control is the thinking skill that helps young people learn to control their
feelings and behaviours in order to make good decisions, while aiding in
reducing impulsive actions and dealing effectively with frustration and peer
pressure.
Self-control has many aspects:

• Control your thoughts.

• Control your temper.
• Control your fear.
• Control your speech.
• Control your bad habits.

Self-control is not masking or hiding your emotions but recognizing and

controlling them appropriately. This means not making rash decisions or
over-reacting to a situation but remaining calm and rational. It leads to being
able to make balanced decisions based on what is really important and not
just how we feel at the time.

People who have good self-control generally remain calm even when
stressed. They are able to think clearly under pressure and still make good
decisions.
Self-control usually manifests itself as the absence of visible emotion.
It is certain that we have all reacted badly or inappropriately to events or
situations in the past and we will all do the same in the future.
Reflective practice, that is, thinking back over such situations enables us to
analyze and understand why we acted in the way that we did, and this in turn
can help us to behave more intelligently in the future.
When reflecting it is useful to think of yourself in a positive way. Do not
think,‘I have completely messed that up, I am a failure’ but aim for
something more positive, such as, ‘I can use those experiences to learn and
become a better person’.

Self-control strategies are cognitive and behavioral skills used by individuals

to maintain selfmotivation and achieve personal goals. In recent years, the
term “self-management” has replaced “self-control” because self-control
implies changing behavior through sheer willpower

Trustworthiness
Trustworthiness is your ability to maintain your integrity, which means
ensuring that what you do is consistent with your personal values. It is the
ability to be relied on as honest or truthful. Trustworthiness must be earned
and can be earned if you consistently employ the four qualities, which are

• constancy,
• congruity,
• reliability and
• integrity.

Benefits of Trustworthiness
For an Individual: People who are trustworthy act ethically. They build trust
through their personal actions, and the way that their actions are consistent
with their espoused values. They are also prepared to confront unethical
actions and take a stand when necessary, even if that stand will be unpopular.
For an Organization: If a workplace is able to foster a strong sense of trust
within their organization they can see a number of benefits including:
increased productivity amongst staff improved morale amongst employees
and staff. The ability to work more effectively as a team rather than
individuals

Conscientiousness
Conscientiousness is taking responsibility for your own personal performance
and making sure that it matches up to your ability and your values.
Conscientiousness is the personality trait of being careful, or diligent.
Conscientiousness implies a desire to do a task well, and to take obligations
to others seriously. Conscientious people tend to be efficient and organized as
opposed to easy-going and disorderly.

High Conscientiousness has been linked to a greater connectivity between

several neural networks in the brain. The cognitive control network controls
your executive functions such as attention, planning, working memory, and
social behaviour.
Conscientiousness is a trait where you act based on what you know is right
and with great care and honesty. When you complete all your school
assignments with great care, writing slowly and clearly and making sure they
are neat and correct, this is an example of conscientiousness.

Conscientiousness is the most important factor for finding and retaining

employment. Conscientious people tend to be super organized, responsible,
and plan ahead. They work hard in the face of challenges and can control
their impulses. These skills can become learned and instinctive through
repeated practice. Initially, you may feel like you are acting out of character.
But most people can flex the conscientiousness muscle by taking incremental
steps, such as keeping a tidy desk, sticking to a daily work plan or making an
effort to be punctual.

Adaptability
Adaptability as a skill refers to the ability of a person to change his actions,
course or approach to doing things in order to suit a new situation. We
constantly change our lifestyles because our world is changing always. It is
seen as being flexible in responding to change. Change is difficult for many
of us to manage. Anyone who has had any close contact with children will
recognize that change is unsettling and stressful for small children, and that
being able to manage it is very much a learned skill. Without careful control
and development of our personal adaptability and resilience, personal change
can remain very stressful into adulthood.
Adaptability is a feature of a system or of a process. The word adaptability
has been put to use as a specialized term in different disciplines and in
business operations.
Adaptability in the workplace is when an employee can be flexible and have
the ability to adapt to changing work conditions. Staying calm means not
folding under pressure when something changes or a problem occurs.
Developing a solution is being able to come up with a plan when there is a
problem.

Adaptability skills are skill sets that encompass a person's ability to adjust to
changes in their environment. Being adaptable in your career can mean you
are able to respond quickly to changing ideas, responsibilities, expectations,
trends, strategies and other processes at work. You can train yourself to be
more adaptable by:
1. Changing Your Thought Process.Let go of the “Well, that's the way
we've always done it”

mentality.
2. Forcing Yourself to Take Risks. Little progress is made without risk. ...
3. Encouraging Others to Be Open Minded.
4. Embrace Learning

Innovation
Innovation in its modern meaning is "a new idea, creative thoughts, new
imaginations in form of device or method". Innovation is often also viewed as
the application of better solutions that meet new requirements, unarticulated
needs, or existing market needs.
It is the process of translating an idea or invention into a good or service that
creates value or for which customers will pay. To be called an innovation, an
idea must be replicable at an economical cost and must satisfy a specific
need. Innovation is being open to novel ideas and approaches.

Six Methods of Innovation

• Product: what we produce and sell.

• Service: exceeding customer expectations.
• Process: continuous improvement of how we do things.
• Management: business strategies, systems and structures.
• Open: working beyond boundaries and collaborating globally

Four Types of innovation are

• Incremental Innovation: This is a series of small improvements or
upgrades made to a company's existing products, services, processes or
methods. The changes implemented through incremental innovation are
usually focused on improving an existing product's development efficiency,
productivity and competitive differentiation.
Incremental innovation is generally a modification or change of existing
products and services where the main goal is to improve functionality and
lower costs. Incremental innovation is important because it allows a company
to keep up with competition and hold market position. Incremental
innovation involves making small scale improvements to add or sustain value
to existing products, services and processes.

• Disruptive Innovation: This refers to a technology whose application

significantly affects the way a market or industry functions. An example of
modern disruptive innovation is the Internet, which significantly altered the
way companies did business and which negatively impacted companies that
were unwilling to adapt to it.

In business theory, a disruptive innovation is an innovation that creates a new

market and value network and eventually disrupts an existing market and
value network, displacing established market-leading firms, products, and
alliances.

Disruptive Innovation describes a process by which a product or service

initially takes root in simple applications at the bottom of a market, typically
by being less expensive and more accessible, and then relentlessly moves
upmarket, and eventually displacing established competitors.

• Architectural Innovation: This refers to the innovation of an architecture

of any product that changes or modifies the way various components of the
systems link or relate to each other. Architectural innovation is described as
the reconfiguration of existing product technologies, and was introduced by
Rebecca Henderson and Kim Clark in 1990. The main point in architectural
innovation is that while the core components of the product remain the same,
the relationship between these components changes.

• Radical Innovation:
Radical innovation is what we think of mostly when considering innovation.
It gives birth to new industries (or swallows existing ones) and involves
creating revolutionary technology. The airplane, for example, was not the
first mode of transportation, but it is revolutionary as it allowed
commercialized air travel to develop and prosper.

There are more ways to innovate, but the important thing is to find the type(s)
that suit your company and turn those into success.

IMPORTANCE OF SELF-REGULATION
Both children and adults often struggle to develop and maintain the behaviors
necessary for selfregulation. It is easy to see how a lack of self-regulation will
cause problems in life. For instance, a child who yells or hits other children
out of frustration will not be popular among peers and may face reprimands
at school. Similarly, an adult with poor self-regulation skills may lack self-
confidence and self-esteem and have trouble handling stress and frustration.
Often, this might be expressed in terms of anger or anxiety, and in more
severe cases, may be diagnosed as a mental disorder.

Self-regulation is also important in that it allows you to act in accordance

with your deeply held values or social conscience and to express yourself
appropriately. If you value academic achievement, it will allow you to study
instead of slack off before a test. If you value helping others, it will allow you
to help a coworker with a project, even if you are on a tight deadline yourself.

In its most basic form, self-regulation allows us to bounce back from failure
and stay calm under pressure. These two abilities will carry you through life,
more than other skills.

SELF-REGULATION SKILLS
Learning to regulate behavior and emotion is a skill we develop over time.
From a young age, we are faced with experiences that test and refine our
ability to gain a sense of control over difficult situations.
Self-regulation skills are elements of emotional intelligence that relate to how
well you manage your thoughts and actions.
There are two kinds of self-regulation namely, behavioral self-regulation and
emotional selfregulation.

Behavioral self-regulation entails acting in accordance with your long-term

goals and deepest values. For instance, you may find it difficult to get up
early in the mornings to jog but do so because you want to improve your
fitness and health.
Emotional self-regulation concerns the control of emotions, such as
consciously working to maintain a positive outlook while experiencing
challenges. Such control can have positive effects on your interpersonal
relationships because it can allow you to be more reliable, empathetic and
considerate toward others.

WHEN AND HOW SELF-REGULATION SKILLS ARE DEVELOPED

The development of self-regulation skills starts early in life when children are
babies and toddlers in the preschool years, and continues into adulthood.
Children develop self-regulation skills through warm and responsive
relationships, and by watching the adults around them. As Babies: Babies
might suck their fingers for comfort or look away from their caregivers if
they need a break from attention or are getting tired.
As Toddlers: Toddlers can wait short times for food and toys. But toddlers
might still snatch toys from other children if the toy is something they really
want. And irritabilities manifests when toddlers struggle with regulating
strong emotions.
As Preschoolers: Preschoolers are starting to know how to play with other
children and understand what is expected of them. For example, a
preschooler might try to speak in a soft voice if you are at the movies.
At School-age: School-age children are getting better at controlling their own
wants and needs, imagining other people’s perspectives, and seeing both
sides of a situation. School-age children might be able to disagree with other
children without having an argument. Children who typically feel things
strongly and intensely find it harder to self-regulate than children who are
more easygoing. It should also be noted that even older children and
teenagers sometimes struggle with self-regulation

EXAMPLES OF SELF-REGULATION SKILLS

Here are a few traits and skills that self-regulated people exhibit:

•Self-control: Having self-control means that you are able to remain calm
and rational in most situations and exercise discipline when needed. People
with self-control tend to think before they act because they are more aware of
how they react or feel in most situations and how that impacts others;
•Dependability: This quality refers to how well you honor commitments,
help others in need and can be trusted to follow rules. Dependable individuals
only agree to complete a task or assist another person when they know they
are able to;
•Adaptability: The ability to adapt your responses and emotions according
to different situations means you are able to cope with change. This self-
regulation skill can also make you more flexible when it comes to different
views and opinions and be able to consider issues from multiple perspectives;
•Optimism: Training your mind and emotions usually requires an optimistic
attitude. If you are a strong self-regulator, you likely consider challenges as
opportunities to learn and improve your future efforts. Constantly looking for
positives enables self-regulators to continuously improve their own behaviors
and actions while remaining focused and motivated;
•Listening Skills: You can take an active role in supporting good mental
health for yourself and others by listening well. Good listening makes you
feel valued, comforted and supported. It is the better half of talking. If you
would like to enhance your communication skills to impact positively on
your personal and professional life, take the time to practice listening
techniques.

HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR SELF-REGULATION ABILITIES

Self-regulation requires commitment and self-reflection. The process is
ongoing, as you will need to monitor your thoughts and actions regularly, and
align with your goals and make changes where necessary. Here are some
steps for developing your self-regulation abilities:

1. Set attainable goals

2. Align your goals with your values
3. Be kind to yourself
4. Make time to meditate
5. Hold yourself accountable

Set attainable goals

Changing old habits and routines can be challenging, but you can make the
process easier by setting goals that are easily achievable. If you find it
difficult to get up early in the morning, for instance, start by initially waking
up only 30 minutes earlier. If you are able to consistently do that for a few
days or weeks, you can then try waking up another 30 minutes earlier for a
few more days until you are able to wake up at the time you are working
toward. This strategy allows you to change your habits gradually to reach
your self-regulation goals.

Align your goals with your values

You can be more motivated and committed to self-regulating your emotions
and actions when you focus on what matters to you. For instance, if you
value the professional network you’re building, you can make an effort to
strengthen your relationships with your coworkers by getting to know them
on a more personal level and participating in team events. Letting your values
influence what you want to achieve can keep you motivated.

Be kind to yourself
One of the most important aspects of self-regulation is to train your mind to
be more positive. You can create positivity if you celebrate when you achieve
goals and implement a personal reward system. Rewards can be equal to how
big or small your achievement is, such as taking a brief break after spending a
long time working on a task or treating yourself to a nice dinner after you
complete an important project. With this strategy, you can build a positive
self-image over time, which can develop a more positive attitude in general.

Make time to meditate

Meditation allows you to quietly reflect and gain more control over your
thoughts. Any amount of meditation—even a daily, 5-minute session—can
have a positive impact on your self-regulation abilities. Schedule a time each
day to sit in a quiet space, clear your mind and focus on your breathing. This
practice can help you develop a sense of calm when difficult thoughts arise,
and to regulate your emotions and behaviors.

Hold yourself accountable

You can better control your own actions when you take responsibility for the
goals you set. If you schedule a complex task to be completed by the end of
the week, you can make a strategy for separating this large task into smaller,
more manageable assignments to complete throughout the week. You can
also ask a coworker to be an accountability partner—someone who will
check your progress each day. When you hold yourself accountable and take
steps to have others do the same, you can improve your ability to self-
regulate how you act and react when given a task.
SELF-REGULATION SKILLS IN THE WORKPLACE
Improving your self-regulation skills can positively impact your productivity
and other aspects of your job, including:

•Communication: When you practice self-regulation in the workplace, you

may improve your ability to actively listen and understand what your
supervisor asks you to do. You are also better equipped to think before you
speak or act.
•Conflict resolution: You can handle conflicts well because you are able to
consider differing opinions and better empathize with coworkers and others
you interact within the workplace. As a self-regulated person, you are likely
to directly address the cause of the conflict and to avoid letting emotions
guide your responses.
•Perspective: Self-regulation enables you to remain calm in challenging
situations and respond more effectively. You may be able to better focus on
the end goal and the fact that solving conflicts can lead to an improved
workplace.
•Problem-solving: You are more likely to be a good problem solver because
you are able to consider many logical options and can adapt when new
solutions are suggested.
•Time management: When you practice self-regulation, you can improve
your time management in the workplace by holding yourself accountable for
deadlines. You may also be more dependable because you are more likely to
arrive at meetings on time and wellprepared, helping you and your team stay
productive.

WHEN AND HOW TO HIGHLIGHT YOUR

SELF-REGULATION SKILLS

1. Self-Regulation in Career Development

Your attitudes and behaviors can affect your career and professional success.
To achieve your goals and feel control over your actions and reactions,
consider developing your self-regulation skills. In this article, we will
describe ways to improve your self-regulation skills and the positive effects
this could have on your career.
Normally, discussing your self-regulation skills in the hiring process is meant
to help employers gauge how well you might contribute to their organization,
which can place you at an advantage over the other applicants.

2. In Profiling Circumstances and Situations

Your self-regulation skills can be included in your resume and cover letter, as
well as during oneon-one interviews:

•Self-regulation skills on a resume

You can add your self-regulation skills to your resume in your objective and
work experience sections. Your resume objective provides a short summary
of your skills, work experience and goals, so you should aim to include only
the most relevant self-regulation skills. Review the job description, and
consider the role’s environment or what expectations the employer has for the
position to better select your most appropriate self-regulation skills. The
following is an objective that includes self-regulation skills:

“I am a trustworthy and outgoing project assistant who is looking to join

an exciting workplace. I will apply my extensive experience as well as
excellent communication and organizational skills to provide team
members with the necessary support, ensuring a positive and successful
outcome.”

For your work experience section of your resume, add relevant

accomplishments along with job duties by identifying the self-regulation
skills you used. The following is also an example: “I received the Top
Senior Project Manager award for three consecutive years, with my
supervisors specifically highlighting my calm leadership style and
innovative problemsolving skills.”

•Self-regulation skills in a cover letter

You should see your cover letter as an opportunity to convey important
information in limited space, so that you choose self-regulation skills that are
most relevant to the position you are applying for. One effective way to
incorporate these skills is when you are expanding on your past work
experiences. The following is an example of a cover letter:

“For the eleven years I worked as the marketing manager at

Foundational Company Limited, I forged strong relationships with key
customers and achieved every sales target as projected, within the scope
and under budget. With the help of the committed teams I worked with.
Along the same line, I also implemented innovative strategies that
enhanced the overall productivity and profitability of the company.”

•Self-regulation skills in an interview

You may also want to highlight relevant self-regulation skills during an
interview, such as when interviewers ask you about how you have dealt with
conflict in the past. For instance, when prompted, “Tell me a time when you
disagreed with a co-worker,” you could respond: “Once, when working on a
collaborative presentation, my colleague wished to omit a list of statistics
that I felt were necessary to effectively convey our information. By
staying patient, expressing my concerns assertively, and allowing him to
express his views, we were able to come to a compromise by turning the
list of data into an easy-toread chart.”

Chapter Seven
SELF-LEADERSHIP

Introduction
Leadership is the art of motivating a group of people to act toward achieving
a common goal. In a business setting, this can mean directing workers and
colleagues with a strategy to meet the company's needs.
The word "leadership" can bring to mind a variety of images. For example:

•A political leader pursuing a passionate, personal cause.

•An explorer cutting a path through the jungle for the rest of his group to
follow.
•An executive developing her company's strategy to beat the competition.

Leadership means different things to different people around the world, and
different things in different situations. For example, it could relate to
community leadership, religious leadership, political leadership, and
leadership of campaigning groups.

Leaders help themselves and others to do the right things. They set direction,
build an inspiring vision and create something new. Leadership is about
mapping out where you need to go to "win" as a team or an organization: it is
dynamic, exciting, and inspiring.
Yet, while leaders set the direction, they must also use management skills to
guide their people to the right destination in a smooth and efficient way.

What is Self-Leadership?

While leadership is the ability to influence people in order to get things done,
self-leadership is about choosing who we are, what we do, and who we
become. It does not advocate for a selfish approach to get what we want at
any cost. It also recognizes that things do not always come to us easily but
that our environment is created through us making choices and creating
opportunities and circumstances.

The world, with its reliance on technology and interdependent economies,

has become a place that leverages knowledge, meaning the things we learn
can become obsolete very quickly. What remains constant is that we have to
manage ourselves effectively within these complexities and ongoing
evolution in order to overcome obstacles, to renew and refresh ourselves, and
to fully participate in our own lives.
Meanwhile, self-leadership is the ability to consciously influence your own
thoughts and behavior in order to achieve your personal goals or an
organization’s objectives.
Self-led people mostly take their own decisions and set personal targets. This
ability is typical of entrepreneurs, mentors and top managers.

Self-leadership is about choosing who we are, what we do and who we

become. It does not advocate for a selfish approach to get what we want at
any costs. It also recognizes that things will not always come to us easily, but
that our environment is created through our choices and opportunities and
circumstances.

The world, with its reliance on technology and interdependent economies,

has become a place that leverages knowledge, wherein the things we learn
can become obsolete very quickly. What remains constant is that we have to
manage ourselves effectively within these complexities and ongoing
evolution in order to overcome obstacles, renew and refresh ourselves, and to
fully participate in our own lives.

Self-leadership is not about managing others, although self-leaders make

great managers and leaders. The focus is not on leading others but rather
about leading yourself.

We say a person has self-leadership skills when he has foresight, makes the
right decisions and choices on his own, and exhibits dedication towards
achieving his goals.
Aside from goal setting, self-awareness is another factor that helps make
people great self-leaders. Every manager must possess self-leadership skills.

In a typical look at external leadership, your manager gives you directions,

sets expectations, and tells you when something is due. If they are a
consultative manager, they may ask you how you would like to get the work
done, while still defining what the end result will be. Self-leaders scan their
own environment recognize what they could be doing, and do it.

IMPORTANCE OF SELF-LEADERSHIP
Self-leadership is the first stage or level of leadership. For employees,
whether managers or ordinary subordinates, self-leadership is of great
importance.
As a manager, you receive very little or no supervision. This means you
should be able to plan and set your objectives on your own, as well as
influence your own self to follow those plans.

As a lower-level employee, you can never be sure the kind of management or

leaders you will meet in the course of your career. Despite whatever
leadership you may come across–whether laissez-faire, democratic or
autocratic– you should be able to exhibit self-leadership. Employers like
workers who can make great decisions on their own and are able to influence
themselves to work effectively.

Self-leadership helps make the individual proactive, disciplined, and

independent decision-maker. People who have no strong sense of self-
leadership tend to feel they are not in control of themselves, often lack focus,
and get overwhelmed easily.

HOW TO IMPROVE SELF-LEADERSHIP

Self-leadership is indisputably a lovable skill. Here are four tips that should
help you improve on self-leadership skills.
▪ Clarity of purpose. Every leadership or leader has a vision. Being your
own leader, your

purpose or vision will be the foundation upon which you will build self-
leadership. Without properly scripted objectives or the purpose for your life,
you will be at peril – trying to follow people’s plans or ideas for your life –
and you end up stuck in the middle of nowhere.

▪ Aim at success and take reasonable risks. Risk-taking is an essential

aspect of life. Challenge yourself to take on daring projects. Do not
discourage yourself with past failures of yourself or others – focus on
success. However, they should be reasonably calculated risks that are
relevant to your purpose.

▪ Spend time to reflect on your life. While you remain the active doer of the
things you do, you may see things from your perspective only. Take some
time off to reflect on your life– compare the past to the present and the
present to future goals. Until you take a break to analyze yourself, you may
never identify certain petty shortcomings. Reflections can also mean allowing
someone to make an objective assessment of you.

▪ Do not tolerate just anything. You cannot put your vision at risk. You
should learn to be intolerant of any suggestion or ideas which are not in line
with your vision. This intolerance is not towards others only but yourself too.
It includes not tolerating negative aspects of your nature such as laziness, fear
and timidity.

THE 5 PILLARS OF SELF-LEADERSHIP

While many leaders believe they can influence, a large percentage of them do
so through positional leadership. That is, they are the Manager, and therefore
will tell their team what to do, hence believing that they are influencing. This
is not necessarily true; they are merely directing. When it comes to
leadership, the leader must earn the right to lead his/her people through
developing trust, especially if they are seeking sustainable success.

Importantly, prior to being able to lead the team, they must be able to
successfully lead themselves. Because all leadership starts from self-
leadership, and when a leader is able to successfully lead themselves, there is
congruence when it comes to leading their team. There are countless
examples of leaders who ‘appeared’ to have it all together from the outside
and yet fell short in terms of their ability to influence the team and drive the
results.

That you have been placed in a leadership role does not guarantee you to be a
leader. You must earn the right to lead people, because one of the
cornerstones of a great leader is that people choose and want to follow the
leader, they are not forced to. Great leaders understand that effective
leadership of others begins with effective leadership of self, and effective
leadership of self is founded on 5 core pillars– the 5 Pillars of Self
Leadership:

Pillar 1 – Authenticity
Have you ever met someone for the very first time and you get the feeling
that something is not quite right? That they are not genuine? From a first-
impression perspective, we have very little time to create the first impression.
For many, only a matter of seconds. It is so important to create a great first
impression or at least stack the odds in your favor, understanding that you
will not be a match with everyone. And the quickest way I have found to
create that first impression is to be authentic. In other words, what you see is
what you get, not pretending to be anyone else.

A great leader has a genuine grounded level of authenticity, and no matter

who they are speaking with, they are the same. There is no ‘showmanship’,
no ‘faking it till you make it’, just a genuineness that creates an environment
where people feel safe and calm. This authenticity stems from the leader
being 100% crystal clear on what they stand for. They know their values and
what is important to them. They have clearly set standards of excellence and
behaviour, and they consistently execute against those standards. And with
this comes a level of calmness and attention to details that allows them to
deal with any situation that arises.

They are very clear on their identity and therefore extremely comfortable
with who they are. What do you stand for? What are your top 5 values, and
what standards of excellence and behaviour have you set for yourself? Do the
exercise– you may be pleasantly surprised with what you discover.
Pillar 2 – Simplicity
Simplicity is the state or quality of being simple. Something easy to
understand or explain seems simple, in contrast to something complicated.
Alternatively, something is simple or complex depending on the way we
choose to describe it. In some uses, the label "simplicity" can imply beauty,
purity, or clarity. In other cases, the term may suggest a lack of nuance or
complexity relative to what is required.

Pillar 3 – Language
Our life is like a thermostat, and whatever temperature we have set, that is the
limit we place on ourselves. Very rarely do we outperform the image we have
of ourselves. And often the image is set based on the beliefs we have, and
these beliefs are formed from the language we use. When I say language, this
is both the language we use to speak to others, but even more importantly, the
language we use when speaking to ourselves.
The self-talk. Great leaders have powerful and empowering self-talk. It
always comes from the perspective of possibilities and not limitations. For
you, is the glass half full, or half-empty? When you look at the sky, do you
focus on the blue sky or do you notice the clouds? With your self-talk, is
there hesitation, followed by ‘I cannot do this’ or is there certainty and ‘I can
do this’? Great self-leadership starts with great self-talk. The language you
use will create a series of events that will result in what you say coming to
pass. Be very specific with the language you use.

Pillar 4 – Failure & Success

We all know it is a generalization when we say that most people want to be
successful. I am yet to meet a person whose main goal in life is to be a
complete failure. However, what many people want is a success with no
experience of failure. People want smooth sailing and the easy road. There
can be no such thing.
Generally, life is about contrast. There can be no light without darkness, no
day without night, no right without wrong, and no success without failure. In
order to climb the mountain, there must be a valley to pass through. In order
to experience success, you must experience failure in the process.

A failure can be a harsh word because it creates the impression that you have
not achieved something. Just look at our school system, or the corporate
world. The only way to fail, is to give up and quit. Greatleaders understand
that ‘failure’ delivers experience, and over time, wisdom, and is a necessary
stepping stone to success. They know that in order to climb the mountain,
they must pass through the valley because they just would not camp in the
valley. It should be noted that in order to achieve success, you must
experience some level of failure or challenge. You also need to know that
through experiencing failure, your confidence can actually improve. This is
the 4th pillar of self-leadership.

Generally, leadership comes with great responsibility, and whilst it is

believed everyone has the capability to be a leader, not everyone chooses to
take on the responsibility. Those who do, who focus first on themselves and
their self-leadership, more often than not find themselves becoming great
leaders of people, exerting high levels of influence and creating sustainable
and outstanding results.

Pillar 5 - Purposefulness
Purposefulness is living your life with some larger meaning in mind.
Purposefulness is important for several reasons. First, it provides you with a
way to stay on track with your life. Imagine that you start off a trip without
any idea of where you are going or why you are in the car. This is how many
of us live our lives. We drift around without any real direction. Having a
purpose gives you that direction, which is a tremendous help when making
important decisions. Not only does the purpose give you a yardstick against
which to measure alternatives, your purpose also gives you confidence when
making key decisions. Living purposefully also makes you resilient.
Knowing and keeping your purpose in mind lets you deal with life’s
inevitable uncertainties and setbacks. Living purposefully orients you toward
the future, not the past. It helps you focus on what can be rather than what
has been. You view setbacks and failures as temporary events that help you
learn rather than as a permanent state of affairs. Finding your purpose is not
easy or quick. It is a lifelong pursuit that requires experience coupled with
deep reflection.

Ways Your Self-Leadership Will Make You a Better Leader

Here are five ways your self-leadership will make you a better leader. These
are things to focus on to improve your self-leadership abilities.
I. Develop more self-awareness. This can be awareness of your values,
intentions,

motivations, strengths and weaknesses. Self-awareness is usually the start of

any change you want to make. More self-awareness leads to greater clarity,
which also means making better decisions.

II. Accept responsibility when things do not go as expected. No matter

how aware we are, we’ll make mistakes. Rather than blaming others or
making excuses, you have to own your actions and results. Part of taking
responsibility is committing to doing what is necessary to achieve the
outcomes you want.

III. Ask for feedback consistently.We don’t always know how we’re doing
or how we can improve. This is where having a success or accountability
partner is invaluable. Having someone you are accountable to can lead to
receiving honest and blunt feedback. That will help you make adjustments
quicker so you can continue progressing towards what you want.

IV. Have clarity of intention. The clearer our intentions, the easier it will be
to decide what to do or what not to do. Before doing anything, you have to
ask yourself, “What is my intention?” or “What outcome do I want to
achieve?” Your intentions will help clarify what is in your best interest or
what is not in your best interest.

V. Focus on possibilities or solutions rather than situations or

constraints. Not everything will go as planned, no matter how aware or how
clear you are. When things do not go well, rather than giving that more
energy, you have to focus on what you want. When you do, solutions to your
challenges will present themselves.

SELF-LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES

The concept of self-leadership refers to a comprehensive process of self-
influence that involves behavioural and cognitive strategies. These strategies
are designed to help people address not only what they need to do, but also
why and how they should do it.
Self-leadership development is perceived as an essential need for all
individuals and organizations, including non-profit and for-profit sectors. It is
argued that self-leadership strategies have influences on self-regulation which
subsequently affect career success in both profit and nonprofit.

There are three main aspects that are unique to non-profits and how self-
leadership would lessen the challenges in these sectors. These aspects are:
non-profits have a difficult task evaluating accomplishments compared to for-
profits; non-profits are both value based and market driven. This encourages
employees to have a strong sense of self within the organization as non-
profits rely heavily on volunteers while employees have no real authority
over them. It is argued that nonprofit management literature emphasizes the
need of self-leadership for performance outcomes. Self-leadership strategies
are usually grouped into the three primary categories of ▪ behaviour-focused
strategies,
▪ natural reward strategies, and
▪ constructive thought pattern strategies.
Behaviour-focused strategiesattempt to heighten an individual’s self-
awareness in order to facilitate behavioural management, especially the
behaviours related to necessary but unpleasant tasks.
Natural reward strategies aim to create situations in which an individual is
motivated or rewarded by inherently enjoyable aspects of the task or activity.
Constructive thought pattern strategies are used to facilitate the formation of
constructive thought patterns and habitual ways of thinking that can
positively impact performance.

Self-efficacy
Self-efficacy is an important social psychological construct and is perceived
as a key variable in many social psychological theories and models of
motivation. Particularly, it has attracted considerable attention from scholars
and researchers representing many disciplines. It is an individual’s personal
estimate of confidence in their capabilities to accomplish certain levels of
performance.

Selfefficacy is defined as “people’s belief about their capabilities to produce

designed levels of performance that exercise influence over events that
affecttheir lives.” These beliefs influence what challenges to undertake, how
much effort to expand in the endeavor and how long to persevere in the face
of difficulties. Self-efficacy is the most commonly mentioned self-leadership
outcome variable.

It arises from the gradual acquisition of complex cognitive, social, linguistic

and/or physical skills through experience. People appear to weigh, integrate
and evaluate information about their capabilities. Accordingly, they regulate
their choices and efforts. In contrast, self-leadership is perceived as a
normative concept that can operate within several theoretical contexts, such
as selfregulation theory, social cognitive theory, intrinsic motivation theory
and self-control theory. In addition, the application of self-leadership
strategies may result in a number of predictable outcomes and mechanisms
such as commitment, independence, creativity, innovation, trust, team
potency, positive effect, job satisfaction, psychological empowerment and
self-efficacy.

Career success
Career success refers to the positive psychological or work-related outcomes
or achievements one has accumulated as a result of one’s work experiences.
Career success as judged by others is determined on the basis of relatively
objective and visible criteria. This type of career success is perceived as
objective success because it can be measured by observable exoteric metrics
such as salary and number of promotions. Career success can also be judged
by the individual pursuing the career. This type of career success is perceived
as objective success because it can be measured by individuals’ feelings of
accomplishment and satisfaction with their careers. Career motivation is one
of the most important factors that can affect career success.

There are three components that can influence career success namely; career
resilience, career insight and career identity. Career resilience refers to the
ability to adapt to changing circumstances even when the circumstances are
disruptive or discouraging. It includes characteristics such as the desire to
achieve, willingness to take risk and belief in self. Career insight refers to the
ability to be realistic about self and career and putting these perceptions to
use in establishing goals.

Career identity refers to the extent to which one defines oneself by work.
Career resilience is a persistence/maintenance component; career insight is
the energizing/arousal component; while career identity is the direction of
motivation component with the theory.
Self-leadership strategies and self-efficacy
You need to understand the relationship between self-management or self-
leadership and selfefficacy. You also will understand that self-efficacy may
influence self-leadership. Similarly, a positive significant relationship exists
between general self-efficacy and use of natural reward, constructive thought
and general self-leadership skills.

Overall, the concept of self-efficacy is of particular importance to self-

leadership. To the extent that individuals are in a position to experience
confidence through greater self-control (e.g. selfleadership skill training),
enhancing efficacy perceptions.
After setting goals and objectives, individuals high in self-efficacy increased
their efforts to meet these goals and objectives, whereas those low in self-
efficacy did not. A major objective of all self-leadership strategies is the
enhancement of self-efficacy perceptions for better performance outcome.
There is a direct relationship between self-leadership strategies and self-
efficacy.

Self-efficacy and career success

Selfefficacy arises from the cognitive appraisal of one’s capabilities.
Specifically, self-efficacy can affect one’s choice of settings and activities,
skill acquisition, effort expenditure, and the initiation and persistence of
copying efforts in the face of obstacles. It is argued that individuals with low
self-efficacy tend to engage in fewer copying efforts and give up more easily
under adversity. Individuals with moderate to high self-efficacy tend to
engage more frequently in taskrelated activities and persist longer in copying
efforts and this leads to more mastery experiences. There is a direct
relationship between self-efficacy and career success.

Personal Self-Leadership Development Strategies

Leadership in business starts with making good personal choices.

1. Building and maintaining high self-worth and self-confidence. A
healthy and high selfesteem is an essential prerequisite to leading yourself to
success, as well as your business. Low self-worth, on the other hand, leads to
continual doubts and questions, inability to make commitments or deliver
results. You need to focus on yourself before focusing on your business.
2. Recognizing your weaknesses, but leading with your strengths. The
first challenge is to find your strengths. Everyone has some degree of
'strength blindness', and will likely benefit from other people who know
better, or from books or mentors. It may also be necessary to consult a
strengths coach so that you do a business which highlights your signature
strengths.

3. Practicing your strengths often for inspiration and confidence. Using

your signature strengths early in your business will cause a flow of
inspiration, energy, and creativity, building momentum in your confidence
and leadership. This momentum is what you need for enjoyment and
satisfaction, as well as for others to see you as a business leader.

4. Building your character and reputation with personal values. Both

self-leadership and business leadership require a solid platform for decisions
based on moral and personal values. Your character as a business leader will
determine your perceived reputation by peers in business, team members, and
customers. Values are your most valuable assets.

5. Demonstrating leadership by acting ethically and with integrity.

People judge you by what you do in your business more than by what you
say. Ethical behavior refers to actions consistent with personal principles and
commonly held values in your business community. These will define your
right and wrong in business leadership and success.

6. Building positive psychological capital to sustain your business. In any

business, you need hope, confidence, resilience, and optimism to weather the
daily challenges of customers, market changes, and competitors. Without a
store of this psychological capital, your performance and leadership will
wane, and your satisfaction will dwindle.

It is very obvious that no amount of personal or investor money will create or

substitute for selfleadership and business leadership. Good entrepreneurs can
make a success from almost any business idea through the following of
partners and customers.

Organizational Self-Leadership Development Strategies

1. You have to be ready to have self-leaders
Before you really start drilling self-leadership to your employees, take a hard
look at yourself and your company culture. Are you ready for a culture where
people think and act based on their own independent thinking? You probably
know the benefits, less micromanaging, motivated and therefore more
productive workers.

2. Trust that your employees are the best leaders of themselves

People who think independently are bound to question your reasons for doing
things, which is a positive thing, as long as you take it as an opportunity to
develop. Self-leaders also expect to be given true authority over their own
work. Bouncing them around from one task to another without clear
reasoning is bound to kill your employees’ self-leading behaviours fairly fast.
You will have to learn new ways to lead and a way that encourages people to
lead themselves. If you think someone is getting lost, instead of telling them
what to do, you ought to ask them questions so they can steer themselves in
the right direction.

3. Encourage and educate

You need to provide education, training, inspirational speakers. Often times
truly starting with self-leadership requires an outside consultant, specialized
in self-leadership inventions to do a workshop with your employees. Things
such as using mental imagery and self-talk might seem simple, but in order
for change to be permanent, a bit more effort than just mentioning them is
required. Similarly, if you already have people excited about the topic in your
company, you can also harness their power, and ask them to become your
new super-leaders for the growth of the company.

4. Set expectations from the very beginning

You need to create an onboarding program that sets people on the right track.
Ask your new employees, how they would do their work most efficiently,
and how they would improve things. Encourage them to make changes
themselves and to bring up concerns. Focus on self-leadership qualities
already in the hiring process. The way the person applies for your company
and performs in the interviews can tell something about the way they will
perform.

5. Set time for conversation

You should give space for work related conversation as it provokes thoughts
which in turn makes your employees question themselves and their ways of
operating. Conversation may be one of the best ways to initiate
organizational development in a company full of self-leaders. You should
make sure it does not become a boring lecture where only one person has one
agenda, but instead everyone can and wants to participate. Be prepared to act
upon the things that come up in the conversation, therefore enhancing the
feeling of empowerment within your employees.

6. Total Commitment is Required

Generally, a self-leader understands what the mission and vision of an
organization is and how it aligns with theirs, which is referred to as clarity of
purpose. When you raise your thinking, you elevate yourself.

▪ A positive attitude increases your chances for success, and also improves
your outlook of the future. You should understand that where you are today is
your opportunity and your gold-mine. Hence, work with what you have
because everything else is a dream.

▪ As a self-leader, it is important to give your best at every assignment, and

be committed to personal excellence.
▪ Determine your quarterly targets such that every quarter, you ask your
superior officer what you need to be responsible for, and take responsibility
for the tasks assigned to you.
▪ Seek feedback from others in your workplace to enable you understand your
blind spots and so that you conquer them. This will significantly increase
your morale and productivity.
▪ Intentionally look out for opportunities to grow because it is only you who
can determine what you need to get better. Hence, it is important that you
perpetually seek and discover new opportunities, new ideas, and new
approaches.
▪ Embrace Teamwork with your co-workers so that roles do not exist in
isolation. Everyone must think of how others can succeed as a team, knowing
that when the team wins, we all win.
▪ Managers must always seek ways to appreciate team members.
Appreciation is the feedback loop that sustains interest in an organization.
▪ Recognize, appreciate and respect the organizational culture. People
determine the culture of an organization, which is what helps to espouse the
values of an organization. Stay connected to the vision and understand what
your part is.
▪ Integrity is following through even when things are not working or when
people do not agree with your perspective. You do not get upset because your
point of view has not been considered, instead you respectfully accept the
decision made and move on.

Self-Leadership Assessment Criteria

You need to ask yourself what kind of leader are you? Inside each of us lies
the potential for good and evil. This is evident when you look at various
leaders throughout history. Some have displayed incredible evil, allowing
their greed and/or disdain for groups of people or nations to cause harm to
millions. Many of these ruthless “leaders” did not even think twice about
harming their own people in order to get what they wanted. Conversely, the
world has seen many wonderful, caring leaders who have fought hard and
sacrificed themselves to improve the lives of the group of people or nation
that they cared so much about.
A Good Leader Knows His Heart. Do you know what is really in your heart?
Since human nature is a combination of good and evil, it is something we
must struggle with daily. Human nature influences our self-control, habits,
demeanor, judgments, and morals.

Perform a self-assessment by asking yourself the following questions to find

out what is truly in your heart:

1. How do you handle correction or criticism?

If you are humble enough to examine and learn from harsh criticism, you can
become a strong example of personal leadership to others. It is important to
not only recognize our weak areas but also to understand the perceptions we
are leaving with others. For example, if you often look stern, you can be seen
as gruff or uncaring, even if you are not. Once you become aware of this
perception others have of you, you can take steps to change the perception
That can be achieved by making an effort to smile more often, engaging in
conversation that shows others that you care, showing genuine concern by
offering help when people need it.

2. What Do You Live For?

If we are not willing to die for something, we are not fit to live. The real
question for any successful leader should be “What are you willing to live
for?” A value worth dying for is also worth living for. Could you easily
explain to others what your values are? Are you inspired and motivated by
your personal values and personal mission? Is integrity at the top of your list?
Hopefully. If so, what are you willing to personally sacrifice to maintain your
integrity? Would you “sell out” when put under pressure to do so by others?

There is no substitute for integrity. You can have all of the fame, riches, and
power in the world, but still feel a lack of fulfillment. If you have sacrificed
your integrity to get those things, you end up with dishonor and nothing of
lasting value.

On the other hand, if you live honorably, stick to your values, and maintain
your integrity, you will enjoy personal fulfillment no matter what your social
or financial circumstances are. You may never acquire great wealth or
popularity in your lifetime, but your integrity will positively influence others,
possibly for generations to come.
Take some time periodically to do a self-examination. Look for flaws or
weaknesses that you want to overcome. Consider ways to “reinvent” yourself
and move in a positive new direction.

3. Do You Have Something to Prove?

Do you feel the need to prove something to others? Do you know yourself
well enough to understand your own motives? If your motives are pure, you
will not feel the need to prove yourself to those around you.

4. How Do You View Change?

Do you embrace change or run screaming into the night when confronted by
it? Do you know your capacity for change? These are all important questions
to consider as you seek to improve your personal leadership skills.
Sometimes people cling to old habits, beliefs or behaviors that are obsolete
and can hinder personal leadership development.

Often these things have outlived their usefulness, but because we are so
comfortable with them, we do not recognize that they are getting in the way
of our personal growth and our ability to effectively lead others. Personal
leadership means stepping out of your comfort zone to continually grow and
improve and inspiring others to do the same.

5. Do You Conduct Self-Appraisals?

Be sure to analyze yourself periodically to look for areas which can be further
developed. While this critical self-reflection may be painful, it will help us
identify and acknowledge our faults so that we can work on bringing about
positive change in ourselves.
Why do you want to lead? If it is for the money, prestige, or power, you will
be disappointed as these things do not provide lasting satisfaction. But if you
view leadership as an opportunity to grow personally, inspire others, and
create positive, lasting change in the world around you, you would not be
disappointed!

Principles of Self-Leadership
1. Purpose: Find the sense of meaning
We all have a meaning why we are here. As an individual, you have to find
out what your
contribution is. We should not ask what life can do for us, but what we can
do for life. This way we can contribute and be of service. We have to know
ourselves and then we are able to define the purpose of our life. As an
individual, who am I, what am I doing and where am I living? This is your
Life Plan and Vision, which guides you wherever you are going. It is a
direction, not a roadmap. Out of that vision you are able to define your life
strategies and objectives, but you have to remember that those have to be
updated at regular intervals and that life is always full of surprises.

You have to find a sense of meaning in your personal existence, your

relationships, your work and the world as a whole. You have to find greatness
inside yourself. We all have a need for meaning and faith. We all need to
believe in something. For some people it could be God, for others it could be
science or nature. We all have an innate yearning to find purpose to our lives,
to connect to something greater than us and to feel that we are a part of the
world.

2. Focus: Do the Right Things

Whenever you want to achieve something valuable, you have to focus. When
you open yourself up and learn to perceive the outside world with expanded
consciousness the more focused you have to be. You have to be grounded to
your purpose and values and be action oriented. Otherwise there is a risk of
becoming a destitute dreamer. You have to combine your dreams with
courage, ethics and action. Courage will enable you to take risks and become
the person you have come here to be. It will set you free of your old models
of thinking.

Focus also means simplicity in everything you do. Learn to lead yourself in a
simplified way. Focus is also the only true path to time management; you
must be able to prioritize your tasks and invest enough time to important
things and leave others. The ability to choose is very difficult to many of us
but it is good to remember that if you want everything you will get nothing.

Often to be more focused also means living more internally than externally.
Usually the emphasis for a lot of us is on focusing externally and trying to be
on the fast-track. We are so busy that we for a lot of us is on focusing
externally and trying to be on the fast-track. We are so busy that we hour TV,
Internet, movies, video games and newspapers. There is too much
information but too little understanding. What we are having presently is
info-illness, and we cannot cope anymore with all the meaningless
information and data. We should be able to move to the Intuition Age, to
listen to inner stimulus and be connected and centered. This is the only way
we can live in peace. There is a great need for silence and see things unfold
naturally.

3. Authenticity: Live in Truth

All over the world, great self-leaders share authenticity and lack of guile or
treachery. They are genuine and do not engage in any role playing. They live
in truth. If you are playing roles, it will take all your energy. If you are
genuine and living in truth, it will you energize yourself. “Being consistent
with your truth is also an essential part of your authentic power. Once you
have discovered who you truly are, what you want from life and what you
have come here to contribute, you will not be happy if you settle for anything
less than absolute truth in your life. Compromise will become as painful to
you as it was once numbing. As you understand your real needs and desires,
adapt your lifestyle so you wake up every morning and look forward to the
day ahead. Happiness is your most natural state and if you are prepared to
listen, your authentic self will guide you to the people, places and situations
that bring you the most joy. Some of the past great selfleaders of have shown
good examples for us: Renewal, learning and change are the key words in the
business today. They should also be key words in your personal life.

4. Flexibility: You have to be flexible and renew yourself continuously.

When you see change as a natural state of life and you are willing to change
yourself continuously, you start to understand that change is nothing
threatening but a challenge that you are always ready to use.

Flexibility also means that you are completely present in each moment and
are able to appreciate its newness. You have to maintain your curiosity; be
curious about what is happening around you and be spontaneous like children
are. This kind of mental curiosity is a great gift. It is also a key to creativity
and innovation.

Many times, we fear the unknown more than the known because we think the
unknown is unpredictable and that therefore we cannot control it. This is
reason why a crisis is often needed before we can really renew ourselves.
Personal change is possible when you are either terrified or excited.
Make change your best friend. Change means getting rid of old patterns of
thoughts, beliefs, values, fears and habits that no longer serve you. But many
times, we do not want to change. We prefer to stay with our old habits. We
must be ready for deep, life-transforming change and accept change as a
familiar and safe place to be.

5. Trust: trust yourself and have faith in universal intelligence

High self-confidence is necessary for learning. You are able to take risks, go
out of your comfort zone and try to learn something truly new skills. Usually
we want to develop those competencies where we already are good; we want
to be even better. However, it is very fruitful every now and then e.g. start a
new hobby in which we are really a starter. This way we can experience the
pain and glory of learning.

You also should have faith in something greater than yourself. This kind of
faith provides energy. It has nothing to do with traditional religion although
for some people religion may provide the faith. For some it can be nature or
some kind of universal intelligence. Faith is connected to your personal
spirituality. We could think that faith is the spiritual equivalent of physical
energy.

6. Patience: be patience and ready

It is widely believed that all good things come to those who wait. There is an
old saying that says that when the student is ready, the teacher will appear.
There is also another saying that infinite patience brings immediate rewards.
You have to be patient and believe that things will happen when you are
ready. But you have to be ready and open for new things, otherwise you are
not able to catch them.

7. Assertiveness and discipline: do not give up

As much as possible, you must also learn to develop stamina and
perseverance. Personal change is always difficult and it does not happen at
once. It needs time and discipline. Unhappiness can be seen as a bad habit.
You have to realize that all your experiences have been a result of choices
you have made. If you want to live joyfully you will need the discipline to
break the old, often unconscious patterns of behavior that lead you to
unhappiness. You set yourself your own limits; you need the discipline of
tenacity, commitment and focus to stretch you constantly beyond your own
limitations.
Remember that if you want to be good at something, you need to practice it
often. This is especially true with self-leadership. The longest journey, as
they say, begins with a single step.

8. Sensitivity: Learn to Read Weak Signals

To become a good self-leader, you have to develop your sensitivity. One
paradox of life is that you have to be both hard and sensitive. But we should
not be afraid of being soft, because the truth is that as you become more
sensitive, you also become a lot stronger. This is because you no longer have
the disadvantage of trying to hide who you really are and you also have the
sensitivity to see through the others in spite of the façade they are having.

This kind of sensitivity is a great competence in your personal life and in

your work. You are able to read weak signals from your environment and this
way you are always anticipating the coming changes much earlier than
others. Sensitivity opens new windows to the world. To grow means to be
more sensitive, to be more conscious about everything.
9. Love: Love Is the Most Powerful Source of Energy
Love is maybe the most important and the most powerful source of energy in
your personal journey. As the old saying goes, love is what makes the world
go around. Love is not only passion it is also compassion. It is the
manifestation of the universal life force in different ways as kindness,
warmth, understanding, generosity, sex and tenderness. Love can energize us
in so many different ways. Love is the way to connect one another.

10. Humbleness: Be of Service

All great leaders, also self-leaders, have the feeling of being in service. They
are self-confident enough to perform their duties, but at the same time they
are humble enough to understand how small can be their own contribution.
They have found their smallness in their greatness.
•

ORIENTATION FOR ADAPTABILITY THROUGH SELF-

LEADERSHIP The following points for orientation show – like light-houses
– the direction towards more connected and integrated self-regulation,
perception and behavior. We propose these guiding principles to support
internal and external balancing and to improve adaptability:

Foster self-perception and self-awareness:

Train the ability to mentally step out of yourself and to become aware of
inner feelings, desires, memories, tensions, weak signals, intuitions, etc.
Comprehensive self-awareness is required to become the leader of yourself.

Become aware of and appreciate your personal (or organizational)

“instruction manual”, the unique characteristics of your internal structures:
What are your strengths and weaknesses? How did your history lead to the
current status? What are you able to appreciate? What is “just” a result of
history? What do you want to change? How do you perceive your own body?
Does it tell you something? What are your core topics and core purposes?

•Avoid data overflow and search for blind spots: Keep your capacity for
information-processing in mind, reduce noise, that is, data which cannot be
processed anymore and confuses instead of improving orientation.
Reflect the impact of quantity and quality of external stimuli on your internal
status.

Invite conflicting perceptions and perspectives, guide your ways in unusual

directions every now and then, try to appreciate contradiction and to examine
paradoxes instead of denying them. Open yourself up for detours and for
getting touched by something unknown. Connect yourself to the bigger
picture.

•Shape your internal structures, train self-regulation, find your personal

ways for internal balancing and regeneration: Usually we do what we are
used to. Therefore, it is important to take care of what we get used to. Design
your habits consciously. Establish your ability to consciously deal with
emotions, deliberation, desires, memories, fantasies, weak signals, intuitions,
etc. Maybe you decide to let them naturally flow or to direct them in order to
prevent damage. Self-regulation is a precondition to avoid troublesome and
devastating decisions and irreversible damage. Find your ways to come back
to an appropriate level of internal tension somewhere between burden and
floppiness.

•Consciously invite your unconscious, the powerful automatic resources:

Save space for both focus and mind wandering, for closed and open modes,
try to articulate and integrate suppressed perspectives, provide space for weak
signals, for perceptions of pressure and contradiction, for dreams and
spontaneous associations, use sleep for unconscious processing, leave open
spaces, enjoy the silence.

•Integrate analysis and contemplation: Complexity may be approached in

two ways: first to divide it into pieces analytically and second to dissolve the
ego in it without words. The first one is easily traceable and communicable.
The latter allows for taking advantage of much more diverse, comprehensive,
yet implicit, subjective and unconscious resources within oneself and
collectives than the explicit, analytical one. Individual experiences during
contemplation can partly be made explicit, individually and collectively.

•Aim at appropriate modesty based on limited human resources on the

one hand and almost unlimited complexity on the other: As human
perception and its processing are very restricted in relation to the complexity
of the world, our ability to understand and control even a small fraction of the
environment will always be extremely limited and iteratively influenced by
developments elsewhere. The impact of narrowminded actions may be
shattering.

•Aim at appropriate courage based on resonance of the inside and the

outside: Explore the unknown possibilities mindfully. Listen carefully
whether self-perception and perception of the surrounding field resonate with
each other. Listen to your inner voice and accept it as one's instrument of an
orchestra. There are memories, rationality, emotions, desires, phantasies and
weak, unique signals from the depth. Train to distinguish those various
voices. These multifaceted voices are not reality, they are not the truth, they
are what they are. Accept this orchestra as it is: If it does not communicate at
all, if it communicates in a gentle or vague manner, if it is very clear and
strong and does not leave you in any doubt.

•Aim at detachment and deidentification from existing internal

structures: “Yes, that’s the way how I (we) act at the moment … Yes, that’s
the way how I (we) decide at the moment … Yes, that’s what I (we) believe
at the moment. All this is not me (us). What I (we) am (are) at the moment
does not limit myself (ourselves). What I (we) am (are) right now does not
restrict what I (we) will become to be right afterwards or in weeks, months,
years, decades.”

•Step into and continue your personal way to connect yourself practically
to the bigger picture and support the evolvement of life as such, e.g. through
interaction with the younger or elder generation or in nature.

FROM INDIVIDUAL TO COLLECTIVE

Organizations and societies consist of individual human beings. The
collective builds upon the characteristics of those individuals and additionally
shows emergent systemic characteristics. As principles like those described
above become more and more integrated and embodied by individuals, the
culture of collective bodies begins to shift as well. Individuals with the
capability to self-reflect, who are aware of their internal structures, aim to
balance the conscious and unconscious.

They try to be mindful and present and to act from a place beyond their
separate sense of self when getting together. They strive to act from a place
of deep connectedness, compassion and insight and therefore form a totally
different “We”. The collective consists of the intersubjective space that exists
between people in relationship. It is what lies between individuals.
With this level of consciousness in individuals, organizations become
purpose driven and selfsteering systems with distributed authority. When
people identify with a purpose that is greater than themselves, and engage in
self-steering structures, practices and cultures, suddenly energies unfold that
were previously unavailable.

There are a number of organizations that have already transformed and

represent fundamentally new structures, practices and cultures. For instance,
a particular organization that provides neighbourhood nursing may
revolutionize the nursing business in a country. Some organizations may
require, on average, 40 percent fewer hours of care per client than other
nursing organizations. Yet the clients become autonomous and self-sustained
far more often and faster than under any other care. And they love the service
they get.

For instance, Company A, a Nigerian brass foundry located in Lagos, started

transition in 2001, with 100 employees at the time and competitors moving
their productions to Borno in the Northern to keep prices down. Company A,
with the intention to create meaningful industrial employment in the
underprivileged northeastern part of Nigeria, has expanded to more than 1000
employees today, with outstanding financial results and, in spite of the big
competition from other competitors, is still paying its workers’ salaries
significantly above the market rate.

These and other organizations from which individuals and collectives can
learn so much provide a space in which employees thrive. They achieve
remarkable success at various levels, not only financially. In downturns they
prove resilient, although they do not lay off staff. Most importantly they are
vehicles that help a noble purpose to manifest itself in the world.

TWELVE GUIDELINES FOR LEADING FROM WITHIN

I. Set goals for your life. Set daily, monthly and long-term goals tied to your
visions and dreams. Do not be afraid to go for something big--remember,
nothing is impossible if you believe you can achieve it. Once you have set
your goals, ask yourself daily what you are doing to reach them.

II. Lead by example. Every day, you are setting an example for those around
you--whether you realize it or not, positive or negative. Your life is your
message, so to be leader of your life you need to decide what message you
want to send.

III. Be fearless. Too many people coast through life without ever taking the
initiative to find greatness within themselves. Instead, teach yourself to be
daring, bold and brave. Be willing to fall down, fail and get up again for
another round. To lead in your life requires that you do things that make you
afraid, because life will unfold in portion to your courage.

IV. Honour others. Others will tell you to make sure you get all the credit
and validation that are due to you. But being the leader of your own life
means learning to be humble and give away the credit. Going out ahead of
others is only part of leadership; you also have to go with them. Instead of
seeking recognition for yourself, show that you stand with them, and that you
recognize and appreciate them.

V. Embrace new ideas and opportunities. Do not shy away from anything
new, whether it is an opportunity, an idea, or an experience. Turn every day
into an adventure and work to turn all the programs, projects and processes in
your life into possibilities. Everything was impossible until the first person
did it, so work to always be that first person.

VI. Question everything. Become the person who is constantly asking

questions. The more you question, the more you learn, and the more you
learn, the more you know. If you were not born with it, develop the drive to
increase your knowledge, skills, and understanding. Ask yourself questions to
stay focused--simple questions to clarify issues and facts, and complex
questions for deeper insights into concepts and beliefs. Curiosity is an
important way to become the leader of your own life.

VII. Do what is right, not what is easy. There are some things you simply
do not take liberties with. When it comes to integrity, honesty and ethics
there is no room for compromise. Make sure that what you say and what you
do are always in alignment; keep integrity at the heart of your character and
you will never lose sight of it. We are all human, and humans are not perfect.
But you can always make the effort to choose what is right over what is
convenient or personally beneficial.

VIII. Find goodness and beauty in everyone and everything. It is easy to

become overwhelmed by the negativity and ugliness that exist in the world.
But if we spend our time seeking out beauty in everything and in everyone,
how different life becomes. It's up to us to see, appreciate and share the
beauty that surrounds us every day.

IX. Actively reject pessimism. There will always be something to be

negative about. Instead, practice zero tolerance for negativity. The more you
reject things that are defeatist, critical, fatalistic and apathetic, the more room
you leave in your life for positivity. As leader of your own life, you have the
power to either make yourself miserable or happy with the choices you make
every day.

X. Be the change you want to see in the world. Everything you want begins
with you. It starts within. To live in the world of your dreams, you must, in
Gandhi's famous words, be the change you want to see. Dream big and start
small.

XI. Surround yourself with mentors and teachers. You cannot grow when
you think you are the smartest person in the room. Always be on the lookout
for teachers and mentors who are smarter and more experienced than you.
Seek to be continually inspired by something and learning about everything.
Encouraging growth and development is as important to leading in your own
life as it is with your employees at work.

XII. Care for and about people. Make sure that compassion and empathy
are a central part of who you are, and you will stay connected to your basic
humanity. When you do, you will not only become a better leader of your
own life but also someone others choose to lead them

Self-Leadership Assessment Questions

Here are questions you can ask yourself as you strive to improve your self-
leadership. 1. Where in my life do I think I am doing well, but if I am honest,
I know I am not doing as well
as I can?
2. What do I believe about my life and where I am currently?
3. Where am I heading?
4. What is challenging in my life at the moment and how I can respond
better?
5. Who needs more attention, caring and love in my life and how can I give
them that?
6. Where have I let myself and others down recently?
7. What can I do to rectify the situation?
8. What can I do to improve myself and be a better example to others?

Chapter Eight
GENERATING MENTAL WEALTH
Introduction

Mental wealth is about building positive wellbeing in individuals and

communities, and raising awareness of issues surrounding mental health.
Generation mental wealth requires that you understand and take all the
necessary steps and actions in building and growing mental wealth at
personal, organizational, community, and national levels.

Mental wealth is just as important as mental health. Mental health is the

physiological functioning of the brain and nervous system. Mental wealth is
how successful you are at managing the content of your mind.
Mental health is a state of well-being in which every individual realizes his or
her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work
productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her
community.

Mental health is influenced by a broad and complex range of factors cutting

across a range of different spheres of life– such as physical health,
employment, housing, leisure and social networks – and therefore a
comprehensive assessment which addresses needs holistically is paramount.
People who experience social exclusion face particular barriers to acquiring
information and advice and accessing support they need to access appropriate
services. A comprehensive assessment will give insight in to the individual’s
cognitive functioning: what they are thinking, their emotions, their values and
beliefs and most of all ‘what they might do next’.
What Mental Wealth Really Means
Mental Wealth equips individuals to deal with life and work in a positive and
healthy way, instead of succumbing to anxiety, depression, stress, and fear.
Similarly, Mental Wealth equips businesses to produce mentally tougher and
stronger leaders and teams by reducing the impact of mental health on
performance.

The two dimensions of mental wealth are intimately linked both throughout
life and across different areas of life. Positive emotional states or a generally
positive approach to life are associated with greater curiosity, more flexible
thinking and a greater openness to learning, and these qualities are
particularly important during the development of mental capital in childhood
and adolescence.

Enhance early learning in children which can increase their resilience to

stress and common mental disorders. Later in life, this resilience helps to
engender well-being at work and into old age. And older individuals who
report higher levels of well-being also have better cognitive function, even
when adjustment has been made for other possible explanatory factors, such
as socio-demographic variables, health and lifestyle.

Thus, how a nation develops and uses its mental capital not only has a
significant effect on its economic competitiveness and prosperity, but it is
also important for mental health and well-being and social cohesion and
inclusion. Because they are so closely linked, mental health and wellbeing
should both therefore be considered in decision making situations.
If you cannot wave a magic wand and make life’s challenges go away, then
the only way forward is to realize that these challenges are your life.

Mental Wealth sets out practical ways to enable you to help yourself. The
overall aim is to unlock access to your internal resources enabling you to do
more than cope with the stresses of life, but to see things differently, change
your mindset and improve your resilience. Building mental wealth peels back
the layers, getting you to think about your thinking. Once you have clarity,
selfimprovement follows effortlessly. It is about instilling positive habits,
with the benefits rippling way beyond work.

Learning ways to look after your positive mental health creates what is called
Mental Wealth. This makes you more resilient and increases your overall
wellbeing. It also means you are more equipped to support your friends.
Mental wealth is just as important as positive mental health.

Mental wealth and positive mental health are critically important to us and
have a major impact on our path throughout life. They affect our quality of
life and our level of prosperity as well as how well we are able to contribute
to society. They also determine the level of our resilience. That is, our ability
to respond positively to stressful situations or experiences.
Similarly, mental wealth and positive mental health are the foundation to the
wellbeing and good functioning of families, schools, and communities. The
level of mental wealth and positive mental health in a community determines
the level of positive behaviour, social cohesion, community safety and levels
of criminality, citizenship, economic competitiveness, and the overall
prosperity of the community.
Investing in your mental wealth helps to prevent mental illness and mental
health issues by helping you to understand:

•how and why you ‘show up’ in the way you do, day to day;
•how this changes in response to stress
•how to build your resilience and mental strength to better deal with life’s
challenges

Building Mental Wealth

Build the Components of Mental Wealth
Mental Wealth is created by learning ways to look after your positive mental
health. Positive mental health is a state in which we are developing our -
physical, emotional/mental, spiritual, occupational, environmental,
intellectual, and...
social wellbeing

•the basis for social equality, social capital, social trust

•the antidote to racism, stigma, violence and crime.
It depends on:
•The sum of individual mental wellbeing in a group, community or society.
•The quality of government – local, organizational, national and
international.
•The quality of services and provision of support for those in need.
•The fair distribution of resources including income.
•The norm with regard to interpersonal relationships in a group, community
or society,

including respect for others and their needs, compassion and empathy, and
authentic interaction.
Hierarchically-held power in families, communities, workplaces, schools or
government is
particularly potent in this regard. Respectful, compassionate, authentic
government, families and
organizations are important in the creation of collective mental wellbeing.

Build the Factors That Determine Mental Wealth

Mental wealth and positive mental health are based on five major factors:

•Our biological make-up. These are the genes we received from our parents
and how they develop over our lives.
•The quality of our home, school, work and neighbourhood environments;
•The experiences we have and the learning which takes place throughout our
lives;
•Our attitudes, beliefs, and values;
•The efforts we make every day to build our mental wealth and positive
mental health

Enhance Efforts Involved in Investing in Mental Wealth

• Connecting with the people around us
• Preventing mental disorders
• Early intervention in mental Disorder
• Belief in recovery
• Cognitive enhancement
• Keep learning and trying something new.
• Making efforts to be aware of the world around you and how you are
feeling inside.
• Build the emotional needs of mental wealth
• Build social needs of mental wealth
• Build physical needs of mental wealth
• Build spiritual needs of mental wealth
• Build time need of mental wealth
• build financial needs of mental wealth
• Build professional needs of mental wealth

How to Be Mentally Strong

Mental Strength is the capacity of an individual to deal effectively with
stressors, pressures and challenges and perform to the best of their ability,
irrespective of the circumstances in which they find themselves.
Building mental strength is fundamental to living your best life. Just as we go
to the gym and lift weights in order to build our physical muscles, we must
also develop our mental health through the use of mental tools and
techniques.

Optimal mental health helps us to live a life that we love, have meaningful
social connections, and positive self-esteem. It also aids in our ability to take
risks, try new things, and cope with any difficult situations that life may
throw at us.

Mental strength involves developing daily habits that build mental muscle. It
also involves giving up bad habits that hold you back.
In order to be mentally healthy, we must build up our mental strength. Mental
strength is something that is developed over time by individuals who choose
to make personal development a priority. Much like seeing physical gains
from working out and eating healthier, we must develop healthy mental
habits, like practicing gratitude, if we want to experience mental health gains.

Likewise, to see physical gains we must also give up unhealthy habits, such
as eating junk food, and for mental gains, give up unhealthy habits such as
feeling sorry for oneself. We are all able to become mentally stronger, the
key is to keep practicing and exercising your mental muscles, just as you
would if you were trying to build physical strength!

Building Resilience and Mental Toughness

The term “Resilience,” commonly used in relation to positive mental health,
is actually borrowed from engineering, where it refers to the ability of a
substance or object to spring back into shape. In the same way that a material
object would require strength and flexibility in order to bounce back, so too
does an individual require these characteristics in order to be mentally
resilient.
Mental Resilience is the process of adapting well in the face of adversity,
trauma, tragedy, threats or even significant sources of stress.

A similar concept, Mental Toughness, refers to the ability to stay strong in

the face of adversity; to keep your focus and determination despite the
difficulties you encounter. A mentally tough individual sees challenge and
adversity as an opportunity and not a threat, and has the confidence and
positive approach to take what comes in their stride.

To be mentally tough, you must have some degree of resilience, but not all
resilient individuals are necessarily mentally tough. If you think of it as a
metaphor, resilience would be the mountain, while mental toughness might
be one of the strategies for climbing that mountain.

Mental toughness begins when you choose to take notice of what’s passing
through your mind, without identifying personally with those thoughts or
feelings. Then, finding the determination to evoke optimistic thoughts about
the situation at hand.

Techniques for developing mental toughness revolve around five themes:

1. Positive Thinking
2. Anxiety Control
3. Visualization
4. Goal Setting
5. Attentional Control

As with building mental strength, developing mental toughness does require

self-awareness and commitment. Generally speaking, mentally tough
individuals appear to achieve more than the mentally sensitive and enjoy a
greater degree of contentment.

The 4 C’s of Mental Toughness:

Control
This is the extent to which you feel you are in control of your life, including
your emotions and sense of life purpose. The control component can be
considered your self-esteem. To be high on the Control scale means to feel
comfortable in your own skin and have a good sense of who you are.
You are able to control your emotions when you are less likely to reveal your
emotional state to others and be less distracted by the emotions of others.
To be low on the control scale means you might feel like events happen to
you and that you have no control or influence over what happens.

Commitment
This is the extent of your personal focus and reliability. To be high on the
Commitment scale is to be able to effectively set goals and consistently
achieve them, without getting distracted. A high Commitment level indicates
that you’re good at establishing routines and habits that cultivate success. To
be low on the Commitment scale indicates that you may find it difficult to set
and prioritize goals, or adapt routines or habits indicative of success. You
might also be easily distracted by other people or competing priorities.

Together, the Control and Commitment scales represent the Resilience part of
the Mental Toughness definition. This makes sense because the ability to
bounce back from setbacks requires a sense of knowing that you are in
control of your life and can make a change. It also requires focus and the
ability to establish habits and targets that will get you back on track to your
chosen path.
Challenge
This is the extent to which you are driven and adaptable. To be high on the
Challenge scale means that you are driven to achieve your personal best, and
you see challenges, change, and adversity as opportunities rather than threats;
you are likely to be flexible and agile. To be low on the Challenge scale
means that you might see change as a threat, and avoid novel or challenging
situations out of fear of failure.
Confidence
This is the extent to which you believe in your ability to be productive and
capable; it is your selfbelief and the belief that you can influence others. To
be high on the Confidence scale is to believe that you will successfully
complete tasks, and to take setbacks in stride while maintaining routine and
even strengthening your resolve. To be low on the Confidence scale means
that you are easily unsettled by setbacks, and do not believe that you are
capable or have any influence over others.

Together, the Challenge and Confidence scales represent the Confidence part
of the Mental Toughness definition. This represents one’s ability to identify
and seize an opportunity, and to see situations as opportunities to embrace
and explore. This makes sense because if you are confident in yourself and
your abilities and engage easily with others, you are more likely to convert
challenges into successful outcomes.

How to Build Resilience in Adults

Mental resilience is not a trait that people either have or don’t have. Rather, it
involves behaviors, thoughts, and actions that can be learned and developed
in everyone. Of course, there may be a genetic component to a person’s level
of mental resilience, but it is certainly something that can be built upon.
Resilience is a complex construct and it may be defined differently in the
context of individuals, families, organizations, societies, and cultures.

There was also a consensus that one’s ability to develop resilience is based on
many factors, including genetic, developmental, demographic, cultural,
economic, and social variables; but that resilience can be cultivated,
nonetheless
Simply put, resilience can be cultivated through will-power, discipline, and
hard work. And there are many strategies by which to do so. The key is to
identify ways that are likely to work well for you as part of your own
personal strategy for cultivating resilience.

Increasing Mental Strength in Students

Just like adults, mentally strong children and adolescents are able to tackle
problems, bounce back from failure, and cope with life’s challenges and
hardships. They are resilient and have the courage and confidence to reach
their full potential.
Developing mental strength in students is just as important, if not more
important, as developing mental strength in adults. Helping young people
develop mental strength requires a three-pronged approach, teaching them
how to:

1. Replace negative thoughts with positive, more realistic thoughts

2. Control their emotions so their emotions do not control them
3. Take positive action.
Though there are many strategies, discipline techniques, and teaching tools
that help children to build their mental muscle, here are 10 strategies to help
students develop the strength they need to become a mentally strong adult:

1. Teach Specific Skills

Rather than making kids suffer for their mistakes, discipline should be about
teaching kids how to do better next time. Instead of punishment, use
consequences that teach useful skills, such as problem-solving and impulse
control.

2. Let Your Child Make Mistakes

Mistakes are an inevitable part of life and learning. Teach your child or
student that this is so and that they shouldn’t be embarrassed or ashamed
about getting something wrong.

3. Teach Your Child How to Develop Healthy Self-Talk

It’s important to help children develop a realistic and optimistic outlook on
life, and how to reframe negative thoughts when they arise. Learning this
skill early in life will help them persevere through difficult times.

4. Encourage Your Child to Face Fears Head-On

Enabling a child to face their fears head-on will help them gain invaluable
confidence. One way to do this is to teach your child to step outside of their
comfort zone and face their fears one small step at a time while praising and
rewarding their efforts.

5. Allow Your Child to Feel Uncomfortable

It can be tempting to soothe or rescue your child or student whenever they are
struggling, but it’s important to allow them to sometimes lose or struggle, and
insist that they are responsible even when they don’t want to be. Dealing with
small struggles on their own can help children to build their mental strength.

6. Build Character
Children with a strong moral compass and value system will be better able to
make healthy decisions. You can help by instilling values such as honesty
and compassion, and creating learning opportunities that reinforce these
values, regularly.

7. Make Gratitude a Priority

Practicing gratitudeis one of the greatest things you can do for your mental
health, and it’s no different for children. Gratitude helps us to keep things in
perspective, even during the most challenging times. To raise a mentally
strong child you should encourage them to practice gratitude on a regular
basis.

8. Affirm Personal Responsibility

Accepting responsibility for your actions or mistakes is also part of building
mental strength involves. If your student is trying to blame others for the way
he/she thinks, feels or behaves, simply steer them away from excuses and
allow for explanations.

9. Teach Emotion Regulation Skills

Instead of soothing or calming down your child every time they are upset,
teach them how to deal with uncomfortable emotions on their own so that
they don’t grow up depending on you to regulate their mood. Children who
understand their range of feelings and have experience dealing with them are
better prepared to deal with the ups and downs of life.

10. Be A Role Model for Mental Strength

There’s no better way to teach a child than by example. To encourage mental
strength in your students or children, you must demonstrate mental strength.
Show them that you make selfimprovement a priority in your life, and talk
about your goals and steps you take to grow stronger.

Ways to Build and Improve Resilience

Your level of mental resilience is not something that is decided upon at birth.
It can be improved over the course of an individual’s life. Below we will
explore a number of different strategies and techniques used to improve
mental resilience.

1. Skill Acquisition
Acquiring new skills can play an important part in building resilience, as it
helps to develop a sense of mastery and competency. Both of which can be
utilized during challenging times, as well as increase one’s self-esteem and
ability to problem solve.

Skills to be learned will depend on the individual. For example, some might
benefit from improving cognitive skills such as working memory or selective
attention which will help with everyday functioning. Others might benefit
from learning new hobbies activities through competency-based learning.

Acquiring new skills within a group setting gives the added benefit of social
support, which also cultivates resilience.

2. Goal Setting
The ability to develop goals, actionable steps to achieve those goals, and to
execute, all help to develop will-power and mental resilience. Goals can be
large or small, related to physical health, emotional wellbeing, career,
finance, spirituality, or just about anything. Goals that involve
skillacquisition will have a double benefit. For example, learning to play an
instrument or learning a new language.

Some research indicates that setting and working towards goals beyond the
individual, i.e. religious involvement or volunteering for a cause, can be
especially useful in building resiliency. This may provide a deeper sense of
purpose and connection which can be valuable during challenging times.

3. Controlled Exposure
Controlled exposure refers to the gradual exposure to anxiety-provoking
situations, and is used to help individuals overcome their fears. Research
indicates that this can foster resilience, and especially so when it involves
skill-acquisition and goal setting, a triple benefit.

Public speaking, for example, is a useful life skill but also something that
evokes fear in many people. People who are afraid of public speaking can set
goals involving controlled exposure in order to develop or acquire this
particular skill. They can expose themselves to a small audience of one or
two people, and progressively increase their audience size over time.

This type of action plan can be initiated by the individual, or it can be

developed with a therapist trained in cognitive behavioural therapy.
Successful efforts can increase self-esteem and a sense of autonomy and
mastery, all of which can be utilized in times of adversity.

Eleven strategies for building mental resilience:

1. Make connections.
Resilience can be strengthened through our connection to family, friends, and
community. Healthy relationships with people who care about you and will
listen to your problems, offer support during difficult times and can help us to
reclaim hope. Likewise, assisting others in their time of need can benefit us
greatly and foster our own sense of resilience.

2. Avoid seeing crises as insurmountable problems.

We cannot change the external events happening around us, but we can
control our reaction to theseevents. In life, there will always be challenges,
but it’s important to look beyond whatever stressful situation you are faced
with, and remember that circumstances will change. Take notice of the subtle
ways in which you may already start feeling better as you deal with the
difficult situation.

3. Accept that change is a part of living.

They say that the only thing constant in life is change. As a result of difficult
circumstances, certain goals may no longer be realistic or attainable. By
accepting that which you cannot change, it allows you to focus on the things
that you do have control over.

4. Move toward your goals.

Though it is important to develop long-term, bigpicture goals, it is essential
to make sure they’re realistic. Creating small, actionable steps makes our
goals achievable and helps us to regularly work towards these goals, creating
small “wins” along the way. Try to accomplish one small step towards your
goal every day.

5. Take decisive actions.

Instead of shying away from problems and stresses, wishing they would just
go away, try to take decisive action whenever possible.

6. Look for opportunities for self-discovery.

Sometimes tragedy can result in great learnings and personal growth. Living
through a difficult situation can increase our self-confidence and sense of
self-worth, strengthen our relationships, and teach us a great deal about
ourselves. Many people who have experienced hardship have also reported a
heightened appreciation for life and deepened spirituality.
7. Nurture a positive view of yourself.
Working to develop confidence in yourself can be beneficial in preventing
difficulties, as well as building resilience. Having a positive view of yourself
is crucial when it comes to problem-solving and trusting your own instincts.

8. Keep things in perspective.

When times get tough, always remember that things could be worse; try to
avoid blowing things out of proportion. In cultivating resilience, it helps to
keep a long-term perspective when facing difficult or painful events.

9. Maintain a hopeful outlook.

When we focus on what is negative about a situation and remain in a fearful
state, we are less likely to find a solution. Try to maintain a hopeful,
optimistic outlook, and expect a positive outcome instead of a negative one.
Visualization can be a helpful technique in this respect.

10. Take care of yourself.

Self-care is an essential strategy for building resilience and helps to keep your
mind and body healthy enough to deal with difficult situations as they arise.
Taking care of yourself means paying attention to your own needs and
feelings, and engaging in activities that bring you joy and relaxation. Regular
physical exercise is also a great form of self-care.

11. Additional ways of strengthening resilience may be helpful.

Resilience building can look like different things to different people.
Journaling, practicing gratitude, meditation, and other spiritual practices help
some people to restore hope and strengthen their resolve.

Factors in Resilience
Many factors contribute to resilience, but studies have shown that the primary
factor is having supportive relationships within and outside of the family.
Relationships that are caring, loving, and offer encouragement and
reassurance, help cultivate a person’s resilience. Factors that are associated
with resilience, including:

• The capacity to make realistic plans and actionable steps to carry them out.
• A positive self-view and confidence in your strengths and abilities.
• Communication and problem-solving skills.
• The capacity to manage and regulate strong feelings and impulses.

All of these are factoring that people can develop within themselves.

Strategies for Building Resilience

When it comes to developing resilience, strategies will vary between each
individual. We all react differently to traumatic and stressful life events, so an
approach that works well for one person might not work for another. For
example, some variation as to how one might communicate feelings and deal
with adversity may reflect cultural differences.

Learning from your Past

Taking a look at past experiences and sources of personal strength may
provide insight as to which resilience building strategies will work for you.
Below are some guiding questions from the American Psychology
Association, that you can ask yourself about how you’ve reacted to
challenging situations in the past. Exploring the answers to these questions
can help you develop future strategies.
Consider the following:

•What types of events have been most stressful for me?

•How have those events typically affected me?
•Have I found it helpful to think of important people in my life when I am
distressed?
•To whom have I reached out for support in working through a traumatic or
stressful

experience?
•What have I learned about myself and my interactions with others during
difficult times?
•Has it been helpful for me to assist someone else going through a similar
experience?
•Have I been able to overcome obstacles, and if so, how?
•What has helped make me feel more hopeful about the future?

Staying Flexible
A resilient mindset is a flexible mindset. As you encounter stressful
circumstances and events in your life, it is helpful to maintain flexibility and
balance in the following ways:

•Let yourself experience strong emotions, and realize when you may need to
put them aside in order to continue functioning.
•Step forward and take action to deal with your problems and meet the
demands of daily living; but also know when to step back and rest/reenergize
yourself.
•Spend time with loved ones who offer support and encouragement; nurture
yourself.
•Rely on others, but also know when to rely on yourself.

Building Resilience
Enhancing Social Competence and Self-Regulation to increase resilience in
young People. Key competencies addressed in each session include self-
awareness, flexible thinking, and social competence. Through discussion and
hands-on techniques such as role-playing, group members learn about
anger/anxiety management, problem-solving, personal space awareness, self-
talk, friendship skills, and other essential topics pertaining to social and
personal wellbeing. These group activities help develop specific protective
factors associated with resilience.

The program includes relaxation techniques such as visualization, calm

breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, and yoga, to enhance self-
regulation. In order to apply their learnings to the outside world, the program
assigns homework, community field trips, as well as a parent’s involvement
component.
Resilience Builder Program is inventive, well thought out, sequenced and
formatted, and offers a well-structured group framework, concrete enough for
beginners. If you are looking for a detailed program to teach your child or
student how to be resilient, this is an excellent option.

The Realizing Resilience Masterclass

Consisting of six modules which include positive psychology, resilience,
attention, thoughts, action and motivation, this comprehensive online course
will provide you with key psychological concepts, in an easily digestible
manner for anyone that is new to the field.
Upon completion of the self-paced course, you will be awarded a certificate
and can use the extensive library of tools, worksheets, videos, and
presentations to teach resiliency.

Improving Mental Stamina

Mental Stamina is the single defining trait that enables us to endure the
adversities of life. It is essential for withstanding both long-term challenges
or unforeseen and unexpected struggles, concerns or trauma, and is only
developed by practice and repetition. Mental stamina requires planning,
strength, perseverance, and concentration.
Mental Stamina is like an evolved hybrid between grit and resilience.
Often when we talk about stamina, we reference elite athletes and sports
teams, as both physical and mental stamina is crucial for this type of
performance. However, everyone can benefit from increased mental stamina,
not just athletes. Although no one builds mental stamina overnight,

Five tips for building your mental stamina over time:

1. Think Positively
Selfconfidence and the belief in one’s ability to perform and to make
decisions is one of the most important characteristics of a healthy mind.
Training yourself to think optimistically and find the positive in every
situation will most certainly help to build mental stamina over time.

2. Use Visualization
Visualization is an excellent tool for managing stress, overwhelming
situations, and performance anxiety. Close your eyes and imagine a time that
you succeeded in a similar situation. This includes remembering the feeling
that accompanied that achievement, not just the visual.

3. Plan for Setbacks

Life most certainly does not always go the way we hoped or planned that it
would. It’s important to re-center yourself and regain focus after a setback, as
opposed to dwelling on the loss or misfortune. We cannot control the external
events that happen around us, but we can control what we do afterward. It’s a
good idea to have a plan in place that will help you to deal when things don’t
go according to plan.

4. Manage Stress
Our ability to manage stress plays a large role in our ability to build mental
stamina. Though not all stress is bad, positive stress (excitement) can be a
motivating factor — it has the same physical effects on our bodies.
Useful techniques for managing stress include meditation and progressive
muscle relaxation. It is important to remember that you are in control and of
your mental state, and how you will handle the stressor at hand.

5. Get More Sleep

It is no secret that getting enough sleep is vital to our physical and mental
functioning in everyday life. Sufficient sleep can help with on-the-spot
decision making and reaction time. A sufficient amount of sleep is said to be
seven to nine hours, or more if you are performing high-stress activities, both
physical and mental.

Enhancing Resilience in the Community

Community resilience is the sustained ability of a community to utilize
available resources including energy, communication, transportation, food,
etc. to respond to, withstand, and recover from adverse situations.
Successful adaptation in the aftermath of a disaster ensures that a community
can return to normal life as effortlessly as possible. Community adaptation is
largely dependent on population wellness, functioning, and quality of life.

As is the case when faced with any problem, a community should implement
a plan of action in order to come together and rebuild after a disaster. Below
are the key components necessary for a community to build collective
resilience after a tragedy:

•Reduce risk and resource inequities

•Engage local people in mitigation
•Create organizational linkages
•Boost and protect social supports
•Plan for not having a plan, which requires flexibility, decision‐making skills,
and trusted

sources of information that function in the face of unknowns.

What Builds Resilient Relationships?

Resilience is a very important aspect of any relationship. Relationships
require ongoing attention and cultivation, especially during times of
adversity. Have you ever wondered what makes some friendships or romantic
relationships more likely to survive than others?

Seven Characteristics of Highly Resilient Relationships

1. Active Optimism
Active optimism is not just hoping that things will turn out well, rather, it is
believing that things will turn out well and then taking action that will lead to
a better outcome. In a relationship, this means an agreement to avoid critical,
hurtful, cynical comments, and to instead, work together to harness the power
of a positive self-fulfilling prophecy.
2. Honesty, Integrity, Accepting Responsibility for One’s Actions, and
the Willingness to Forgive
When we commit to accepting responsibility for our actions, being loyal to
one another and forgiving each other (and ourselves), we are bound to
cultivate resilience within our relationships. This includes the old adage that
honesty is the best policy, regardless of the outcome and consequences.
3. Decisiveness
This means having the courage to take action, even when the action is
unpopular or provokes anxiety in a relationship. Decisive action sometimes
means leaving a toxic relationship or one that is not serving you well
anymore, often times promoting one’s own personal resilience. 4. Tenacity
Tenacity is to persevere, especially in the face of discouragement, setbacks,
and failures. It is important in relationships to remember that there will
always be ebbs and flows, good times as well as hard times.
5. Self-Control
As it pertains to relationships, the ability to control impulses, resist
temptations and delay gratification are clearly important qualities. Self-
control helps one to avoid practices that will negatively impact their
relationship, while promoting healthy practices, especially in the face of
adversity.
6. Interpersonal Connectedness Through Honest Communication
The sense of “belonging” and connectedness in a relationship is maintained
and honed through open, honest communication. Often times the most
difficult conversations to have are the most important ones.

7. Presence of Mind
Present mindedness has many positive implications for the individual, and
this is also true for partners in a relationship. Present-minded awareness
within a relationship leads to a calm, nonnon-judgmental thinking style and
open communication. Presence of mind enables collaborative thinking and
openness to new solutions, rather than shooting them down and projecting
blame. These are just some of the characteristics that predict resilience in a
relationship and increase the likelihood of a relationship rebounding after
difficult situations.

Learn to Become Resilient for Life

If you want to become resilient for life, it is best to start with building your
resilience in the present moment. Practice and commitment to the strategies
and tips discussed above, will over time increase your ability to bounce back
and adapt once life has presented you with hardships. The silver lining to
experiencing adverse life events is that the more you are able to flex your
resiliency muscle, the better you will be able to bounce back again the next
time life throws you a curveball.

Case Study Showing Ways to Build Resilience

In this study, presents a description of building organizational and personal
resilience at three levels of institution: management, faculty, and students of a
multi-cultural college. To do so, the college utilized three different
framework models: the contact hypothesis model, the joint projects model,
and the theoretical model.
The study discusses the complexities of constructing this multi-dimensional
framework for improving communication between a radically diverse group
of students with opposing political and cultural views. The students are
immigrants living under a continuous threat of social and economic crisis,
with tension and conflicts both internally and externally.

Each level of the institution must contribute to developing coping strategies

for crisis situations as well as everyday reality. For faculty, this includes
building a program that considers the strengths and weaknesses of students
from social minority groups. For students, this includes social projects that
express their cultural and national diversity.
Most importantly, the process requires leadership from management-focused
solutions and activities intended to instill a sense of confidence and certainty
at all levels of the organization. Some key takeaways from the case study are
that although processes for building resilience may take several years, they
can be accelerated by changes or crises that arise; and that while aspects of
resilience are built-in routine situations, most of them are only tested in crisis
situations.

Although every individual develops their own unique coping style, the
proposed multidimensional resilience model references these six factors that
comprise each style:

• Beliefs and Values

• Affect
• Social
• Imagination
• Cognition
• Physiology

Lastly, the case study may very well be relevant to other organizations or
communities during or post-conflict.

How to Get a Better, Stronger and More Confident Mind

Confidence is one of the 4C’s of mental toughness! Nurturing a positive self-
view and developing confidence in your ability to solve problems and in
trusting your instincts is one of the main factors in building resiliency. So
how do we cultivate a more confident mind?

10 Ways to begin building your confidence

1. Get Things Done
Confidence and accomplishment go hand-in-hand. Accomplishing goals, and
even taking small steps towards your goals, can help build your self-esteem
and confidence in your abilities.
2. Monitor Your Progress
When working towards a goal, big or small, it is important to break it down
into smaller, more manageable steps. In doing so, one will find it easier to
monitor their progress and build confidence as they see the progress
happening in real time. It helps to quantify your goals, as well as the
actionable steps towards those goals.
3. Do the Right Thing
Highly confident people tend to live by a value system and make decisions
based on that value system, even when it’s not necessarily in their best
interest. When your decisions are aligned with your highest self, it can
cultivate a more confident mind.
4. Exercise
Exercise not only benefits your physical body but your mind as well. Mental
benefits of exercise include improved focus, memory retention, and stress
and anxiety management. Exercise is also said to prevent and aid in
depression. Confidence from exercising comes not only from the physical,
visible benefits but also from the mental benefits.
5. Be Fearless
To be fearless in the pursuit of your dreams and goals requires a level of
confidence. Conversely, challenging yourself by diving head first into things
that scare you will help to build your confidence. Often, when we set big
goals for ourselves, it is easy to get overwhelmed and be fearful of failure. In
these instances, it is important to gather up your courage and just keep going,
one step at a time.
6. Stand-up for Yourself
To stand up for yourself when someone tells you that you can’t accomplish
something is an effective way to develop your confidence. All too often we
may end up believing the naysayers, as they are echoing the self-doubt we
may be hearing in our heads. To nurture a positive selfview is to replace
those negative thoughts with positive ones. Try to do so as well when
someone does not believe in you.
7. Follow Through
Following through on what you say you’re going to do not only helps to earn
the respect of others but also respect for and confidence in yourself.
Developing your follow-through skills will also help you accomplish your
goals and likely strengthen your relationships, too.
8. Think Long-term
Often times, we trade in long-term happiness for more immediate
gratification. We can build up our confidence by making sacrifices and
decisions based on long-term goals rather than short-term comforts. Finding
the discipline to do so will bring greater happiness in the long-term and a
higher likelihood of achieving the goals you’ve set for yourself.
9. Do not Care What Others Think
It is easy to fall into the trap of wondering what others may think of you, but
it’s important to remember that what others think actually means nothing in
the pursuit of your dreams. Build your confidence by believing in yourself
and continuing to move forward, even when others might not agree with you.
10. Do More of What Makes You Happy
When we take time for self-care and doing the things that bring us joy, it
helps to enrich our lives and becomes our best selves. Confidence comes
when we are aligned with our highest selves and proud of it.

Six Principles of Wealth Creation

Wealth is the product of man’s capacity to think. Wealth is different from
riches and riches are parts of wealth. Wealth is made up three parts, which
are:
• Health: This is consisting of spiritual, emotional, physical, and mental.
• Cashflow and Riches: This includes savings, investments, and your
earnings or revenue.
• Power: Inclusive of spiritual and temporal influence.
It is important to understand that there is a huge difference between
“wellbeing” and “being well off”. Wellbeing is identical with wealth while
being well off is identical to riches.

Wealth and riches are not one or the same thing. Being wealthy is not about
money; being wealthy is about value and essence. Wealth is also as a result of
the function of your network. Your network determines your net worth. The
quality of the value you provide and the quality of your relationships
ultimately determines your net worth. To determine your net-worth, you need
to ask yourself questions like

• What solutions do I provide?

• What problems am I solving?
The more problems you solve, the wealthier you become.

The wealthiest set of people in the world such as: Bill Gate, Carlos Slim,
Warren Buffett, Amancio Ortega, Mark Zuckerberg, Aliko Dangote, Oprah
Winfrey, Folorunsho Alakija, are where they are today because they
understand the following powerful principles of wealth creation.

1. PRINCIPLE OF INTENTION
You need to have a personal will to conquer the world in your chosen fields
of endeavour. You need to be intentional about creating solutions to
problems, creating value as well as creating wealth.
You need to ask yourself these questions
- Do I have a personal will to succeed?
- Do I have a personal will to become wealthy?
- What personal mandate and command drives me? Your answers to these
questions will give you insight on how intentional you are to create wealth.

2. PRINCIPLE OF ATTENTION
Wealthy people have identified their specific fields and they have remained
there consistently over the years. These people are attentive, focused, and
sensitive to problems and they are also looking for the most sustainable way
to create solutions through their spheres of endeavour. They have not gone
outside of their field to provide solutions to other problems. They have
stayed, given attention and have remained focused within their identified
fields. Many people focus on their challenges and miseries rather than their
ambitions and opportunities. Also, avoid everything that weakens you and
only give attention to those things that strengthens you.

3. PRINCIPLE OF ENERGY AND PASSION

Wealthy people have identified their areas of passion and have committed
their energy to it. Many lose their energy to negativity and many have lost
their passion. As an individual,
• where do you waste your energy?
• What are you passionate about?
• What do you do that you never seem to get tired of?
• What is it that you do most naturally and you do not have to struggle?
• What is it that you love?
Focus therein, because therein lies your wealth. Stay focused on that area and
give all your time, energy and attention there. Your energy flows where your
energy grows.

4. PRINCIPLE OF BELIEF
Wealthy people are driven by their conviction and core belief. This is what
propels them in business and personal success. You need to believe in
yourself, in your dreams as well as solutions that you were born to solve. If
you do, you need to remain in it, because it is your passion and belief that
will get people to believe in you and invest in you. You also need to have a
healthy selfesteem in order to have that conviction and belief in yourself.
5. PRINCIPLE OF GROWTH
Wealthy and successful people have identified their personal skills and
competencies over the years. They have grown from who they are to whom
they have come to be and they have lived their lives consistently with the
attitude of growth and learning. If your wealth is not growing, it is already
dwindling.
• What areas of your life do you need development?
• What areas of your life do you lack the competencies to grow and to
become the wealthy

person that you want to be?

• What kind of personal development is best for you?
You must also constantly grow and learn for yesterday’s knowledge or
revelation could be obsolete for today’s lifestyle. Your result and outcome in
life will expand only at the same rate as your personal growth. If you are not
growing, you are dying.

6. PRINCIPLE OF SERVICE
This is the action of serving, helping or benefitting another. It is defined as
the behaviour that is conducive to the welfare or the advantage of another.
“We make a living by what we get but we make a life by what we give” –
Winston Churchill. Service is something done not for yourself but for the
benefits of another person. It is the provision of facilities to meet the needs or
for the use of another person. “Not he who has much is rich, but he who gives
much away” – Erich Fromm. For you to become successful or wealthy in life
you must be willing to serve. And that service is not to you but to other
people. Just like in the game of Table Tennis, those who serve well win
easily and those who do not serve well, end up losing.

Wealthiest men in the world attained this position as a result of setting up

businesses and developing products and services that provides service to
humanity. “You are not wealthy until you have something money cannot
buy” – Garth Brooks

Summary of the Powerful Effects of the Six Principles:

•Intentions connect your wealth desires and goals to the field of possibilities.
•Attention keeps your wealth desires and goals linked to your possibility
field.
•Energy and passion power and empower your wealth desires and goals
•Belief manifests your wealth desires and goals.
•Growth keeps and increases your wealth desires and goals and ultimately, it
ensures

sustainability.
•Service brings more wealth and creates satisfaction and more achievements.
Exploiting Mental Wealth for maximum benefits will involve:

•Providing integrated early intervention strategies for mid-level mental health

conditions in a secure and safe environment for adolescents and youths.
•Increasing awareness surrounding mental health conditions so that when
difficulties arise, people have better insight into the problem and know where
to find help.
•Creating system change within national policy, commissioning and service
delivery so that meaningful interventions can be introduced. This in turn will
enable local organizations to meet the needs of their population, streamline
pathways and ease access into services, so that young people are empowered
to make choices regarding the support they receive.
•Enabling people with lived experience of mental health difficulties to
influence service design, decisions and delivery at all levels.
Stephen Akintayo, (Africa Most Sought-after Investment Coach) an
inspirational speaker and Serial Entrepreneur is currently the Chief Executive
Officer of Stephen Akintayo Consulting International and Gtext Media and
Investment Limited, a leading firm in Nigeria whose services span from
Digital Marketing, Website Design, Bulk SMS, Online Advertising, Media,
ECommerce, Real Estate, Consulting and a host of other services.

Stephen, Also Founded GileadBalm Group Services which has assisted a

number of businesses in Nigeria to move to enviable levels by helping them
reach their clients through its enormous nationwide data base of real phone
numbers and email addresses. It has hundreds of organizations as its clients
including multinational companies like Guarantee Trust Bank, PZ Cussons,
MTN, Chivita, among others.

Stephen, popularly called Pastor Stephen is also the founder of Omonaija, an

online radio station and SAtv in Lagos currently streaming for 24 hours daily
with the capacity to reach every country of the world.

To invite Stephen Akintayo for a speaking engagement kindly visit

stephenakintayo.com email: info@stephenakintayo.com or call:
08180000618