A B O O K O N P U R P O S E

TEMIDAYO SALAKO
Copyright © 2022 by Temidayo Salako

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,

distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including
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without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case
of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other
noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

For permission requests, write to the author:

temidayomsalako@gmail.com

Scriptural verses included in this text are from the King James Version
of the Holy Bible.

Cover and Book Design by MadeByMaximus.

 TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iii
PREFACE v
FOREWORD vi
INTRODUCTION 1

SECTION 1: PURPOSEFULLNESS 3
CHAPTER 1: DEMYSTIFYING YOUR IDENTITY 6
CHAPTER 2: GROWING WITHIN PURPOSE 23
CHAPTER 3: PURPOSE AND CAREER 40

SECTION 2: VISION - THE BIG PICTURE 62

CHAPTER 1: 360-DEGREE VISION 63
CHAPTER 2: DREAMS AND PROPHECY 82
CHAPTER 3: GOAL SETTING AND ACHIEVEMENT 96

SECTION 3: VALUESTIMATION 114

CHAPTER 1: YOUR VALUE AND VALUES 115
CHAPTER 2: COINING YOUR CORE PRINCIPLES 129
CHAPTER 3: VALUE CREATION 138

FINAL WORD 149

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This book is a culmination of many seeds sown by people far and wide,
some of whom I may be unable to name but I know would reap the fruit
of their seeds whether they were aware of the sowing or not. However, I
would like to first acknowledge the true Author of my life, the one in
whose heart lies the volume of the books which has been written
concerning me. Then, my Lord Jesus who died and gave Himself for me,
rewrote the script of my existence when it became deformed and
restored me to my state of original design. Thirdly, I acknowledge the
Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, the one who reveals the deep things of
God, and showed me who I have been made in Christ Jesus.

To the one through whom the Lord gave me life on the earth, I
acknowledge the efforts of my parents, Mr & Mrs M. O. Salako and my
late mother, Mrs. Modupe Salako. Thank you for your care and support
all through my journey into the discovery of my purpose and calling.

I want to especially appreciate my spiritual parents who have played

significant roles in bringing me into various seasons of transformation
- Apostle & Mrs. Jesudamilare Adesegun-David. Thank you for the
prophecies, the guidance, and the care and for taking me as a
daughter. Words cannot fully express your work and impact but we
know that many shall see and give glory to God.

Next, I give a big kudos to the very first team who worked with me on
The Purpose Series 2020 edition from which this book began to come
to life. Thank you, Adebola Adekahunsi and Oluwafunmilayo Ojeniyi,
your efforts in creating designs and the podcasts for the three months
coaching has culminated into this book. Also to my team on The
Purpose Series 2022 edition, Temitayo Salako and Anuoluwapo Salako,

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thank you so much guys for your contributions and support in getting
those series of events out there and also keeping me accountable on
getting this book done.

To all my friends who have been such a source of encouragement and

accountability, thank you so much. I am particularly grateful to you
guys - Abayomi Perez and Raymond Oluwalola. Thank you for much
more than this book but also being there through my very trying
season within which this book had to be written. God bless you.

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 PREFACE
A pragmatic approach to understanding and discovering purpose;
unearthing the nitty-gritty details of a purposeful existence.

This book is borne out of the need for more people who live a clear and
focused life and who are able to contribute their quota to the grand
scheme of things. And together, we will live as a generation of people
who will be who we are meant to be and therefore, do what we are
created to do.

Warning!

This book is written for the true legends who are willing to break free
from the status quo, who refuse to be driven by instant gratification,
who are ready to put in long-term efforts, and will wait patiently to
create a lasting impact on their generation and those to come.

“A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a

generation” – Psalms 22:30

Feel free to reach out to me with your questions and feedback at

temidayomsalako@gmail.com

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 FOREWORD
Work on the Wheels is an exceptional resource on the discovery of
purpose. However, it goes beyond just discovery to helping you figure
out how to lead a beautiful, fulfilling and eternally relevant life.

Purpose is a word that has become very common in our lexicon.

Thousands of books and possibly millions of articles have been written
on purpose. In fact, if you do a Google search on the term purpose,
Google will return about 9.8 billion search results. That shows that
people consider purpose Important, but a lot of times, the pathway to
purpose is scattered in a million places.

I believe that Dayo Salako has done a very important work of bringing
together the ingredients that really help shape purpose in a Godly way
in her book. She has worked on this book in a comprehensive manner
and not just that, she has created a series of worksheets that you get
to work through and that will grant you immediate clarity.

I love the fact that Dayo has gone beyond just the visionary part of
purpose to the analytical and logical pathway to getting you to
capture your purpose. This is important because, a lot of times people
read books on purpose and the amazing stories of people who have
accomplished their purpose but then, there is no step-by-step guide to
arriving at that same place these people living their purpose have
arrived at. That’s what makes this book unique.

On a personal level, I have watched Dayo grow and transform into a

person who is not only speaking about purpose but who is walking the
talk. In the past five years, I have seen how much she has consistently
adjusted her life to look like the blueprint of purpose that she has

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discovered and which she is living out. A lot of times, there have been
reasons to want to quit, to want to throw up her hands and walk away,
but she has insisted on the veracity of the purpose she has seen.

That Is why I wholeheartedly recommend this book for every young

person who desires a fulfilling life and I can be sure that you are going
to experience a transformed life after you have gone through this
book.

Jesudamilare Adesegun-David,
Ogbomoso,
Nigeria.

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 INTRODUCTION
I grew up, like every other child of my generation, with the desire to do
something really great and of course the only expression of that
“something great”, is the dream to become a professional in a
‘prestigious field’, the likes of medicine, engineering, law, etc. Our
society as we knew it, painted those professions as the only road to
success.

I knew in my heart that what I really wanted, was to do “something

great”. But how could I have known that there are other ways of
achieving my dreams beyond just the field of medicine? Like many
other children, I longed to grow up quickly, thinking that the faster I
grew, the more quickly I would be able to achieve success and
greatness and even “change the world!”. Little did I know that time and
chance can negatively or positively impact my childhood fancy.

To me, my “something great” was invariably attached to the field of

medicine, so when I dreamed, I fantasized about bringing relief to
people’s suffering. I thought about bringing free or subsidized medical
care to the poor and yet balancing the economy by having the rich pay
for it. Those were my childish logic. I just wanted a balanced economy
where there would be justice and hope for everyone.

But you see, my real passion wasn’t medicine, as I realized over 20

years after. My passion was people. Empowering them, improving their
lives, and creating economic systems that would favour everyone
ready for change. None of these would have made sense to anyone
around me those long years ago.

Yes, I tried to study medicine and No, I didn’t get to. I tried so hard that

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I got to a stage where I was academically qualified but that year, my
school had shut down admissions into their medicine faculty for three
consecutive years. Time and chance did happen, right?

You probably had a similar beginning. Some of you might have pursued
careers in the “prestigious fields” while some of you like me, have one
way or the other been forced to drop off the “esteemed race to
success”. Some of you who are in the “prestigious field” might possess
a sense of calling into the field while some are either there because
you were given no choice or because you gave yourself no choice. Yet,
some of you who dropped off the race might still not know where
exactly you fit while some are forever grateful that they dropped off.

As for me, I’m grateful I dropped off and I wished I did much earlier. This
book is the distillation of the principles that have helped me locate the
tangent of my higher calling as it relates to my inherent gifts and
talents and of course, passion.

So, whatever you might be doing or not doing right now, and wherever
you find yourself, I wrote this book for you to be able to make the best
of not what you are doing but of who you are.

PS: You are a piece of the master’s puzzle and a worthy vessel for His
purpose.

To my fellow millennials and the Gen Zers.

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 SECTION ONE:
PURPOSE-FULLNESS
“Purpose” is an important factor that every human must latch on to,
preferably early on in life. Imagine if we all knew the purpose of our
existence from as early as 5 years old, we wouldn’t waste many years
trying to test and carry out so many experiments with our lives.

Our sense of direction comes from knowing the reason for our
existence, which gives a feeling of knowing exactly what to do. Have
you ever been in a situation whereby you had to go to a new place and
you were not clear about the route to take to get to the location and
you probably had to use the GPS to navigate your way, and you have
this sense of assurance because you have the GPS and just know that
you wouldn’t get lost?

Now imagine two other situations. If you knew exactly how to get to
your location even without a GPS, your confidence would have been a
notch higher. On the other hand, if you were stuck in a place you didn’t
know how to navigate, without a good network connection, rendering
the GPS useless. Immediately, fear sets in and you begin to feel very
unsure and your imagination goes wild about all the things that could
go wrong. If you even have the presence of mind to at least choose a
direction from which to try to navigate your way out, you would still be
moving with mixed feelings and uncertainty, blindly going and hoping
that you would end up in the right place.

We all love to be sure of ourselves even if we can’t control what

happens in the world. No matter the logic imputed into the equation of
our lives, when a sense of direction is lost, we are still playing a game
of chance with our lives. Trying this and that and seeing which would
work. Some people are lucky enough to be in the right place at the

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right time, “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell talks a lot about how
“chance” can affect the outcomes of our lives.

But there is a way of living that allows you to not only determine your
outcomes but also plan the itinerary. This is what I call purposeful
living. Wouldn’t it be great to just know what should happen in our lives
and why they would happen? We would live less by chance and more in
the assurance of the knowledge of why we were made, who we are
made to be, and what we were made to do. Oh, life would still come
with surprises here and there but then it’s easier to overcome hurdles
when you know exactly what your inherent capabilities are, by your
knowledge of what your purpose looks like. Even a person who knows
his way without a GPS can still get stuck with a speed ticket, meet
with an accident or even get delayed by one mishap or the other on
the way. The key is to keep moving in the right direction.

Having clarity of direction is an inherent desire in every human. I have

been at points of serious confusion and frustration because I couldn’t
quite identify what my purpose looked like. Even after reading book
after book and listening again and again to speakers on this subject
matter, I was still not satisfied or clear. Until I realized that without
really understanding what purpose means and being able to translate
it into who I was as an individual, I might not be able to understand
what purpose I was made to fulfil.

Throughout this section, you would be able to gain clarity about

yourself as an individual who has to, first of all, have an inbound
relationship with yourself and then an outbound relationship with
others. You would understand that the reason purpose has been
looking a bit unclear for you may be because you might have been
expecting it to get fulfilled all at once or in an instant or through a
certain activity or area of your life. When in truth, the fact that you are
living on purpose automatically sets you up for consistent change and

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growth. Another issue we often encounter is the problem of relating
purposeful living and our career path. Finding the meeting point
between purpose and career and towing the career path that is
defined by purpose, is one of the scariest, riskiest and most daunting
challenges that we often are faced with and for most, this is where
they just throw in the towel and be like “mehn, I gotta live my life” or
shout a misconceived “YOLO” (You Only Live Once). This is true and
the reason the one chance we have has to be fully enjoyed and truly
“lived”.

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 CHAPTER ONE:
DEMYSTIFYING YOUR IDENTITY

You just acquired this cool new gadget that you’ve been saving up for,
for a long time. When you eventually get your hands on it, what would
be your initial reaction? You would most likely rip the packaging open
after giving a joyful ‘yoohoo’. Then you start to explore the device and
try out its features and everything you might have dreamed of doing
with it. Your entire focus is on the gadget and nothing else.

Most gadgets come along with a whole team of accessories and useful
tools to help make the user’s experience smoother and more enjoyable.
But most times, the gadget is the focus. Do you know one thing that
inevitably comes with a newly purchased gadget? Yes, you guessed
right. A how-to manual. But how many of us bother with those boring
little books with undecipherable technical jargon and multiple
language translations? You are right again, only a minute number. But
when the cool new gadget becomes well-used and begins to break
down in some way, who are you likely to first consult? Without a doubt,
our little discarded how-to manual becomes the most sought-after.

The word “Purpose” from its root word, means “intention”. The creator’s
intention for making us diverse individuals, complete with our unique
set of DNA sequences. Purpose, of course, starts with who you are or
have been made to be, the reason you were made the way you are, the
inherent abilities that have been placed within you, and the unique
thought processes or ways by which you achieve or fulfil particular
assignments or mandates as written in your Manufacturer’s manual.

Just like your cool new gadget, you also come with a manual written
about you. And a very salient point is that unlike any gadget you might
likely purchase, I hope that you wouldn’t wait till wear and tear sets in

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before you consult your own how-to manual.
The one thing of great importance that you have to know before you
get on with this book, without which I would have done you a
disservice is that purpose discovery is closely related to how well you
know your creator and have been interacting with Him. Now, even if
you haven’t had any kind of relationship with Him, it’s not late and God
who is always ready to listen will grant your request to know him much
more. This is because the more you know Him, the more of your
purpose you’ll understand. He made you in His very own image!
For you to be able to clearly define Purpose, you have to know who you
are. Demystifying Your Identity covers 4 major “WH” questions; Who,
Why, How, and What, all of which come together to help you
understand who you were made to be.

WHO

Have you ever wondered why you sometimes feel different or feel as if
nobody really understands you? Especially during your early teens
when it always seems nobody really ‘gets’ you; parents, siblings and
sometimes friends. This is because teen-age is the period when we
begin to truly, on our own, come into the consciousness of our unique
personalities, which differentiates us from everyone else.

This unique personality is a factor that complements the reason for

our existence, which forms our unique identity. Without understanding
this uniqueness, it will be difficult to understand what our overall
purpose looks like. I like to call it the unique selling point which if
understood early on, would activate your walk, in purpose.

Who you are, includes the components of your DNA as well as the
things that make you tick; your personality traits, your belief system,
your strengths, your preferences, etc. Many times, who we are have

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been consistently dictated to us. We grew up in diverse kinds of
environments which played great roles in defining our identity and
might have made us different from who we were originally made to be.
Parents, school, media, society, etc., were all influences that
contributed to shaping our unique identities.

Our preferences, what we should believe, how we have to live, and what
our likes and dislikes should be, have all been written out in a script in
the form of the media, socio-cultural expectations and religion.
However, understanding the core of our individualism would get us on
the way to exploring our reason for existence. I would expound on two
factors that influence your identity – your personality and your
strengths.

“Who” is the unique personality that complements the reason for your
existence

PERSONALITY

Your identity can be found in your personality, which is a combination

of your genetic makeup, upbringing, environmental exposure and your
particular uniqueness. All these combined, form your personality.

Your personality can also be influenced by your choices, decisions and

responses to situations. When someone meets you for the first time,
they can easily draw a certain image of who they think you are based
on their perception. This perception is mostly sourced from what they
can see in your attitudes, responses, and actions combined with their
intuition which is possessed by every human and helps us differentiate
between a good and a bad person

Your personality is, however, not a permanent engravement upon your

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identity, it is a very flexible and dynamic factor that can change with
time and external influences. Personalities can be changed and
shaped.

Some things have been built within your personality that you do not
need and there are things that you need, that are not within the
purview of your current personality. Remember, if society, upbringing
and the media can influence who we are, then our personality might
include characteristics that are detrimental as well as helpful.

At the same time, we might begin to take on qualities that won’t

directly benefit us but would benefit others, which evidences that all
things were made to be interdependent. No matter what it appears
like, nothing with the breath of life in them can live without depending
on another.

You were created by God so you have the ability to expunge negative
traits that you identify within your personality

Although you were created by God, you might likely find negative
traits within your personality that have been accumulated over years
of having interacted in this earthly sphere. This is because several
factors have come together to define what your personality should be.
But the great thing is that you have the ability to expunge negative
traits that you find within your personality.

Life was made to be interdependent. Some things have been built

within your personality that you don’t need but that others need, and
there are things that you need that are not within the purview of your
personality.

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STRENGTHS

Everyone has strengths, irrespective of what you might think about

yourself; everyone has at least one thing that comes easy to them. We
all have abilities that we possess that would enable us to take a
particular action to achieve a specific outcome. And just like your
personality, your strengths can be improved upon and expanded. So,
your strengths today can increase in both diversity and magnitude,
tomorrow. We are created as beings that are expandable, we can grow
in our strengths just like our physical bodies grow. This means we are
who we believe we are and we would be who we believe we can be.

There are implications to not knowing who you are;

You tend to lose your sense of creativity.

If you don’t understand who you are, you would not be able to
come up with something unique.

You would lose your sense of originality.

There’s just that thing that only you can give, in a way that is
unique to just you, and not knowing who you are, can make you
lose this originality and you might find yourself living the life of
somebody else.

You might live many years without feeling like you have truly lived.
This is a lack of fulfilment and presence. Living a routine or a life
framework that has been designed by somebody else.

You would accept every and anything that life throws at you.
If you don’t know who you are, you would not know what to say
NO to and what to say YES to.

A way to identify who you are is to think back to periods when you

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were faced with making particularly important decisions and you got
inspired by some set of ideas but you discarded them after comparing
the pros and cons, the societal beliefs around your idea, the norms and
expectations, etc. Then, you finally made a decision which was most
likely different from your initial idea. But if you think back to that initial
idea, you would realize that it is the most correct and can give a
glimpse into who you are because it reveals your natural bent (the
exception is when that initial idea was already tainted, your true
natural bent may take some serious introspection to draw out of
yourself).

In most instances, depending on the kind of influence you have allowed

your environment to have on you, your first bent would have been the
decision that originated from your core. Whatever came next might
have arisen from thoughts like “What is the generally acceptable
decision to make?” and “What will people think?”. Which happens to
the best of us.

Now, despite being able to identify your personality and strengths, you
need to know that you have a predestined life that captures the best
version of who you are. This life can only be identified if you identify
with your creator. You can extricate yourself from a wrong personality
by looking to your creator for help. So, what I’m trying to tell you is that
your personality does not totally define you.

WHY

When I was a pre-teen, I dreamed of changing the world by inspiring

people to be the best version of who they could be, by bringing them a
sense of hope. I was a little bit of a tomboyish child so these fantasies
were not this finetuned. They were more like thoughts of being a
superhero and saving the world from evil through some heroic act from

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pure physical strength. But I knew that all I wanted was to contribute
to the lives of every single person that I came in contact with. It
sounds like a daring dream, doesn’t it?

This idea I had in my head as a child, to a large extent, informed my

decisions and the myriad of activities I participated in while growing
up. Your WHY informs what you will do.

However, the most important aspect of every desire and dream is its
reason or motivation. It will be quite difficult to sustain a dream
without a strong reason. This reason has been programmed into our
lives in such a way that, (excluding the external influences that we
encounter after living in this sphere) they are the motivations upon
which our choices, ideologies, decisions and responses are originally
based.

Before the pressure of having a “settled” future by pursuing a career in

one of the “prestigious fields” set in, my reason was based solely on a
desire to see a better world, to see people around me who live in
poverty and lack, become liberated. Faced with having to consider
medicine as the only available career option that I was knowledgeable
about, I was smart enough to weave my reason into this career line,
yet, it lost a bit of its potency. This is because your reason is tied to a
“specific” mandate or set of expressions.

Here it is, God wove a specific mandate or assignment(s) into you

when He created you. Then he implanted a desire that grows and
becomes more noticeable when you begin to interact with an
environment or situation that triggers the expression of that mandate
within you. You are a piece of a very large puzzle and your mandate
signifies the specific spot that you are meant to plug, within the puzzle.
Do you remember certain societal problems that really irritate you and
get to you? Those feelings of irritation may be pointing to the fact

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that your divine mandate or assignment is not too far from that
problem.
It is this desire that powers you and drives you to want to fulfil the
mandate, that is your WHY. When you seek to know the mandate
without wanting to connect with the WHY, you begin to miss the whole
picture which is why Purpose might have looked obscure to you to
date.

Your WHY is the activation behind the purpose that you were created
to fulfil, it is the catalyst in the whole equation and sometimes, it could
be a crucial pointer in recognizing exactly what mandate you are
meant to fulfil.

I realized that the purest forms of our WHY appear to us in our

childhood. As a child, you have no limitations in your mind, you spend a
lot of time dreaming and your imagination is very wide. The mind of a
child can create the whole world. God put your WHY within you but it
can become lost in the clutter as you grow to become more aware of
life and the responsibilities that come with growing older. It becomes
buried under the hunger for survival, the desire to be comfortable and
the thirst to feel among.

If you try to think back to that one desire you had as a child (and
everyone had it), you would be able to locate a pure motivation that
would serve as an anchor for recognizing who you were made to be.

Over the years, your WHY might have become jaded, rusty or
forgotten. You might have grown up in a certain kind of environment,
with parents or particular kinds of people, with certain kinds of
religious atmosphere and socio-economic situation. All of these
backgrounds, have combined to influence and even dictate a new kind
of WHY to you. When you started to become a conscious
decision-maker in your own life, you also influenced your WHY by the

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choices you had to make.

Above all else, being able to identify your current WHY and exchanging
it for what it should be, will go a long way in helping you define your
identity. Take this illustration for instance;

There are two young guys who are fresh graduates from school, with
great potential and of course, both of them hope to make it big time
and get extricated from their poor backgrounds. One desires to be
wealthy because of the fear of being poor and staying poor. The
second guy wants to be wealthy because he wants to help other
people so that they would not experience the kind of background
where he grew up; he wanted to help families and young folks like
himself who are struggling financially.

These are two people from similar backgrounds, with similar intent but
different reasons. Of course, the fact that the second guy had a more
noble cause doesn’t guarantee that he was pursuing a divinely
implanted WHY. But the point here is that this guy’s reason is directed
towards positively affecting other people. This is to tell you that
whatever your WHY will be, it would not only benefit you but everyone
else around you, this is the model of the Creator. Remember, you are a
piece of the puzzle and each piece affects the next.

Your WHY goes a long way in determining where you will be and what
you will do in life. In an ideal situation, the second guy in my illustration,
will not choose to gain his wealth through a means that would
negatively affect others because that would be counteracting his aim
to help people.

What are your motivations for everything you engage in, to date,
particularly those closely related to your socio-economic status? Do
you think they are the original ones or the newly formed ones? Clearly

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state your motivations, so far in your life and determine which ones
you want to keep and which ones you want to discard. Because WHY
you do what you do, is a reflection of your true identity.

There are ways to identify and differentiate a healthy from an

unhealthy motivation or reasons.

Healthy motivations are the boosters that consistently build you

mentally, spiritually, and physically. They keep the negative emotions
out and often come from having a growth mindset – a state of mind
that sees every occurrence as an opportunity to learn and grow
(because you are expandable and your divine mandate transcends
generations). Healthy motivations literarily give you ‘life’ and don’t leer
at you or badger your self-confidence even when things don’t go as
planned, when you don’t meet your goals, and don’t measure up to a
certain standard that society has defined for you. They don’t give
room for comparison between people because they are working with
the full knowledge that everyone was created with a unique identity
and purpose.

Unhealthy motivations are the killers. They teach you to compare

yourself with others. They teach you that competition is the best way
to be successful and they just plain drain your energy and enthusiasm
for life. If you don’t meet certain standards, they make you go down
into depression. They are like the endorphins released in the brain
during a case of drug addiction but the aftermath usually throws the
user to the bottom after the effect wears off. They tell you to attach
your self-worth to the results that you want to achieve rather than
your feeling worthy because you are created by the Almighty God.

If every baggage is not cleared out of your WHY closet, it will be

difficult for you to clearly identify your purpose, as your senses will be
clouded and your attention will be divided by the mixed-up reasons

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that can never gel with your true and divine life purpose.

The right WHY gradually brings your purpose to greater clarity and
limelight.

If every baggage is not cleared out of your ‘why’ closet, it will be

difficult to clearly identify your purpose as your senses will be clouded
and your attention divided by the mixed-up reasons that can never gel
with your true and divine life purpose.

HOW

I was a kid, I had dreams, I knew my desires, I wanted to change the

world and impact lives but…HOW?

This big question is constrained by the limits that our society and
environment have set for us. I felt that becoming a medical
practitioner was a great way to help people and it is. I mean medical
practitioners are practically heroes who were proven again and again,
especially during the worldwide crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic in
2020. But was it the only way I could fulfil this desire? Was it the way
that has been assigned to me by God to fulfil this desire?

A core part of our unique identity is our modus operandi (mode of

operation). It is the unique WAY we are meant to fulfil our divine
mandate. It is our unique HOW. Remember again, you are a unique
piece of the Master’s puzzle and no one can fit in your slot in exactly
the same way that you can, however, if you don’t arise to take your
place in the grand scheme of things, the Master could find a
replacement. This is because although the Creator cares for each
piece of the puzzle, a bigger purpose within which we all find our
specific purposes is “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it

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is in heaven”. Therefore, the grand purpose is God’s eternal purpose for
humanity and the earth and He is ready to work with those who make
themselves available by aligning themselves to that grand purpose.

“For Zion sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will
not rest, until the righteousness thereof goes forth as brightness, and
the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth” – Isaiah 62:1 (KJV)

Your HOW guides your decisions, actions and choices. It defines

exactly how you physically represent your dreams and desires.

I could have pushed to pursue a career in the medical field but I caught
on at some junction that it wasn’t the only way I could express my
innate and divinely ordained mandate. There were other ways that fit
better with my personality, strengths and even passion. There were
other ways that I could comfortably bring my intelligence to work.
Your HOW also tends can be potentially tainted by your background
and limited knowledge, just like mine was, but you have to identify
HOW you are meant to express these divinely-gifted desires.

You can begin to identify your HOW by studying yourself;

How did you execute some tasks that you have carried out joyfully and
successfully?

I was a model student who loved to learn (I still am…LOL). At a point, I

realized that I was able to create mathematical formulas that worked
for me, I was also able to translate knowledge from the textbooks into
new thoughts, add my ideas and still memorize the original words, you
might say this is a great quality for a medical student, but have you
seen my reaction to a deep gashing wound? I’m practically almost
always in tears. This is not to say that some medical practitioners
don’t feel emotional at the sight of a person suffering, but the point is

17
that there are other ways that interested me even more, where I could
replicate my good qualities.

I identified some of my modus operandi from these qualities. They

showed me that I am analytical, creative and I learn from first
principles and I can re-create a structure to suit unique situations. This
is integrated into the definition of my purpose because it proved to be
very useful later on.

How do you often react to situations?

Your natural response to different situations is a pointer to who you

are. Whether you easily get emotional, you easily sympathize, you are
objective or you take things personally. Your responses and reactions
matter, but like I said earlier because you were created by God, you
can expunge the negative qualities from your personality, that have
been learnt in your environment, as well as take on positive ones.

How do you interact with people?

There are different ways we interact based on our personalities and

internal make-up. You have to be able to understand your internal
systems and processes.

For example; Do you tend to encourage others very easily in a given

situation, do you give them advice, do you tend to teach them how to
handle the situation or do you create a set of events to make things
better for them?

Or: Are you good at creating scenarios? Are you good at gathering new
knowledge? Do you ask a lot of “why” questions about situations and
spend time thinking about reasons, mechanics and principles? Do you
feel more confident speaking to a large crowd than in a one-on-one kind

18
of situation? How do you communicate? How do you relate?

You just have to be able to identify your natural flow. Being able to
quickly identify HOW you do things from a pure, unbiased and divinely
x-rayed perspective (because your creator is light and there’s no
darkness in Him at all), brings you closer to understanding your
identity.

Being able to quickly identify your modus operandi from a purely

unbiased and divinely x-rayed perspective, brings you closer to
understanding who you are.

WHAT

Now then… WHAT?

Your WHAT ties your WHO, WHY, and HOW into a purposeful existence
that is targeted and tangible. Who you were made to be, why you were
made and how you were made to do things gives you a great insight
into what you are meant to do.

We often forget about the WHO, WHY, and HOW and focus on just the
WHAT, but without those three factors, your WHAT wouldn’t make any
sense or have any defined direction. Your WHAT encompasses the
different expressions of your purpose which will be discussed in
subsequent chapters.

If I didn’t eventually get over my obsession with just WHAT to do, I

believe that I would have gone ahead with finding my way into the
medical field. But fulfilment would have been lacking for me because
fulfilment comes from always moving in the direction that your
purpose dictates.

19
Jumping into WHAT without having identified the other WH questions,
to large extent, will leave you right back at where you started from–
lack of clarity of direction. So, you have to ensure that you tackle the
first 3 questions first.

So, what are you meant to be doing? Now, that is a question that you
have to ask yourself. Forget for a minute what you are doing right now
and just focus on what you are meant to be doing (after you might
have begun unravelling your identity from the lens of your creator).

For a moment, seek a quiet place to think about these things. We

seldom spend enough time thinking and that is the reason we often
live a very reactive life. Whenever anything happens, we don’t respond
to it, and the only way you can respond to situations is when you
already have substance within. But if you don’t spend time forming
your ideologies and coming up with your own principles or your own
unique ways, you would only find yourself reacting and behaving as
society expects, which is not wrong on its own, but when it comes to
your purpose, you have to ensure that you clearly define what you are
meant to get involved in and what you are not meant to.

If you asked the WHAT question, you must be able to combine your
personality, reasons, motivations and natural modus operandi to begin
the process of figuring out your purpose and assignments.

However, never forget that irrespective of what anybody, society or

even your close and loved ones tell you, you were made for great
things. The place of greatness can never be overcrowded, there’s
always room for more.

The place of greatness can never be overcrowded, there’s always room

for more

20
Consider the assessment below and begin to define your identity.

THINK

Was there a time in the past when I wanted to make a decision?

What was the decision I made? What was my very first thought
before settling for my final decision?
Do I always think “what will people think” before making an
important decision in my life?
What activities did I love doing the most when I was a child?
Why do I act the way I do?
What gives me the boost to act or the discouragement not to
act?
What are the most obvious catalysts that power my desire to
succeed?

WORK THROUGH

What were the negative traits I identified after thinking through

my current personality?
What steps do I want to take to remove them?
What are my strengths?
Who do I believe I am? (write down all everything you can think of
even if they are 100)
What are my likes and dislikes? (Draw a table and write on
opposite sides)
Which one of them aligns with who I see myself to be? (underline
them)
What is my attitude towards the things I love as against the
things I don’t love doing?
Clearly state your motivations so far in your life. Draw a table and
write “Keep” and “Discard” on each side. Fill in the motivations you

21
 want to keep and the ones you want to discard in the appropriate
places

MERGER

Write down a short bio describing yourself from your musings and
answers to the above questions.

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 CHAPTER TWO:
GROWING WITHIN PURPOSE

Sometimes, we assume that our purpose is unidimensional or

single-tracked. This limits our vision and keeps us from realizing our full
potential, ultimately reducing our sense of fulfilment.

As complex, broad and significant as each of us are, that is how

intricate our purposes are. Forget about what you might have thought
about yourself or what you have been told, you have a significant role
to play in the scheme of things on earth. This is a mindset that you
must strive to retain at all times and against all odds.

In discovering my WHAT, I began to notice multiple flows, I could teach,

speak, create, manage, build, and so on. The question was which one of
these was I meant to focus on? It could seem confusing, or too much
but the key is to know what to do and when to do it; which means you
have to understand your Times and Seasons.

There were so many WHATs that I could do! I mean, I was passionate
about all of them in varying degrees and I had the talent (even though I
was a diamond in the rough in some cases). The key thing was that I
was ready to explore everything that I discovered about my passions
and talents, which were my core strengths. But I needed to extricate
myself from a cannot-do mindset and take on a can-do mindset, I
began to consistently tell myself that I could do whatever I wanted to
do and achieve whatever I set my heart to – This was not to say that I
was ignorant of the fact that all of these things will require, diligence,
dedication and discipline.

Purpose is multi-layered and multi-dimensional, there are layers within

your purpose (and don’t forget that your purpose is YOU); this means

23
that you are packed full of a lot of potentials waiting to be explored.
Although you can understand and get a revelation of the reason for
your existence, it doesn’t all come at you at once. Purpose unfolds
layer by layer; this is what keeps you from getting bored with life and
keeps you feeling motivated and energized every day. A lot of the time,
the reason you are losing interest in whatever you are doing, is
because it is not tied to an anchor within which is your purpose.
Summarily, living on purpose is purely an adventure, filled with a
lifetime of discoveries. Your life becomes more interesting because you
will always feel like you are living a better version of yourself at every
junction.

Purpose is multi-layered. As much as you latch on to the reason(s) for

your existence, it all doesn’t come at you at once rather it unfolds

Purpose is like a race track with several hurdles, when you cover the
distances between hurdles, you would find yourself moving toward the
finish line. Therefore, you have to keep stepping out, because when you
take a single step, you can see the next one and what’s more
interesting than finding the next challenge that we’ve been made to
conquer? You will always find yourself excited and filled with vitality.
But if you don’t take a step, you wouldn’t know that there’s more; so, if
you’ve identified a small aspect of your purpose or who you are, don’t
settle by doing nothing about it. Explore the areas you have found out
about, and you will find several branches and angles to them as you
move further.

Understand that purpose is not one project or cause or job but scope
and direction for living

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CONSTITUENTS OF AN EXPANDING PURPOSE

1. CHARACTER

Oftentimes, you might have been wired or tempted to think that

character does not affect anything, and that it is just that concept
that people talk about; yet, one of the things that could keep you back
from relating with your purpose is character. Even when the
understanding of your purpose comes, you might be unable to relate
because you may have paid little attention to nurturing certain
characters that should aid your purpose fulfilment. A lack of a
continuously improving character could serve as a blindfold that may
keep you from having a clearer view of your purpose. Peradventure, you
get an inkling or a feeling of what purpose looks like for you, the state
of your character could keep you away from going on the journey of
fulfilment because the “character demands” of your purpose, do not
align with your current “character state”. In another sense, if you are on
the journey of purpose, good character or a lack of it, could make or
mar your continuous transition into greater phases of assignments in
your life’s purpose. There’s always a come-up hither i.e. a demand to
become a better person in terms of the character you embody, as you
grow in purpose.

Character is the set of guiding principles and attitudes you’ve built

around yourself and it goes a long way in determining how you grow
within your purpose. Your understanding and discovery of purpose will
mean nothing without the character to sustain it. So, are there
negative attributes and characteristics that you are holding on to? You
have to decide to let them go and bring virtues in their place. Without
the readiness to continuously improve your character, the desire to
discover and walk in purpose will mean nothing. If you can let go of
negative traits and characteristics around yourself and desire or
choose to live virtuously, you will begin to have a greater sense of

25
more because you will be taking the focus off your purpose. You are
focusing on someone else making meaning out of their lives or
whatever it is they might be doing, as the case may be. With that
attitude, you have just stolen from yourself! You have stolen the time
you ought to spend understanding your purpose, working in it, walking
in it, and living a fulfilling and satisfying life. Other examples of
fulfilment-stunting characters are when you spend your time gossiping
physically or even through social media, being rude to people,
deliberately bad-mouthing others, procrastination, and whatever it
may be. Understand that character is key to climbing up any ladder.

Without a good and well-trained character, you might find yourself

feeling stuck and unable to grow and move forward in purposeful living.
Make an intentional decision to be kind, and generous, to do something
kind for someone, to be truthful and honest, to be humble and
disciplined, even if you do not feel like it. Character is not handed to
you by magic, you have to intentionally allow yourself to be trained
into having good ones. Good character cannot be overemphasized
when it comes to walking and growing in purpose.

Your understanding and discovery of purpose would mean nothing

without the character to sustain it

2. MOTIVATION(S)

This is what gives you the push every single time you are to do any
single thing, it is the reason you rise from your bed each morning
despite and against all odds. It gives you the energy to take an action
or not to take it. The most important factor on this journey is to always
keep watch on what your motivations are; are they toxic or life-giving?
When you have a clearly defined purpose, your motivation for life, in
general, begins to pick up momentum. You might right now be feeling

26
or not to take it. The most important factor on this journey is to always
keep watch on what your motivations are; are they toxic or life-giving?
When you have a clearly defined purpose, your motivation for life, in
general, begins to pick up momentum. You might right now be feeling
demotivated, frustrated or burnt-out and you are left wondering each
day, why living is so important; there’s really nothing that gears you up
and you feel constantly tired (not necessarily in the physical sense of
fatigue after strenuous activities, although lack of motivation could
contribute to physical weariness). All of this could be due to a lack of
an understanding of your purpose. A man who is walking on purpose,
who knows where he is meant to be and what he is meant to do at
every point in time, more often than not, feels motivated.

For you to grow in purpose, you need to retain the right kinds of
motivations for every decision, activity, or move that you make. The
right motivations define the direction you will choose and it affirms
your understanding of who you were made to be. And when you have a
clear direction, you do not sweat it when the obstacles show up,
because you know exactly where you are going.

You have to keep seeking to understand your purpose and consistently

walk on that path. You would realize that the more you come into
awareness of who you are, the more motivated you would be. Make
your motivations right! If you are out just to make a name for yourself
or you are spurred on only because you are trying to outdo others in
whatever aspect of life (except in doing good as Apostle Paul pointed
out), you might find yourself in a state of purpose comatose (a state
where the purpose is neither active nor dead because you are
constantly living in comparison with others) and you will replace the
desire to fulfil purpose with hurtful and vain ambitions.

Since your purpose is an unfolding experience of your life, a step leads

to the unveiling of the next step, the ripple effect continues and this

27
allows you to become more affirmed and assured about the direction
your purpose can carve for you. However, taking the right step is very
crucial, but in taking the right step, you need to have the right
motivation.

When you have a clearly defined purpose, your motivation for life
begins to pick up

3. ASSIGNMENTS

Assignments tie it all together. These are distances between two

hurdles on the purpose racetrack. If you understand what hurdle racing
is in athletics, you would identify that the goal is usually to run
between each hurdle as fast as possible and jump over the hurdles
with the momentum gathered from running in-between. It might be
difficult to jump over the hurdles without accidents if the race
between each hurdle is not run at the appropriate momentum and with
the right technique.

Within the scope of purpose, your assignments form actionable goals

that define what you do at every point in time, and the combination of
your assignments throughout your lifetime sums up the purpose you
were made to fulfil in this present world. Assignments are the races
you have to run as you move through several phases and aspects of
life. It is different from participating in hurdle racing in the sense that
you could be handling several assignments simultaneously depending
on your unique and pre-designed life/purpose pattern. Also, within an
assignment, there will be growth phases as well that could present
obstacles that you have to overcome as you move.

If you have to spend all your time doing everything that purpose
demands, then it is certainly fit to say that your purpose is your life!

28
Your life is not detached from your purpose, that is why your purpose is
not relegated to the realm of career, ministry, or any single aspect of
your life, it defines everything that you do in all of those different areas.

For instance, you may understand that at a certain stage of your life,
you should be lecturing at a university, yet at that same phase you are
to be married and live the life of a good wife or husband, yet at that
same time, you are to be a confidant to a very close and long time
friend who is experiencing a trying period in his/her life, one more
addition could be that you are to begin having children and groom
them in their path of purpose. All of these are assignments given to
you as an offshoot of who you inherently are and you are expected to
be able to handle them simultaneously. It may prove a challenge but as
long as you have been yielding yourself to the growth process, you
would find yourself prepared to take on all of these and grow much
more in the process.

Comparison will make living a life of purpose gruelling. If you find

yourself comparing yourself to a counterpart who is at the current
phase of their life where they have to take on more assignments than
you do, you will put yourself in a position of anxiety and
dissatisfaction, hence, distracting you from your purpose walk.

The catch is that your diligence, obedience, and commitment to an

assignment or the set of assignments that you have at each phase,
determines your qualification for exposure to your next assignment or
set of assignments or addition to your current assignment (as some
assignments should span through a lifetime such as marriage). Hence,
ensure you are an ardent listener to directions and instructions from
your creator to be able to accurately deduce what the next
assignment should be, making an arbitrary decision about
assignments, could stunt your growth in purpose.

29
Your commitment to an assignment determines your exposure to the
next assignment

Purpose is not an abstract concept, it is actively living and the part of

your purpose that is meant to be fulfilled in this present world is only
fulfillable for as long as you are alive. Therefore, to avoid purpose
comatose, concentrate on each assignment and give it your all, and
work on it as if your life depends on it because as a matter of fact,
your life does depend on it. Your purpose defines what your life should
be. Embrace your purpose and enjoy it!

Purpose is not an abstract concept; it is actively living and is only

fulfillable as long as its bearer is alive

Your character and motivations determine the success of each

assignment you find before you, therefore, take them as very
important. These are three steps to keep being motivated within an
assignment;

1. Ensure you understand the assignment. Don’t move into an

assignment without having a clear understanding, this is not to
say that you should retreat for fear of failure; be bold! but ensure
that you understand the basics of the assignment and that is why
you must seek good knowledge and counsel from both your
creator and those who have gone ahead of you.

2. Clearly define your assignment along with the action steps that
you plan to take towards achieving them. Work on these with your
creator. An assignment could come with actionable goals and
therefore, requires concrete planning and continuous improvement
as you move along.

3. Celebrate even your little successes. No success is too little to be

30
 celebrated, pat yourself on the back, and acknowledge every win,
this way you would remain energized and keep yourself motivated.

Your character and motivations determine the success of each

assignment you find before you

PASSION

Passion is the burning fire that keeps you interested and it is key to
your purpose. It gives you the energy to fulfil assignments on several
levels. You will find out that your purpose defines the things that you
are passionate about. Your passions along with all that has been
discussed in this book so far, are indicators of the picture of your
purpose. Think back to the elements of life that you are passionate
about and you will find clues. Do keep in mind that your passions have
to be selected within the context of the divine life because there is no
negative passion within the context of your purpose. Your passion, if
stemmed from the overall scope of your purpose will energize you and
help you maintain a greater level of laser focus on your assignments.
Passion has been deliberately kept in you to keep you interested and
energized.

Your passion, if stemmed from the overall scope of your purpose, will
energize you and help you maintain a great level of laser focus on your
assignments

GROWING WITHIN PURPOSE

Walking in purpose helps you achieve consistent and exponential

growth at every junction. If you are walking in purpose, it will be
difficult to be slack or lax about life, you would rather be growing at a

31
very fast pace compared to the time you were not consciously
walking within purpose.

Oftentimes, although you have the inherent ability to fulfil an

assignment, you might not have the knowledge and wisdom capital.
Most times, actively walking on purpose warrants that you learn. You
might be required to take a course, acquire a skill, receive coaching and
mentoring, read books, take an internship, apprentice with someone,
study the word of God, etc. Knowing your purpose puts you on a
continuous path of learning as the layers unfold. This is because these
layers will constantly take you out of your comfort zone. You will begin
to face daunting tasks that would cause shifts in your life but you will
not be fazed because you are aware that it is your purpose playing
itself out. Purpose ensures you keep learning; for example, if in your
career assignment, you discover that you have to be a writer or a
manager or a developer, you are obligated to obtain the knowledge
requirement and/or certifications to work in these roles.

Growing in purpose is where the concept of work comes in, you both
learn on the job and learn to do the job. While you are trying to perform
your assignment, you are put to work, this could be in your career or
ministry, or marriage, and so on. Growth requires that you work and
that is why it may be difficult for you if you insist on retaining the
character of laziness rather than taking on the one of diligence.

Your continuous growth in purpose cuts off excesses from you.

Indiscipline, impatience, lack of a collaborative mindset, inability to
start what you finish, etc., all of these will be dealt with. You would
realize that you will become refined and will be able to latch on to an
increasingly clearer definition of your purpose which may have been
elusive before due to laxity or indiscipline or lack of proper time
management.

32
The fulfilment of purpose is not passive. It requires your full and active
involvement and helps to shape you up. If you have been moving from
one activity to another; course to course, webinar to webinar, training
to training, job to job, all because it is the buzz of the moment, you
would find yourself lost and confused, but walking in purpose increases
your growth potential to an immeasurable extent. It ensures that you
do not slack for a moment. As you would realize, the demands laid
upon you before you decided to start intentionally walking in purpose
are nothing compared to what purpose will require of you but the good
thing is that this time, you would be happy and fulfilled doing the work
because they produce a burning passion within you.

Walking in purpose helps you achieve consistent and exponential

growth at every junction

PURPOSE IS UNIQUE BUT INTERDEPENDENT

Although your purpose is about you and who you are, yet, it is not for
you.

That sounded as if it was off the point, didn’t it?

Of course, your purpose is about who you are, who you were made to
be, and so on, yet, it is not for you. The earth is an ecosystem and we
were made for each other. There are important elements of life that
you need in order to fulfil your purpose but were deposited within the
purpose of someone else and vice versa. It’s a give-and-take system
that God created where the activity or inactivity of one affects the
other. You would understand this better when you draft your purpose
statement at the end of this section.

The purpose for which you were created, is to serve the overall purpose

33
of your creator, therefore you cannot separate yourself from serving
others as long as you are walking in purpose, it is a part of your
purpose. Although it influences who you become, your purpose is
always targeted towards others. So you see how imperative it is that
you quickly align with your purpose. The lives of others depend greatly
on you fulfilling your purpose, just like your life depends on the
alignment of other people with their purposes. It is a whole cycle, an
ecosystem and an interconnected network. So take a stand today, to
do your part in this big picture.

Although your purpose is about you and who you are, it is NOT FOR
YOU

PURPOSE IS NOT ALL ROSY

It is interesting, it is exciting, it keeps you motivated, it keeps you

energized, it makes you feel alive, it brings out your originality and
creativity, and it makes you fulfil your part in the entire ecosystem on
God’s green earth but it is not rosy, it has its ups and downs, so don’t
be ignorant. There is satisfaction in knowing that your life has a
greater meaning than just mere existence. You might be consumed
with the thrill of finally discovering who you are but purpose takes
work! You work much more when living on purpose than when living
otherwise.

Sometimes, life might not go according to plan or you might find

yourself faced with seemingly impossible obstacles but never forget
that you are growing and evolving within purpose, that is one way to
stay motivated, to remain encouraged when something doesn’t work
out. If you were already an expert at an assignment, then there is no
interesting factor in it, that is why it takes you out of your comfort
zone, it helps you to be something more, to be a better you than you

34
were yesterday. It might seem challenging at first, especially if you are
finishing up one assignment and taking on a new one or just adding a
new one to existing ones. You had been successful and become good
at the previous assignments and you have aced them, then this new
one comes up, and it will increase the demand laid on you. The
increased demand will be of greater worth, greater value, greater
intensity, and greater amount of work and diligence, therefore, you
have to be ready to expand as your purpose expands and as the layers
get revealed within you. So, don’t be scared or discouraged about the
challenging part of things, the good thing is that it is all issuing from
you! You were MADE to fulfil those assignments, so all you need is
within or around you (as it is an interdependent concept) because you
might need something that others who are also walking within their
purpose can give and these collaborations will help you move much
faster.

Purpose is a platform for growth and expansion. Remember that you

were not working on that particular assignment before when you came
into it, so the secret is to keep working on it. Imagine, can a device be
inept at being what it was made to be? Same way, you cannot be inept
at who you were made to be! The tough economic times have not
changed the fact that you are, at the basic level, a human being. The
same goes for purpose, obstacles and ups and downs don't mean that
you are incapable of being who you were made to be or fulfilling the
things that you were meant to.

Purpose is a platform for growth and expansion

Don't forget that each assignment within your purpose is

commissioned by God, so you can’t go ahead to create assignments
for yourself even after knowing who you are, even though you’ve
gotten the big picture, you’ve understood what your purpose is, you
can’t create your assignments, it has to be inspired by God and

35
aligned with His grand purpose. This means that your assignments
should not be spurred on or motivated because it is the trend or what
is obtainable or most profitable, but it has to be within the scope of
your purpose, every single assignment is assigned by your creator;
when you follow Him, it will begin to unfold before you. This includes
your career path, your business, your marriage, and so on. None should
be kick-started without being commissioned by your creator if you
want to remain aligned with His perfect will for you.

Don’t forget that each assignment within your purpose is

commissioned by God

TIMES AND SEASONS

To everything, there is a season and a time to every purpose under

heaven…
- The Preacher

In all aspects of purpose, there are specific timing programmed into

the fulfilment of each assignment and each part of an assignment.
Timing is key, timing is everything. It is important to get the timing
right on everything. This is not something to be anxious about, it only
takes walking on the honest path of purpose and heeding what has
been written in pages of your creator’s manual for your life, to be
assured of continuous alignment with the right timing.

Assignments are set in seasons of your life and the season for each
assignment must be rightly discerned so that not only would you be
spiritually and mentally prepared, but you would also be able to
harness all the resources that are available for you to fulfil the
assignment.

36
The time of your life is the sum of your life, the times and seasons
within it are to be well-spent and rightly discerned for you and the
entire ecosystem to be able to maximally benefit from the value that is
inherent within your purpose and your life as a whole.

37
Consider the assessment below and identify growth areas.

THINK

On a scale of 1 (very bad) to 10 (perfect), how would I rate my

character?
Do I find myself jealous of other people who appear to be making
headway in their lives?
What should I rather be doing at the period when I am feeling
jealous?
Am I “all talk and no action”?
Are there assignments that I have identified but have ignored
because they don’t look profitable or because I feel nobody needs
them?
What excesses do I have that might deter me from fulfilling my
purpose?
What are the things I do that make me feel satisfied and fulfilled?

WORK THROUGH

In what direction am I currently moving in my life?

Why am I moving in this direction?
Is it where I want to go?
Where would I rather be?
Why do I need to know my purpose?
At my core, what spurs me to action?
What am I passionate about? (make a list if there is more than
one)
What problem or situation does this passion attend to?
What do I currently know about solving this problem or situation?
What do I need to learn to solve this problem or situation?
Who are these problems or situations affecting?

38
CREATE

Write a description of an assignment that you have been able to

identify and ensure it includes the problem, the reason why you want
to solve the problem, your solution and those affected by the problem.

39
 CHAPTER THREE:
PURPOSE AND CAREER

As a growing teen, like a lot of my peers, I had no inkling about what a

career was. Do you have any experience with what schools call “career
day”?...Yes, that day when children get to dress up in a costume that
reflected the kind of “career” they hope to pursue when they grow
older. Probably, the most obtainable costume in the market is that of
medical personnel (and we are back to this doctor issue…LOL) - either
a doctor or a nurse - while this is not backed by any formal data, it can
be extrapolated based on the number of kids that turn up in costumes
depicting these particular professions. Then there are a few children
here and there who go with costumes belonging to professions such as
soccer, engineering, piloting, banking, etc. While we can’t blame
parents for the colourful outfits or the career choices of their kids, we
can say that the world has radically changed from when I was a child
or when you were a child (if you are a millennial, you’d know the
difference much more:-)).

Nowadays, career and profession choices and options appear to have

expanded and the range of possibilities has widened. Now, people are
talking about pursuing a career in design, cybersecurity, marketing,
coaching, etc. this is not to say that some of these choices were not, in
fact, available some decades ago, however, the recognition they had
was limited mostly to a part of the world and there was a streamlined
view about what successful career paths could be some other parts of
the world. This limited scope greatly influenced how we could interpret
our inner wiring and inherent abilities and translate them to a certain
career path or at least an available and obtainable job.

We are safe to say that globalization has freed us from our narrowed
outlook on life and career and liberated many a purpose discovered, to

40
find expression in the 21st-century world. However, would we say that
those who lived in the stone age or the 19th century did not live out
their purpose because of limited options? Absolutely not! For every
dispensation, there are limitless possibilities available in whatever
primitive or improved form, waiting for the innovation that only man
could create as an offshoot of their inner drive. Isn’t that exactly how
we got here? Continuous innovation!

Many might find themselves lost in a world where provision has already
been made for their expression but are unable to take advantage of
these offerings because of a lack of knowledge, exposure, flexibility,
creativity, and so many other self-constructed limiting factors and
beliefs. The truth is that in every era, dispensation, age, economy, or
whatever you choose to call it, we have all been equipped to pursue
specific paths, create substantial value, and make a significant
impact. This is the way a career must be viewed if it will be pursued by
a purpose-driven individual.

CAREER AND PURPOSE

Most people feel obligated and even pressured to kickstart or pursue a

career path. Many have a narrow view of the possibilities that are
available in choosing a career path because they are unaware of the
options that are available to them, so they are forced to think within a
limited set of career choices. A career can be a self-charted course
and it doesn’t have to be limited to a single field, sector, industry, area
of interest, etc. However, the path you can define is dependent on your
interests and on your purpose. You are, therefore, free to work on
defining that path and exploring it and even if you start out in a
particular industry or niche, you might find yourself ending up in an
entirely different niche a few years down the line and it is perfectly
normal to create such a path. In some cases, some people start out

41
their careers in an industry and end in the same industry, there’s no
fixed rule regarding that.

Finding no connection between your career and purpose is one of the

big mistakes that you could make. If you try to discover what your
career path looks like but have not been able to clearly define what
purpose is for you, it will be quite difficult to define a clear and
accurate career path, because your career is found within your
purpose.

Career itself is a subset of purpose

CAREER IS NOT A JOB

Career is not a job, yes, you read that correctly, career is not a job!
Don’t make the mistake to think otherwise. Career is not a job, but the
set of interests that defines the kind of work that you do. It’s that big
picture that you have for yourself that tells you what work should look
like for you especially when several random opportunities and choices
present themselves. This particular concept could serve as a key
decision determinant or deal breaker when you are presented with
several choices. It helps you to make more confident and
conviction-driven choices because you have discovered its definition,
and you have a set of guidelines which serves as the grid upon which
you carve a path.

One major reason I later discovered, that I had for wanting to pursue a
medical career was so that I could get the opportunity to help people
or touch people’s lives, as I mentioned earlier. But then, the grid I had
for measuring the implementation of that interest or passion was
limited to the medical field as that was all the exposure that I had.

42
Not knowing that you are not condemned to a particular path, in order
to find fulfilment could be the defining factor. It could determine
whether you believe that you can have a successful career and as a
matter of fact, a successful life, or not.

Exposure and knowledge can make a whole world of difference!

Imagine that I kept believing that since I couldn’t pursue medicine, then
every other endeavour that I made was a second class or had the
potential to be less successful and promising. I would have stamped
my heart with a permanent sense of “averageness” and no matter
what I decided to do for a job at any point in time, that kind of thought
would have made being a success in life, an unattainable dream. Your
job(s) do not and should not define your life but vice versa, this way,
you are in control of your journey armed with the right knowledge of
your inherent potential and capabilities. At that point, the maxim, the
sky is your starting point, becomes a reality that you live out, daily. You
see, success is not as far-reaching as you might have believed, it only
depends on how you define it. Your definition of success determines
the lenses through which you see yourself, others, and life in general.

Career is not a job but a set of interests that defines the kind of work
you’ll do

CAREER IS A SUBSET OF PURPOSE

Career can have several subsets that change according to seasons in

life. Today you may decide to get a job as an educator but tomorrow,
you are an author of a book, they are both endeavours within your
career, it all depends on the picture of the present and of the future
that you see yourself living out. Career is not rigid, therefore, you must
be ready to be flexible according to your interests, passions, etc. and
you would begin to discover that skill or the lack of it, is not a limitation

43
in the multitude of possibilities of work that you could actually do. For
instance, you might find that you and writing are like oil and water, you
can never mix. You have never pictured yourself as a writer and do not
think it would ever feature in your life. But then, look at this, if you are
passionate about children or teenagers to be more specific, and you
realize that your purpose captures that particular demographic, then
you decided to pursue a career in counselling, education, child
psychology, or even technology and all you do in those niches target
teenagers, you might find yourself starting out your career as a
teacher in a school, which appears to be the nemesis of so many
millennials in some parts of the world (Many of us where I grew up,
abhorred the teaching profession as children or teenagers because it
didn’t seem prestigious or profitable within our context). As a teacher
or an educator, you could for instance gain an opportunity to interact
better and understand the demographic that you are most interested
in and passionate about, and get to identify the key challenges that
they might be facing but that you have answers to. You have answers
to it because you have been called to that line based on your purpose,
this inspires you to seek more knowledge, skill, certifications, or any
other important factor that working in this area leans upon. After a
while you could decide to write a book, for teenagers or their parents,
now, you have moved from being only an educator to becoming a
connoisseur of knowledge and an author. A few months, years, or
decades down the line, you may get the opportunity to delve into
technology and become a consultant to a technology startup or
company that is trying to build solutions for this particular
demographic around which you have become a thought leader. That
may be how you find yourself in the tech space and working as a
consultant and then you keep expanding. The possibilities are endless
even till you are old and grey, there’s always more to do. What’s
important is to always keep a focus on the question: “what was I made
to do?” “what are my interests?” then you’d realize that you actually
have the ability to do those things.

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Career is one of the assignments that you will find in Purpose

Apart from career, there are several expressions of purpose which have
been mentioned earlier. The junctions you find yourself in your career
could change according to seasons in life. When you are working on
purpose, you have several assignments which could change according
to season; in this season you may have an assignment and as you are
able to successfully work through it, you move to the next. As a matter
of fact, your diligence with a particular assignment prepares you for
the next, as you may have seen in the career path illustrated earlier. As
the seasons of your life advance, the areas of your career become
bigger, more challenging, more demanding, and of course more
profitable because you are growing to become a master. You have to
give yourself to the process and it will come naturally to you. In the
same vein, some people might choose to pursue a single course within
their career journey throughout their lives, this is not an aberration. You
might have been purposed to remain an educator at any level of formal
education, till you are grown and retired. The main thing is to know
what your trajectory should look like in every season of your life,
nothing is set in stone. Your career may not have as many subsets
within it as some other people’s, basically, it’s about knowing what
assignments have been allocated to you at every point in time. Your
assignment per time can be discerned first of all, by understanding the
scope of your purpose.

Discovering your career path is very much dependent on your purpose

discovery if you would not live the life of a vagabond. A vagabond, in
this case, is one who moves around without an anchor in place, who
just goes with the flow, with trends and pursues what everyone is
pursuing, and basically moves with no direction. You only have to
ensure you are able to clearly define what your own path looks like,
believe me, it will save you a whole lot of stress, heartache, and time,
now and in the future.

45
Discovering your career path is dependent on your purpose discovery,
if you would not live the life of a vagabond

Fulfilment in a career can only come when your career aligns with your
purpose. You might pursue a path for over 3 decades or more and you
may not feel like you have achieved anything significant, whether for
yourself or for others. I’m not referring to only impact-driven
enterprises or activities. Of course, when you're walking in purpose, you
cannot but impact the lives of others around you positively as of
course, purpose is interdependent.

On another hand, ensure that you understand the starting point in your
career journey. You might not have the entire picture from the
beginning to the end even in your career but the key is to understand
the starting point and then take the action to begin and when it is time
to pivot and to move to the next phase in the journey, you have to be
ready to move out of a comfort zone, to do more. However, don’t be
tempted to pivot when you are not meant to but be ready when the
time is right; most importantly, understand the times and seasons
within your career.

Your purpose defines what your career will be. You might not have the
whole plan for your career, but your purpose will serve as a guide as
you go from stage to stage

WHEN PURPOSE ALIGNS WITH CAREER…

1. You will have a fulfilling journey.

You would wake up every day and live like you are making meaning out
of your life. A meaningful existence is a fulfilling existence and career
alignment with purpose is one of the ways to have purpose fulfilment.

46
2. You will be passionate about your career.
Unfortunately, the economic times have necessitated that some
people may do jobs that they are either unhappy about or wouldn’t
have normally chosen. However, despite the fact that there’s a need to
make ends meet, it is always better, in the long run, to know your
purpose and therefore, where your career path is meant to start from.
It could be that you initiate your true path as a side project while you
gain some level of stability with your current job or you may start to
gain the relevant knowledge around it as you do your job. In a short
while, you may identify opportunities within your true path, and before
long, you are able to pivot and get on your desired path. There’s no
need to be concerned about finances, the first step is to recognize it
and then discover its profitability angles.

3. You will not live a mediocre life because you know it is what you
were made to do.
You will practically be living your best life, you will not live as an
average person, you will push to become better every single day
because you know that is where you are meant to be.

4. You would enjoy your career.

It will not be forced, it will not be because of some other reasons such
as finance or prestige or whatever factor. It will be because of your
connection with it at a deep level. You will be on that path because you
love it, you are passionate about it, so you would enjoy the journey.

5. You will derive meaning from the work you do.

It won’t be forced, it won’t be because of a contractual agreement
from an employer or any similar reason. You will realize that diligence
begins to arise within you and commitment comes naturally to you,
discipline is easier to come by because you are passionate about it. It
becomes easier to stay awake all night, working at it if necessary. You
will be able to talk about it and give it all it may demand from you.

47
6. You would easily maintain your motivation even in challenging
times.
There’s something more at stake for you than mere survival and then,
you already know your end from the beginning because you know who
you are and who you have been destined to become.

Career is known as the occupation that defines the kind of education

you give to yourself, the kind of jobs you take, and the kind of projects
you embark on. Even if you have begun your journey from a place that
might not completely align with your true career trajectory, be rest
assured that the skills and knowledge that you have acquired are not
wasted. I started out as a graduate in a medical science field, then I
pivoted to business management and administration and then into
deeper parts of technology. Then, I see myself going into consultancy
and systems/enterprise building, as well as public administration, down
the line. Every skill that I’ve acquired at different junctions of my life, is
linked and would always be my leverage for greater heights. Truth is
that I did not discard my knowledge in health sciences, as it could
come in handy at any point, for example, if I find myself in the position
where I have to manage a team of people to build a health-tech
solution. So, I intend to pursue my passions in business, administration,
strategy, technology, and every single aspect that I have found
interest in.

Nothing is set in stone. You may have spent years studying a course or
working at a job that you have now found out is not actually a passion
or an interest of yours, be rest assured that no time of your life or
knowledge that you have spent time acquiring, is a waste as long as
you are ready to align with your Manufacturer’s manual. But today,
choose to discover your career path, choose to clearly state it out, and
choose to pursue it and ask yourself: where is the smallest point that I
can begin from? And then, start from there!

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5 STEPS TO CAREER DISCOVERY

1. Know and understand your purpose

This cannot be overemphasized. Know and understand your purpose,
ensure that you have been able to clearly define what your purpose
looks like and that you have an understanding of it. Your discovery of
your career path depends on this awareness and understanding.

2. Know what you are meant to be doing at certain periods within

the scope of your purpose.
Purpose has several expressions, and even in career pursuits, it is
possible that what you are meant to be doing at a certain period, is to
sit at home and make research about certain knowledge or field. This
may appear unreasonable as you may feel like this is idleness but I tell
you, if this is what you are meant to do, every other thing will be taken
care of as long as you are walking on purpose. You really don’t have to
worry about anything other than what you are meant to do. There are
several seasons in your life and you have to be able to understand
them.

3. Examine your purpose breakdown

Your strengths, your personality, your interests, your passion…When
you have clearly examined those, you would be able to make strides in
identifying your career path and trajectory. I know that I’m passionate
about people and people development, so this has always influenced
most of the jobs and activities that I get involved in. Even as a student,
I was passionate about teaching people and making people
understand what they ought to understand in a particular subject
matter or area. There were tiring and trying periods, yet I still wanted to
do it, I just felt that I had to help people and I had to teach them. For
you, helping people by encouraging them may be one of your deepest
passions and interests or it could be helping people by giving them
opportunities and resources. However, at my very core, I was able to

49
However, at my very core, I was able to identify that I was meant to
help people by teaching them and providing them with certain wisdom
and knowledge for living, this way I will be able to bring them from their
current position to where they are actually meant to be (while still
providing other means of support mentioned earlier). This defines
many of the things that I get involved with; even when working as an
administrator, it was still more about the people for me, even if I pivot
into health or public administration, it will still remain about people. I
will constantly seek ways to make people better, bring them from
where they are not meant to be to where they are supposed to be, help
them live their best life, show them what is better for them, show them
the available choices and pathways that they could choose from in
their lives.

You have to know your purpose breakdown and your interests. What
are the things that really catch your attention that you can stay at for
hours unending without getting tired? Some people refer to
themselves as very lazy, however, you are only lazy because you
choose to be. You probably feel lazy in some areas because you are
involved with things that you are not meant to do. You find yourself
constantly bored, you lack motivation, and you just don’t have the
inner drive, take a moment to work out what you have been able to
discover about yourself and your career path and you will experience a
significant difference in your attitude towards life.

4. Do career research
Many of us grew up with limited options of possible career paths within
the purview of our immediate environment and knowledge, just like I
felt the only way to express my interests was to pursue a career in the
medical field, as that was all I knew could connect with my interests.
We have these easily identifiable career paths and professions such as
engineering, medicine, architecture, law, education, agriculture, etc. By
the way, a lot of young people do not even see areas such as

50
education and agriculture as paths to pursue, for some, it may just be
their actual paths but because society doesn’t see these paths as
successful as some others, they basically look to other areas while
ignoring their true calling. There are several paths that you can pursue,
and there are several jobs that you can do, all you have to do is make
the research.

Once you have discovered your interests, just make a quick search on
the internet using search terms that are as simple as what careers are
available in…(insert the area of interest) and you would get some
results. The internet has decentralized information such that you can
find almost anything online. If you have discovered your passion and
you are not really seeing people who are into similar interests in your
immediate environment, don’t feel like you are alone, don’t be too
surprised to find out that a field or an idea that you thought is not
common actually has several people who have gone ahead in those
specific areas. However, you may not be aware or well-informed till you
step out by making some research and findings around that area and
then you begin to find out that there are a whole lot of people involved
in or who are pursuing the same things that you are seeing yourself
also pursuing.

After you have been able to follow the above 4 steps, then…

5. Create your own path

You may only consciously know the first two things to do for the
moment. Just start from there and before you know it, more
understanding and enlightenment begin to come to you and it would
appear like a sort of revelation and you’ll hit a eureka moment. Purpose
is discovered layer by layer and sometimes, you might not know the
first five things to do in your career path, you may only know the first
step that you are meant to take. In fact, you may only know what you
are meant to learn, and nothing else. I have an interest in psychology

51
and drawing the line between this area and my other areas of interest
may seem a bit far-fetched and disconnected, however, dealing with
people, you deal with their psychology as well which could necessitate
a need for knowledge in some parts of psychology. You may wonder
how this connects with my interest in business and administration but
it does. You may be unable to quickly make the connection if you don’t
start pursuing it. If you’ve been able to identify your interests, you
would be able to make several connections. This is where the
knowledge of interdisciplinarity comes in, as you may need to get
involved in several disciplines or gain knowledge from different areas
just to fulfil a particular assignment or set of assignments within your
purpose. There is no disconnect, in actual fact, everything in life is
interconnected. It’s about you being able to identify what you can
bring together to make something happen.

Remember, if you don’t know who you are meant to be, you might not
be able to capture what you are meant to do
`

HOW TO CREATE YOUR CAREER PATH

1. Draft an ideal image of where you see yourself in 5, 10, 15, or 20

years…
Don’t be too scared to do this. It is common to see people scared to
think about the future and they are agitated when they try to even
remotely think about where they are meant to be in a few years. I’d
say, just dream away! In trying to define your career path, you need to
be able to visualise an image of what you see as your ideal life.
However, understand that this is also not set in stone, you may
visualise it now, and a few years down the line, you may feel like the
picture doesn’t capture it for you anymore. It is absolutely right to
make adjustments and in fact, if you have been consistently walking
on that path, your insight about yourself and your life will increase so

52
much that your picture of the future will keep getting modified into
better versions. However, you need a picture for the present that would
serve as a motivation and a sort of map that defines where you may
begin your journey from. When you have the big picture, you can now
ask yourself questions like;

What is the smallest aspect that I can start with?

What is the smallest step that I can take?

You do not even need to go as far as 20 years if you can’t, it could be 6

months, 2 years, etc. The most important thing is to ask questions
such as

Where do I see myself?

How do I see myself?
Who do I see myself to be?

Are you someone who sees yourself as a lecturer? Do you see yourself
as someone to make ground-breaking research in science or
commerce? You can be that person!

Or do you see yourself as the person who will change the face of
education in your country or continent?

Where do you start? Is it from being able to identify what part of

education you want to change? And you ask yourself if it is child or
adult education, If child education, is it Health education? If Health
education, what part of Health education? Do you want to change the
face of education or make learning easier? This means you may have
to create new learning methods, and you keep narrowing things down.
This inquiry within yourself could go on and on, but you are certainly
going to arrive at points of clarity, the most important step is the first
step. Even though it is quite important to understand the ideal picture,

53
the picture keeps expanding with time and exposure. Therefore, if you
are unable to get a full picture right now, don’t worry too much about it
as long as you have something that shows you what you are working
towards.

2. Identify a starting point

After you’ve discovered the passion or pain point that you hope to
address in a particular industry, sector or line of work, and you have
walked through the process of narrowing your focus to a particular
niche, demography, or segment, then you identify the most attainable
place to start. For instance, if you want to create new educational
techniques, you identify the specific demography that you would like
to start with depending on the scope of your purpose, your interest, or
your current abilities. You could decide to focus first on the new
educational techniques for kindergartners or you could work with
undergraduates or even adults who are above school age. The goal is
to identify your starting point.

In case you have had experience with starting and stopping a

particular new endeavour, oftentimes, if all other factors such as your
interests, passion, and connection to your purposes, etc. have been
established, your missing link might be that you are trying to bite more
than you can chew. If you want to stay on a consistent upward
trajectory, ensure you are working through a growth and expansion
process, most likely, you would learn tricks that would increase your
momentum after you have mastered certain basic principles at the
beginning stages. Never despise the days of humble beginnings. So,
depending on your current status in life and in that particular path,
start from a place where you have ample knowledge and
understanding, and then move as quickly as you can to more
challenging and unfamiliar levels. Your starting point may be the point
of acquiring the necessary skill or learning the appropriate tools or
making adequate research (this is my recommended starting point)

54
and not going into execution immediately.

The point is to start small and build steadily and consistently even if
your growth and expansion speed only increase along the line. This is
the easiest way to overcome inertia and the fear of taking the first
step; start in a relatively comfortable place and work your way to the
challenging parts.

3. Create a plan for acquiring the necessary skills around your

starting point
As I mentioned earlier, doing research online about this area of interest
is the cheapest and easiest step that you can take, then you can
leverage your network to gather more information especially if you
know a person who is on that same path. You don’t have to look for a
popular figure in that industry who would become your mentor, the
people within your network are enough for you to begin your journey of
getting to wherever you want to get in life. Your small circle will be the
one to open you up to larger and larger circles of people. As regards
the skills you need, your conversations with people and your personal
research can open you up to the necessary training opportunities
whether free or paid (be willing to invest in training yourself). Once you
are armed with enough information, create a learning path for yourself
or join programs with pre-planned learning paths in that niche.

4. Start!
Just start! A little information is all you need to activate your first
step, don’t get comfortable in the place of inertia. Truth is, it may take
some extra motivation on your part to actually get going, however,
once you hit a flow, all you have to do is maintain that momentum for a
while, till you have to move to the next level. Don’t wait till you have
every single one of your ducks in a row, just start! Take the small step
and start with it. In fact, during the course of your research, you will
find several opportunities that you can take advantage of; as long as

55
they are good for you, dive in!

5. Don’t lose focus of your purpose, it is your game plan

You may be tempted by flashy and profitable career trends around you
and you may find yourself distracted from your original goal (this is not
to say that you shouldn’t get your fingers in several pies at once if you
can manage to). Stay on course and stick with the game plan. Your
game plan is not your career path, because it is defined by seasons
and it moves along in phases which are flexible. Your game plan is your
purpose, although expandable, it gives definition to your career path
and draws the boundary lines around the opportunities that would be
relevant to you. While purpose opens up layer after layer, be sure that
your pursuit finds a connection with your purpose i.e. be able to draw
at least one line of connection between your purpose and whatever
career choice you are going to make at every point in time.

Be sensitive to things that do not align with your purpose and be

careful not to immerse yourself in those things. The reason why you
should go into anything should be because it finds a place within your
purpose, else you might be spending a lot of time doing things that will
only count little in purpose fulfilment (little because no part of your life
can be a waste, God’s redemption plan has got you covered, but time
and opportunity may get lost in the process).

You might not have the full plan for your career, but your purpose will
serve as your guide as you go from stage to stage. Remember, if you
don’t know who you are meant to be, you might not be able to capture
what you are meant to do.

Finally, put in mind that you don’t retire from purpose. Even if you
decide to retire from your career or from a particular line in your career,
you do not retire from purpose. When you decide to take a break from
your career, there are other expressions of purpose that you may still

56
have going on with all certainty, such as marriage. Deciding to write a
book at a later part of your life or to mentor younger ones after you’ve
retired from active work are all parts of the expressions or
assignments within your purpose.

You don’t retire from Purpose

Some expressions of purpose or areas of assignments include:

Career
Ministry
Projects
Relationships
Social impact causes
Business
Marriage and family
Child-raising
Systems and structures that you create around your life, etc.

Several aspects of your life can be expressions of your purpose. You

have to know how your purpose affects everything. It defines how you
relate with people, how you respond and react to people, and you begin
to see the better part of you getting revealed as you walk in purpose.
You will see yourself become a better person in all aspects of your life
because your purpose requires it of you. Your purpose is key to living
your best life, living a fulfilling life, and doing the things that would
make you happy, satisfied and fulfilled.

Find the Define Your Purpose (DYP) worksheet below. It is a framework

that pulls all you have learnt in the past 3 chapters together and helps
you define your very own purpose statement. Make sure to work
through it immediately.

57
Consider the assessment below and identify growth areas.

THINK

Am I enjoying the career path I’m currently towing?

Is it where I’m meant to be?
Does it align with my purpose?
What path would I have loved to tow, all things being equal?

WORK THROUGH

What are my strengths, interests, and passion? (make an

exhaustive list)
What are the available career paths along these lines?
Find out more about existing career paths
Do I have an interest in any of these?
If not, what are my interests again? (recall interests)
What ideas do I have at present?
Who do I see myself as in 2, 3, 5, or 10 years?
What is the smallest step I can take towards becoming that
person?
What skills, knowledge, and internships/jobs can I get to activate
the smallest step?

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 DYP OUTLINE

The DYP “Define Your Purpose” outline will walk you through the
process of adding up all the various aspects of your life that have been
brought into your consciousness throughout the past 3 chapters on
“Purpose-fullness”.
By using this outline, you will be able to clearly write out a “Purpose
Statement” for yourself which will serve as a simple watchword for you
in your journey going forward.

1. Who are you?

e.g.

CATALYST (I know how to push others into their dreams)

NURTURER (A loyal supporter and kind-hearted believer in others)
SAGE (Always have the counsel and wisdom that solve problems)
PIONEER (I am comfortable stepping into new territories and
trying what hasn’t been done)
WARRIOR (I stare opposition in the face and I won't back down till
victory is won)
GIVER (Blessing with my substance is not a problem for me)
DOER-ACTIVATOR (I mobilize resources and do whatever it takes
to get results)
EQUIPPER (I am a natural at systematically teaching, training and
mentoring others till they are established)
ORGANISER (I can successfully plan toward a specific outcome
because details don’t miss me)
HELPER (I always provide support and am happy to create results
from the back scenes)
CRUSADER (I am endowed with the ability to promote a cause,
and convince others to buy into an idea or another person’s vision,

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 just as I can sell my own ideas too)

You might represent more than one of these and feel free to add
yours if it isn’t on the list. (source of these samples:
@deboladejikurunmi – Activation Intensive by Immerse inner circle).

2. What were you made to do and How were you made to do it?
e.g. Teach, Encourage, Provide resources, Give advice, Build, Create,
Impact, Manage, Empower, Expand, Extinguish, Write, Speak,
Intercede, etc.

3. For who?
e.g. Males, Females, Both genders, Children, Teenagers, Aged,
Middle-aged, Retirees, Youths, Parents, Babies, Teachers, Drug
addicts, Sick people, Unemployed, Corporations, Countries, etc.

4. In what sphere(s)?
e.g. Marriage, Evangelism, Agriculture, Technology, Governance,
Economy, Health, Manufacturing, Markets, Innovation, Management,
Development, Education, Entertainment, etc.

5. To achieve what?
An aggregation of all the answers to all your WH questions as well as
your passions, interests, innate desires, personality, strengths, etc. as
seen through the lens of God’s eyes.

PURPOSE STATEMENT

I AM A (who) _________ SENT TO (audience/for who) ________ TO

(do what) _________ BY (activities/how) __________ IN ORDER
TO (goal/achieve what) ___________.

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For Example, for me “I AM A catalyst SENT TO nations TO create
sustainable economic systems BY building, empowering and
developing their human capital IN ORDER to make them more
prosperous, transgenerational and better aligned with God’s principles
for His kingdom.

Now create your own purpose statement and write it somewhere you
can keep referring to it, let it guide you and let it expand you, don’t be
afraid to adjust it if in a few months or years if you feel that what you
wrote doesn’t quite cover the scope of who you see yourself to be by
then. The key is to ensure that your existence is consistent with the
purpose of God for your life.

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 SECTION TWO:
VISION: THE BIG PICTURE
CONNECTION BETWEEN PURPOSE AND VISION

Purpose is the overall intention for your creation but vision is the
picture within which your purpose is captured. Vision is that framework
that puts your purpose into perspective. Vision helps you to create a
clearer image of what your future will look like while shaping your
present. Vision is better understood and revealed by having the
advantage of complete sight (hindsight, insight, and foresight). I’ll be
discussing these 3 kinds of sights and how they help you capture a
vision for your life.

Before you capture a vision for your life, your life’s purpose must be
first of all clear to you. Purpose gives the grid within which you can
capture the vision for your life. Purpose gives you direction but vision
helps you know by evidence, if you are in the right direction or not and
if you’ve gotten to your destination or not. Vision helps you see where
you are going, while purpose helps you know why you are going there,
how you will get there, and what you are going to do when you get
there.

In simple terms, vision is what you see about your life now and in the
future. Vision is evidence-based proof of your purpose.

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 CHAPTER FOUR:
360-DEGREE VISION

A man who has seen how glorious his future is, will refuse to get
distracted by alternatives.

When you know where you are going, even the things that look
attractive will not distract you along the way but the clearer your
vision, the less likely it will be for you to be distracted by things that
are not meant to manifest in your life.

There’s a saying that No Vision, No Life - if you don’t have a vision,

then you are not fully living the kind of life that you are meant to live,
because if you don’t know what to expect, then you are most likely
accepting anything. If you don’t know what you are gunning for, you
will only take whatever you are handed, meaning that if you have no
expectations for your life, you would be forced to accept anything life
might offer you because you weren’t looking forward to anything in
the first place.

Vision is not only for leaders or a person in a certain position, every

human must have a vision for their life because vision gives you a clear
view and goes a long way in keeping you motivated to do more,
achieve more, and put in more effort daily.

THE BIG QUESTION IS:

Where do you see yourself in the future?

Take note that the word ‘future’ is relative to the times and seasons of
your life.

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A Quick Truth…
You had no say in creating your purpose, only your creator did because
your purpose is why he created you, however, you can take part in
creating a vision for your life. So, even though you cannot define your
life purpose as it is part of the manufacturer’s manual, you have a say
in the vision you see for your life.

You can take part in creating a vision for your life but a perfect and
accurate vision can only be seen through the eyes of your creator.

Here is the catch though, a perfect and accurate vision can only be
seen through the eyes of your creator. You cannot create a vision that
is without any form of ‘discrepancies’ without seeing it through the
eyes of your creator. The implication is that you can choose to have a
vision for yourself that is sure to be inferior or you can choose to
receive the revelation of God’s vision for your life which is far superior.
You may certainly have the big picture for yourself but God has the
best picture for you. It is usually advisable that when you are trying to
capture a vision for your life, you are seeing it through the eyes of your
creator. This can be done by simply asking Him for the knowledge of
your future, and then, revelation light dawns. Since it’s your own vision
as well, it’s easier to capture, however, you must maintain an open mind
to be able to accurately capture the vision because your personal
biases could serve as a blinder that could warp the vision that God
brings before your eyes. Then, the mind of unbelief could also be your
limitation. God will bring a picture to you that you may feel is
unattainable and unachievable. This is because your self-conceived
vision for your life will pale in comparison to what God has planned for
you. However, even when it looks impossible, you will have to take
God’s word for it and believe in its possibility.

You can choose to have a vision for yourself which is sure to be inferior
or you can choose to receive the revelation of God’s vision for your life

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which is far superior.

Here are the three kinds of sight that would help you accurately
capture a vision for your life.

YOUR PAST - HINDSIGHT

Yesterday was your past.

Oftentimes we believe that the best way to have a better future or a

better life is to forget the past or run away from it (I have been guilty
of this). The truth is that, for you to better capture the future and get
prepared for it, some pointers need to be extracted from your past
that would serve as a boost, wisdom, or encouragement for future
pursuits. Your past is not meant to be relegated to the past, especially
if you can extract some wisdom or some truth that would help you as
you forge ahead.

The past has proved very crucial in defining the outcomes of efforts
made in the present. This is evidenced in all that has happened in the
history of nations where good or bad decisions, mindsets, and cultures
have shaped the present state of the society and the economy. Social
norms, moral boundaries, and even religious beliefs, rules, and laws; all
are shaped by occurrences of the past. Nations are still living under the
effect of things that have happened in history.

Your past is meant to serve as leverage and a boost for you, not an
experience to keep you discouraged or to put you down. The question
is: how can you make use of your past to create a clearer picture of
what you desire for your future?

Ask yourself these questions:

1. What were the best things that have happened to you or that

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 you’ve done in the past? (Make a list)
2. What were the really bad things that happened or that you’ve
done in your past? (Make a list)
3. Ask God to open your eyes to see exactly what you need to pick
from these experiences to create a worthy picture for your future

The past can be leveraged by having the ability to take deliberate

actions to respond to it rightly. For the bad experiences, draw crucial
lessons for living, from them, and for the good things, think about how
you can take advantage of such opportunities if they present
themselves once again either in the present or in the future. These are
ways that you can make your past a tool for gaining clarity about your
future.

Although your past is past, it is presently going a long way in defining

who you are right now (think about it) and it will most likely define who
you will become in the future. A larger part of the time, who you
presently define yourself to be, goes a long way in informing any
perceptive individual you encounter, about what you might have gone
through in the past, especially if you’ve been unable to treat the past
as it ought to be treated (i.e. drawing the right inferences from the
past, and moving on to the future).

Refusal to confront, carefully think through and analyse your past will
open you up to both the positive and the negative effects of your past.
So, you actually have the power to choose the effect that you want
your past to have on you. As much as it appears to be the comfortable
thing to do, trying to forget about your past and not choosing to deal
with it, will make you vulnerable and open to both the positive and
negative effects of your past. You have to intentionally choose to only
draw out positivity from every occurrence in your past.

When you have asked yourself those questions stated above, you have

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 just given yourself an opportunity to choose the good from an
otherwise unpleasant past experience. You may have had some bad
experiences in the past, you can choose to have a much better future
not by forgetting or ignoring your past but by picking out lessons and
trying to redefine your path for the future. So, your past gives you an
insight into what your future would and should look like.

THREE ELEMENTS OF HAVING AN HINDSIGHT

These are ways you can draw out factors that would help you define a
better future or create a better vision for your life.

1. Childhood Aspirations

As a child, you had big dreams and visions, no matter what the
circumstances must have been, you behaved just like every other child
and you curated imaginations about what you wanted your future to
look like. What happens is that as you grow older, your experiences
begin to tell you that those big visions are impossible to achieve.
Society and/or your socio-economic background may drive home this
same point. When you are a child, you are without any limitations or
inhibitions in the way you see life, so you always have a pure outlook
about the future; you always see yourself having a better and bright
future.

As a child, every person and circumstance always tells you to snap out
of that child-likeness and to be realistic. However, I’d say change that
belief system because becoming like a child again in your outlook of
possibilities for your future is one of the best ways to create a better
future for yourself. You can begin to look at life through the eyes of a
child once again, someone who sees possibilities, who doesn't see so
many limitations in life, who believes that anything can work out and
that anything is possible. In doing so, you will be breaking through all

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limitations and have a clearer picture of what your life is meant to be.

Limitations are first of all in the mind but vision is best seen when
there is clarity. This means that the best way to have clarity of vision
is to first of all deal with the limiting beliefs in your mind.

Ask yourself these questions…

1. What childhood aspirations have I let go off?
2. Where did I see myself in the future when I was a child?

Think about these things and write them down, you will discover that
you are closer to finding the answers that you seek.

2. Experiences

At this point in your life, you might have had both good and bad
experiences in the past. Some of these experiences have formed the
bedrock of who you see yourself to be, today. Before going ahead, let
me break this to you: No matter what it looks like, nobody has had
100% good past experiences or 100% bad past experiences, including
you. However, it may tilt towards one side more than the other for
different people, and whichever side it tilts the most for you, may have
defined the lenses through which you view your past. This is because
that side will be the sharpest in your memory bank, which is the
information your mind will rely on to create a picture of your past, for
you.

There are crucial lessons that you always need to learn from both good
and bad past experiences because they will go a long way in helping
you create a better future for yourself.

Ask yourself these questions….

1. Are there some good experiences of the past that are defining

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 where I am now and where I see myself in the future?
2. Are there some bad experiences of the past that are defining
where I am now and where I see myself in the future?
3. What lessons can I draw from both my good and bad past
experiences that can be applied to give myself a better present
and future?

3. Background

Your background includes the kind of family you were born into, the
education you were exposed to while growing up, your religion, your
race, your ethnicity, your socio-economic background, the
geographical location where you grew up, etc. All of these will influence
how you see your future. Your background may or may not have been
favourable to you but as you capture a vision for your life, it is
important to consider all aspects of your past; i.e. to consciously and
intentionally select the crucial leverage that would help you have a
successful present and a great future rather than having everything
from your past (including the good, bad, and ugly) have unfettered
access into creating who you are and will become.

The most important question to ask is that…

1. What can I pick from my background that can be used as a tool to
create a better future for myself?

Continuously making the past work for you will help your vision for the
future become more fitting with what God has prepared for you.
Having hindsight or being able to accurately capture the past in your
mind, will help you create a perfect vision for your future. You see, what
you choose to see about your past is a reflection of what the future
will look like. Choose to see lessons rather than limitations and
hindrances.

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In considering the past, it is also important to consider history on
whatever level you believe to be necessary to you. You should consider
your family history, town history, country history, and the history of
people who may prove significant to your journey as God lays in your
heart. Your goal is to draw key lessons that will help you design the
best lenses through which you can capture God’s vision for your life.

Continuously making the past work for you, will help your vision for the
future become more fitting with what God has prepared for you.

YOUR PRESENT - INSIGHT

Today is your present.

Your greatest ammunition is your present because you have the power
to affect your situation right NOW - you have the power to make
choices right now. Unfortunately, many people do not take advantage
of this opportunity.

Your present is where you get opportunities, and once the opportunity
is lost, it becomes a thing of the past that cannot be regained in
exactly the same manner and magnitude. It is important that you take
relevant opportunities that present themselves to you, today.

Your present is probably the most important aspect of creating your

vision. You can determine your outcomes in your present, you can
make choices, you can make changes and corrections when needed,
and you can have an influence on your future through how you handle
your present.

In terms of vision or sight, the present is synonymous with Insight.

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Insight simply means having a deep understanding of a concept, an
occurrence or an event, or a set of activities.

Insight is being able to understand the reasons behind something and

using this understanding to influence what happens afterwards.

Insight is the ability to identify opportunities and accurately predict

the success or failure in taking or letting go of the opportunity.

Insight is an understanding that can help you make decisions, often

the right ones, which are based on a set of evidence, especially of past
events and present occurrences. By making use of evidence, insight
helps you identify what the future may hold or better still, helps you
create the future that you prefer.

Your present is your advantage and your opportunity.

In your present, you can create your own future and make it work the
way you choose. Let me tell you a quick secret, your future is not
dependent on chance or only determined by the influence of what
happened in your past or is happening in your present. Your future is
dependent on the choices you make NOW. You can choose to allow life
to happen or you can choose to influence what happens, you have that
power. You can choose to allow circumstances to influence your future
or you can choose to create your future by the choices that you are
making right now.

3 AREAS OF CHOICE IN YOUR PRESENT

1. Relationships, Community, and Exposure

What kinds of relationships do you have right now?

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Who are your friends, your companions, those who influence your life
and decisions?

The relationships you forge now will greatly influence the future you
see for yourself. Choose your relationships wisely.

What kinds of communities do you belong to and relate to?

In the midst of what kind of people do you find yourself?

What kinds of groups do you gravitate towards or relate with?

What kinds of groups of people do you spend your time with?

What kind of knowledge and materials do you currently expose

yourself to?

What kinds of books do you read? What kinds of movies do you

watch?

How do you spend your time right now?

Now, all of these are reflections of what your future will look like. So,
examine your life right now, is this the kind of life you want to keep
living a few years from now? The kind of days you presently have
might just be the typical day in your life in the future if no deliberate
actions are taken to have a different outcome and if changes are not
made towards a particular future. You have a choice in these areas and
the choices you make in them will determine the kind of future you are
creating. Choose your relationships wisely, choose the kind of groups
or communities you relate with wisely, and choose the kind of activities
or knowledge you expose yourself to, wisely because they are
reflections of who you are going to become tomorrow.

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2. Job, Education, and Skills

The choices you make in your education, the kind of skills you acquire,
and the kinds of jobs you do now, are a reflection of the picture of the
future that you see for yourself. If you see yourself on a particular path
in the future, you have to be able to backtrack to the present and see
whether where you are right now will get you there in terms of your
education, your skills, or the job that you are doing.

Are you acquiring any skills at all? What kinds of skills, if you are? Now,
I’m not only referring to hard skills such as engineering, football playing,
or fashion designing but also life skills, soft skills, and power skills like
leadership, thinking, communication, relationship management, anger
management, etc. You are who you choose to be now and in the future.
You have to begin to make the right decisions in these areas, now, so
that you can have the kind of future that you anticipate.

Are you getting educated in the areas of your purpose that you’ve
identified? They will go a long way in determining your future success.

What kinds of jobs do you apply for, accept, or aspire to do? These are
choices that you are making right now. Ask yourself:

Is this job a reflection of who I am or created to be?

Is this job one I’ll look back on and know that I fulfilled my purpose
while doing it?
Does this job or skill prepare me for the future that I know I’m meant to
have?

If all these elements do not align with your purpose, they could limit the
vision you have for your life or make you lose clarity of vision. So, make
the right choices in your job, education, and skills.

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3. Preparation and Readiness

The activities you are involved in today, are your ways of preparing or
not preparing for the future you see. Are you seeing yourself as a very
successful person yet you find yourself wasting hours every day
gossiping or scrolling mindlessly through social media? How are you
getting prepared? What are you doing now that is helping you get
ready or positioned for the future that you see? The success you see in
your future or the glorious future that you desire, will not just fall into
your laps, neither will you stumble into it. Your preparation today is
what activates the ripple effects and series of events that lead you to
your bright tomorrow.

Your future is not dependent on chance or just on the influence of your

past but your future is dependent on the choices you make NOW.

GROWTH POTENTIAL

Your Growth Potential is the likelihood you have to achieve increasing

expansion in all areas of your life. It is dependent on the capacity that
has been built within you. Everybody has a potential for growth, it is,
however, the activation of this potential that differs from person to
person. Everybody can grow and get to any length in life but not
everybody will grow because your growth is largely dependent on you
and your choices.

The way you activate your growth potential is by making the right and
befitting choices in the above 3 aspects. Then, your level of growth will
determine what your future will look like.

The question is…

Are you mature enough for the future you see and seek for yourself?

74
For instance, if you hope to be the United Nations General Secretary,
does who you are right now, your level of preparedness, and how you
are developing yourself right now, give you evidence that such a future
will be possible for you?

What are you doing right now that is activating your growth potential
for the future that you see? I.e. what is increasing your growth and
therefore, preparing you for your future?

All of these, need to be well-thought-out. You can’t get these answers

if you are not introspective and if you do not take the time to think and
process and answer each of these questions.

YOUR FUTURE - FORESIGHT

Tomorrow is your future.

Not just next year, or the next decade, what are you doing now to
prepare yourself for tomorrow?

The future is not as distant as we think. The future is just around the
corner, it's the next second, the next minute, the next day, the next
week, the next year, the next decade. It can be as near or as distant as
we choose to see it. The future begins the very next second, and how
you see it, will affect the vision that you may have.

Here is the core of your vision. Your vision is where you see yourself in
the future and this is foresight. Your vision is the picture or image that
you have of the future that is yet to occur.

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How Do You Define Your Future?

1. Understand Your Purpose

Know who you are, know why you exist, and understand what you
are meant to do.
2. Work With A Revelation
Receive a revelation of where you are meant to be tomorrow, in 6
months, in 5 years, or 50 years, from your creator. He has a perfect
picture for you.
3. Re-visualize Your Past
Dissolve the mindset that your past experiences especially the
bad ones, will define your future, rather, choose to quickly pick
lessons from them and move on.
4. Visualize A Typical Day In Your Future Life
Write down a description of what you see on a typical day in your
future life. Write down what the day would look like from when you
wake in the morning to when you go to sleep at night. This helps
you to backtrack to the present and identify steps that you are
taking right now, that would lead you to have that same daily
experience that you have envisioned for the future.
5. Create Your Bio
Write down a short bio of how you want to be described and
introduced by someone inviting you for an on-air interview or a
speaking session or a newspaper feature, in the future.
6. Identify Steps You Can Begin To Take Now
Make a list of things - relationships, communities, exposure,
education, skills, and jobs - that you can begin to do now, that will
result in your being described with the bio that you crafted in the
last step, in the future. Ask yourself: How can I get prepared for
the future that I’ve seen?
7. Start Preparing!
Get ready!

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If you follow these 7 steps, you will see yourself beginning to live out
the future you see, in increasing measures. You will see the future
beginning to unfold for you day after day.

TWO IMPORTANT FACTORS THAT WOULD PRODUCE A GREAT

FUTURE

The best way to predict the future is to create it

- Albert Einstein
1. Creativeness
Do not let your view of your future be limited by your past experiences
or present circumstances. Remember, you can create your future, so
there is no limitation. Any limitation you have will be that of your mind.
If you are creating the future, then the power is in your hands, so,
create what you have visualized for yourself, then take the courage to
stay through with it till it becomes tangible.

Wisdom is the principal thing, get wisdom…

- King Solomon
2. Wisdom
Wisdom is the right application of what you know and it is given only
by God. You need the wisdom to work out your future and make it a
reality. God gives wisdom freely to those who ask him for it, so get
wisdom!

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Consider the assessments below and create a vision for your life.

THINK

What were the childhood aspirations that you have let go of?
Where do you see yourself in the future?
Who are your friends, your companions, and those who influence
your life and decisions?
How do you spend your time?
What kind of knowledge and materials do you currently expose
yourself to?
Are you getting an education or knowledge in the areas of your
purpose that you’ve identified?
What are you doing now that is helping you get ready or
positioning you for the future that you see?

WORK THROUGH

What were the best things that happened to me in the past?

(make a list)
What were the worst things that happened to me in the past?
(make a list)
Where did I see myself in the future when I was a child? (write
them down)
Are there some good experiences of my past defining where I am
now and where I see myself in the future?
Are there some bad experiences of my past defining where I am
now and where I see myself in the future?
What lessons can I draw from both my good and bad past
experiences that I can apply to give myself a better present and
future life?
What can I pick from my background that can be used as a tool to

78
 create a better future for myself?

MERGER

Write down a short composition of a typical day of your future life,

from when you wake up to when you go to sleep.

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 VISION WORKSHEET

1. What do you know about your purpose right now (your purpose
statement)? Your who, why, and what.
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_
2. What revelation have you received from God about your future?
(could be a scripture, a dream or a picture, etc.).
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_
3. What lessons can you pick from good or bad past experiences?
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_
4. Write down a description of what you see on a typical day of
your future life.
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________

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5. Write a short bio of how you want to be described in a
newspaper/magazine feature, in the future.
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_
6. Make a list of things (relationships, communities, exposure,
education, skills, job etc.) you can begin to do NOW, that can start to
prepare you for the future you see.
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_
7. Where is the smallest place you can start from right now?
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_
8. START PREPARING OR GETTING READY!

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 CHAPTER FIVE:
VISION, DREAMS, AND PROPHECIES

Over the past years in my pursuit of purpose, one factor has remained
significant in making the journey easier and clearer, serving as a
beacon that confirms what I know intuitively, and that factor is
prophecy. Prophecy is so important that throughout the Bible, many
events that occurred were already prophesied days, months, and
sometimes centuries before and many of them are still being fulfilled
till our present dispensation.

The process of fulfilment, discovery, and indeed the living out of daily
purposeful life could come with confusing and trying times. Words
spoken ahead of time make a lot of difference as it serves as
continuous reminders that God has defined your path ahead of time.

My spiritual father, Jesudamilare Adesegun-David made an exposition

on the entire concept of prophecies over the following few pages.

Contributions from my spirirtual father, Jesudamilare Adesegun-David

Visions or dreams do not necessarily mean the pictures that you see in
the middle of the night while you sleep. Here, I’m referring to
aspirations and how it connects with prophecy.

Here is a background…

A (wo)man can only have a meaningful vision when s/he can identify
the reason for humanity’s existence. It is very essential to know that a
vision is not arbitrary if it will not be foolish and weightless. It has to,
first of all, find its foundation in the ultimate reason for humanity’s
existence, which has to be well-identified. The goal behind humanity’s

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existence becomes a universal set within which you can find a vision
that drives you. It means that you suddenly find the reason, the drive,
the burning and compelling WHY for your existence, without it, life is
bound to be very dreary, and meaningless. If you don’t have that big
picture, it will be difficult to locate exactly what it is that you are meant
to do, and if that big picture is not meaningful, then it is almost a
no-brainer that the vision you’ll possess will not be meaningful as well.

You must, first of all, understand the reasons for humanity’s existence,
which is a universal set from which you can capture a vision for your
life.

For instance, if humanity’s existence were to be encompassed in these

words:

Let’s eat and drink for tomorrow we die.

Then the question should be; what kind of vision can be rightly sourced
from this universal set?

Does it mean that if it is Let’s eat and drink for tomorrow we die then it
means that the vision could be “I’ll make food and drinks available to
everyone who needs to have access to them, and I’ll make them
available in such ample quantities, such that people can have their fill
with them?”

Now, how is that for a vision? Almost meaningless, right? That’s

because the existential question of humanity in that regard, has
arrived at something so futile, so meaningless i.e. …eat and drink
because tomorrow we die.

Hope is not possible within such a place, vision is not possible because
…tomorrow we die. Before you can have a vision that compels you, your

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vision of humanity’s existence must be lofty. It must be glorious and
beautiful. It’s only within that context that your vision can make sense,
be transcendent, and be sustained for years. This is because what you
see goes beyond just tomorrow and it goes beyond just the day after,
it even goes beyond a generation, because you’ve seen the big picture
of why humanity exists.

Your question should be,

“What is humanity’s ultimate purpose?”

If I answered this for you, I would have robbed you of one of the most
precious gifts that mankind has been given access to, which is
“discovery by intentional quest”. Mankind has been gifted the
opportunity and ability to be able to embark on an intentional quest
for abstract concepts. We are not scavengers like animals, we’re not
grazers or browsers looking for what to eat next. Humanity has been
given this thirst, this desire to search out the seemingly unknown, the
unseen, the abstract.

There’s a portion in the scripture that says

“...He has set eternity in the hearts of men…”

In the context of that passage, it was saying that man cannot search
for all that God has made. So, God has given man this quest that a
man will keep seeking for things that are beyond the physical, that are
beyond the 5 senses, and that are beyond this three-dimensional plain.
Man wants to know why - the “why” behind things and that’s why we
keep digging deep into Science, we keep trying to unlock the secrets of
atoms, molecules, and quanta; man is always on this quest.

However, whatever quest that is divorced from the ultimate goal for

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humanity’s existence, will have a great dose of futility, embedded in it.

In your journey to embracing aspirations and also laying hold on

prophecies, it’s very essential that you know that your concept of
what man’s ultimate goal is, will colour everything you do; it will affect
the way you think, talk, and the things you desire. So, it's very essential
that you embark on that quest to know “why” - why humanity exists.

THE PLACE OF VISION

Although vision in this context is not limited to the visions of the night,
sometimes, the visions of the night can have an input into the kind of
vision that I’m describing. Vision, in this case, is your aspirations i.e. the
things you envision yourself doing, the things you envision your life
becoming. In this vein, the faculty of vision is your mind, which is
populated by thoughts and imagination. Your thoughts and your
imaginations are very key to building your aspirations. Another key
influence on the aspirations you have, is the external impressions that
you embrace, whether consciously or unconsciously. As you expose
yourself to things and people, they rub off on you, they begin to share
with you some of what they have and some of what they possess,
either their thought patterns or their preferences, for instance, what
they consider to be beautiful and what they consider to be ugly.
The interactions of a man or woman with fellow men and phenomena,
colour the aspirations of such a man or woman, and these aspirations
are created out of the building blocks of thoughts and imaginations.

The mind is capable of seeing. The Bible says something about the god
of this world blinding the hearts of men - their minds, which means
that the mind has sight and it could be veiled, i.e it will not see the light.
However, the mind of a man could be unveiled and by being unveiled,
such a person can now behold clearly as in a glass, the glory of the

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Lord, and then the person is transformed into the same image from
glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord (II Corinthians 3:18).

CONNECTING ASPIRATIONS TO PROPHECY

Prophecy is like a bow, while your aspirations are the arrows. Prophecy
can give lift, push, or momentum to your visions, and your aspirations;
just as a bow is what sends an arrow on its way.

Prophecy can also give direction to your aspirations, it can guide your
aspirations, and can enable your aspirations not to veer off course. So,
a well-placed prophecy can seed your mind with visions of what you
are to do. In some cases, the things that shape your aspirations are
products of prophecy. When I refer to prophecy, you have to be very
careful not to be just curious consumers of prophecy as people who
just want to hear the latest prophecy or something that sounds
titillating, rather, I’m talking about the prophecy that is a product of
the Spirit of God.

Prophecy can give momentum and direction and keep your aspirations
on track

We’ll use the Lord Jesus as the first example. There were prophets in
the bible and they wrote books, their books could be considered
elongated or extended prophecies, such as people like Isaiah, who
wrote a book of prophecies. Our Lord Jesus, had his aspirations also
fashioned by prophecy, by the words that had gone before him, and by
the prophecy that had gone before him.

In Luke 4, our Lord Jesus had just come back from the wilderness,
where he had overcome the devil, and having come into the synagogue
on the sabbath day, he was given the scroll to read from, and he was

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reading from Isaiah 61, so he said:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to

preach the gospel to the poor, he hath sent me to heal the
brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of
sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the
acceptable year of the Lord. and he closed the book, and he gave it
again to the minister and sat down and the eyes of all them that were
in the synagogue were fastened on him.

And he began to say unto them, this day is this scripture fulfilled in
your ears…

Look at that! So Jesus came into the synagogue and was given the
scroll to read from. Now the question is - if he had not heard that word
directed to him as prophecy, why would he come on that day and say,
“this day is this scripture fulfilled in your hearing”? How did he know
that the scripture was speaking about him? You see that prophecy had
gone forth long before Jesus came on the scene and when he came on
the scene, he recognized that that prophecy was speaking about him
and he owned and embraced it, and he accepted it as his destiny.
Therefore, that prophecy shaped his mind, shaped his thoughts,
shaped his imaginations, and he was able to boldly declare that these
words which I’ve read are speaking of me, and it is fulfilled in your
hearing today.

That is what prophecy does, prophecy gives you assurance, the bible
says “there is a more sure word of prophecy…”, it gives you confidence,
it gives you certainty, it allows you to have a context, a framework,
within which you can build aspirations, in safety. Now, you need to
underscore the word safety because sometimes, aspirations are built
out of safety and the people who aspire that way, put themselves in
harm’s way because they are uncovered, they are unprotected and

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what they are aspiring for, is not within the jurisdiction of what God
has in mind for them. So, it is very essential that by prophecy, we are
able to discover boundaries, we are able to discover frameworks that
we can now populate with aspirations, which ensures we are still safe.

Prophecy gives you a framework within which your aspirations can be

fulfilled, it gives you safety

The second example is Cyrus. Cyrus was a heathen king, he was the
king of Persia. There’s a scripture in Isaiah 44:24 & 28, it says

“Thus saith the Lord, thy redeemer and he that formed thee from the
womb, I am the Lord that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the
heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad, the earth by myself… that saith
of Cyrus, He is my shepherd and shall perform all my pleasure even
saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy
foundation shall be laid”.

Now, this is Cyrus. Cyrus didn’t know God, Cyrus hadn’t even been
born at this time but God had given specific words that Cyrus was
going to fulfil. It was like prophecies had gone forth ahead of Cyrus
and Cyrus was simply going to come, hear the prophecies, embrace
them, and walk in them, so in Ezra chapters 1 and 6, we see the
prophecy fulfilled. In Ezra chapter 1 verse 2, it says;

“Thus saith Cyrus, king of Persia, The LORD God of heaven hath given
me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him
[a] house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah”.

In the previous verse we read, it says;

“…even saying to Jerusalem, thou shall be built…”

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Ezra chapter 6 verse 3:

“In the first year of Cyrus, the king the same Cyrus the king made a
decree concerning the house of God at Jerusalem, Let the house be
[built], the place where they offered sacrifices, and then let the
foundations thereof be strongly laid; the height thereof threescore
cubits and the breadth thereof, threescore cubit;...”

So, Cyrus fulfilled both the word about the rebuilding of Jerusalem, and
he also fulfilled the word about re-laying the foundations of the
temple. Now, do you know how many years the interval was between
the prophecy of Isaiah and the fulfilment by Ezra?...150 years.

So, prophecy - the words that had come from God’s mouth, kept
actively seeking their full execution just as they had come out from
God’s mouth. So, prophecy becomes like a garrison, prophecy becomes
like a homing device. For instance, if a missile is shot at a plane at a
high altitude and the plane wants to do manoeuvres to escape the
missile, a missile has a homing system that works with a heat-seeking
mechanism, it doesn’t matter how many fences the plane jumps over
or how many rows or flips, or how many acts of stealth, the plane
executes, a homing system will keep locked on the target and will get
at it. So is prophecy, prophecy is like a homing mechanism, it knows
what it is going out to do, it is going out to accomplish a word and so it
is wisdom for us, to find our aspirations within the realm of prophecies.

You should not be surprised to hear that you can prophesy over your
own life. I prayed to a point where I was prophesying to myself, I was
sharing the things God was saying about me and I was receiving them
at the same time.

There were 150 years between when Isaiah prophesied and when
Cyrus fulfilled that word, which means that there may be prophecies

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that may be hanging over you, there may be prophecies that it is you
and you alone that can fill up the measure of that prophetic word.

I'd like to bring the focus back to you by drawing on someone from
back in the day, who was like us - young and all.

1Timothy, chapter 1 verse 18, I want you to pay attention to this, it

says;

“This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the

prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war
a good warfare;...”

So, Paul began to tell Timothy that, the prophecies that went ahead of
you, now, call them to remembrance. You’re meant to consistently call
to remembrance the prophecies that have gone ahead of you, the
reason is that those prophecies will help shape your life, although as
mentioned earlier, the more sure word of prophecy is the scriptures.
The scriptures can become prophecies to you. The moment you
tremble at the word of God, and you want to see Him glorified, you will
discover that prophecy will help you align, prophecy will keep you
focused and indeed help you to fulfil what your life is meant to be
about.

OPPOSITION TO THE PROPHECIES

Now, Paul said to Timothy, This charge I commit unto you according to
the prophecies which went before on thee that thou by them mightest
war good warfare… It means that there are times that there are
oppositions to the prophecy, there are oppositions to the dreams, and
there are oppositions to the vision, at that point, you must stand
valiantly and you must decide that you are not going to back down

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from the things that you have heard said about you and what your life
is going to become. You must decide that you are going to stand
strong, you’re going to stand unrelenting, and you’re going to stand
focused on what you know you have heard, and things that have been
spoken about you.

Sometimes when prophecy comes, it can be in a group of friends when

you’re praying and the Lord speaks about one of you or the other. If the
Lord speaks about you, note it down, don’t be complacent about
documenting the things God has spoken to you. Remember, Timothy
was encouraged to wage the good warfare, to fight the good fight of
faith, not to give in, not to cave in, but to do what has been spoken
about him.

Although you might encounter opposition, you must stay with what
has been said about you

VISION AND IMAGINATION

How do the mind and the imagination come into this?

One of the ways to ensure that prophecy is fulfilled is that you keep it
in your eyes - the eyes of your heart, the eyes of your mind. You keep
the future, and the long-term goal in mind at all times and you refuse
to be short-sighted. There was somebody in the scriptures who
experienced this, he had been struck down by the Lord Jesus on his
way to Damascus, and he became a preacher of the gospel. Now, when
he got to a king who had bound him unlawfully, he said, I was not
disobedient to the heavenly vision. In essence, what I saw, I’ve kept at
it till today, I refuse to allow anything to take my attention from this.
What that means is that there is a persuasion that Paul had, and he
believed that…exactly what I saw at the beginning, that is what I see

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right now, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, I’ve embraced
it, I’ve made it my life…

Keeping in your mind’s eye your long-term goals will help you stay
focused

You nurture the vision, you nurture the aspirations that tally with the
prophecies that have gone ahead of you; you nurture them, you build
them, and you cherish them. So that those visions keep growing
instead of shrinking and those visions increase instead of diminishing
or reducing. I believe that as you pay attention to these things, you will
need the word of God, which is a more sure word of prophecy. Jesus
also read in the scriptures the prophecy about his life, he didn’t meet
Isaiah face to face, according to the flesh (physically). He also came to
that word, i.e. a word that was spoken concerning him a long time ago.
In the same way, you don’t necessarily have to have one man or
woman somewhere that tells you what your life will look like. The Bible
is sufficient as a blueprint, as a more sure word of prophecy that
accurately defines you, that accurately defines what God’s
expectations for your life are.

Nurture your vision

You are able.

The Bible says, a man thinketh, so he is…

Most times, what seems to affect what a man can think, is the overall
reason for man’s existence. However, the moment there is futility
involved in your thinking, the moment there is something mindless
involved, then, most likely, the vision or aspirations that you will run
with will be very mundane and very elementary.

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End of contributions from my spiritual father, Jesudamilare
Adesegun-David

When it comes to capturing a vision for your life, there are two main
important factors you must put in mind;

Your mind’s eye and your imagination: Your mind’s eye is a way through
which you can see your vision as if it is playing out right in front of you.
You should be able to have a clear picture. You should be able to clearly
describe where you're heading towards. You should be able to bring
your imaginations to bear and be able to create a future that you want
for yourself, right from your mind because whatever the mind can
conceive, the body can achieve.

A well-placed prophecy can seed your mind on what vision to have

Another thing about prophecy is that whatever the Lord has said
about you, must be believed as something that is possible and you
must probe further to ensure that you can capture these words in the
context of your life. You should be able to interpret them in practical
terms on how they should play out or would play out. I believe that this
way, you can find the way in which prophecy helps to craft the vision
that God has for your life as you take ownership of it.

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Consider the assessments below and identify some assignments for
this season.

THINK

Do I have a prophecy from God?

Do I currently have interpretations of any prophecies I might have
received?
What bad prophecies have I allowed to be spoken into my life and
how can I divorce myself from them?
How am I preparing myself for the glorious future God has
promised to me?
Which part of God’s bigger vision for humanity do I fit in to?
What circumstances, voices, habits, and challenges have made
me disbelieve God’s vision for my life and how can I begin to
expunge their influence from my thought processes?

WORK THROUGH

What prophecies have I received from God about my future?

(make a list)
What interpretations or understanding do I have of them now?
What habit have I been holding on to that might not allow the
fulfilment of these prophecies at the promised time?
Translate this prophecy you have gotten from G od into visions
that you can see in your thoughts and imagination
What activities can I begin to carry out to keep my focus on God’s
vision for my life? (could be scheduled prayers, implementation,
planning, journaling, meditation on God’s word, etc.)

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MERGER

From the parts of your life’s prophecy that you currently understand,
draw out key points on how they translate into assignments that you
are meant to work on and (if you have an instruction from God about
the timing) attach implementation timelines to each of them.

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 CHAPTER SIX:
GOAL SETTING AND ACHIEVEMENT

If you would make any solid achievements in life, you must set goals.
Think about it. All the specific results or deliverables that you have
been able to create in your life started as conscious, sub-conscious or
unconscious targets; including the ones with negative and positive
outcomes. Targets may be set for you by the world system (including,
the government, economy, peers, etc.) or you may set them for
yourself, either way, our lives are wired to pursue specific intentional or
unintentional goals.

Seeing that whether you set goals or not, there are already
benchmarks that create a sense of success or failure, completion or
incompletion, finished or unfinished, etc., then it is only wise that as
much as possible and for you to have more control over your
outcomes, you need to possess a goal-oriented mindset.

When you were born, your society has defined certain unwritten rules
for you to abide by and pursue as personal achievements, such as
getting an education, from kindergarten to basic education to
secondary and then to tertiary or any other form of higher education.
Depending on your social construct, other natural expectations may
be to get a job, get married, have children, build a house, or go on
vacations, and the list could be endless.

Some people have been able to hold onto some of these societal
expectations and made it a deliberate and personal pursuit rather than
merely a checklist that needs to be ticked as a living and breathing
human. Others are going with the flow in random pursuit of these same
expectations, hoping that by some miracle or luck or natural laws, life
will work out in their favour.

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but a deliberate living to make every breath taken and every decision
made, count in the short and long term. Such people pursue whatever
they set before themselves, with much zeal and purposefulness
because they know that there is an end in view and every action of
theirs is to fulfil a greater purpose; greater than their life purpose. They
understand that they are in partnership with God to fulfil His eternal
purpose. These people, create amazing results, failures do not deter
them, because they understand that it is only a part of the process.
They are able to keep track of progress because they are on a path
and have a destination in view. You can be that person too.

Hebrew. 12:13
“...not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and
were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they
were strangers and pilgrims on the earth…”

If you would have much greater and exponential achievements with

more frequent results, you have to be intentional about setting goals.

In the last couple of chapters, you have learnt about how to create a
vision for your life. Now, it’s time to backtrack and work your way back
from the future to your present. How you handle your present will
determine whether you would achieve the vision that you see for your
future or not. One of the best ways to have a handle on your present is
to set both short-term and long-term goals.

SHORT TERM GOALS

These are goals that give you results within a short time frame. These
results in the short term can boost your morale, encourage you and
give you a sense of accomplishment which spurs you on to move to
the next goal or task and that is why they are so important. When you

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set a short-term goal for yourself, you must have created a series of
tasks that can be completed within a ‘relatively’ short time frame. I
used the word ‘relatively’ because some short-term goals may be
completed within a single day or within 3 months, and some of the
longer ones are best described as medium-term goals. However, the
focus here is to always identify short terms goals within your bigger
vision, which when accomplished would not only make you have a
sense of fulfilment or success but would have moved you closer to
realising the bigger vision. This way, you are not particularly waiting till
you are at your retirement age, to celebrate a life well-lived because
you practically have something to celebrate all the time!

LONG TERM GOALS

These goals help you keep a hold on your sense of vision i.e. they keep
you focused on the vision you have for your future. They are of great
value because they keep you on course and help you keep track of
where you are going. Goals such as building a conglomerate that has
an enterprise in every industry ever discovered could be a long-term
goal. Working to run for the presidency seat of your country could be a
long-term goal (depending on the legal minimum age defined by your
country’s constitution). Long-term goals could span from a year to
decades in their timelines, depending on the kind of goal, how well you
can overcome external factors, your personal drive, and the resources
available at your disposal; to mention a few.

Setting goals in every part and stage of your life is a game changer.
This is because you would almost always know how to spend your time
diligently and profitably and you will also quickly recognise activities
that would either deter you totally or not move you closer to your
goals. At the end of this chapter, I will share some hacks that you can
use in goal setting and in sticking to them till you have achieved them.

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VISION BOARDING

Disclaimer: If you haven’t received a vision from your creator, you have
no business trying to create a vision board. So make sure you spend
time seeking to know what your vision is, before trying to work on a
vision board. You can go back to the previous set of chapters, to
understand this better.

A vision board is a ‘board’ that helps you to visualize the life and future
that you have been able to capture in your mind’s eye. It is a space
that gives you a pictorial view of how you see your future. It is usually
as attractive as the picture you see for your future (if you can get
good cut-outs or images, anyway :-)). Creating a great vision board is
dependent on the level of clarity you have about the vision for your life.

STEPS TO CREATING A VISION BOARD

1. Get wide cardboard or a blank space (could be a wall in your room)
2. Get old magazines, newspapers, etc. from which you can cut
pictures that represent the components that you see for your
future
3. Paste them on the wide cardboard or blank space
4. Hang it up in a place where you can see it every day
5. There are digital applications that could help you create a vision
board as well

This follows your ability to capture a vision for your life, and the best
way to start your vision boarding is to first put it out in writing and
then create your board from it.
Now, this practical way of creating a vision board will not guarantee
that you would take any steps towards actualizing the vision. At the
end of it all, the ball is in your court. Your vision board could remain an
artwork in your room or it could serve as a guide that would help you to
constantly picture your future and give you the motivation to go for it.

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So, you are not drawing up a vision board just for the sake of it, but you
are creating it because every time you see it, you are motivated and
you are spurred on to do more and you have a compass to navigate
through life and make the right decisions.

Your vision board is a visual element for your goal setting. Creating a
vision board is not compulsory in pursuing your goals but it could give
extra help in keeping you motivated, focused, and consistent.

TIMES AND SEASONS

Another crucial element in goal setting is your ability to understand

the times and seasons of your life. Now, factors such as visioning,
times and seasons, etc. are ones that you may have failed to consider
in the past when setting goals and you felt that if you just create a
nice list of “must-haves” or “must-achieves” then you would definitely
have a jolly ride to achievement but oftentimes, that is not usually the
case. If you don’t understand the times and seasons, you might find
yourself not moving an inch from where you were when you set the
goal.

In the second chapter of this book, I wrote about assignments and

what they mean in the context of activities in purpose. To do a quick
recap, assignments are particular goals or sets of goals that are meant
to be pursued within a particular period of a person’s life and these
periods are called seasons. Your assignments are captured within the
seasons of your life.

There are different seasons in your life when certain activities are
meant to be carried out and certain goals are meant to be achieved.
All of this form a cumulative of how well you are fulfilling your purpose.
It is very important that you are able to recognize the different

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seasons of your life, because different seasons may bring different
assignments while there are some seasons when you have to focus on
several assignments at once depending on your unique purpose.

It is very important that you are able to recognize the different

seasons of your life because different seasons bring different
assignments

5 WAYS TO RECOGNIZE A NEW SEASON

1. You might begin to observe that you are being exposed to a

certain kind of opportunity from different angles. The same kind of
opportunity may be opening up to you repeatedly within a particular
time frame, you have to quickly latch on and leverage it.

2. You might realize that you are required to learn new things
relating to some new set of challenges that you are faced with. You
may even have a particular kind of recurring challenge. Oftentimes,
when you are faced with challenges, the goal is not to bring you down,
make you quit or set you back. Challenges are opportunities to learn
and the lessons you can pick from the challenges may be just what
you need to focus on in that season in order to function better within
that season or to prepare for the next. Before a particular season
passes, ensure that you identify key lessons.

3. You might realise that you have to change certain parts of your
lifestyle or even pivot to another part of your career. There might be
certain changes that you have to make, as a result of a subtle feeling
of discomfort with your present status or level. You sense a need to
change or become better at something, you have a sense that you
could be doing things differently at that moment. This might be a sign
that a new season is approaching.

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4. You might find yourself in a place where you need to forge new
relationships and join new communities

5. You might have an increase in passion for certain elements of

your purpose journey and find a lot of ease in carrying out the required
tasks in that aspect of your life.

In all of this, no matter what it takes or what it looks like, remember

that every season brings a certain level of upgrade to your life and
that every season comes with its own resources, so you do not have to
fret. These resources could include wisdom, strength, capabilities,
initiatives, relationships, finances, etc.

Every season comes with its major focus and the quicker you
recognize the things you are meant to do in each season, the quicker
you will begin to experience a sense of fulfilment from living. Your
seasons are very much related to your purpose fulfilment and there are
different seasons and different activities within each season that
move you closer or give you a sense of fulfilment within the context of
your purpose.

Seasons could also be seen as phases of one’s life and there can be
different phases in different aspects of your life at particular periods.
For example, in your education journey, you might find yourself in a
position where you have to get a certification or a second degree. In
your career, it might be the season to focus on another dimension of
your career, this may be taking on a new job, a new role or a new
responsibility in your current job, switching to an entirely different job
or just simply starting your own business. Changes in the season could
also reflect on your marriage, it could be that you are at the phase
where you need to pay a lot of attention to understanding your
spouse, developing a deep bond or increasing the depth of your
friendship.

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Each preceding season prepares you for the next one, therefore, you
have to understand what season you are in right now and what you are
meant to do per time. All of these build up to moving you closer to the
realisation of the vision that you see for your life. For example, gaining
certification in a season might be your key to securing a better job
when the opportunity shows up in the next season, or when you are
given a task in your present job and the reward for accomplishing that
task could be a promotion and/or increased pay. This could open up
another season because an increased income could mean increased
responsibilities.

Another example is developing a deeper rapport with your spouse in a

particular season or taking the time to understand them, which could
be what you need as an anchor for the next season which may include
birthing and raising children that could possibly reduce the flexibility
with which you spend time with your spouse. Every season prepares
you for the next, so, don’t overlook any opportunity to learn and to do
something towards achieving the mandate or the goal for each season.

Each preceding season prepares you for the next one, therefore,
understand what season you are in, and understand what you are
meant to do per time

So, what I’m driving at here is that you have to know what you are
meant to be doing per time and understand your season so that you
would not find yourself focusing on many things when you are
supposed to only concentrate on one or two or three particular goals
for that season. Goals are much easier to set when you have been able
to identify the few things you need to focus on in a particular season
of your life.

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VISION BREAKDOWN - THE 90-DAY PRINCIPLE

The popular 90-day principle works in setting goals and I call it the
vision breakdown. In this breakdown, there is a stratum, where a vision
is broken into assignments that happen at particular times and
seasons and each assignment has goals within them that are meant to
be achieved. Many times we calculate the period of our lives by years
but I tell you that the most productive and fulfilling way to keep
account of your life, is daily. The scriptures say, teach us to number our
days, It didn't say teach us to number our years.

The crux of the matter is to make every day count for something.
Stopping at making yearly resolutions alone, may not encourage the
achievement of the goals set at the beginning of the year. The 90-day
principle tells you to set goals every 90 days in a year which is per
quarter of the year, and I believe that this is a more realistic and smart
way of setting goals and achieving them. It is a shorter and more
trackable timeline than setting goals for the entire year as a lump sum.
Even when you have goals set for a particular year, breaking them into
4 parts with each part set to be achieved within every quarter or
3-month period of the year, will make your goals easy to be tracked
and more likely to be achieved.

Many times, we calculate the period of our lives by years but the most
productive and fulfilling way to calculate the period of your life is by
days (Even the scripture says: teach us to number our days)

3 THINGS THAT THE 90-DAY PRINCIPLE WILL DO FOR YOU

1. System Creation
You would be able to create a system around achieving your set goals,
more easily. For example, take the 3 to 4 big goals that you have for

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the year and divide them into smaller goals to be achieved every 3
months. It could also be that you would focus on one of the goals per
quarter depending on the kind of goals and if they can be realistically
accomplished within 3 months. Then break the quarter goals further
into smaller goals that can be achieved every 30 days within the
quarter and then set activities to perform on a 7-day or weekly and
then daily basis. Your questions to yourself will be: what am I meant to
do every day that will move me closer to achieving my goal(s) for the
week and what should I achieve every week that would cumulatively
over 4 weeks, have helped me achieve my goal(s) for the month and
then the quarter?

2. Traceability
Goals set within 90 days are easily tracked. You can stay on top of
your goals and what you have achieved, is much clearer to you. With
this principle, you can quickly measure your results, get the
satisfaction of achievement, and easily keep in memory the goals that
you have set. Compared to when you need to keep at the top of your
mind, the goals that you set at the beginning of the year. On such
goals, oftentimes, you may never get down to starting on them
because you think that you have a whole 365 days to achieve them!
And it will always seem like there is enough time. In fact, if the goals
are unwritten and not placed in a really visible location, they may end
up not getting remembered forever or at best, till the next year’s
beginning. I have learned to be smarter with setting goals for the year
and making resolutions. If my goals are tangible, I break them further
into their realistic timelines for achievement within the year with
specific months allocated to something. If they are intangible as some
resolutions usually are, I keep them at the top of my mind by writing
them up somewhere I could keep referring to again and again through
the year and I also quickly take up opportunities that would take me to
my destination right from the beginning of the year and do not
postpone taking action(s) till a later time, this way, I don’t forget

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resolutions I have set till a later time. Such intangible resolutions could
be to live a more joyful life irrespective of external circumstances.
Small steps here could be to be more open with my emotions, share my
thoughts with friends more often, make laughter a personal culture,
etc.

3. Flexibility
You would be able to make necessary changes in your life when
needed and very quickly. This is because you can more quickly identify
methods that are working for you and methods that aren’t, in
achieving your set goals. This way, you can understand your personal
mode of operation and take advantage of it for maximum success. You
can quickly identify your areas of strength and areas where you may
need some help. You also get to understand your limitations on how
you go about pursuing your goals and make changes to your methods
within a short period of testing. This way, you are able to fine-tune
your process of achieving that particular goal because you can always
evaluate yourself based on the weekly target, the monthly goal, and
the quarter goal(s).

Although your gaze must be fixed on achieving your set goals, you
must not be discouraged when things do not go the way you planned,
because there might be unforeseen incidents

5 STEPS TO CREATING 90-DAY GOALS

After figuring out your purpose and vision for your life (remember, it is
expandable, as you increase in knowledge and exposure), do the
following:

1. Understand your current season and properly document the

assignments you know that you are meant to be fulfilling in that your life.

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2. Break the goals within that season into achievable targets that
can be accomplished within 90 days, depending on the realistic
timeline that it will take to achieve those goals. Your targets have to be
realistically achievable within a 90-day timeline, so feel free to make it
as simple as possible.

3. Create realistic targets for every 30 days within the 90 days i.e.
break down your goals into 3 and peg each at each of the 30 days
within the 90-day timeline. You are able to keep a catalogue of what
you need to achieve monthly that would cumulatively lead you to
achieve the goal set for the 90 days. This way, you are encouraged and
motivated constantly.

4. Take an inventory of the resources, skills, expertise, knowledge,

etc. that may be needed within the 90 days and document them, this
way, you can prepare ahead for possible blockers to achieving your
goals that could come as a result of the unavailability of resources.
Here is why this is important: the bible talks about how a man who
wants to build a house needs to count the cost. You also need to be
able to do this as much as possible, so that you won’t be stopped in
your tracks and get discouraged by a lack of resources. There are
instances where you may not have certain resources within your reach
and you need to start on your goals regardless. At least be able to take
account of your needs such that you have your needed resources at
the top of your mind and when opportunities to acquire them show up,
you are able to take advantage. Counting the cost can help you know
if what you need before embarking on pursuing the goal is to seek
counsel, learn a key skill or seek crucial knowledge.

5. Break these goals further into weekly and daily goals. You may
not necessarily do this at the beginning of the 90 days. You may
create the breakdown at the beginning of every month, for the weekly
goals and create daily goals at the beginning of each week. At the end

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of each week, you are able to keep account of what was accomplished
and what was left undone and carry them over or take any appropriate
actions. It is better to achieve 50% of your goals than to achieve
nothing.

This is the way to make use of the 90-day principle. This process
should be properly documented, you could use reminder tools such as
the Calendar to remind you periodically of the goals you set for each
week, month or quarter of the year.

Important points to note

1. Although your gaze must be fixed on achieving your set goal(s),

you must not be discouraged when things do not go according to
plan because there might be unforeseen incidents. What having
goals will do for you is help you get back on track and know where
to start, even when unplanned issues occur. When you didn’t have
goals set, you would most likely have experienced unforeseen
circumstances but you may not have known where to begin or
what the next step should be. Your goals would serve as guides to
help you know activities to get involved in per time.

2. Setting goals is a good way to manage your time effectively and

increase your productivity. Up until now, you may have dealt with
the frustration of having time pass by and you are unable to
account for it or you are constantly late on expected deliverables
from work or school. You need to use the principles of goal setting
to always be on time more often than not.

What having goals would do for you is help you get back on track and
know where to start from; even when unplanned issues occur

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A quick example; your goal might be to read a certain number of books
within the next 90 days, you can break it down to the number of books
to be finished per month, per week, and then the number of pages to
be completed daily, but your very first step may be to acquire those
books. So your goals can be of any scale and magnitude.

Other examples are; that you can set a goal to improve your diction
and writing skills, launch a new business, get into a particular job role,
write a book, or acquire a particular educational degree. The most
important thing is to give yourself a manageable timeline (like the
90-day timeline) and identify the first step or set of steps to take.

SOME HACKS FOR ACHIEVING SET GOALS

1. Break down weekly goals into daily and hourly goals. This may
sound a bit finicky but it helps a whole lot to plan your day and create
time blocks around your daily tasks, this way, you are able to identify
what you are meant to do per time and this is a time management
hack as well. It might not always go as planned all the time but it will
be successful more often than not, and you are better off with a plan
and achieving half of it than with no plan and achieving nothing at all.
This breakdown doesn’t have to be done at the beginning of the
month, since each day is unique and to reduce the impact of
unforeseen incidents on your goal achievement, break monthly goals
into weekly goals first.

2. At the beginning of the week, take the time to plan your week
and break your weekly goals into daily activities or tasks.

3. At the beginning of each day or the nights before, review your

tasks for the next day and make adjustments if needed. Plan the next
day and identify the 3 most important tasks that would have the most

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impact on your achieving the weekly and monthly goals. Without doing
that, you may be unable to identify what should come first and what
should come last, and you may find yourself with several uncompleted
tasks.

4. Make those 3 most important tasks your top priority for the day
and be determined not to focus on any other tasks until you have
completed them. Although there might be cases when you have to
attend to other important things like family, health, etc., your plan
helps to keep you on track.

5. Make sure your goals are SMART - Specific, Measurable,

Achievable, Realistic, and Timebound.

6. Let everyone within your close network, know the times when you
would be available to attend to matters that are neither important nor
urgent. There are matters that may come to you that could be easily
put at a set time and do not need to disrupt your schedule.
Communicate your time for such activities with your friends, family,
colleagues, etc. You need to be able to understand what activities are
important as well as urgent. It is said that if you are always available
for every kind of activity any time they crop up, you would not move
closer to achieving your goals and it will be difficult to manage your
time effectively because those activities are distractions at those
specific times. Obviously, there are exceptions but you need to
understand how this fits into your context. Activities such as gisting or
scrolling mindlessly through social media that could come up in the
middle of the day when you are yet to accomplish your 3 most
important tasks, may need to be postponed.

7. Block out time to accomplish your daily tasks i.e. give timelines or
time blocks to specific tasks. For example, you could set tasks from 9
am to 11 am, then from 11 am to 3 pm, from 3:30 pm to 5 pm, etc.

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Mornings are generally recommended as the best periods to attack
your most important tasks for the day as you have a higher chance of
actually accomplishing them. At this time of the day, your mind is
clearer and you are more creative so it's best to work on tasks that
require more creativity in the morning. This is the reason it is important
to get a good night’s sleep and you will be able to maximize your
mornings. However, understand yourself and your most creative period
of the day.

8. Never think that there is still time to start and that you can begin
at some point in the future. You have to start now. There is no better
time than now!

Setting goals is a good way to manage your time and increase your
productivity

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Consider the assessments below and create SMART goals for yourself.

THINK

What assignments do I have to work on this season that is aligned

with my general purpose?
What are the SMART goals within those assignments?
What are the roadblocks that could stop me from achieving set
goals?
What is the first set of things I can do to begin the journey
towards achieving my set goals?
What are the resources (including human and tech tools) that I
need to help me achieve my goals?
What habits do I currently have that might hinder me from
achieving my set goals?
How can I break those habits?

WORK THROUGH
5 Steps to Creating 90-day goals

1. Understand your current season and write down your

assignment(s) for this season
2. Break the assignment(s) within this season into achievable
90-day goals
3. Create realistic targets for every 30 days within the 90 days i.e.
break them down into 3 and peg each to each of the 30 days
within the 90 days
4. Take an inventory of the resources, skills, expertise, knowledge,
etc. that you will need within the 90 days and write them down
5. Further, break these goals down into weekly and daily goals

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8 Hacks for Achieving Set Goals

1. Break weekly goals into daily tasks and hourly activities

2. At the beginning of every week, take the time to plan your week
3. At the beginning of each day or the night before, plan the next
day and identify 3 big tasks that if achieved, would move you
closer to achieving your weekly and monthly goals
4. Make these 3 big tasks your top priority for the day and be
determined not to focus on any other tasks till you finish them
(there might be exceptions)
5. Make sure your goals are SMART (Specific, Measurable,
Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound)
6. Let everyone know when you would be available to attend to
matters that are neither important nor urgent
7. Block out time to accomplish your daily tasks i.e. make time
blocks like 10-12 PM, 2-4 PM
8. Never think that there’s still time. Start NOW!

MERGER

Create and write a set of goals for the next 90 days/3 months of the
year and break them down into 30-day/monthly goals.

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 SECTION THREE:
VALUESTIMATION
It is important that young people live a life of meaning and clarity
about their place in the larger scheme of things. This was the
motivation behind this book and why it provides you with a guide to
purpose and its discovery, tells you how to grow within purpose and
shows you the correlation between purpose and career. It is also
important that you learn how to see the big picture in your life, live with
a vision and pursue the dreams that you have been nursing, however,
you need to move from the point of mere fantasies to actualizing your
vision and making it your everyday reality. You also need the clarity
and direction that prophecies can provide where the amazing words
that have been foretold about your life through God, can have the best
environment to find their fulfilment. This environment is both internal
and external and when the right kind of environment harbours your
dreams and visions, it will bring them to realization. Therefore, your
sense of worth or value as an individual is that environment which
could make or mar your pursuit of purpose and vision. This section will
expose you to how to set yourself up for inevitable success on your
journey to fulfilment.

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 CHAPTER 7:
YOUR VALUE AND VALUES

I’d like to start by giving you a few reasons why you must know your
value as well as have a set of values by which you live your life;

First, your dreams will become bigger if you can possess the right
sense of self-worth, this is because your sense of self-worth will open
you up to possibilities. Your dreams and visions can only be as big as
your perception of yourself and your abilities. This simply means that
you only get as successful as you think you can. For example, if you
see yourself as a success at a certain level, say on a scale of 1-10, you
believe that you can only be a 5, then that is how far you would be able
to go. In a nutshell, you are the determinant of your vision and how
much of it you can bring to reality. This is why it is important to have
the right perception of your sense of self-worth.

Your dreams and visions can only be as big as your perception of

yourself and your abilities

Secondly, you will begin to see possibilities and opportunities even in a

dreary life situation. If you are able to know and understand your
worth, your eyes will be open to a world of possibilities, even when it
seems as if some things may not work out. For example, if you believe
things like “I’m strong, I can do whatever I set my heart to…”, it sort of
gives you a boost and it helps you to conquer challenges no matter
how big they are.

Thirdly, you will be able to make the right decisions even when faced
with options especially when you are offered options that tell you to
compromise. You can only compromise on your values and if you don’t
have any values, there is nothing to compromise on, so at that point,

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anything goes. So it is important to have values. If you have set values,
it informs your decisions about what to do and what not to do
especially at certain important junctions of your life. There might be
points in your life when you don’t know whether to go right or left,
being able to clearly identify your values will aid your decision in that
respect.

Next, you will be able to progressively modify your identity. Your values
are like guiding principles by which you live your life and once you are
able to latch on to them, and live by them, society and everyone
around you will know what you stand for and which kinds of
opportunities to offer you.

Then, you will elicit respect from your contemporaries because you
have guiding principles. When people notice that you stand for
particular values, they are able to recognize what you would or
wouldn’t do then they offer you appropriate opportunities. Obviously,
at first, they may not agree with who you portray yourself to be and
this is because sometimes, our values need to be tested to be certain
of their quality and whether they are deeply rooted. Life will test it,
people will test it, situations will test it, and challenges will test it but if
you are able to stand the test of time and the possible challenges that
could come with it, you would come out successful. However, by the
time you come out on the other end and you are still standing on your
values, there will be a certain measure of respect that will be accorded
to you. It wouldn’t be about your accomplishments at this point, but
people would respect you based on who you are.

It is the quality of life that you value, that will come your way. So, if you
don’t really know what you want, or your worth, you would desire things
that are beneath who you were made to be. If you can understand how
valuable you are, your desires will be at that level and those things will
be attracted to you by default as it is a natural principle.

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Finally, from your values, you will know whether you will live a life that
fulfils purpose or not. So, discovering purpose does not guarantee that
it will be fulfilled, but knowing your values will keep you on the path to
fulfilment. On the journey of purpose, there may be several challenges
but when these challenges come, most of the time, it is your values
that determine whether you will scale through or not. For example, if
you are a person who gives up easily or who has a self-perception that
makes you feel like you cannot make it through a challenge, then you
may be unable to find fulfilment, as you would be unable to go on the
journey.

After knowing all of these benefits, you cannot but understand your
worth as you move through the journey of purpose fulfilment. The road
will not always be smooth, so your sense of value and the values you
hold will be your anchor and motivation when the going gets tough.

It is the quality of life that you value, that will come your way

VALUE AND VALUES

Here, we’ll talk about the contextual difference between your value
and your values.

Your value is your worth; your measure of yourself, your personality,

your abilities, your existence, your knowledge, and so on. While your
values are the principles that guide your existence.

Examples of values you may possess, can include deciding that you
want to live by the principle of truthfulness and therefore, never telling
lies, no matter the situation. Another one is deciding to be organized
by always keeping your environment well-arranged and neat, and
carefully planning your daily activities in a schedule of tasks.

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One thing is common between your sense of value and your values -
they always have the same source. How much you value yourself
determines the kind of values that you would uphold in your life. For
example, if your sense of value or self-worth is based on your physical
abilities and what you can accomplish by yourself, your belief system
or life principles will be wired around the premises that;

1. I can never succeed without these abilities

2. If I don’t meet up with my target, I am a failure in life

If your sense of value or self-worth is only based on your physical

abilities or your skills or your talents, that would define the kind of
values or principles by which you would lead your life. This means that
if those skills or talents were removed from you or if you suddenly by
some unfortunate accident lose these abilities, you would actually feel
worthless. So, it is important that you carefully choose the
characteristics and factors that determine how valuable you are to
yourself and society. You see, your sense of value is determined by you.
As much as society, your background, upbringing, and experiences, try
to define your sense of self-worth, the onus is still on you to choose
how you feel about yourself.

If your sense of value is based on what you believe as your divine

destiny, your principles will be tailored towards achieving your purpose
and fulfilling your destiny (which could sway towards the positive or
negative, depending on your strategy). You can’t really deny that we all
live based on our sense of self-worth. Where you are in life today most
likely is determined by what you inherently feel you deserve (and this is
speaking cumulatively of economic, spiritual, mental, etc status), your
sense of worth creates a perception of what you deserve or do not
deserve. For example, if you feel that you cannot pass an examination
just because you did not study, in a way, most likely you would not
pass. But if you feel like, I attended classes and I picked up one or two

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things, I could still do pretty much well, it doesn’t matter if I didn’t have
enough time to read all of what I’ve been taught, I could still make
headway. In a way, it funnels down into the environment in which you
write the exams, your subconscious and your beliefs, and before you
know it, you would have much greater success than you may have
anticipated due to your positive attitude and belief, which in turn
encourages you more (now, in the context of an examination, a person
who doesn’t value hard work and diligence may still not succeed at
this exam, because they most likely would not have paid as much
attention in class to have been able to store up important points from
which they can draw, so it only works if there are good guiding
principles already in place).

So, your sense of worth determines what you feel you deserve as an
individual. Another example is a person who stays in an abusive
relationship may feel at the subconscious level, that they can’t do
much better than being in that relationship. Usually, nobody believes
with their conscious mind that they have negative wishes for
themselves, however, your sense of self-worth is more at the
subconscious level and you may not readily think through it
consciously except if you are an introspective individual who is very
self-aware and takes the time to think deeply about themselves. This
person stays in the abusive relationship largely because they have a
wrong sense of their worth and therefore, will not be willing to admit
that they are in the wrong place and that they deserve better.

So if you merely say with your mouth that I can be successful in life
but have an opposing belief at your subconscious level, then that
confession may not become a reality. This is because what you truly
believe about yourself is buried under your experiences, what people
have said about you, and what society has said you could or could not
become. Therefore, it is up to you to carefully select who you choose
to be and how you see yourself because who you see yourself as is

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who you would turn out to be in the long run.

It is imperative that you closely examine your value and values now
and deliberately shape them to your advantage because they are
important to the fulfilment of your divine destiny. Don’t leave them to
chance.

YOUR VALUE

Despite your glorious purpose and the amazing vision that you have,
your sense of self-worth will determine how much value you can create
with your purpose and vision.

Now the questions are;

What is your value?

How valuable are you?
Who are you?
Do you think you are worth much?
What do you think you are worth?

These are questions you should begin to ask yourself.

What am I really worth?

Am I really valuable?
Do I believe that I am valuable?
Do I really think I’m valuable?
Do I really think I deserve good things?
Do I really think I deserve to fulfil my purpose?
Do I really think I can accomplish all the amazing visions that I see for
myself?
Do I think I can?

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If you don't think you can, it might be difficult to actually achieve
much, it might be difficult to make any form of progress. This is the
place your progress and success start from; the point your purpose
fulfilment starts from. It starts with your mind, who you think you are
and what you think you can achieve.

Despite your glorious purpose and amazing vision, your sense of

self-worth would determine how much value you can create with your
purpose and vision

There are two aspects of life that can influence your sense of
value/self-worth.

1. External Influence
Most of the time, you are vulnerable to external influences, and it only
takes deliberate action to be able to curtail or carefully decide on the
kind of external influence that would have an imprint upon your mind.
One kind of external influence that could influence your sense of value
is your background. If you came from a poor background, a rich
background, an abusive home, or a loving home there’s a way each of
these will affect how you feel about yourself. In a way, all of these
kinds of homes cannot truly define who you are because they were
never under your control.

Another external influence is your childhood experiences. If you had a

bad experience while growing up such as being bullied in school, this
could affect your perception of yourself and you could begin to feel
like you are not worth much. Or it could have been that people called
you ugly all through your childhood and this affects how you see
yourself and then now that you are grown, no matter the kind of
clothes you put on or how much makeup you use as a female, you still
don’t feel beautiful. That’s because it has had an imprint upon your
soul. You could have even been physically or sexually abused as a child

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which could make you feel worthless such that no matter how much
success you may have accomplished in life, they begin to affect the
things you do and the things you believe that you can do because you
don’t understand that those occurrences are isolated from who you
truly are or who you are made to be.

Your life experience in general is another external influence even as a

grown-up. People around you may have said negative things to you or
about you, and you were hurt at one point or the other. You could even
have been in a relationship where you were badly treated, or you might
have had friends that laughed at you most of the time, they laughed
at your ideas and things you have to say and all these begin to have a
negative impact on your sense of worth.

Other influences are your family and friends who may have said some
things about you even in jest with no harm intended, which could
affect how you see yourself. I have a personal experience growing up,
where I was taunted by friends, and painted as all sorts. Even though
they may not mean it in the wrong way, such comments may have an
imprint upon you. Other influences come through people you consider
leaders or heads over you, people who can speak into your life such as
social influencers, thought leaders, mentors, your spiritual head, etc.
every single inbound impact can shape your sense of self-worth. On
the flip side, you may have also had positive things being said to you
and about you by people around you. This has one way or the other,
also positively shaped how you perceive yourself.

2. Internal Environment
This is the simplest and yet the most important factor that should
actually be the major determinant of how you see yourself. It is defined
in these simple terms - your faith and belief system. Your internal
environment should have the highest impact on your sense of
self-worth. Your faith in God and your belief system have an influence

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on the kind of value you place on yourself.

HOW DO YOU MAINTAIN THE RIGHT PERCEPTION OF YOUR

SELF-WORTH

1. Listen first to what your creator says about you, before hearing
what anyone else has to say about you. I mean even before your
family, Google searching, reading books, asking friends, reading
social media posts or blogs because these factors are external
influences that could either positively or negatively impact who
you think you are and you have little to no control over that
impact, except if what God has to say has come into the picture,
literally. Always ensure that you get what God has to say. How
does he describe you? Who has he called you to be? So, you have
to ensure that the word of God is the first shield against all
negativity, that the word is firmly fixed in your heart such that it
can filter any negative word that might come into your heart. This
is the reason why it is advisable to listen to God speak to you
before you begin your day whether through the scripture or
through prayers and meditation. First, hear what the Lord has to
say about you because it is the perfect image of your worth. You
can start hearing by reading the Holy Bible.

2. Accept without a doubt or second-guess, what God says about

you. When God speaks about our lives, we have a tendency to say
this can’t be either because of our past experiences or unbelief. It
is okay to feel that way at the first instance but at that point,
always remember the sovereignty and supremacy of God and that
he cannot lie. So if God talks about who you are, but you don’t feel
like it, decide in your heart to take His word for it by faith and
before you know it, the more you meditate upon the word He has
spoken the more it filters into how you feel. Remember that
internal influences are the most important and they are your faith

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 and your belief system. The best influence that your belief system
can be under, is the word of God and your faith in God. So, if God
speaks a word about you, at that instance, you might feel like
that’s not who you are and you think: can’t you see what I’ve been
unable to do? Can’t you see what I’ve been unable to achieve?
Can’t you see how I failed at that junction of my life? Can’t you
see how I made that mistake? But No, don’t feel that way! Accept
God’s word as it comes to you, digest it and before you know it,
you begin to actually believe it and to see yourself as who He has
said you are.

3. Examine what you think about yourself and separate all that
aligns with what God says from what doesn’t align. You can also
have a wrong perception of yourself. Write down all your past
self-perception, and begin to prove or disprove them by God’s
word. Ask yourself: does God say this about me? Does the
scripture say this about me? If not, just cross the item off your list.
If He says it about you, mark it as correct. Before you know it, it
becomes intertwined with your belief system. So, you can
influence your own sense of self-worth, it’s all in your hands. Write
down all that has been said about you and compare them with
what God has said. Take all that people have said about you and
separate all that aligns with God’s voice from all that doesn’t.

4. Practice affirmations and confessions. What you speak out about

yourself goes a long way in shaping your self-perception. Your
mind better captures what you speak out loud. If nobody speaks
nothing good about you, then you speak something great about
yourself. Don’t always wait for someone else to affirm you, affirm
yourself! Practice affirmations in the morning, and the evening
before you go to bed. You can say:

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I am created in the image of God, therefore, I am beautiful
I have the capability to become all that I have been purposed to
become
Challenges will only serve to teach me key lessons and make me better
prepared to handle success

These kinds of affirmations and confessions will begin to shape your

mind. It may not happen all at once if you start to do this right now,
but it’s the beginning of a journey and I can assure you that in a few
weeks' time, you will begin to see a world of difference.

5. Filter the information that you allow to settle into your soul. Any
external influence that puts a damper on your internal
environment, should be filtered out. You must ensure that your
mind has a permanent filter within it. So, you don’t just allow every
and anything to come in and go out.

6. Believe in yourself and in your capabilities no matter where you

are in life right now. Stop believing that it is stressful to believe in
yourself and the fact that you can be more. There’s more to you
than you may be able to currently see, so you need to be able to
expand and enlarge your heart enough to capture who you really
are and have been made to be, without which no purpose can be
achieved or vision actualized. Remember that life is in phases, if
you feel like others are getting ahead, and you are stagnant, it
doesn’t insinuate that you are of lesser value or that you were not
made to succeed, don’t let those things define your worth. It is not
your achievements or failures that should define your worth but
your divinely defined life i.e. what God has said about you and who
he has made you to be.

7. Create the right internal environment around yourself because

you can control it even if you cannot maximally control the

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 external environment. You can choose to create the right internal
environment by following the previous steps and in the long run,
people will catch on to the vibes you give about your self and that
would start to slowly shape what they see or think about you.

Be the best version of who you are and be determined to grow and
expand, that is all that matters.

It is not your achievements or ‘un-achievements’ that should define

your worth, but your divinely defined life i.e. what God has said about
you and who He has made you to be

YOUR VALUES

Your values are closely related to your character and as learnt in

previous chapters, talent can take you to the top but only character
can keep you there. Forget about what the world says about having
the right connections, etc., of course, this may be an advantage in
order to gain access to certain opportunities (even though the best
connection and connector that you can have is God - He knows
everyone and He has the hearts of kings and princes in His hands) but
when you gain access to those opportunities, how do you sustain and
maintain it?

Some people believe in getting to the top by stepping on others, this

reveals their values or belief system. Some believe that the best way to
succeed is to work extremely hard, that is their value. Your values are
your stepping stones and your self-distinguishing factors.

How you can define your core values or guiding principles will be
discussed in more detail in the next chapter.

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DOWNSIDE

Your value and values will shut some doors and open some. They will
shut the doors that are wrong for you, especially in a particular season
and at the same time, by virtue of them, some other doors will be
opened.

I once listened to Mrs Ibukun Awosika (first female chairman, First

Bank of Nigeria) talk about herself and her team in her manufacturing
company, having to work hard to evade bribery attempts by
contractors. For instance, her company was being asked for bribes just
to secure a contract and this happened several times which made her
very unsettled. Soon she teamed up with a friend who prayed with her
and they were determined not to lose the contract and not to pay
bribes as well. They didn’t pay bribes, yet got the contract.

So, don’t compromise, even if everyone around you appears to be

doing things differently, very soon, the truthful person would triumph
and would be commended. You have to choose where you stand, which
is aided by your guiding principles. Imagine yourself being faced with a
choice with a multimillion-dollar contract on the table, and all you had
to do was add a slight markup on the budget for a bribe, would you or
would you not? If you don’t know what your values are, you would have
no grid to make the right decisions and you may find yourself
compromising.

Your sense of value and your values will shut some doors and open
some. They shut the doors that are wrong for you, especially in a
particular season, and open some others.

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Consider the assessment below and re-define your self-worth

THINK

What past experiences do I have that could have reduced my

sense of self-worth?
What current situation am I presently experiencing that is
seriously badgering at my sense of value?
Do those things really define me?
What do I think about myself and my abilities? Do I feel I can
achieve the great purpose I am made for?
Has God made me achieve the great purpose I know I am made
for? Can God help me achieve them?

WORK THROUGH

What do I currently see, read, hear, and interact with that tells me I
am not worthy of great things? How can I remove myself from
that kind of environment?
What are the things I have done right in my life? What kind of
environment helped me achieve those things? How can I re-create
that kind of environment in every aspect of my life?
Are there particular scriptures in the bible that speak to me
personally about who I am and what I’m worth? (Quote them
clearly in your journal)
Deep within me who do I believe I am?

MERGER
Write a list of affirmations that you will consistently speak to yourself
on a sheet of paper, and paste it in a place where you can see it and
easily read it out loud every day.

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 CHAPTER EIGHT:
COINING YOUR LIFE PRINCIPLES

Your values are characteristic reflections of your purpose and vision,

and without properly defining them, your fulfilment might be
short-circuited. In the last chapter, the focus was on the importance of
your value and your values, in this chapter, you will learn how to create
core values or guiding principles for your life.

Oftentimes, you might experience some downsides to living by set

values, this is because the world will like to test your mettle. They will
like to know if you are really sure about the principles you have chosen
and claim to live by, it’s absolutely normal to face challenges in this
regard.

Your values are characteristic reflections of your purpose and vision

Let me tell you something, once you start to live a principled life,
criticisms might begin to come from friends, family and society, but
the only reason this happens is that principles are “self-distinguishing
factors” that differentiate you from mainstream existence and of
course, it is a deliberate way to set yourself up for success. Don’t be
afraid or ashamed of backlash or criticism from any angle, it doesn’t
matter if they come from family members, this is normal. You will begin
to appear different because you want to do things differently and you
are trying to have set values and guiding principles by which you live
your life.

Your values are your stepping stones and self-distinguishing factors

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PRINCIPLES AND CHARACTER

Your chosen principles are deliberate ways to begin to shape your

character. You may be worried about having lived a life that is
nonchalant towards having a great character, but character does not
get redefined in a moment, it takes a consistent determination to live
by certain principles in life. Therefore, both principles and character are
intertwined. It doesn’t matter how you may have lived in the past, what
matters is how you choose to live from now on. Character is quite
crucial and throughout this book, it has been talked about, over and
over, it cannot be overemphasized.

Principles are coined from your belief system. Your belief system
simply means what you believe about yourself and the world around
you and what you want people to believe about you. This will not only
influence the way you pursue your purpose, but it will also define the
extent to which you can fulfil it.

Principles are self-distinguishing factors that differentiate you from

mainstream existence and having them is a deliberate way to set
yourself up for success

The question is; what do you believe about yourself? The last chapter
described self-worth - how you see yourself, what you believe about
yourself, etc. Having a better perception of your worth or value will help
in creating your life principles.

Your self-worth goes a long way in determining how far you will go in
life, and your self-worth is simply a perception. Someone who appears
to believe so much in themselves is not better than a person who
doesn’t, the only difference is their belief system.

What do you believe about yourself?

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How far do you believe you can go in life?
How well do you really see yourself?
Do you have an inferior perspective about yourself or do you see
yourself as a great person?

When you worked on your vision through the previous chapters, you
may have seen wonderful pictures of your future but at the core of
your mind, you have to truly believe that you deserve that kind of
future and that you can be that person that you see. This is the first
thing you have to deal with before you can move on from here.

Ask yourself:
Who do I see myself as?
Who do I think I can become?
What value do I see within myself?
Do I believe that I can achieve these goals that I have set for myself?

You have to attack the factors that can shape your belief system and
decide on how you want to be perceived from now on. All of this should
be done from God’s perspective and then you have to see yourself
through those lenses as well.

Your principles are coined from your belief system which includes what
you believe about yourself and what you want others to believe about
you

ANCHOR PRINCIPLES

Some basic questions that you must ask yourself before going on to
create your life principles are:

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1. Do I live by principles from the word of God?

You cannot create true principles by which you lead your life
without them having their basis in the word of God because
anything you will create outside the Word, will be temporal, not
deeply rooted and would be easily compromised on at the
smallest challenge. There will be challenges as you go on this
journey which will put your principles to the test, therefore, you
need an anchor that cannot be shaken no matter the kind of
challenge and this is the word of God.

2. How can I begin to pay closer attention to the principles of the

Word?
You can do this by spending more time studying the scriptures
and searching for governing principles that are hidden in plain
sight in the scriptures. Take some time every day to study verses
and chapters of the scriptures and bit by bit, some of these
principles will become more obvious to you and get ingrained
within you and God will inspire your heart on how to live. However,
a revelation of God’s word can only come by His Spirit indwelling in
you. All you have to do is ask God for the Holy Spirit (Luke 11:
9-13).

3. Do I believe in some foundational principles of God, for example,

Love?
Core values are all about your belief system which has to be
founded on the word of God so that they can stand the test of
time and the test of life. An example of God’s foundational
principle is Love, ask yourself if you believe in it, if not, begin to
take steps to move in that direction, by giving your heart over to
God and to the Holy Spirit who gives Love.

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4. Are there principles that society has sold to me and I have bought
into?

We cannot divorce ourselves from our environment but we can

choose what we allow to get absorbed into our minds or souls.
Society sells different kinds of principles and sometimes, these
principles find their way into our souls depending on how you
absorb them or the level of your filtering system. Are there
principles that you are already living by that were sold to you by
society but are wrong? Although some may appear to be right you
have to measure all principles by the word of God. Examples of
such principles sold by society are; take every opportunity that
comes your way, money is the solution to all problems, “do me I do
you” (meaning to take revenge), etc.

Your core values constitute the things that are most important to you
in life. The principles that govern your day-to-day living are your core
values and it makes up your entire belief system.

CREATING YOUR CORE VALUES

1. Know what you stand for and against

2. Understand your value or worth

3. Be ready to create expectations for yourself i.e. be ready to live by

the right standards. You can’t live by anyone else’s expectations
apart from that which God has set for your life.

4. Understand at least some biblical principles and grow in the word

of God

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5. Write out a list of all the principles you believe that you want to be
known for and that you want to live by. These may be single words
or long sentences, write out as many as you can. They include
what you believe about life, what you believe about yourself, and
how you believe things should be done. E.g. I am who God says I
am. Just write down principles that you believe in and of course,
they have to be put under the x-ray of the word of God. Then,
make an exhaustive list

6. Group similar words or sentences together. Principles that mean

the same things on your list, can be grouped as there might be
instances when you write down the same things using different
words. Merge the ones that mean the same things.

7. Select words that best capture each group and lump them into
3-5 keywords that best capture your values. Your values may not
be more than a maximum of 8 so that you can easily keep track of
them.

I also had to perform this exercise at some point, it has been one of the
most defining activities for me, and it has guided me in making key
decisions at certain junctions of my life. Being able to understand
things that are important to me, and that matter to me according to
the purpose that I’ve been called to fulfil is priceless. Knowing what or
what not to compromise on, what to place a lot of value on and what
not to.

Here is an example,

If your long list includes;

Love, Community, Togetherness, Giving, Compassion, Hospitality; all

these could be summed up as LOVE.

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Truth, Honesty, Transparency, and Openness; could be summed up as
INTEGRITY.

Here are some principles on my long list of core values:

Truth And Honesty
Integrity
You Reap What You Sow
Delayed Gratification
Determination Might Give You A Boost But It Is Not Enough To
Get You There
Wisdom Is The Principal Thing
Speak Up When Things That Are Important To God and So To Me,
Are At Stake
Self Confidence Stems From Who God Says I Am Rather Than
Who I Am At Present Or Who I Think I Am

I made this exhaustive list years back and I still have them in my
journal to date. Your core values can keep getting refined over time as
you expand and gain greater exposure and as you journey within
purpose but the important thing about this is that it serves as an
anchor or as a basis as you move forward. The truth is, when you are
faced with success you might not know how you will act, respond or
react to success but if you have guiding principles that guide you, you
will find it much easier. For example, when huge success comes, are
you sure you will remain humble? When you become a business
magnate or the owner of a multimillion-dollar company, would you
remain humble, and would you still consider looking to God for help as
important? If you practice from now on, when you are not yet where
you see yourself in the near future, you will most likely stand true.

So start to get prepared for greatness from now. Most of what has
been discussed in this book are about getting prepared because we
are so sure of our end which will be beautiful. So we have to get

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prepared for that beautiful destination that we are pushing towards.

After grouping them, some of my core values include;

Love
Faith
Family/Community

These will guide my decision-making, for me, love includes God, my

faith includes God, and so does family/community. With these I
understand what not to compromise on, I know what price may be too
high for me to pay for my vision or dream to be accomplished.

NO PRESSURE

Never feel like you have to prove a point with your life.
Never feel like you have to live up to anyone’s expectations.

Be diligent with your set values and when you make mistakes either
out of fear or a moment of weakness, don’t feel like that is the end. It is
only an opportunity to learn how to overcome future obstacles and
strengthen your resolve.

Always look to God for help to stay true to your values. Sometimes,
when we are faced with certain difficult situations, it could be
tempting to compromise. I won’t tell you that it will always be easy but
you can’t do this alone, you need to look to God and to people who can
keep you accountable and remind you of your end goal and vision.

Be diligent with your set values but when you make mistakes either
out of fear or a moment of weakness, don’t feel like that is the end. It is
only an opportunity to learn how to overcome future obstacles and
strengthen your resolve

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Consider the assessment below and create your core values

THINK

What do I believe about myself?

What do I want people to believe about me?
Do I live by principles from the word of God? If not, how can I begin
to pay closer attention?
Do I believe in some foundational principles of God’s word like
Love?
Are there principles that society has sold to me and I have bought
into? How can I discard them and replace them with God-centered
ones?

WORK THROUGH

What are the things I stand for and what are the things I stand
against?
Do I know my worth or value?
List some standards that you will like to live by
What biblical principles clearly define the core values I will like to
live by? (quote them in your journal)
Write out an exhaustive list of principles you want to be known for
and that you want to live by
Group words with similar meanings
Select specific words that capture each group of words and lump
them into 3-8 keywords that best capture your values

MERGER

Write down the core values you created in the section above and give
them a second check to be sure they are your major values and put
them in a place where you can constantly read and meditate on them.

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 CHAPTER NINE:
VALUE CREATION

Right here is the purpose of your purpose, the reason for your vision
and the importance of your value and values; value creation. This is the
culmination of all the principles that you have learnt throughout this
book and, I believe, are currently practising. It is to create value that
your creator will celebrate you for and that will greatly impact the
earth in an “earth-shattering” manner.

The reason you have to have the right perception about yourself and
identify the right set of principles by which you will lead your life is that
you will be creating value through your purpose and vision.

Remember, although your purpose is about you, it is not for you. This
means that if your purpose was to serve only yourself, then there is no
reason to exist here on earth because the earth will have no use for
your presence and it would have been better if you were living in a
vacuum. However, you are here on earth because you are meant to
serve a purpose that is not just for you but for others as well.

The reason for your existence is so that you can fulfil a particular
mandate in your location, which is the earth in general. Even the
scripture talks about how the creations are groaning and are in
anticipation of the manifestations of the sons of God - of which you
are one. This means that your purpose allows you the opportunity to
have something to offer mankind. For every human created, there is an
inherent ability to meet a particular need of another individual, a
family, a city, a nation, or the world.

There is a need with your name on it because you hold the solution,
you are God’s way of answering the prayers that have been said on

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earth and are still being said. So, this is what it means to be a value
creator.

“Value” is simply something of great worth without which a particular

goal cannot be achieved. Value is a solution that elicits value in return
which is known as “returned value”. This returned value can be as high a
price as the life of a person or as low as material things. For example,
Christ gave His life for your sake because you are very valuable to God
who had to send His son - Jesus Christ, whose life is also very
valuable.

Value is an answer to a pressing challenge or need. Value is a potent

offering that can not be resisted because of its inherent ability to
bring relief, progress, expansion, fulfilment, etc.

For every human created, there is an inherent ability to meet the need
of another individual, a family, a city, a nation, or the world

THE VALUE YOU CREATE

The reason for discovering purpose and seeing great visions is so that
you can create value. The value you create is your greatest gift to the
world because you are a solution to many of the world’s challenges. So
you see, irrespective of your situation, you are a person of great value
and you have value to offer the world. This lays an even greater onus
upon you to see how valuable you really are, not just to yourself but to
the world at large. If you decide to hold back, the world would suffer
from a lack of your value, your presence, or your impact. Therefore,
don’t hold back! You have a whole lot to offer the world and the earth
is earnestly waiting for you to manifest and to offer value because it
needs it. Your value is meant to meet a particular need on the earth.

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FIVE STEPS TO BECOMING A VALUE CREATOR

The reason for these steps is so that you would be able to draw out the
value within yourself. Your value is not something you take come from
the outside in but rather, inside out because it has been deposited in
you by virtue of the fact that you have a purpose to fulfil. Before now,
you weren’t sure of what your purpose was, you may still be slightly
unsure but at least you are aware that you do have a purpose to fulfil.
The expressions of your purpose are activated through the value that
you can create in whatever areas of life. Here are five ways to become
a value creator by the virtue of the purpose that lies within you.

1. Get wisdom and understanding

Every value created came from wisdom. Wisdom in simple terms
means knowing exactly what step applies to a particular situation, and
the best source of fail-proof wisdom is Christ Jesus. Wisdom goes
hand-in-hand with understanding. Only a man of understanding can
truly possess wisdom.

Proverbs 4:7 “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: And
with all thy getting get understanding”

You may feel like you have nothing to offer the world right now but the
truth is that you have as much to offer as the magnitude of wisdom
that you carry. Through the scriptures, God asked anyone who seeks
wisdom to simply ask Him for it, this means that there is no end to the
value that you have the potential to create as long as you keep getting
wisdom from above. So you see, you are an endless bundle of value
and you have a lot of value within you, waiting to get unleashed by
your alignment with the truth of God’s word. As long as God continues
to possess wisdom and as long as you keep having access to this
wisdom, there is no end to the amount of value that you can give, so
never stop asking for wisdom, the more you ask, the more you get.

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There is no end to your wisdom, as long as you keep getting wisdom
from above (James 3:17)

2. Empathy
Empathy means being able to assume the position or experiences of
another person even if you haven’t particularly had the same
experiences or been in the same position as that person. Empathy is
slightly different from sympathy. Empathy means putting yourself in
someone else’s shoes. To be a value creator, you have to be able to
empathise with the problems that the solutions you are bringing to the
table will solve as well as the people facing such problems. This is the
only way you can bring a solution that actually works, by
psychologically taking on other people’s experiences and asking
yourself that if you were in their position, what steps would you have
taken to solve the challenge, with this, you are able to draw out a
concrete solution from within yourself. Of course, all of these should
occur within the context of your purpose, as there are several problems
in the world, your purpose should define which ones should be a priority
to you. Without empathy, true value cannot be created because
empathy gives a broader view of the problem and a more accurate
way of creating solutions. In this case, the solution is the value that
you create. For example, If you were a baker, one of your key
motivations could be how certain children born into low-income
earning families in your neighbourhood or city, can only dream of
having a birthday cake due to the inability to afford it. This problem of
deprivation for children and your empathy can inspire you to be
creative with your ingredients and pricing plan, such that you can sell
quality cakes to such families at a price that they can afford to pay.
This way, you have been able to create value through empathy.
Providing value from empathy goes hand-in-hand with creating
impact which doesn’t mean you can’t be profitable, in fact, the better
and more strategic the value you create, the more profit you can have
access to. A value creator is not always only thinking about how to

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receive from others but also how to give and add value to them. They
are constantly seeking ways to add value to people. You are a natural
value creator as long as you are walking in your purpose.

Without empathy, true value cannot be created because empathy

gives a broader view of the problem and a more accurate way of
creating the solutions

3. Openness
You have to be open-minded to see exactly what gap you are meant
to fill or that the value you create should fill, and you should be ready
to gain the needed knowledge and expertise. As a value creator, you
must be ready to learn and improve your skills and knowledge.

4. Give
To be a value creator, you have to be a giver. You cannot be a value
creator if you are not a giver. You need to be totally unselfish and
open-handed to be able to create the value that the world needs and
will use. Be ready to give value and it will be easier to create more
value.

5. Be a Visionary
A visionary is someone who doesn't see the world as it is but who sees
the world as it could be. A value creator is a visionary who is ready to
keep seeing opportunities in challenges and the potential in problems.
It is through these that the ideas that would create the needed values
can come. Therefore, have a vision and see the big picture, the more
you see, the more your mind is seeded with value-creation ideas.

A value creator is a visionary, who is ready to keep seeing

opportunities in challenges and potential in problems

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4 STEPS TO GENERATING THE VALUE THAT THE WORLD NEEDS

1. Understand Your Purpose

Since your purpose is not just about you but meant for creating value
on earth, then it is essential in giving direction on the value you can
create.

Ask yourself the 4 WH questions:

Why you are

Who you are
What you are meant to do
How you are meant to do those things

From the above, you can recognise your passions i.e. what you can do
with little or no external motivation (although, the need for internal
motivation is constant) and what you don’t get tired of doing. You
have to be able to understand your purpose to generate the kinds of
value that the world needs.

2. Identify The Problems That Your Purpose Solves At Different

Junctions Or Seasons Of Your Life
You were not just created with a purpose for the sake of it, your
purpose is meant to serve others, however, there’s no way you would
serve others that you wouldn’t be the first beneficiary. There may be
different problems your purpose will lead you to solve at different
junctions of your life, you only have to pay attention and stay on
course. In cases where you are solving the same problems, the scale of
your impact will keep increasing as you grow. Every person’s purpose is
targeted towards solving a problem and of course, the focus may
change or increase in measure from one season of your life to another.

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3. Know Your Delivery
Understand the means of delivering the solutions embedded within
your being. Know your packaging. For example, is it meant to be a
product, a service, a training; a free service or a paid one? Is it meant
to be delivered through a team of people with the same vision or
carried out as a solopreneur? Or through social media by putting out
content or maintaining an online community? Through community
development initiatives, through a business or a non-profit
organisation? and so on. This is part of the expression of your purpose
in value delivery. You have to understand how you are meant to
present the solution to the world. Your purpose already directs you to
the solution, it will also define your mode of delivery.

4. Know Its Impact

Understand who the target people are, those who are meant to benefit
from the value that you are creating.

Who are you providing this value to?

Who are the people whose lives will be impacted by the value you
create?
Where are they?
Does your method of delivery suit them?
Does the value you are offering meet their needs?

Here are two ways for defining these target people.

1. Their demographics: this includes physical location, age range,

social and economic status, race, ethnicity, marital status, etc. All
you can physically see and know about them.
2. Their psychographics: this includes their belief system, their
emotional framework, their thought processes, their behaviour, etc.
For example, the psychographics of children is different from
those of retirees, or even young adults, so you have to understand

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 who you are creating value for.

All of these can be applied to whatever expression of purpose you may

be pursuing at any point in time. It could be in business, career,
relationships with people, etc. Value creation and delivery are
important in all aspects of life and they can be appreciated in different
ways. The most important thing is to know the value that you are
meant to create and understand what problem it is solving.

REWARDS FOR VALUE CREATION

When you create value, it’s not just about ticking off the boxes, some
rewards come to you by default.

1. Fulfilment
It is a regular saying that purpose brings fulfilment, however, mere
knowledge about your purpose does not bring fulfilment. Fulfilment
comes when you can create value with your purpose. When you
through the working of your purpose create value for the world, you are
the first beneficiary, this is where the sense of fulfilment begins. At
every point of having delivered value, you will feel a sense of fulfilment.

2. Heavenly Celebrations
Heaven rejoices when you create and deliver value because you are
fulfilling your divine mandate within the heavenly vision. You are a
piece of the Master’s puzzle and once you fit into your own space,
there is a celebration in heaven because it is important to heaven that
God’s eternal purpose is fulfilled, so your vision finds a place within
God’s vision. This is why your vision must be sourced from God.

3. Satisfaction
Your material and immaterial needs are met. When you create value,

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the quality of your life increases which can include material
possessions, health needs, emotional and mental wellbeing, etc. This
may not reach a peak immediately but there will be a progressive
increase in your life, so you will be satisfied in all respects of life.

Walking in purpose gives you a chance to make a mark in the sands of

times but much more than that, you have an opportunity to shape
eternity with God

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Consider the assessment below and create your core values

THINK

Have I been able to understand at least a fragment of my life’s

purpose?
What is the smallest value I can offer someone else (whether for
monetary or non-monetary exchange) with ease and eagerness?
What problems do I find easy to empathize with? (could be from
personal experience or shared experience)
What can I give as a gift to the world – a product of what makes
me unique?
What visions do I see for myself, my family, my community, my
country or the world?
What are some of the sacrifices I might have to make now to
begin moving towards attaining the vision for my life?

WORK THROUGH

What are the things I stand for and what are the things I stand
against?
Do I know my worth or value?
List some standards that you will like to live by
What biblical principles clearly define the core values I will like to
live by? (quote them in your journal)
Write out an exhaustive list of principles you want to be known for
and that you want to live by
Group words with similar meanings
Select specific words that capture each group of words and lump
them into 3-8 keywords that best capture your values

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MERGER

Go through all that has been learnt in this book and work through all
the exercises and assessments if you haven’t. If you have, continue to
expand into greater levels of manifestations.

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 FINAL WORDS: THE PRICE

“Would a man who wants to build a house begin without counting the
cost? Lest he builds halfway and realises that he doesn’t have all it
takes to build it” - Paraphrased from one of the teachings of Jesus
Christ in the Holy Bible (Luke 14: 28-29).

For every successful and earth-shattering endeavour that has been

made, a price has had to be paid. Jesus Christ paid with His life and
many others have sacrificed their lives, their desires, their comforts,
their time, their wealth, etc.

It will be absolutely unkind of me not to say that although you stand a

chance to live the most amazing life now and beyond, it may cost you
as well. I can, however, assure you that if you set out on this journey of
purpose, you will be entering into the realm of an overcomer and the
sacrifices will be nothing compared to the rewards.

You have a chance at making a mark in the sands of times but much
more than that, you have an opportunity to shape eternity with God.
The world has not yet seen who you shall become. Go ahead and
release your uniqueness and impact on the world.

Never forget: I love you! And you can do more than you think!

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 About This Book

This book is unique in its pragmatism and ease of application to

real life. This book will walk you through how to set out on living a
triumphant life of purpose where you experience daily fulfilment.

Here, you have in your hands or on your device, a book that

reveals principles of purpose that have been tested and proven
and your decision to read through, will be one of the most
life-transforming decisions that you make. Do enjoy and live an
exciting life with God!

About The Author

Temidayo Salako is a creator sent to

transform the economy of nations by
building transgenerational and
replicable systems following the unique
strategy of helping their human capital
achieve their full potential.