HOW TO HAVE A GREAT YEAR 2014

“Today is the tomorrow you once talked about yesterday”

                                  –Arreytambe Tabot

If you haven’t realized this then let me say it again in black and white ink, “TIME WAITS FOR NOBODY!” We as a people have had such a warped understanding of time. We have adopted certain truisms that aren’t true without questioning their origin and authenticity. For example we say things like “Life begins at 40” who said so? Why would you wait to get to 40 to begin living when you can start enjoying everyday life today? People make resolutions to have a better New Year than the former but amazingly these resolutions never see the light of day. They find themselves sliding back into the very things that held them down thereby missing again every resolution they made in the New Year. At the time of my writing this post it is already 30^th January, 2014 and 2 days to February. Sometimes we wonder where the time went to. I’m sure like me you can remember the 1^st of January like it was yesterday. This is exactly how the time passes by and before you or anyone can say Jack Robinson, the year is over and we are again preparing to cross over into 2015. So knowing that time waits for nobody and also taking cognizance of the fact that today well lived will prepare you for a better tomorrow, what should you do before this month wraps up in order to be guaranteed a great year 2014? Here is what you should do… 

1. Retreat in order to advance

I know this point was supposed to come at the end of the year 2013 but I dare to share it here because I am certain that there are many of you reading this article who didn’t have a proper retreat before getting into the New Year. The importance of taking time out from work, family, etc. in order to spend quality time with yourself and God cannot be overemphasized. No matter how much of a planner you are without getting God’s input on the matter you are bound to miss it or hit it but still miss it because you hit the wrong target. Like I always say it makes no sense running up the ladder of life only to realize that it had been leaning against the wrong wall or running and finishing the race but getting disqualified because you ran in another man’s lane. So call a time out, get a book or two with you (I recommend THE COMPOUND EFFECT by Darren Hardy), your Bible, a pen and go to some place where you can have a quiet time with God. Avoid carrying things like tablets, phones and all. You won’t die if you don’t check your emails or Facebook for three days. 

2. Be specific in your plans

“I want to have a better year” and the question I will ask is “How better?” Saying you want to have a better year than the past doesn’t help you in anyway achieve your goal for a better year. It is not specific and when it comes to achieving goals you have to give your mind something to work with. The goal is the input needed by your mind which acts as the processor bringing together whatever innate abilities lie within you to full force so as to help in the achievement of that goal. For example a written goal like “I want to read web programming for 1 hour a day from 7a.m. to 8a.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Friday” is a specific goal which brings us to the next point. 

3. Your goals must be measurable 

Can you measure a better year? Of course not it’s too vague. But the goal I wrote in the previous nugget can be measured with precision and accuracy. All I need to do is come over to your place or wherever you would be studying between 7 a.m. and 8a.m. and I will find out if your studying web programming or not. If you can’t measure your goals, I guarantee you that the probability of achieving them is close to 0. 

4. Beware of the pie in the sky 

You also want to make sure that your goals are achievable if not you may end up experiencing burn out, frustration and eventually quitting. You can’t say that by the end of 2014, you would have saved a million dollars when your monthly income is not even up to a thousand dollars unless you’re planning to win it big gambling at the Casino tables in Las Vegas. News flash! You are far more likely to get struck by lightning on a dry day than win a million dollars gambling in Vegas. “But what about Multiple Streams of Income?” Yes, you may have multiple streams of income but the truth is this is still a very unrealistic goal. There is a famous saying that “Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.” Remember everything happens in the process of time so don’t bite more than you can chew in a year. 

5. Set realistic time frames 

In other words, your major goals for the year must be broken down in smaller goals that can be achieved within a day, a month or a year. In this way what you are doing is that you taking care of the smaller things in such a way that they add up to the big picture. Another element worthy of note when setting realistic time frames for your goals is the concept of prioritization. You should ensure that you are spending more of your time on the most important goals rather than the least important ones. Don’t sweat the small stuff or the things that can be outsourced. Your time is your life. Let nothing steal that away from you this year. You also want to make sure that you eliminate procrastination completely or if you have to then it’s better to procrastinate on the things that steal your time. When you find yourself saying “I will, I will” wake up and just do it “Now”. 

6. Be thankful in everything 

You may be wondering what this has got to do with having a great year in 2014 but I will tell you that it has everything to do with it. A thankful spirit will do you more good than an ungrateful one. This is what brings every other thing into perspective. What if after doing everything you know to do, the results you expect don’t show forth? All you have to do is look at the one thing that worked and be thankful for it.  You are better off in many ways than many people so you ought to give God thanks for that. A living dog is better than a dead lion. If you are alive and still have breath in you then I assure you that there is hope for a turnaround. Keep your spirit alive and you will be sure to get what you desire. That’s the reason why I included this video from the Thanksgiving service of December 2013 at Family Worship Center, Abuja, Nigeria. It was after watching the video again myself that I felt like “wow God is really good!” That got me fired up and enlarged my vision for 2014. Make a decision to share with somebody what God has done for you and you will be amazed at the results. Thankful people are blessed people.

                

If you need any further assistance on anything mentioned here please feel free to send me an email at tabotarreytambe@gmail.com and I would try to provide the best help I can to you. Have a great year 2014!!!

A JOB IS NOT WHAT YOU NEED

If you have been around me for a while then you will know that one of the most frequent questions I ask people in every chat formal or informal is "What are you working on?" Without fail 80% of the time I hear people say things like "I am working on getting a good job" or "I am job hunting" and all its variants. I can't attempt to debate the fact that a well paying job in a great organization can mean a lot of things to a lot of people. In fact a good number of people do have what they call "dream companies" to work for. All of that's great. But can I tell you something that's even more better and sweeter than the 9 to 5 daily grind? It's PURPOSE. Now this is one thing that has been talked about, written about and heard by a countless number of people over the centuries yet few seem to get it right. This post however is not really about defining your purpose, discovering your purpose and what have you. There are very good books on the subject by various thought leaders. I strongly recommend that you get one from your local bookstore or place an order from wherever and get right into it. But what I want to drive home here is this. Every modern society can be divided into 7 spheres of influence and everyone of us without exception have been wired by our Creator to dominate one or more of these spheres of influence. Here they are in no particular order;

1. Spiritual

2. Government/politics
3. Business

4. Education
5. Media
6. Entertainment
7. Sports

Now here is a little fun exercise I have for you. Take each sphere of influence and see if you can find someone whose name has become synonymous with it because of the influence they have been able to exert in this sphere. Deal? Here is my own list according to the order given above;

1. T.D. Jakes
2. Barack Obama
3. Warren Buffett
4. Albert Einstein

5. Oprah Winfrey

6. Jay-Z

7. Lionel Messi

Questions to Answer.

-What's your list like?  (You can share it with me in a comment on this post)

-Where would you place yourself if you were asked to based on the 7 spheres?

-Are you really justified in doing so looking at the current level of influence you are having in that sphere?

If you had difficulties with the last two questions then it means that 1.) You haven't fully come to grips with where your greatest strength and call is. 2.) You currently are not making much of an impact in your sphere and that brings me to the last question.

How do I become a leader in my sphere of influence?

It's simple.

1.) Find your lane and stay on it no matter how tough it gets. You cannot be a leader in your sphere of influence by spreading yourself too thin. Many people are "jack of all trades yet masters of none". They have become that proverbial octopus on roller skates with so much motion in different directions and no tangible impact to go with it. Such a trait will kill your ability to become truly great faster than anything you can think of. Lionel Messi is known for sports not Business. Oprah is known for media not Politics. Warren Buffett is known for business not Entertainment. Find your lane, hone your skills and stay there until you hit it.

2.) Follow the leaders to become a leader. I am sure you have heard of the phrase "Today a follower, tomorrow a leader" or the phrase "He who can't follow can't lead." Who is your role model? Who are your mentors? Who are your 5 closest friends? All these questions must be answered with absolute clarity. Read biographies on successful people in your field. Find out what made them tick. Read books on them and get a respectable mentor who can see the potential in you and learn from them. Every leader you see today had someone they looked up to for counsel and direction. I repeat again every leader without exception had a role model or someone whose book they read and captured their ideals and made them theirs. No man is an island. You need a support system. 

3.) Don't follow the trend rather blaze new trails. We live in a world where everything goes. Today we hear that saggy pants are the "in" thing. We let our pants ride low sometimes showing off dirty boxers all in the name of "swag". Tomorrow it is about pushup bras and deep cleavages. Preachers begin to get into trouble during counseling sessions. The next time we hear that there are new parties in town where people are free to smoke weed, drink liquor and have sex. Hmmm, "yeah! get me tickets for two"...Helloooooo!!! Are you a thermometer or a thermostat? "But I will be seen as the odd one if I don't conform". Truth is the people who have made the most impact in their spheres have never been conformist to begin with. They set new trends not follow dying ones. (A more elaborate post on this particular point later).

4.) Lastly, Be a generational thinker. If you will sit for a moment and reflect on the decisions you are making today and how they would affect future generations tomorrow, you will doubtless make many amends. To become a leader in your sphere means you have accepted to take responsibility in creating and delivering the future you would desire your successors to live in. At all times this thought must guide our actions. Why would you want to play around with your future knowing that you only get to live once?Or why would you want to be known as the "baddest guy in town" knowing that some day you would have a family and kids to look after? Remember, whatsoever a man sows that and only that will he reap. Sow the right seeds and you will be glad you did.

WHAT WE ALL NEED- PART 1

It is often said that, “There is no such thing as constant as change itself”. I can still fully picture the year 2008 like it was yesterday with all its hype when billions of people around the world witnessed the election of President Barack Obama as the forty-fourth and first African-American President of the United States of America. History was once again made! That night I sat glued to my TV screen watching CNN as they covered the race to the White House live and reported on every aspect of the voting exercise up until the point when his overwhelming victory was announced. His victory seemed to spell hope to everyone who had lost hope and the dawn of a new era to everyone who had been defeated by the adverse circumstances life sometimes throws at us. One could see people like “The Queen of Talk”, Oprah Winfrey and Rev. Jesse Jackson shed tears of joy in the emotional crowd that gathered in Chicago as they watched their ray of hope mount the podium to deliver his victory speech in some of these words;

“It’s been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day,

     in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America.”

                                         -Excerpt Obama acceptance speech, 2008

Famous secular artists like Kanye West, Jay-Z, amongst others and also Grammy Award-winning Gospel singer Yolanda Adams released songs about Obama’s victory all pointing to the birth of a new era for Black America.

It was clearly evident that people were tired and needed a change. They didn’t care whether he was black, white or even purple as long as he “promised” to deliver the goods and his political agenda perfectly blended in with what their hearts longed and cried out for. They saw the change they could believe in lying within the ranks a man who seemed to have a sound mastery of the intricacies into the hidden solutions to all America’s problems. The country was in profound debt, a disheartened people fed up with broken promises on Main Street and the corporate greed exhibited by some of the Gordon Gekko’s on Wall Street, an ailing government battling to the mitigate the effect of failed policies and the closing down of giant Investment Banking Corporations like Lehman Brothers with others screaming out for bail out, unemployment was at an all-time high, soldiers were being killed on a daily basis in Iraq and Afghanistan, two wars that were costing millions of dollars with no definitive end. In fact a lot was going on which had to be remedied. Obama seemed to be America’s and even the world’s man of the hour and thus everyone wanted him on board so that they could finally see “The change they could believe in.”

But again I ask myself, how the most powerful Nation on earth got to such a position to begin with as we know that something like this wouldn’t have happened instantly with the cast of a spell or the wave of a magic wand as we read in the fairy tales but rather as a culmination of a string of events tightly knit together. Let me put it to you then that things had been disintegrating long before this great collapse and the severity of these little cracks were never wholly perceived in the light of the Global Economy. Some individuals were doing certain things they shouldn’t have done or taking oversight of the things they should have taken seriously. The Global financial meltdown and its cronies I would say then were only the fruit (manifestation) of the seeds that had been planted long before this whole thing went off beam. 

                                                                      To be continued...

NEVER TOO LATE TO BEGIN AGAIN

 

THE ADRENALINE RUSH

I can vividly remember like it was yesterday how we threw our caps in midair, with shouts of triumph when the Vice-Chancellor declared that we were now graduates of the University of Buea, Cameroon. It had been a sweet and sour undergraduate experience which had finally come to an end as we all heaved sighs of relief and said a final goodbye to “The place to be” as it was popularly called. Graduating at the top 5% of my class, I was excited, full of energy and believed that I was now highly equipped to go into the world and make a difference no matter how small. Many years have now past by and I can confidently say that I am still walking that line. With a penchant for research, I joined the Laboratory of Research on Advanced Materials and Nonlinear Sciences at the University of Buea, Cameroon headed by Dr. Dikande Alain Moise, a seasoned researcher, Alexander Von Humboldt Fellow and ICTP Senior Associate.

I was under his tutelage as a Postgraduate research student studying for an MSc. in Physics from the Academic years 2008-2009 and 2009-2010. We worked in the following areas; optics and non-linear communication, theoretical condensed matter physics, non-linear dynamics and complex systems and material sciences. The topic of my Thesis was “Mesoscopic electrical circuits with Q-charge states: the quantum Soliton-effect electronics” which has its application in the long distance transmission of power over electric cable lines. My work with the laboratory amongst other well-grounded researchers gave me a deeper understanding on how to carry out independent and collaborative research using the right methodologies and also how to communicate effectively. It also opened up my eyes to the world of publications and conferences. All seemed very rosy until early 2010 when my life came grinding to a halt due to an unexpected encounter with computer programming.

EUREKA! EUREKA!

After having spent over a year and two months at the Laboratory with barely seven months left to bag my Master’s degree in Physics, I withdrew from the Laboratory, abandoned my work, bought an HP laptop and started studying programming. What had happened was that in the course of the Master’s program, we did a course in Computational physics where I had had a stint with programming using FORTRAN and this changed everything about me. I soon began to realize how passionate I was for that course over others. I had done courses like Introduction to Computer Science I and II, Computer Architecture, Artificial Intelligence, Logic programming and Symbolic Computing, Databases and Operating Systems during my undergraduate days which led up to my minor in Computer Science. However, my encounter with computer programming at the postgraduate level was more of a “Eureka” moment for me and this completely disrupted my entire career path. During this period away from the Laboratory, I started playing around with MySQL and Access for fun and began developing websites using HTML and CSS. This I did for over three months until I stumbled upon some information for a postgraduate scholarship in Computer Science at the African University of Science and Technology, Abuja, Nigeria which I applied for. I was selected from a pool of applicants from different Nationalities and awarded a $15,000US dollar scholarship by the integrated long distance Telecommunications Company, Phase 3 Telecom Ltd. to study at the aforementioned University. The Scholarship package also included a 6-month paid internship at the company Headquarters.

While doing my MSc in Computer Science, I took, excelled at and fell in love with courses like Software Engineering, Data Structures and Algorithms, Computer Architecture and Design, Modeling Paradigms and Smartphone Applications development just to name a few. Because of my former background as a Physicist, my Supervisor Prof. Mohamed Hamada, lecturer and Head of the Software Engineering Laboratory at the University of Aizu, Japan and visiting Professor at my University saw an opportunity for me to be engaged in Interdisciplinary research which included three branches; Computer Science, Learning Science and Physics. I defended my Thesis entitled, “A Multimedia Learning System for selected topics of Physics” in December, 2011 from which I published my first paper by the same name with the prestigious Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). The paper is now available on IEEE Xplore for $31US dollars per download. I made my first International travel to Istanbul, Turkey for the paper presentation fully sponsored by my University and through this met and rubbed minds with top researchers like Prof. Oussama Khatib, well-renown Stanford University Robotics Professor, Prof. Okyay Kaynak, UNESCO Chair on Mechatronics, Bogazici University amongst many others. Upon completion of my Master’s program, I was retained by my University as a Teaching/ Research Assistant where I basically assisted on the courses Telecommunications Engineering and Automata Theory at the MSc. level while delving deeper into research work. In August 2012, I joined the newly formed Active and Smart Media Research Group as a coordinator overseeing 5 MSc. students with my former supervisor Prof. Mohamed Hamada serving as Group Lead. We worked on the design and development of Multimedia Learning Systems for different platforms and topics, e-learning supporting tools for active and smart learning, Integration of Artificial Intelligence Techniques to the systems to create Intelligent Tutoring Systems, Integration of Learning Style Index into the systems to measure the learning preferences, Integration of motivational real-life examples into the systems and the experimental evaluations for the systems. In just 7 months since I took up the position of coordinator of the group, we were able to see the following successes; 90% implementation of Multimedia content on Android platform for Automata Theory, Compiler, Physics, Information and Communication Theory, and Data Structures as well as an IEEE major conference paper, two book chapters already published by NOVA Science publications and made available on Amazon.com, and a conference paper published by INTED 2013.

THE LESSON

The truth is a whole lot has happened in less than 3 years and I will share more of that as time progresses but let me send a few points home so that you get a holistic view of what I am trying to convey in this post. Many people find themselves stuck on a job or a career because they are too scared to begin again. Either they think they are too old to go back to school, learn a new skill, or simply get a new job. In my opinion the fear of beginning again has held more people in bondage and limited their capability to achieve more than the worst financial crisis has kept people in poverty. I see this every day of my life and it saddens me because the question I often ask myself is, “How long do they think they are going to be here on this planet earth?” Why tie yourself down to a job just because you want to pay the bills, feed and clothe yourself when there is much more than you can be doing that will automatically take care of these basic needs? When I made the decision to quit the MSc. program in Physics it was a tough call which dealt me some serious blows. My supervisor who had specifically chosen me out of 7 others in my class to work with was utterly disappointed. My parents couldn’t imagine I was about to quit school to go learn computer programming after all the money they had spent. In fact an uncle of mine who happened to be an authority figure in my life told me that there was no money in Computer Science and went as far as equating it to what computer maintenance professionals do and suggested that Electrical Engineering would be a better option. Within me too were internal wrangling’s which took away my sleep and left me wallowing in a gulf of confusion. But once the decision was finally made I felt an overwhelming peace on the inside knowing that there was light at the end of the tunnel and it wasn’t an oncoming train! It appeared this somewhat “dumb” act began to attract all the resources necessary to take me to where I wanted to go and today after 3 years and 7 months, I am a PhD candidate due to graduate before the end of this year 2014. Now listen to this very carefully, 

• A baby shark kept in a small aquarium would only grow to a few inches in length. But the same shark placed in the ocean would grow to become a giant killer. That’s the same debilitating effect fear would have on you. Super achievers have fears too but the difference is that they refuse to be overcome by them. 

• Make a plan for your life before life makes its plans for you. I can guarantee you with all certainty that life’s plans for you are not what you desire. They say he who fails to plan by default plans to fail. You can’t coast around with no definitive goals in life and expect to win big. 
• Expect to fail along your way to succeeding. The difference between successful people and the unsuccessful is that successful people fail many more times than the unsuccessful yet refuse to be seen as failures. Someone once said that, “Success is on the far side of failure.” If you are afraid of failing then you probably would never achieve anything substantial. See failing as an opportunity to learn something new and then start all over again with this new knowledge in mind. 

• Be cautious when you listen to the “experts”. The “experts” sometimes are the people in your life, who believe they know you better than anyone else, want the best for you and also know which course of action you ought to take. They might be sincere in their suggestions to you but they might also be sincerely wrong. So listen to them with caution and be very selective with what you adopt from them as best practice.

• Finally, don’t be afraid to begin again. It might just be the best thing that ever happened to you. It makes no sense to have raced up the ladder of life at full speed only to realize that it had been leaning against the wrong wall. You are not in a competition with anybody. You have your own race and you are on your own lane. Stop trying to keep up with the Joneses. Stay on your lane and win.

          
          See you at the top!