Some circumstances we go through in life are inevitable. No matter your religion, race, color, gender, association or expectations, our story is not unique. Someone may be going through worse, but hei..there’s never a point in our lives where we aren’t going through something of a sort.
Circumstances don’t obey the law of sowing and reaping.
You do not have to be worthy of what you go through in life. What you go through does not care about you. It does not care what you care. So when you are going through something that seems unfair to what you are, it is nothing new.
Circumstances do not define you.
What you go through is not what you are. It’s always important to be able to differentiate between the two. The fact that you go through ups and downs does not mean even your emotions should follow suite.
James said “count it all joy when trials come your way” (James 1:2). Why should you be so anxious when you go through a difficult situation? We have the power to live above our situation, not the other way round. What you are should never change or fluctuate because of circumstances.
Our dog’s ability to be always happy to see us regardless is extremely underrated.
You actually have the power to define your circumstance. How? By your reactions toward it. 1 Thess 5:18 says “Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s Will for you in Christ Jesus.”
It said, “in all things give thanks”, not “for all things give thanks”. God didn’t say thank Him for that accident. He said have the heart and lifestyle of thanksgiving, even if you have an accident.
Nobody is rich in time or poor in time. Everyone has 24 hours every day. Your dream is only a wish until it has a plan. The secret to success in life is the effective management of time and change. The principle key to management of time and change is planning.
Time is present anyway. Planning is giving time purpose. The best way to predict the future is to invent it. Even God has a plan, how much more you. What I like about God is that He always exceeds our plans (Jeremiah 29:11). But if you do not have a plan, you give away your life to chance; life will toss you anywhere anyhow.
Do not plan your life independent of God’s purpose. Synchronise your plans with God’s purpose. Proverbs 19:21 says, “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails”.
Remember, your daily plans must bring you closer and closer to achieving your life’s purpose.
P.S. This information is from Dr Myles Monroe and not the author’s own words.
Lecrae’s song with Kari Jobe “Broken” starts with the verse, “we’re all broken”. It’s true. When you lost that loved one; when your closest friend walked away; when you were insulted or assaulted for no reason; when you were harshly spoken against by family; when you failed that test and your problems piled up, you were probably broken. Right now, as you read this you’re probably down.
A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance: but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken. Proverbs 15:13 KJV
But that is not the end of the story. Winners don’t quit and quitters don’t win. What you must know for sure is that life throws new problems at us while we are still working on the old ones. That’s how come we are like, ” why me?”, “why this particular time?”. The reality is that problems are the human definition of an opportunity to grow. Comfort zone is a beautiful place but nothing grows there. Challenges spice up life and make you discover something already in you that you never knew of.
Sometimes it’s okay to cry. “Blessed are those who weep, for they shall be comforted.” If you don’t weep, how can you be comforted? There’s no point in appearing strong on the outside when you’re broken on the inside. It will make things worse in the near future. “God is closer to the brokenhearted”. The Holy Spirit is your Comforter. He will restore your soul. Cry on His Shoulders.
“And the apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.” So the Lord said, “If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, “Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.” Luke 17:5-6Mulberry TreeNotice in the verse above that Jesus didn’t say ask God to uproot the mulberry tree. Sometimes out of desperation, we pray to God to take “Goliath” away. But Jesus told us to speak to the mountain and to the tree, the obstacle. Speak! That is the believer’s authority. In the above verse, notice that the verbs (pulled up, planted) are in the past tense. It is called the passive imperative tense. It means speaking about something that will happen like it has already happened. Faith is not believing in what God will do. It is believing in what He has already done. So when you speak, speak as if it is done. Notice that it is also a command and not a request. “Be pulled up!” not “please go”. Command that sickness to leave. Command that burden to fall off. Command that yoke to be destroyed. Command that curse to be uprooted. Command it in Jesus’ name.“Do I have to say it once and fight my mind from doubting?”. Jesus said, “if you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say…” The phrase “you can say” is the Greek word “lego” which is in the imperfect active imperative tense. This means it is a repeated action. It means as long as you don’t give up, it will come to pass. When God sends His Word, it doesn’t return to Him void. When you send His Word, it won’t return to you void.When you stop believing, it is like cancelling the Word you sent. Because Faith is the driving force of the Word. The Word is a Word of Faith. So I want you now you keep believing. And keep speaking. Speak words into the atmosphere. Speak words into the universe. And as long as you hold on to Faith, the Word will not return to you void.I love you ❤
If you live in the past too long, you will be depressed. If you live in the future too long, you will be anxious. The only place you are designed to live is in the present, with your back towards your past and your face looking towards the future. Hope is imagining your future with God in it. Hope is one of the things – hope, faith and love – that will last forever, amazingly. That means God is so awesome that He expects us to look forward to His wondrous glory even in the times of the New Heaven and New Earth. He never ceases to amaze us.
Sinach’s single epitomizes God’s assurance of everlasting Hope (1 Cor 13:13)
That’s why I love Sinach’s song “He Did It Again”. There’s a line that goes, “and when I thought that He had done too much, Jesus did it again.” I have realised that the relevance of Hope is sadly missing. Over-ambition is not hope. Hope is confidence in patience. You can have faith and lack hope. In other words, you can totally believe in what God can do and still see hopelessness in your situation. You are not doubting God. You are just imagining a future without God in it. If a “makeup world” you have imagined is causing you distress, why don’t you just simply make up something good?
It is so easy to wallow in hopelessness. We just lie down and think of all the problems we have in the world just because we are starving and do not have enough money. One small mistake we make, make us think about all the stupid decisions we have ever made and how bad we are when it comes to such situations.
The more we wallow in hopelessness, the more we feel like the most miserable person in the world.
When we remember out of nowhere how someone misunderstood us; then we link to when we were misunderstood by another guy sometime back; then another link to a very similar experience 2 years ago; then we link it to 6 more examples at once; then we are like, “I’m the most misunderstood person in the world
😩😩”.
All this happens under 5 minutes. It all started from one small not-even-a-big-deal problem. Then one seemingly harmless thought. Before you realise, you’ve had a bad day. This happens way too often. And today, we are leaving this attitude with all its accompanying emotions of hopelessness behind us. If my mind brings up a problem and another problem tries to connect to it, say “no! Not today.” We are learning to tackle one issue at a time, one step at a time.
If doctors were told how many patients they will attend to in even a day, hopelessness may set in. But they attend to all these patients one at a time wonderfully. If teachers made a big fuss about the number of papers they had to mark, no one would like to be a lecturer of a huge class.
You can never tackle all your problems at once so don’t think of all of them at once
Some moments are just not the right time to think about important issues. When you wake up at the wrong side of your bed, don’t think about the reason why you were born. It may seem like a good thing to do but it will filter towards you and leave you with negative emotions and hopelessness. Someone may then ask, when is the right time to think about your problems? When you have properly dealt with your anxiety about the problems.
Going over and over allll your problems will not help you, it will not heal you, it will not even get anything fixed. It is just a pity-party.
If you want to talk about your problems, make sure the person listening is a person with hope; someone who will make up for your hopelessness. Don’t also think you always need someone to talk to. Once you get attached to that thinking and no one is ready to listen, it will add insult to your injury. Know when to deal with your personal issues personally. Know when to invite a 3rd party. Either ways, God is willing to talk about it with you. Yes He already knows but He wants to hear you pour your heart out to Him. He is closer to the brokenhearted. Just like David the psalmist, we are looking within ourselves on this day and telling our soul, “Hope in God”. Remain hopeful and praise God, for He is your God and your Help. Amen
Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise Him, My Help and My God.
Psalm 42:11
Why should you listen twice as much as you speak; because you have two ears and one mouth? Perhaps, so. This is what my intuition taught me;
Whenyou speak, you only consolidate what you already know. But when you listen, you receive something new.
Whether it’s just an opinion, an idea, a view, perspective or fact, truth, knowledge, experience, insight, we always learn something new when we listen. The Bible says, “at the mouth of two or three witnesses, a fact is established.” (Matt 18:16, 2 Cor 13:1, Deut 19:15). That means even if you’re listening to what you already know, you establish it. And who doesn’t love confirmation?
Themoreyouspeak, themoreyouexposeyourignorance.
When you speak for long, instead of expressing your knowledge, you rather expose your ignorance. The Bible says, “the more you talk, the more likely you are to sin. If you’re wise, you will keep quiet.” (Prov 10:19). That is not to say that keep your ignorance to yourself. But when you bubble on and on, everybody tends to naturally lose interest in what you’re saying. That is a good sign that you should probably stop there. Communication involves listening to each other. So sometimes, ask your statements in question form and you would learn something new.
Listeningisthefoundationofconnection.
Have you ever stopped to listen to birds tweet? Do you remember how you became friends with so-and-so person? Have you ever fallen in love with a song so much that you play it over and over? The underlying question is, how did you connect? By listening. And the more you listened effortlessly with the ears of your heart, the more you connected. This is because when we listen, we become vulnerable enough for the heart to connect directly.
Listen to the sermon. Listen to your parents. Listen to your tutors. Listen to nature. Listen to good music. Listen to trusted friends. Listen to yourself. Listen to God. And by doing so, you not only learn something knew, you connect. This is true humanity; A childlike vulnerability that make us connect with our inner self, humanity, nature, and the divine. See how listening is such a sweet loving and important thing in our humanity. Remember; be quick to listen and slow to speak.
My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry,
James 1:19 NIV
Jesus’ death on the Cross is the greatest revelation of the nature of God there is and will ever be. His finished work done once and for all transcends space and eternity. But when He died 2000 years ago at Calvary, since He was carrying the sins of the world, did He actually go to hell?
Jesus’ atonement meant He not only became the embodiment of sin, but the recipient of the wages of sin as well. He wasn’t just a sin-carrier going to dump all the sins in the world somewhere else. No! He was the epitome of sin, thus putting sin to death by His Death and putting death to “death” by His Resurrection. …after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
2 CORINTHIANS 5:21
Jesus endured physical death and while serving His “sentence” in hell, He preached the Gospel. I had always wondered what the fate of those born before the era of Jesus would be. On what basis where they going to be judged by God? But God in His infinite wisdom did not abandon them to their fate. Romans 3:25 tells us that,
For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past,
ROMANS 3:25
Jesus announced emphatically the victory secured by God’s Love for humanity throughout all ages to these earlier generations.
He went and proclaimed God’s salvation to earlier generations who ended up in the prison of judgment because they wouldn’t listen.
1 PETER 3:19 MSG
On the third day, when Christ had completed His mission in Shoel, the Spirit of the Living God quickened His mortal body and He rose from the grave, thus conquering death, hell and the grave.
But God released him from the horrors of death and raised him back to life, for death could not keep him in its grip.
ACTS 2:24
The Bible is not vague when it comes to the things beneath the earth. In fact, Scripture uses six distinct words to describe different realms of the dead and imprisoned spirits. Let’s carefully walk through these biblical concepts, one by one, each with its own character, purpose, and destiny.
1. SHOËL / HADES – The Grave of the Dead
“For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.” – Psalm 16:10
Shoël is the Hebrew word in the Old Testament, translated as Hades in the Greek New Testament. It is the grave, the place of the dead. Before the resurrection of Jesus Christ, both the righteous and the wicked were held here. Death was then the most powerful force, and it swallowed up all, whether good or evil. Shoël was not just one vast space; it had two distinct compartments: one for the righteous and one for the wicked. It was essentially a waiting place until redemption was made through the blood of Jesus. The Bible says that yes, Jesus went here. Psalm 16:10 is a prophetic verse about Christ’s resurrection, a beautiful promise that death would not have the final say.
2. PARADISE / ABRAHAM’S BOSOM – The Rest of the Righteous
“Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried.” – Luke 16:22
Within Shoël, the compartment for the righteous was known as Paradise, also called Abraham’s Bosom. It was a place of comfort, peace, and rest for those who died in faith. In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, Jesus reveals that while Lazarus was in Abraham’s Bosom, the rich man found himself in torment. Both were in the same realm, but separated by a great chasm. Though these two places were close or far enough for a conversation, none could cross from one to the other. After the resurrection, Jesus emptied this place, taking the righteous to heaven (Ephesians 4:8-10).
3. ABADDON / THE PIT – The Place of Destruction
“I will bring you down to the pit, to the people of old, and I will make you dwell in the lowest parts of the earth.” – Ezekiel 26:20
Abaddon, or the Pit, was the compartment in Shoël reserved for the wicked dead. It is a place of darkness, regret, and torment. While awaiting final judgment, the souls of those who died without righteousness were held here. The Bible uses the word Abaddon to speak of ruin, destruction, and hopelessness. The wicked had no peace here – it was a place of awaiting fearful judgment.
4. THE ABYSS – The Abode for Demons
“And they begged Jesus repeatedly not to order them to go into the Abyss.” – Luke 8:31
The Abyss, also known as the bottomless pit, is distinct from Shoël. It is not for human spirits but for demons. When Jesus confronted the legion of demons in the Gadarene man (Mark 5:9-10), they begged Him not to send them back to the Abyss. Demons are occasionally permitted to move in and out of this realm, influencing or possessing human bodies, but it remains their prison. Revelation 20:1-3 describes how Satan himself will be temporarily bound here before the final judgment.
5. TARTARUS – The Prison for Demons
“For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment…” – 2 Peter 2:4
Tartarus is a special section of the Abyss but for the angels who fell in the rebellion of Genesis 6. These beings crossed boundaries God had established, committing abominations on earth. God bound them in chains of deepest darkness, keeping them there until the great judgment. Jude 1:6 calls it “everlasting chains under darkness”. Unlike other spirits, these angels do not roam freely but are held securely, awaiting the decreed time. It is a place where any demon who crosses their boundary is sent. At another time, I will go into detail about how demons secure legality first in their diabolical escapades to prevent them from being locked up here.
6. THE LAKE OF FIRE – The Second Death
“Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire. – Revelation 20:14
The final and most terrifying destination is the Lake of Fire. This is not yet populated. It awaits its eternal occupants after the Final Judgment. Both human souls who rejected God and rebellious spirits will be cast into it. Even Death and Hades themselves will be thrown in. This is called the Second Death. The Lake of Fire is eternal, irreversible, and reserved for all unrighteousness, whether human spirit or demonic spirit. Unlike Shoël (Abaddon, Paradise) and the Abyss (or Tartarus) – which are part of the first death – this is the second death.
Did Jesus go to hell after dying? Yes! After Jesus died, He descended into Sheol (Hades), not to suffer, but to claim victory. The Bible says in Ephesians 4:8-10 that “when He ascended on high, He led captivity captive.” This means Jesus went into the waiting place of the dead, where the righteous awaited redemption, and liberated them, triumphing over death and the grave. Yes, even the faithful were held until the price of sin was fully paid and they too (Abraham, Moses, David etc) go to Heaven on account of believing in Jesus, who is God. Just as Hebrews 2:14 says, it is only by dying did He break the power of the devil who had the power of death. In Revelations 1:18, He proclaimed that He now had the keys of death. By rising from the dead, He became “the firstborn from the dead” (Colossians 1:18), the first to conquer death in its entirety, making a way for all who believe in Him to follow. By resurrection, we also conquer death. Hallelujah!
So I have coined a new good “self-” word. I hope it gets recognized soon. It is one thing we often lose sight of. Someway somehow, every “self-” word kind of make us feel self-centered when in fact, it’s the direct opposite. So we go all around happy-ing others while feeling dirty and bedridden in our inner self. We lack self-motivation, self-control, self-love, self-knowledge, self-care and self-identity but are somehow we still feel selfish and seek self-gratification the more. So how do we self-discover and be more self-aware without being so self-absorbed and self-righteous?
We are to follow our own inner guidance and inner intuition. Because we existed before we were born. Therefore the intuitive part of us is much more older and experienced than our brain. We are here to become aware of LOVE within us and to express it. This divine Love – that is in all of us – is our true strength and power; our connection with divinity. But whenever we feel low in energy, we usually crave and draw the self-satisfying energy from the outside world; from other people, social media, drugs, porn, work, sometimes even food. What we are really looking for is LOVE.
But if we rely too much on the strength, guidance or LOVE from other human beings, then we are not learning the most profound lesson of life – that we don’t need LOVE because we are LOVE. We are all one with God. Byron Katie once said, “If I had a prayer, it would be this: God spare me from the desire for love, approval or appreciation. Amen.”
We have to learn total self-acceptance and self-approval, and to become secure with ourselves. Totally free of the need to be loved and approved and appreciated by other people. In other words, we firstly have to be happy with ourselves. If we crave for another partner to love us and to give our life a purpose, we put a terrible burden on that partner. Part of the reason why we are here on earth is to discover this inner jewelry, this divine LOVE within us. It is a quest of self-discovery. No one can discover you more than you.
Once we have discovered – and we still continue to discover more of – this divine LOVE within us, we gradually see everything in a new way. “Old things have passed away. Behold! All things have become new.” Only with the eyes and heart of LOVE. Instead of looking for our so-called one and only “soulmate”, we would come to the understanding on a much deeper level that in actuality, everybody around us is, in truth, also our soulmate. Because there is no separation in actual existence. We are all one, literally. There is only one of us.
Do you – you reading this – realise that life on earth is short, and if you spend all your time waiting on a job, or career, or soulmate, you waste a perfectly good chance to be happy? Do you now make a vow that you will not wait for anything outside of yourself to change before you choose to be happy? Say with surety within you; ” I do”. Now go and start living a self-happy life.
Life is a competition, one of the unsaid philosophies running through many minds both young and old, male and female. But how true is this statement?
Life is a Competition, huh?
Competition, according to the Oxford dictionary, is an event or contest in which people take part in order to establish superiority or supremacy in a particular area. Interesting, isn’t it? Set rules, same given conditions, set timelines, one location, one destination and one reward or trophy. These are the characteristics of any and every competition. There are other characteristics; set entry period, rules of entry or entry requirement and of course, the panel that decides who wins the competition.
Now let’s consider some basic information about life; the time of birth, the place of birth, type of parents, income level of parents, type of family, even your skin colour, body type and most importantly time of death. Let’s assume these are the rules of the game of Life. According to theworldcounts .com the average number of babies born each day in the world is about 385,000. Amongst this, 32.411 per 1000 people are born in Africa. This is according to Africa’s 2021 birth rate, 2445 babies are born in Ghana per day. Mind blown…….
Let’s agree that life is a competition. Then what are the answers to these questions;
“What are the rules of these competitions?”
“What is the time limit?”
“Who are our opponents?”
“What are the requirements for entry?”
“What is the price?“
Can these questions be answered within a few minutes without thinking hard? Life is a competition, huh?
Set Apart & Superior
According to Ecclesiastes 3:2, it says, a time to be born and a time to die. Who then decides the time you are born and who decides the time you die? Do you have the free will to decide these things? Do you decide when and where you end up as a baby? Taking a quick look into your family, have you ever wondered why the circumstances surrounding the death of every member is different? Even with twins, the time of birth is different. The question is, why did you end up in a low or middle or high-income family? Moreover, why don’t we all have one mother and father and of course, why do we have adults, the aged, the youth and children? Why are some people abled and others disabled? Hope you get where I am going with this. Well, we agree to disagree.
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I set you apart” (to separate something for a special purpose to make someone seem distinctive or superior); I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
Jeremiah 1:5 (Emphasis added)
Wow. Going back to the meaning of competition, the end goal is to be superior but God says He made you superior even when you were in your mother’s womb…. Amazing, isn’t it? Jeremiah was born to be a prophet. Moses was born to liberate the people of God and his brother was born to be a priest. We can go on and on to our Savior Jesus Christ and even his disciples playing different rules in their lifetime. According to Romans 14:12, everyone would give an account of themselves – not someone else – to God (your assignment and your works). Just imagine Jesus Christ competing with Peter (lol) or with John the Baptist. They had different assignments and different timelines. Subsequently, Jesus Christ died at the age of 33 and Peter died at 64, so how do they compete? Each had an assignment, and the most important thing was that they both completed their assignments.
Different Callings & Assignments
1st Corinthians 12:12-27 helps us understand that there’s one body but many parts, so then how can the nose compete with the liver? How can the hand compete with the head? How can a woman compete with a man to impregnate her fellow woman? In conclusion, we all have our role to play in this life. Considering the Trinity, they are 1 but 3, different administrations but the same Lord. There are diversities of gifts but the same Spirit, and diversities of operation but the same God (1st Corinthians 12:4-6)
Can the tree do without the roots or the leaves? You might be the root of a mango tree (different nutrients requirements, different environmental conditions and different life span); do not waste your time comparing and competing with the stem of a cassava plant. It is impossible. What will it profit you if you compete with your neighbour and miss your assignment? Everyone would give account personally, and you would have no excuse to say I was competing with this person, so I was doing what he was doing to achieve what he achieved.
You are unique, you are special, you have a role to play in your corner, you are needed somewhere and ultimately, you are supreme.
I want to share another poem from my archive, written as a youth. It’s all about life, and I assure you, it’s not necessarily everybody’s truth. Remember that to each his or her own, as one man’s heaven is a next man’s hell.
Envy not a man’s success, because you never know the things he gave up or even sell. I have seen the wicked growing old and flourishing like a big green bay tree. While the righteous dying young and perishing and losing their liberty.
Life is paradoxical in nature. A lot of things seem to contradict from mere observation. However, sit down and think about it and you’d realize it’s actually true. Everything in life is a Paradox. We all agree that there are two sides of everything, right? Well, that in itself is a Paradox. This is what makes life meaningful and meaningless at the same time.
I came across David Perell‘s long list of paradoxes and I thought it would be a great idea to share and also comment on them. You can also leave a comment as well. Let’s get started!
1. The paradox of reading: The books you read will profoundly change you even though you’ll forget the vast majority of what you read.
Most of our ideas, if not all, are not unique. They are borrowed. Not totally borrowed, but how will we even know? We don’t even really remember where we first saw the idea. The idea has assimilated into our way of thinking. This is why I love to read. Although I won’t remember everything I read, there is scientific evidence that reading literally changes the brain structure. You don’t remember, but there’s physical proof from your brain scan that you know something that simpletons don’t.
2. The paradox of writing: Great writing looks effortless. But because the ideas are so clear, casual readers don’t appreciate how much time it took to refine them.
I publish a new post every Saturday on my website, and I’ve done this consistently for more than 3 years now. A wonderful and well-articulated blog post such as the one you are reading at the moment looks so effortless, as if no thought when into it. Everything looks easy when you’re not the one doing it. The simplest of tasks still comes great effort. Sometimes the most difficult looks the easiest, and vice versa.
3. The paradox of creativity: Your work is done when it looks so simple that the consumer thinks they could’ve done it, which means they won’t appreciate how hard you worked.
In line with the paradox of writing, creative work is the most unappreciated kind of work in the whole world. Everybody thinks they can do it. Because it usually doesn’t require physical strength, people take the mental struggle and thought process for granted. Nobody knows how hard it is to get a concept…because the concept – at the end of the day – sounded so basic and simple.
4. The paradox of decision making: It’s better to choose, commit, and get started instead of waiting for the best possible option, so the correct decisions are actually suboptimal.
At any time you make a decision, you don’t fully have all options available to you. You are torn between waiting for the best option to arrive or grabbing the best option at the moment before it leaves. If you grab the best option now, what if you had waited a little longer for the next option? Maybe it would have been the best option. If you wait, how long do you have to wait? What if you wait and no other better option comes along and then you lose the few best options you have? Girls understand this hustle the most when it comes to choosing a guy. All our decisions are sub-optimal at any point, and we have to stick with the benefits and challenges that comes with it without thinking about any other option left or option yet to come.
5. The paradox of originality: Many of history’s greatest artists have found their voice by copying others. We discover who we are by imitating others and watching our uniqueness emerge over time.
As aforementioned, our ideas are not unique. There are no new concepts under the sun. All the fundamentals and foundations have been established. If you want to build something, copy and paste that foundation. Hence, to discover your unique style, you need to explore the existing styles. Before you discover your style, you would have imitated a lot of styles that inspire you.
6. The paradox of news: By telling us to care about everything, the news leads to apathy instead of action.
Nobody watches the news all the time and goes, “omG, we have to do something.” Maybe we all start like that. After a while, we just don’t care anymore. It doesn’t hit home as it used to, unless the incident happens very close to our vicinity. We hear the news, get a little sad and concerned for a while, and go on living like we never heard it in the first place. After all, we can’t care too much about too many things. Some things don’t matter to us or move us anymore, and that’s life.
7. The Paradox of Abundance: Information abundance, like all markets of abundance, are bad for the average person but great for a small number of people.
If everyone got to know so much about a particular thing, that information will be taken for granted. For something to remain a secret, only few people must know. For something to remain a treasure, only a few must have access to it. We talked about financial literacy being the difference between the rich and poor. Well, information is the actually the secret asset to societal segregation. The more hidden an information, the more impact it makes and the more cherishable it becomes. This is why naturally, we are not meant to know everything. Information abundance is a curse disguised as a blessing.
8. The Paradox of Consensus: Under ancient Jewish law, if a suspect was found guilty by every judge, they were deemed innocent. Too much agreement implied a systemic error in the judicial process. Beware: unanimous agreement often leads to bad decisions.
Inasmuch as we all want to agree on certain matters, it becomes paradoxical. If we all think the same way, there’s a problem. If absolutely everyone agrees, there’s something wrong. If no one has an objection, a concern, a counter idea, another perspective, a disagreement, another suggestion or any sort of criticism, there is definitely something wrong.
9. The Paradox of Skill: The more evenly matched opponents are in skill, the more of a role luck plays in determining the final outcome.
Because of this paradox, so many people believe in luck. Truth is, if you lack something, you don’t have enough luck. However, in a case where everyone is almost as well-trained, well-prepared and well-versed, it is left to luck to determine the outcome. By luck, we mean the unpredictability of events. It’s a Paradox, really. Because losers will think lack is everything and can’t be convinced otherwise.
10. The Productivity Paradox: We keep inventing things that save us time, but it feels like we have less time than ever before.
We say we don’t have time, yet we waste so much time. How come? Technology is designed to make our world easier and faster. However, this same technology that freed so much time for us to do more productive work, competes for our attention to engage in less productive tasks. A quick example. In 2017, Netflix CEO declared sleep as their biggest competitor. We can’t blame technology, really. Can we, though?
“Do I have to say it once and fight my mind from doubting?”. Jesus said, “if you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say…”
I love you ❤
