I wake up each morning, slug it out and do what I need to do. Do my quiet time, make a living meet new friends, make sure I have materials for my radio broadcasts, prepare for this column, write another book, speak in one or two occasions and do another whole day training the next day and then it hits me.
So much time has passed; so many things accomplished yet there are still so many things to do. To do good work never has a finish line and tat I should never go weary. The one benefit I am banking on is that I love what I do and I have never felt like I was working.
I gave a public seminar and there were about 1,600 participants who attended. During the break, a young lady working for the HR Department of a multi-national company smilingly approached me and said, “Sir Francis, actually this is not my first time to get to know you.” “Oh is that right?” I said. “Yes sir because the first time I really got to know you was when my mom gave me your first book,” “Oh really and when was that?” I smiled. And she said, “When I was 10 years old.” “Shut up!” I said. People say I look young for my age. What they mean is I’m not young anymore.
But aging has its own reward.
A reporter interviewing a 104-year-old woman: “And what do you think is the best thing about being 104?” the reporter asked.
She simply replied, “No peer pressure.”
When I was young I was foolish. There is always an air of invincibility and immortality among the young and I had that air. And as I go through the years, there are more hospital visitations to make and more funerals to attend and then I realize there is finality to life.
But what keeps me young apart from eating the right food and regular exercise is that I exercise the mind and I am extremely serious with personal development. This does not come naturally. This has to come intentionally.
Think about this. You deal with bad habits, you replace them with good ones, you read books, attend seminars, learn from other people’s advice and learn from other people’s mistakes, correct your own mistakes and you move on.
It takes skills to live life correctly and in order to live life successfully.
The world continues to change. Circumstances change and so this question becomes important to reflect upon: Do people change?
On the onset it looks like a question that demands an obvious answer: “Of course people change.” But do they change for the better or do they change for the worst?
I have met the best of them who have turned out to be the worst today and I have met people whom I thought were hopeless who actually turned out successful.
You and I change. We grow and mature. We learn new skills. We meet new friends. We encounter new experiences. We develop our perspective and change our lifestyles over time.
And it’s no walk in the park. Old habits die hard. New skills may be difficult to master. New friends carry value system opposed to yours.
And then you get a new job assignment or you lose what you used to have. You invest in a project and it turns belly up. And we don’t have to go far. You finally build up your dream house and the floods washed it away.
There must be something we can do as we face the uncertainties of life.
Here is my suggestion: We need to embark on a journey of personal growth.
We may not be able to change the circumstances but we sure can equip ourselves with the necessary skills in dealing with them. Study history. Our country has been beset with troubles some minor some big time. Yet God is still in control.
It’s not magic. It’s not escapism. God has given us a vivid mind and a body that can achieve great things for His sake as long as we grow ourselves to enable ourselves to achieve it. Make sure you embark on a personal growth and development program not only for the new year but for the rest of your life.