PUT YOUR THOUGHTS DOWN IN WRITING Part 2

PUT YOUR THOUGHTS DOWN IN WRITING Part 2
By Victor Uyanwanne

In part 1 of this piece, we made the point that we should learn to write down our important thoughts whenever they cross our minds. Your important thoughts are the important ideas that come to you at any point in time. As you well know, good ideas don’t give any notice of when they come, neither do they tell you when they want to varnish. If you fail to write them down as and when they come, they may escape from you forever.

A notable international speaker, high profile pastor and accomplished Christian leader I know, once said that you could never find him without a pen and paper at any point in time. What he does is that he writes down any ideas that come to him at any time. That way, he keeps track of his important thoughts and also develops them further.

The revolution in ICT has made things easier; you don’t necessarily have to carry a pen and paper all around – if you don’t want to. I used to do that, but I found out that using my smart phone is indeed smarter, since I am always with it wherever I go. Using my phone I type my important thoughts or ideas as the need arises. I could also speak into the recording device embedded in the phone to record my voice. I have written some songs using this method.

Using my tablet, laptop and desktop computer has also helped me achieve the same purpose of concretizing my ideas. This article is an example of a recent thought I wrote down and later developed. I was sitting at my desktop doing other things when the thought to pen this discourse first filtered into my heart. I wrote it down immediately and referred to it subsequently for further development.

 

When you write down your thoughts, apart from you, other people benefit too. People cannot read your mind, but they can read your thoughts if you put them down in writing. Think about it, the beautiful ideas you have in your head will not profit humanity until you bring them out. The poems you have in your mind, write them out. Surely, someone will be blessed by it.

 

Many of the beautiful songs you have ever listened to began as thoughts. Great businesses around were once ordinary thoughts or ideas in the minds of their creators. In his book, Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill asserted, “Ideas rule the World.”

It is true that ideas rule the world. But if your idea must rule the world, you have to rule your ideas first. Ruling your idea, involves harvesting them from your mind into a concrete readable form. In other words, you rule your ideas by writing them down and working on them. That sound so simple but the meaning is very profound.

There are many advantages of writing down your thoughts. Permit me to use what I call the “C.R.I.M.E” principle to drive home the point. (We are not talking about any unlawful acts or misdeeds here, please). In this discourse, CRIME stands for Clarity, Reference, Improvement, Motivation and, Execution.

• Writing down your thoughts or ideas helps you clarify them.
• Writing down your thoughts or ideas gives you something to refer to subsequently.
• Writing down your thoughts or ideas affords you opportunity to improve on them.
• Writing down your thoughts or ideas can motivate you to carry them out.
• Writing down your thoughts or ideas gives you something to execute or act upon.

We will explore these areas in our subsequent posts.

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WHAT TOLERANCE REALLY MEANS

WHAT TOLERANCE REALLY MEANS
By Victor Uyanwanne
13/03/2015

I have always been interested in learning new words and I have usually made conscious effort towards achieving that aim. I remember way back in school when we were much younger when we used to keep “New Words and Meaning” notebooks as a deliberate strategy to enhance our knowledge of English words. Those notebooks were really helpful then in building our capacity to understanding English as a second language.

Somehow, I have carried the habit of learning new words into my adult life, but with a different strategy. Thanks to the revolution in ICT! For instance, I subscribed to an offer by my telecom service provider to send me one new English word and its meaning, every day. I have been enjoying this service for years now without fail. This service has afforded me a convenient medium of learning the meaning of many new words and also refreshing my memory with the ones I already knew their meanings.

Along this line recently, while at work, the text message alert on my phone beeped as usual. When I checked the new word that was ‘delivered’ to me, the meaning I saw totally opened a new perspective to me on what I thought I already knew about that word. That was when it hit me to write this piece. Please read on.

What is the word we are talking about here? “Tolerance”! That’s it. I know the word is not new to you as people frequently use it; what I don’t know is how much of its real meaning you really have understood and applied in your own sphere of influence.

You may probably have been tempted to think that tolerance strictly means to put up with something or someone with very nasty, horrible, terrible or poignant attributes. smiles! But look at this definition below and compare it with what you already know about the meaning of the word:

“Tolerance: Willingness to accept behaviour and beliefs which are different from your own.”

I don’t know about you, but the definition above opened up an entirely new vista to me, of which I am glad. It shows for instance that tolerance didn’t say we should put up with evil or bad things or bad people, as some people may think. But it clearly portrays “willingness to accept behaviour and beliefs which are different from [our] own.”

Now let’s take a closer look at the key aspects of the said definition:

• Willingness to accept
• Behaviour and beliefs
• Different from your own

To be honest, tolerance should be required wherever there are inter human relationships because you will always meet people whose behaviour and beliefs are different from yours.

Due to a number of varied factors such as genetic make-up, family background, religion, education, geography, exposure, life experiences etc, all of us believe different things and behave differently from one another. That means that at any point in time in your chequered life, you will always see people who behave or believe differently from you. In order to coexist harmoniously with such people, you should be willing to accept such different behaviour or beliefs, if they cannot be changed.

Talking about changing people’s behaviour and beliefs, experience has shown that many people are aware that some other people do not share their behaviour or beliefs. But sometimes they are unwilling to accept such other people who do not share their outlook. This is often the beginning of unnecessary conflicts.

However, you may only try to effect some changes on peoples’ bahaviour or beliefs if possible to suite yours; but you shouldn’t try to use force. You can’t change anyone who doesn’t really want to be changed. You can only influence such persons.

When it comes to changing someone’s behaviour or beliefs, influence should be the operating word, not force. Otherwise, you must bring to bare the willingness to accept their behaviour and beliefs which you perceive to be different from your own and which you cannot change. That, my friend, is the real meaning of tolerance.

Bear in mind that tolerance is a seed; as you sow it, you will reap the sweet harvest. Besides don’t you realize that others would have to tolerate you too? I believe you know that not all your behaviour and beliefs are acceptable to everyone you come in contact with! Although, I cannot guarantee it, they too ought to be willing to accept your behaviour and beliefs which are different from their own. There is no worthwhile relationship that doesn’t require tolerance in between.

Like all good habits, tolerance doesn’t just happen to us; it has to be cultivated deliberately and ‘open-heartedly’. It is very important to cultivate it because you will need it if you desire to build a meaningful, harmonious and long-lasting relationship of any kind with people.

Here are a few areas where we can apply the principle of tolerance:
• At home, between spouses , amongst siblings or other family members;
• At work , between you and your boss, colleagues or direct reports;
• In your neighourhoods, amongst cotenants, etc
• Amongst your friends, classmates in schools etc
• In churches, with members and leaders alike;
• In other organisations /relationships, etc
• In fact, anywhere you come in contact with humans.

People are different. You are not everyone and everyone is not you. Therefore, there will always be differences in behaviour and beliefs between you and others. There would be conflicts all the time in all kinds of human relationships if the principle of tolerance is not imbibed. The extent to which you realise this differences and how well you are willing to accept and manage them depict your level of tolerance at any given period of time.