HALT! WHO ARE YOU???

Some day years back, I had just visited a good friend of mine at his home in Nairobi. We were actually neighbors. I took quite a while in his house as together with a Spiritual leader, we discussed some areas of our spiritual dimensions. After a moment of bonding, I left his house and headed home…it was dark..around 8 p.m. My host actually sent me away with some three or so pieces of meat pie.

It turned out that that was my Dinner, Breakfast, Brunch, and Lunch. Just few meters away from his house, I met with marauding police officers who were sweeping the estate clean in response to some murders that had taken place the previous day. “Who are you? Where Is your Identification Card?” Their leader blurted out. I said: “Oh ooh”! The rest is history.

The dramatic story of my release as the guest of the state will remain untold for some time, to a later date.

But come to think of it.Can you answer that question without thinking? Who are you? What is your level of Self Awareness? Studies done by a company called Innermetrix identified two groups of people…those who are struggling at work…and those who are having great fun at work, bordering on genius peak performance. Do you know what they found out? Those who were struggling at work…’the Average Performers’ had just about 57% level of self awareness. The Genius performers on the other hand had over 89%-90% level of their Personal Awareness!

They knew what they were good at to the furthest degree of clarity. They also knew what they were not so good at….What Jay Niblic (Author of What’s Your Genius) fondly refers to as “What they suck at”.

The very core of your Life Signature is Self Awareness! You cannot make an impact in this world if you have no clue WHO YOU ARE….NO WHO YOU REALLY ARE! The quest to find you out must be there.
Come to think of it, most corporate organizations normally conduct a S.W.O.T Analysis to determine their Strenghts, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. This is a very beautiful model to use in our own personal lives. If you really stopped to think about it, I submit that the human being is the most expensive, most valuable, and most irreplaceable ‘organization’ that the world has ever seen.Say…what’s your worth really?
It goes without saying that we MUST be totally aware of ourselves.

1. Focus 80% of your time, effort, energy and money on your strengths. Taking the dimension of what you SHOULD DO….rather than what you COULD DO. This is where success stems from. It makes no sense for me to neglect my strength areas and focus on my weaknesses, trying to improve them, yet I can coast effortlessly in what I love, What I am Gifted and Talented on…or what I have formidable experience on. Do you know your strengths? There is a book called ‘Now Discover your strengths’. That would be a good place to get started. Someone said that Integrity is being true to who God made you to be…and certainly that domain is the domain of your strenghts.
2. What you are not aware of will be your Waterloo. Again, to be forewarned is to be forearmed. Knowing what you ‘Suck at’ is an integral part in life. This will help you strengthen your strengths, by not dwelling so much here. Jay Niblic says: “When I align myself with what I am doing to depend on what I am NOT good at, I am manufacturing my weaknesses”
3. In turning Passion into Profit, there is no better place to look at than your strenghts. Businesses exist because they provide VALUE to the society. We need to do a thorough examination of the NEEDS the society has out there…and see how naturally our Strengths can be used to meet these needs.
4. Lastly, we must be really aware of what we have taken for granted. What we neglect to cultivate. What strengths we have and could use yet we stock them to gather dust. Brian Tracy says that the human being has been made with a vast capability of creativity…which is honed by use. The moment you stop using your creativity, you lose it-at least temporarily.

So, Who are you? Do yourself a favor and know thyself! Honestly…who are you really? He is cuffed for success he who has a low level of self awareness!