DAY 86 OF 100 DAYS SELF-REINVENTION SERIES: Have You Laboured All Year(s) with Nothing to Show? -1

A Lizard in Nigeria is still a Lizard in England – Benson Idahosa

Success is WHO YOU ARE – Sam Adeyemi

If you are not getting the results that you really want in any area of life, the number one place to look at is your IDENTITY. ?Identity is the person that you internally conceive yourself to be. The beliefs you hold about yourself, your perceived advantages, and disadvantages.? Success is WHO YOU ARE, NOT WHAT YOU DO!

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Identity - who you say you are in your most inward parts. You may graduate from the university with first-class or possess multiple PhDs, but all of these will not count as much as WHO YOU ARE. I don’t mean who people tell you that you are or what you look like. Maybe people around you tell you that you look great, etc. But really, WHO do you say that you are? When you look in the mirror, who do you say you are? I know nothing that can have an impact on goals and desires in life like having an identity that matches your aspiration. Whoever you repeatedly affirm yourself to be, or your attributes is a command to your subconscious to execute. If you repeatedly say that you are shy or an introvert, your subconscious will ensure that you never speak where you should speak. When any idea comes up in your mind, and you think that you cannot do it or that possibility is not for you, you have given a command to your subconscious to keep you out of all such opportunities. Your subconscious must execute the command.

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In 2010, while I was living in Warri, Nigeria, I had a private security guard, Haruna, who spoke very good English. I decided to ask him about his educational qualifications. I found that he had excellent grades in GCE. In his own words, he worked as a security guard because he had no one to sponsor his education. He was very good at his work and extremely useful to me; I could not lose him, so I then decided to sponsor his education as a part-time undergraduate student of Management. In 2015, Haruna graduated with a BSc in Management. He continued to work as a security guard while he was seeking out a better job. It is eight years since Haruna graduated from the university, but unfortunately, he still works as a security guard. Sadly, there are thousands of Haruna, if not millions, in the world today. In my work and travels in Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe, I have repeatedly come across the likes of Haruna, who have tons of educational qualifications but a mismatched IDENTITY. These persons may never use their improved academic qualifications in their entire lives until they alter their identity.

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Nigeria has an OPEN UNIVERSITY where thousands can upskill themselves every year, but in my interaction with many of these graduates, the certificates have failed to deliver the much-desired promise that took them there. The one reason the certificate has not delivered its promise is that even though these students have acquired tons of information, their IDENTITY remains the same. To deliver on its promise, the National Open University must create a course on IDENTITY SHIFT AND MAKE THIS COURSE COMPULSORY AND THE HIGHEST CREDIT SCORE. Although poor self-esteem or identity or image is more rampant in PART TIME educational curriculums, virtually all Educational Institutions in Nigeria need a redesign of how education is delivered. Education must go beyond information to the transformation of the individual. In my personal experience, the returns on personal development are higher than tons of information acquired through our current educational system.

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The story of Gideon drives home my point on what Identity is. This story is contained in Judges 6: 12 -15

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12?When the angel of the?Lord?appeared to Gideon, he said, “The?Lord?is with you,?mighty warrior.”

13?“Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the?Lord?is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders?that our ancestors told?us about when they said, ‘Did not the?Lord?bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the?Lord?has abandoned?us and given us into the hand of Midian.”

14?The?Lord?turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have?and save?Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”

15?“Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan?is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”

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To the Angel of God, Gideon is a mighty warrior, but not to Gideon. Gideon saw himself as weak, from a tribe that cannot produce a leader; he rehearsed stories of how God has failed the nation, bla bla bla. Today we have millions of people who wake up daily only to rehearse their worn-out stories of being black, coming from a minority tribe, latching government failure to provide everything they want in life, the bad roads, the corruption, the insecurity, and on and on. It never occurs to them that they are a part of the Government. It never occurs to them that many are triumphing in spite of all the things they complain about. They go about with images of failure, and when the person to employ them looks at them, all he sees is FAILURE written over them. He says no, I don’t want a failure here. They are turned away. The Angel of God did not give Gideon any new weapon. He just helped him see who he was. Gideon, said the Angel, YOU ARE A MIGHTY WARRIOR, ……… GO IN THE STRENGTH THAT YOU HAVE AND SAVE ISRAEL.

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Gideon delivered Israel. What is your IDENTITY? What is your story? You have enough strength or degrees already. What you now need is an IDENTITY SHIFT! You need to create a new you.

Many times, we think a new wife, husband, job, country, degree, etc, is all we need to eliminate all of our perceived problems. But that isn’t always true. In 99% percent of our life situations, what we need is a new BEING – AN IDENTITY SHIFT. I use BEING and IDENTITY interchangeably. In Luke Chapter 5 vs 5 -8, Peter toiled all night and caught nothing. When Jesus met him, something about his beliefs changed - his IDENTITY OR BEING changed. He went back to the same place where he caught NOTHING, and he could not cope with the volume of work he had to do.

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I hear you. In 2023, I sent over 20000 applications and all came back with the familiar line, “We are sorry to inform you ……..”. I sent out tons of proposals, but not one went through. I rehearsed a million affirmations that brought me nothing. I did this and I did that but caught nothing. You want my candid advice? Leave Social media for two weeks and get my two books Realizing Mental Resilience and However You Tell It, It is Still A Story Made UP. Go to your secret place and return a changed person. You will be amazed like Peter, that what you chased previously is now chasing you.

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You say, can identity change instantly? Yes, it can, but it doesn’t happen instantly all the time. Some aspects of your identity need to be excavated from the deep recesses of your subconscious. It takes some hard work even to identify some aspects of you that are not working for you. In Peter’s encounter with Jesus, it happened instantly. In one of my speaking engagements in the Republic of Ireland, at a gathering of mostly Nigerians who were whipped mentally and with a defeated IDENTITY, I saw persons whose identity changed in the twinkle of an eye. Knowing the state of immigrant Nigerians at the time and fresh from completing my MBA at the University College, Dublin, a chance to speak to this congregation was the AK47 I had been longing for. I left no stone unturned when I opened my mouth to speak about the poor self-image that supposed master's degree holders from prestigious Nigerian universities had and who were doing the most unedifying jobs in the land. My address, which lasted for about an hour, was delivered on a Sunday Morning. By the time I was done, many walked to me that they were going to put out their CVs “TODAY” in the same country where they had stopped trying for months and years in some cases. Like Peter, they did so only because of my word. I can say here that 100% of the people who walked to me that they were going out with a NEW IDENTITY got unbelievable jobs. I remember a particular individual who, though, studied Computer Science at a university in Nigeria, was a cleaner in a hospice. His excuse like Gideon was that he came into Ireland illegally. I told him to go to www.irishjobs.ie and send out his CV. Tell recruiters what stuff you are made of and what you can do. Let them figure out how they will solve your visa problem. This guy did just as I asked. The next Sunday, he was back at the same assembly and testified of how, after sending out his CVs the very Sunday I delivered my address, he got a call the next morning from an IT company who offered to employ him and take responsibility for securing him a WORK PERMIT from the Irish Government. I can tell you story upon story, whether within the African community or working for the European Union, how a changed concept of the self-produced amazing results. You, too, can have this experience if you DARE SHIFT YOUR BEING.

If you are interested in joining my Class on Identity Shift, send your WhatsApp number by email to [email protected]

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