PREPARATION THE KEY TO GREATNESS

PREPARATION THE KEY TO GREATNESS

Preparation is the process of making something ready or becoming ready for something. It also connotes prior action and anticipation to an expected stimulus. Preparation defines future action with the present plans and act of expectancy; the gestation period or lead time. It is the binocular of the future, the ticket to the desired future. Also, it is the covet work done in respect to our desired success. Based on researches and findings, preparation has being a sacrosanct key factor in generating the best out of anything you can imagine. It cannot be derailed when it comes to getting what one so desires. This adequate readiness, plan or act of what is hoped for, defers from human to human. Of course, this is why everybody cannot equally be successful. It is the level of preparation that defines where your success loci or bearing falls.

Preparation fuses one with the equivalent strength to fulfill an expected task. It rekindles the fire of enthusiasm and passion for something. For everything done with requisite preparation often yields great result. But they that wait upon the lord shall renew their strength; they mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not to faint (Isaiah 40:31). The above wisdom of prophet Isaiah to the sons of God, explains the importance of waiting upon the lord; which is preparation for the coming of the lord.

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend my first four hours sharpening my axe” said Abraham Lincoln. That’s getting set Lincoln talks about. Preparation is the paucity of hard work with outstanding result. It makes less work to be done on something in the real sense; the strength and power to get a given task done lies in your preparedness.

Preparation awakens inspiration. It is in the process that inspiration befalls man; inspiration that amazes and challenges you. Preparation and inspiration works hand in hand, it encourages you from within; that encouragement that no man can offer you. The turning point of your future and dreams lies on your inspiration through preparation. This is why Samuel Coleridge rightly opined that “He who is best prepared can best serve his moment of inspiration”. There comes in a man’s life when preparation diversifies into two. This two aspects of preparation is what I tagged

Preparing for the best.

Preparing for the worst.

These two different aspects of preparation are products of the mind’s activity; the activity of thinking (AOT). There is always this part of the mind that challenges one to prepare for the worst. It acts as a plan B to preparing for the best. Just as Will Hancock would put it, “you don’t have to develop plan B because it distracts plan A”. If sufficient preparation is done for a given task, getting ready for the worst isn’t an option. When you sincerely and doggedly float in the realm of adequate readiness for your goals, attaining it becomes easier. The strength and energy powered in the making of plan B can be channeled in making the plan A better.

Readiness is everything. Winning is as a result of prior action both in spirit and in body. Zig Ziglar once said “you were born to win but being a winner, you must plan to win, prepare to win and expect to win”. Aligning all of your attention to what matter, matters in preparation. It is the seed to reality, the best and uncompromising route to success and the shining light of the darkest moment. Your tomorrow to a large extent depends on the preparation you make today. The best of your tomorrow cannot be better than the good of your today. It can only be better than the best of your today. Tomorrow belongs to those who make adequate plans today.

There is a generally accepted notion that; time is one great factor that cannot be regained when lost. This axiom failed to notice time on investment. Time invested on preparation today can be regained on tomorrow’s fulfilling achievements and goals. It produces outstanding fulfillment. A man like Mark Twain cannot be caught unaware. I was strucked with passion for preparation when I came across one of his statements when he said and I quote, “it usually takes me more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech”. One of the elements of preparation is, no matter how strong the storm of challenges tends to be, your preparation balances your ship of dream and success from shipwreck and you will arrive your destination safely.

By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail says Benjamin Franklin. This is one of the commonest quotes to many. It explains the stake of preparation in success and failure. Most men fail, not because they lack the will to succeed but the lack of will to prepare. If you busily rush into a given task without adequate readiness, you will be richly blessed with the barrenness of such task.

Also, on preparation and failure, there is this mnemonics I so much love, the 5Ps. This connotes:

Prior Preparation Prevents Poor Performance. To avoid fiasco in your field of endeavor always be a good follower of preparation. Is not possible to get something for nothing, you must give something for such a thing worth getting; and that’s preparation.

Decisions of great transformation are made by those who understand the wisdom of preparation. Adequate preparation is what gives the big wigs edge over the rank and file.

Take for instance, students in the examination hall taking their final year exam; everyone seated for the examination has idea about the course to be written. You will get to know that some among them have facts. Those with fact performed better than those with idea; which is a result of proper preparation. The time table of the desired future is making every seconds, minute, hour and day a preparatory moment. To avoid being caught unaware, you must follow the time table obediently.

The key is not the wish for greatness but the will for preparation which is the key to greatness. The key is only for those who realizes and understands the benefits of getting ready. A prepared man does not accept everything he is told until its validity has been ascertained; he is a man of extraordinary abilities. This can be seen in the lives of the Berean Jews in the bible (Acts 17:10-13). An American singer and a song-writer, Taylor Alison Swift once said, “I try to prepare for everything beyond the extent of preparation”. Prior action minimizes error and mistake in whatever one is doing, it empowers one to operate beyond the shores of mistake and error.

As believers would say, heaven is a prepared place for prepared people. Success is not by luck but the outcome of adequate preparation. It is not a lottery or something that you can gamble to attain. You don’t learn how to shot gun at the battle field. You learn how to shot gun before the battle begins says Bishop David Oyedepo in one of his exhortations titled ‘preparing for marriage’.

When one is done the job of putting necessary parameters in order, one’s goal is easily achieved. Take for example, in an organization, a man was asked to give a lecture on a business topic. This man started his preparation two days to the day of presentation, he went to a nearby library and obtained five different world class text books on the topic and he consumed them voraciously. The day came and he was able to reproduce what he has gotten from those texts word for word. He plagiarized those books so to say. A round of applause was offered to him when he was done for he did well. But when the session for question and answer came, he inept ability was divulged as he was unable to provide appreciable answer to most of the applicable questions asked. Getting ready for something at the eleventh hour isn’t a good idea. It only convinces you that you are able to do it without preparation and mask your inabilities for the task. It is deceptive in all aspect. Readiness at the last hour will only bring embarrassment upon one. It is a stage by stage process and not what is approached with a fire brigade mentality. Now I understand why Friedrich Nietzsche in his wisdom said “better know nothing than half know things”.

Just the nemo dat rule puts it, “Nemo dat quod non habat” literally meaning “no one gives what he doesn’t have”. It is what you have that you can give and you can’t have what you do not make plans for to having. What you have today is the product of your yesterday’s plans and what you lack today are as a result of the plan you failed to carry-out yesterday.

Before a child is born, he spends nine months of his first phase of life in the womb. During this period the child develop and is equipped with the necessary organs and ability to adapt to the new environment he is about to find himself. After this period of acquisition has elapsed, the womb comfort zone becomes uncomfortable for him and he comes out with all the acquired qualities to adapt.

This period is for the child to prepare and the mother to get ready to becoming a parent. Everything in existence has been given such a time to adequately make provisions for whatever he wants. Most people lavish this time on inapt things of life. People nowadays choose to do the things right rather than doing the right thing. It takes preparation for an iroko tree to be cut down with a razor blade.

Unfortunately, there seems to be far more opportunity out there than ability. This is why only a few with understanding of preparation can harness it. “We shall remember that good fortune often happens when opportunity meets preparation” said Thomas A. Edison.

Preparation brings about freedom, freedom brings opportunity and opportunity makes your future. Opportunity world can only be accessed by esoteric indefatigable ready men. The blessings of opportunity showers only on those who have all it takes and are ready to get ready. A Roman statesman and a philosopher, Seneca once said that there exist nothing like “luck”. Luck is simply the outcome of preparation mating with opportunity.

Fortune favors the alert mind. The journey into the future begins with a simple giant step; a foresight called preparation. It builds confidence, self esteem and obliterate fear. I have come to apprehend that majority with low self esteem are those with dearth foresight of the future .Confidence is the outcome of who you are viz a` viz understanding of self via readiness. The pill to low self esteem and inferiority complex is adequate preparation.

Power is one of those attributes many kill to have; power to dominate those around them. People tend to give up what they want when they want power. People desire it to become god in their various field of endeavor in life. Power is not about having a thick bicep muscles or broad chest, HELL NO. Powerful people are those who can influence their world and people around them with their actions and inactions. This power comes from the might of readiness. Yearly, the list of world’s most powerful country is being released based on their National Power Index. This national index of these countries to a large extent depends on their build up. That is why Herschel Walker in his knowledge opined, “if you train hard, you `II not only be hard, you will be hard to beat. It all boils down to what you do with your lead time; this classifies you in life based on you level preparation.

Matthew 25:1-13 talks about the kingdom of God being likened to the case of ten virgins. Five were considered wise because they took extra oil for their lamp and the other five as foolish due to non-readiness. The journey of the foolish virgins was futile due to their lack of wisdom of getting set. He who knows the importance of preparation in life is considered wise and hardly does such a person miss the track.

Rome was not built in a day. The foundation can be traced to adequate preparation. It requires unity of body, soul and mind to get ready for something. The starting point of it is the mind before the body is charge with the responsibility of action. The enemy of man is the lack of proper provisions.

The map and the route to ones destination are all concealed in one’s readiness for the journey. Your ability to understand this map and extracting the useful content of it lies in your preparedness. Men who can stay longer in problem, who doggedly believe they can render a solution to a particular problem are them who are set for it. Just as Albert Einstein would say “not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer. Preparation ignites the fire of determination and they work hand in hand. A thoroughly prepared man is a determined man. Thomas Edison made this point clearer when he said “I haven’t failed; I just discovered 10000ways that won’t work. He who is not determined; determination via preparation is not qualified to be great. Preparation is a necessary prerequisite for greatness.

The history of the world is nothing but biography of well prepared men. Putting things in order to achieve a given task isn’t necessary for everybody but compulsory for a few who desires the best. Most often, people tend to shy away from it due to ignorance and lack of will. Laziness is one of those elements that rip off this ability of preparedness. A lazy man cannot carve out time to foresee the future; he believes so much in luck. Procrastination is another bad influence on preparation. It harbors beliefs like; I have more time to do it later, let me rest now and do it later. There is no better time to prepare than now. Do it now and you will be amazed with the quality of your result. I believe that is only a dead man that is bound not to prepare. As long as you still have that breathe of consciousness in you, preparation remains the key to harnessing your potentials and greatness pathway. Leave that comfort zone, retreat from all unprepared venture and make necessary amendments in preparation. Your comfort zone has nothing to offer you as his candidate; because it’s too rich in nothing. You are a step closer to your destiny the day you leave your comfort zone.

Do not always wait for the right time to pick up action, pick up action before the right time comes. As we all know, the time is always right to do right. The best time the right state of mind is gotten and strategies developed are during this incubation period called preparation.

Lack of adequate preparation keeps people small and below their potentials. The best time to begin better with preparation is now.







THANKS.



ACHA HARRISON C.