Don't Rock My Boat: Life's Little Secrets

By Abiola Olaifa

Don’t Rock My Boat helps you interpret life’s important lessons by asking and answering some major questions: Who are you? Why are you here? What do you want? Where are you going? What are your goals in life? Sharing stories, anecdotes, and meaningful quotations. Abiola illustrates the path to finding peace and contentment in everyda

• Language: English
• Publisher: Stratton Press
• Release date: Jan 15, 2019
• ISBN: 9781643453279

Abiola Olaifa

Abiola Olaifa is a trained Digital Business Analyst, he also holds a degree in computer science and has many years of experience working in various business sectors. He has put his many years of life experience into this book. Abiola is also the Author of Defy All Odds and Don't Rock My Boat (First Edition). He currently lives in Great Britain.

Book preview

DEDICATION

To my soldiers;

Simon, Daniel and Jason.

To my beloved wife;

Olayinka.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I wish to thank all the people who have influenced my life and writings through their immeasurable support, contributions and advice during the writing of this book.

I thank all friends and family members too numerous to mention for their endless support, kind and understanding spirit. Many thanks to the publishing team for their patience and work ethics.

I wish you all the best that life can bring.

INTRODUCTION

Life’s Little Secrets

Life is good. I am not concerned about your present situation or the many obstacles you might be facing. What I am confident about is that you are about to discover those little secrets that will free you from your obstacles. You are on the path to discovering the little secrets that will change your life forever.

Don’t Rock My Boat is a book that aims at sharing practicable experiences and insightful stories and at analysing issues that relate to the human drive to achieve meaningful success in life. It aims to motivate and inspire. It is an extensively researched book with cognitive analyses of life issues as they relate to our daily interactions.

You might not be able to change your past, but you can change your future, by your actions today.

The book will take you through the journey of awakening and presenting new approaches to issues we have often overlooked; it will show how our lifestyles and beliefs play an unprejudiced importance to our existence. We are an embodiment of greatness; we have the golden crown and divine excellence as natural virtues. Many do not possess what rightfully belongs to them, not because the things they need do not exist, but because they are ignorant and do not know how to get what they already own. You are on the path to discovering what rightfully belongs to you and possessing it permanently. The book is rich in the world’s best proverbs and expressions, delivered in their direct meanings to give you the experience that will bring the best out of you.

You might not be able to change your past, but you can change your future, by your actions today. Too many people are expecting to get pure gold, but miss their silver linings. Nothing is as far away as one second ago. There is no future in the past; it is always hidden in the future. Don’t sit down and count your losses. Count your gains, they are numerous and you can start creating more gains for yourself from now. You may have realised that looking back naturally strains the muscles in your neck and could cause you to bump into people not going your direction. These people you bump into while looking back may just be the obstacles you have to get rid of in order to get to where you are going. Do not let your boat be rocked, because you cannot reach your destination while going another man’s direction. Don’t let your yesterday consume your today; you have a future to begin, so get down to business.

Obstacles are what often stand as seemingly insurmountable oppositions to our goals; they are the strange things we need to contend with to be able to achieve success. We are going to unravel obstacles in this book and delve into how we can turn those obstacles around into our productivity. This book is written to encourage you to defy all the obstacles that stand on your way, rocking your boat, and stopping you from living a purposeful life. It will query some of your long-held beliefs, challenge your thinking, and show you some of life’s little secrets and how to do your usual activities in slightly different ways.

We live in a world where many things stand in opposition to our goals; these are the obstacles and defying them is a pre-requisite to achieving our goals. It is therefore important to address those obstacles, put them where they belong, and live our lives. You are about to discover life’s little secrets to your happiness. Fasten your seat belt and be ready for your journey of self-discovery!

To your Success,

Abiola Olaifa

Now onto Chapter One!

CHAPTER ONE

Purpose Inspired Life

Life Secret 1.0

‘Those who wait for the dead man’s shoes must first go about bare-footed.’

PURPOSE INSPIRED LIFE

To win a war, soldiers in an army need to know three important things; first they need to know that they are at war, secondly they need to know who the enemy is, and thirdly they must know what strategy or weapon will destroy their enemy. The battlefield is not a place to broker peace or be sympathetic to your enemy. You either fight to win a war or you get defeated. Take this next important point seriously; you need to face your enemy and fight, it is the only way to win any battle. You cannot be sympathetic to your enemies, if you are, when the war gets fast and furious, you will be the first casualty. You do not win a war by showing your back to your enemy. Show me a soldier that has ever won a war with his back to the enemy and I’ll show you a soldier that is dead and ready for the vulture’s dinner. The fight is over only when the enemy is down.

You need to face your enemy and fight; it is the only way to win any battle.

You need precise planning and accurate rules of engagement to attack and defeat your enemies. You have just one chance at life, therefore live every moment, because the greatest gift of life is life itself. Guard your life preciously; do not let anything take it away from you. The future always holds great potential; don’t live your life in the past because there are more great things ahead than behind. There are many things that will stand in your way and try to stop you, these are your enemies and you have a duty to defeat them. Your fight for victory is not always physical. You may be intelligent, but it will make no difference if you don’t put it to work. Let your life be in drive mode. Your hard work has the power to carry you further than just intelligence. You have a duty to face the challenges of your life and make your life a success. Remember always that you are a specialist, a founder, and a creator. You’re the architect of your own fortune or misfortune. Nobody rubs you in the mud except you. You need to ascribe a purpose to your life and pursue the purpose and then you can be sure that you’ll live that purpose. An Ashanti proverb says: It is not what you are called, but what you answer to." Everything about you is a unique gift to the world; unlock the gifts and bring out the best of your abilities. Never say that it can’t be done, we can only go where our vision is. Wherever you find yourself, do not forget that you are the only one with your set of attributes, no other person has them. Discover yourself and start living. You are the creator and founder of that living thing called ‘you.’

A person who is ready to defy all obstacles, who shoots at a target no one else can see and hits it, is a person ready for a worthwhile life. Creativity is already built and living inside every one of us, you only need to light the candle of your imagination. Be brave and don’t hesitate to defy all the obstacles that prevent you from achieving your greatness. Though life is considered a mystery, it is not without meaning to an open mind. Life is a sea of knowledge, which only those driven by a purpose can swim through. Life is simple and without contradictions, yet also complex and full of contradictions. Resolving this enigma for ourselves is part of our nature as human beings. All success is realistic. The important thing is whether we succeed in becoming happy.

Life is simple and without contradictions, yet also complex and full of contradictions.

Everybody has a purpose for being, a purpose for living, and a purpose for dying. Nobody is created by mistake. Nobody is inferior. Everybody is superior. The world is simply a dark place to that person who walks in darkness, sees, hears, breathes, and grows in darkness. Tell me, what good is light to such a person? This goes to define our importance to our selves; it goes to define where we are and how we view life.

How do you think life could be of meaning to you? You need to have a proper definition of your life. You need to create some standards for your life, ensure you keep to those standards, dream big, and pursue the dreams with zest. If you have a little dream, automatically you’ll get success. A lot of us never even have a dream and a lot more of us have dreams that are only a shadow of another man’s dream. Most people don’t even have a reason for being in this world, while others simply want to follow the trends; they just approach life the way it comes. But you need to know that a train does not run on a rail track in a zigzag manner, it goes straight on the track. One of my role models, a talented author, salesman, and speaker, Zig Ziglar (born in 1926), asserts, "You can’t consistently perform in a manner that is inconsistent with the way you see yourself."

Many founders, creators, and discoverers have defied the laws of nature. They have worked to make the world a better place for us. There are many great innovations that are still to be developed. What we call great inventions today and feel there could be nothing like them, were considered odd in the past. The career parents think is not fit for their child; may be the career needed to reach the peak in life. To pursue that career, the child only needs to give the career a go.

There was once an owner of a block of marble, who said it was of no value. The marble was of no use, but one great man knew there was something great about the marble. Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarotti Simoni (1475–1564), commonly known as Michelangelo, an Italian renaissance painter, sculptor, poet and engineer could see an angel locked in the marble. He said to himself that he must defy the odds and set the angel free. The marble the owner thought useless became the magnificent statue of David completed by Michelangelo in 1504. This masterpiece succeeded in representing King David as a symbol of freedom.

A man with one wall clock in his house knows the time, but the one with two is never quite sure.

INCREASE YOUR CHANCES

Many of us live a life that is governed by the desires of others –this is especially true of people who seem sensitive to what others have to say. Their boats are constantly being rocked. Many people are governed by their friends and some by their relations, or acquaintances. Some are very inconsistent with the way they live their lives. You need to know that what many call an obstacle; the road many say you should not follow; the path many say is too risky to take, often leads to paradise. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882), an American poet and educator, puts it this