Drive Your Life, Do More

By Chinenye Orakwue

The first step to personal development is the willingness and openness to learn. Learning can sometimes make us feel uncomfortable especially when we have to learn from someone or something that is perceived to be less intelligent than we are. It even gets harder when we have to learn from inanimate objects like a CAR.

I realized that no man is a custodian of knowledge hence we can draw life changing lessons from anyone or anything you choose to open our minds to by laying aside our assumptions, pride and even prejudice in some cases. The Renault Megane - my first car taught me so much lessons on personal development, I wouldn't have learnt from anywhere else.

Aspiring for leadership is a remarkable and noble desire, but far more important than leading others is Personal Leadership–the act of leading oneself. I define personal leadership as the ability to lead, guide and direct one’s life towards a pre-determined destination. It is clear as crystal that without personal development, we are headed for massive failure. Its just a question of when?

Personal leadership is an internal process that begins with the thoughts and memories we choose to keep alive. Memories are powerful enough to propel us to greater heights of achievement or reduce us to the lowest where we intentionally allow the bad actions of others to erode our good character. By choosing to reach out for greater heights, we add layers of colours to our life.

The car doors represent the accesses we give people into our lives and hearts. We are naturally programmed to invite or limit certain people into our lives remembering that people come into our lives for different purposes at different times. This is so important. You wouldn’t think about leaving your car unlocked when you park in a dangerous environment or vicinity, would you? If you can shut your car door to control access, you can also close your heart and life for the same reason. Learning to do this without apologies requires personal leadership.

Being proactive is one of the best personal leadership traits we can develop, and it shows up in all part of our lives. Being proactive means staying in control of situations with the preventive approach. I sometimes describe it as a lifesaving technique. Performing a daily character check can be a daunting task, but in the long run a rewarding experience. Little things like learning to be polite, being humble, follow up with physical and spiritual exercises, paying your bills at the right time, getting antivirus for your computer and doing things that can save you time, energy and money. It takes personal leadership to choose and do these things.

There is a joy you would never discover until you take the control of the drivers seat of your life, This is probably the best lesson I learnt driving. The driver’s seat is the car’s central action point. This is where most, if not all, of the action that facilitates vehicle movement takes place and where the driver wields the greatest power.
To drive a vehicle, you first have to learn to drive. You might have theoretical knowledge about a vehicle and even know all the functions of all the parts, but that won’t translate to a driving experience. You have to sit on the driver’s seat to practice and perfect your driving skills following established driving rules and guidelines!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Chinenye Orakwue
• Release date: May 13, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005655884

Book preview

DRIVE YOUR LIFE, DO MORE

INSPIRING PERSONAL LEADERSHIP: LIFE CHANGING LESSONS I LEARNED FROM MY CAR

CHINENYE ORAKWUE

www.chinenyeorakwue.com

First Edition

Unless otherwise stated, all scripture quotes are taken from the King James Version

For further information or to contact Chinenye Orakwue, please send an email to: [e-mail]

DRIVE YOUR LIFE, DO MORE

Copyright © Chinenye Orakwue, 2022

Published in 2022 by Emeth Consult

Sagamu, Ogun

Phone No. + 234 (0) 806 3619 911

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

DEDICATION

FOREWORD

INTRODUCTION: LEARNING OUTSIDE THE BOX

LESSON ONE: THE POWER OF COLOUR

LESSON TWO: THE POWER OF ACCESS

LESSON THREE: THE PROACTIVE POWER

LESSON FOUR: THE SITTING AND STAYING POWER

LESSON FIVE: THE POWER OF FOCUS

LESSON SIX: THE POWER OF SERVICING

LESSON SEVEN: THE POWER OF CLARITY AND CONCISE TIMING

LESSON 8: THE POWER OF CONTROL

LESSON 9: THE DRIVER’S SEAT

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

A Renault Megane. This book wouldn’t be here today without this car. I am deeply grateful for all the lessons I learned using a car and for the woman they’ve and continue to help me become.

I am also grateful to the Kudirat Initiative for Democracy (KIND) for the opportunity to serve as Programme Officer for their Women’s Leadership Programme, KUDRA, for half a decade. That was where I found my voice. My journey at KIND has continued to shape my life, even years after leaving the organization. KIND was pivotal to my personal development.

To all the people whose stories I have shared here, I deeply appreciate you for the opportunity to learn.

Thank you!

DEDICATION

To women and men facing real struggles to overcome personal character flaws and self-limiting beliefs that inhibit personal growth and development.

I pray you find inspiration from this book to enable you to break free from these beliefs and release your God given potentials for maximum impact.

FOREWORD

Every great teacher understands the importance of getting their students to understand concepts taught as being more important than sounding intelligent.

A lot of books have been positioned to demonstrate the brilliance of their writers and not the understanding of the audience.

Great books that are adopted globally are however more of those that the world understands and can use to make progress in their lives.

In this book, Chinenye has made understanding of key success principles easy by using the analogy of a car and driving.

In this book, she used different elements such as the color, door, driving the car and servicing the car to share the experiences that helped her to build and master personal leadership. Topics covered areas including the power of access, the proactive power, sitting and staying power

Her use of scriptures and quotes from other thought leaders will also help to accentuate learning for the reader.

In one sentence, I would say the main message of this book is based on this summary; our life is what we make of it, it is up to us to be what we want to be against all odds and mastering personal leadership is the key to driving our life and doing more.

I am glad she has delivered this book to the world. I believe many people’s worlds will be transformed by it.

Jimi Tewe

INTRODUCTION: LEARNING OUTSIDE THE BOX

"When you stop learning, you start dying." -Anonymous

Did you know that the Bible talks about learning from ants? If you have not read it before, you might be wondering if it’s true. This is because the ant is thought to be one of the tiniest and most insignificant of all insects. How and what on earth could you learn from such an insignificant creature? Something you can crush under your feet without realising that you’ve killed a creature because you didn’t even apply any force.

Let’s read together from the book of Proverbs 6:6-9:

Take a lesson from the ants, you lazybones. Learn from their ways and become wise! Though they have no prince or governor or ruler to make