PROJECT SUBMISSION BASED
ON THE SEMINAR TITLED
-MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR TIME-
AS REQUIRED FOR THE
MINISTRY KLASS CERTIFICATION
BY
ODUSINA, ADEWALE FESTUS
CONTENTS
SECTION 1. OBJECTIVE OF THE SEMINAR
SECTION 2. INTRODUCTION
SECTION 3. FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPT OF TIME
SECTION 4. TAKING RESPONSIBILITY FOR OUR TIME
4.01
DEVELOPING PASSION FOR CHANGE
4.02 DEVELOPING
STRATEGIES
4.03 MAKING
WORKABLE PLANS
4.04 CULTIVATE
SELF-DISCIPLINE
SECTION 5. STUDY TO GROW-THE REAL INVESTMENT
5.01
GROW SPIRITUALLY
5.02 GROW
“SOCIALLY”
SECTION 6. MARK YOUR TIME CONTENDERS
6.01 PLACE
VALUE ON YOUR TIME
6.02 CHOOSE
THE EVENTS THAT OCCUPY MOST OF YOUR TIME
SECTION 7. THE TUNNEL EXPERIENCE
7.01 DEALING
WITH THE CHALLENGES OF YOUR DECISION
SECTION 8. FOCUS ON YOUR PASSION
SECTION 9. SHARE YOUR SUCCESS STORY
SECTION 1. OBJECTIVE OF THE SEMINAR
At the end of the seminar I believe we will be able
to reflect on our past engagements and rightly appraise the value we have
placed on how each moment had been spent as time is one resource that God has
given each one of us equal measure of (as per day). Ecclesiastes
3:1-2; 11:6, 9; Job14:5-6 ; Ps 90:12 (KJV & AMP)
Simply put, we shall be able to:
- Reflect on how we have made effective use of this God’s greatest resource, Time.
- Be in better control of this resource for greater achievement in the future knowing we shall account for it.
SECTION 2. INTRODUCTION
With the last scriptural references in view, I want
to start by stating my basic believe which is that ‘Whatsoever Has Earned My Time Must Have Earned My Passion At First’.
The truth about life is we always find time for
what we love or are passionate about whether good or bad; we stand by the good
and explain away the bad. However, the truth is that what we are now is
a finished product (fruit) from the factory that bears our full identity and
character developed from all the successful and unsuccessful research titled
Past Experiences And Involvement.
When we came to the World all we had was an
allotted time which God has planned we should use to fulfill his Purpose here
on earth. However, whatever that purpose is He has put in Time ideas and opportunities for the accomplishment of that
purpose. One Of Those Opportunities
Include An Avenue Through Which ‘Every Man’ Must Accept Jesus As The Lord And
Saviour, Receive The Holy Ghost And Fully Partner With God To Fulfill The Given
Purpose. I call this the most vital opportunity for life fulfillment. If you
have not taking this opportunity do it now. It will improve your product
quality by 100%. II Cor. 5:17.
God is
our only source of strength and wisdom for effective time management and Life
fulfillment (Ps 90:12) and without Him we can only have an unfulfilled life
experience.
We are
all Products of the Expended God Given Resource-TIME and our decision and
determination from today will determine what we become in time to come. My
advice is that the decision be God-purpose based and you have a responsibility
to God and yourself to discover that purpose.
The book of Romans 7,8 & 12 reveal that the
nature of man both Christians and unbelievers have failure tendencies. However,
God expect us that are believers to show the world the victory of Jesus by
living a victorious life above failure because we have the Power of the Holy
Spirit in us to help us.Ps1; Col.3:1-5 (KJV & AMP). Always
remember that the strongest weapon of failure is procrastination, the act of
pushing forward what we can do today for another time that may never come-the
cause of many unaccomplished dreams. Some justify their proscastination with
the expectation that all prevailing situation will be right for us to fulfill
our dream, but the world system is not poised to favour us or our dream. It
takes the violent to be successful. There
is never going to be bed and roses sceranio to be successful in life especially
when the motive is to fulfil God’s given plan and purpose. We must remember we
have a common enemy, the devil who works tirelessly against everyone especially
the believers to ensure God’s plan for man is never realized and one way he
does that is by making people procrastinate suggesting reasons why ‘now’ is not
the best time.
Take
responsibity for your time and let nothing stop you. Stay focused, passionate
about your dream and ensure you do one more thing today that will move you
closer to fulfil it. God believes you can do it, believe yourself to.
SECTION 3. FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPT OF TIME
Ø Time can be defined as” limited period during which
an action, process, or condition exists or takes place” (Microsoft® Encarta®
Reference Library 2002. © 1993-2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights
reserved.)
Ø Everybody has a fair share of time with equal allotment
per day-24hours.
Ø It is one limited resource that is being used up
consciously or unconsciously from the point of birth to the point of
translation to eternity.
Ø It is a prime
mover (vehicle) for every form of investment be it for knowledge or business
investment.
Ø Nobody
has control over the expended time. You cannot manage expended time but we all
have control over the present time and the future. The exceptions to this are
the insane and the unconscious.
Ø Every
sane and conscious man is accountable for how his or her time is spent.
Ø We are
today products of our expended time-what you have spent time on is a
determinant of where you are.
SECTION 4. TAKING RESPONSIBILITY FOR OUR TIME
Until
we take responsibility for how every second of our lives is spent we will not
be able to far with the plans we have to accomplish. Every events that fill our time must be such that will line up with our
passion; our goal ,our purpose and when such events are such that we can do
nothing about such as long hours in hold-ups we must find away to make most of
that time count.
Below
is simple analysis of such events that may fill our time but do not really add
any value to our lives and we must take serious decision concerning them.
|
Item
|
Description
|
No of Hours/ Day
|
No of Hours/ Week
|
No of Hours/ Month
|
No of Days/Year
|
% WRT a Year
|
|
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
|
Tv
viewal
Videos (3-films)
Daily
Heavy Trafic
Club
Meeting
Full
Time House-wife Affair-Cooking, Taking Care of Kids etc
Saloon-Hair
Care
Light
Sleeper
Deep
Sleeper
|
4
6
4
5
12
2
6
10
|
28
42
28
35
84
14
42
70
|
112
168
112
140
336
56
168
280
|
56
84
56
70
183
28
84
152
|
15
23
15
19
50
8
23
42
|
(WRT-with reference
to)
When
one spends 4-hours consistently on television and in heavy traffic daily for
one year, adding up the hours, he would have spent 112-days of the year viewing
the Tv or in traffic.
The question now is
of what value will these two engagement be to me 25-years time? Of what value
are 10hours of sleep, 2 hours in saloon, 12 hours home management,6-hours of
videos and 5-hours of clubbing going to be 25 years time?
4.01
DEVELOPING PASSION FOR CHANGE
Mike
Murdock once said, “what we hate reveal what we are willing to change. Until we
sincerely hate the events that are usurping our useful time without our
permission, we might not take a drastic decision against or around them. The
truth is we can convert most of this wasted resource to useful ones.
A
house wife that does 8-hours of home management, 4-hours of home videos,
2-hours of traffic while picking kids from schools and 10 hours of sleeping has
a major problem-no reading culture, no time for personal development will
eventually be of little or no value to the society. “A wife without job skill is asking for trouble. Life is not fair.
Death or disability occurs. Breadwinners lose jobs. Not all spouses love each
other until the end of time. As the poet said, “Provide, provide.”” Ref.-Making
the Most of Your Money (1991) by Jane Bryant Quinn.
God expects more
than an ordinary life from us.
4.02 DEVELOPING
STRATEGIES
We
must develop strategies that work for us to get more from life. Such strategies
must be such that can flow into our present situation or operations. Our
present engagement will affect the choices that we must make but when very
necessary a total change from present
engagement must be required.
We must determine
that at no point in life should we become irrelevant to the society which
includes our immediate family. Consider the two situations below:
Ø
An
house wife must realize that those kids keeping her home will eventually grow
up and leave home and when that happens what next?
Without the right planning idleness will set in and every familiar
attribute of such life-pitiable
place to be.
Ø
A
civil servant must realize that the services have an allotted time that daily
runs out and after retirement what next?
Without the right planning idleness
will set in and every familiar attribute of such life-pitiable place to be.
There
are so many investments we can make now that we make us always relevant to
society. I call these seeds that time need
to work on.
The
following are some few areas:
Ø Reading
Books For Self Development: Christian Books, Management Books, Professional Books.
Ø Training
And Retraining To Keep Up With The Latest Development.
Ø Investment
In Capital Market- Stocks Of Shares, Treasury Bills, Notes And Bonds, Mutual
Funds- See Your Banker For More Information.
Ø Investment
In The Money Market-Saving Culture.
Ø Investment
In The Real Estate (Building Construction)-Opportunities Are Available For
Mortgage Facility In Some Banks-Discuss With A Banker.
Ø Investment
In Agriculture-Farming, poultry, etc.
4.03 MAKING
WORKABLE PLANS
Whatever
be the purpose we are created to accomplish or problems we are created to solve
there are two time phases it must pass through- Period Of Insignificance And Manifestation.
Many
dreams die in the period of insignificance-when nobody knows you. For Moses in
the bible it was 80 years Ex2:23, Dt 31:1-3. For the Israelite in the
wilderness it was also 40years. Dt 29:1-6 10-13
We
determine sometimes how long this period of insignificance will be. We can make
it run normally or abnormally.
A
secondary school student who has passion for Electrical Engineering but spends
most of his time watching films and television or sleeping long hours or
playing football which he does not plan to play as professional might have to
spend three years to scale through WAEC, another two years on JAMB and eventually
gain entrance when his determined colleagues are graduating and start his
engineering practice when they have gathered five years experience. He will
also have the age factor to contend with in the labour market as he might be
too old for choice jobs that he would have qualified for if he was five years
younger.
We
have different sceranio as we fall into different categories based on where we
are at the moment. What we are doing
presently will determine what our story will be in years to come.
Since
we determine how long the period of insignificance will last, we have a
responsibility to make it run normally for maximum impact.
STEPS TO MAKING
WORKABLE PLANS
The
following are steps to making workable plans:
i.
Creat the right
environment around you: Creat an atmosphere that works for you. If your
present job is killing your dream work at changing it. The pay may be
attractive but if works against you accomplishing your personal dream, you must
quit fast and don’t procrastinate. A job that does not allow for personal
development is a killer.
ii.
Work at getting
value out of time at all cost: work at getting value out of at least 95%
of each day on the average
See
the table 4.00 below for a typical daily
routine as an illustration.
|
Hours
|
Description of
activity
|
Complementary
activity
|
Expended time/week
5-days
|
Expended time/year
(52weeks)
|
|
5-6am
6-6:30am
6:30-8:30am
8:30-5:30pm
5:30-7:30pm
7-10pm
10-11pm
11-5am
|
Devotion
Morning
routine
Period
of traffic
Official
engagement
Period
of traffic
relaxation
devotion
resting
|
Listening
to educative material on tape
Reading or listening to
tapes
Reading or listening to
tapes
Reading
or browsing, listening to tapes
|
5-hours
2½
10
45
10
20
5
30
|
260-hours
(12 days)
130
(6days)
520
(20days)
2340
(90days)
520
(20days)
1040
(40days)
260
(12days)
1560
(65days)
|
Plan such that work for you for maximum
impact. You can possibly relocate to gain more time lost in traffic situations
as you would have notice that the case described above expends 40days
cumulative time in traffic. It is of great economic loss to the nation’s
economy if 50% of the workers spend 40 days in traffic. Such could have been
spent on training programmes.
4.04 CULTIVATE
SELF-DISCIPLINE
For
me what must earn my time must have earned my passion at first and meet the
requirement of my checklist as described below:
i.
Does
it line up with my ambition directly or indirectly?
ii.
Does
the activity build in me courage, faith, hope, love?
iii.
Does
it affect my spiritual life positively?
iv.
Do
I have peace in it?
v.
Does
it create freedom and joy with more commitment?
vi.
Does
it build my relationship with God and people?
You have the choice
of running your own checklist to sooth your plans. Ensure you have one.
SECTION 5. STUDY TO GROW-THE REAL INVESTMENT
For
you to fully carry out God’s agenda, there must be intimacy between you and God
which can only develop with conscious effort towards spiritual growth and for
you to effectively deliver the agenda you must thoroughly understand the
society-the beneficiary.
5.01
GROW SPIRITUALLY
The
primary place to develop spiritual growth is in the study of God’s word,
fellowship with other believers, bible study and in prayer. Others are in
reading Christian materials, sharing of the gospel to mention a few.
With
close relationship with God you will understand your seasons. The reason many
shipwreck is because they become impatient and move out of to manifest when
they should still have been under training. God does not work with the
impatient and it is not a fruit of the spirit. Gal.5:22-23, Jam.1:2-4, Col3:16
5.02 GROW
“SOCIALLY”
Pick
up materials on public relations, psychology, and public speaking or take
training in such environment when possible. This will positively affect your
carriage and overall outlook.Acts7:22-23
Moses
began to fill a sense of responsibility towards the people of Israel when he
was forty, but it was not time yet for him as his attempt towards this mission
backfired on him; he still had a lot to learn which took him another forty
years journey of life. He had an encounter with the one who called him for the
purpose: God.Acts7:22-36
SECTION 6. MARK YOUR TIME CONTENDERS
6.01 PLACE
VALUE ON YOUR TIME
Carefully
list such events that daily fill your time and measure the impact they leave on
you. If we want to be sincere with ourselves we know what we need to do away
with it or adjust to from our routines. See table 4.00 above for possible adjustment.
When
an event take hours off our lives daily it becomes important for us to value
such event or activity (ies). You can decide to watch two films weekly, watch
television at most two hours daily and 3hours on weekends for relaxation. The
remaining hours can be effectively planned for.
6.02 CHOOSE
THE EVENTS THAT OCCUPY MOST OF YOUR TIME
Jane Bryant Quinn the writer
Of Making the Most Of your Money said,’ Time is a Trickster’. How true this is.
You think you still have time on your side but before you know it you’ve just
lived for another ten years and you wonder how it flew with no serious
achievment.
I want to discuss one of the
possible time consuming factor which is heavy traffic situation that some go
through daily. One can choose to relocate and permanently deal with it or
adjust to it by picking an activity that will make that time of some sort of
value.
This could be reading or
listening to tapes (walk-man always handy). 25x 4hours monthly commitment to
reading will doubtlessly be of great value.
A house-wife might take a
house-help to complement a home management routine so she could gain time for
some more valuable activity like training ourselves on some areas of business
management.
SECTION 7. THE TUNNEL EXPERIENCE
7.01 DEALING
WITH THE CHALLENGES OF YOUR DECISION
The
years of insignificance can be very challenging. It could seem so long that we
feel we should just quit everything and go the ordinary way. The irony of life
is there is less competition on this road as very few people pass it.
At
this point I want to share a poem I wrote. I titled it ‘Be Different’
Be Different
It Is
Visionary To Be Different
It Is
Highly Costly To Be Different
It Is
A Hard Chew To Be Different
It Is
Adventurous To Be Different
It Is
Lovely To Be Different
It Can
Be Lonely To Be Different
It Is
Honorable To Be Different
It Can
Be Dishonorable To Be Different
It Is
Productivity To Be Different
It Can
Be Counter Productive To Be Different
It Is
Mark Setting To Be Different
It Can
Be Backwardly To Be Different
It Is
Beautiful To Be Different
It Can
Be Detestable To Be Different
But
…If Been Different Mean
Being
Sincere, Honest, Trustworthy, Industrious, It
Is Worth The Pains Of Being Different.
Be Different
My Friend
From the bible, we read Abraham went
through 25years of self discovery, Joseph, 13years, Moses, 40 years, Josuah,
40years, Israelite, 40years, and Our Lord Jesus Christ, 30years.
The years can be unimaginagably
tough, but the truth is you can beat all the challenges.
I call this the tunnel experience
because it may be so dark that you can not see the situation changing soon but
the truth is no matter how long it last with all things being equal it is still
temporal. God has set in His time your time for manifestation. When that time
comes He will personally announce you and how wonderful it is when God
announces you entry to fame and glory. Wait for that time, whether it is
week,months or years away. Wait.
SECTION 8. FOCUS ON YOUR PASSION
Consciously
keep your passion. There is nothing you determine to achieve that is not
achievable once you heart is on it. Write your passion on paper and your plans
towards achieving them and as often as you can appraise the progress made. Make
necessary adjustment when needed.
Don’t
always look at your limitations; focus on your opportunities. God doesn’t see
limitations but opportunities. What we see as limitation has been provided for
somehow waiting for our discovery. There is always one more thing we need to do
that we bring us closer to meeting such need(s). It might just be a business proposal inspired
by God to be addressed to the one God might have planned to use.
You have a duty to know the next thing in God’s agenda and
never delay on it.
SECTION 9. SHARE YOUR SUCCESS STORY
The
whole world waits for the manifestation of those that will run the race through
the tunnel and come out to affect the world positively and I will definitely be
one of them. I have made the choice to be different.
Today
we must ask ourselves if we know what we really want from life. What would you
have accomplished in 25 years time and I would say it’s worth every pain I have
ever gone through?
Do
you want to be any of these?
Ø
The
world renowned evangelist
Ø
The world renowned medical practitioner
Ø
The
world renowned stock broker
Ø
The
world renowned technologist
Whatever
it is, that is the purpose every second, minute and hour should be lived for.
Make the most of
your time: the world awaits you.
