My Speech....

I started by asking people to repeat these words

(I am strong like a bull and I can do anything!!!!)

 ............

How to become your best self while fulfilling your dream.

M y dear friends, the organizers of this event,  sisters, ladies  and ladies. I am very honoured to stand before you and talk to you, all the way from Dar es salaam.  I am actually very happy and I’d like to share my sincere appreciation from deep of my heart. I truly love you all and I love Arusha.  And on behalf of my company, Relim Entertainment Ltd, the publishers of Bang! Magazine, we are welcoming you all to Dar-Es-Salaam.  I hope this is the beginning of many or frequent visits from us.

Today, I’d like to talk about becoming your best self while fulfilling your dreams.

I am living my dream and I hope many of you are either living your dreams or you are on the paths of achieving your dreams.

Remember, you have the power to mold yourself and be the best person you can be. You have ambitions, goals, plans, dreams and because you are strong like a bull, you aren’t scared of anything. You can be who you want to be.

It is important to reflect back on your values and goals, then determine if there is something that you hadn’t considered. Maybe when you were young you got the false impression that you wanted to be a doctor, but as you went through Pre-Med school you noticed the subject matter didn’t really interest you anymore. In that example, it may be appropriate to re-adjust your goals to something more suiting.

To become the best self while achieving your dreams you have to consider 5 main things.

1.    Be Healthy - Be physically fit . – This is our ultimate goal in life. To be healthy and live 100 years.  Actually it is simple calculation. The first 40 years of your life, you are busy learning and using your energy and what you learn to establish an empire and fortune. They say you retire at 60? . No if you have worked pretty well, the best age to retire is 40. Therefore the next 40 years from 41-80 years, you must be busy enjoying the fortune that you have created and living your dream. You pick up a hobby and enjoy your hobby and worshiping God.  If you live well, you will not feel bad or care what happens after age of 80.

2.   Be Involved - Serve your community.- There’s nothing more fulfilling than being able to serve your community. Here I do not mean being a mayor or perhaps mjumbe wa nyumba kumi kumi. You can be an active member in church or do any community work to create a better world for our children and our fellow citizens. Trust me, when you die, people tend to remember and miss you the most if you were adding value to their lives…….

3.   Be Studious – There is no end to education. If you have first degree, get the second and the third. Go for your masters or just enrol into any  short courses. Or just read, read as many books as you can, you will increase your knowledge.

4.  Be Ambitious - Set and achieve goals.- My friends, without goals, we are as good as dead. We must have goals in our life. Set very high up goal, raise your expectation. sometimes when you say it loud to people they can think you are either dreaming or you have gone crazy. But set it very high up there, so if you work hard and you never reach it atleast you’ll be at a very good position.- Yesterday, when I was preparing this speech I saw a picture on the internet- A cat was looking at the mirror and what it saw was a lion. When you look in the mirror, you must see the person you want to become.

5.  Be Responsible - Live by moral and ethical principles.- For God’s sake, be an example to your children, your family. Let other people look at you as a role model.  We have principles that guide us, be it in religion or work or at home where we grew up. Build more meaningful relationships. Be funny, loving, respectful, interesting, loyal. Just be a damn good role model. It pays.

Let me share few secrets with you.  Keep in mind the five tips I mentioned above are the rule of the thumb.

a) Put very high expectations of yourself

When we don’t expect much out of our lives, we tend to settle for things that could’ve been better. Some people have a habit of lowering their standards whenever their goals become a little more difficult then they would’ve liked.

But “successful people” (and I use this term loosely – because there are many different ways to be successful), are always trying to raise their standards. Maybe you’re a screenwriter who has already written 3 movies, but you want your next one to be your best. Maybe you’re a musician who is already signed to a label, but you want your next album to go platinum . Maybe you’re a blogger who is happy with 100 visits a day, but now you want to work your way up to 1,000 visits a day.

When average people achieve something, they become complacent to their current position in life (which isn’t always a bad thing). But when successful people achieve something, they are always looking for that next plateau.

I would recommend everyone to at least have one aspect of their life where they are constantly raising their standards. It gives you that feeling of “constant growth and progress,” which really gives you that sensation of being alive. It screams passion.

b) Discover positive role models.

When trying to achieve your best self, it is often useful to discover positive role models that embody characteristics that you would like to cultivate for yourself. You can find these positive role models anywhere: in literature, books, magazines, TV shows, or in your real-life interactions with friends, family, and other strangers. You can use these influences as a resource to look up to and learn from. Imagine what they would do in certain situations, then model that behavior to see if it works for you.

C) Network:  Your network is your net worth:

networking is the cornerstone of any type of success…be it job, business or life in general. This is an age old golden principle that gives tremendous power to those who understand the value and capitalize on it

So… what is networking?

You might have heard the old saying, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” This has been an enduring adage that still stands tall even today. However, considering the way the world is shaping up today it’s even more important to remember that “It’s not only who you know, it’s also who knows you!”

Simply, networking is the process of cultivating mutually beneficial long term relationships with other people to for the achievement of professional goals. Now, this is a great definition, but networking is infinitely more powerful than simple relationships. It has the ability to change everyone's fortune who takes time to learn these principles and develops the skills to apply them. Here is why…

The best answer to this question I have ever heard is by Robert Kiyosaki who said, “The richest people in the world build networks. Everyone else looks for work.”

In order to become the best networker, you have to:-
1. Define your goals – Define your objectives for networking. Clearly you want to know why you want to network, what you want to accomplish. Define what kind of people you will need to network with inline with your objectives. Knowing your goals, your purpose helps you be effective. This is the most critical step.

2. Identify Your Strength – For effective networking, it is important to know about your talents, abilities and strengths that can enable you to add value to the people we want to network with. While doing networking, it is important that your network benefits from your strengths.

3. Participate in Social Networking Online – You must have a good profile with your real picture and genuine public information about yourself on leading social networking sites such as Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and Twitter. Not just be there, but make an effort to build your online image. Be active on these sites and engage in conversations with your social connections regularly (at least once every two-three days). It is very important.

4. Research and attend local Networking Events – Depending on your goals and your area of interest, research local networking groups (Chamber of Commerce, Toastmasters, Job Networking etc) and make a point to attend their meetings regularly.
It is also important to have your 30 second introduction ready that describes who you are, what you do and if you can state what is your strength!

5. Practice Discipline and Participation – In addition to doing everything as stated above, it is critical to practice discipline and be consistent which is the hardest task of all for many people. Show up at the networking groups regularly and on time. Be active online at social networking websites. These are important for effective networking.