Nigerian Entertainment Industry

Hello people. There is a completion going on in Benue State, Nigeria. Please vote for "LUSH EVENT" on the PAGE 2 of this website http://nigeriaentertainment.com   . Voting is daily. Your vote MUST count.... Thanks..........

A letter to Mr. Shem Obafaiye

Hello I salute you all,my name is Mr. Shem Obafaiye, the Lagos State Commandant of the Nigeria Security & Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) that was wrongly suspended for an interview in which I stressed ‘My Oga At The Top’.




Everyone knows that it is not easy to go for an interview in Nigeria and pass. Apart from that,Channels TV didn’t give me a pre-questionaire which they should have done by ethical standards,they failed and where more interested in humiliating me.

Let me ask,how many of you know the numbers of your homes?




How many of you even know the plate number of your cars you have been driving for years now? VIO will take note. In the heat of such an interview,I could not categorically state whether it was nscdc.com or nscdc.org. So I said ‘that’s all’,believing they will understand and move on. If I put only 2 ‘ww’s,who doesn’t know that it is 3 ‘www’s to make an internet site search?




I would like all to forward this till it reaches my oga’s at the top so that I can be called back to office,life is hard. Over the years,I have passed courses and done well in the field to be made Commandant in lagos,why is it that comment that makes them suspend me? Why?




And for DJ Ziggy of amebor talk,I won’t be angry with you. If you know him,tell him God Bless Him,because some entertainment houses have asked to sign my son,one that is an upcoming entertainer. In life,be careful who you praise,because those you praise can bring you down. It is only GOD. Please broadcast this categorically. I apologise to all Nigerians for my blunder. It will never happen again.




As you restore me back into office,GOD will restore you back to more progress,Amen.

I count on you Nigerians because I know now you all must love me. I forgive you all,but you must help me and my family out of this dilemma.




Thank you and God bless.




Mr. Shem Obafaiye, Lagos State Commandant (NSCDC)

Pope Francis - History's Final Pontiff?

An author who predicted Pope Benedict XVI would be the first pontiff in nearly 600 years to resign believes the election today of Jorge Mario Bergoglio as the 266th Roman Catholic pontiff lines up with a medieval prophecy that would make him the “final pope” before the End Times.

Tom Horn, co-author with Cris Putman of the book “Petrus Romanus: The Final Pope is Here,” told WND today Bergoglio’s selection was a “fantastic fulfillment of prophecy.”

His book examines St. Malachy’s “Prophecy of the Popes,” said to be based on a prophetic vision of the 112 popes following Pope Celestine II, who died in 1144.

Malachy’s prophecies, first published in 1595, culminate with the “final pope,” “Petrus Romanus,” or “Peter the Roman,” whose reign ends with the destruction of Rome and the judgment of Christ.

Horn has said a pope of Italian descent would fulfill the prophecy, noting Bergoglio is the son of Italian parents and a Jesuit.

“Being a Jesuit is a very important aspect of our prediction in our book,” Horn told WND in an email.

Citing his book, Horn said the name “Petrus Romanus” in the prophecy “implies this pope will reaffirm the authority of the Roman Pontiff over the Church and will emphasize the supremacy of the Roman Catholic Faith and the Roman Catholic Church above all other religions and denominations, and its authority over all Christians and all peoples of the world.”

Horn pointed out the Jesuits order was organized “to stop Protestantism from spreading and to preserve communion with Rome and the successor of Peter.”

As WND reported, Horn and his co-author, Cris Putnam, predicted in their book Benedict would step down, making way for history’s “final pope.”

The 2012 prediction

Remarkably, Horn told WND, more than 60 years ago a Belgian Jesuit theologian and academic named Rene Thibault came up with the date 2012 as the culmination of Malachy’s prophecies.

Horn points to reports that Benedict made his decision to resign last year, before announcing it in February.

Thibaut’s was published in French only four months before Thibaut died.

Horn and Putnam translated the Belgian priest’s rare 1951 book, “The Mysterious Prophecy of the Popes,” into English.

“Adopting the methodology of a mystic as well as a scholar,” Horn and Putnam write in the first chapter of their book, Thibaut “makes a compelling case that ‘The Prophecy of the Popes’ is a real supernatural prophecy.”

Horn noted Thibaut is among many Catholic leaders, including popes, cardinals and priests, who have affirmed Malachy’s work, which was kept in the Vatican archives for five centuries before it was first published.

He said Thibaut used a number of methods of cryptographic analysis to come up with the date 2012, including calculating the average length of papal reign up until the time he wrote his book.

“In other words,” Horn and Putnam write, “2012 was seen as an end-times ‘event horizon’ by at least one Jesuit priest before most readers were born.”

St. Malachy, an Irish saint and the archbishop of Armagh, who lived from 1094 to 1148, described the “final pope” this way: “In the extreme persecution of the Holy Roman Church, there will sit Peter the Roman, who will nourish the sheep in many tribulations; when they are finished, the City of Seven Hills will be destroyed, and the dreadful judge will judge his people.”

As WND reported, he described the penultimate pope, which Horn believes is Benedict, as “Gloria Olivae,” or “Glory of the Olive.”

Benedict was not a Benedictine priest, yet he chose the name of the founder of the Order of Saint Benedict, which also is known as the Olivetans

The symbol of the Benedictine order includes an olive branch.

That Bergoglio--the final Pope on St. Malachy's list and the one prophesied to reign over the church as it enters the Great Tribulation period--named himself after Saint Francis of Assisi is intriguing given that shortly before his death Assisi prophesied that at the time of the tribulation a man would "be raised to the Pontificate, who, by his cunning, will endeavor to draw many into error and death… Some preachers will keep silence about the truth, and others will trample it under foot and deny it…for in those days Jesus Christ will send them not a true Pastor, but a destroyer” [Works of the Seraphic Father St. Francis of Assisi (1182–1226), Washbourne, 1882 AD, 248].

Furthermore, in naming himself after Assisi, Bergoglio branded himself after an Italian (Roman) priest whose original name was Francesco di Pietro (Peter) di Bernardone -- literally, Peter the Roman.

Basic forex concepts and theory

In this section:







What is forex?


"Forex" stands for foreign exchange; it is also known as FX. In a forex trade, you buy one currency while simultaneously selling another - that is, you exchange the sold currency for the one you are buying. Foreign exchange is essentially an over-the-counter market.


Currencies trade in pairs, like the Euro-US Dollar (EUR/USD) or US Dollar-Japanese Yen (USD/JPY). Unlike stocks or futures, there is no centralised exchange for forex. All transactions happen via phone or electronic network.
Who trades currencies and why?


Daily turnover in the world's currencies comes from two sources:
Foreign trade comprises 5% of total volume. Companies buy and sell products in foreign countries and convert the profits of foreign sales into domestic currency.
Speculation for profit amounts to 95% of total volume. Both Hedge Funds and individuals use the currency market to cover existing positions and take a speculative view on where the market could go.


Most traders focus on the biggest, most liquid currency pairs. "The Majors" include the US Dollar, Japanese Yen, Euro, British Pound, Swiss Franc, Canadian Dollar and Australian Dollar. In fact, more than 85% of daily forex trading happens in the major currency pairs.
Forex is the world’s most traded market, trading 24-hours a day


With an average daily turnover of US$3.2 trillion, forex is the most traded market in the world. It is a true 24-hour market. Forex trading officially begins in Sydney, and moves around the globe as the business day begins, first to Tokyo, then London, and ends in New York. Unlike other financial markets, investors can respond immediately to currency fluctuations, whenever they occur - day or night.







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Understanding forex quotes


Reading a foreign exchange quote is simple, if you remember two things:
The first currency listed is the base currency.
The value of the base currency is always one (1).


At the centre of the forex market is the US Dollar (USD), which is usually considered the base currency for quotes. If the base currency is USD, then the quote will inform you what the US Dollar is worth in the other currency you are considering.


Should USD be the base currency and the quote increases, it means the USD has strengthened in value and the other currency has weakened. Rising quotes mean a US Dollar can buy more of the other currency than before the price was increased.
Majors not based on the US Dollar


The three exceptions to the rule discussed above are the British Pound (GBP), the Australian Dollar (AUD) and the Euro (EUR). For these pairs, where the USD is not the base currency, a rising quote means the US Dollar is weakening and will buy less of the other currency than before.


In other words, if a currency quote increases, it shows that the base currency is strengthening. A lower quote means the base currency is weakening.
Cross currencies


Currency pairs that do not involve the USD are called cross currencies, but the premise covered in the point above remains the same.
Bids, asks and the spread


Just like other markets, forex quotes consist of two sides, the bid and the ask:
The BID is the price at which you can SELL base currency.
The ASK is the price at which you can BUY base currency.
What is a pip?


Forex prices are often so liquid that they are quoted in tiny increments called pips, or "percentage in points". A pip refers to the fourth decimal point out, or 1/100th of 1%.

For Japanese Yen, pips refer to the second decimal point. This is the only exception among the major currencies.


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Leverage and margin


Leverage trading, or trading on margin, means you are not required to put up the full value of the position.

Forex trading offers more leverage than stocks or futures - up to 200 times the value of your account. Keep in mind, however, that increased leverage also increases your risk.
Standard FX Trader has no debit balances and no margin calls


At Standard FX Trader, your risk is only limited to the funds on deposit. Our margin policy eliminates concerns about debit balances by guaranteeing that you will never owe more than you have in your account.
More leverage means more opportunity and more risks


It is crucial to remember that increasing leverage increases risk. To limit downside risk, we recommend that you monitor your account regularly and use stop-loss orders on every open position.


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For convenience, most online trading platforms automatically calculate the Profit and Loss (P&L) of a trader’s open positions. It may be useful for you to understand how this calculation is formulated.
A forex trade is illustrated in the following two examples:


Example 1

Let us assume that the current bid/ask for EUR/USD is 1.46160/190. At this rate, you could buy one (1) Euro for 1.46190 or sell (1) Euro for 1.46160.


If you decide that the Euro is undervalued against the US Dollar, you would execute your strategy by buying Euros (and simultaneously selling dollars), and then waiting for the exchange rate to rise.


You would therefore make the following trade: to buy 100,000 Euros you would pay 146,190 dollars (100,000 x 1.46190). Remember, at a 1% margin, your initial margin deposit would be approximately US$1,461 for this trade.


As you expected, the Euro strengthens to 1.46230/260. In order to realise your profits, you would sell 100,000 Euros at the current rate of 1.46230 and receive US$146,230.


You bought 100 K Euros at 1.46190, paying US$146,190. Then you sold 100 K Euros at 1.46230, receiving US$146,230. This equates to a difference of four (4) pips, or in dollar terms (US$146,190 - 146,230 = US$40).

Your total profit would amount to US$40.


Example 2

Using the same example, let us assume that you once again bought EUR/USD when trading at 1.46160/190. You bought 100,000 Euros and paid 146,190 dollars (100,000 x 1.46190).


However, after your purchase the Euro weakened to 1.46110/140. In order to minimise your losses, you sold 100,000 Euros at 1.46110 and received US$146,110.


You bought 100K Euros at 1.46190, paying US$146,190. You sold 100K Euros at 1.46110, receiving US$146,110. That represents a difference of eight (8) pips, or in dollar terms (US$146,190 - US$146,110 = US$80).

Your total loss in this scenario would have been US$80

How to Increase Your Artistic Abilities

Have you always wanted to be artsy but just didn't think you had any artistic ability? Think again! Art is a question mark - it can be anything, as long as it means something. Here you will learn how to discover and increase your artistic ability.
EditSteps
1

 The first thing you need to do is realize that inspiration is art. The first thing you need to do is realize that inspiration is art. So, get inspired! Take note of things and people around you that inspire you or make you think deeply. Use these things and people as inspiration for your art.


2

 Research the different types of art there are. Research the different types of art there are. There is an exhaustive list of things that are considered art, some mainstream, most not. Try your hand at any of them that you are interested in.
3

 Figure out your "niche" in art. Figure out your "niche" in art. You could be multi-talented, and with practice anyone can become great at what they do. A lot of the time though, someone will have a "niche," one specific way of creating art that they're good with and tend to stick with. For some it's drawing, for some it's painting, for some it's sculpture, for some it's photography. Some of us do more modern takes on art like collaging or even graffiti. You can figure out your niche by experimenting with different areas of art that you're interested in and finding out which ones you're naturally talented with.
4

 Go to art shows, museums, or even just the art rooms at your school and look at all the art that people create.Go to art shows, museums, or even just the art rooms at your school and look at all the art that people create. Other art may inspire you, but the main point of this exercise is to get an idea of just how vast of an area the simple word "art" covers.
5

 Realize that art is not relegated only to plastic arts (art in which material is used to create a tangible thing). Realize that art is not relegated only to plastic arts (art in which material is used to create a tangible thing). Art can also mean the performing arts - music, dance, theatre, etc. Art can even mean cooking, as in culinary arts! Technology is your friend. If you find you have some abilities with graphic design, that can be your art. As I said, art can be just about anything, as long as it means something. Experiment with them ALL!
You can make art out of just about anything. You don't have to spend a lot of money to create good art. A pencil and a sheet of paper can yield a fantastic poem, story, or drawing. A cheap set of watercolors and a cheap watercolor pad can make a beautiful painting. Opening up your mouth and singing something a cappella can lead to a wonderful song. Buy a can of spray paint and try your hand at graffiti. Print pictures off of the Internet, cut pictures out of magazines, and get a stick of glue and a piece of cardboard and try making a collage. Grab your digital camera and snap some pictures, it may lead to a great piece of photography. Do anything, as long as you are giving it some sort of meaning.
The most important thing to realize when you're trying to be artistic is that art is making something tangible out of the intangible, and it is not always easy. You're trying to take yourself, your own feelings, another person, their feelings, etc., and create something that can be seen, heard, touched, smelled, tasted - something that can be experienced on a whole other level.

Trusted Adobe Tutorials for Designing Beginners

Today's graphic designers rely on Adobe Photoshop and a handful of other programs. Without access to reliable Photoshop tutorials, chances are that you will quickly fall behind other professionals in your industry. It takes more than just finding a couple tutorials. To stay at the top of your game, find communities and websites that can give you access to the latest, best tutorials that will help you keep up with the latest trends.

Keep It Fresh with Outlaw Design

Outlaw Design is a great place for any graphics artist to visit regularly. They have daily blog posts (some of which make sense and of which are just off-the-wall laughs), articles that can get burgeoning artists off the ground with some innovative ideas, and, yes, plenty of tutorials that meet the needs of beginners and advanced users.

Perhaps the coolest thing about Outlaw Design is that it operates as a community. It's almost like that basement room at the community center where weirdos hang out and show each other how to overexpose gelatin film... except it's a 2012 version that happens online. If the site doesn't already have the resources that you need, someone will point you in the right direction.

Explore the Latest Photoshop Tools with Digital Arts

Digital Arts has the appearance and structure of a magazine. That might seem a little odd at first, but the site is actually quite easy to navigate. Digital Arts offers a ton of Photoshop tutorials. The list seems to grow daily as more artists add to the library.

Even cooler, though, is that contributors often submit tutorials for related programs. Once you become a whiz with Adobe's design programs, you might want to start incorporating elements from other software into your work. Learning from multiple sources on Digital Arts could, for instance, teach you how to add Adobe Audition music files to your graphic arts. It's not something a beginner can do, but it's a thought that can keep you excited as you develop your basic design skills and start exploring more complicated materials.

Infinite Skills Visual Software Training

Infinite Skills feels more like a library than a community of freaks. Daily posts at Infinite Skills delve into specific areas of design. You can also find a large collection of Photoshop Tutorials. Want to know how to warp text, organize layers on a screen, or use filters to create fog and les flairs? Infinite Skills gives you step-by-step tutorials that make these tasks easy.

Many of the tutorials are free, especially to beginners who just need to learn basic skills. You can use your Multimedia Android Tablet to briefly go over interest tutorials or follow them step-by-step to master new techniques. Once you become more advance, though, you can sign up for their Adobe Photoshop Training Series. You get a free month of the service if you would like to check it out first.

As with many types of art, you need to meet people and you need to learn from them. Outlaw Design, Digital Arts, and Infinite Skills are three of the coolest places for you to get started. Most of the people there will help you find the sources you need and encourage you to take steps towards becoming a better artist.

Blackberry Hanging Problem: How I Solved It Using AppLoader

If you own a Blackberry phone, am sure you will be used toblackberry hanging up for some seconds or minutes, making it impossible to do anything on the BB until you carry out a soft reset, hard reset or wait for some minutes for it to return to normal by itself. Unfortunately, last week Saturday, I experienced a very seriousblackberry hanging problemthat rendered my Blackberry totally useless for more than two days.

Pictures of Blackberry 9320

That day, I decided to uninstall several blackberry apps on my BB 9320 including theWhatsApp for Blackberry. After restarting it, the Blackberry hanged at the point where I suppose to set the time and date of the BB. I pulled out the battery of the Blackberry phone and re-inserted it (Blackberry Hard Reset). This time around, I was able toclear the event log of the BB before it froze up again. (You can clear event log by pressing and holding ALT and then pressing L-G-L-G while still holding the ALT key. Just click the BlackBerry Options Key and Choose "Clear Log" once the event log appears).

I was so frustrated that day because I couldn't do anything with the blackberry despite carrying out "hard reset" several times. Freezing at startup even made it impossible to carry out soft reset or wipe the blackberry from the "Options" menu which might have helped in restoring the BB to factory settings. I even tried booting the blackberry phone without the memory card and the BB just continued hanging on start-up. 

I decided to take it to a phone engineer who failed to solve the problem, claiming he doesn't have the "flashing file" for my Blackberry 9320. He told me to come back the next day so he can have enough time to download the so called "flashing file" from the internet. I went back home and decided to call my friend, Udegbunam Chukwudi if he knows anything about the so called "flashing file". He told me that the so called "flashing file" might just be the OS 7 file for Blackberry 9320. He gave me a link where I can download it and told me to search the internet for tutorials on how I canreload OS 7 on BB 9320. 

I downloaded the Blackberry 9320 OS 7 file and searched Google for tutorials that will guide me in solving the Blackberry freezing problem. I stumbled on "How to Reload the Operating System on a Nuked or Bricked BlackBerry" at CrackBerry.com and "How To Reload Your Operating System" at BlackBerry Support Forums. I carefully followed the steps in the tutorials and I was able to fix the problem and right now, my Blackberry is working very fine without seeing that little hourglass turning and turning on my BB screen. 

Summary Of How I Solved The Blackberry Hanging Problem

==> I downloaded the latest Blackberry Desktop Manager here.

==> I downloaded the latest OS 7 for BB 9320 from TheIExplorers to my Windows 7 laptop

==> I ensured that my BB is NOT connected to my laptop.

==> I Opened the Application Loader through Windows Explorer by going to Start> Program Files(x86) > Common Files > Research in Motion > AppLoader. I opened the "Loader.exe" file.

NOTE: You will see "Research in Motion" folder in the "common files" folder of "Program Files", if there is no "Program Files(x86)" folder on your computer. 

==> I connected my BB to my laptop using the USB cable and clicked "Next" on the Application Loader Wizard main screen

==> I saw a port selection screen and and quickly clicked "Next" when the connection screen labels the port as "USB-PIN:UNKNOWN." 

NOTE: Do not click NEXT if the port is not labelled as "USB-PIN:UNKNOWN". If you don't get it right the first time, try again (unplug from USB, pull battery, connect and hit Next while USB-PIN:Unknown is showing).

==> After clicking "Next", I waited for it to retrieve my BlackBerry phone configurations. 

==> On the next screen, I saw a list of applications I want to be reloaded on my BlackBerry phone. I unticked all and clicked NEXT. 

==> I clicked the "Advanced" option button on the next page. I ticked the options to delete all application data and delete all installed applications. I clicked "Next" and waited for the operation system to reload.

This stage took over thirty minutes (do not disconnect your BlackBerry phone during this time) and after series of screens, I saw "The loading operation was successful" screen.

The blackberry rebooted itself for over 10 minutes and my phone was restored to how it was when I bought it new. I set up my email, restored my BBM contacts from my email and used the Blackberry Protect app to restore my BB memos and calendars. I re-installed my favorite BlackBerry apps and started pinging again.

That's all.

If your Blackberry hangs a lot despite series of soft and hard reset, even after reformatting your memory card, you can try reloading the OS of your blackberry as explained above.

I hope this helps.

Is your Blackberry hanging? Have you experienced this kind of scenario before? Have other ideas of what to do when Blackberry is slow and freezes? Please, let me hear from you via comments.

creative badass epic post: how to figure out your purpose/passion/just what the hell it is you want

When you rock, the world pays attention. — Hugh MacLeod

Early in our relationship, when my boyfriend and I still considered ourselves frovers – a cross between friends and lovers, not boyfriend-girlfriend but more than friends with benefits (I was not a ‘Rules’ girl) – he asked me, “So what do you want to do with your life?”

I talked for a bit, and he was thoughtful.

“Is something wrong?” I said.

“I’m just impressed,” he said, “that you were able to answer the question. Most women can’t.”

I thought of this when I read this post, which asks the very reasonable question: How can you go after what you want when you have no idea what you want? You can’t know what you want if you’re not sure who you are, and since we’re all works-in-progress, I would say that even those of us who know what we want, might not always remember what we want, or find ourselves clinging to outdated notions of what we want, or wake up one morning to realize that we’ve wanted all the wrong things. So I think the question, much like the line of breath in meditation, is something you have to keep returning to: keep remembering to ask, and to listen for the answers.

GET OPEN

To get open is, as Russell Simmons puts it, “to always be as open, creative and fluid as possible, and never become rigid, old, or tight. The freedom you experience when you’re open is where all the positive change in your life will emanate from.”

Change is what happens in the space between things: the force of you meets the force of something else, whether it’s a person, place, or an experience, and your paradigm alters. Opening yourself up to that is to allow in new information about who you are and what you’re capable of.

Once, when I was a kid, I raced around the track during gym and flung myself in the grass to recover. The teacher came up to me and asked if I was going to try out for the track team. “No,” I panted. When she asked why not, I said, “Because I can’t run.”

She said, in her best I’m-going-to-pretend-you’re-not-an-idiot tone, “But I just saw you run.”

I had been walking over a mile home from school every afternoon. I’d built up stamina and gotten in shape without realizing. But I was resistant to this new information. I refused to ‘get open’. And I wasn’t some old, rigid, jaded adult: I was twelve.

If ‘getting open’ was our natural state, people like Russell Simmons wouldn’t have to instruct us to do it.

WRITE IT OUT UNTIL YOUR EYEBALLS BLEED

Steve Pavlina has a good post about how to find your purpose in life. He advises you to sit down with pad and pen and keep writing out your answers to the question, “What is my purpose in life?” until you get that magical choked-up feeling, that chill, that urge to cry, that signals you’ve found it. It won’t happen with your first answer. It won’t happen with your twentieth. Or your fifty-first. Those will be your obvious answers, your stock, superficial answers, the surface crap your brain has to clear out before it can get to the juice.

I have to admit, I tried this exercise but didn’t stick with it. Pavlina warns that at some point you will want to get up and leave, you will feel the Resistance, and you should resist it. I did not. I went for chocolate. I am weak like that. But the next day, while I was driving, an answer came into my brain that sent a shiver down my spine and made me cry out, it felt so right and real and raw.

Steve might be onto something.

ASK A SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT QUESTION

Andrew Halfacre points out that you can find clues to what you want by paying attention to what youdon’t want.

There are two kinds of people in the world. (People who make statements like “there are two kinds of people in the world” and…Kidding. Sort of.) Halfacre calls them “toward” people and “away” people. When you know which you are, you can figure out how best to motivate yourself.

Psychologists have discovered that we can be motivated by the pleasure of gain (what we’re moving toward) or the fear of loss or pain (what we’re moving away from). If you’re losing weight, for example, you can move towards the image of you fit, healthy, running around with your kids, confident in your jeans or on the beach. Or you can move away from the discomfort of clothes that don’t fit right, the way you huff and puff when you go up the stairs, the fear of dying from a heart attack and not being there for your kids as they grow up.

‘Toward’ people love goals. Goals give them something to aim at. They get energized by them. They’re the perky, positive, go-go-go people attending Anthony Robbins seminars.

‘Away’ people, on the other hand, need something to avoid. Their communication tends to slant negative: what will happen if you don’t do this, the unhappy consequences if you do that. They are motivated by thoughts of certain pain. Something has to hit a level of crisis to motivate them to do something about it, and that motivation lessens as the pain lessens as they move away from whatever it is that they want to avoid.

Generally we’re a mix. I, for example, move towards some things (the pleasure and satisfaction of a completed manuscript) and away from others (the pain of total disorganization and chaos). Because I’m not as motivated to organize as I am to write blog posts, I have a history of letting things fall apart and pile up before the pain is bad enough for me to need to move away. In high school I was motivatedtoward excelling in English and history (which resulted in high grades) and away from flunking math and science (which resulted in barely passing grades).

You can increase your motivation by using both ‘toward’ and ‘away’. I quit smoking in order to move away from cancer, death, wrinkles and bad smells, but it didn’t truly stick until I also moved toward the pleasure and freedom of being a nonsmoker. (Blogging about nonsmoking gives me an added pain to move away from: the humiliation of smoking after stating so publicly that I’m nonsmoking.) To finish my novel, I joined Stickk.com and pledged to donate a thousand dollars to a cause that I despise should I fail to meet my self-imposed deadline. This gives me a whole new level of pain to move away from.

But overall, we tend to be more one type than another. And if you recognize yourself as an ‘away’ type, the question, What do you want? is more difficult for you because you focus instead on what you don’twant. So Halfacre advises you to ask: What do you want…instead?

It’s a neat trick. I tried it on myself. (If I don’t want to feel messy, overwhelmed, and inconvenienced,what do I want…instead? I want to feel streamlined, clear, and in control of my time.) The answer to the question gives your mind a new focus, a new sense of what might make you happy.

When you catch yourself, or anybody else, grumbling or complaining, give it a shot. If you don’t want to work in a cubicle, what do you want…instead? If you don’t want to die alone in an apartment with only your twenty cats to miss you, what do you want…instead?

YOU ARE WHAT YOU’RE ATTRACTED TO

Danielle LaPorte said this, or something similar to this, and I’ve always been intrigued by it. It’s human nature to project ourselves onto the world, so that “we don’t see things as they are, we see things as we are” (a quote which has been attributed to both Anais Nin and the Qur’an, so take your pick). When we bitch and complain about people, we’re really remarking on qualities we don’t like about ourselves (but we consciously won’t own up to). When we admire people, we’re really noticing qualities we like or that lie latent in ourselves (but we consciously won’t own up to).

Business coach Sinclair once asked me to name two people who fascinate me, and I spoke off the top of my head: Kate Moss and David Bowie. Why? she asked, and I spoke about style, creativity, iconoclasm, rebellion, the ability to be yourself when it cuts against conventional wisdom, to reinvent yourself, to rise from the ashes when you need to, to be at the throbbing heart of the culture, to say what you need to say (or refuse to say anything) and not give a damn, to change the game. I remember enjoying Simon Cowell for his shameless, brazen honesty, his ability to say what other people wouldn’t. Recently I’ve developed a mild fascination with Russell Simmons, the way he blends entrepreneurship, spirituality/wisdom and lifestyle. I might have to take a deeper look at what that says about me and where I want to go next.

LaPorte said at a conference last year that when she asked this question to her private clients – mostly women – the person they mentioned most was (wait for it) Angelina Jolie. “They admire her boldness,” she said. That’s an interesting thing to think about: what we, as a gender, might need to own up to.

(Of course, if you take this question very literally, you get a different sort of answer. I would appear to be a red velvet cupcake. Or Keanu Reeves.)

FOLLOW YOUR STRENGTHS

Your strengths are not necessarily the things that you’re good at. Sometimes you have to be wary about getting stuck in the things that you’re good at (you might be good at accounting, even though it makes you suicidal).

Your strengths are found in those moments when you feel most alive, fully present, revitalized: when you feel yourself being you at your best, highest self. The trick is to identity those moments and recognize what you’re doing when you experience them.

Then do more of those things.

Eventually you can figure out a way to, as Steve Jobs put it, “connect the dots”: put those strengths together in a way that is unique to you and serves the world.

We don’t recognize our own strengths because they come so naturally and easily to us. Like breathing. We take them for granted. Doesn’t everybody have the ability to breathe? (It took me thirty-six years to figure out that my ability to ingest information and put ideas together is not the norm, that there’s something called ideation. Good to know.)

Which is why it’s a good idea to

ASK A FRIEND

or a family member (preferably one who doesn’t have it in for you).

There are things about ourselves that we can see, and that others can see.

There are things about ourselves that we can see, and that others can’t see.

There are things about ourselves that we can’t see, and that others can’t see.

There are things about ourselves that we can’t see….and that others can see.

To learn who you are, to learn your purpose in life, ask those who know you (and whom you trust to have your best interests in mind), what they think your purpose in life is. And then ask again. And then keep asking. Their first answers will be stock, superficial answers: the crap their brains need to clear out before they get to the juice. But as Simon Sinek puts it in his great book START WITH WHY, eventually they’ll stop talking about you, and start talking about how they feel when they’re around you (unless they’re so annoyed that they smack you instead). You make them feel inspired. Or understood. Or more deeply connected to the world. Or more appreciative of their lives. Or organized and clear. Or spiritual. You see what I’m getting at. And when you feel that inward shiver of recognition, like someone’s put their finger directly on your soul-nerve, you’ll know that that’s the information that can help you.

LOOK TO YOUR CHILDHOOD

It’s common to advise people to look at the things they enjoyed doing as a child, and then examine why they enjoyed doing those things. When I was a kid, I enjoyed gymnastics, which wouldn’t seem to help me that much as a woman in her late thirties who is five foot nine to boot. But when I look at why I enjoyed the sport – watching it as well as doing it – I can see that I liked the grace of movement, the choreography, the levels of mastery, the performance factor. I liked competing and being on stage. That information is helpful to me.

It’s less common to advise people to look at the things that shamed and traumatized them. As children we develop incredible coping strategies in order to navigate our personal worlds, and to get the attention that isn’t an entitlement but a basic survival need. I touched on this subject in this post, in which I referenced a book called THE BIG LEAP by Gay Hendricks. Hendricks advises you to take your ‘obvious’ talent, whatever you do best, and drill down and drill down until you find your unique ability, your superpower, which is nestled deep inside the center of that talent like the tiniest of Russian dolls.

When I did this exercise, I took the obvious thing – my writing – and drilled down to find, as my therapist once put it, “the ability to resonate with other people, with the culture, with the world at large”. I was a deeply lonely kid, a social misfit, bullied and ostracized, so it makes sense that I would have developed an alternative strategy to get the sense of connection that I craved. It’s also, interestingly enough, a strategy that allows me to be intimate and distant at the same time.

FIND YOUR SOUL-HOME

If you’re a square peg in a round hole, get out of the damn hole. Go find a square one. They’re out there. Part of learning who you are is learning the environment you need to be at your best. (The “what do you want…instead?” question can be very helpful with this.) Some of us are lucky enough to, as the saying goes, bloom where we’re planted. Many of us are not. We often grow up with a sense of being defective, of something’s wrong with us, so we need to chop and trim ourselves and twist our selves inside out to fit our surrounding reality. This rarely turns out well. Better to search out the reality – or, if necessary, to bring it into being – that fits you.

This, by the way, applies to relationships. We look to other people to reflect a sense of who we are. Toxic people reflect you in ways that magnify your faults, drain your confidence and deplete your self-esteem. Healthy people reflect you in ways that celebrate your great points and coax forth your best self. The strategy here is easy to say (and often challenging to do). Run away, away, away, from the toxic people. Run toward, toward, toward the healthy people. You can recognize if someone is good for you by paying attention to how your body feels. If you get clenched, stressed, and knotted up inside just thinking about the person, then I urge you to re-evaluate that relationship and whether you want it in your life. The body doesn’t lie.

GO FOR MASTERY

We tend to enjoy doing the things that we’re good at. But we’re generally not good at anything – even the things we have natural talents for (you might have a talent for the piano, but you still need to learn how to play) – until we put in the time, sweat and deliberate practice required.

You might think passion comes first, and mastery second – but what if it’s the other way around?

You might feel drawn to something but drop it as soon as it gets difficult or tedious or boring or unpleasant. You take this as a sign that you don’t have any passion for it. But what if passion comesafter you’ve closed the creative gap (or at least worked your way partway through it)?

After all, being a beginner at anything – snowboarding, blogging, learning a language, painting, building a company – really sucks. You feel awkward and fumbling and you know your work is crap. (It is supposed to be crap! You are a beginner!) We don’t bound out of bed in the morning thinking, Today I get to go be crap! Progress is long and hard, breakthrough moments so infrequent that you need to learn to love the plateau. Most people can’t. Most people quit. And most people don’t know what their so-called ‘passion’ is. I sense a connection here.

Sometimes you have to choose – and commit – based on little more than instinct and faith: instinct that somewhere deep inside you, perhaps very very deep, is the ability to be good at this, and faith that thepassion will grow with your ability. When you get good at something, you enjoy it more, which means you do it more, which means you get better at it, which means you enjoy it more, which means you do it more, which means you get better at it….You see where I’m going with this.

When I look at my own life, I see that I became passionate about writing and storytelling when I was fourteen (the novel MISERY, by Stephen King, was a game-changer for me). But I had been writing stories on my own, for no reason other than the attention it got me (see earlier bit about developing childhood survival strategies) since fourth grade. It’s similar with blogging. I have a passion for it now, but it took a lot of doing before I developed it.

I would like to develop a passion for yoga. I am drawn to it. But I’ve been lazy and undisciplined and haven’t managed to develop a daily practice. I find it kind of boring. I could conclude that I lack passion – or I could perceive feeling ‘bored’ as a type of Resistance that I should push through. I know that my body, health and mind would thank me.

It’s no surprise, then, that the top indicator of success isn’t IQ or natural talent or the level of your parents’ income, but grit.

If it’s true that we don’t know who we are until we know what we can do – and I think it is – then learning who we are is about experimenting with our abilities, trying new things, pushing ourselves beyond our comfort zone, living off the edge of our limits. And if you don’t know what you want until you know who you are – and vice versa – then learning who you are/what you want is hard – damn – work – that nobody tells us about or prepares us for. Instead, we look to external things for a sense of identity, whether it’s an expensive lifestyle, or a high-status job, or a relationship. We go after the job or the relationship first, and then try to figure out who we are, when in reality it should be the other way around. Because we could lose the lifestyle, or the job, or the relationship – and no longer know who we are, or what we want, or where to go next. We’re in crisis.

When my boyfriend asked me that question – What do you want to do with your life? – I could come up with an answer. I’m still figuring it out, of course, but identity is not a static thing. The brain keeps reshaping itself according to the experiences you provide it. We contain the potential for multitudes. Still, I do believe in a core voice, a set of abilities and instincts, an inner knowing that will guide you this way instead of that way so long as you have the patience and courage to listen.

What I didn’t tell my boyfriend – at the time – was by that point I had been through several years of therapy, of emotional pain and personal crisis. I could sink or swim. I could find the beauty in the breakdown – and break through — or I could just break down. For me, the beauty was in reconnecting to that core voice. My sense of self could bloom from there. Everything else can follow.

Because what we want, in the end, is to know who we are and what our purpose is (and, maybe, who to love). If we can break ourselves open to new information, if we can look for that information not just within ourselves but in the spaces and interactions between ourselves and others, if we can find who we are in what we do, not just for ourselves, but for the world: that seems a worthy quest in itself.

12 Ways I Make Money Online as a Nigerian

I am proudly a Nigerian making real, legal money online. I make money without worrying about Paypal and other challenges that discourage many Nigerians from making money online. Mind you, I don't waste my time engaging in schemes like Surveys, Paid to Read Emails. Believe it or not, I make money everyday. In this post, am highlighting ways I make money online for you. I hope you will be able to grab some ideas from it.

BLOGGING

My blog, www.cruztrick.blogspot.com is my office on the internet. I started it in 2008, when I was a final year MicroBiology student. Yes, am a Microbiology graduate but I have decided to follow my passion, which makes me to be where I am today. My blog wasn't really making sense when I started but I so much believe it will grow with time and am so glad it's making a lot of sense now. All praises to God..

I use my blog to share things I know with people all around the world while also using it to promote all I do. The blog, makes money for me directly and indirectly. The more I share things I know, the more I win the trust of many people and when people trust you, they will find it easy to buy things you sell.

1.  Money from Google Adsense

I make money consistently from Google Adsense. Google Adsense allows me to place some Google ads on my blog. If you click on those Google ads, Google pays me. I receive my payment in form of checks which Google sends to me here in Nigeria via DHL and I cash the checks at GTBank via my dormiciliary account. I make cool money monthly from Adsense....you too can. God willing, I hope to be making more than this in years to come.

Adsense is a good way to make money but it takes time. If you are the greedy type looking for a fast way to make money online, Adsense is not for you because once you try fooling Google, you will get banned for life. Trust me. You will need to have a blog before you can start making money from Adsense. Check out my Google Adsense Tutorials to learn more about Google Adsense.

2. Money from Selling ebooks and softwares

I make money selling ebooks and softwares. I advertise most of those ebooks and softwares I sell via my blog posts and also some via www.cruztrick.blogspot.com I receive payments directly into my bank accounts because most of the people that buy from me for now are mostly Nigerians. I hope to explore the international market in the future though....

Those that trust me, pay into my account and I deliver what they pay to them as soon as possible. I confirm payments with the help of my bank credit alerts and also via Internet banking. You too can make money selling ebooks even without writing any ebook by yourself. I can teach you....


3. Money from Setting up Blog for others/ Redesign

I make money redesigning other people's blogs. Some people who love my blog do ask me to redesign theirs while some pay me, just to create new blogs for them too. If you master the art of blogging, you too can start making money this way...

4. Money from advert placement

I make money helping some people to advertise their services right on my blog. Your blog must be big before people might be interested in paying you for this kind of service. I also make money helping some people to advertise their businesses using Google Adwords and Facebook Ads. You too can start making money rendering these services, if you learn the basics.

5. Money from Reviews and JVs

Some people do pay me to write about their websites on my blog. I also go into Joint- Venture partnership atimes, just to promote a product. If I help the partner to make some sales, I get paid.

BulkSMS Business

I have a bulksms website: www.cruztrick.blogspot.com and I make money from the SMS business in different ways. I use my blog in promoting my SMS business, hence I find it so easy getting customers without much stress.

6. Make money selling bulksms

I make money selling bulksms at www.cruztrick.blogspot.com. Customers pay into my bank accounts and I credit their accounts once I confirm their payment. I also do help some clients in sending customizeSMS and I charge them for helping them, aside the money I make from the sale of sms units to them.

7. Make money selling BulkSMS Proposal letters and Ebook

I have an ebook that explains how to set up bulksms website with a capital as low as N4000 ( without SMS). I sell the ebook for N5000 and trust me, it sells.  I also sell Sample Proposal Letters which you can use to get BulkSMS contracts from churches, businesses, schools etc

8. Make Money setting up SMS website for others

I also make money setting up BUlkSMs website for those that do not have time reading an ebook to set it up by themselves. I charge N10, 000 for this service and those interested keep paying....

Other ways I make money Online are highlighted below:

9. Make money from web design

I design websites for clients based on what they want and I get paid in return. If you dont know how to design websites, go and learn it, so you can start making money from this service asap. Go and learn how to use "Wordpress" or "Joomla"  and you will be able to start designing cool websites for clients.

10. Make Money from domain name registration

I make money registering domain names, especially for bloggers wanting to change their blogspot address to dot com. You too can, if you know or learn how to do it.

11. Make money from Facebook services...

Some people do pay me to help them customize their Facebook Fan pages while some do pay me to help them advertise their products/services on Facebook.

12. Make Money from unlocking modems

Yes, I make money unlocking fastlink modems, Glo NetPro modem and Airtel modems for people intrested in using other network sim cards on their 3G modems. Those interested do send me recharge vouchers which I use to pay for my internet subscriptions. I also sell the Unlockers to those interested in return for cash.

These are not the only ways of making money, just that those above are the ones I concentrate on for now.

Affiliate Marketing, Site Flipping etc are other ways you can make money online but am not really exploring them for now.

If you want to make money online without beating about the bush, you either sell something or offer services in return for cash. Dont be a jerk of all trade. Focus on few models and you will see the money rolling in as time passes by. Make sure you check out my "Money Making Tutorials".

If interested in blogging, join my Facebook Group: BloggersLab. You will connect with other bloggers and I will easily be answering your questions there.

If interested in SMS business, feel free to contact me too.

I hope this helps..

In my future posts, I will be explaining more about these ways I make money. So, subscribe to my blog if you want to be receiving the tutorials in your email inbox even if you are not online when I post the tutorials. Make sure you verify your subscription by clicking on the link that will be in the mail that will be sent to you once you subscribe.

Feel free to contribute and ask questions...

Kindly share this with friends...

Cheers!