Vacancy! You Are Urgently Needed. Here is the chat that I had with a dear brother, Folorunso Aliu. He is the Managing Director of one of Nigeria’s foremost ICT firms and also doubles as the Group Project Director for the parent company. He has been involved in some of the earliest transformational and innovative solutions in the Nigerian ICT landscape. Folorunso is a graduate of the Computer Science & Engineering department of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. He is also an alumnus of the prestigious Lagos Business School of the Pan Atlantic University where he obtained a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) degree. He is passionate about human capital development and volunteers frequently for mentoring and development activities of the Nigerian Youth.

He is also the co-author of a book titled Vacancy! You are urgently needed.

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VACANCY You Are Urgently Needed: BECOME HIGH IN DEMAND, EARN MORE AND ENRICH YOUR LIFE

Ep. 57 Transcripts: Vacancy! You Are Urgently Needed with Folorunso Aliu 

Olu:  Welcome everybody to Like-Jesus podcast. This is Olu Sobanjo, am very glad to have you join me again today. On the show, today I have someone that is so inspirational that you will be very glad to be listening to this episode today. His name is Folorunsho Aliu, he is the Managing Director of one of Nigeria’s foremost ICT firms and also doubles as the Group Project Director for the parent company. He has been involved in some of the earliest transformational and innovative solutions in the Nigerian ICT landscape. Folorunso is a graduate of the Computer Science & Engineering department of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. He is also an alumnus of the prestigious Lagos Business School of the Pan Atlantic University where he obtained a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) degree. He is passionate about human capital development and volunteers frequently for mentoring and development activities of the Nigerian Youth.

He is also the co-author of a book titled Vacancy You are urgently needed.

Now, this person is very dear to me, he is a brother to me and we call him ‘FLS’ that’s just an acronym of his name Folorunsho. On this episode, you’re gonna be hearing me call him ‘FLS’ and eh just to let you know. And want to welcome you FLS to the show, thank you so much for joining me today.

Folorunsho: Thank you very much pastor Olu and em welcome everybody.

Olu: Thank you. Just before the recording as we were just chatting,  you mentioned something that I quickly wrote down and I want to start with that. So just before we start talking about who you are and all that you mentioned something, you said “followers of today are the leaders of tomorrow that we need to prepare today” do you want to start with that? Tell us more about what you mean.

Folorunsho: Okay, thank you. I  would like to say that we tend to, as a people, we tend to do what I call ‘the either or story’ or we tend to speak more towards an either or. And what do I mean?  Today I would speak within my environment a little bit. We are focused so much on the people we call the leaders of today but some 20 years ago, the people that are in the position of leadership today were followers,  and no one paid attention to them and after a while, they emerged as leaders. More than three-quarter of them were not prepared for this position. So we get what we get. I’m more passionate about grooming and being deliberate about grooming tomorrow’s leaders. The leaders we have today; we already have them. We are in one way or the other forced to live with them or get them out.

However, we have a golden opportunity of working with the followers we have today. Ensuring that the values they have and the values they can create are the right ones; so that we create the tomorrow that we are all looking forward to. So it doesn’t become a nightmare as we have in many areas or in many places today. So I’m very passionate about the followers. Because at some points or the other, the follower tends to become the leader.

Olu: That’s true, that’s very true. I really…I told you guys it’s going to be very inspirational. You know, what we are talking about is so tied to what I have been doing with this podcast. And I find out that a lot of us as believers find it hard to…we tend to say a lot of things that we don’t do. Because personally for myself, I have been at that point,  I have been in the position where I have been just doing, I mean talking more than doing. And with this podcast, many other people that are listening to this can relate well with the topic of just realizing that maybe I have been waiting for approval, I have been waiting for somebody to say yes you can do it. Before I actually step-on to actually doing it. Despite the fact that I have Christ living on the inside of me.

And I really really enjoy the aspect you are bringing to the point of we need to pay attention to many of these people,  and these are the same people that I am reaching out to actually. You know that I am not…maybe they’ve been neglected like your word…they’ve been neglected and maybe they felt that they needed somebody to come and push them up before they can go up,  but then we are now reaching out to them. So i like to understand from where or just tell a little bit about you. Tell us a little bit about your background. How did you get to this point where you felt you needed to reach out to people in this category…followers of today…why did you think they were important.

Folorunsho: Okay, thank you. I think, well, for everyone in life, the seed of greatness was sown into you before you arrived earth. And it is in that seed of greatness that your life grows. The problem here is half the time most of us do not look at the seed for it to grow, we look at the trees in other peoples yards. And we measure ourselves that way.

Now why did i say that? I was born and brought up in what you might call a slum in Lagos and half the time nobody expects you to be anything. Infact, the truth is you were expected not to amount to anything. If you amounted to anything in life, it will shock people. But if you went the way of others it was expected. But someone believed in me. A lady by the name ‘Miss Aby Bucknor’ bless her soul she’s gone to be with the Lord right now. She believed in me. My father died when i was quite young when I was just 12, I think. And the first boy of 5 children. The environment was just all stacked up against you. The odds were really stacked against you. I could have gone ahead to be one of many things. In my class where people who eventually died as armed rubbers, in my class girls of 13, 14, 15 were parents.

It was so bad but someone believed in me and said ‘you know what how do you do in school?’. And I said ‘oh’… she saw my results and said you know what ‘I will get you a scholarship’. And that changed everything for me because now, my intention was drawn from being bad to ensuring that I kept the scholarship. And my mum went through a lot. And that also gave me something else to look forward to, ensuring that I helped this lady who was going through so much alone taking care of kids, I mean, these children on her own. And it was out of that that the need to look at the young children or the young ones generated because someone paid attention to me, someone felt I didn’t need to go the way of others.

So today for me, my mantra, my thought is always perhaps it would change one man. Perhaps you will be able to change the life of one young man or one young lady who would go on to change the world. So for me, i believe that if I had been left within the environment on my own without someone believing in me, I could have failed. For all you know, I could be a thief or the worst. You know I probably would have had a child at 14, 15 or maybe 16. I probably would have gone into so many horrible things. So, I believe in the young people. And I don’t believe that anyone is bad. I believe there is a seed of greatness in every man. It takes the right atmosphere, takes the right person to put it out and plant it properly. That seed would grow.

Olu: Wow, this is really big. I’ve known you but I didn’t know this story. And it’s really good to learn this about you and to actually see that it’s actually possible for anyone. Thank you so much for sharing that. And uhm yeah, let’s… there are so many angles that I can take this to. Now you just…brought us to a place where…, we’ve been talking about habits on my podcast for this month am looking at habits and…you brought it now to a place where am going to you know just divert a little bit from habits and just go in the area of the environment. I was looking through your book and I noticed that there is something that you and your co-author coined out a word and called it ‘Blamisitis’. Like a disease that people have and in an environment where things are not working for them the way it should be or compared to other people. And you coin that word and that disease as something that afflicts a lot of people.

Now I would like to…and you know coming from a place where you actually have been in that situation. Maybe…, I don’t know…, how do you merge those two points together?  The environment that you are in… Somebody may be listening right now and saying ‘yea you know it’s because of the fact that you found somebody that helped you out that’s why you are able to talk like this’. How do you help somebody else that maybe might not have had the same opportunity of getting a scholarship and what not? How do you merge that together?

Folorunsho: Okay! For me, I would say the first thing is this: The greatest cheerleader we all have is our maker. The first thing is that sometimes, as people we get it twisted. We were not created here, then God gave us an assignment. God had first an assignment and he was looking for the solution. And he said, ‘if I make this or fashion out this being, he will be well soothed to solve this particular problem for the earth’. So God went into His workshop if you read Psalms 138 or so 139. God went into the workshop and started drawing us out, He started saying he will be this big, he will be this small. The eyes will be this bulgy or maybe something. He will be born in a place called Nigeria, no not just Nigeria. He will be born in the south-west. He would be born into a family where the father may not be home all the time. He would go through this set of pains. He would understand the pains that people go through when eventually the has become. We are specifically brought up to solve a particular problem in this world.

So just like God told the devil then, have you seen my servant Job? The same way God is cheering us on today, every single being He has created. And He keeps telling everyone who cares to listen, that; have you seen my son this, have you seen my daughter, this. Wait till he becomes. He was placed in the midst of the slum so that he will understand how it is to solve the problem of slums globally. So when he goes out he is not speaking from head knowledge, he is speaking from what he has gone through.

Remember, Christ came into the world to go through what all of us would eventually go through. So we can know that we have a high priest who went through the same set of infirmities we went. So we can tell him that God, How come you did not sin? And He will tell us how He went through it. Same way, God is saying I left you there so that you can become. The problem is; like I said, we do not look at the becoming, we look at those who have become and leave our own becoming. And the problem we are supposed to solve for the entire earth remains. And guess what? We complain like every other person.

So God is busy, rooting for us even in our refusing to become and He is saying you know what? Have you seen my son John, have you seen my daughter Eva? Have you seen my son, Tolu, Have you seen my daughter? wait for what she will be. So we don’t need any man as it were to urge us on, because the God of heaven and earth has put so many resources in us and He is saying just become and see what the world will be because you will be the solution to the entire problem. Imagine how important you are as a person when the God of the heavens and the earth decided to let go of his powers in you. When He is gone ahead to delegate the rulership when He has gone ahead to delegate the solutioning of this earth in your hands. You are more than important.

So even if no-one roots for you, know that the Father in heaven is daily rooting for you, because He’s poured in the entire requirements in you. He just wants you to become. I remember, if I am not wrong, I think it’s in 2 Peter 1:3 when he says, According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue.

We were called, we have been called. We would not be called, we have already been called. Because before we were born, He had already called us. And he gave us everything already that pertains to life and He’s called us to glory and virtue. So what that means is this, that whatever it is that you are going through right now your calling is going to end in glory and virtue, but it is dependent on your knowledge of Him that has called you. So we need to put seeking him, and I am not just saying Christian seeking, I am saying, seeking out what He wants us to do, its not just going to be a magical thing, It’s not going to be an “Abracadabra” like the whole world wants it to be. As long as we seek him, we will keep becoming, because He is rooting for us.

Olu: Wow, Thank you, Now, there is one part of the scriptures that I read this morning, In Isaiah chapter 14, and it was talking about the fact that, its easy, for you to complain. The way I saw it is that you can be going through something right now and all you can think of is just to complain; complaints, complaints, and complaints. But really, when you actually embrace the God of the universe…and as we were discussing today in my family devotion, we were talking about how, if you just bring God into the situation, you’re bringing the supernatural into the natural and you are actually able to see supernatural happening on you behalf. But the sad thing about life and even about Christians is that, we know so much how to talk the talk, but we are not so good at doing it. We actually forget about what we know as soon as trouble comes and before you know it…, that songs always comes to mind “ oh what peace we often forfeit, oh what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry, everything to God in prayer”

And so I would like you to take us to the aspect of…I want you to join this now to the title of your book. I remember when I first this book, the word Vacancy, (I think it was when you were still trying to get the cover made) that I was curious, I was like ok is that like a job preparation book, you know like something you need to read to get a good job? Or a book that will help you master interview questions, Knowing the kind of work you do I was thinking that it was going to go in that line, you know;  You are urgently needed and…but its way more than that. As I have read the book, I realized that its actually a very good book that everyone need to find a way to get it in their hands. Thankfully its on Amazon, anyone can get it.

But I will like you to tell us a little bit more about what you meant by Vacancy, you are urgently needed. I know this is the same thing you have been talking about on this episode but do you want to zero it down on the book.

Folorunsho: Thank you. Its a long one, but I will try to make it as short as I possibly can. You know in my position I get lots of requests for placements, you know people who want to get jobs and all that. Kindly help my brothers, help my sister, help my son, or my daughter. And I could only take in so much. So Many people at once. So I have the tight job of always helping people get placements. but you can only do that for so long. But I did a project that was quite large and I was excited to find out that I had vacancy for a hundred and nine Engineers to fill, so I was excited. So finally I would be able to do something great in one shot… That will be great, that will be easy….so I thought.  So I went around to recruit young Engineers and it was a nightmare. It was a nightmare. I eventually lost the opportunity because I couldn’t flll the vacancy as quickly as I thought I would be able to.

The second thing was like I got a few friends together who were entrepreneurs and it was all sorts of complaints about how they were looking for hands and they couldn’t get people on board. And then I asked people who were looking for jobs and there were people who were looking for people to fill the vacancy and I started noticing that there was a problem of employability. So that problem became bigger, I started speaking more with Entrpreneur, those who had their businesses, even organizations, and I realized that they were laying off people and these same organizations were also trying to recruit new people. So it wasn’t just that people were looking for jobs, but that they were laying off people as well. Then came the Nigerian government issue of ‘oh we needed to solve problems in this area and that area and the average Nigerian would complain there weren’t opportunities, meanwhile other people would come in from all over the world, seize some of these opportunities and begin to make money. Most of our Telecoms companies in Nigeria today are being run by people from different parts of the world.

So it became an issue for me when I started seeing that all over the nation there were vacancies but there weren’t the right set of people to fill the vacancies. We have people but we didn’t have the right human resource. Now, these does not mean that the people were not nice or good or whatever, but didn’t have what it took at the time to fill the vacancies available. And then we realized this was even much bigger than people trying to earn a living. In the homes, we realized that husbands had vacancies in their minds, but the wives were not filling the vacancies, hence we have lots of fights in the home. We find 2 people who are so much in love with each other and are on the brink of divorce because there was so much vacancy in the homes that the other wasn’t able to fill. The wife is seeking attention, she wants to be loved, vacancy in her heart. Her husband is just not filling it. its either that he doesn’t even know about it or doesn’t have the right mind set to fill the vacancy.

So we realized that there was vacancies all around us and people just were not filling it, even though they wanted a job, even though they wanted to be the one in charge but they were not filling it. So we realized that people were seeking vacancies of seats in the offices. But there were also vacancies in the land that people needed to step into and fill. In Nigeria today you have lots of people who are living below the poverty line. We need people to step in and get people out of this. There are new jobs that have not been created yet, new ideas, that have not been brought forth yet, that someone needs to create and then you fill the vacancies. That way we ‘ll complain less and do more.

But if the mindset is not there to seek out vacancies, and actively try to fill those those vacancies, we will keep complaining while others will see those opportunities, they would come in and the same people complaining would all contribute to make them rich. So the book is all about seeking, actively seeking out vacancies all around you, and positioning yourself in terms of your mindset and what you can actually do to fill the vacancy. But If you are not even looking for vacancy in the first place, and I mean actively, or if you are not seeking this vacancies out, you pass by them everyday, you trudge by them everyday, you have them even in your homes, you have them all around you and yet you sit down complaining. Thats what the book is about.

Olu: Amazing, anywhere you are in the world you are listening from, I personally want to say this book is one that you must find a way to get into your hands. I got mine on kindle on Amazon. And If you are in Nigeria, I will show you how you can get it. I will put a link to how you can get it if you are in Nigeria. But for those of you outside of Nigeria and all that, I am also going to put a link to the book on the corresponding post for this on my website(above). So you must get a hold of this book. And you must just have a way of reading it. cos its a very good book.

I know, FLS that you are such a busy person, very busy person and I really appreciate all the work that you ve been doing. Definitely, it looks like we have done a lot today but we are just scratching the surface. And so I know that we are definitely… I will really be glad if we can have another sessional at a later date. it doesn’t have to be now, I know how busy you are, but I really appreciate the time that it took you to make this possible. And not only that, FLS was a part of a program that my husband and I actually working on in Kuje, a part of Nigeria, called the Young Influencers Bootcamp. And that was phenomenal last week when he came to speak with the youths, to just encourage them to be the best and find opportunities and solve problems and that was just awesome. At some point I will also release the audio that we recorded from that event.

Alright, in conclusion I would like to ask you, I don’t know if there is something you are working on right now, or if there is something that you possibly want to tell us a little bit more about where to get the book, I am going to put the amazon link here. But if there is a way…, and different group coaching, anything that you want people to know about, I ‘ld like you to talk about that and then from there we can wrap it up and close in prayers.

Folorunsho: Oh thank you so much, this is a good opportunity and I appreciate it. I believe a lot in leadership, right now I am writing a book on leadership. I call is the book Leadership Conundrum and thats… I am looking at it specifically from the Nigerian perspective on how we are where we are, but more importantly; what can you do to start getting out of where we are, you know positioning not just for tomorrow but starting from today. What future do you want to see and how can we actively work towards gaining that future tomorrow. So I am writing that book and believing God that it will be out soon.

The second thing is I do a lot of strategy sessions, because I see a lot of organizations and SMEs, they struggle a lot within the environment, especially in the Nigerian environment, which is what I know anyway, I know about the Nigerian business environment. And I try to work with them to ensure that we grow businesses to where it should be, cos most people actually have their business cut short because of basic information they don’t have and because of mindset and there is a lot of religion that people bring into business and because of that they destroy the business without realizing that is based on what they have done or not done right. So I work with a lot of SMEs to help manage the business. I also believe a lot in working with young people because they are the followers of today, whether we like it, leadership will fall on them whether we plan for it or not.

So I believe a lot in values, I believe a lot in the creative abilities of people. If you have the creative abilities you also have destructive abilities because destruction is a form of creation. So it is looking for ways to work with young people to ensure that we dampen the destructive ability and enhance the creative abilities of our young people to create values. So those are the things I love to do. I love farming and building. Those are the things I love to do in my spare time.

Olu: Thank you very much for telling us more about….

Folorunso: One more thing, about the book, you can get the book in Nigeria; in Lagos, Lantana Ventures, you can get it from Abuja, you can get it from different bookshops in Abuja, Peculiar book store in Wuse II, …Barbie book store…different books stores in abuja and Lagos and online as you said on Amazon. Thank you.

Olu: I am sure my listeners are thinking that I should schedule another appointment with you. and definitely we are going to do that. But just to wrap this up today, I really want to say thank you so much, and I will like you to please pray for the listener, just to wrap this up.

Folorunso: Shall we pray? Divine Father we thank you. For the opportunity to be alive, and to be well. That is the greatest testimony that you are still rooting for us. We ask oh Lord that your rooting in heaven will get into our hears and into our hearts to buffer us, oh Lord God, to know that that is all we need to become and in becoming we get to know you better and the world, in turn, gets to know us. And we will find our fame, our fortunes, and our peace in our becoming that or whom you have called us to become.

Help us to hear you daily even in the midst of the noise all around us, even in the midst of the noise of hunger, the noise of fear, the noise of desperation, the noise of the world telling us we are not good enough, we are not beautiful enough, we are not strong enough, we are useless, all through the noise. Father, help us to dampen those noise and let your rooting, let your encouragement, keep our heart strong and right. And let our hears be open to hear you encouraging us and leading us to be and become. Anyone going through pain right now Father, I ask for your mercy. Anyone going through a tough time right now, I asked oh Lord God that your presence be made strong and manifest.  And Lord for everyone that has been battered at this time I ask that your suiting balm will come through for them. and above all let us become, that your name may be glorified and that peace, fame, and fortune be ours in Jesus name. Amen.

Olu: Amen. Once again I want to say that you for being here. And God bless you.

Folorunsho: Thank you so much, I do appreciate it, Do have a great week.

Olu: Thank you, you as well.

Do you have a comment or question for my guest? Pls leave a comment below:

My Guest on today’s show coined out the process she calls Truth journaling as a way of renewing your mind. She is an amazing blogger, author, and podcaster.

Recently I noticed a trend in my personal story; that people pleasing and approval craziness are major hindrances that God delivered me from. That’s when I decided to do a series on breaking limits. While I was out looking for other people that have done some work on this topic I stumbled on the podcast of my new sister in the Lord. Here is a link to that episode.

Barb became a Christian 46 years ago but really didn’t start gaining victory over her bad habits until she started renewing her mind 18 years ago. Barb blogs about breaking free from strongholds and growing closer to God at barbraveling.com. She and her husband have been married 35 years and have four adult children. In their spare time, they like to camp, hike, backpack, ski, read, and hang out with family and friends.

You will not only enjoy my conversation with Barb, you will also be introduced to the amazing work that she has done and see how you also can learn to place a demand on God’s words in order to have a better and more fulfilled life.

Listen on iTunes or Google Play

Barb has done so much work in this space of developing great Christian habits. You can download her free App: ‘I Deserve A Donut’ for your ios and Android devices. This app is filled with scriptures that will help you break negative emotions and develop high performing habits.

Ep. 56 Transcripts: Truth Journaling With Barb Raveling

Welcome to Like Jesus Podcast. This is Olu Sobanjo and I’m very glad that you are here with me again today. And today, I have a very special guest on the show with me.

Recently I started seeing a trend in my personal story and I discovered that people pleasing – approval craziness, was a major hindrance that I’ve had struggle with and a major thing that God has set me free from. And that’s when I decided to do some series on breaking limits and mindset changes and all that. So, while I was looking out for other people that might have done some work on this topic, I stumbled on this wonderful podcast by my guest today. I’m going to link that podcast that I listened to, to the show note of this episode.

Her name is Barb Raveling and she’s a person that I’m getting to know and she’s someone that loves the Lord. She became a Christian about 46 years ago but really didn’t start gaining victory over her bad habit until she started renewing her mind 18 years ago. Barb blogs about breaking free from strongholds and growing closer to God on her website, barbraveling.com. She and her husband have been married for about 35 years and they have 4 adult children. In their spare time, they like to camp, hike, backpack, ski, read, hang out with family and friends. She has written about 5 books and many of those books have to do with renewing your mind and building habits that will bring you more fruit in your walk with the Lord. She’s here with me and I want to specially welcome you Barb, into the show. Thank you so much for joining me today.

Barb: Thank you for having me Olu. I’m excited to be here.

Olu: Very good. Thank you. So, I’d like you to tell us a little bit more about you. I see that you like hiking, backpacking and skiing. Tell us a little bit about all those fun things that you like to do. I know you live in the mountains. Do you want to tell us a little bit more about that?

Barb: Yeah. We live right in the mountains so we can go out and hike and be up in the mountains – the lake in a couple of hours. So that’s really nice. It’s something we grew up doing with our children and now our kids are out of the house and Scott and I still like to do those sorts of things. Just a nice way to relax and enjoy God, enjoy nature, enjoy each other and friends we do it with.

Olu: That’s amazing! That’s amazing. So about how often would you say you do that? Like I see a theme of outdoors there. Do you do that once in a week or is it more than that?

Barb: We try to get out once a week if we can but…

Olu: Okay

Barb: ….we don’t do much in the winter. We can cross-country skiing but it takes an hour to drive to wherever we would cross-country ski. So we don’t get as much out in the winter. In the summer, yeah! I’d say we hike at least once or twice a week. And sometimes we go like 7 in spring. We go hiking down there to the National park. We have a lot of great national parks here to hike.

Olu: Okay. Okay. Amazing! In the national park, do they have like animals or it’s just a park?

Barb: Well, it depends on the park. Like around here in Montana, there are grisly bears so that’s a little scary.

[Olu Laughs]

Barb: But yeah. You don’t have too much. Nothing that’s going to eat you up.

Olu: That’s good. That’s good. So be safe out there, please.

[Both Laughs]

Barb: I try to

Olu: Very good. Very good. So, just before the recording, you were telling me that you do this blogging and podcasting and writing right now, you do it full time. You also mentioned how when your kids were younger, you homeschooled them. Homeschooling is something that I’ve considered because of my lifestyle with my family – being missionaries. Sometimes we are here, sometimes we are there. I’ve considered and we are considering homeschooling the children at some point.

Do you want to tell us a little bit more about that? How did you decide to homeschool and now that they are out of the house, how is that for you?

Barb: Well, we actually decided to homeschool because our oldest one was reading a ___ book by the time he was supposed to go to kindergarten. So we thought he’d be kinda bored there…

Olu: Yeah

Barb: And we had friends, a lot of friends homeschooled and it just seemed kind of interesting. It seemed to be what would be best for the kids so we started it and they really liked it. And we just kept going. It was hard at times especially when the kids were young but we stuck with it. They were homeschooled till the end. It was worth it – well worth it but it was a bit of a sacrifice.

Olu: I can imagine. A huge… I don’t even think I’ll call it a bit of a sacrifice. I think it’s a major sacrifice because there’s so much you want to do but then you are the mom and the teacher…

[Barb Laughs]

…and the chauffeur and you are everything… It takes a lot of grace to do that.

Barb: That’s right.

Olu: Yeah.

Anyway, so blogging now is something that you’ve been doing. How did you decide on what topic to share on your website? How did you decide on renewing your mind series and I see also that you do a lot of Bible study guides? How did you get into that?

Barb: Well, I prefer writing because God had taught me some things and I wanted to share those things. I didn’t really want to be a writer. I just wanted to be able to help people outside my valley and I knew I’d have to write to do that. And He first taught me how to truth journal, that was about 18 years ago. For the first 3 years, I just spent a lot of time with God renewing my mind. He helped me figure out a lot of things and of course the Bible too. I got really interested in the Bible after a few years of being bored with the Bible as a Christian because I was interested in taking out the light, getting in on the truth and of course I wanted to read the Bible to get the truth out of it. So God changed my life in so many ways, through the discipline of truth journaling that I wanted to start helping other people. So, I started teaching some local Bible study on truth journaling and well, not really Bible study but to local women’s group. And they were interested. They thought it was really cool but nobody took the time to do it. So, I thought to myself because I really wanted to be able to help people develop that habit. And so in a week, I started writing about weight loss as kind of a backdoor to get people in to get closer to God – to grow their relationship with God because I knew that was something lots of people wanted to do – lots of Christians wanted to do, is losing weight. I have been overweight before and so I knew this was something that God could change through truth journaling. I started working on that in my own life and I thought, “I’ll write a Bible study on weight loss because then when people see how valuable truth journaling and renewing your mind can be for weight loss, then it will automatically help people grow closer to God and they can use it in other areas of life. And so I feel like that is why it happened. I get a lot of people write to me and say, “I grew a lot closer to God through your Bible Study…”

Olu: Amen.

Barb: And then, I just started writing on topics that God was working on in my own life. Of course, weight loss was one of those and it was insecurity, procrastination, negative emotions… The first area I started working on was resentment. That’s where I first started truth journaling about that. I think I just kind of grew into the habits and emotions. I’m kind of an undisciplined person by nature – like indulgent; want to have fun so I get lots of practice. I’m working on those habits regarding my own life and I write about those habits.

Olu: I find that it’s just beautiful to hear all that because I think that many of us believers have issues in the area of our minds – letting the mind go anywhere and we may not even notice that it’s gone. You just realize that some negative emotions just come up and you are not sure how you got there and all that. It’s really amazing to see how God has helped you with the weight loss and how you are able to get other people to follow along, you know, on the plan.

But as you were talking, what came to my mind is I wanted to have an idea of where the truth journaling started. How did that start for you? Was it that somebody introduced it to you? Was it that you just discovered one day that this was helping me? How did you get to that point of realizing that I really need to renew my mind and if I journal the truth as I’m getting them, it would help? How did you get there?

Barb: Well, my husband and I were in a Bible study with another couple – friends of ours. We each said, “Okay. Let each of us pick one thing to work on in our lives. One of our flaws that hurts their marriage. And I chose my thoughts that were being critical. I had a critical spirit and I was resenting my husband. So I thought, “Okay. I’m just going to start this think positive project. So every time I have a negative thought about my husband, I’ll write it down and I’ll put a positive thought down next to it. And I’ll start to think positive when I’m fragile…” And I only did that, I’d say for a week, 2 weeks at the most before I realized that my negative thoughts weren’t just negative. They were actually lies. So I started replacing lies with truths and I called it truth journaling. And I made a commitment to renew my mind every time I was annoyed with my husband. And in few months, God just radically changed my attitude towards him. So I wasn’t just like super duper annoyed at him anymore.

[Both Giggle]

I can’t tell you how much that He had changed me so I just kept doing it. Actually what I thought was, “Oh! This is so wonderful. 2 months, God really changes me. Of course not perfectly but huge differences. I could just do this for all the areas of my life. 2 months and I’ll be free from this new area.” So I started truth journaling about food and I did not take too much for about a few years… So, I realized some things are easier than others to get over but that’s kinda how I got started. And I really loved it. I loved that time with God. I truth journal; I talk to God about what He was revealing truth-wise. It was just a really nice time of worship with God.

Olu: Amen. Amen.

I know that there are people out there also that are listening to your story and are saying, “That’s me and I need help.” I’m trusting God that as they are listening to this, I’m trusting God that He’d draw their hearts to the place where they’ll begin to see that the word of God is rich and it’s strong, sharper than any two-edged sword and it can break away old habits and replace new ones.

I remember even in my life, there was a point where I was really frustrated with people. My husband, people, more people than my husband. As I was pastoring with – alongside my husband, one of the things that were really frustrating is to try to be what people wanted me to be. Not to necessarily their fault but me because I began to embrace the words of people as the word of God. So, I began to be turned from one person to the other. And, it got to a point where it became so hard for me – it got to the point where I was tired of everything and I just wanted to… God had to call me one time and said, “I’d like you to…” I think I must have been reading a book by Joyce Meyer or something at the time but I can’t remember the details. But I remember God speaking to me saying, “write down all the lies and write down the truth.” And I began to do that – I wrote down the worst case scenario and the Word of God that goes along with that. The process helped me a lot but I’m so excited and fascinated by the way you coined out truth journaling. It’s a habit that people need to learn and it can just take them away. And it’s very exciting to to see that two months, you start to see changes in your life and you start to understand God in a new way.

Do you want to talk a little bit more about weight loss? How does renewing your mind and weight loss, how does that come together? How?

Barb: A lot of times, the reason we feel like eating is that you are believing lies. So I might say, one little cookie won’t hurt or I deserve a doughnut or this would make me feel better… You know, things like that. And because we believe those things, it makes us eat too much. So then when we change our belief – take off the lies and put on the truth, it actually changes our desires. You’ll have truth journal the same thing over and over again because I might be believing those things. Like right now, I might truth journal and once I truth journal and take on the truth, I don’t have the desire to overeat anymore. But then 4 hours later, I might also be believing the same lies. That would spur anything. That could spur resentment, insecurity, anything.  So, we just keep taking those lies off and keep putting the truth on until eventually, we hear the truth as soon as we hear the lie and eventually not wanting to hear the lie anymore. It takes time to do that – it’s kind of like doing a spiritual work there. You’re in a huge battle. One battle is not going to do the trick. You have to keep fighting for a long time. If it’s short – like if it’s not a huge stronghold, then you can get over things pretty quickly but it just kinda depends on how much of a stronghold something is in your life. Eating takes a long time for a lot of people. Procrastination took a long time for me. Insecurity has taken a long time. I’ve been truth journaling about that for the last 6 years on and off ever since I started my last blog.

Olu: Amazing

Barb: If it’s somebody else, those things may take less time. It just kinda depends on the person I think.

Olu: And I guess… You mentioned something about strongholds also. I guess it depends on the level where it is at in the person’s life because I find that sometimes, you may not even think that it is a lie. Sometimes for example when… Let’s assume someone is in a difficult marriage that things are hard or you are in a relationship with a boss – a relationship at work where this person is just difficult. It’s a little hard, I mean it can even get really hard to be able to convince that person that they are the ones that need to work on themselves and renew their mind and not this other person that is mean to them at work. Because I’ve been in that situation before. While I was going through the process of having somebody that was extremely critical of me at work, I always thought the guy was the problem. I didn’t see it as an attack. I didn’t see it as a struggle – spiritual struggle. I just saw the guy as the main guy. And what did I do? Why is he mean to me? Those were the questions that were going on in my mind and so I find that even to get someone to a point where they begin to realize that they need a change – they are the one that needs a change. It’s a little hard.

I don’t know if you want to add. If somebody is listening right now and all they are thinking about is the fact that the other person is the problem. How do we get them to see that they need to renew their minds first?

Barb: Okay. Now, that’s a great question because that’s exactly how I felt when I started renewing my mind about my husband, about my marriage. I totally thought he was the problem. And a lot of my truth journal entries had things like “This isn’t fair!!! I can’t believe he did that…” That sort of thing.  Right now, my husband is a great Christian. He was also a great Christian back then. So, I’m not saying he’s a terrible Christian. But I was focused on his faults and I had a natural habit of being a critical Christian. So if I’m a critical person, I’m going to focus on his faults. So I tried changing him for maybe about 20 years.

[Both laugh]

At least 15 years and it just didn’t work. He wasn’t changing. So I’d say to that person first of all, how is… Should you be trying to change the person who is messed up? That’s not how it works out. We can say things just a few times or I can go to them… but the bottom line is we are all sinners. None of us changes fast as others would like us to change for various reasons. But we can’t change ourselves.

So, when I started working on renewing my mind, I felt really terrible being so angry with him. I don’t have outbursts or say anything. I was more of the silent angry type but I didn’t want to have to keep thinking ill of him so I wanted to get rid of that annoyance, okay. It didn’t work to change him to the type of person… I mean… I got annoyed too easily. But every time I renewed my mind, I just felt so peaceful. I felt super loved by God and it was worth it just to experience the peace. So, I know it will take a little bit of… It takes some time and effort to learn how to do it. For some people, it comes really easy… I actually have videos on my website. If you go to the renew your mind tab, under the renewing the mind tools, I have videos on how to truth journal and some other blog posts but it’s so worth it. I can’t remember what… Oh! When I kept realizing though is that I started out thinking he’s the bad guy. Almost every time I truth journal, I rewrite my own sin too. I was recognizing my sin of resentment… That may be repent or maybe be more compassionate with him. I’m not sure quite how to explain it but it just seems like “Okay, you’re the bad guy. I’m the good guy.” After truth journaling I realized, “Oh, we are both bad guys, we are good guys, and I can focus more on the good things about him except when I needed to accept that are not so good things but at least in my mind were not so good. Not necessarily simple. So anyway…

Olu: Very good. Very good. Thank you so much. I think the fact that we bringing the Word of God into a situation… The Word of God is powerful on its own and it has a way of breaking chains in our own lives. I think you know, as you are talking, one of the things that is coming to me since the fact that you are surrendering to the Word of God is I’m choosing to trust God that I don’t have the control. I don’t have the final say. His Word has the final say because and so I bring the Word of God into my situation – my relationship and I begin to say whatever your word says Lord, is what I’m going to believe and that’s what I’m going to live by. And that alone brings the power of God into your heart and I think that’s what renews the mind. And I believe also that… You know I was doing a study on this renewing the mind and all that and I saw that lady – Dr. Caroline Leigh. She talks about the fact… I think she’s a neuroscientist. Something like that.

Barb: Yeah. Yeah.

Olu: She talks about how the brain develops some really bad framework. I don’t know what word she uses. But your brain actually can change after you begin to think good. If you are used to the negative thoughts, it changes after a while if you just keep doing it and before you know it, the abundant life of Christ begins to be your experience in every area that you have exposed the word of God to.

So, yeah! I know you also have books that you’ve written, you have your blog and you also have a free app. Do you wanna talk about that? What’s …

Barb: Yeah. It’s called “I deserve a doughnut” and it’s a free Android and IOS app and it’s got questions that will help you renew your mind. There are questions and Bible verses. It’s directed towards people who want to lose weight but you could use it to break any habit or you can also use it to work on letting go of your negative emotions… I think I have 4 different types of Insecurity questions; I have anger, worry, envy… and you can push on whatever you think that you need and then we will ask questions. The questions you can either write down the answers in your journal. I think that’s super helpful than doing it in your mind. But you can also do it in your mind. If you do it in your mind then you can talk the answers over with God instead of writing them down in your journal. Or you should write the answers down and take breaks and talk to God. These are questions about help point out the life you have been living and help you get a biblical perspective on life. That’s what the most questions are like…

Olu: Very good.

Barb: These are questions that will help you not want to overeat or if you have a bad habit, not want to do your habit. You just have to adjust the question a little bit mentally… for breaking bad habits but they’ll work for that.

Olu: Very good. Very good. Very good. So I’ll recommend that app for everyone to get. “I deserve a doughnut” is on Android and IOS platforms so you can get it for getting the word of God to renew your mind for weight loss specifically and for breaking different habits. So please go there and download “I deserve a doughnut”

Yeah, you wanted to say something.

Barb: It also works for me go of negative emotions – worry, envy, insecurity… and I have a bunch of Bible verses too for each negative emotions. You can either work on answering the questions or you can just ignore the questions and use the Bible verses to meditate on or pray through. Either one is helpful.

Olu: Okay. Very good. Thank you so much. And you know, it’s very interesting that as Christians, sometimes we may even… we take work seriously, we take the study seriously but sometimes you hardly find somebody taking renewing your mind like a job that you have to do and if you don’t do it, that’s when the thief comes to kill, to steal and to destroy. But the life that Jesus came to give us is abundantly available for us but we have to work and take it. So, I really appreciate the time we’ve had to talk.

I ask you to just say a word of prayer as we wrap it up and just remember that there are some people that are struggling with different habits right now especially we are looking at habits this month on my podcast. I’d like you to just say a word of prayer over all that and end our time together today.

Barb: Lord, I thank you so much for the opportunity to be on this podcast and for all the people who are listening today who are struggling with different things and they may feel as though they may never get over them. They may be feeling discouraged or disturbed. Father, I pray for everyone who is listening and for Olu and I as well, that you will help us to glorify you with our lives. You’ll help us break the habits that you want to be broken. Help us let go of our negative emotions and hold all your gifts with open hands; to be accepting towards others and patient and loving more. I just pray for whatever we need in our lives to make that happen.

Thank you for your truth and thank you for how you give us wisdom whenever we come to you for help. Thank you for this podcast, in Jesus name. Amen.

Olu: Amen. Amen. Thank you so much, Barbara and I look forward to having you some more time on the podcast and God bless you.

Barb: God bless you Olu. Good to be here.

In order to live a life of purpose, you must evaluate the relationship you have with the good habits and bad habits in your life. Will you agree with me that years of repetitive behavior is what brought you to where you are today? Oh yes, our habits help to push us forward or limit us from attaining what we desire in life. In fact, whether good or bad, habits are foundations to build one’s life on. Anyone that desires success then must realize that the path to success is in great habits.

I have a question for you: do you feel you are cruising along the road called life or is life cruising you?

As we start this discussion on habits, I will be talking with some great people: pastors, pastor’s wives, professionals, authors, bloggers. We will be discussing their practices. I am sure you will enjoy this month’s line up of program.

In order to start a new habit or to stop a bad one, you need a good amount of commitments, willpower, and strong desires. It takes a lot to overcome the natural tendencies to think, feel, speak and act in a certain way. Habits, when automated, can propel you towards a result, it will be important then to learn what habits you must break and which ones you must build.

When you desire an end result, there are certain habits that if done daily will eventually get you to your end results at the appropriate time. We see athletes show us this all the times. I am sure you know someone

One major question I get asked often is where do you get the time to do all that you do? And so I will share a few of the major habits that have really helped me to be efficient.

It all started 3 years ago when I began to get a nodding in my spirit to stop piling on more for myself. I will link the video I did about this in the description below. God wanted me to create some white space in my schedule. If you don’t understand what I mean you may also do well to listen to my episode on Multiple interest syndrome. I will also link that here. I was a scatterbrain, not that I was really exhausted, no I actually enjoyed it, but the only problem was that I didn’t have space in my day, Any space is quickly used to do something else. And then I got to that point when the owner of my life was complaining that I didn’t reserve space for him. That was when I consciously began to analyze my time and my habits.

Habits make or break us, what you do habitually will shape your life.

You need a strong reason to pursue a new habit or you won’t follow through. As we discuss habits this month, I hope you can trust God to help you break a bad habit and build up a good one, The truth though is that if you don’t have a strong reason why you are doing something, there is a big chance that you will quit along the way.

Jim John Said ‘Reasons make a whole lot of difference’

When you start a habit, you will find that you will have the urge to stop along the way.

Here are a few good habits and bad habits

1. A bad habit that I began to work on is negative thoughts. You may think this is not a habit but I tell you, it can break you, and its actually what determines what you become. I discovered that I used to criticize myself a lot before now and so I decided to break the habit. If this applies to you as well, pls join me.
2. Wake Up Early- Your brain is in its smartest and freshest position in the early hours of the day. Take advantage of it. Some people wake up to the news, I personally believe this is counterproductive. Don’t start by plunging your head into the problems in the world, not in communications nor social media. It’s better to start by arming yourself for a great day. Pray, read, write, study early each day to get the most out of life. I know it may be hard when your children are little, but try if you can and if not, don’t worry your baby will soon be independent.

Warning!

As you try new habits, I want to warn you? Accept yourself but push as well. What do I mean? as you try I can assure you that you will fail sometimes, don’t bit yourself for that. As an approval junkie, you have a huge tendency to feel really bad when you fail at something, don’t No, don’t stay there, don’t punish yourself for not getting ahead. When you fail, note it down but try again.

So what about you?

Do you wake up early? What is your morning routine like? Leave a comment below.

Ep. 50 – The Multiple Interest Syndrome