Tag Archives: gratitude

Adeolu Akinyemi
December 19, 2010

So Much to be Grateful For


It’s 12:54am, 20th December, 2010. The year is coming close to an end, and it feels like just a few days ago that we said happy new year! The year has been quite eventful, we’ve made new friends, learnt new things, ventured into new opportunities and journeyed through varied experiences. There have been tough times, challenging seasons and great moments! There have been thoughts that crossed my mind, that I deliberately shut out, and there have been experiences I have savored way beyond the moment. He that thinks, thanks! I don’t know about you, but as I think about the last one week, and I think about the last 11 months, my heart wells up with gratitude, my face is flushed and my eyes teary. I’ve not had it all smooth, but there is so so much to be grateful for!

Can you think back and consciously find reasons to be grateful? Has it been worth it? You have a choice how you see the cup of your life. Half empty or half full is simply a game of perspectives. A failed attempt can be seen as one more way not to do it, or it can be seen as the basis for defining the time as wasted. Thinking back daily, weekly, monthly and yearly, there is so much to be grateful for.

Please count your blessings with me. Permit me to start from the base of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

1. Biological and Physiological Needs

For the basic needs of life – air, food, drink, shelter, warmth, sex and sleep, I am truly grateful. Those who have been denied of many of these are not worse in character or less than human. Some are on constant oxygen supply, many find it difficult to feed, many thirst and many do not have places to stay. To refuse to think that we are privileged is to take things for granted. I am grateful. Can you remember anything to grateful for?

2. Safety Needs

For the Safety needs of life -security, protection, order, law, limits, stability, e.t.c. I am truly grateful. My family and loved ones have been kept from harm. Financially, health-wise and physically, we have enjoyed security, we have traveled far and wide and have been kept safe and sound. Some are unsafe and insecure, we are not better than them. For these and other blessings, I am truly grateful. Can you remember safety needs met, to be grateful for?

3. Love and Belonging Needs

For my love needs in  life – family, affection, work group and relationships brought into my life, I am grateful! Nothing beats the chorus of “daddy”, “daddy”, “daddy”, when I get home, as my children compete for their hugs. Nothing beats hanging out with my wife for more than 14hrs everyday. Nothing compares with the A2W team, that surround me, and the relationships that this year has brought my way. In the area of love and a sense of belonging, I have a lot to be grateful for. What about you?

4. Esteem Needs

For the sense of worth and achievement bestowed on me in the course of this year, I am grateful. I am grateful for the awards, grateful for the achievements, the responsibility, the reputation and even the status bestowed on me. In the area of esteem needs, there is a lot to be grateful for. I am grateful, how about you? Mind you though, we are each motivated by the level we don’t yet have, so in case you have no esteem needs, be grateful that you have little or nothing to worry about.

5. Cognitive Needs

I am grateful for the hunger for knowledge that has driven me to read, to seek to know and to have a sense of meaning and of purpose. We talk so boldly and take it for granted, we have a sense of purpose, are driven to read and don’t see it as a big deal. There is so much to be grateful for, are you grateful?

6. Aesthetic Needs

For my personal growth and an increased appreciation of beauty, of balance and of form, I am truly grateful. I have been blessed with awesome sights, been thrilled by adrenalin pumping exercises. I have vacationed in different parts of the world, and enjoyed so many views, for these and more I am grateful. Do you now have reasons to be grateful?

7. Self Actualization Needs

For giving me the opportunities and the privileges to push myself towards achieving my God given potentials, I am grateful. I look at myself a year back, and I have learnt so much, and grown so fast it amazes me. “God, I am thankful”

8. Transcendence Needs

Nothing beats the feeling of hearing a “thank you” from someone you have labored to add value to and ensure turns out better than you. There is no greater joy than the joy that comes from pouring out yourself for others. Nothing equates with that feeling of rising to the height of ones personal potential and helping another person take the same journey. For the opportunities you have given me to help others become fulfilled, I am truly grateful. Are you grateful?

Make up your mind to enter into the new year with gratitude. If we think deeply enough, we can always find 5 things everyday to be grateful for. Once you can retain the attitude of gratitude, there is nothing big heading your way that will miss you. You will suddenly discover that you have become like a magnet for the things you desire.

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Adeolu Akinyemi
November 17, 2008

Is this Deoluakinyemi.com?


Hello Friend, thanks for all your contributions – reading, visiting, commenting, sharing, printing, forwarding e.t.c that you have made. All this has helped www.deoluakinyemi.com get to where it is today. This is still the same www.deoluakinyemi.com, only now the picture is more recent, the theme is completely locally made, and it’s Celebrating 3yrs of blogging history.

We are however not stopping here… we are going on, and planning to be bigger and better. I can’t do it alone still, it will be with your help and your support. So I’m using this opportunity to thank you, and to ask you for your continued support. It pays to change things once in a while, that way we can rekindle our excitement of having something new, and we can get fired to do more and more.

First of all, I’ll need your comments on this new look, it’s still work in progress, so your comments will surely add some value. I’ll appreciate every comment, great, good, bad and ugly. Continue reading →

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Adeolu Akinyemi
October 7, 2008

The Sacrifice of Praise


The times we are in are very eventful. You must have observed that I haven’t been writing so consistently, I’m sorry, I’ll step up the game, and revert to inundating you with my posts. I sometimes get tempted not to write, but I know that these times must be documented, for what we do today, is tomorrow’s story. Are you concious of the story you are writing with your life? In the upper week, I was in the UK for another BIT session, last week (Sept 30), I had an opportunity of going to talk about Nigeria to a Redeem Church in Ogudu, On the first, I spent two hours at the radio station (Eko FM) encouraging people on Nigeria. Over this just concluded weekend, I was opportuned to go to UNAB for a seminar, made it to Ibadan for the night, and woke early  and headed for OAU ife, where I had the opportunity of sharing some thoughts, together with a team of colleagues, with four fellowship gatherings. These are demanding times, but there is no salvation without the cross.

Have you ever been in a condition before where it is so proper to say the wrong things? Where complaining, lamenting, expressing frustration, anger are the norms on your lips? Have you ever been in a condition, where you know that you ought to thank God, but it’s so freaking difficult? Or are you currently in the midst of such a time? Don’t sucuumb to those negative feelings or thoughts. These are the times to offer the sacrifice of praise. Continue reading →

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Adeolu Akinyemi
August 19, 2008

Gratitude and Giving


I’m currently in Ilorin, for my younger sister’s wedding, and ultimately for an NNC Launch in Ilorin. It’s been a busy week as always, a little bit busier, but there have been plenty to give God thanks for.

One of the greatest lesssons I have been learning in the last few months is about gratitude. I thought I knew enough about gratitude, just as many of you also think you do, but in the last few months, I have discovered that I know only a little sketch of the power, purpose and priviledge in being able to show gratitude. I don’t know what kind of life you are living today, are you happy? Are you complaining? Are you getting frustrated about something? Are you afraid or scared? Are you confused? Are you losing patience? Are you in trouble? If you are any of these things, you might have gotten into them for many reasons, but there is one sure way out, and understanding the power of gratitude and unleashing that power is one sure way out.

I’ll like to lay a fundamental premise first. That there are two reals of existence, there is one realm that is seen, and there is another realm that is unseen. The Christian or Muslim will tell you that there is a spiritual world and a physical world. The scientist also alludes to this a bit, by acknowledging the possibility of a 4th dimension. The scientist knows by experimentation and research however, that the basic building block of every organism, dead or alive is energy, and this energy is unseen. In other words, either we go via the channels of religion or via the channels of scientific thinking, one thing is sure, there is a seen world (frame of existence) and there is an unseen world. Continue reading →

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