A SEMINAR PAPER PRESENTED BY PASTOR AKAH JAMES E. E-mail: akah_james@yahoo Phone Number: 08032402496, 08053827093, 08121461924 TOPIC: BARRIERS TO GROWTH. PAPER ONE INTRODUCTION: WHAT IS GROWTH? Growth is what makes you different from what you were previously. It is the constant addition in the progressive journey of life. The most outstanding of all the characteristics of living things is growth. Whether physical, structural, psychological or by way of perception, growth remains one of the most constant realities of life. It is ever a continuous process. Man grows and will continue to grow whether knowing or unknowingly. This is very true because you may cease to grow either physically or structurally; but the very day one ceases to grow psychologically or perceptively, then he is as good as dead. Thus, growth is a constant phenomenon. And we all grow! And we all want to grow! Thus, ‘growth is the process of growing’; just to borrow the words of the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. Growth is the indication of an increase. It is the result of every plus-factor in a man’s effort. And “God blessed them and said to them, be fruitful and increase in Numbers, fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” (NIV) Therefore, growth – consciousness is the innate conception and perception in man. When man grows, he fulfils the scripture. From the verse above therefore, we can see that growth begins with having result for the effort of our hands; to increase and multiply and finally to conquer and overtake the basic assignment of life – which is our sojourn on earth. As such, one may not be wrong to say that the basic expectation of God for His children is to see them grow and achieve growth. Thus, anybody who consequently fails to achieve growth must have to look inward and asks him/herself some basic questions of life. BARRIERS TO GROWTH Anything that has value in life must also attract a price to be paid as a cost whatsoever. Growth like every other reality of life has barriers checkmating it. These barriers are the several factors that act as impediments to growth. That is, anything that makes you unable to realize your expectations. We will discuss them item by item as we progress in this teaching. A - Complacency: This means being too comfortable where you are, presently. Every journey of life or progress movement must definitely stop the moment you feel you have arrived. Arrival point is always the end to our journey. In our introduction, we maintained that growth is a constant concept. And, that man continues to grow and the end of growth is death. This is true because growth is not merely a physical or structural issue but more so, a mental thing. Of course, we start growing within to have to grow without. Thus, even if the size and the structure are not increasing quantitatively, the mind and conscience continue to grow, it increases. It is this mental growth that keeps the body and the entirety of the physical together. Many fail to grow because they see their present position as the point of arrival. And once you have arrived, the journey stops. Some of us stop too quickly because of the kind of definition we give to our so-called achievement. But the problem is because we failed to tag our success to a focus. Let everything we call achievement be tied to a focus, then we will be able to know whether we are well-off or not. Don’t be too quick to feel satisfied with your present position. In my first book: Right Attitudes, Right Living, it is stated and we will paraphrased here, that someone’s arrival point could be another person’s starting point; what you call your final result (finished goods) could be another’s raw material. Thus the author advised that a progress minded person should ensure that every of his finished goods be turned to raw materials; and the rejects be turned to resources. In other words, he is advising that no one should be easily contented with where he is and what he has achieved. Behave as though you have not got anything yet and thus continue to want more like Oliver Twist. Don’t name yourself success. Continue to strive until someone will call you a successful person. Complacency kills B Fear of Failure: Another barrier to growth is the fear of failure. Fear of failure in any adventure of life ultimately creates the attitude of unwillingness to try or struggle. But for anyone to grow, he must see failure as one of the results one can get out of an effort. Failure and success are two equal opportunities. What determines the copious difference between the two is the raw material input. Failure will enable you see with clearer eyes how much or how less of input you have contributed in the initial process towards a result. As such, failure is an opportunity to begin again more intelligently. Failure is a great teacher. And only the careful and patient students do learn from her lessons. Failure teaches great lessons. It enables one to see more clearly. To checkmate fear, we must deal with our minds. Everything starts with how we view the so called problem. Since you wouldn’t want to risk any failure, you wouldn’t want to try at all. You think you may fail if you try. But the fact that you refused to try is the greatest risk ever taken and irremediable failure ever attained, so to speak. Hence, do not let the fear of failure keeps you away from venturing. “If your life is ever going to get (any) better, you will have to take risks. There is simply no way you can grow without taking chances.” It is now a cliché an adage which says that “one cannot make an omelet without breaking eggs.” Always develop a success mindset. Be bold and courageous at every step of your effort. Two things I know that will never go together – success and fear. The bold and faithful ones are more likely to succeed as the scripture posits in Joshua 1:6 – 7: “Be strong and courageous …be strong and very courageous…” Joshua took a mantle of leadership from Moses. And there were these enemies that Moses could not finish with before he departed. So, God was here encouraging his servant to be bold and determined if at all he will succeed. The same message is for you today. Nothing works if you allow failure to sheath your confidence. Just take a bold step of faith and you will be glad you did. C. Disapproval Hurt: Yet another barrier to growth is the problem of disapproval hurt. Disapproval is a situation whereby one’s result is not accepted. Thus, the feeling of not being accepted can bring an emotional distress which is called ‘a hurt.’ Anybody can be hurt in this way. But being hurt is just one thing; but allowing it to frustrate our effort against striving harder is what constitutes barriers. Once it is allowed to occupy one’s thought, it will naturally weigh one down and ultimately make one unable to be productive. Once you are not clear-headed, you cannot be clear-sighted. What will crop up is just to wallow in confusion.
Posted on: Thu, 08 Aug 2013 19:56:03 +0000
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