Happy New Year my friends and family! Thank God, we made it through 2021. I hope all is well with you on this beautiful day. The year 2022 is here and the good news for you and I is that we have another opportunity to spread our wings and push our limits to achieve our most improbable goals. Proverbs 13:19 states: “A desire accomplished is sweet to the soul.” It is my desire that you stay healthy throughout the year and for you to accomplish 100% of the tasks this year.
Moreover, I have found it helpful to start the year with a prayer to God for guidance and the faith for a heart of perseverance.
Praying for wisdom from God is one of my goals that I have set for myself because having true wisdom is important to process various information and make good decisions that can benefits everyone we may encounter.
The month of January is figuratively speaking the month to sow our seeds that we hope to reap at harvest time before or by December 2022.
In addition to what you have done that has worked for your current successes, I sincerely hope you consider spending 20 minutes every day to think on ways you can improve your current position in this life and find the means to improve your physical, social, emotional, financial, and spiritual state of being. Like Elon Musk once said ” Stop being patient and start asking yourself, how do I accomplish my 10 year plan in 6 months? You will probably fail but you will be lot further ahead of the person who simply accepted it was going to take 10 years.”
Ladies and Gentlemen, let us start our engines and make this year a wonderful and successful year to remember!!
Hello my good friends. I hope all is well with you and with your family this November. Wow, in just one more month and the year 2021 will be part of history. As I walked outside today and felt the cool breeze and the magnificent changes in the leaves on the trees, I was amazed and suddenly realized an important concept: we all have to adapt as well to the changes in life. Now that we are in the Fall season In the United States, the trees, plants are already adapting to this change by shedding their leaves to prepare for the winter.
Personally, I asked myself how am I positively adapting to the changes and surprises in my life?
On a bigger note, November 25th will be Thanksgiving Day, a time where families across the United States of America gather together to give thanks to the Almighty God for His marvelous grace and innumerable benefits to humanity, and to enjoy each other’s company with food. This celebration originally was started by the early American Settlers in 1621 who showed their appreciation to the Native Americans who provided them with food, blankets and saved their lives. According to history, it was made an official Holiday by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 to be celebrated every November.
In conclusion, my hope is that we all find time to reflect on this year’s progression of events and thank God everyday for keeping us alive and for keeping our families safe. Happy Thanksgiving!!
I hope all is well with you and your family on this special day. A daily life of prayer is simply one of the best practices to prepare each of us for the continuous unexpected surprises of our lives!! Just like you, as I continue to look at the fast events in our world, and the constant unpredictable events in each of our personal lives, it gives us more than a million reasons to pray to God for protection, guidance and wisdom. A ” sweet hour of prayer” can and will make a big difference in the paths and directions of our lives. A daily life of prayer to God is an essential weapon that will strength you on your life’s battles. Just as breathing air is vital to our body’s survival, so is prayer to sustaining our soul. Jesus is the greatest man to have ever walked on the face of this earth and He, who is our example, spent many hours in the mornings and evenings in prayer. I humbly ask you to consider spending more time in prayer and fasting as a way to gain the advantage needed to have a successful life on the this Earth.
Natural Bridge,VA
For the middle of of last month, my family visited The Natural Bridge located in Virginia. The amazing part of the visit was that this bridge connects the past to the present and hopefully to the future. According to historians, the Monacan Indians who originally inhabited this area considered the place a sacred site and called this place the “Bridge of God.”
Natural Bridge,VA
In conclusion, Jesus Christ is the Rock of Ages that holds our past, present and future lives simultaneously in His hands . By praying daily to Him, we grow wiser, and are given the most potent arsenal to be victorious people in this world and the next one to come. Remember to pray everyday and you will endure and over achieve your set goals . Until the next time, stay blessed, humble and enjoy each day to the fullest.
Welcome to another episode on Living the best possible life ever. I hope all is well with you and your family, and my sincere wish is that you continue to achieve more of your dreams this year . The above statement of how can I change my current situation is one of the questions that you have either asked yourself in the past, or you are either asking yourself presently or you will be asking yourself this month, this year or in the near future. The simple answer to the above question is that you need to consider doing these four things. First, pay tithe on all your paychecks and the second is to develop a better catalyst system. Tithe is the concept of paying one-tenth of your paycheck earnings and giving that money back to God. The money you pay as Tithe is used by your church, donation center to provide much needed community outreach services to those in need. The reward from Tithing results in overall blessings to you and your family with good health, enormous prosperity, overall protection from life events such as robbery and misfortunes . The second advice is to save 10-20% percent of your gross paycheck every 2 weeks when you are paid for investments and for funding your retirement. The third advice is to slowly build up 6 months to 1 year of your emergency funds. The fourth advice is to develop and stick to a monthly budget.
An example of a gentleman who benefited from Tithing was William Colgate. According to Wikipedia, William Colgate was born in January 25, 1783 in Hollingbourne, Kent, England and died March 25, 1858 at the age of 74 in New York City . His family shortly moved to Baltimore, Maryland after his father’s life was in danger after he became a sympathizer of the American War of Independence. His family later moved to New York City where he became an apprentice as a soap maker. During his training, he developed a more efficient way to make soap. Colgate was a tither through his long and successful life as a businessman. He initially tithed, one-tenth, two-tenths, three-tenths of all his income from the soap business and surprisingly became more wealthy. Towards the end of his life, he was tithing five-tenths of all his income. He later became one of the richest and most influential men and philanthropist in New York City. He was also founder of Colgate-Palmolive Soap Company.
Courtesy of Google.com
A catalyst decrease the amount of work needed, or time needed to accomplish any specified task without getting involved in the reaction. For example, if going from town A to town B requires 50 minutes travel time, the addition of a catalyst will decrease the time to reach the destination from 50 minutes to 25 minutes, saving you 25 additional minutes. Good personal finance books such as The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley and Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki , are two must read catalyst books that will decrease the amount of time you will need to reach financial freedom, only if you can follow the golden steps in these books.
Moreover, You have to envision where you see yourself in the next 10 years and legally start the necessary steps to make your vision become a reality. In our lives, you have doers and sayers. Make it your goal to be a doer. Take the necessary actions needed to enrich your life today. To live the best possible life ever will require you to trust God, think critically and continue your task of educating your mind, and physically training your body to stay fit.
In conclusion, most of us do not get the option to choose where we are born or to choose our parents. But the one thing you can choose today is to make the choice to create a better future for yourself and your family. You can create a better future for yourself by starting to use a better catalyst system in your life such as trusting God, paying your Tithe, reading good Personal Finance books , creating and contributing to your retirement account every 2 weeks or monthly, investing 10-20% of your gross paycheck to build a healthy nest egg that will allow you to retire when the time comes.
By Kofi Amo-Mensah, Medical Doctor.
Disclaimer: Remember this blog is for your educational purposes only. Seek Professional advice if you are going through any life changes. Also remember to seek professional financial advice if you are going through financial changes.
Once again, we are in August 2021. Summer is winding down and the Fall season is just around the corner in the Unites States of America. In life, advise from others may come and go, also money comes and money goes, but your true family stays around you forever!! Your close family is perhaps one of your most valuable assets that will bring you true happiness. The family is the backbone of every strong society.
Going through memory lane, growing up with my four brothers and sisters gave me some of the greatest memories of my life. Most importantly we had God, our parents and each other. Growing up, we did not have a lot of friends because as brothers, we had each other. We played together, laughed together, fought sometimes and most importantly, we had true love for each other. The bond of brotherhood kept us very close, although we each had different personalities.
Interestingly, fast forward to 2021 and by the grace of God, I am now a father, a husband to my own wonderful family ! When I look at the personality traits in my children, I can see flashes of myself and my wife. More than ever, I enjoy the laughter, the sound of my children in our house because their presence makes our lives fuller. We have spent more time together as a family this past one and half years because of the Covid 19 Pandemic than we have ever done in the previous past. The family time together has afforded my wife and I the opportunities to understand our children a little better.
Zebras at Virginia Safari Park
For our family Getaway this month, we visited the Virginia Safari Park , which is an 180 acres of land located at Natural Bridge, Virginia. You can see all the animals while driving your car through the Park! We saw Giraffes, Cheetahs, Water Buffaloes, Zebras, llamas, and deers. Other animals at different designated parts of the park included Tigers, Pythons, Rhinoceros, Birds, Turtles, and a Sloth. I highly recommend you and your family visit this Safari Park when you visit Virginia.
Giraffe at Virginia Sefari ParkVirginia Safari Park
In conclusion, continue to invest and spend adequate time with your family to enrich your present and future memories. There is a saying that money comes and may go, opportunities comes and goes, but the good memories that you create and build with your own family will last you a lifetime!!
Today is July 4th, and it is Independence Day in America!! Throughout the Unites States of America, families, friends, embraced the warm weather and gathered in the spirit of brotherhood to enjoy this day. Fireworks, grilled burgers, cooled water, smoothies, the sound of laughter of children and adults could be heard everywhere today. The United States is celebrating 244 years of freedom from England. America still is a beacon of hope for the oppressed, “One Nation under God, indivisible with Liberty and Justice for all.” History teaches us that America gained her Independence through trials, tribulations, bravery, resilience and a mighty helpful hand from the Almighty.
It will be a good exercise to take a minute to ask ourselves, how are we using the Freedom and Independence in our lives for a good and a greater cause? In the spirit of Independence, everyday should be a day of thankfulness to the Almighty for the opportunity to exist and built a better future for the Nation and future generations.
Likewise, I hope you use your freedom to create a life that will one day better your family, your society and your world.
Spending time in Nature is one of the best activities you should participate in as a way to recharge your batteries. What can I say ! Recently my family and I traveled to Roaring Run, a hiking trip to get away from the city. The road trip was quite refreshing because it was a quick getaway from the house and from the cares of the world. The trip to Roaring Run was a transitional place of peace, tranquil and refreshment for the mind. The sound of the rushing falls created a melody that was a delight to the ears and a peaceful orchestrated symphony to the mind. The place rejuvenated my mind and redirected my focus to understand that being in Nature can be a peaceful and an enjoying event to the soul at the same time. I was reminded once again that the best things in life do not cost too much!
Roaring Run
It is to your personal advantage to break the monotonous cycle of the week by taking time to rest your body, mind and soul. As humans, we were not designed to work continuously without resting. Unfortunately, too much stress has been associated with long working hours, which if not corrected may have negative long term effects on our health.
In order to increase your focus and maximize your inner creativity and raise your productivity to the next level, spend some time in nature so you can obtain true inspiration from the wind, the trees, the birds and the therapeutic water. In such an environment, you get total connection to your Creator, who is the source of strength for your everyday life !!
In conclusion, it is essential for you to imagine and create the life that you want to live. Spending time in Nature will give you the courage to focus, design and create the ultimate carefree life and enhance your path to achieving greatness in every aspect of your life.
Life is very interesting and has a funny way of working out for most of the time. When you look through the lens of your past, you will find that life is a race and the better you learn how to run it efficiently, the better you will be well off. The life before us is very complicated and very intricate with it sets of rules and regulations with social normalization and contracts that are expected of every individual. For example, when you are born, and matriculates in Kindergarten, your teacher presents you with sets of rules and regulations that must be followed. Of course, I cannot forget to mention the rules that we all had to live by at our parent’s house. Rules are important for the peaceful well being of every society and must be obeyed at all times. Did you also know that there are rules for getting and staying ahead in life? Understanding these personal rules are crucial to your physical, social, economic, financial and spiritual well being. I am in the process of learning some of these rules and will simply like to share what I have realized through the past few years.
1 . Set daily and yearly small personal goals and work happily to achieve them.
2. Reprogram your mind to understand that you can accomplish any goal if you constantly work at it every day.
3. Complete a monthly budget to track every single dollar, cedi, yuan,franc,that you spend and save.
4.Have extreme confidence in yourself. For I have experience that all overachievers personally believe in their heavenly given talents.
5. Plan for your retirement today. Where there is vision, there is a future!!
6. Stay healthy. Listen to your body. If you notice something is wrong with you, and whatever you are experiencing is not improving, have it evaluated by your doctor because that may a sign of an underlying medical condition that may need to be accurately diagnosed and treated.
7. Exercise for 30 minutes for 3 times per week. One of the best kept secrets to enjoy life is to live longer!! Studies have demonstrated that regular exercise regiment have been showed to decrease Cardiovascular Diseases, Diabetes Mellitus, Stroke, Depression and increase your longevity!!
8. Have fun. Yes life can be stressful, but see every opportunity and life circumstances as learning tools that will make you a better person. Laugh and enjoy every day that you are alive!
9. Be willing to accept constructive criticism from mentors you trust to improve on your personal growth.
10. Enjoy spending time with your children. The younger and upcoming years are the most time fulfilling memories that you will create with your family.
Living the best possible life ever is possible for everyone. It pays to read good books. There are so much misinformation out there these days in our world that everyone must read for himself/herself to acquire the truth, and knowledge which are the first steps, necessary to make good sound decisions on every aspect of our lives. Researchers found out that readers were less likely to develop dementia, and more importantly were able to stay focus and maintain a high level of cognitive function from reading books. A research study published in JAMA Psychiatry in July 2018 stated that intellectual activities such as reading books delayed or decreased the rate of dementia among the participants. Furthermore, reading books help you to acquire the knowledge to make better decisions in life. I seriously encourage you to pick up a good book this month from your library or buy one from your local book store, or online and start reading today.
Here are some books that I will highly recommend:
The Bible- for guidance on your life and eternal salvation. This Book is the most important and the best book you will ever read!!
Raising Responsible Kidsby Jay Kesler, Ten Things you can do now to prepare your child for a lifetime of Independence.
Highly Effective Marriage by Nancy Van Pelt- A book on secrets on how to keep your marriage full of life and spice and how to sustain a greater intimacy with your spouse.
Days of Grace– A Memoir of Arthur Ashe, A Great American Hero.
Return with Honor- Captain Scott O’Grady- A remarkable story about courage, resilience and faith in God.
Dave Ramsey’s Complete Guide to Money- An important foundation needed by beginners to start and achieve financial independence.
Gifted Hands– by Benjamin Carson, MD- A Pediatric Neurosurgeon’s humble beginnings and rise to success.
The Richest Man in Babylon by George S Clason- Advice on the acquisition of wealth.
The Wall Street Guide to Understanding Personal Finance by Alan H Siegel and Kenneth M. Morris.
The Boy who Harnessed The Wind by William Kamkwamba. A true story of courage, hope and determination of a teenager who built a windmill to create electricity for his town in Malawi, Africa.
Chasing Space: An Astronaut story of Grit, Grace and Second Chances by Leland Melvin- A remarkable man’s journey from childhood to playing American Football and amazingly becoming an American Astronaut- A must read for your teenager!
In conclusion, I encourage you to read and create your own top eleven books that you will recommend for me to read and enjoy. Remember, the more you read, the more you know and the more you know, the better decision you can make for yourself and your family in creating your best possible life ever!
Hello good friends. It is good to stay in touch with you once again. Can you and I truly find sustained happiness in this world? Simply put, what are the keys to a true continuous happiness? There are many keys to unlocking true happiness in this life. Some happiness are short lived and materialistic, like the excitement we experience when we purchase a new car, a new bicycle, a new dress or a new pair of shoes or sneakers. Although the materialistic objects gives us an instant happiness for a while, soon the happiness fades away and can be compared to how we feel like at the end of every good laughter- we come back to square one. On the other hand, one of the ways to live and enjoy a sustained life filled with happiness is for us to be of service to others. Donating our time to a good cause will give us true happiness.
Throughout our lives, there are many activities that can give us burst of instant happiness. For example, the day I was reunited with my parents in the United States brought me happiness, getting accepted into medical school brought me instant happiness for a while, the day I married my beautiful wife brought me an extreme happiness and I am still crazy in love with my wife to this day, witnessing the birth of my first child into this world brought me an intense powerful flow of happiness, and meeting all my family members on Thanksgiving Day makes me very extremely happy. When I try to recall through memory lane, some of the happiest days of my life are filled of memories of immediate events that suddenly takes my breath away, and although they are quite good memories, afterwards my mind returned to the constant mundane state of our every day life, which as you know, is very unpredictable.
So how does one obtain sustained happiness? Sustained happiness can be achieved in two ways. One is to spend some quiet time every day with God through reading the Bible. It is through reading the Bible that we can understand the will for our lives and our purpose. The second part is to donate our time for a good cause. As a young boy growing up, I discovered one day that God was and is the only personal friend who always came through for me when I was in my loneliest and most difficult times of my life. The more I understood about Him and His will for my life, the more I was filled with the sustained amount of happiness that was not based on the events or the circumstances of life.
Interestingly, I once volunteered at the Boys and Girls Club in my city, and although the work was somewhat demanding because of my work schedule as a physician, I was filled with happiness in seeing the joy and excitement of the children during the time I spent with them. Moreover, it felt good to know that the time I spent with them was creating a beautiful memory and planting the seeds and dreams of the next generations of leaders. In the spirit of volunteering, donating goods to those in need are also activities that have brought extreme happiness to my family and I. When I was in college in Buffalo, New York, one picture that hung in the restroom of my church read “What we are is God’s gift to us and what we become is our gift to God.” It is up to you and I to bring positive changes to the lives of the people that we encounter everyday.
In conclusion, I encourage you to spent some time with your maker daily in prayers and in the Bible for true direction and purpose for your life. Also volunteer your time to a good charity organization around you and I guarantee you will be filled with sustained happiness.
Did we really experience the year 2020 or did we wake up from a scary dream? Thank God that we are still alive. On a good note, the year 2021 is indeed a New Year with endless possibilities. Certainly, I hope that you find true love, peace, courage to stand firm to tackle and overcome the obstacles in your life. I hope that you continue to show earnest kindness to others and receive true love in return. For this New Year, I wish for you to obtain a greater inner peace within yourself, which will serve as a special tool for you to stay calm ,even when life’s uncertainties attempt to knock you down. Cheers to all our humanly brothers and sisters throughout the world. Cheers, because through divine grace, we are still alive in the land of the living!! Now that we are indeed alive, it is very essential to ask ourselves the next question.
Where will we all be in the next 100 years? I sincerely hope you take a minute to ponder and have an honest answer to this question because your answer will positively impact your future forever. For instance, a child that is born on January 31, 2021 may answer this existential question and say “here on Earth.” However, for most of us reading this article, the answer is not so straight forward. The next 100 years may be different from the previous past 100 years or may be the same in some aspects. But in actuality, only God really knows. My hope for the next 100 years is to live a productive life as long as possible, build a creative program that will enrich the lives of my communities, and finally to be in Heaven one day with God along with my family, friends, colleagues and strangers that I have come into contact with while on this Earth. Our time given to us on this Earth is one of our most important commodities that we possess, and how we choose to spend that time will define our destiny. For this year I hope that you use your time wisely to create the beautiful life that you want to live.
Speaking about the concept of time, one day at work, I asked my 101 year old patient the key to living a longer life. Her answer was to enjoy working. She grew up working on a farm. I was amazed and astonished at her response because throughout our whole life, half of us worry about the long hours and constant demand of our work schedules, which can cause a lot of strain on our mind and body. Her answer opened my eyes to the fact that the right balance of work and play is essential to our longevity on this Earth. For the right balance of work and play creates a greater character for that individual and in the process toughens our body, mind and enables us to develop the art of perseverance- which is a successful trait demonstrated among the heroes of previous and current generations such as Thomas Edison, former Presidents Abraham Lincoln, and
President Jimmy Carter, who also was a farmer, and is still going strong after all these years at the age of 96.
In conclusion, the next 100 years will be the most exciting times of our lives. I sincerely hope that you develop a stronger relationship with your God this year so that you can be ready for all the possibilities that will come your way. Cheers!!!
There are certain activities in our lives that leaves us with good memories. Eating a good food is certainly one of them. What is the best food that you ever ate? My mother makes the best pancakes in the whole world!! Her pancakes are so good that you do not have to add any syrup! My wife makes the best Bofrot in the whole world!!! Bofrot is the Ghanaian version of Munchkins Donut Hole Treats from Dunkin’ Donuts.
For most of us, life is not scripted because it can be filled with surprises. For me, that surprise occurred one day when my daughter transformed one routine day into a special day. As a physician, I was post call and had arrived home from the hospital. I was physically drained after taken care of my patients, a few of them with Covid-19. My daughter’s school was cancelled due to a wintry mix of snow and sleet and my children were off for that day. After arriving from work, I performed my newly crafted routine of removing my shoes in the back of my car, washing my hands thoroughly, rushing to the bathroom to take a shower to get rid of any possible germs or viruses, then lastly, coming downstairs to meet my family. Like all healthcare workers, I have been doing my best to prevent bringing any disease from work to my family.
For this particular day, my daughter insisted on me baking her a cookie!!! I was blind sided by this request because I had never baked a cookie before in my entire life. I promised her we would bake her a cookie after I had eaten breakfast.
We got the cookies mix, preheated the oven and kneaded the dough and to my surprise, with my wife’s help, I baked my first cookie for my daughter!! The process of dough kneading was actually therapeutic to my mind and was a great stress reliever. While the chocolate chip cookies were baking in the oven, my daughter was patiently sitting three feet from the oven, and took a deep breath and smelled the aroma and inhaled the fresh scent of the cookies. I stood adjacent to her and saw one of the happiest smiles on her face. My wife decided to bake us banana bread also that day. Although it was cold outside, the inside of our house was warm with the enticing smell mixed of baking chocolate chip cookies and banana bread.
Will you believe it that after my wife’s banana bread was finished baking, the aroma transported my mind to a time period about 35 years ago when I was a child at the age of 5 or 6 years old, when my mother and her friend were baking us banana bread!!! When the cookies and banana bread were baked, my daughter, son, wife and I had the cookies and banana bread for dessert that day. They were sweet and delicious!!
In good faith, this story is shared to simply illustrate the importance of creating beautiful memories with our children, especially in such times as these. Likewise, these golden periods between the age of one to eighteen years, are the best times for us as parents to teach our children the importance of virtue, honesty, hard work, efficiency, developing great self esteem, sharing, loving others, becoming law abiding citizens, showing respect for our elderly population and providing age appropriate discipline to our children. The scripture states in Proverbs 22:6 : “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” It is an honest fact that one day these children also will grow up and start families of their own. In conclusion, let us always remember that the mutual time spent with our children will always create positive memories that will last them a lifetime!!!
Live The Best Possible Life Ever 