The Public is hereby informed about the Launching of the Life-by-Design Education        and Innovation Project.

Life-by-Design LG is a non-profit company registered under Companies Act No. 5 of  2009 of the Laws of Sierra Leone; primarily to help young Sierra Leoneans discover  and live up to their highest potentials, in a way that that also promotes the common good and ultimately promote sustainable National Development.

This goal is pursued through several means; including but not limited to Coaching and Training in Character Building and Personal Development skills; providing Financial Support for students with high educational potentials but little or no financial support and by creating a platform for young people with practical innovative ideas to share it with the wider public with the aim of matching them with potential sponsors.

A Board of Trustees constituted together with the Major sponsors of the fund will be set up to administer the fund.

Criteria for benefiting from the Scholarship will include:

• Evidence of Academic potentials via report cards and school results
• Verifiable evidence of inadequate or no financial support
• Evidence that candidate is involved in projects and activities that promote the common good in their communities

The Project was launched by the National Youth Commissioner, Mr. Anthony Koroma. Contribution and Pledges to the fund currently stands at Le.  Le.2,400,000.

The Major sponsors for Life-by-Design LG are Africell, Sierra Leone Commercial Bank and A Call to Business.

For further information on how to partner with us or how to participate, please contact us at lifebydesignsl@gmail.com or call +232-77-564-000

Do Nice Guys ever win?

I have Just been invited to participate in the National Encounter Show on National TV; on the debatable issue “In our quest to acquire material possessions, does the means matter?” I would like to hear your thoughts on this, to help me prepare for this show coming up at 7:00pm today 1st December 2011

Like ·  · Share · 6 hours ago near Freetown

LBD Live Event and Project Launching

Life-by-Design LG presents Life-by- Design Live event and Launching of Scholarship and Innovation project at the British Council Hall on Sunday 20^th November 2011 at 3:00pm. Tickets for the show will be sold at Le.10,000 and Patrons are by invitation.

The Live event will be show casing young, creative and resourceful Sierra Leoneans; entrepreneurs of our times who have defied all the odds to succeed in life. Side shows will include: Stand-up Comedy and live musical performances from the nation’s best.

Life-by-Design LG is a non-profit company registered under Companies Act No. 5 of 2009 of the Laws of Sierra Leone; primarily to help young Sierra Leoneans discover and live up to their highest potentials, in a way that that also promotes the common good and ultimately promote sustainable National Development.

This goal is pursued through several means; including but not limited to Coaching and Training in Personal Development skills; providing Financial Support for students with high educational potentials but little or no financial support and by creating a platform for young people with practical innovative ideas to share it with the wider public with the aim of matching them with potential backers.

His program on National Television is currently one of the most highly rated programs on the SLBC TV.  The Major sponsors for Life-by-Design LG are Africell and the Sierra Leone Commercial Bank.

Mohamed Kanneh - Coordinator, West African Youth Network, SL.

Tonight’s edition of Life-by-Design on SLBC TV features an interview with Mohamed Kanneh, Coordinator of the West African Youth Network in Sierra Leone. Mohamed has just returned from Turkey from an international debate competition for students. 3 Students participated in the tournament and out of 51 countries, the Sierra Leone Team went as far as the quarter finals.

Mohamed and I will be discussing the importance of developing debating skills as tool to negotiate your way through life; from finding a job to developing project proposals for your community.

Tune in to the SLBC TV Tonight 25th August and on 1st September at 8:30pm. Learn keys that could be useful in designing and living your dream life. Repeat broadcasts will be aired on Saturdays at 2:00pm.

for further information contact joeabass@gmail.com

Our Little Princess

Josetta is sure glad to hold her baby sister for the 1st time…..

I am pleased to invite members of the public to participate in our monthly recording session of the Life-by-Design TV Series, which takes place at the SLBC TV studio one on Saturday 22^nd January 2011 at 2:00pm.

Life-by-Design is Sierra Leone’s Premier Success Motivational Show that teaches universal, time-tested and life-proven principles to help individuals improve on their personal effectiveness and productivity and ultimately improve the results of their lives; Life-by-Design teaches you how to participate in shaping your destiny.

I will be teaching on topics such as:

• Ø The Science of Achievement
• Ø Where things will not get better
• Ø Dealing with the limitations of life
• Ø Bringing out the Genius in you

• Ø There will also be live testimonials from selected guests

The recorded programmes will be aired on SLBC TV every Thursdays at 8:30pm and repeat editions on Tuesdays at 6:00pm.

Entrance is free but studio sitting capacity is limited.  People with confirmed seat reservations will be given preference.

For seat reservations please call or text your name to: 077-754-883; with the word ‘reservation’

The 30mins show will now be aired every Thursday at 8:30pm. We are negotiating a repeat broadcast for some other date in the week. I will let  you know as soon as this time is confirmed.

Thank you all for your support.

Joe

W. H. Murray

One of the very first steps in your bid to take control of your destiny is to make a committed decision as to the new direction you want to lead your life.

A lot of the time people mistake wishes for committed decision. What distinguishes a committed decision from a wish is that the former is always followed by an action; action that builds a structure for the decision to take root.

What does it take to fully commit oneself so that there is no turning back?

I once read about a woman who was determined to lose weight. She went out to buy all new clothes of the size she would become, and then gave away all of her bigger size clothes to the Salvation Army except for one pair of jeans and shirt.

Her action created enough incentive for her to follow through on her commitment.  She constantly reminded herself everyday that unless she gets her body down to the target size, there would be no clothes for her to put on. By so doing  she did cut off all alternatives to fall back into old and limiting patterns.

Have you made a committed decision lately that you find yourself going back? its because you left yourself with the option of going back if the going gets tough. Remove from around you, anything that will tempt you to go back; build structures around you that will make it impossible for you to go back to your old ways.

- Throw away the porn movies and magazines

- Remove the junk food from your freezer

- Call up your “Sin Partner” and tell them the game is up…

Do anything, but do something that will cement your commitment to your goals and set yourself up to win.

when you do this, you have truly made a committed decision and are well on the way to shaping your destiny

I love this Quote by W H Murray

…..Until one is committed
there is hesitancy and the chance to draw back……

—– Luke 9:62 – any man that puts his hand to the plough and looks back, is not fit for the kingdom of God—–

Robert Frost

I have never ceased to be amazed by the sheer capacity that we have to shape our destination in life through our choices and actions; as Robert Frost aptly stated in his renowned poem “Two paths diverged in the woods and I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference”

There are also numerous references in the Bible on the principle of the harvest; Gal. 6:7 says “Be not deceived, God is not mocked, whatever a man sows that he shall reap. (Gen. 8:22 etc).

In response to one of my weekly radio broadcasts, I got an email from a listener which I am reproducing below in part:

“life I think works with the law of cause and effect as well as destiny, but destiny has the final say in whatever we do. God has planned our life before we were born; Therefore,  we are all fulfilling destiny, we are neither creating nor destroying destiny.”

Please join this debate by leaving a comment below this blog or post your comments in the Chatroll on the right of this blog post.

The Sierra Leone Coat of Arms

Today 27^th April 2010 marks the 49^th Independence Anniversary of our darling Sierra Leone. From a still rather wintry city of Syracuse in the United States of America, I wish to take this opportunity to congratulate Sierra Leoneans all over the earth on this great day of celebration.

As we mull over the progress and lack of progress we have experienced as a nation over the last 49 years, I would like to focus this blog post on the issue of personal independence.

In his book the 7 Habits of Highly effective people, Stephen Covey explains in detail what he calls a maturity continuum. This continuum, he says starts from Dependency in the lowest end to Interdependency on the highest end; the middle point of which is Independency.

President Ernest Bai Koroma - Addressing the UN General Assembly

Do you frequently catch yourself constantly blaming things and people and the Government for the results of your life? You could be living in the dependency dreamland.

Attitude of Independency

Stephen Covey defines the word symbol for this attitude as I. it is the attitude of self reliance and self confidence. Independent people can get what they want with their own efforts. At the negative end, these people just care about themselves and careless about what happens to others. Do you fall under this category? One wonders how much had gone bad in the last 49 years as a result of negatively independent people.

Attitude of Interdependency

The word symbol for interdependency is WE. This is the team spirit; the spirit of cooperation. Interdependent people require their own efforts and the cooperation of others to get what they want. (Phil 2:4)

The Sierra Leone Flag

Which is the greatest?

It does not take much thoughts to realise how much more mature interdependency is. It also does not take a rocket scientist to realise that you cannot really be interdependent until you are first independent.

This why independence is such a major achievement, people cease to be victims of their external environment.

Let us assume that I am emotionally and financially dependent on you as my supervisor, my boss, my father or teacher in school; my grade, my promotion and my salary are functions of your judgement; my sense of worth also comes from you.

If I am very dependent this way, would I be a very cooperative member of your team? You bet. Would I give you objective feedback about things that are going wrong or feedback about your blind spots? Fat chance!

Dependent people cannot give objective feedback; they cannot risk that kind of vulnerability and possibly compromising their career path or disrupt parasitic relationships. We thus cannot tell the president or the paramount chief that they are wrong if we see our well being as solely dependent on them; and this flows down the line in many relationships with damaging consequences for our nation.

Sir Milton Margai - Prime Minister at Independence

One way out of Dependency – Financial Independence

A Financially independent person is not necessarily a financially wealthy person. Some wealthy people are financially dependent on their wealth. If the wealth is lost or somehow devalued for any reason, they are wiped out.

A financially independent person is one who has so many skills and capacity; so many options that they can take for employment; they are capable of providing a livelihood for themselves and their loved ones in many different ways – so they respect their boss but are not scared of them. They comply with the rules but are very forthright and courageous to be objectively critical about the happenings around them – because they are independent.

An independent person’s sense of worth does not come from other people’s opinions. It comes basically from within them; from their intrinsic sources of personal security. Fundamentally, it comes from their integrity to their own value systems.

What if our lives were totally a product of our value systems? What if we would carry inside of us, enough inward security that we are a function of our values, driven by our faith in God rather than the physical or social conditions that we may encounter?

The Freetown Cotton Tree in 1970

Maturing to interdependence

We do not just want to be right and isolated and independent all the time; as the very nature of life is interdependent. (Phil 2:4)

The ash from the volcano in Iceland earlier this month grounded all flights in the European airspace for a whole week, with financial repercussion for even florists in Kenya.

One of our greatest cravings in life is for interdependence. We are highly interdependent beings; but we can only achieve interdependence if we first become independent; intellectually, emotionally, financially…… (2nd Cor 9:8)

Are you truly, positively Independent?

Happy Independence Anniversary from Ellen, Josetta, Musu and Joe Abass.