We all desire to live truer, happier and more meaningful lives; yet, many of us are uncertain how exactly to go about achieving enduring success and happiness. In her guidebook Awaken and Unleash Your Victor, author Ogor Winnie Okoye shares time-tested principles, personal experiences, and dynamic strategies in order to help others awaken and unleash their inner victor. In the wake of a miscarriage, a crumbling marriage, and a life overrun by immense stress and worry, Ogor Winnie Okoye was surprised to discover that the secret to enduring self-contentment, and triumph was buried deep within her soul. While relying on what she learned on her own journey of self-discovery, Ogor Winnie Okoye shares the victor-driven principles that will assist others in not only transforming their lives for the better, but also in helping to positively change and impact the world around them. Self-fulfillment and happiness seekers can learn how to face fear and stop worrying about what others think; embrace strengths and acknowledge weaknesses; change negative thinking patterns; attract positive and inspiring sensations; manifest desires and goals. Awaken and Unleash Your Victor shares inspiring advice that will encourage anyone to step out of the normal and onto a courageous path toward self-improvement.

Awaken and Unleash Your Victor

Uncover The Path To Your Magnificent DestinyBy Ogor Winnie Okoye

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2012 Ogor Winnie Okoye
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4697-8594-3

Contents

Dedication/Acknowledgement...........................................................................ixInvitation to this magical Journey towards Awakening and Unleashing..................................xiChapter 1. You Have it All ... inside of you.........................................................1Chapter 2. Unbiased Introspective Self Analysis (UISA)...............................................17Chapter 3. Acknowledging that You Hold the Keys......................................................33Chapter 4. Who are We Really?........................................................................51Chapter 5. Your Victor and Your Destiny..............................................................59Chapter 6. My lost years, Your lost years............................................................85Chapter 7. A Call Back to the Cradle.................................................................99Chapter 8. Unleash with Gratitude....................................................................107Chapter 9. Discover the litmus test for Unleashing...................................................113Chapter 10. Unleash your Way to Unending Success.....................................................121Chapter 11. Pushing Yourself out of your own Way; it's all about the Golden Rule.....................139Chapter 12. Role of Prayer, Faith and Religion in Unleashing.........................................145Chapter 13. You, Yourself and You....................................................................163Conclusion...........................................................................................173Quick Guide to Awaken and Unleash your Victor........................................................179

Chapter One

You have it ALL ... inside of you

No one in this world is better endowed than you when it borders on achieving set dreams, goals and/or objectives. It all boils down to your willingness to discover the Victor in you because every one of us has "it" in them ..., their very own Victor, buried in a debris of stale dust and grime, within the deepest recesses of their being; waiting and pleading that it be unleashed before it is time for the owner housing it to make that momentary exit to the next exciting phase of our journey.

Do you know that within you, right now, resides everything that you need to create an extraordinary life? Do you know that our number one hindrance to unleashing our Victors and living the magnificent lives that we each were meant to live is our doubts and lack of faith that would continually cripple us? Do you also know that our inability to apply or our misapplication of the most timeless, powerful and positive natural laws has kept us dormant, stagnant and static for years?

A lot of us are still trapped in our cocoon but will eventually emerge into the beautiful butterflies that we were meant to be by awakening and unleashing the Victors in us. I am guessing that for you to pick up this book, you must have decided that you do not want to be in a cocoon anymore. It is a major positive and commendable affirmative step in the right direction. This book will give you helpful tips on how to awaken and unleash the Victor in you and step out of that cocoon, and hopefully emerge into that beautiful butterfly we were all meant to be! You will learn how to take charge of every facet of your life!

Around 2007, it also dawned on me that a cocoon is the last place in the world that I'd want to be. Sometimes life does in fact feel like a cocoon; dark, stifling and suffocating! Ouch! Oh no, life is not meant to feel that way at all! Life is meant to be beautiful, and exciting and amazing! We are meant to shine that internal light that each of us possess outwards into the world and illuminate other people's life as much as we can, and in the process illuminate ours too. The more we deviate from the path of unleashing, the more that light dims and over time, a thick cloud of darkness overtakes our whole being and we fail to even believe, recognize or acknowledge that we harbor such light in the first place. We enter into an era of doom, gloom, mistakes, and regrets. Over the course of our lives, we have seen people who light their candles before us to help us and others see our own paths better because of their lights. They made our lives a lot richer and better. It is our time to now make others' live much richer, better and more fulfilled lives by lighting our own candles.

I have never been happier or as peaceful and as content as I have been in the past couple of years! I have been unable to stop myself from smiling and would not even be conscious of it until I am reminded that I am smiling with the question, "why are you always happy" or like my children will say, "Mommy, stop smiling we already know you are happy". I have not always been this happy but life generally had been a series of roller-coaster rides. This was before I realized that I had to take my life off the "auto pilot mode" that had been my default mode for as long as I can remember and begin to painstakingly apply a set of rules in order to awaken and unleash the Victor within me.

Poor me, like a lot of people that I know, I was pretty much just reacting to life. I was merely sitting down and being driven along and responding in ways that I knew best to events, people and circumstances that I encountered. Those years were my lost years. The yellow and red lights that I encountered while in transit were all constantly alerting me that I needed to make a detour. I needed to awaken and unleash the Victor in me! The head-on collision and the precise moment that stirred this curiosity in me finally came when I realized that nothing in my life was a chance occurrence. I had been consciously and unconsciously inviting every single event, person and circumstance that came into my life! Legitimate visitors simply honoring my invite!

I believed that I was living my life ... My life? Have I really been living my life? What does really living my life entail? I really need to ask you one important question before you continue reading, pause and think carefully about this question before attempting to proffer an answer. "Whose life are you living now?" Is it yours or is it someone else's? If your answer is that it is in fact your life, further ask yourself like I did back in 2007 whether you have been really living your life or merely going through the motions and reacting to what gets tossed your way?. If it is really your life, then you must step into that life today and for probably the very first time, announce your presence in it! You must immerse yourself completely into it; you must live it to its fullest potential; you must celebrate it as much as you can. You must be ready to be brazen with your dreams, whatever they might be! Make it really BIG and BOLD because the universe is in fact bigger and so much bolder than any dream you've ever had!

Have you ever taken out time to look around you? Perhaps you've gone to a beach, or in the woods or a remote place where you are all alone and dared to take a good look at the size of this universe? The sheer size of the people in the universe; the land mass, the bodies of water, the continents, the celestial bodies? When you are done taking in the sheer vastness and magnitude of what you are beholding, then it's time to really be honest in answering this question: "Do you believe you have been maximizing the play space that the Almighty has given to you or have you been restricting yourself to a teeny portion of your playroom? Have your goals, dreams and aspirations been in proportion to the space that we have freely been endowed with? Seriously? When you look around you, you must know that your dreams and aspirations really pale in proportion to the size of this universe and you can in fact manifest every one of them provided that you have faith in yourself and your endowments and you are relentless in its pursuit!

In thinking about the sheer size of the planet Earth, I have often marveled that even if every single creature on Earth is asked to come outside of their homes, all at the same time, there would still be so much space on the ground and in the air. Now keep in mind that I am not even talking about water, which covers the majority of the planet. My point is, we need to stop this act of purposefully shrinking the size of our ambitions and our dreams simply because we lack the conviction that it will ever come true!

The universe is and must be our playground as the sheer size of it, is a constant reminder that we are playing way too small for this playground! The space available and given to us is astounding; let's work on maximizing our play space by taking up all the space we possibly can as would children at their playground who utilize every single space~

Often times, and quite regretfully, most people go through life neither awakening nor unleashing their Victors. Whenever I drive past the grave yard not very far from my home, the usual thought in my mind is that most of these people, indeed a staggering number of them have passed on taking with them, this amazing potential and infinite power to unleash; not experiencing true happiness within themselves; never quite stepping into their own lives; failing to share with the world that which is given to them that is not theirs alone, but meant to be shared with the rest of the world. I personally believe that a lot of inventions, dreams and aspirations that potentially could have re-written the course of human history are taken by their owners to their graves on a daily basis simply because their owners never quite awakened and unleashed their Victors! They never quite emerged into their own lives!

Our number one hindrance? Fear. The fear of stepping out of our comfort zones and owning our individual destinies. The fear of what people might say or think about us, or the fear that we are not just quite as smart or as beautiful or as awesome as others whom we see living near-magical lives and having fun all the way. We fear stepping into our own lives, having the courage to take full responsibilities of our lives. We fear living life fearlessly because we worry about what people will think about our actions. Most of us remain outsiders looking into our own lives. An outsider usually cannot do much in a situation that he does not own or have control over, or can he?

Remember that a life that is lived through the mirror of others' experiences, views, opinions, and expectations is a tainted life; until we assume full ownership of our lives, living it on our own terms; we really have not started living and are merely existing~

A lot of us still believe that life is happening to us when in fact; we are active participants in determining how life responds to us through our current thoughts, words, and actions. You and I are creating life every single minute and second of our existence and so, ultimately are actively charting every single event, circumstance and person we encounter. The minute this clicked for me was indeed the turning point in my life. I had been holding myself back and powering negative emotions and feelings like stress, worry, and anxiety; feelings that an enlightened mind that has unleashed or is unleashing should be decimating! I had let fear and doubt get the better part of me and the more I feared and doubted myself, the more I empowered those hostile emotions that further alienated my Victor. I had let mistakes, and regrets of the past to be the closest ally that I have and instead of walking away from them and learning the lesson they were sent my way for, I had ignorantly held on. The more I held on, the more they grew into gargantuan monsters that constantly fed on my ignorance and fear. I had the power at my fingertips to start creating a present and a future that has little or no mistakes and which I would absolutely be proud of! Really ..., I have that power? Of course I do! And so do you!

Whose image and likeness, pardon me?

Even in my ignorant and lost years, I always approached life from a faith-based perspective, probably because of my Christian faith. (I am Roman Catholic) I hope a lot of us realize that we are not merely this huge mass of flesh and bone walking around on this planet, Earth. Far from it! We were created in God's own image and likeness.

And God said; Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. - Genesis 1:26

Did you ever pause to really think about what this means? (pause now ... and really ... just really think hard about this) Think about the context in which the following words were used, "image" "likeness", "dominion".

The weight of that statement always literally rocks my world; it floors me whenever I think that we are created in the image and likeness of the maker of this universe, the highest source of good, God! A maker of a universe that is every inch the masterpiece of perfection! The brain behind this universe is astoundingly incredible! We can be as powerful as that being only when we assume the proper role that we are meant to play on this huge stage we are currently playing. He gave us dominion, power! Think about being created also in the "likeness" of the maker of the universe!

The maker of the universe is the embodiment of love. He has the power to destroy all of what He created at a whim but has chosen not to pull the plug on us! He will forgive and forgive and forgive the same sin we commit a billion times. Constantly ask yourself how near or far you are to that "likeness" as you begin this journey towards awakening and unleashing your Victor Because the closer we are to that image and likeness that He created, an image of perfection, the closer we are to the path of awakening and unleashing our Victors. There are certain rules that we are expected to adhere to; rules that should be innate to us. We should have grown accustomed to these rules by the sheer endowment of our God-given natural will power and conscience, more so, given that these rules are natural and innate God-given qualities. Unfortunately, we have chosen over time to suppress and abandon these rules. The farther away we are from His image and likeness, the further we are from the path of awakening and unleashing!

When we have the most positive and powerful force in the universe residing within us, we become powerful beyond measure and all other contrary forces or emotions will crumble at the sight and sound of our presence. What other reason can keep us from harboring the force of love? ~

When I ponder on the enormity and sheer magnitude of the power we each have within us to impact the lives of others for the better and our own lives as well, I am more motivated than ever to dare take that giant leap out of my own comfort zone. It's absolutely imperative for me to hearken to the voice from within which constantly tells me that I am worthy in every way and capable of reaching the crescendo of my dreams, if only I am able to believe in that possibility! But I am a staunch believer now; after all, I am made precisely in His own image and likeness!

I finally came to the realization that we are stupendously powerful beings, indeed powerful beyond our wildest expectations. This is not at all surprising since; after all, we have been fashioned after His image and likeness. However, we begin to lose that power because our actions, thoughts and words dilute the essence of who we are. That stupendous power is at our beck and call and can be regained only if we align our actions with the dictates of the Golden Rule: treat others exactly the same way you wish to be treated. Speak of others, exactly the same way you'd wished to be spoken of. Most importantly, think of others exactly the same way you'd wished to be thought of and begin to slowly witness the power filling up every cell of your body, alas, awakening and unleashing your Victor!

The Daunting but successful Solo Emergence

It is ironic that we entered this universe alone. At the precise moment of entry from the cradle of the wombs that nurtured and cared for us, we were alone and weathered the challenges in the darkness of that cradle alone. At that point of entry we were as fragile and helpless as can be, yet we were just strong enough to withstand the strong contractions and rhythmic motions that made that grand entry possible. Have you ever seen a preemie baby fighting for survival with that really tiny but cute body probably the size of a finger and still making it to that finish line against all odds? Just how awesome is that!

Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others~ Artistotle~

The virtue called Courage is not hinged in size but will occupy the space of any willing entity. Remember the story of David and Goliath in the Bible? Courage has never been known to be a Seeker; you must actively seek it and find it before it is willing to wrap its long and soothing arms around you; but the first step is yours to take.

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage. ~ Anais Nin~

At that stage of the daunting yet successful emergence as babies that were minutes old, we were fearless and had the guts and the will power to fight for our very existence as fragile and as weak as we appeared at birth. We were nurtured by caring and capable hands from that stage and finally reached adulthood, the most important and pivotal stage of our existence.

Personally for me, adulthood is the big time when we are expected to bring out our "A" game and play this interesting and fascinating game called "living". Most of us fail at this really important stage to bring out that "A game" or do we? The first 18 to 20 years of our lives were essentially living through the ideals, morals, and values that were inculcated into us by parents, care-givers, church, and the society at large. I call it the stage of "hand-me –down values". Most of those views when we really think about them are essentially the views held by our parents and our families and we really have no idea whatsoever of the factual basis or the reasoning behind those views on certain subjects. Some of those values end up stunting the seed of success in our lives.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Awaken and Unleash Your Victorby Ogor Winnie Okoye Copyright © 2012 by Ogor Winnie Okoye. Excerpted by permission of iUniverse, Inc.. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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