The achievement of an aim or the gain of wealth and status is the state that most people prioritize. This state is termed as the success state. Success is the lover of everyman but as trophies, battles are to be won to gain them.

In life, before one attains the success state that s/he longs for, there are many battles to be won. One of the very first battles on the road to success is the battle of self or the battle to be self-disciplined.

Self-discipline is the ability to get yourself to take action regardless of your emotional state. Three important areas where self-discipline must be applied the most include:

Temper: it is said that the man who does not rule his temper can never achieve success that belongs to him. There are a lot of biblical examples to buttress this reality.

Loose talk: It is a fact that practically all injury that is done to a character, business, home and country etc is done with words. This is what I call the tongue work. We can never underestimate the power of the tongue. According to research, the efficiency of an office task force is reduced sometimes to 50% just by idle, unkind words. When one realizes that his words can be a cursing influence, or a blessing, he will learn to value the gift of speech. Control your tongue or it will control you. There are lots of people who say "Well! I speak my mind" (that is fine only if you have a good mind). Your words may carry fortune in them. Let's learn to be masters of our conversations and not slaves.

Limited thinking: Whenever you tell yourself you can't handle something, the least hope sublimes. Instead of muttering to yourself, "I can't do this; it's too big for me", rather ask yourself "How will I handle this?" or "How should I do this?" Negative self-talk tends to be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Self-discipline is one of the most important features of any life. It is essential to put ourselves on a mental diet. Unless we do that, we'll never develop the forces in us which might have absolute commercial value. Success, victory and achievements are in us. "The exceptional people are those who develop what they have within them" -E. W. Kenyon. There are countless records of how people with pure talents never developed these talents and ended up in wrong states in life or as hermits.

The waterfall is simple and naturally beautiful but it has no commercial value until it is developed. Develop your resources and keep at it. It takes hard work to develop ourselves. A lot of people chase better jobs but lack what it takes to do these jobs. Let's make time to take personal development exercises. Let's train our minds and hands to become the cultivated, trained and as genuine as our creator wants us to become. Let's develop our competence and this will make us confident wherever we go.

"The battle of life is never for the thoughtless, heedless guesser or the idealistic dreamer. It is for the man who works" E. W. Kenyon. Let's proceed right away with this personal development exercise otherwise we would automatically enroll in the short cause of failure. It is very easy to become a failure. The secret is becoming an idle dreamer - dreaming with no plans and directions. Someone rightly said that to turn your dreams into reality, give your goals plans, and your plans strategies, your strategies directions and then your directions action. Then you will be left with your dreams realized.

It is the one who wills and keeps on willing who wins. As leaders or potential leaders, it is expedient for us to train ourselves by working constantly with determination. We need to have in mind that determination is an essential key and persistence is golden. Winston Churchill said well that mountain tops inspire leaders but the valleys mature them. Let's see ourselves in the valleys of development and keep climbing till we get there - the Top. "The creative mind is always at work" A. Nana Boakye.

Finally, let us all make our brains work at this age. It will sweat but will not die. We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. Philippians 4:8.

Make it a point to develop yourself to be of commercial value. Have creative moments. There are lots of treasures in you. Bring them out, polish them till their uniqueness stands out. Remember! There are generations pending to be served with what you have within you.