Keynote Presented By Steven Ackah Africa Union Day: Live A Life With Purpose

Steven Ackah, a young dynamic life given person, founding president of Transform Ghana Peace Project and Youth Coach who sit on several high level youth boards globally on Wednesday 24, 2017 presented a keynote address at the Youth Gathering Summit in Tema- Ghana towards the celebration of Africa Union day.

I welcome you to this great gathering, those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that all was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous people for they may act their dream with open eyes, and make it possible.

Dare to be a daydreamer. Then use your mind to make those dreams come true for yourself once and for all. Don’t dwell on the dream; focus on creating your reality as youth towards this Africa Union Celebration. It’s your life. Live it to its fullest and strive to be your best. Can you afford to waste your precious time being unfilled or unhappy? I don’t think so. And who would want to?

Do you continually ask yourself any of the following questions time and again: is there more to life? Is this really what I was born to be doing for the rest of my life? I had so many plans but how can I possibly do any of these things at my age?

Are you miserable as you follow your own ambitions? As you do so, are your big dreams souring? Have they turned out to be empty promises, luring you into unfulfillment and frustration?

In 1 Samuel 17:29, David says to his brothers,… Is there not a cause?

Is there not a cause of this frustration in the faces of many youth and young adult across the length and breadth of Ghana and Africa concerning ‘job searching’? This Keynote is a wakeup call!

In the world we live in, there must be a cause before there is an effect. Human nature always wants to work on the effects, but never causes. We can have a blight such as AIDS that is becoming more of a plague every day, frightening humanity, but no one wants to deal with the cause of it. Everyone is interested in the effects, and will spend billions of dollars to eradicate the effects, yet ignore the cause. But every effect goes back to a cause.

Man’s heart is where causes come into being, where cause are created. A great cause gives birth to great dreams, great activities, great fulfillment and great blessings. It begins with a cause down on the inside of a person.

The word “cause” comes from the Latin word causa, which means an occasion which creates a result. There must be an occasion and then a result of that occasion. First a cause and then an effect. The cause is a necessary antecedent for any effect. Without a cause there is no effect.

When we see all that is happening in Africa today we are witnessing the effects, but behind it all there is a reason, a purpose and a cause. Cause determines change in things. From one cause you can have many effects.

Men of purpose change the world. People of purpose move the world. Alexander the Great was asked how he conquered the world, and he replied, “I never wavered.” What are you doing today as a cause that will determine your end? Is your cause big enough? When you get further along in life, you will wonder what your cause it. Is it big enough for your destiny? You are going to have effects, and the effects are going to come from the cause.

Way down deep inside you are reaching for something- the ultimate drive and goal in your life. You have to determine if it is big enough for you. The effects are coming all around you, but are they the effects you want at the end of your life? If they are not, then you need to go back and see if your cause was big enough, or if it was insignificant.

The cause for which I stand is to help the youth and the young adult of Africa to see the big picture-believe in CREATIVITY. The effects of my cause are beautiful, happy, good people. I urge you to have a great cause in living and a great cause in dying. Do not just live and die. Live and die on purpose. Live and die for a reason. Live and die doing something creative and extraordinary.

Friend, you can’t shrink your way to greatness. The first key to creativity is to have a purpose. Find your purpose, and stay with it without compromise or retreat. God will use you to shake your generation if you will remain true to Him and the vision He gives you no matter what the cost or the obstacles.

“I’ve gained lots of knowledge. I now know a thousand things that won’t work.”

– Thomas Edison who, after 1,000 attempts to find the perfect filament for the incandescent lamp,

went on to try 800 more ideas, until he found the best solution.

My second great bloodline mentor, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, first President of Ghana, did not just stop before he died, no! no!, he died on a purpose for supporting this united Africa

creative attitude is open to possibilities, accepting of change, and continually striving for improvements.

Creative thinking is “to cause to come into being, as something unique that would not naturally evolve or would not exist via ordinary processes, resulting from originality of thought”. Creativity is an ability, an attitude, and a process. With practice and a renewed sense of shedding suppressive learned behavior, everyone is capable of thinking creatively and innovatively. To improve creative thinking, one must learn to accept change, be more flexible, be more playful with possibilities, be appreciative of the good things in life, but always want improvement. As we celebrate this unity in Africa, let us be mindful of this

BE PROACTIVE AS AN AFRICAN YOUTH
Proactivity means that, as human beings, we are responsible for our own lives. Our behaviour is a function of our decisions, not our conditions. There are three central values in life: the experiential (that which happens to us), the creative (that which we bring into existence), and the attitudinal (our response to difficult circumstances). What matters most is how we respond to what we experience in life. Proactivity is grounded in facing reality but also understanding we have the power to choose a positive response to our circumstances. We need to understand how we focus our time and energy to be effective. Time management is an essential skill for personal management. The essence of time management is to

organize and execute around priorities. The things we are concerned about could be described as our

"Circle of Concern". There are things we can really do something about, that can be described as our "Circle of Influence". When we focus our time and energy in our Circle of Concern, but outside our Circle of Influence, we are not being effective. However, we find that being proactive helps us expand our Circle of Influence. (Work on things you can do something about.)

Reactive people focus their efforts on the Circle of Concern, over things they can't control. Their negative energy causes their Circle of Influence to shrink. Sometimes we make choices with negative consequences, called mistakes. We can't recall or undo past mistakes. The proactive approach to a mistake is to acknowledge it instantly, correct and learn from it. Success is the far side of failure.

At the heart of our Circle of Influence is our ability to make and keep commitments and promises. Our integrity in keeping commitments and the ability to make commitments are the clearest manifestations of proactivity.

LONG LIVE THE GRACE UPON THE HEAD OF EVERY AFRICAN YOUTH, PEACE OF HEART I SEEK FOR EVERY ONE. THANK YOU

Source: Transform Ghana Project