TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREVIEW
CHAPTER ONE: THE YOUTH
You can Change The world
Where are we?
CHAPTER TWO: INTOXICATION AND THE BRAIN
Brains
and Toxins
Common
Toxins
CHAPTER THREE: ALCOHOL ABUSE
Alcohol
Signs
of Addiction
CHAPTER FOUR: MARIJUANA ABUSE
Signs
and Causes
Symptoms
and Causes of Symptoms
Withdrawal
effects of Marijuana
CHAPTER FIVE: METHAMPHETAMINE
Long
term effects of Methamphetamine
Brain
effects
CHAPTER SIX: COCAINE
Effects
of Cocaine Dependency
Brain
effects
CHAPTER SEVEN: COMPUTERS
Result
of Some Studies
EMF
Danger from Cell phones
CHAPTER EIGHT: MANAGING ADDICTION
- Behavioural approach
CHAPTER NINE :MANAGING ADDICTION
-Pharmacological approach
CHAPTER TEN: MANAGING ADDICTION:- Diet Approach
CHAPTER ELEVEN: COMBATING
PERPETUATION
CHAPTER TWELVE: SELF MASTERY
& CHARACTER
Steps
for Scripting and/or re-scripting
Tips
on how to build Self Confidence
CHAPTER
THIETEEN: EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
CHAPTER
FORTEEN :-CONFLICT RESOLUTION SKILLS
CHAPTER
FIFTEEN : DECISION MAKING SKILLS
CHAPTER SIXTEEN :JOB CREATION AND THE MISSING LINK
Navigating
The Road Blocks
Examples
of Entrepreneurial Jobs
CHAPTER
SEVENTEEN: CHANGE AGENT AND LEADERSHIP
Character
and Cultural Ethics
Your
Role, My Role
CHAPTER
EIGHTEEN : INTERIOR GROWTH
Who are You?
The Core Is The Key
CHAPTER NINETEEN: RECOMMENDATIONS AND BULLET
POINTS
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: SUMMARY AND
BULLET POINTS
APPENDIX
Understand your brain and how it works.
PREVIEW
Youths are the mirror of any
given society! Once you get to any city or suburb, the first set of people you
are most likely to see are the youths, either strolling down the streets or
gathered in street corners or relaxation spots canvassing or arguing out their
frustrations, as the case may be. And if you miss your way and approach them
for information, the way they attend to you says a lot about the collective
quality of the life of that community. If you went to any city in the western
part of this great country and lose your way, an average youth who sees you,
will most likely prostrate to you and answer your questions respectfully even
though the direction they are pointing to you may be wrong; the youths in the
eastern parts may not even slow down to answer your questions but the direction
they throw at you will most likely be correct; and the youths from the northern
parts may not even understand English- the lingua
franca language- they are more at home with anyone that can speak their own
language. From this first impression you can quickly guess the kind of people
you are going to encounter: the respectful ones whose words you should hold
with a pinch of salt, those who are too brash for a proper greeting even when
they have the information you want, and the illiterates who want to help but
cannot, respectively. And even within these segments of the nation, there are
differences in status which are reflected in the
personalities of the individuals based on the background, quality of education and cultural ethos of
the given community. Same applies in other climes.
These behavioural traits did not fall from the
sky, neither are they genetic; they are acquired from the parents and
collective lifestyle of the adults in that clime because dominant habits have a
way of being transferred to the people around even without a word. And these
impact on their leadership style because leaders bring their personalities –the
good and the bad- to the table, which in turn, project their spiral effects to
the led who are used to whatever had been given to them as lifestyle from their
mentors. Then again their vibrancy, courage and quantum of restiveness which is
made manifest when things are not going right in a given polity all determine
how free and confident the people of that clime are.
Did I hear you say ‘that is why
people get the type of leaders they deserve?’ But I will like to alter this old
saying a bit by stating that a people may not deserve their leaders if those
leaders are punitive, domineering and so avaricious that the people are too
poor and incapacitated to react effectively. The people will only deserve those
leaders if they allow their mindset to be so impoverished that they remain
docile in the midst of tyranny. Therefore, we have the key to self dignity,
healthy lifestyle and qualitative citizenry: trained mindset! And this begins
from infancy.
Childhood is the age of innocence
when trust is at its best, friendship is pure and sensitivity and empathy,
intense. Stay close to very little children and see how they think, mingle and
play (unless, of course, their mindsets have been polluted by the adults around
them), and you will love life and living. That is why no crime compares to
harming a child who trusts you implicitly, or who cannot fight you back. In
fact, Jesus says that it is better to tie a rope round one’s neck and drown
rather than deceive any of those precious little ones (Luke17:2).
Then teen age is the next in
line, characterized by a gamut of internal changes mostly occasioned by
hormonal and social effects and resulting in all kinds of physiological and
social changes and feelings with its characteristic restiveness and escapades.
This is the age I like to call the pendulum stage of life- when one can be
swayed from one end of behavioral spectrum to the other depending on the voice
that the teenager allows to be stronger!
The escapades and adventures can be harnessed to spur exploration but it
can also mar rather than make the young one. To explore is to dare to risk and
risk taking can often have its consequences, especially if not modulated by reason
and the experiences of those who should know.
This youthful age transits into
adulthood when responsibilities, quality of reasoning, character and knowledge,
undoubtedly, shape one’s life. The baggage that the youth turned adult carries
in his person also gets imparted on the young ones that the adult will groom
and mentor; a kind of merry-go-round exhibition of character and
lifestyle. Then, physical decline steps
in and activities correspondingly taper down but experiences here abound for
sensible people to tap into.
So the youth age, which we are
particularly concerned with in this book, is the stage of transition between
childhood and adult stage of life; the mid course between the age of innocence
on the one hand, and skepticism, rationalization and questioning on the other; and the stage
during which one can swing the pendulum more to either direction.
In all of these, a resounding
question for all to answer and prove by action is, “Who am I?” How and why am I
here? What are my talents and dreams and how do I actualize them? What or where
is my destination and how do I get there? And broken down further, one might
reasonably ask, ’’What likely impediments are there to hinder my progress
towards this existential destination?’’As a youth or young adult, am I making
the best use of whatever circumstances I find around me to live my life to the
full? Am I receiving and giving love, being a blessing to my family, nation and
entire circle of influence and trying to be classy and principled even against
all odds? In a nutshell, ‘am I cool as a guy or maiden?’
It is a big pity that many
people, even in their adult and older stages of life do not take time to ask
these questions. A pity indeed, because it is tragic to be made for a purpose
but to just pass through life like a nobody, with no agenda, no purpose and no
sense of fulfillment to aspire towards. In fact, that is the greatest tragedy
that can befall any human being. Wars are tragic alright, poverty and ignorance
demean the human species because he is, in those conditions, not able to
express fully his abilities and dreams, and other tragedies abound but nothing
compares with a man that does not know who he is. And that is why many are
unconsciously chasing the wind, defrauding others and slowly ‘killing’
themselves to get rich, to be powerful, to be applauded, to be affirmed even if
it earns them some guilty conscience or hatred in the process. They may make
big money, be famous, but they know that there is something about their lives
that is not quite right and they are trying to fix it, albeit in the wrong way.
Little do they know that the direction to focus on is inward; they need
introspection to realize themselves fully.
Therefore, I have set out in this
book to help youths find their bearing. To set a road map towards where they
should be headed and where any has missed the way, to turn around and face the
right direction. We all need guidance in
life which ought to have started from home- our little foundational world- but
never ends there. We all need it if the law of justice must demand that a blind man cannot be blamed for not finding
the door unless he is led to it. He has to be led there and then be left with
the decision to step out or be stuck at the edge of the door.
This also is the aim of this
book: to point to the youths how to be cool- how they can turn frustrating
economic situation to good use; to show them the stuff that is inherent in
them; the way some of their socio-physiological body parts function and the
possible harm that can hamper their efficiency such as drugs and alcoholic
intoxication, dishonor to parents, faulty approach to relationships and wrong
perceptions about life and living. And the way they may go if they want to
deliver optimally and have the ability to correctly answer that imperative life
question; ‘Who am I’’
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