THIRD WORLD PROBLEMS ARE DESIGNED INTENTIONALLY...

... to steal your dreams, your attention and your best years.

For every minute you spend bickering about your preferred brand of politics, religion and entertainers, real power brokers are able to make their moves undetected and unhindered.

I’ve always said this... It’s unwise to hop into the comments section of every ideology you disagree with.

Life changing ideas are fleeting and they require persistent concentration. Once you permit your train of thought to be highjacked even though for 30 minutes, that moment is gone... and they all add up.

You’ll gain temporary satisfaction - the dopamine release that comes from being ‘seen’... and you’ll lose incrementally at the broader game of life.

When outrageous statements are made online to offer you an invitation to get distracted, learn to say ‘okay’ in your mind and scroll away.

Your single comment won’t change the world, neither will the ensuing argument. They’ll all be forgotten in a social media minute.

LISTEN... ‘They’ know that If ‘they’ can create the controversies that can arrest your attention, and slowly teach your subconscious mind to react and dance to their premeditated tune... you’ll never be discerning enough to seize your defining moment.

This defining moment is not an event but a process, but that’s a different sermon for a different Sunday.

The Third World is an allegorical representation of the biblical wilderness. May a journey of 40 days not take us 40 years.

Let your preoccupation be on life’s chessboard and your place on it.

Make your own moves. I mean real, life-altering moves on the chessboard of life.

Then increase your capacity to make even bigger moves. Grow from pawn all the way to Queen.

The Third World is an allegorical representation of the biblical wilderness.

May a journey of 40 days not take us 40 years.

• J.O.