10A model: Connecting dots to find meaning

By Jonah Nyoni | Jun. 10, 2023 | 4 Min read

Jonah Nyoni is an author, speaker, and leadership trainer.

OUR life becomes a success when we have a systematic and a structured design. This article explains the 10A model or framework on how to design our life so as to find meaning from it. Life is controlled by laws, and our success is based on us aligning to them. Life principles are silent, yet so powerful. If we align with them we are rewarded and recognised.

Align

A human being is designed for specific assignments. The moment we align with our purpose, we start living a fulfilling life. When you are not walking and working in alignment, you pay dearly. If what you are doing is not giving you peace, ask yourself: What will give me peace? What will give me fulfilment? What will give true meaning? What will help me positively impact people or things around me? You have to find passion, purpose, meaning and joy.

Accept

Accept that you can’t be everything to everyone. Accept that you have your unique talents, endowments and innate abilities. Don’t swim against who you are. Don’t run away from yourself. Don’t try to be someone else, live your life.

Action

Now that you know how you are supposed to serve the world, put action to it. A dream is never enough, wake up and act on your dreams. Build on habits that ultimately build who you are. Your actions should be done daily or frequently. Your ritual becomes your reality.

Assertion

Keep Reading

Your neuro (or brain) language is important. What do you say to yourself? This is positively looking inward and igniting our passion through positive self talk. We speak to ourselves more than we do to others. What pattern (or paradigm) do you assert to your brain? Speak faith to yourself and prime your mind to rise to its computational creativity. Be intentional in how you use your brain. The key to happiness is to talk to yourself and trigger positive voices in your brain that talk to you all the time.

Advice

Everyone needs counsel. You can get advice from a mentor, advisor, coach, or through reading quality and relevant content and listening or watching quality content. The wise writer said: “Where there is no [wise, intelligent] guidance, the people fall [and go off course like a ship without a helm], But in the abundance of [wise and godly] counsellors there is victory.” (Proverbs 11: 14. Also read Proverbs 15: 22-23 and 19: 20-21)

Association

This also adds to what has been said in the previous paragraph. This speaks to people that we intentionally or unintentionally decide to associate or network with. The quality of people around us determines what we think about most of the time. What we think about has a say in what we become. We are just but a product of our thinking!

Advertise

Your visibility speaks to the wider global market that you can serve. The wider you are promoted the better. How do you promote yourself? Create a product or service that answers people’s or environments’ needs. Use online tools to speak about your products. You might have a good product; no one will consume or place a demand on it unless you make it visible and available.

Account

Success is how we plan and progress. What are the key success indicators? What should I do to improve my performance and results? What skill should I employ or acquire to change my direction? What resources do I need to excel? Also, at this level you can apply the SWOT analysis on your personal life; where you check your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Furthermore, the GROW Model can be used. GROW is an acronym for goals, reality, options and will. The above tools also help us to see how we are faring with our vision board. A vision board is a collage of images representing our goals and wishes and it is very important for personal success.

Adapt

If we don’t adapt, we suffer extinction. We learn the danger of extinction from companies that failed to innovate. These companies include Kodak, Blockbuster (video and game company) and the Blackberry phone. If you don’t innovate you are forgotten because you lose relevance. The trick is staying abreast and updating to mind software with important information, knowledge and skill.

Accelerate

Remember, you should not put new wine in old wine skins. Speed up the way you learn and acquire new detail or information. This in turn increases your agility, efficiency, value, effectiveness and your band equity. The world around us is changing at fast speed, and that means we can’t use old remedies to solve new problems. Additionally, when you accelerate your learning you are able to swiftly connect the 10 ‘A’ model effectively.