The Sunday Mail
Hunt for Greatness
Following a long, challenging, hard and tiring day you just want to rest. So home you go!
Supposing you are about 100m from where you live and you see tongues of fire gushing from the roof. As you draw closer, you realise that your dwelling and covering for your loved ones is actually on fire, ablaze and burning.
As you see the tongues of fire lap through the windows, your blood starts to boil. The fatigue and weight of the day quickly wears off. You forget that you are dog-tired, fatigued and outspent. Your complaints, self-pity and mourns of the day just tumble off and a new sense of urgency envelops you.
Immediately you spring into action and you know you have to do something — anything to rescue your loved ones in the house and salvage something.
Instantly you turn from being a wimp into a hero. Your own comfort, safety and selfish absorption no longer matter. What matters now is redemption, mission, purpose and getting the job done.
You are seized with a spirit of urgency and an evangelical zeal. To think about your make-up while your house is burning is the height of insanity. At that point, you do not afford the luxury of complacency and the pursuit of vanity and petty things. This is what happens when you operate with a sense of urgency.
In the pursuit of greatness some people are complacent. They wallow in self-pity, indulge in cease-less complaining, whining like out-sized babies and then wonder why things do not change. Indeed it is this sense of urgency, dispatch and passion for results that is usually the missing piece.
For some people postponing execution to a future convenient day is sedative. For the great multitude tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow will always be there. What is the hurry for? This is typical mañana.
For some, life is an idle hobby and there is always time and opportunity to indulge. Goals can always be pursued at a convenient future time when things change for the better. What fallacy! Others are just gambling with today, fumbling with something in order to appear busy, hoping for better luck tomorrow. That’s false urgency.
Gambling with people’s lives and patience is a joke played too far. Gambling with your own life and pretending you own the gaming slot is self deception. You do not afford the luxury of complacency when you are sitting on a burning platform.
Life is for the bold and daring. For those who have a sense of urgency. Take action, it’s urgent because today is the youngest you will ever be.
Put a large “urgent” sticker next to your goals and on your forehead and execute like a man with little time left before the final bell. You have no time for senseless dribbling, idle chatter and lethargic action.
You are on a mission and life is marching by fast. When you are young, time crawls. As you grow, it starts to trot. In youth, it starts running.
For many middle-aged persons, time starts flying and before long time could be gone. Seize the moment, take radical action. Pursue your goals until they beg for mercy. Life is an onward fast-paced march and race that does not wait for anyone.
The world in not waiting for you to wake up and stop your fruitless squabbles and petty gripes. The complacent are left behind nursing niggling petty and peanut issues. Life is large and there are so many significant pursuits begging for doers.
You do not have the luxury of chasing rats when your house is on fire. You do not have the luxury of entertaining negative thoughts when there is so much to dream and do. Expending effort in what is not important is a waste. Too much effort is sometimes over invested in ego-battles and petty matters.
When you are standing on a burning platform you do not have the luxury of taking a leisurely walk as though you are on a fashion show ramp.
A drowning person has no time to go on Facebook, send a Tweet or read a newspaper to a friend. His mind is set and clear: to be on shore, alive and in the shortest possible time, because the crocodiles are coming. When you still have the luxury to play ego battles you are drowning to irrelevance.
If anything is to be, it is up to you.
You do not afford the luxury of complacency. Dozing off at prime time is not an exploit. Complaining instead of doing is not a feat. Passive inaction is not a pastime for someone going somewhere.
Take massive and determined action. Sitting and hoping that more sitting will change anything is self-deception. Adopt a sense of urgency, not false urgency where you are just running without a trajectory.
Focus your thoughts and focus your action even more. Yours must be the urgency of going not the luxury of sitting with a blind stare and unengaged mind. Knowing is not enough; you must get up and apply diligently.
Certificates are not enough, you must use them if they are worth anything more than the paper they are printed on. Being willing is not enough; you must do bold things. When you live with a sense of urgency, no minute will be wasted and no opportunity will be lost. Do something, take action. It’s urgent, you may not be here tomorrow to do anything more on this side of life.
Committed to your greatness.
Milton Kamwendo is a cutting-edge international transformational and inspirational speaker, author and coach. He is a strategy and innovation consultant and leadership coach. His life purpose is to inspire people to release the greatness trapped in them. He can be reached at: [email protected] and his Twitter handle is: @MiltonKamwendo.
