The Sunday Mail
APPROACH determines response. Response determines result. If you approach life with a casual attitude, you run the risk of being a casualty in life. Life is either a purposeful adventure or a series of accidents.
How you approach life determines what happens to you and what life experiences you get. You may be going through a tough period, but refuse to let your situation kill your dreams, hope and faith. No season lasts forever and no famine lasts a lifetime. You are not a victim. Refuse to think like one, behave like one, plan like one, talk like one and ultimately be the epitome of one.
Learning Approach
Approach life with the attitude of an eager and willing learner. The past is never a guarantee of future success. What you know today is not enough for you to navigate the future. Reading newspapers of the last decade will not do much for your knowledge of current affairs. Your certificates are a testament of your historical efforts. Your employability depends on your continuing to learn, grow and be relevant. Certificates without continuing education are a professional aberration. Never let those that no longer have any desire to learn discourage you from investing in your own growth and development. If you do not invest in your own development, why should anyone invest in you?
When you think that no one can teach you anything, you are arrogant and will not learn anything more than you knew long ago. When you think that only one person can teach you everything you need to know, you obviously have taken too narrow a view of life. When you think that everybody can teach you everything, you are not a discerning learner.
The opportunities to learn are everywhere, they are not confined to a classroom or one mode of learning. The attitude to adopt is to acknowledge that there is something you know, but there is a chance that you may have some gaps in your knowledge that someone can fill.
Keep searching for ideas, insights and perspectives that fertilise your thoughts, inform your mind and sharpen your focus. One piece of knowledge could transform your life permanently. One timely insight could spark a personal revolution. Knowledge is fissile material and a most prized possession.
When you do not understand something that is important for your work, turn it into a personal learning project. Never despair because something seems confusing and complicated. Refuse to let your ignorance in any area be your biggest threat to progress. The day is lost where you do not learn anything new.
Keep asking new questions that lead you to new doors of learning. Be so hungry to learn that you cannot dare sleep with the same ignorance that you woke up with.
The books you read determine the company you keep. The books you read and the company you keep determine your approach to life. Change is happening all the time. In times of change, learners win and thrive. Those who feel they are learned find themselves beautifully equipped for a world gone by and circumstances that do not exist. It is a tragedy to celebrate your graduation today and be irrelevant to the real world tomorrow.
That is needless torture and abuse of resources. Taking people to a river that dried a long time ago is to torture their souls and dashes their ambitions. Such is the agony of a fast changing world.
Not all change is improvement and not all learning yields results today. But without learning there can be no growth and without change there is no improvement or progress. Not every book will enlighten you, but no book read is lost opportunity to grow.
Listening Approach.
Listen and you will learn. Listening has nothing to do with the size of your ears, it is an attitude and behaviour that you adopt. Talk on and on, and you will enjoy hearing your voice but will not learn more that you already knew. In a conversation, listen more attentively and actively. There is no need to try and prove anything so much that you become obnoxious.
Ask open questions and increase the ratio of your questions to statements. Instead of merely telling, inquire with questions. Be interested in other people’s views or stories. Listeners are attractive and active listeners are the best conversationalists. What you say may display how informed you are, how you listen will show how wise you are. Listen for understanding, learning and take notes for doing. It is not how much you know that matters ultimately but what you do.
Things do not change because of your incessant talking. They change through resolute action. Excel at taking action and translating thought to deeds, words into experiences. No one cares so much about what you know and for how long you have known it. It is what you do that ultimately counts. If you only talk about what needs to be done and you do not do it, you are approaching life like a drunk babbler. If you know what to do and do not do it, you are approaching life without commitment.
Intentions alone are not enough, you have to act. Approach life with the zeal of a crusader. Listen well, write your script and act it out in real life.
Life-mapping approach
To be lost without a map is to really be lost. To have a map and not know where you are is to be truly disoriented. If you are traveling in an unfamiliar place, you need a map to navigate the territory. Navigating life without a map of where you are going opens you up to possible confusion, failure and mediocrity. What do you want out of life? What do you want to be, do or have?
In life, you get what you want not what you just wish. Wishing is not a plan of action or a strategy. The clearer your intention, the sharper your faith will be.
The more crystallised your goals, the better your approach to life. Gambling with life is not strategy execution. Fumbling about and along the pathway of life is not a plan of action. Take time-out to do a plan for your life. Refuse to let circumstances plan your life for you. Your plan does not need to be a complicated. If you do not know where you are going, any road suggested by anyone becomes your compass.
A failure to plan on your part must not get everyone into a mad frenzy. Never think that your crisis is everyone’s emergency. Approach life with a plan that you are determined to implement. Work your plan daily. Not everything will work out all the time. If you have a plan you can correct, improve and update it.
Focus your efforts and channel your energy. Without a plan you are sending mixed signals. Mixed signals do not give you the confidence to navigate and the boldness to chart into untamed territory.
I am an advocate of writing things down. A plan written on a crumpled piece of toilet paper is better than a plan just thought out. What is not written is naked, it has no shape or form yet. Write out and review your plan.
How you approach life determines how life approaches you. Approach life with the attitude of a learner, the ear of an eager listener, the strategy of an eagle and the action of an eager crusader. If you do not want to be a casualty in life, do not be casual in your goal setting and execution.
Pursue your goals until they are begging for mercy. Take such focused action that mediocrity has nowhere to hide in your grand approach to 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 on WhatsApp number 0772422634.
