The Sunday Mail
Milton Kamwendo Hunt for Greatness
THERE are noises everywhere. Deafening noises that tempt you to be negative, cynical, gloomy and unbelieving.
Install a filter in your mind by deliberately choosing the thoughts you dwell on. It is not the number of voices that are speaking that matters, but the voices speaking inside your head.
Whatever voice you listen to determines the direction that your life will take.
To take a new direction, stop listening to the voices that are examining all the ills and wrongs and start listening to voices looking for what is right and what works.
Whenever the voice of negativity rings loud in your head, keep it quiet! Do not dwell on the negative unless you want to dump greatness. Keep that voice of negativity quiet because it does not serve you.
Stop using your brain for negative processing. Quit negative thinking patterns like thinking defeat, dwelling on bitter thoughts and plotting revenge.
Take control of your internal dialogue. You will move towards greatness when you are deliberate and intentional in your thinking.
Your brain is not designed for negativity and the toxic torrents of worry. You are designed to think and come up with solutions to the many opportunities around you.
Problems are just disguised opportunities. Challenges are opportunities begging for attention. There is no problem that is so big that it cannot be solved. Until you change your thinking, you will not be able to change your life.
How you think determines what you start seeing. Persisting in negative thinking is not heroism but lack of revelation and understanding.
Amplify the voice of hope and mute the voice of despondency.
Fly Past
You cannot stop the birds from flying over your head, but you can stop them from building a nest on it.
While you cannot stop negative thoughts from streaming through your mind, you can consciously stop yourself from letting those negative and corrosive thoughts find a home in your head.
Play smart and disinfect your mind from negativity.
Negativity does not serve you; it blinds you from possibility and disables your creativity. Do not dwell on the negative; there are better things to focus on.
Your mind is like a radio receiver. Radio waves are flying everywhere. It is the station that you are tuned to that you receive. If you want to change the airwaves you are receiving on your radio, you simply change the channel. You do not have to fight that station or launch a tirade against that station.
Just change the channel to the one you prefer.
If you are listening to a channel, the assumption is that that is what you want. So it is with your thinking.
If you are dwelling on negative thinking, the assumption is that you really want the negative. Do not dwell on the negative unless you want it.
If you do not like the negative thoughts you are thinking that leave you feeling miserable, sad and despondent, then change the channel.
Deliberately switch to a new channel. Change your focus and attention from negative to positive. You do not afford the luxury of a negative thought. Let it fly past, but let it never settle.
Do not give negative thought boarding facilities in your life. They will eat you up causing you to be a bitter, cynical complainer.
Next Class
You will never graduate if you keep taking the same class that you were taking last year. Old thoughts never lead to new outcomes. You have to move on and move forward.
It starts with your thinking and the thoughts that you allow yourself to dwell on. Dwelling on the thoughts that lead you to where you are will keep you where you are.
To move to the next level, you start by moving there in your thinking.
In one office, I came across a poster that said: “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.”
In which class does your mind fall into?
Small minds are always discussing people, looking for the latest gossips and what is happening with whom. Stop being busy with the affairs of other people. You have enough challenges of your own.
A mind that is immersed in only thinking about all the saucy details of other people has no time for creative, strategic and constructive thoughts.
Instead of dwelling on negativity, dwell on positive possibilities. You have potential beyond your wildest dreams. You are a power-packed dynamo of possibilities.
Average minds are always discussing events. Whatever the type or size of event, it too shall pass away and be buried in the debris of history.
Your mind is so precious for it to be wasted in idle negative thoughts of self-pity and self-doubt. You are the main actor in the movie of your life. Make it interesting, exciting and worth watching.
Set big and bold dreams. Pursue great goals that are worth talking about all the time. Keep that voice of negativity in your mind quiet.
You are the main event of your life. Throw away the limitations and stop wasting your mental resources in idle pursuits.
Think big and bold.
Instead of being an armchair historian and current affairs editor, move a gear up and change your thinking. Swap negative for positive.
Change Questions
Change questions to change gears in your life.
Instead of asking victim, pity-begging questions, change the questions that you are asking. Before you even ask the questions, ask the important question: “Who am I being when I am asking the type of questions that are plaguing my mind?”
Regardless of the depth of the pit you may find yourself in, do not be a loser that is asking the questions and hoarding the negativity of a victim.
Stop feeling pity for yourself, take the giant leap of faith and believe in God and in yourself. Take off the cloak of negativity and replace it with some positive, colorful and imaginative thoughts.
Your mind is like a breeding ground. What thoughts are you breeding there? Make time and space for positivity.
Read books that inspire you to think positively, see new possibilities and become better in every way. Stop looking for things that confine you to loser, negative thoughts.
Change associations if need be. There is no gain in being in the company of perennial complainers and career cynics.
There is no benefit in befriending those who have chosen negativity as a life style.
Choose what you make room for in your life. Put a password in your mind. Choose the thoughts that you allow in and those that you disallow.
Be deliberate. You will not become great by luck. It comes out of deliberate actions, the first one being choosing positive thoughts.
Do not allow those who are bitter with life to infect you with their disaffection. Life is still rich in possibilities.
There is more that has not been done than what has been done to date. There is space for you and you start by creating positive space in your thinking.
Milton Kamwendo is a leading international transformational and motivational speaker, author and coach. He is a cutting strategy, innovation, team-building and leadership facilitator. Feedback: [email protected], Twitter @MiltonKamwendo and WhatsApp +263772422634
