The Sunday Mail
Today is the youngest that you will ever be, likely the poorest as well, so do not waste this moment through negativity or resistance to change. Change is the process of life, the very life blood of any organisation and the order of the universe. Nothing stays the same regardless of our desires to keep things as we see them working. If you do not change, you risk being obsolete.
Growth is a change process, the business of life and the obsession of any forward thinker. Whatever does not change will be changed. Whatever does not grow has to go. Your energy and attention go where you are projecting. Instead of projecting negativity and fear, project faith, positivity and vision.
Projecting negativity into your past leaves you bitter, worried, fearful, stuck in the past, drawing circles and boxed in the miseries of a victim. Projecting negativity into the future leaves you blinkered, confused and cynical. Projecting negativity into the future is a miserable imitation of vision.
Projection
If you have to march into the future, take the best parts of the past, not the worst. Put the past in perspective and do not use it as a crutch or excuse for remaining where you are. If you have to talk about the past, talk about the opportunities for the future and not the debilitating hurts of the past. No one is entertained for self-pity and falling narratives.
You rise or fall based on the vision you carry, posture you adopt and steps you take to change. Frame the past with narratives of opportunity and progress. There is little to be gained from repeated needless pain.
There is little that you can do to improve the past, but with great vision and bold action you can renovate the future. Change the scars of the past into the stars of the future. That then reconstructs the past into a message of hope and positive change.
If you have to project the future, do not project the failures of the past, limitations of the present or pedestrian fears of those who have lost vision. The past is too precious to be handled with limited minds, fearful hands, timid strategies and clueless actions. You are only limited if you accept the limitations that you place on yourself.
Managing and being comfortable with change is a challenge that you have to live with.
What you thing is change today will be changed beyond recognition tomorrow. What you call success today will be mundane tomorrow. Your security is in your ability to keep learning, changing and growing. The future will never look like the past, therefore change or perish.
Be willing to bury the past and move forward. Be willing to unlearn those things that no longer serve you. It is not what you went through that matters but what you allow to live in your mind and limit your imagination. Unblock your thinking and you will move higher and further.
Do not park in the past protesting against change because change is always like an unstoppable train. We live in permanent white waters and forget about stable waters without challenge, excitement or change. The rush of change is all around, ever present in dynamic flux.
Set your mind to thrive and change, learn and grow. Be willing to let go of the limited past and welcome the opportunities of the future. You can become anything you dream and desire.
Reprofile your desire and expand your horizons. You can change anything in your life, so long as you absolutely commit and start taking the action needed. Whatever greatness you desire will always challenge you to change in some significant ways.
Ride your bicycle
Change is like learning how to ride a proverbial bicycle. Your unproductive fears and arguments keep you stuck, fearing to cycle. Lesson 101 of bicycle riding is: Put your food on the pedal, watch where you are going and not what your feet are doing. Your eyes must always be on the road ahead. You go wherever your attention goes. Watch where you are going and not what your feet are doing. Be inspired by vision and not immobilised by fear.
Stop conferencing around fear and negativity; and then hope for greatness. When you think differently you behave differently. Unless you change your storyline about life and change, very little may change.
Ride your change bicycle and not your fears. You can watch films of bicycle riders, you can buy books on bicycle riding, you can attend conferences on bicycle riding, you can search the internet for bicycle riding articles. You may find a prayer group of bicycle riders to join. You may buy bicycle-riding attire.
Whatever you do, in the end you will never be a bicycle rider without stepping out of your fear, changing and seating on the saddle. The experience may be fearful at first, but you soon master it. The few falls are just part of the experience. Stories of people that had bicycle accidents should not discourage you from taking your own change and embarking on the growth journey.
Where you are now is not a terminal point, neither have you come to the end of the change continuum. Life is a process and not just a rush to an arbitrary end. Experiment, stretch, take action, do something that you have never done. Nothing changes while you are standing still and waiting for everything and everyone to change. Change is more of a process than an event. Change is part of the growth and development process.
Comfort zone
Change will always make you bump on some boundaries that were erected in the past and meant to contain you. The boundaries of experience make you comfortable with the familiar but keep you punching below your potential. You will never grow unless you are willing to grow beyond your comfort zone. Never let other people’s fears become your boundaries.
Change by its nature will throw you out of your comfort zone and push you into unfamiliar territory. Remove the brakes and stop stopping yourself and limiting yourself. You have power beyond your wildest dreams. You can do far more than you can ever think or imagine. Be willing to stretch a little out of your comfort zone. You do not have the luxury of remaining stuck in your past.
Learning anything new can be a frustrating experience and uncomfortable. Stick with it though. Your discomfort with change will not stop change from happening. Pining for the past will not fuel the future. Bump your boundaries and grow, stay within your boundaries and you will be traumatised by change. Be uncomfortable with being comfortable with your situation.
Stop parking on the micro when you can go macro. Outgrow your boundaries through radical personal change. Greatness starts as a big desire for something bigger, better. Be willing to get out of your comfort zone and outgrow your fears.
Have a big dream
Enlarge the scale of your ambition. Opportunities are abundant and you are only limited by your imagination. Think big and enlarge your scale. Desire bigger leg room and refuse to be comfortable in a cheese-less situation. Whatever you have seen is not all there is to see. Whatever you have experienced is not all there is. Have a big and bold dream that you quietly but assertively pursue.
Define areas in our life that need a focused workout. Work-out whatever is nagging but do not park on your problems. Be obsessed with change and progress, not just problems. Think beyond your obstacles and limitations. Never forget that above the clouds of despair, the sun is always shining, ever so brighter. Your limitations of today are not eternal but perceptual.
Turn on the dream machine and dream big and bold again. Do not advertise your limitations, advertise your opportunities. Paint on the canvas of your opportunities, not the dam of your limitations.
Massive action
It is not enough to pine, wish and desire. Commit to taking action, not complaining that there is no one taking action. One step forward is the key to the start of any journey. Take action and do things. As others talk, act.
As others wonder what they could do, do and keep doing. Do not be disappointed by the challenges you face, and changes you have to make, keep taking action. Do not despair or lose heart. Keep taking action and moving the ball down the field.
Be a little more mindful and watch yourself. Do not worry too much about watching others, watch yourself and change what you must. Watch your thoughts. You cannot play horror movies in your mind and execute strategy with passion.
You cannot terrorise your own mind with pictures of negativity and claim to make progress. You cannot hold thoughts of disaster in your mind and claim to be strategic. Catch the negative film spool in your mind and discard it. Burn the negative pictures and replace them with positive ones. Its hard work working on your own mind, but it is necessary work.
Watch your mouth and hear yourself talking. Ask where people who talk like you are likely to end up. Your words are things and they create.
If you do not change your dialogue, you will not change your experience of life. Catch yourself speaking negative and learn to speak the right things and positive words.
Negativity is your enemy
When others are negative and cynical, you have an absolute advantage when you are positive. Keep your energy and focus on those things that give you energy instead of the things that discourage you. It is not a great discovery to be negative.
What requires character and confidence is keeping positive despite your situation and challenges. Everyone has situations to deal with. Never think that your situations are special and your circumstance deserve special mention and aid. Refuse to be a victim or to think like one.
Committed to your greatness.
Milton Kamwendo is a leading international transformational and motivational speaker, author, and executive coach. His life purpose is to inspire greatness. He can be reached at: [email protected] and Twitter: @MiltonKamwendo or WhatsApp at: 0772422634. His website is: www.miltonkamwendo.com
