The Sunday Mail
Somewhere in some minds lies a secret little wishful myth. It is a myth that the road to greatness is a smooth multi-lane highway in which you can drive as fast as you dare, arriving quickly and effortlessly without delay, challenge or work. This only happens in dreamland. Holding such idle thoughts just sets you up for nightmares. The reality is that the road to any place worth going will occasionally be a bumpy ride. Everyone who has achieved any measure of greatness has a story to tell.
Challenges are part of the journey to greatness. Stop thinking like a victim and thinking that the whole world owes you a favour. You have a role to play in delivering your greatness. Take personal responsibility for doing and playing your part. You cannot expect others to fix what is broken while you stare and wonder what they are doing. Play your part.
Obstacles are the stepping stones you meet on the path to significance. There are rivers to cross and these help you learn to swim. They are rocks to climb, these help you learn to scale up. There are mountains to face, and these help train your faith and focus. There are lions to face, these help you tame your fears. When the road gets bumpy, get ready to focus and do not stop moving and resign from action. Never lose your confidence because things are not what you expect them to be. Head ahead, keep your goals aglow before you, keep your faith aflame and go hunting for greatness with agility.
Automate greatness
You automate your drive to greatness through the habits of thought, and action that you embrace. People are not creatures of discipline, they are creatures of habit. It is your habits that determine your timbre of discipline. What you do daily determines what you become ultimately. The secret to your greatness is found in the things you do daily and consistently. Identify and address the habits that are holding you back. Limiting habits could be something you do, how you think or what you say to others and to yourself. Until you change, nothing else will change. No change matters more than your personal change.
Look around at those who are producing the results that you want to also produce. Look out at their habits, the way they speak, think and do things. Habits of the poor are different from habits of the rich.
Habits of those going nowhere are different from those of those going somewhere. Habits of those who fly differ from those who drive. Choose your habits and they will choose your destiny. The things that they do daily matter and determine those you meet. If you do what great people do, you will accelerate your own ascent to greatness. Live on purpose and automate your drive towards greatness by adopting winning and empowering habits.
You install new habits by consistently doing something for at least 21 days. You install habits even better when you do something consistently for 40 days. Do not try to change everything you do at once. Just pick one of two critical habits that you want to develop and work those into your life for the next 40 days. For your life to work, turn your life into a project and work on it. Do not try to swallow an elephant because you are hurrying towards greatness, just take a bite at a time and be consistent. Change happens daily but not in a single day. Concentrate your focus and you will move forward with speed.
Focus F=forward
You go in whatever direction you choose to look. Greatness is not gambling, and success is not a speculation. Greatness is a result of focus and not hocus-pocus. Preserve and protect your focus. Eliminate superstition from your thinking and stop going around looking for speculative devices to bolster your courage. It is not everything that comes you way that must be done.
Some things you have to dump, others you have to delegate and those that matter you must do brilliantly. You will not move ahead without mastering the power of “Yes and No”. Your default answer to everything cannot just be yes. Be comfortable with the use of “yes” when it aligns with your values and goals. Use “No” boldly and courageously. You do not have to self-afflict yourself with guilt because you said, “no!” to something that breaks your focus and is not aligned with your values. If something does not serve you and detracts you from your focus on the road ahead, dump it.
Hocus-pocus
Stop playing hocus-pocus with your life and really focus. Write down your goals, plot your strategy. Just the very fact of writing helps you clarify your mind. Everyday compile a to-do list. Work from the most important item. You may not finish everything on the list, but you will be a lot more focused than someone without a list. Narrow the things you need to do. The more focused you are, the clearer your mind will be. Stop playing grasshopper games, jumping from place to place without any real focus. Be clear in your mind about your focus and what you are driving towards. Other people may not see what I call your “base of focus” and may think you are taking on too much. When your base of focus is clear, your actions will be coordinated and coherent. Others may not see your focus base, do not bother explaining this to them, just focus. Focus on the road ahead and keep driving. Do not let any pothole put you off the road. Do not let any detour detract you from driving towards your greatness.
Look ahead
Do not let the torrent of the current overwhelm you. Look at the big picture and the destination ahead. You are more powerful than you think. Your mind is able to conceive ideas and models that would surprise and transform you. Harness your thought-power and direct it towards great things. If you knew the power of your mind, you would not abuse it through purposeless worry. If you knew the power of your thoughts, you would not afford to squander opportunity by dwelling on negativity. When you focus your mind on creative solutions, you start to see them everywhere. When you look ahead, you start seeing beautiful horizons and possibilities ahead.
Look ahead because that is where you are headed. Keep the big picture in mind because thinking small will not serve you. You have the power to become anything that you dream and dare purse. Do not be stuck on the launch-pad. Do not be stuck in sawing saw-dust. Dreams can come true but the first step is to dream them. The negativity around you programmes you for mediocrity. Cut that evil chain. Believe that you can, be excellent and world class at what you do. It must first be a mindset and a way of thinking. You will never reach for the skies while perking for worms. Focus on excellence and do whatever you do with excellence, brilliance and commitment.
Quit fearing failure. Do not let the fear of failure induce you to think small, believe micro and commit to mini efforts. Just look ahead towards greatness. Do not scale down your vision to fit the comfort-levels of those who think small, desire little and are content with remaining where they are. If others are going nowhere, do not be tempted to adopt their driving style or lackadaisical speed. You have great places to go, and you do not afford to be thinking and behaving like those that are going nowhere.
Possibility minded
Stop thinking about your limitations and let your mind dwell on possibilities and potential. It is not what you cannot do that matters but what you can do. It is not what you do not have that matters but using what you have. Do not look down on yourself and what you have in your hands. Do not be so hung up on resources that you fail to see that your thoughts and faith are your real leverage and wealth. The thoughts that you have are fashioning your world. You will not play in the elephant kingdom thinking like an ant and having the mindset of a grasshopper. Think differently and you will start attracting different people in your life. Remove the limitations of scarce resources and open your mind to your unlimited potential.
Persist and keep at it. If you are delayed, do not abandon the journey. If the past abused you, do not abuse the future by letting the past torment you in the future. Rise above your challenges, soar above your storms. Greatness is your portion. Think greatness. Talk greatness and do great things.
Committed to your greatness.
Milton Kamwendo is a leading international transformational and motivational speaker, author, and executive coach.His life purpose is to inspire and promote greatness. He can be reached at: [email protected] and Twitter: @MiltonKamwendo or WhatsApp at: 0772422634. His website is: www.miltonkamwendo.com
