The Sunday Mail
Life is for the living and not the dead. Do not let anything important in you die before you are dead.
Life is meant to be “lived”, not “died”. Life is not to be feared, only to be understood, learnt and continuously courted.
Failure to see life clearly may blind your view and distort your thinking. Failure to move may immobilise you and get you into a rut. Failure to finish may get you tired, lost and discouraged. You are the silver bullet. You may have all the difference. All change, improvement and progress starts with one determined person. Be that person; that match stick and that catalyst.
Do not give up on living and fighting for greatness. The greatest tragedy in life is not that people die but that they die while they are living. Let those who laugh at you, continue on while you focus your efforts and train your vision.
Let those who criticise you, keep at their trade while daily you are working to be better. If you do not get better you will just grow bitter. Do not let other people’s doubts stop you from believing in your dreams, holding on with a stubborn faith and expending your effort on what matters most. All greatness starts with one person that is determined and willing to do whatever it takes. You are that person! Challenge yourself to live at your peak, learn daily and keep stretching.
Many things take longer than you may anticipate or dream. If life seems not to be working do not despair. If the night feels long, wake up and do not wait for daybreak. No season lasts forever and no summer or winter escapes its turn.
Do not fear life: live it fully and choose to be fully alive. Do not run away from life, rise to meet it with confidence and faith. Do not fear failure, learn from every attempt you make. Do not stop growing simply because you have attained a milestone. Do not expire because everyone is thinking you should be resting now. Do not take yourself off the shelf before your “sell-by” date.
James F. Byrnes, a former US Secretary of State of the early 1970s once said: “Too many people are thinking of security instead of opportunity; they seem more afraid of life than death.”
Wake up with a determination to prove Byrnes wrong in your life. Do not fear life, engage it. Do not join the majority that is fleeing from the realities of life into the clutches of thinking like victims.
Do not join the chorus of negativity when the melodies of positivity are so sweet. Meeting life boldly is challenging and hard, but not impossible. It requires you to invest in continual learning and growth; and it requires time. There is no short-cut to living and engaging life. Stop looking for the easy way out and the nearest elevator to pole vault you to greatness.
Start with you
Any meaningful change can be hard, expensive and time consuming. If you do not invest in personal change you will remain in the same place, blaming the whole world for being unfair. Not all change is progress, but without change the prospects of progress are doomed. Starting with yourself is the easiest starting point. Many people dream of changing the world and forget that the world’s door step is at their feet.
Power of repetition
To master anything repeat it until you are good at it, then start learning it again and refining your skills and act. Many people quit quickly without having learnt all they need to learn. You will never reach expert proficiency with a single try. Do not just resign to “beginner’s luck.” Repetition is the key to mastery.
The path to mastery may look boring because you have to repeat, redo, relearn and keep at it day in and day out. Do not run away from anything that you have to master because you feel that you are not yet or will never get good at it.
The key to mastery is repetition. See yourself as an apprentice and learner. Be a scholar of the area of life you want to master. Study daily what you want to master in life. Keep scratching beyond the surface. Be willing to learn. You will never achieve mastery without learning from others who know what you do not know and see what you do not see.
Mastery is achieved after years of practice. Choose the arena of life that you want to master. Let it be an area where you feel you have some strength or could develop some. Then subject this arena to the 10 000 hour rule. This rule was popularised by Malcolm Gladwell in his book, “Outliers.”
The 10 000-hour rule is derived from the work of psychologist K. Anders Ericsson, who studied the way people become experts in their fields. He found that on average most became world class experts after investing an average of 10 000 of practice. This works out to a period of about 5 – 10 years of daily practice.
Do not despair if greatness does not seem to be coming early enough. Success takes time and greatness takes even longer. Be patient and keep learning, studying and refining your act. Stick to the knitting and focus your efforts. If you commit at least one hour of focused study everyday to any field of choice, within a period of about two years a lot of people will be asking you to teach them what you know. Quit living life in the shallow end of the pool and immense yourself.
Power of stretching
In all forms of sport before you play or exercise you are encouraged to start by stretching. Meet life with a “stretch attitude.” Go further than you have gone in the past and keep stretching. Increase your effectiveness, elevate your goals go for something bigger and better. It is not exercise when you stay at the same level. It is not progress when you park at the past. It is not success when you have settled in your comfort zone. Stretching allows you to be flexible enough to face any strain without breaking so easily.
I like this power entitled “Success is Flexibility.” That was written by Brian Wright in 2013. Let it inspire you to step forth and stretch a little more:
“If you want to reach your goals, you’ll stretch more than a bit. You’ll have to bend and break to show your true grit.
You’ll have to reach and pull; you’ll have to jump and flip. You’ll get a little wet, when you swim out to your ship.
Success is Flexibility.
When you’re ready to go west, life may send you north. When you’re ready to go straight, you may sway back and forth.
When things don’t stick to plan, you’ll have to stay the course. If you get thrown, then get back on your horse.
Success is Flexibility.
Some barriers must be climbed, others must be broken. You’ll sometimes even think — words that can’t be spoken.
It’s competing again, until you get that ten.
Success is Flexibility.
Your long term plan may change just as much as your short. Learn to pitch a tent if there’s no time for a fort.
Learn to write a letter, if you can’t tweet or text. Learn to be patient, if your turn isn’t next.
Success is Flexibility.
It’s working with people you may not normally meet. It’s trying a new food that your mom wants you to eat.
It’s the spur of the moment that might interrupt your day. It’s going with the flow and being happy anyway.
Success is Flexibility.
It’s negotiating and compromise — a win-win situation. It’s making a decision without any of the frustration.
You can be hard or soft like water in how you react to life. It’s all about the attitude in how you deal with strife.
Success is Flexibility.
So when you get up in the morning, and begin to start your day, don’t be surprised if things don’t go your way.
You may not get your flavour, size, or even colour, but it can be okay, if you go and pick another.”
Life is a gift, unwrap that gift and take daily action. Do not fear living so much that you never take any step or do nothing. Do not fear success so much that you criticise those who are successful. Do not fear failure so much that you refuse to try new things. Do not let your ego hold you back from taking strides, stretching and growing.
The saddest summary of life contains these descriptions: “could have, might have, and should have.” It may not be the bold steps that you take and risk failure that may haunt you, but those things that you know you could have done that you were too fearful of success to do. Take massive action, opportunity is calling out your name.
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
