The Sunday Mail
Hunt for Greatness
Milton Kamwendo
Life is not just thought through then wished away. Mr Henry David Thoreau, once wrote: “To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school. It is to solve some of the problems of life, not only theoretically, but practically.”
Life is not just a dream, but how you plough through whatever challenge you face until you reach your dream and then dream some more. Whatever comes your way you can handle. List ten most worrying challenges that you face — you can overcome them, learn and profit handsomely from them.
Welcome the gift of life with all its hues and cues. Everything that happens to you is in truth neutral. How you respond to what happens is what makes all the difference. Choose to be an activist and protagonist of your greatness.
Rid yourself of the disease of ennui — that passive, empty existence where you are excited by nothing and challenged by nothing. Arise, stand up straight and be in motion. You can reboot, rebuild and restore whatever was broken. As you move, so you gain or regain momentum. You cannot just stand still. A little push back at life’s adversities makes all the difference. You do not afford the luxury of letting life push you around.
There is an old story with several variants about an old farmer whose donkey fell into a well. The donkey was old and trying to get the donkey out of the well was going to be a near-impossible task. The farmer nevertheless gave this a wild attempt. It is better to try and fail than to fail to even attempt.
Rescuing the donkey was hard and it did not look like the effort was going to yield any results. After several attempts to lift the old donkey, the farmer started feeling discouraged and gave up. Regrettable many people give up — not you! The farmer then asked his neighbours and friends to fill the well with soil, dump all the junk they could find and in time bury the donkey in the well. The operations quickly got underway. Dumping is not a problem and for many it does not require much thinking.
You cannot control what other people do, but you are responsible for what you do and how you choose to respond. There are many things that threaten to bury you, your dreams, your family and your life, but it is up to you to respond intelligently. As the farmer and his happy friends were dumping all the rubbish they could find to bury the donkey, the donkey had another mind.
You cannot just think the thoughts that were thought for you by circumstance. The donkey did not stand still and wait for its known fate. You cannot surrender your life to fate. The first load of soil hit the donkey’s head and eyes, and the dusk make it sneeze and stomp its feet.
As every rubbish load came on the donkey, the old donkey just shook itself, stomped its feet at the bottom of the well. And the cycle continued, something was happening. The farmer was dreaming of burying the donkey totally, but the donkey had another reality in focus. In life there are always multiple realities and you choose the one you want to focus on.
After several dumps of rubbish, the donkey kept stomping its feet and stood on the junk, soil and rubbish that was thrown at it. Never be disappointed because you are taking small steps that seem not to be amounting to anything much. You may be in a hole, but keep doing what takes you higher and out.
Little by little, the rubbish rose and after one more desperate burial load, the donkey stamped on the load and managed to get itself out of the well. No troubles last forever. No challenges last forever. No season lasts forever; so bear this moment with humility.
It is your choice to allow life to bury you alive or to stand up, shake off adversity and anything else that is thrown at you. Keep shaking off the negativity, stomping on the rubbish until you can get out. Greatness may not come in a day, but daily you can make you way up as you reach towards it. Do not despair and do not cry. Every test is bearing your testimony. Refuse violently the life of ennui.
Yours is not a mere purposeless sighing existence. Yours is a purposeful life, filled with the excitement of worthy challenges that tag at your potential and enable the beauty of achieving. You may fail here and there, do not linger long on the site of failure. Jump back up and get into action. Keep stomping, and stamping and the fog will clear.
People say that there are many ways to skin a cat, as there are many ways to deal with problems. There are helpful ways and there are unfruitful ways. Complaining and making pedestrian excuses is one way to disempower yourself.
Passing life as an armchair critic and social media whinge and cynic is another unhelpful way. No one owes you a living and no one is so obsessed with your pouting that they stop living and wait for you to make another outburst. Greatness demands facing the brutal reality of life and standing up against them. The path to greatness in usually paved with thorns, stones and stumps.
Whatever comes your way commit to great outcomes. Some things come your way so that you can learn. Some things come your way so that you can grow. Something come your way so that you can go where you would never have gone on your own volition and timetable.
Some things come your way so that your resolve can be tested and tried seven times. Some things come your way so that you can bounce back into action and out of slumber. Some things come your way to activate your thinking batteries. Determine that you will stomp and fight. Determine that you will turn your struggle into strength and keep moving. Determine that you will turn adversity into opportunity and problems into patents. There is nothing that comes your way that is worth wasting.
The toughest missions are reserved for the most experienced and confident. You are a member of this rank. The hardest battles are for the toughest soldiers. You are one of them. You cannot shop for greatness at the bargains counter. You are a great one because your spirit witnesses to this. Persist, move, focus.
You have to persist, keep moving and taking whatever steps you can to move forward. Do not be defined by the challenges you face; define them. Choose to be the one who writes the story than to be a mere passing character in the story of other life’s events. Do not let current hardships and challenges blind you. Do not let adversity confuse you.
Do not let your will collapse and do not sink into your shell. Suffering is temporary, but giving up is forever. You do not afford steps of cowardice and actions of self-pity. Please rouse yourself out of ennui. Do not think that these times are any special. Never worship or crown your problems and give them celebrity status.
Mr Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 — 1882) was in deep reflection about what he was seeing happening around him when in 1841 he wrote: “If our young men miscarry in their first enterprises, they lose all heart. If the young merchant fails, men say he is ruined.
“If the finest genius studies at one of our colleges, and is not installed in an office within one year afterwards in the cities or suburbs of Boston or New York, it seems to his friends and to himself that he is right in being disheartened, and in complaining the rest of his life.”
You would think that he wrote that last year — that was in 1841. Choose to change the narrative and stand the heat, stay the course and reach for greatness.
Committed to your greatness.
Milton Kamwendo is a leading international transformational and motivational speaker, author, and workshop facilitator. He is a cutting-edge strategy, team-building and organisation development facilitator and consultant. His life purpose is to inspire and promote greatness. He can be reached at: [email protected] and His website is: www.miltonkamwendo.com
