The Sunday Mail
The new year is upon us. It has been a great pleasure writing articles for this special publication and audience.
Thank you for reading this column and your feedback.
This new year is going to be great for you.
You will launch your greatness, challenge your limits and reinvent your life. It’s a year to disrupt yourself, to start a new upward trend into territory that you have never been before.
A year does not just become; it becomes what you choose, define and work to achieve. Name this year for what you want it to be.
Shape it in your thoughts and have a clear vision then work every day to fulfil. Make the vision so exciting that you will live every day with passion.
Life is too big to be boring, there is so much to challenge your faith, creativity and potential. Plan the things that you will celebrate this year (hopefully you will invite me to the celebrations).
Position yourself
Position yourself to achieve greatness, your unique greatness. It is not your circumstances that decide your fate, it is you.
You are responsible for your life. You are not a second-class citizen or an alien to life. Your positioning determines what you will attract. Prepare and position yourself for the opportunities that you seek.
What you seek with focus and dedication will also seek for you. Preparation is a sign of faith alive and vision aflame.
Make it easy for greatness to find you and for people to connect with you. Your greatness is already there, just waiting for you to be in position, ready to play.
Position yourself as the “go to” person in your field or area. Play for success and not mediocrity. Half-hearted champions do not exist.
Complaining sells you out as a loser, chicken and coward. A positive attitude, diligent work and going beyond the call of duty positions you for elevation. You will never reach the palace talking like a beggar.
You will never be respected as a mature person when you pout and speak like an irresponsible child.
You will never fly high when you have a crawling mentality and chronic negativity.
Everyone who meets you should be able to prophecy your future, feel your passion and sense your determination.
Do not surrender your destiny to the pressures of the moment. Where others are complaining, compliment. Where others are tired, go the extra mile and work an hour more. Where others are asleep, work.
While others are running amok, focus. While others are losing their heads, write out your plans, crystallize them on paper and pursue them with dogged determination.
Threaten your threats with focused action. Your positioning will give you distinct advantage. Being positive, focused and diligent gives you distinct advantage in times of pandemic negativity. Never let popular and public opinion shape your own vision and strategy. Stand on solid ground, not shifting sands.
Play to your strengths
A fish that tries to fly will fail most of its exams and may easily despair with living. lt will blame its ancestors for its fate.
A bird that spends a lifetime trying to swim and imitating ducks will get wet and confused. Save yourself the agony, play to your strengths and talent. Build on your strengths and fortify the core of your excellence.
There are many things you may not be able to do but focus on the ones that can do very well.
I have kept a poem by Douglas Mallock for more than 20 years. The poem inspires me to humbly do the best I can wherever I am. Let this same poem be your marching anthem in this new year. Read it aloud every day.
Copy it out and carry it in your bag. Share it with your family and friends. Send it to colleagues. Let it inspire you to play to your strengths.
The poem reads:
“If you can’t be a pine on the top of the hill
Be a scrub in the valley — but be
The best little scrub by the side of the rill;
Be a bush if you can’t be a tree.
If you can’t be a bush be a bit of the grass,
And some highway some happier make;
If you can’t be a muskie then just be a bass—
But the liveliest bass in the lake!
We can’t all be captains, we’ve got to be crew,
There’s something for all of us here.
There’s big work to do and there’s lesser to do,
And the task we must do is the near.
If you can’t be a highway then just be a trail,
If you can’t be the sun be a star;
It isn’t by size that you win or you fail —
Be the best of whatever you are!”
That last line is worth repeating twenty times. Greatness is not a matter of size but a quality of spirit. Focus on what you are doing and do it well.
Compare yourself to your potential and goals. Refuse to die holding on to dreams that you have done nothing about.
Let this year be your year to complete the unfinished business in your life and affairs. The dreams you wrote down years ago that have not been pursued are crying for completion.
The projects you started and left, are begging for attention. Just completing the unfinished business in your life will give you huge advantage and take you forward.
Be the best of whatever you are. You already know what to do; just do it. Taking action will distinguish you.
If you are not an elephant, be content to be the rabbit, but be the fastest and most agile rabbit under the warm African sun.
There is space for you, fill it with excellence. Do not let other people’s greatness intimidate you. No one can push you out of the game without your own permission. Play to win, not just to play.
Play with a plan
No pilot sets out to fly without a flight plan. A failure to plan is a plan to fail. Draw up your plan, make it easy to follow and reach for. Commit your plan to paper, that way you give it form.
Your plan must inspire you to follow through and take action. The year is too dangerous for those who are just saying, “whatever shall be, shall be.” You cannot afford to surrender your life to fate. Stop gambling, start planning and playing to win.
Here are a few pointers to consider in your planning:
Where will you play? Your plan must detail the focus on your effort. You cannot do everything and be everywhere, but you can do something and be somewhere. So with a confident faith, define where you will play. Define the arena of your greatness. Definition will make you deaf to the prophecies of nay-sayers.
How will you play? Define your ground rules and what will guide what you do. If you turn up for a rugby match with a tennis racquet and tennis mindset, you will disappoint many people. How you will play depends on the game that you have set out to play. Play the right game for you.
How will you play to win? It is not enough to just play, plan to win. It is better to lose with a plan to win than to fail to play because you have already concluded that you have lost. Play to win because winning is your birthright. Position yourself to win and prepare to win. Set your mind on winning, not losing. Be an incurable optimist.
What capacities do you need to play? It is not enough to be optimistic. Optimism does not atone for a lack of capacity. Develop your capacities and work on yourself. You are the delivery vehicle. If you have to learn, learn and do not stop until you have the capacity you need. If you need to hire a coach, do it.
If you need to enrol for a workshop or course to develop the capacity, get on with it. An optimist without capacity suffers from delusion.
Build your strength and capacities. Learn daily and in every way. To win, you have to build your capacities. Create a learning agenda for the year, the month and week. Commit to reading at least three or four books per month.
There is something that is still not yet perfect, work on it without excuses. If there is something you still cannot do well, determine to master it.
Mastery is the seed of greatness. If there is something that keeps dragging you down, address it. Never be content to be an empty shell with delusions of grandeur.
Determine that this year will be the best year yet for you. Dream big and bold. Plan and play according to that dream.
Today is the youngest that you will ever be. This year is the next year you were talking about last year. Quit procrastinating your greatness and threatening to take massive action. Go for greatness.
Milton Kamwendo is a cutting-edge international transformational and inspirational speaker, author and coach. His life purpose is to inspire people to be great. He can be reached at: [email protected] and Twitter: @MiltonKamwendo or WhatsApp at: 0772422634
