The Sunday Mail
THE future is never an accident if you are intentional and you are ready for it. Do not look at the future with despair. Look at it with hope and faith.
Hunt for Greatness
Milton Kamwendo
The future is exciting and filled with awesome possibilities. Welcome it and name it. If you have named it already, give it more names.
The future is like a newborn baby. It brings new hope and new promise. On the seventh day after the birth of a Nigerian Yoruba baby girl, and on the ninth day for a boy, the child is blessed with some special elements.
Whatever you feed your future is what it is likely to be.
The babies are given water in order to have no enemies; palm oil in order to have a smooth and easy life; the kola nut in order to have a long life; and pepper and salt in order to have a sweet life filled with excitement, substance and happiness.
Do intentional things to welcome your future greatness. Do not carry the misgivings, hurts, failures and negativity of the past into the new season. Open wide the windows of your imagination and heart. See strategically and plan deliberately. Embrace the new season as a time of opportunity, improvement, change and progress.
Among the Yorubas’ baby welcoming ceremony, a name is then chosen for the baby. Apart from the family name, the child is given several other names. One of them describes the circumstances surrounding the birth. For instance, the name Idowu means “child born after twins”.
Names are prophetic. They carry memories, meanings and messages. Name your future. Name the years ahead. What you declare reflects your thoughts and mindset.
Your words are important and they shape your future. Speak to your greatness and call it up. Do not just name the future based on your circumstances. Name it with faith, focus, vision and dreams. Your words mould your worlds. They shape and fashion your seasons of life.
Take life seriously but never so rigidly that you have no space for humour.
For the Yorubas, the parents often have a pet name for the baby that indicates what they hope for their child, such as Ayoke, meaning “one who is blessed”, or Titilayo, meaning “eternal happiness”.
The parents then announce the baby’s name and the relatives are invited to add extra names if they wish. Before they say the names, they are asked to place a token monetary gift in a basket for the child. After everyone has had a chance of giving the child a name, the monetary tokens are collected and handed to the parent to open a bank account for the child. The child may end up with twenty or more names. Each of the names, whether official or not, represents a wish or prayer for the baby.
Value the people in your mastermind group, the people you think with. Let them add their names to the one you give your future. People who see greatness will inspire you to be great. People who do big things will inspire you to think bigger. People with vision will inspire you to see a future you would never have dared dream.
Do not worry what names some people may give to the future. Add your own. Eliminate fear and embrace faith. Faith and focus matter. Your faith is stronger than your adversities. Your vision is much brighter than your shadows. Your plans are seeds of greatness planted in the rich soils of time. Welcome the future with bold new possibility-filled names. Name it and you shall have it. Name it and you will live in it. Name it, claim it, dream it, speak it and you shall have it.
The future is bright and full of possibilities beyond your wildest dreams. So long as you can still dream, there is a destiny you can shape. As long as you still can stand up, there are possibilities. As long as you are alive, there is a chance to do something that you may have never done. Stop whining and start planning to win. Plot success and greatness, not evil.
Change your greatness vocabulary and name the years ahead. You have a choice to name the future based on the pains of the past or the challenges you may be facing today. Stop giving problems celebrity status and making them permanent fixtures.
Give the period ahead a name that reflects your imagination and faith, not your fears. Poetry is a tool that helps achieve this. One special poem by Max Enhrmann, titled the “Desiderata” — or desired things, is a way of embracing your future and naming it. Embrace it and read it aloud as you name your future.
Here it goes:
Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however, humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.
Committed to your greatness.
Milton Kamwendo is a leading international transformational and motivational speaker, author and an accomplished 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]
