The Sunday Mail
Milton Kamwendo Hunt for Greatness
DO not stop now, regardless of how rough and tough it may be.
The challenges you see today will not be there forever.
What is impossible today will not hold that claim forever. Go beyond your current station and leap forward towards your greatness.
There are possibilities beyond your wildest fears. Your dreams do not need to turn into nightmares. Adjust your focus, hold fort, challenge your mental models and keep moving. Stop just revving and shift your life into gear.
Riding a bicycle is an important metaphor of your journey to greatness. When riding a bicycle, you have to keep cycling to remain upright.
Keep moving. Moving slowly is not failure, not moving at all may be. Keep moving. Look down and you fall. Look sideways and you veer off track. Close your eyes and you risk collision. Whether the terrain is steep or flat, keep cycling. You can only go one way — that is forward.
There is no provision for cycling backwards. So it is with life. Small but persistent steps are key to gaining momentum. Do not be afraid of moving slowly; be afraid of standing still.
Keep your eyes where you want to go. Focus on the negative and it will draw you towards its grey pit.
Focus on possibilities and you will see them everywhere. If you cannot see any possibilities, never think that they do not exist.
The night does not mean that the day will never be. Focus on what matters and you will do things that matter. Keep moving and you will get there.
Stop moving and you will get nowhere. The tough terrain is not enough evidence that it is time to quit. Go beyond your fears, doubts, limits and knowledge.
Some bicycles have several gears and you have to shift the gears to navigate the various challenges you face.
Such is life. The gear you are on is not all that there is and all that life will be for you. Shift gears and move forward with determination and resolve. Go beyond your current gear.
To shift gears the first change needs to take place in yourself — in your own mind.
Believe that you can change. You become whatever you dwell on in your mind. Incubate great dreams and possibilities that you turn into your magnificent obsession.
Believe that there are possibilities beyond your current experiences. Believe that you can rise higher, go further and be better.
Hope is too precious to throw away. Unless you believe in the future, you will not reach for it. Unless you believe in possibilities, you will not see them. To him who believes, nothing will be impossible, so says the Holy Scriptures.
Learning
You have learnt a lot and there is a lot of unlearning you also need. You know more than you used to, but that does not mean that your learning journey has ended.
Never let any certificate signal your end of learning. Learning is a life-long journey. The road to greatness is filled with many learning pit-stops and recharge points.
You have been learning, keep at it. If you have not been, it is time to get back onto the learning road.
Do not park at your current level of knowledge and exposure, go beyond. See beyond your current limitations. Unless you can see beyond your obstacles, greatness will elude you.
In times of drastic change, learners thrive and adapt. Those who think they are learned find themselves beautifully equipped and competent to operate in a world that no longer exists.
Approaching anything with a blind mind is a gross mistake. Approaching life with blinkers is not revelation. Go beyond your current level of exposure and learning.
You do not afford the luxury of leaning on the past to navigate the future.
Looking back is no longer a sufficient strategy to see forwards. What you know was adequate for yesterday and barely enough for the future.
Learn daily, in every way and through whatever format and means that work for you. You will not know what works until you explore. If you have no hunger for knowledge, you will starve into oblivion.
Mental malnutrition is inflicting damage on yourself.
Do not make any place a home. Make your home in your heard. There you should store all the precious pieces of knowledge and insight. What you keep in your head, you truly own. That store of wealth in your brain, daily refreshed, will go with you everywhere and be your real companion.
Love learning and you will naturally be a leader and a person of influence.
The changes you see now are not the only ones you will see. So much depends on your ability to keep learning, unlearning and relearning.
It is some of the things you think you know most that interfere with your real learning. Unlearning could be one of the hardest things you will do in your life.
Limits
Go beyond your limits. Whatever you think you cannot do, you actually can learn to do. Challenge your limits and go beyond.
Do not take your limitations too seriously. Do not advertise your limits as fact. Break your limits and think bigger and bolder.
Push beyond your limits and push your boundaries. Who said that it cannot be done? Stop using the limits of other people as your own. Wherever you see a limit, get excited because that is your opportunity to push forward and unlock new opportunities.
If you are not making history, it is probably because you are history already. Rise and prove your claim to life by challenging those things that other people say they cannot be done.
Most things that people say cannot be done are because the people themselves have never thought to do them. It is usually not because of a lack of opportunity that people live below their limits; It’s because they fall prey to other people’s rules, beliefs and limits.
You are more powerful than you think. Go beyond your own fears and self-doubt. You have more working in your favour than you think. Dare to explore the land beyond your limits.
Keep pushing on your pedals and moving forward. You will make mistakes, but keep pushing. Sometimes it will be hard, just keep pushing. Every resolve will be tested, every goal will be tried, but just keep pushing.
Grow through what you go through. If you get tired as you pedal along, rest but do not quit.
- Milton Kamwendo is a leading international transformational and motivational speaker, author and coach. He is a cutting strategy, innovation, team-building and leadership facilitator. Feedback: [email protected], Twitter @MiltonKamwendo and WhatsApp +263772422634
