The Sunday Mail
Changing Perspectives
Rutendo Gwatidzo
“Martin Luther King Jnr, a great luminary of his time, once said: “If you can’t fly, then run; if you can’t run, then walk; if you can’t walk, then crawl…but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.”
This week, allow me to blow my own trumpet a little.
“Rutendo Gwatidzo, congratulations, well done, happy for you. What an achievement. You are a role model, keep moving, good milestone, et cetera.”
These are some of the compliments I received this past week as I got recognised by the Institute of Corporate Directors Zimbabwe as one of the 40 under-40 influential leaders in Zimbabwe in 2022.
These compliments came with different inquiries. However, one question stood out the most: “What keeps you going?”
Let’s talk about passion
Transforming lives positively requires one to do that which they are passionate about.
Impacting lives positively is one of the most fulfilling things to do, though it might not come with monetary rewards all the time.
Transforming lives is something that one can do as an employer, employee or as an independent individual.
Whatever position you find yourself in, what matters is that you do what you are passionate about.
Passion in most cases brings you some form of resilience that is unstoppable.
I have read of businesses and I have interacted with businessmen and women who have gone for years without any profits, and one thing the visionaries have in common is passion for what they do.
It is the same passion that gives them resilience to stand against all odds.
With time, passion will bring you profit either directly or indirectly.
My story
When I started writing, it brought about a lot of demands.
Writing is something I do on top of other engagements, hence the demand for time increased.
For instance, I now needed time to study, research, listen to news, engage with people, et cetera.
In the beginning, balancing time was hard and at some point I thought of giving up.
However, whilst I was considering it, I would just receive some fulfilling feedback.
For example, at some point, I received feedback from someone saying, “I was about to commit suicide then I came across your article on depression and realised I was not the only one going through challenges. I promise you I will never think of killing myself again.”
Such amazing feedback gave me determination to create the extra time required to write so that I keep on transforming lives.
Last Sunday, we all celebrated Mother’s Day.
Everyone was born of a woman, hence mothers are so special and we appreciate them.
One of the things that mothers are known for is passion for their children to become the best they can be.
Of course, we have some mothers who lose it in the process; however, today we would like to focus on the bigger group that never gives up.
May you have passion and resilience like that of a mother’s love for what you do as success in most cases is the end result.
Resilience
Of course, there are many factors that contribute to success.
However, many of them are a result of passion and resilience.
Let us look into what resilience does and let us start by defining it.
According to the English dictionary, resilience is the ability to recover quickly from difficulties.
This simply means do not hold on to negative things for too long.
Things like anger, unforgiveness, pain, hatred and bitterness will weigh you down quickly.
Martin Luther King Jnr, a great luminary of his time, once said: “If you can’t fly, then run; if you can’t run, then walk; if you can’t walk, then crawl…but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.”
This says it all about resilience.
Once you fall, get up, dust yourself and move on.
You may start by crawling, it’s alright, do that until you begin to walk, run, fly and soar on wings like eagles.
Resilience empowers people to accept and adapt to situations and to move forward.
It gives the ability to withstand adversity, bounce back and grow despite life’s downturns.
Resilience is more like climbing a mountain without a trail map.
It takes time, strength and help from people around you.
When you arrive at a goal, which is usually the success point, you will then realise that there are still many other goals to achieve.
Passion and resilience will equip you for the next goal.
Nelson Mandela once said that after climbing one great hill, one will discover the secret that there are many more hills to climb.
Resilience is mental toughness because you get to experience stress, emotional upheaval and suffering, but you will have to walk through it.
The ability to see things from a different perspective in order to strategise and come up with winning strategies is a good quality to possess.
Yes, we are born to fight but we are also destined to win.
The struggle is real but the victory is certain when you apply winning strategies.
Rutendo Gwatidzo is a culture change strategist. She has over 10 years’ experience operating as an HR consultant focusing on training and change management. She’s also a speaker, a mentor and author of the book “Born To Fight.” Feedback: 0714575805/ [email protected] / Rutendo Gwatidzo official FB public page.
