Riding the roller coaster of greatness

30 Aug, 2020 - 00:08 0 Views
Riding the roller coaster of greatness

The Sunday Mail

Hunt for Greatness Milton Kamwendo
The master of patience is the master of everything else. Time sobers and reveals a lot. Study life and you will live many lives over.

Hunting for greatness calls for developing self-awareness, context-awareness and hyper-vigilance in pursuit of goals that matter.

When you are aware of what is happening in you and the conversations you are nursing you are better able to direct your energy, bounce forward and keep running. Life is a roller coaster, hold tight in the mash of hormonal rushes.

Your greatness is in your ability to choose your response despite the changes, challenges and chances that come. Keep your head high, fix your gaze, look ahead, and you will see the beautiful beckoning horizons.

Where you are going to matters more than what you are going through. Stop frightening yourself and framing everything with eyes of fear, ideas of fate and issues of the present.

Eyes that look are common, but eyes that see are rare. Do not let adversity blind you. To not let negativity distress you. Do not let anything stop you.

Look within, and you will see a rock within. It is the greatness that is waiting to be unleashed. You are powerful beyond popular estimation.

Look behind you and you will see the good things that you need to carry with you into the future.

Shackling yourself to the past hurts, myths and stories enslaves you.

What happens matters, but what you think about what happens matters even more.

Greatness in life is 10 percent what happens and 90 percent what you choose to think and do about it. Your greatness is in the ability to positively process your experiences.

You may not always choose the experiences you face, but you are responsible for the choices that you make in the drama of life. It is a big drama indeed. Do not despair because of the current stage set up. Keep your dreams and visions alive.

Life is an ongoing drama, and a transactional game that is always fascinating to watch and be involved in. You cannot press pause but you can increase your self-awareness and strengthen your resilience muscles.

Adversity happens and it always demands one thing: a better response. A better and empowered response leads to better outcomes and better times.

Take radical responsibility and choose to take ownership. Move beyond the shackles of victim-hood and the rate-race of blame. Choose to live boldly, inspired by vision, charged forward by faith. Become a force for good and greatness through the stance you make, the actions you take and the way you stake your emotions.

Do not be frustration-driven, but be purpose-driven. Be too motivated to break-down when you still have a journey ahead. Be too inspired to fall down when there are many more rings to fight.

Be too resilient to stop trying and reaching out for your greatness, when the race is still on.

Keep hunting for greatness.

In 1968, Mr Stephen Karpman published a paper in which he conceptualised the interactions among people into three important roles that he termed the drama triangle.

The three roles in any social intercourse are the victim, the rescuer and the persecutor. The victim feels vulnerable and the victim’s stance is: “poor me!” The rescuer takes responsibility with the stance: “Let me help you!” The persecutor’s stance is to insist: “It is your fault.”

Karpman’s triangle is applicable in many games that people play.

At the centre of this triangle is developing the self-awareness and empathy to know the role you are playing and also identify the role others are playing.

Whatever you go through, determine that you will turn your struggle into strength, your adversity into an opportunity. The paradox of empowerment is that it is not your circumstances, but your decisions that determine your fate. Spending life in drama does not move you forward, it is decisions that do.

Decide to charge for greatness with focus and fortitude of character. Develop a disciplined heart and strong mind. Be like the trees, that get stronger as they face winds, challenges and adversity. You can only reach your full potential by overcoming adversity. Greatness without great trials is a myth. Problem free living has no adventure. Glory without a story is an empty tale.

Mr. Douglas Malloch (1877-1938), wrote a moving poem that compared good people to good timber.

The enduring message of the poem is that people, like trees have to face the realities of the forest and yet endure stress and strain to reach their greatness.

They grow and reach their true potential by overcoming adversity.

Trees also have to live through years of drama in order to become good timber. Through struggles, we grow and unleash our true potential. Malloch’s poem reads:

“The tree that never had to fight
For sun and sky and air and light,
But stood out in the open plain
And always got its share of rain,
Never became a forest king
But lived and died a scrubby thing.

The man who never had to toil
To gain and farm his patch of soil,
Who never had to win his share
Of sun and sky and light and air,
Never became a manly man
But lived and died as he began.

Good timber does not grow with ease,
The stronger wind, the stronger trees,
The further sky, the greater length,
The more the storm, the more the strength.
By sun and cold, by rain and snow,
In trees and men good timbers grow.

Where thickest lies the forest growth
We find the patriarchs of both.
And they hold counsel with the stars
Whose broken branches show the scars
Of many winds and much of strife.
This is the common law of life.”

Ride the roller coaster of life and do not give up and loosen your grip on faith. Adversity comes, with surprises and shocks. Just hold on and keep your sobriety and your head high.

Stressors, big and small, come but do not give up or lose your steam. The temptations of denial are huge and really tempting. Do not lose your tempo and do not spend your life in denial.

Frustration comes, with its irritations and anxieties. Do not stop pursuing your goals, defining your future and being anchored in faith.

The season of down moments and depression come, where your mood is low, and you feel weak, overwhelmed, and helpless. You are tempted to fly away or end it all. Not you!

Do not despair keep holding the line and keep moving forward. The pace may be slow and the winds may be strong but do not give up.

One day you will bounce to your greatness and you will stand in the winner’s circle. Cut the drama scene when you see that you are playing victim-hood games. Do not campaign for self-pity. Stand in strength and think strategically.

Sometimes the tests are too much to bear; but do not give up. To move forward you may have to experiment and bargain. Be willing to live with the challenge of not knowing.

Reach out to others if you have to but do not give up. Tell your story but do not use it to dig deeper into the role of a victim. You may have to learn new skills and new ways. Be willing to renew your strength, re-imagine your future and reboot your energy.

One day at a time is not too big or too impossible.

Seasons of loss are seasons of new growth and fresh discoveries.

Awaken the seeds of greatness that lie dormant in you through the fertilising power of a made-up-mind. Wait for the light, dressed and ready for action. Through the power of decision you learn how to navigate in the new normal. Not all change is improvement, but without change there can be no improvement.

Change may be painful, but it is also necessary. Disruption does not mean Armageddon. For the caterpillar to become a butterfly it has to go through the necessary change passages. Your butterfly moments are coming even if they are currently enveloped by adversity.

There is power in positive intent and a mind that is clear, clever and courageous.

Look at your context and abandon your limiting beliefs and the things that no longer serve you.

Take personal responsibility for your life and future. For any thing to change you have to first change. Stop playing wait and see games. Change is a strategic journey and never an event. Greatness is an excursion and never node. Nurture your faith and anchor your patience. Keep moving, one step at a time is not too much to ask. Keep learning and growing.

Committed to your greatness.

Milton Kamwendo is a leading international transformational and motivational speaker, author, and growth mentor. 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

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