The Sunday Mail
Hunt for Greatness
Milton Kamwendo
Eyes that look are common, but eyes that see are rare. You look with the eyes and you see with the mind.
What you see in your mind is more important than what you see with the physical eye. Imagine great possibilities. Paint the sky with possibilities and dare to do great things and dream of great possibilities. Do not let any barrier stop you. Do not let the words of people blind you from your own greatness.
Do not let negativity blind you. Do not allow those that do not see recruit you into the choirs of the vision-less. Renew your life and vision. Start running with dedication and fresh determination. This is no season for blind action. Reboot your energy bus.
To have physical eyes that merely look and fail to have vision is a tragedy of great proportions. To only think of deficits without seeing abundance is sad.
To merely glance at negativity and then use your powers of imagination to come up with fears, limitations and a litany of complaints is to abuse the mind and throw away opportunity. When you see greatness, you start seeing pathways all around you.
What you see you can achieve. What you see you can become. What you see you can do.
What you see you can believe and become. Keep looking up until you can see. Look up at the sky and spend much time looking up and not down. Greatness is calling you and inviting you to come higher. The skies and possibilities are open for you. Do not delay and do not squander moments in regret.
Bounce-back with vision and energy. Do not wander long in never-land.
Look above you and look long enough until your spirit starts to sing and paint. Look at the ceiling, perhaps the bare-roof or the sky above you. Keep looking for as long as you need.
Look every day until you start seeing something there. As you look, see your life as you dare it to be. Dream big and bold and see your ideas put on clothes. Do not count yourself out and do not let anyone count you out. Whoever dares to do so is illiterate and unable to count. See possibilities and imagine great things with fresh and vivid details. Paint your dreams in the sky and you will see them wherever you go.
Do not let anything paralyse you or dismember your vision. As you dream so your life will be. As you dare, so your energy will flow.
Ms Helen Keller (1880 – 1968) was not born blind, she became blind. You may not have chosen the circumstances that you find yourself in, but you can choose what you do now.
Keller was regrettably struck by a novel fever at the age two years that left her blind and deaf soon afterwards. It was easy to have thought that that was the end of her life and mission. She could have been written off as used goods.
Hers was a life shaped by seeing greatness. As a little child she developed tantrums, anger and became unruly. She appeared helpless and untrainable. But her mother saw differently when her mind opened to possibility and light started shining. Mothers never despair and fathers never grow hopeless.
Keller’s mother picked up a book by Charles Dickens chronicling his travels and came across a story of Laura Bridgman, a deaf and blind child that had successfully been educated. Use other people’s work and stories to inspire your own greatness.
With an inspired mind Keller’s parents began to look for help.
They knew something was possible. When your mind starts seeing possibilities you start seeing in new ways, knocking on new doors and engaging in new conversations. When you see possibilities in your mind you become unstoppable. Read widely to open the eyes of your mind.
Through a series of searches and desperate journeys looking for help and answers, the family finally where led Anne Sullivan, who would become Hellen Keller’s teacher and companion.
All her life Anne Sullivan had one student – Helen Keller. Yet through this one student she taught the world of the power of seeing greatness. Starting at age seven, Anne lived and worked with Hellen. At first it was a tough battle getting Keller to co-operate and respond positively. It was a long journey of patience.
Anne Sullivan saw the greatness in Hellen before she could see it herself. Because of what she saw, she believed and tirelessly worked with Keller. See greatness in people before they see it in themselves. This is the hallmark of great leadership and coaching. Believe and you will start to see.
In time Helen Keller went on to graduate, mastered various methods of communication and came to global prominence, travelling to over 35 countries with a message of inspiration and hope. Along the way she developed a friendship with the writer Mark Twain who saw in Keller a great literary potential and encouraged her to write.
In time, Keller became an influential writer and thought-leader advocating for the blind and deaf, encouraging many to believe in themselves too and do great things. You have greatness in you. See it and work to unleash it.
Keller has been dead now for more than half a century and there have been many developments in the education of people living with disability. Never write off anyone. Helen Keller’s inspiring words continue to ring true with freshness: “The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.”
Your greatness is in what you see. See beyond barriers and limitations. See possibilities beyond your wildest dreams. See greatness in motion. It is while you are in the mud that you must see your greatness. It is when everything seems dark that you have to see possibilities.
It is when it looks like tomorrow will never come that you have to believe in the possibilities of tomorrow. See your greatness and believe in it, even if everyone around you cannot believe.
See all the problems, challenges and burdens and you will heave under burdens of fear, doubt and misfortune. Fear paralyses and torments. It robs you of life while you are still living. It robs of vision, while you are just looking and dazed.
The experiences of life will immobilise you if you let them. But dare to dream and do great things beyond your wildest dreams. If you commit to looking up and not down, something will happen in you. If you commit to looking for what is working and not what is broken, a curtain will eventually open.
If you commit to see the good and to lift up the good, you will be light enough to fly high. Keep seeing your greatness and the doors will open. Stop wasting time living your fears instead of your dreams. Instead of seeing fearful things, have a fearfully big vision. You do not have the luxury to go stale and lose your fizz.
Do not freeze while you are still alive. Usually the biggest obstacles to overcome are the boxes in your head. Some beliefs that have limited you all your life have outlived their usefulness. Some are outright unreasonable.
Dump every thing that blinds you to your greatness. Refuse to be bound to the fears of the past and negative conditioning of other people. What is going on in your head is more important than what is going on around you. Look with vision and live with passion.
You are destined for greatness and that is your birthright. Whatever you believe you become. Believe in your greatness-destiny and you have just taken the first step towards positive change.
Whatever you believe has a strong magnetic pull on you. Negative beliefs drag pull you down and out. Beliefs give you revelation. Negative beliefs make you see how much of a victim you are and how many things are conspiring against your success. You are not held back by anyone, or anything.
You are unlimited and unstoppable. What you call impossible is just an opinion but never a fact. You are greatness in motion. Inside you there is greatness that cannot be held back and manifestations beyond your wildest dreams. So dare to dream big.
There is no barrier that you cannot break and no limit that can stand its ground forever. There is no problem that you cannot overcome and no challenge that can withstand your relentless faith and action. Nothing is so far out of reach that you cannot reach for it.
Reach for greatness, because you too can be great. Where you are now is just a step, but there remains more steps and possibilities.
There is no mountain that is so high that it cannot be scaled. There is no goal that is so big that it cannot be achieved. People are reaching great goals and creating miracles daily.
Do not let what things look like today scare you. The thoughts you think determine what you see. Whatever stands between you and your next station is a mere stepping stone. Do not give up or despair. Committed to your greatness.
Milton Kamwendo is a leading international transformational and motivational speaker, author, and a virtual, hybrid and in-person 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] and His website is: www.miltonkamwendo.com
