The Sunday Mail
Changing Perspectives
Rutendo Gwatidzo
JUST take a few minutes to think about things that are occupying most of your time these days.
Is it something important or not?
Can you say you are happy with the way you are spending your days or weeks?
Most of us have variously set either weekly or monthly goals.
A good number of people miss it in the early hours of the day, early days of the week or first months of the year.
They tend to think they have so much time and then lose focus on important things.
Interestingly, exciting things are usually those that you do not find on the agenda.
For instance, social media tends to take up a lot of time for many, yet it does not feature on many people’s to-do list.
Coming up with a priority list is usually a helpful way to guide us on what to focus on.
Tasks are often found in four categories — the urgent and important, the important, but not urgent, the not important, but urgent, and, lastly, the not urgent and not important.
It is advisable to create time for what is important and urgent before anything else.
Focus
Concentration is not easy.
What you focus on becomes your reality. For example, in order to capture a good picture, a cameraman should focus on the subject.
The beauty of self-awareness is that it helps you realise your potential.
It is better to focus on where you want to be. Focus on your goals, not your fears.
As you do that, your step-by-step successes will eventually eradicate your fears. Success becomes achievable when you focus on it.
If things go wrong, do not dwell much on the why — focus on the how.
In most cases, the why brings pain, anger or bitterness.
On the other hand, the how brings hope, solutions, joy and progress.
Do not ignore small victories
One of the winning strategies of life is to learn to acknowledge small victories and celebrate them.
As you do that, you tend to focus on developing the small successes into big successes.
This is how we continuously improve.
Sadly, many of us are good at talking about what we do not want in life more than what we want.
By so doing, we then focus more on negatives than positives without realising it.
Organisational status
In the first three weeks of January, we carried out a needs assessment survey at eight organisations.
Unfortunately, teams from seven organisations told us about how work life is boring because things are not going the way they want.
They explained how their organisations are failing to meet their needs, especially in this month of January, because some of them applied for loans and their requests were turned down for different reasons.
Inasmuch as things are not going according to plan in these organisations, the small successes they are experiencing are helping to keep them afloat, which gives the team a chance to improve their situation.
Sadly, the teams expect management on their own to do miracles.
What caused the teams to be divorced from management?
Visionaries need support to make the vision a success; they cannot do everything by themselves.
Lessons
At some point, the biblical Moses became tired of leading and selected 70 leaders to assist him.
Again, at some point, he got tired and had to be supported by two of his leaders to hold his hands up so that they could defeat the enemy.
It takes teamwork and collaboration to make a vision successful.
If the Israelites did not support Moses, they could have been destroyed by the enemy. Positive-thinking teams in organisations help come up with solutions than problems.
The story of Moses is found in Numbers Chapter 11.
We can also learn from the story of Elijah in 1 Kings Chapter 18.
When he saw a cloud the size of a fist, he did not focus on its size, but chose to see the bigger picture and announced the imminence of heavy rainfall.
Positivity is a rare gift, yet it leads to remarkable results most of the time.
Habits can be learned and unlearned.
Teach yourself to focus and be positive.
Concentrate on what you can do more than what you cannot do.
Without focus, you might end up going everywhere and nowhere.
Take time to study yourself, realise your potential and focus on what you can do.
Rutendo Gwatidzo is the managing director at The HUB HR Consultancy, a culture and change management organisation. She is a multi-award-winning leader as a consultant, speaker and mentor. She is also the author of two books —“Born to Fight” and “Breaking the Silence”. Contact details — 0714575805/ [email protected]/ Rutendo Gwatidzo official FB public page.
