The Sunday Mail
Milton Kamwendo
More than half a decade ago, the late inspiring possibility-attitude teacher and preacher, Dr Robert H. Schuller, penned what he called the “Possibility Thinker’s Creed.”
The creed is still fresh and relevant today. The creed reads:
“When faced with a mountain,
I will not quit!
I will keep on striving
until I climb over,
find a pass through,
tunnel underneath,
or simply stay
and turn the mountain into a gold mine,
with God’s help!”
There is nothing special about any mountain or obstacle that you face. What is special is your attitude, framing and action.
Mountains will always come and some will stay for a long time. The difference-maker is not one who sees the mountain, complains about the mountain, curses the mountain, or loses hair because of the mountain.
The real hero is that person, filled with faith and vision, who is able to look at the mountain and tell it to move. That is the attitude and mindset of greatness. All your mountains can move if you determine in your mind and you are so fixed in your thinking.
What do you call impossible?
There is no pride in doing nothing simply because you think you are a victim.
Nothing you do matters and you have resigned to accepting your mountain as a fact.
What failed to move in that past will not always be standing in the future. Do not bring the limitations of the past and make the future reality. You are a change agent, you make a difference. You do not wait for your cheese to move, but you move the cheese yourself.
Take bold action and redefine your life and the boundaries of the possible. Waste no more time in idle debates, frustrated dialoguing, asking whether this or that is possible.
No discussion with impossibility-thinkers will ever take a strategic note. Life is big, beautiful and abundant. The smallest world you can live in is the one created by those who think small, talk micro and believe in nothing except fate.
Get busy with action and doing. Think big, so much that you have no time to doubt. Do the impossible and you will see the best possible. Life is best when you are stretching reality and creating things, models, products, markets and institutions that matter.
Do not seek to fit in, or squeeze it, but be comfortable standing out. Defy your limitations and create your own space. You are not created by a photocopier, you are made in the image of a great Creator. Do big things that to others seem impossible things. Live at the creative red edge, instead of squeezing into the narrow grey zone where there is no imagination, ingenuity, inspiration or passion. Get tired of listless and resigned living.
Look Around You
Look around at a few items that you use every day. A few years ago what looks ordinary today was impossible, undoable and likely had never been used or done.
Everything around you is a testimony of the power to create and do the impossible. All it takes is a decision and taking a different posture in life. Challenge your limitations. Stop these little pity-parties. Drain complaining out of your system. Stay long enough at any problem, thinking of solutions, turning the challenge into cash and not stuck in a ball of frustrated emotions and recreational complaining. Look around you and you will see that there is more that you can do than what you cannot do. There are more places you can travel to than where you have been. Greatness is not far. It is a journey you take daily as you challenge yourself and your limitations.
You are powerful beyond measure. If you knew what you are capable of doing, you would live everyday in awe. All the limitations that you put on yourself are self-imposed.
There is an important element that, if you master, changes your life totally and permanently.
It is this: “You are where you are because of YOU!”
I wish it could be softer and better said. Whatever dust you raise or noise you make will all, if you want to move forward, finally get to this point….it’s you who makes the difference.
Stop waiting and screaming and start doing. Anytime you blame anyone or anything, you empower other people or things to control your life.
You are powerless when you cede your power. Break the chain of limitation by dumping the mindset of a victim. Adopt a growth mindset.
Keep improving and expanding your boundaries. Dump the fixed mindset. You are not your past, your fate or your pain. Any time you really choose, you can start your life on a new trajectory.
Look Inside You
Do not look far for inspiration, look inside you. Look at your thoughts, theories and tongue. Look at your beliefs and the thoughts you berate yourself with. Look at the words you speak to yourself and to others. Stop feeling sorry for yourself and looking for partners in sympathy. Look at the messages you share or tweet. The secret to your greatness is inside you. It is in the way you think, talk and the thoughts you hold.
Change starts from within.
If you think that things are possible, you spend all your time looking for references, ideas, associations and excuses to strengthen your thinking. If you think possibilities, you will find yourself spending more time looking for solutions.
If you know what you want, you will know who you need. To change your life, change your thinking and the content of your conversations. Things are already bad, complaining about them will not make them any better or less bitter. The canvas of opportunity is in creating solutions and changing the narrative. Spending time with people that take away your confidence and imagination and fuel your fears cannot be said to be valuable friendship or refreshing fellowship. Resign from the fellows of put-downs and negativity, they just increase your depression, despair and despondency.
Resign from the fellowships of the bitter — you just get infected with thought patterns and mindsets that are not helpful or innovative. Resign from the fellowships of those who nod knowingly, speak foolishly and do nothing.
Resign from the fellowships that do not create. Imagine and do anything worthwhile, except mourning.
Your life will not change until you change your thinking and the things that fuel those thoughts. Get back on the driving seat and stop being a spectator.
Look Under You
Look under you and see where you stand. You stand in a good place and at a good time. Where you are is a place of inexhaustible opportunity. Change the way you think about your geography and location. There is nothing that cannot be changed or transformed. Deserts have been turned into parks, wastelands have been turned into prime locations and distant places have been explored.
What matters most is not location, but the geography of your thinking.
Greatness is not far. You stand in your valley of greatness and sea of opportunity. Look at the ground you stand on and declare it to be Holy Ground. There are opportunities that you stand on today that someone would wish to stand on.
Start thinking bigger and doing greater. It is not that others are in better spaces or better situations, it is just that they choose to think and do differently. Make moves with the pieces in your hands and where you stand. Take bold action where you are.
Look Above You
Look above you and you will see that you have no limitations except the ones you set and culture yourself into. The clouds you see today will not cover your sky forever and the clouds are not made out of reinforced concrete. Above the clouds the sun is always smiling, shining and inviting those that have imagination, faith, vision and courage.
The sky is never a limit; the limit is how you view the sky. The sky is big enough for any bird to fly.
Your space is there – launch into it.
Reach for greater heights. Start moving today. Go for something bigger and greater. Change your mental models. Do not allow yourself to plateau and to ever think you have arrived. Get out of park mode. You can still do more and be more. Greatness is for those who reach forth and launch beyond their limitations.
I have a feeling that is you!
Change your vocabulary into the language of greatness. You never reach the palace talking like a beggar. There is nothing impossible until you name it so. Change the names around you. There is no place that is too far, unless you have decided so.
There is no way, if you have resigned to that lie. There are pathways to greatness and doing great things. Operate with an “open heavens” mindset.
I came across this quote from Israelmore Ayivor’s Daily Drive 365 that I liked: “The brain says ‘it is impossible’ and the legs respond ‘let’s sit down’. The brain says ‘it is possible’ and the legs respond ‘let’s go to work’. Don’t blame the legs, blame the head’.”
Do not blame the head or scold it, just ask the owner of the head to do something about their thinking and doing. Nothing called impossible can withstand the onslaught of sustained action and relentless motivated innovation.
Milton Kamwendo is a leading international transformational and motivational speaker, author, and executive coach. He is a cutting strategy, team-building and organisation development facilitator and consultant. He can be reached at: [email protected] and Twitter: @MiltonKamwendo or WhatsApp at: 0772422634. His website is: www.miltonkamwendo.com.
