The Sunday Mail
Motivation for Success
Milton Kamwendo
EYES that look are common, but eyes that see are rare. To ensure greatness, look back to pick vital lessons you need to carry into the future. Do not just be fixated on the past and remain in history. Glance at the realities of the present, then zoom out and see the future ahead. Be intentional as you look at the future.
Failing to plan is planning to fail. Failing to plan is gambling with life. The future is created through dreams and plans that are translated into reality. Greatness is never an accident. Plan your work and work on your plan, then watch as miracles of greatness unfold. Every year, most people start out with a bang of hope, outbursts of jubilation, promises of change and growth, as well as great plans. Some organisations get away at some resort and craft their strategic plans. Some people use their holidays for resting, reflection, thinking, planning and mapping the future.
Now that we have taken off into the year, is this not a good time to look back and then look ahead? Is it not a time to think and reflect, perhaps? Is this not a good time to take stock of where you are and where we are going? You do not have the luxury of waiting for the end of the year to engage in course correction.
Ask the brutal questions
Nothing is unsettling and as helpful as an incisive and challenging question. Nothing opens a new thought stream but a good direct question. This part of the year is a good time to ask a few important questions.
The questions you may consider posing include the following: Where are you compared to where you planned to be? What questions are keeping you awake at night? How do you move on from here? What will happen if you remain parked? How do you generate creative tension? What questions are you avoiding? How do you grow by a 10-times factor? What does greatness really mean to you?
Get away for a day
It is a good practice to get away from the office with your key team to just reflect and review your work. You could consider taking along a facilitator to help guide the review. A good facilitator will allow every member of the team to focus on meaningful strategic conversations and not on the process.
With my team, I spend many hours facilitating workshops for clients. We have discovered that the facilitation easily inspires a team to see differently, clarify priorities, reflect more deeply and commit with clarity to definite courses of action.
Read a good book
Knowledge is like a laser beam. A good book shines good light on a subject and results in new understanding, insights and ideas. Those who do not read can never understand this experience. Those who read travel through time and space, and see a new world that few will ever appreciate.
Choose a book in an area that you seem to be struggling with or one where you want to amplify your results. Consider reading a good biography. Sometimes, when you read other people’s stories, your own struggles suddenly look small and your mountains are reduced to molehills.
A good book, well-read, is an investment in yourself. One of the practices that I find useful is to go into a good bookshop, pick about 10 books that interest me, then look through them and choose my best two or three. Sometimes, just scheming through a book opens your mind incredibly. Books allow you to interact with other great minds and get their refined thoughts and life experiences.
Meet a friend and share ideas
It is amazing how much light comes through conversation, dialogue, fellowship and sharing. As you share experiences, you start seeing new light and better possibilities. Meet a good colleague or friend over tea, coffee or dinner. Try never to eat alone. Make meal time inspiration time. As you share, you will receive insights that you have never had. Remember to listen, for everyone has a good story to tell.
Major on listening and learning. You can never be made smaller by listening and learning from others. Do not feel that you are under pressure to impress.
Write a good letter
Sometimes, sitting down to write a letter, giving an update of where you are and what your current plans are clarifies thought. The letter can be addressed to your supervisor, grandfather, mother, pastor, chairman or mentor.
You do not need to post the letter at all. The exercise of writing a letter just clarifies your own thought processes. Sometimes, when you start explaining your challenges to someone on paper, you begin to see the solutions in your face. Try this exercise and let me hear your feedback.
Invite someone to visit you
Invite some people to visit your business, plant, department, farm or factory. It could be someone you respect or a group of MBA students from your local university. Let them walk through your business or department and then field their questions. This exercise is mind-opening and could just reveal things that you had not thought about. Who has visited you lately? What questions did they ask? What comment did they make?
Set new goals
Having factored in the reality of where you are, set new goals. Your goals must be exciting and inspiring. Make your goals big and bold. Small goals lead to small actions. Big goals inspire big thinking. You are not practising to live and let live. Now, pursue your goals until they are begging for mercy. Go for your greatness.
Do not worry about what you have not achieved yet. Focus on where you are going. Attack the future with a plan and purpose. Dare to take bold action and keep moving.
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
