The Sunday Mail
Milton Kamwendo Hunt for Greatness —
TO live without an inspiring vision is to merely exist. Mere existence is the lazy way through life. To look is not necessarily to see. What you see with your mind is more important than what you see with your eyes.
Eyes that look are common, but eyes that see are rare and minds that see are rarer still. See your vision clearly and focus on it daily.
Let it lead you through the maze of life until you hold greatness within your grasp. Everything is possible if you believe in your vision and have the confidence to stay in process.
Helen Keller was born in 1880 deaf and blind. If her life had amounted to nothing, not many would have blamed her. Many would have cited her times and circumstances as valid excuses.
Her disability would have been a credible crutch for her to crush her spirit and cap her vision. Yet, despite her situation, she rose to become a towering motivational force for many generations.
Refuse to accept the validity of any excuse. Do not let anyone tell you what you cannot become. Refuse to be stuck where excuses failed you.
It is not the size of your excuse that matters but the expanse of your vision. Keller herself once said: “The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.”
She was right, and this is worth repeating until it burns in your soul. Having sight and no vision is looking without seeing.
Being blind does not in any way mean that you have a blank mind. Having a blank mind means any day you are blind. The mind is always looking for worthy pictures to focus on.
You always move in the direction of the dominant pictures that you carry. Refuse to be a carrier of gloom and doom.
There is always a future that is positive and exciting that you can carry and nurture.
Vitality
Vision gives you vitality of spirit. You live long and meaningfully when you have something to live for.
It is not how bad the circumstances are that matters but how hot your passion for your vision is. Disadvantages can be endured if you have a worthy dream.
Trying circumstances can be outlived if you have a vision.
When you see clearly something deep, profound and meaningful in your mind, motivation is unshackled and a new vitality sweeps through your spirit.
Vision is the root of motivation. If you cannot dream, there is no reason why you should ever sleep. If you cannot wake up to pursue an exciting dream, there is no reason why you should wake up!
You likely do not have any motivation problem, but a vision malfunction.
Start dreaming again and exploring possibilities beyond your current station.
Its about “i”
The second letter in the word vision is “i”. Vision is most powerful when it is owned.
To be effective it must not just be the company vision, national vision or my parent’s vision.
Vision to have power must become an “iVision”.
Apple has been successful as a company become of its ability to appeal to its customers at a personal level.
Its products are positioned as being for “i”.
Its product line-up includes the iPhone, iPad, iCloud, iTunes, iMac and its mobile operating system is not just another operating system but iOS.
So it must be with your dream and your vision.
Vision must also be approached with an ownership proposition. Own it and you will be motivated to have and manifest it.
So long as vision is just a statement written and framed somewhere on the walls of your company, it is dead.
Dead vision has no motivational content.
Vision always comes alive and becomes a strategic tool when it is owned and becomes your “iVision”.
When many people own a vision, they become a visionary community that is hard to beat and too determined to be stopped.
Any group of people can claim success, progress and development if they have a shared vision that they own and are willing to stake everything to make their vision happen.
There are no half-hearted champions.
Half-hearted visions are mere wishes without any launching power. Own the vision and you will succeed.
Own your dream and you will be motivated, inspired and energised.
Orphaned dreams are impotent and do not excite anybody to do anything worthwhile.
Staying power
Vision gives you staying power. Success that does not pass through the alley of challenges is always suspect.
Nothing happens just by chance. Vision is stronger than luck. The stories of instant coffee sometimes forget that coffee has to pass through a long value chain before it becomes “instant coffee.”
So it is with visions of greatness. Success always looks simple after it has been achieved. True vision is never deterred by problems, challenges and adversity. Vision is what gives you staying power.
Stay on course and stand up to the fight when you are hardest hit. When things get tough as they sometimes will, keep focusing on the vision.
When you are tempted to look down and beg for sympathy, lift your head up and face forward towards your vision. Dreams with meaning do not die.
Continue to reinvent yourself as you charge forward towards your dreams. Never let the successes of yesterday tempt you to lose course and become complacent or arrogant.
Stay focused and keep in motion.
When you see the future, you will stay in the game long after chancers and charlatans have bowed out of the game. Where others see problems, see opportunity. Where others are the first to complain, be the first to move forward and grab opportunities.
While others are blaming, take responsibility for your life and destiny. While others are citing how unfair life is, grab unfair advantage through your positivity.
While others are scaling down, it is time to scale up your efforts. Those who follow the crowd will always crowd out their vision. See clearly possibilities with your mind and not dimly through the rhetoric of social conditioning. While others see products, see platforms.
While others push for change, pull change by being the change you desire. While others see the challenges of today, see the opportunities of tomorrow.
While others are sucked into the lamentations of the moment, immerse yourself in revelations of the future. The world of vision is exciting and thrilling because in it there is only abundance and limitless possibilities.
Ignite
Vision ignites creativity. You are born to be creative and not boxed. The challenges you face are the catalysts of creativity. Nothing you face cannot be solved.
No mountain is ever too high to scale. No wave is ever too big to surf. No sea is ever too big to cross. No journey is ever too impossible to start.
Nothing that is difficult today will continue to be forever. Nothing will stand forever in your way so long as you are working with vision and focus.
Think creatively as you charge through to your vision. Leadership without imagination is asleep. Strategy without creativity is just an academic assignment.
Vision ignites creativity and possibilities beyond your wildest dreams. Vision ignites creativity. Without creativity you are stuck in the past and always hoping for a world that no longer exists.
Without vision you use old vehicles to try and get to new destinations and are always frustrated. Creativity is the key to greatness.
Solutions that worked in the past will not work forever. Models that subsisted in the past will not work forever. Refuse to be stuck in the past and be irrelevant for the future.
Vision ignites creativity, so see beyond the challenges of the moment. It is when you are under pressure that you need to look at your vision and carve out time to think creatively. For the creative, possibilities are unbounded.
Organise
Vision to be realised requires you to be organised and focused. Focus is the key to greatness and moving forward. With a vision, you are inspired; with corresponding organization, your vision starts to grow legs. Vision is a mere dream, but with structure it becomes a force in motion.
Crystalise your vision, focus on it and pursue it with all that you have got. You will get there and you will win. You may be delayed but you will not be denied.
If you have to change your structure, change it. If you have to change your systems, do so. If you have to reinvent your business model, innovate it.
Whatever it may take, stay on course and reorganise as necessary.
Nurture
Every vision is for its appointed time. Nurture it and cultivate it. Greatness is not an event but a process. If you cannot do great things yet, do small things in a great way.
Never be disappointed because today you are dealing in the small. Vision always grows as it is pursued. With every step you take, you are on the move.
Do not fear the challenges you face, fear standing still. Do not be disheartened because you are moving slowly, be disappointed when you have stopped moving and growing.
Nurture your vision, fertilise it through positive fellowship and keep focused on the great road ahead.
I will see you in the circle of greatness.
Milton Kamwendo is an international transformational and motivational speaker, author and coach. His life purpose is to inspire greatness. He can be reached at: [email protected] and Twitter: @MiltonKamwendo or WhatsApp at: 0772422634
