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Hunt for Greatness
Milton Kamwendo
Life is a collection of seasons that test your soul and prove your resolve for greatness.
There comes a time when there is no more space to play games, pity oneself and just be in a rut. In those times prayer should not be an excuse but a portal of strength. Pointing fingers will not point anyone to the North Star.
In her 2004 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, Wangari Maathai boldly declared: “In the course of history, there comes a time when humanity is called to a new level of consciousness, to reach a higher moral ground. A time when we have to shed our fear and give hope to each other. That time is now.”
Indeed, that time is now. The time to give each other hope and not fear. The time to stretch and not to shrink. The time to reach forth instead of hiding under a bushel. The time is always ripe to transform from a caterpillar into a butterfly but you have to be willing.
A Higher Calling
There is a higher calling that is beckoning. It’s a calling to be more than what you were in the past. What could you be? It’s a call to unleash greatness and blaze new trails. It’s a call of destiny, dimensions, direction and dedication. It is a call to serve and be the difference. Change cannot be waited for like a train. It is initiated and self-propelled.
Greatness is more than being a ball of complaints waiting to be squeezed. Greatness without effort is phony. Pop-up greatness without a track-record takes you off track. Work with the laws of process.
Greatness is demanding and rapturing. Greatness is large, inviting and feeling vulnerable is normal. Feeling the fear is normal. Being uncertain is normal. Greatness is a journey and a revelatory process of discovery. There is a long march to greatness for the willing. When human nature surprises you do not get too shocked or linger long in a state of shock or denial.
Elevate your sights and stretch your vision and think bigger. Where you look determines what you see and who sees you. If your field of view is persistently negative change where you are looking. Refuse to be locked in a fixed negative mindset. Do not fall in love with darkness when the light shines so brightly.
What if all you see are problems, obstacles, shortages and fearful things. It’s not the problems that matter it is what you see in the problems that makes all the difference.
Change your orientation, be curious and choose to find answers to the problems that others complain about.
Choose the company to join: the choir of complainers or the ecosystem of innovators. Every problem is an opportunity to innovate and provide valuable answers.
Keep your mind sound and your eyes clear. There are many good things and good people in the midst of all the turmoil of human existence.
Choose the higher road and path of mission and significance. Choose the mountain of greatness and not mere purposeless existence. Do not wait to hear an otherworldly voice calling you to a place you have never been to. Just answer the daily call to make a difference for someone. Choose to bring healing where others only talk only pain. Choose to make a difference and be the defining factor.
Choose to stand up and be counted. Excuses will not take you far. The answers you seek are in you.
The opportunities you seek are with you. The facility to yearn for is in the way you were made.
Don’t curse your circumstances of birth. Welcome your crucibles and deploy your personal power with grace and confident humility. In you lies great possibilities waiting to be elevated.
Choose to take a stand for what you believe. Choose the path of conviction and the stand you choose. When others walk choose to run. When other choose not to look, choose the path of vision. Choose to pray when others slumber.
Choose a life that matters and not just the mere human reflexes. First a choice, then everything else follows. Choose to be the light when others curse the darkness. Choose to be positively alive when others see only the dark abyss. In the rain sweat is invisible but no seed sown is ever lost.
Instead of crawling and huddling with the chickens choose to be an eagle. Instead of perking for worms, choose to mount high. When you have been to the mountain top, the valley existence feels hollow and purposeless.
Pray Differently
Prayer is a powerful force that changes things. Prayer moves heavens, moves hearts and lives long. How you pray is important. Victim prayers have no launching power. Bold prayers that see possibilities open up doors that are beyond imagination.
Mr Og Mandino was a great story-teller and first generation motivator. One of his legendary books is entitled: “The Greatest Salesman in the World.” I first got a copy of this small but potent book from a friend in 2006.
My wife had just passed away. My world seemed to have suddenly curved-in. I somehow knew I needed to be strong for myself and for the children and those that Look up to me. I needed strength and could use any help that I could clutch on.
Then a friend in Canada send through a small book in newsprint. I put the book by my bedside and just stared at it for days. For a moment I thought my challenge then was not sales or sales techniques.
My challenge was picking myself up and living instead of being a moaning shadow. Then one evening I took the book and I was hooked. It was early hours of the next morning, reading it and letting it’s message soak in.
The book concludes with a prayer that the main character in the book, the salesman, learns to pray.
It’s a destiny-defining prayer: “Oh creator of all things, help me. For this day I go out into the world naked and alone, and without your hand to guide me I will wander far from the path which leads to success and happiness.
I ask not for gold or garments or even opportunities equal to my ability; instead, guide me so that I may acquire ability equal to my opportunities.”
Rest sure that you will be guided, but you need to be willing to move, to shake off all the slumber and rise up and do something great. In the book, the salesman prays further: “You have taught the lion and the eagle how to hunt and prosper with teeth and claw. Teach me how to hunt with words and prosper with love so that I may be a lion among men and an eagle in the market place. Help me to remain humble through obstacles and failures; yet hide not from mine eyes the prize that will come with victory. Assign me tasks to which others have failed; yet guide me to pluck the seeds of success from their failures. Confront me with fears that will temper my spirit; yet endow me with courage to laugh at my misgivings.”
If you are going to pray learn to pray boldly; if you are going to think, then think big. Pray with your heart and not your teeth. Pray to move God and not just move lips. Pray in a transformative manner where you are not just looking for easy-blessings-from-the-sky. Desist from prayers without a double-entry effect. Pray for strength and the ability to use that strength. Yours must not be the prayer of a coward who is trying to escape from the challenge of living.
The salesman closes his prayer thus: “Spare me sufficient days to reach my goals; yet help me to live this day as though it be my last. Guide me in my words that they may bear fruit; yet silence me from gossip that none be maligned. Discipline me in the habit of trying and trying again; yet show me the way to make use of the law of averages. Favor me with alertness to recognize opportunity; yet endow me with patience which will concentrate my strength. Bathe me in good habits that the bad ones may drown; yet grant me compassion for weaknesses in others. Suffer me to know that all things shall pass; yet help me to count my blessings of today.” Will you also pray for greatness?
Committed to your greatness.
Milton Kamwendo is a leading international transformational and motivational speaker, au-thor, 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 web-site is: www.miltonkamwendo.com.
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