The greatness of Independence

Hunt for Greatness
Milton Kamwendo

Independence means no more excuses now! Challenges do not go away without being confronted.

Greatness does not come without being intentionally envisioned. Success has no meaning except the one that you give to it.

Greatness has no meaning without clear intentions and goals.

Mr Waldo Emerson defined success in this way: “To laugh often and much; To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.”

Are you great?

Greatness, independence or other worthy ideals are never solo destinations or retirement pamper-me-sick homes.  They are markers of progress and initiation points and invitations to work, think, dream and dare bigger things.

The challenge is not that there are problems, but that we sometimes think someone should be solving them. The challenge is not the existing reality; it is that there are few that boldly paint new models and pictures of greatness.

In talking about the future and empowering models that drive change and success, the thinker, Mr Buckminster Fuller once said: “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”

A vision of maintenance without improvement is a deadbeat goal. Mere maintenance of the past or present is never enough. Nations are in a rush towards greatness. Nothing remains static and thinking and dreaming like victims is the sure way to be left behind.

Without an empowering and inspiring vision stagnation is the eventual result.

Unless you think bigger, see better and speak differently, the power and value of independence may mean little to you.

Read history and you will be informed. Read widely and you will start seeing multiple perspectives. Listen to the speaking voices and you will add to your wisdom. Go beyond the trap of a single story. Get beyond the deception of a single excuse and pain point.

Get over the crutches and excuses of the past. The lessons of history are many and deep. They are a goldmine that you can explore for a lifetime. If the lessons of history are not learnt, that does not mean at all that history is not eloquent. Progress requires deep reflection. To just watch things as they are is basic habit. To complain about things is basic instinct. To accept personal responsibility and dump the urge to blame is progress.

Plan for greatness and you will be positioned for it. You will arrive prepared and have fewer surprises.

Play to win and not just to play. See the patterns and the moves in your context.

Challenge your limitations and dare to do great things.

Choose to position yourself where the action is. Be an answer and not just a member of the choir of empty questions.

Will and Ariel Durant spent over 50 years writing a book that they entitled: “The Story of Civilisation” that they published in 1968.

Subsequently they received several awards for their work of non-fiction. In their work five deep questions about history are painted:

1. What is the meaning of history?
2. What is civilisation?
3. Has human nature changed throughout history?
4. Does history repeat itself?
5. Is progress real?

It is these questions that must continue to seize us as we reflect in time and look back, in order to look ahead.

The Durants were thinkers and they challenge us to think deeply and reflect. Of ideas that have shaped the history of mankind and their continuing power they wrote: “Ideas are the strongest things of all in history, because even a gun was originally an idea.”

Regarding history repeating itself they warned: “There is no certainty that the future will repeat the past. Every year is an adventure.”

Talking about independence they fired this soul searching volley: “When we made ourselves free, we forgot to make ourselves intelligent.” Amen.

Greatness is a matter of perspective. It is the challenge to think great thoughts and have a positive and powerful collective mind; shared passion for excellence and goal for greatness that makes us a vision community.

Wherever this spirit is found progress is visible. How you think matters. Who you think with matters. What you think matters.

The mind is a powerful force for good and could be a stronghold as well. The challenge of independence is to review our patterns of thought, to audit our habits of thought and to reset the content of our thoughts.

We dare not forget to make ourselves intelligent.  Great things happen when the concern is for the greater good of the many not the mollification of the few.  Ideals and visions that are greater than personal convenience drive nations to places of greatness and inclusive development.

Purpose is a driving force of progress and national exploits.

Independence is an individual, community and national gift and challenge. What you think about independence determines what you do, do not do or say.

The tragedy in any nation is not attaining independence, but being independent yet being obsessed with the dependence and fears of the past instead of being animated by visions of the future.

The present is the past rolled up to adopted and taken diligent responsibility for.

The past is the present unrolled for reflection, understanding and contemplation.

Looking back it is easy to pine for the shackles of comfortable dependence. This is what history paints across time.

Memories can be woefully short and once comforts are being enjoyed they are taken for granted. The reality is that the past was wasteful, painful, divisive and limiting.

Pre-independence an order of society was created for us. Post-independence our choices are making the state of things we find ourselves in. We dare not be mere passengers in life. Freedom of any nature is a big burden of responsibility. We were excused from the painful strategic work, or burden of responsibility. Strategy, responsible action, consequence, blame and hard determined work are the burdens of freedom.

Bondage is more of a state of mind. In bondage a man is treated like a mere boy, and called so, whatever his age may be.

You do not have to plan or play any responsible part except docile subservience. The human spirit cannot bear long under such circumstances. In bondage you can always complain about being a victim and behave like one. You have someone that can always take the blame and is blame-worthy. Blame someone and bang the system!

Greatness, freedom and independence comes with awesome responsibility and the need for real weight lifting.

Independence knocks to the ground the easy ladder of blame-shifting.

In this day it is no longer what “they” did to us that matters but what we are doing ourselves and what we are doing to one another.

The challenge of liberation and independence is not for different generations and people of differing persuasions to device tools for blaming and harming each other but to accept personal responsibility for taking this nation forward.

In independence we owe a debt of gratitude to those who went before us, but an even bigger debt to generations unborn.

It is these unborn generations that will not accept flimsy excuses, nonsensical explanations, indiscipline and any un-strategic self-serving actions of today.

It is not what the nation or community we live in can do for us that matters most. It is what you can do in our spaces and the difference that we can make. We are born to be life-givers, energy-bringer and change-makers.

Blame is not a strategy, corruption is not greatness and exploitation is not sustainable success. Excusing ourself is not an option either. Taking responsibility and committing to playing our part is then calling and spirit of the time.

There is work for all us and we do not have the luxury of being spectators or running away and hoping to return to better self-made, self-improved communities. There is big and small work to do. Honest and responsible work is worthy and most needed at this hour.

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.