Fortified for the future (V)

By Smith Bam

THIS was the question an elderly man asked me at the end of a seminar where I was the main speaker. Can you imagine such a question? As people lined up for various reasons, I spotted the elderly man and since I don’t belong to the school of thought that gives no regard to elders, I appealed to the others to allow me attend to this elderly man. I want to get old and live long and I will like to be respected as well. I believe you reap what you sow. So with smiles on my face, I greeted the man and listened to him and the questioned he asked, threw me off balance. He said; ‘do you believe there is God? I was amazed but I said, yes I do sir but why that question? He said, “as much as I enjoyed your presentation, I think it is in-complete if you don’t put God into the centre of all that you have said.

It could be misleading to say that we can achieve our dreams alone without GOD.’ I was tempted to interject but somehow, I kept my cool. Imagine how you would have felt after being respectful only to face such a criticism. But I kept smiling, nodding and saying thank you sir. To be honest, I felt a bit bad but after a second thought, the elderly man was right. I did not study my environment well enough to see that we had quite a number of elderly people in attendance.

I must have lost some of them due to my insensitivity. I learnt a big lesson from the criticism. Now I do a thorough job of studying my audience properly while I am presenting and make sure I block any hole. I am not trying to please everyone, but trying to improve my presentation and make sure I have an audience buy-in. You also should swallow the element of truth you discover in the criticism you receive on your way to the top. Doing such will naturally position you for improvement and advancement that you probably would not have had. It may be bitter but it is better.
vitamin=L=lean into it

“Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase. Just take the first step”, was the sentence an uncle of mine made, that propelled me to follow my dreams. Murdock also said “pursuit is the evidence of purpose”. My friend, talk is cheap. Everybody knows how to do it well and better but how many actually get to doing it well and better.
Just do it

You can’t cross a sea by merely starting into the water. Often times success happens when you just lean into it – when you make yourself open to opportunities and are willing to do what it takes to pursue it further – without a contract, without a promise of success, without any expectation whatsoever. You just start, lean into it. You see what it feels like, and you find out if you want to keep going – instead of sitting on the sidelines deliberating, reflecting and contemplating.

When you lean!
Momentum: One of the extraordinary benefits of just leaning into it is that you create momentum. You start generating that unseen energy force that brings more opportunity, more resources and more people who can help you into your life at seemingly just the right time for you to benefit the most from them. Remember that the first step is often the most difficult. Once you launch out, nature and the universe will favour you, bring towards you events and circumstances that will constantly fuel your motivated spirit. Without momentum, we don’t arrive at the opportunities that await us. The longer we linger with momentum, the stronger we become with motivation.

The Further, the farther
It has been said that the further you go, the farther you see. Of course, just leaning into a project or opportunity also means you must be willing to start without necessarily seeing the entire pathway from the beginning. You must be willing to lean into it and see how it unfolds. You must unfold your hands if you want the universe to unfold its goodies. Often, most of us have dreams and because we can’t see how to go about achieving it, we are afraid to start, afraid to commit ourselves because the path is unclear and the outcome is uncertain. But leaning into it requires that you be willing to explore – to enter unknown waters and stop starring at the ship, get into the ship, Sail and you will get close to your dreams.