Small, constant actions turn dreams to reality

Thoughts alone, as grandiose as they may be, don’t get us closer to the reality of our dreams. They don’t make us work the daily goals and walk the talk. But thoughts are important as the springboard because they’re the ancestors of action, although having thoughts doesn’t guarantee action. It’s only through action that we truly do get closer to our dreams. Almost to say that actions are catalysts of turning dreams into reality.

Without taking action on what we have thought, we will continue to sell ourselves short. We will continue to be drifting ever distantly from our greatness. I know with me there are many thoughts, and repetitive thoughts, and less or at times, zero action. When that happens, and this is always a guaranteed outcome, I feel at my lowest – because I set my thoughts higher and my action mojo low or not set it at all. And I think that even for others, these causes a lot of the life’s depression valleys that we often find ourselves deep in their shadows.

If it is your thoughts and plan to go to gym to shape up for the summer, what is stopping you? Thirty minutes, or even 15min on the treadmill workout in the gym can provide some good deal of fitness (and cut back fat) as well as leave you less stressed by lightning you up.

If it is your plan and wish to wake up earlier in the mornings, say at about 5am, and you always find the courage to bang off the alarm than to step off bed, why not try to just get out and splash your face with cold water before hitting the kitchen for a kick starting cup of coffee? I bet you won’t go back to lounge in bed – at which point we always fall back into tempting slumber.

If it is your plan - which you always miss - to pray more often, why not do it whilst busy with something else or even whilst walking or driving? Almost like have a conversation with God as you would with a friend accompanying you in a car or walking to lunch. And it doesn't have to be a brilliant speech, but just your heart's prayer in your own words - a talk with a Friend. Still have excuses to miss it?

If it is your dream to start writing a book, why not just start by some little action: writing down the chapter names, designing the characters and laying out the plot? In fact, why not just write your first sentence.

The list is endless, and the first action, as difficult as always thought to be, is very rewarding. Instead of always wishing it, better try and do as little as you can manage of it each day. And you don’t have to always get it right – or for it to even work the first time. It is that we keep doing it that it turns into a habit, and such habits will truly make us.

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The universe is the servant of your wishes

As I'm battling to get through difficult chapter one of my fourteen-chapter book, I introduced a passage in one of the conversations in it. The passage is a long-standing natural truth that holds anywhere in the world (not that I've been an inch off South African shores). It's the principle that for a person who truly and hard enough, from the floors of their heart's, wishes to have something or be of greatness, the universe, with all it's many known and unknown mystical energies, will 'conspire to grant your wish'.

That truth, that principle alone, tells us that each of us can craft their own path to greatness with just a little bit of effort one day at a time for the universe's energies are not reserved by trucks of cash by a select few - they are accessible to everyone.

Effort and action, in my books I must confess, equals an invite for the universe's energies to come lift you up to heights that you yourself choose. It's an invite for these energies to circle around your heart to make it stronger to get closer to your dream. To metamophose your mind into a divine capsule that produces ideas you never thought would pass through your head. To transform your body into a stealth to guard it against weakness and distractive desires that may waiver your focus or put you off action from the dream.

But it is up to each one of us to make that one decision - as repetitive as we may make it (but continue until we get it right) - to start. To start to run our brush strokes on to that blank canvass. Until such a time happens, the powerful known and unknown mystical energies of the universe will not come to our support. And our dreams will remain just that: poooof... dreams.

As the many elders before all of us have said: "if you believe in something hard enough, the entire universe will conspire to make it happen". So do believe in that dream of yours hard enough, unquestionably and obsess on the action that has back it up, and watch the wings that the said energies will provide: wings of the mind and heart. And from that, comes never-thought-possible reality like the beauty of the first chapter of my international bestseller epic (ok, a little bit over shot but you get the point: believe hard enough).

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The source of today's personal and commune conflicts

I was experimenting with my stumble tool of stumbleupon.com, what an amazing resource. The websites and blogs that I've discovered since trying out this tool have let me to bits of extra useful knowledge. And a moment ago I came across this, which provides deep insight into the personal and commune problems experienced today:

The paradox of our age

• We have bigger houses but smaller families;
  more conveniences, but less time.
• We have more degrees but less sense; more knowledge but less judgment;
• More experts, but more problems;
• More medicines but less healthiness.
• We’ve been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble in crossing the street to meet our new neighbour.
• We built more computers to hold more copies than ever,
  But have less real communication;
• We have become long on quantity,
  but short on quality.
• These are times of fast foods but slow digestion;
• Tall mean but short characters;
• Steep profits but shallow relationships.
• It’s a time when there is much in the window
  But nothing in the room.
  
  His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.

Think upon this if you may.

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Exhilaratingly spooky and freaking dumbfounding

Those are my words describing my mood this morning after realising that I’ve made my first step to greatness by leaping or rather rocketing out of my sheepskin that I’d worn for over a decade. A decade of mediocrity and sorrow, and of course, mixed with fun, growth and love too. The challenge that comes with this infinite liberty will be extreme, but I hear a voice inside me say that it’s “okay”. That “the internal elements of such extremes are only there to guide you and mould you into what you’ve always desired to be”.

Immediately after seating at my desk here at work, I called my wife to share with her my ‘super natural’ anti-climax - (‘super natural’ because it was so difficult to arrive at this starting line), I’d believed that the start will be super natural. That some super natural force will come to me to help me get to the start.

But what I shared with my wife on the phone were news of a simple yet beautiful feeling of peace and quietness from within me. That the battles I’d embarked on for over ten years have now summed up to mean something: an arrival at a start called ‘the responsible path to greatness’ – and a least travelled one at that, for many do still wear the sheepskin that I’ve just shed (although it was shed over a longer time and I still have to peel off the itsy bitsy itching and annoying remnants her and there).

Let me not say too much of what happened in the last 24 hours but that on trying to fish meaning by sharing with my wife my insight, we both deduced that I made the call during the hour of 7am and I’d planned to dry fast so that I can shed off this sheepskin for good and commemorate a deeper connection with the joy, peace and birthpower from within me – the fast is on 07.07.07. The metaphor in that was oceans away from my mind and heart, but my wife simply said 777 is conventionally a jackpot.

There you go – 07.07.07 is the starting line to the thin path to greatness and infinite joy for me and I plan to share every moment of that with people along the way!

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We fear a 'thing' called nothing - laughable hey

Yes, fear stops no man. Fear, because it isn't a physical blockade standing tall and wide like the Great Wall of China, doesn't, in fact, stop any person - we stop ourselves. As people we choose to believe that fear stops us from doing this and that, from achieve our heart's desires. Fear is pure melancholy and no more. It's a feeling like any other and we can either choose to embrace it or let go of it and just be. The saddest thing is that after our brave, wonderous and adventourous child days, we become encultured, as adults, into embracing, and in fact, instilling fear into our once beautifully bravehearts. If you think of it, what we fear is in fact not there. We fear a 'thing' called nothing (wuuu, wuuuuuuuuu!) - isn't that laughable!

I feared so much to put down the first word of my novel - for years. The reason I feared was because I felt somewhat that I wasn't good enough. That I couldn't cut it (although no one told me this, I told myself that and it became a self-fulfilling prophecy). That I had to wait for something extra first to come and attach to me so I can become greater, a genius with some holy manna-type inspiration falling into my head to knock me into a 'capable' genius. But I thought hard and long about it. Searched deep and thorough.

The truth hit me: that those who put down their first words weren't geniuses. They weren't hit by some manna-type seed from up above. They started because they chose not to judge their future based on learnt and self-imposed inhibitions. With my deep-search, I realised that what I most fear isn't there. There is nothing. Just a smokescreen of melancholy in my mind that I invented over the years as life knocked me left, right and centre (and down too). But the only person that can knock me up is me. And with that, the first paragraph to my most debatable, bestseller novel was cast. And alas, fear, as I'd imagined, is nothing but a coward I invented. It wasn't there to stop me.

The reality of the situation is that everything else I need, every single resource that I need to sojourn into my dreams and capture them is already in me. It was there the moment I was born - just like you. Great people came to this earth like you and me. With no clothes, special hammer and chisel, etcetera etcetera. Just the natural resources inside each and everyone of us that we choose, which in turn assist us to either seize the moments in our lifes that come as windows of opportunity or to look fear in the eye (what eye?) and show it our heels.

David Taylor asks in his book, The Naked Coach: 'Can you walk into a maternity ward in a hospital full of newborn babies and honestly point to me the ones who are failures?'. I'll leave you to answer that one.

Perhaps we can both agree that our failures are learnt, so much as they can be unlearnt, if not, perhaps they can be used to inspire us to run forward, for if we've made fear this much strong in governing our lifes, then its anti-thesis, Courage, isn't getting invited to the party by us. How about the instant fear spookily cuts in, we invite Courage to come to the stage as well?

Remember one thing: What we fear is not there. We fear a 'thing' called nothing.

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Understanding discipline in order to be disciplined

"Discipline is a necessary spell we create ourselves to focus our energies on what is the right thing to do and is also important - then doing it," Izz.

Discipline is a very significant word in the human vocabulary. From a community point of view, it makes us live together in harmony or at least aspire to. It makes people behave in better ways that acknowledge the need for common existence - without discipline, everybody would do as they please and somewhat, a chaos point would be reached pervasively and our relations with others would be a mess. But my interest in this word at this point is more on a personal level. Personal discipline. It is this, albeit not alone, that makes great people that: Great People. That makes succesful people a success. That makes lovely kids lovely. That makes the alchemist, a master. That makes you and me marvellous in our desired ways or just downright mediocre - depending on which side of the descipline fence we choose to stand on.

I've chosen to stand on the committed side of the descipline and do what I set out to do - I try to make it consistent. I really try. And boy is this tough. The hardships on this side of the fence would make one swear it's not worth it - that one should just be on the lounging side and just throwing up their feet and waiting for life to happen whilst embracing mediocrity (we do embrace it by virtue of not choosing to be great).

But I can't pick the other side of the fence - which I lived at for long enough and all it's done for me was play games with my soul and live me right where I was since choosing that side many years ago. I wonder which side you stand on. The committed side of the discipline or the lounging side (which can be chosen by virtue of not choosing the other).

Courtesy of dictionary.com, I pulled out the following meanings of the word discipline:

• Training to act in accordance with rules
• Behavior in accord with rules of conduct; behavior and order maintained by training and control
• Trained habits that separate the wheat from the charf, whilst keeping the charf as that: the charf (my own meaning)

What I like about those meanings is that they echoe what we all know for sure: that discipline, because it gives us so much more than it can ever take away, comes with training. That for us to be disciplined, we need to train ourselves to live our lifes in certain ways that speak of greatness, and oppose mediocrity.

The best part of these meanings is that we can set our own personal rules to live by, whilst adopting the universal rules of successful and great people. At best, we will be disciplined if we have set ourselves a life's vision and mission. In that way, we ensure that what we do daily is getting us closer to our vision. In other words, we live the mission of our life - and if we're not, we know that our discipline is lounging and we will become mediocre people as we watch our dreams wallow in the lost wind.

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Focus is important when catching dreams

This past was a very productive weekend. The post effect of productivity is a lighter heart and clearer mind. And that is embraced too, by bliss and less soul torment. On the weekend, I cleared some of the baggage that inhibits me toward an action-oriented life. For I had my many goals and dreams, which I wanted to make real at once with one energy. But on some spontaneous, albeit significant, and rare conversation with my life partner, I was told unapologetically that I waste so much energy shooting at many a star instead of concentrating it first at one star. My wife simply told me: "focus on your biggest dream that you had for a long time, and that is writing, which you're good at (she's nice to me, I know you may think differently)."

When I went to Rhodes University, after hearing of it by pure chance in some paper ad ('best journalism school in Africa' - it screamed) whilst in that back-of-the-world village, the goal was one: Go learn how to sharpen your writing skill for straight four years - and when you finish, write that killer-award-winner novel. I got there, and realised they don't teach you to write novels but rather to write (journalistic) - and the choice is yours what you do with that.

So, with my wife's weekender words in mind, I got reminded that the top of my dreams list was always crowned by one: Write a damned good novel. And I caught a wake up call that I better refocus and waiver away from some other somewhat good but distracting brand new dreams (put them off and start on this one biggest dream first). It's good I had that came-natural talk, which made me realise that I was starting to stop to see the bull's eye and my heart's appetite wandering about unguided.

Nothing wrong with focusing on many dreams, but if one of them is not taken serious enough with the laser attention it deserves, how come any of them be alchemised to reality? Think of the imagery of the alchemist. He needs to put one raw iron at a time into that furnace. For each of them needs enough heat to give in and be moulded into masterpieces.

So it is with that insight that my focus will be heavily on writing, sharpening and mastering this skill as I work on my novel and/or other books. In fact, I was already on the right way with my thoughts on two books before this weekend even cut in. But it was only yesterday that I bought a novel called Wizard of the Crow by Ngugi wa Thiong'o just to oil and rev up the machine.

If you aren't catching your dreams well yet, if you can't alchemise them and turn them into reality, how about you refocus and go big on that one long-standing dream that's so close to your heart? Would that be a bad idea? I'm trying it out.

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Lose yourself, like Slim Shady, lose yourself

"If you had, one shot, one opportunity, to seize everything you ever wanted, one moment, would you capture it, or just let it slip."

I play Slim's "Lose Yourself" a lot more than any other song on my laptop. I fire up my day with it. When I'm stuck whilst writing, it panelbeats the writers block for me, because I lose myself. There are other songs that raze my fears and inhibitions to the ground. I’m sure you also have. If you don’t you better start having. It can make a lot of difference between a shit day and one beautiful, productive day.

Slim's words of "If you had one shot…" reminds me that we always get our shot. No. Not just a shot, but our best shot, then we don’t capture it, we don’t own it, we let it slip. Often. That’s why we go in circles about our dreams and bad habits - that's why I do. For now!. In Og Mandino’s The Greatest Salesman in the World (which I wrote about yesterday), Hafiq says ‘habits are good. Just replace all the bad ones with the good ones’. For me, the baddies are being replaced with the goodies since some time last month. But I know that I let it slip a bit. And it hurts me to see it slip of my own cause.

"The moment you own it you better never let it go, you only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow, this opportunity comes once in a life time."

When that moment comes to make it all right. To change it all after a lot of struggle. After the big opportunity comes to make it better for yourself, own it. Like I said I slip a bit (not for long), but I know that the time has come for me to own it once and for all. And so far, so good (notwithstanding the small procrastinations here and there - which are being ironed out).

"This world is mine for the taking, make me king."

I wrote before about shortliving our lives, ourselves. And always settling for the smaller, safer, risk-less dreams or habits or life. What happens with that, I realized for me, is that you shoot for the tree to hit a bird, you hit only the tree. But you shoot for the sky, you hit a star. A damned bright happy star.

"I've got to formulate a plot or I’ll end up in jail or shot. Success is my only motherfucking option, failure is not."

For most of us, failure is an option we go with. It doesn’t happen because it’s part of the puzzle. It’s because we didn’t formulate a plan. We went on with hope of getting what we never planned to get. We believe in luck too much than we do in planning the goals toward our dreams. Charting a path to our desired life’s is necessary. Leave out failure as an option. Formulate your best plan, then go for the kill with massive action. If you aimed high enough, sure one star will be hit – and that’s not failure. It’s a different outcome of success, for even the best laid plans can take a different course and result.

"You can do anything you set your mind to man."

I believe Slim on this one. Yesterday I did an op on my tooth after having missed my appointment seven days ago (yes I got late – bad bad habit). On arriving late, Dr Sic, the dentist, told me that he will not be held liable should the temporary fill in my tooth cause trouble since its date to be replaced by a permanent one is due. He said the pain I had experienced would all come back. My mind, at that very instant, made me believe I was in pain when I left the office. I could feel the pain. Not because it was there, but because a pro told me it may come back. Now isn’t that the infinite power of the mind? That it believes what it's told and can't tell the real from the unreal. I plan to tell my mind other big, less painful things. In short, I’m going to lose myself.

Say hello to someone different today and tomorrow

Try something new today. Try to do anything that you haven’t done yesterday or you don’t normally do. In fact, say hi to someone you don’t really know. Someone you’re not close to or even acquainted with. Humble them. May be that security guard at the gate/door. That other ‘dreaded’ colleague. That cashier at the hyperstore and when you say it, back it up with goodwill – mean it. As people we’re not use to a bonus out of the blue – well, give that person a bonus and bade them a good day. You’ll make their day. Trust me. (In the village where I was buttered for the 18 years of my life, everyone says hi to everyone).

Last week, I pulled out my cellphone and started dialing stagnant numbers one at a time. “I just called to check on how you doing,” I said. “It’s been a long time since we spoke and wanted to make sure you’re still kicking ass on that side.” The reactions I got from some of the people were totally humbling – in fact, they were more humbled by my small gesture than I was by their reaction. But it said to me that as humans, as friends, we always need to feel like we matter. That somebody out there does care about us. They do wish for us to be doing good.

So go humble that stranger and say ‘hi’ to them and wish them a ‘good day’.

These thoughts were inspired by an old white men who always beams a smile to strangers in a lift at work and starts chatting them up about anything – the last he chatted me up about was the Barcelona/Sundowns match, and that lighted up my day. And on average, it’s the older (wiser) people who engage in such small, beautiful but humbling gestures, but the youthful will not be charged tax for doing so.

Try it. I’ve arranged with the revenue services for a tax exempt on this one. So your pocket is dent-proof.

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"Judge of a man by his questions, rather than by his answers." - Voltaire

Take stock of all your dreams, ever

Create an inventory of all your dreams. Yes all of them. All the dreams you’ve ever had since you had the tax-free talent to dream. If such sounds like a life’s impossible project as all those dreams, then list all of those dreams and goals which first come to mind as the most prominent and important. Why take stock of all your dreams? I believe that in them, there lies a majority part of the DNA of who you really are. The lost map to follow. The person that you still are dying silently inside to become – but you’re always falling short because you’re busy being busy living (at least I’m). Living to do what, I asked myself four hours ago, if not toiling to achieve those deep sitted dreams.

Last night. In fact, these early hours of the morning at 1.30am I felt tempted to re-read one of the most compelling books I ever laid my paws on – but overwhelming slumber forbade me. And now the hour is just 5am and here I sit in the same study burning to get better at my life by adhering to my brand new morning ritual of ‘up at 4.45am, start writing at 5am’ what matters most to you and which you should attempt to live out the day ahead.

This book, the only book to date I read uninterrupted from cover to cover (yes it’s not a tome, but extremely punchy and significant than most large works).

The Greatest Salesmen in the World by Og Mandino, speaks of us not as mere mortals. But kings and queens – within – in our own unique way. That we’re cut from a perfect cloth of the spirit of achievement and not destined for mediocrity as sheep are. But the condition is one to realize such dreams: that we chase them with brutality take failure as a signpost that we’re nearest to the loot. “My dreams are worthless, my plans are dust, my goals are impossible. All are of no value unless they are followed by action. I will act now,” it proclaims.

Now, isn’t it that we’re deeply wounded by the lack of action towards our dreams than anything else? For me, that is. But yet we keep creating for ourselves more dreams and goals and less action. And we never take stock of the old dreams. In those dreams lies the person that we truly die to be (although we’re not toiling towards that). And with all stock in order. The long list complete, then action must follow – action of the outmost and unapologetic brutality.

For me, with the inventory of my dreams, the complete list of all my dreams ever (to the best of my knowledge) I will start from the smallest one at the bottom and climb up towards the beginning of the list to the biggest most challenging dreams, achieving them, as the ancient scrolls in Mandino’s book suggests: One at a time – and with the confidence gained from the previous smaller achievements, I will see that it’s all not impossible and I’ll prepare to GOB!G on the number one dream.

My GOB!G list of all those dreams (edited and in no order) - an example

• Write my debut novel – (Kopano Matlwa did it) starting next month
• Meet Nelson Mandela in a private conversation – within next six months
  Prepare my women’s magazine business plan – finish before end August (in time for the FNB business plan competition for a whopping R20mil)
• Do what I always wanted to do for my father (gratitude gesture) – by end of the week
• Launch my two venerable projects at work – next 30 days
• Forgive those who hurt me the most – next three months
• Visit Zimbabwe, the land of my grandfather – by end August
• Design a personal discipline ritual/cult list – by end of the week (the 4.45am and 5am writing time is already perfectly in act)
• Travel far and wide – initiate by mid-2008 (a tour of Europe is already in the works with university contacts and friends out there)
• Spend quality time with the family – starting yesterday (the wife hasn’t complained yet. Just stepping up the benchmark)

The list continues… (just a taste of my stock list). Here's a trick: Try and sell all those dreams to yourself and see if you buy any of them. Then separate those that you believe from those that are just air. Then take immediate action on the ones you believe. Be your own salesman and try and convince yourself to buy those dreams.

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"Judge of a man by his questions, rather than by his answers." - Voltaire

A leaf out of the chutzpah of June 16 youth

I was making a comment on the entry by Kefilwe, one of my favourite bloggers. And since I always admire the spirit of the youth of June 16 1976 and the motives for taking to the streets. For having a goal and charting a map on how to get to that goal. Holding their own until their chutzpah could be felt like a raging ripple, a cry for a better life - I thought I must share my comment to her story. Because that that spirit, I will always fight for within myself that I someday have so that I can be able to use it to also push for change in my own personal wars in which I constantly fight, or wish that I can let the Izz within me, the one who is great, be! And I have no doubt that once that happens, those around me will also benefit - and the ripple effect could be amazing.

Read on this comment:

QUOTE
Hey you. Insightful entry. I wish the lot of youth of today saw things the way the 'war hero' conversant of yours sees them. That we can somewhat adopt their spirit. Which is not such a difficult thing to do had we not been spending all our time perambulating between clubs in town or on weekends in endless house parties discussing Khanyi Mbau and Mandla and how sorry they are and what they have materially.

I wish for all of my peers, Izz included, to turn the spirit of the youth of June 16 into a personal fight within themselves to become great in other ways. Especially in ways of personal development and achievement.

We can never get close to June 16 youth spirit and chutzpah, but we can wage wars within ourselves to win over our weaknesses. You inspired me with that story to write this comment, and forgive me but am also posting it on my blog. I'm feeling the spirit I guess. Mmmmm, Amen. Hallelujah! (that stands for aluta continua I know).
UNQUOTE

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"Judge of a man by his questions, rather than by his answers." - Voltaire