In one of his poetic songs, the village preacher quipped; “Why is the word Dictionary in the Dictionary?” then he went on; “Is it because no one has the right to define others without he himself being defined?” If life was a song then I would describe these words as the chorus, reason being they are words worth repeating generation after another. They are pregnant and timeless!
By Liberty Mwariwangu
The prophecy of our future is dependent on how we respond to our circumstances and the true definition of self is extracted from the pollens of personal experience. It is from overcoming those tempestuous episodes of life that we obtain a sense of worth. We should gear ourselves with a mentality and attitude that doesn’t shudder in the face of fire-arrayed crucibles of life. The reward we should look ahead to obtain out of every heated test of life are the lessons which help us to become high-voltage leaders across all scopes of life as Paul Romer of Stanford University asserts; “A crisis is a terrible thing to waste”.
There is always something good to obtain out of every crisis. Crisis is the first half of a match called opportunity; you will not enjoy the pleasure in the second half when you avoid learning from adversity. Learning from crisis precedes all meaningful and lasting pleasure of life.
Your adversities should act as a catalyst that refines you to become the best you were created to be in every facet of life that you represent. Aim to be a better team player as a wife or husband, an adorned executive or employee by taking daily steps of progress towards obtaining a particular goal in life. Don’t throw in the towel when the furnace throws a hot wind in your face, heroes are not born heroes, they are made through daily positive choices. Speaking of Jesus; a first century writer to the Hebrews asserted “…who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame…”
We can stir our resolve to remain on course towards achieving greatness when we have the audacity to despise the shame of this present moment, the shame of starting small or the shame to forego the delicacies of youthful fashion as we choose to invest in the future. Recently a friend sent me a picture on my mobile phone. In the picture featured Bill Gates the founder of Microsoft and the richest man on the planet gesturing a point to Mark Zukerberg a young multi-billionaire as well as founder of Facebook. A caption was written; “No Gucci belt, no Armani suit, no Rolex watch; the goal is to be rich not to look rich.” There is nothing wrong with looking rich as long as we don’t do it at the expense of our future.
There is a story of a wise elder that I read some time ago. Her married daughter had come to visit with a list of complains of how life was mistreating her. As she grieved she motioned to make a point. With a deep sigh, she rolled off to describe her misfortunes in remarkable celerity; “My husband… my boss… my friends… are making me miserable. I am having a tough time dad.” For ninety minutes, the father listened attentively until she finally came to a halt.
The old man didn’t say a word but instead strode to the kitchen which stood directly opposite his sitting room. He took an egg and swum it into the water and brought it to boil, when it was ready, he spooned it out and sat it in a plate. He took a few carrots, chipped them and threw them into a pot, poured water which he brought to boil as well. When they got ready he poured them in the same plate. Lastly he grabbed a few coffee beans in his palm, filled the same pot with water and streamed them in, brought them to boil then he poured the water into the cup.
The father gently asked her daughter to feel carrots in the plate. She did and observed the carrots had gone soft and could easily crush them between her fingers. He asked again to feel the egg. This time she did but with little reluctance but the observation was the egg had gone hard. The father finally asked her to smell the coffee then sip it. The tantalising aroma billowed through her nostrils and the taste was remarkable, “it tastes delicious and refreshing dad” she said.
“I subjected all these three under the same condition but we got three different outcomes. The egg is hardened, the carrot has gone soft and the coffee bean changed but a little however it changed the water to coffee and made it to taste good”, he rumbled. Then with his booming voice he continued; “Choose to become an egg and you will become callous, you will develop a cocoon of you own and become a social misfit. Your adversity would have made a terrible person to relate with. Choose to be become a carrot and you will be taken advantage of. Growing weak in the face of adversity is a sure sign that you never had inner strength. This way you will live at the mercy of other people. However if you decide to become a coffee bean, your adversity will inspire you to change your surroundings and you will become better after every test. You will be lovable and make friends; you will stand to benefit a lot in life.”
We must not give hardship the credit of burying people’s potential. We can become anything we want when we acquire the right attitude of extracting our definition from adversity. Don’t be a victim of life, sculpture the person you want out of yourself every opportunity you find and become a hero worth reckoning.
Liberty Mwariwangu Sr. is an Author, Columnist, Transformational-Motivational speaker, Consultant, Purpose expert and Senior pastor with Spirit Culture Churches Worldwide a non-denominational movement headquartered in Harare Zimbabwe. He is the founder of the Global Success Institute (GSI); an institution targeted at developing and enabling young people to make impact in their various spheres of influence so they can dominate in life. He makes appearances on television and radio speaking on purpose and motivation for a profitable and fulfilling life. He can be reached at +263774357394 or libsmwariwangu@gmail.com
