Be exceptional

By Patrick Achitabwino:

Some names will quickly come to your mind when you think of some sectors in life. Surely, at the mention of football, names like Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Pele will be among those that quickly come to mind.

If it comes to golf, certainly Tiger Woods’ name will ricochet in your mind.

In case you have an appetite for doing business, names like Strive Masiyiwa, Thomson Mpinganjira, Patrice Motsepe and Aliko Dangote will be some of the names that will pop up in your mind.

Some names dominate some industries: Usain Bolt and sprinting; Michael Jackson and pop music; Elon Musk and innovation; Bill Cosby and comedy; Mike Tyson and boxing.

Talk of the corporate world, certainly names like Edith Jiya, George Partridge, Vizenge Kumwenda, Leonnard Chikadya, Lusubilo Chakaniza and many others will come to your mind.

In all these, the bottom line is the ability to be exceptional. When you are average, when you are doing things just like the way everybody else is doing them, there is no way the world will notice and cherish you.

Many people dream of following the footprints of their icons. A majority does not make it just because all they do is believe and profess what they admire and what they want to be; they hardly do that which took their icons to the level they have been.

The greatest self – betrayal is to just only believe in your potential and ability to be great but not willing to take the risks that necessitate you to be that great.

Celebrated sports icons spend a lot of time training, repeatedly doing the very same things until they master them and that is what makes them unique.

The skills with which they dazzle you in the field of play are as a result of countless hours of practice. The brilliant flashes of their talent that you see in seconds or minutes are but a manifestation of intensive training characterised with some failures along the way.

Being exceptional is the mark of greatness. Being exceptional means that you have opted to set yourself apart from the ordinary; you have opted to fly high like an eagle.

Being exceptional will see you doing what many would consider impossible. People will call you crazy because they are looking at you with an ordinary eye. Do not mind them. You are operating at different wavelengths.

If the Wright Brothers had wasted time listening to those who thought they were mad for working on an aeroplane; possibly the world would have had no flying bird to this day.

When you are trying to be exceptional, there will be sections of people who will ridicule you and say: “Who does he think he is? Many other people failed in that.” That should not sway you away from working on your dreams.

Remember, they are judging you on the barometer of the limitedness of their thinking. It is not your thinking. Let your thinking and actions be the limiting factor to that which you can do.

Remember this; eventually, when you have made it and you are living the life of your dreams, the very same people that scorned you will be the ones narrating to others that you are a brave person.

If anything, they will also have you as an example of uniqueness.

Whatever it is that your mind thinks you can do; believe that it is possible. Anything that the mind conceives is conceived because there is a possibility of it being achieved.

Apparently, the world is in desperate need of great ideas being turned into action. Carry on with your ideas, work on them tirelessly. Put in everything you can in doing that which you love most until you reach the exceptional peak.

You can do it. You will do it. If only you work on it; know that you will do it. If anything, you are already on the right path to doing it.