Draw a line in your life
If people have to explain to you what they want to do in their life and the plans they have, you will actually be amazed. If anything, all the people in the world are rich on the scale of their wishes.
In their minds, people have the most wonderful buildings the world has ever had; in their minds, they are transforming companies they work for to become the best in the world; in their minds, they are heads of states; in their minds, they are everything.
Why is it then that only a few people in life achieve greatness?
The answer is very simple. Those that make it great learnt to undertake the real decision in life – they took action, they were not satisfied with the illusion of wishful thinking. They resiliently worked hard on their dreams; they modified their lives to suit the dream they wanted; they spent sleepless nights working on their dream; they defied conventional thinking that was against them.
If you are not making it in life as you ought to be and would wish to be then do not blame anybody but yourself. It is all because you have mastered the art of building castles in the air and have decided just to do nothing but only speak of your wishes.
Remember, if wishes were horses, beggars would ride. Nothing will beat taking action. You cannot wish to earn a higher qualification if you do not enroll for studies and work hard. You cannot make it as a top footballer or athlete without sacrificing many hours in training.
People who make it to greatness have no time to blame circumstances or rather wait for the best moment to come. They make the moments. There will never be the right moment for your ideas to flourish. You will have to create your moment. Conventional thinking will tell you that this may not be the best time to invest in a certain business. What will amaze you is that while you procrastinate, others invest and make huge returns. Stop following the majority; walk your own path to greatness. If greatness was easy, everyone would have been an achiever.
Draw a line that never will you look at things and challenges in the way other people look at them. You will always look at opportunities that hide in the challenges you encounter. Read the story of Ed Roberts. He did not blame the fact that he was a wheelchair-confined person. If anything, he decided to take actions that defied his apparent limitations.
Here is the story. Ed Roberts has been paralysed from the neck down since he was 14 years old. Each day he uses a breathing device that he has mastered against all odds to lead as normal a life as possible and he spends every night in an iron lung. He does not focus on the pain that he encounters; he focuses on greatness.
Anthony Robbins gives a good lecture on the life of Ed Roberts. Robbins points out that ‘for the last fifteen years, his decision to fight against a world he often found condescending has resulted in many improvements in quality of life for the people who are disabled.’
Ed Roberts has educated the public and initiated everything from wheelchair access ramps and special parking spaces to grab bars. He became the first quadriplegic to graduate from the University of California, Berkeley, and he eventually held the position of Director of the California State Department of Rehabilitation, again pioneering his position for the people who are disabled. Ed Roberts drew a line on what he wanted to do and he made it.
Malawi has exceptional stories of people that have drawn lines in their lives and it made a difference. There are people who are tycoons now from the humble beginning of raising cattle.
Imagine that even Mike Mlombwa started his business selling papers, one by one; not a ream, but sheets of paper. We have stationery shops that have grown big just from a humble beginning like selling envelopes and pens on the street. These people drew a line in their lives and decided how they would walk.
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