Transition Person II: How To Be One

No matter what has happened, is happening, or will happen, there is a space between those things and our responses to them. ­– Stephen R. Covey

It is important to be a transition person. You get to stop any unwanted trait in your family, work, church, or community. In addition you have the privilege of starting new paths and traits for the next generation. In a way you become a definer of the future.

It is important but not easy to be a transition person. It takes the intentional development and use of several virtues to break a chain. A chain breaker must be disciplined, courageous, focused, creative, and consistent – among other things. Without these virtues developed in a transition person effective transition wouldn’t be possible.

Effective transition is only actualized when the people coming after you actually take to your reformed path. People may like your path, or speak positively about your ideas but they must get to the point where they actually take the steps you require of them before you can consider your transition as effective.

So how do you bring about effective transition? You must be:

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1.     Open to instructions. The person that will effectively transit must be open to new instructions he isn’t used to.

2.     Obedient to instructions. You don’t know it all. No one person does. When you receive the right instructions obey.

3.     Willing to change. You cannot be an effective transition person if you remain uncomfortable with change. Be willing to leave your comfort zone.

4.     A sower. You must sow to reap. It is a principle for growth.

5.     Patient. You should remain patient with the process. Don’t expect immediate results. Your target is the future not the present. Remember.

6.     Unafraid of being tagged a nonconformist. All transition persons are called names. Nelson Mandela was called, “The Black Pimpernel,” Jesus was called the Agent of Beelzabub. You won’t be different.

7.     Willing to pass down the baton. You will be an incomplete transition person if you don’t pass down the new baton to the next generation thereby starting a brand new change. It is said, “There is no success without a successor.”

Transition Person I: Don't Continue the Rusted Chain

No matter what has happened, is happening, or will happen, there is a space between those things and our responses to them. ­– Stephen R. Covey

 It is easy – much easier – to react to things rather than respond to them. We are taught in physics that action and reaction are equal and opposite and so we internalize that and give back what has been given to us.

In the same way it is easier to continue the chain of what we see around us rather than break it. In our desire not to be the weak link we become blinded to the fact that the chain we are protecting is rusted. A rusted chain is the family in which mummy got pregnant out of wedlock, first daughter, second daughter and third daughter let's it "happen" to them. It is a business in which boss is verbally abusive, manager verbally abusive, supervisors verbally abusive. It is the home in which father beats mummy, sons beat girlfriends.

We all have had (or still have) our share of rusted chains. The easy thing to do is ensure the rusted chain doesn’t break with you. For example, my Dad gave himself to alcohol for much of his young life and I found myself with an alcohol bottle every evening in my early youth. Not only that, I initiated my younger brother! I had to get to the point where I spoke sense to myself to not continue the habit I so hated in lovely daddy.

It is only when you decide not to continue the rusted chain that you become a transition person. A transition person, in the words of Stephen R. Covey, is “one who stops unworthy tendencies from being passed on from prior generations to those that follow.”

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          The transition person is a chain breaker. He doesn’t sit back and allow life happen to him but makes life happen. He doesn’t react to stimulus, he responds to it. He recognizes that he has the power to determine how his life turns out and decides daily to take only the steps that ensure the rusted chain breaks.

Transition persons are priceless to the future. They are the hope we have for a better tomorrow. They are the reasons we will not have better yesterdays. They set a different example for the next generation to emulate. Do you want to be a transition person? Sure you do! Follow my next article as it shows how to be one.

Kingmakers

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The spirited horse, which will try to win the race of its own accord, will run even faster if encouraged. ­– Ovid

In our world plagued with celebrity worship syndrome and an “I did it” obsession it is difficult to get people to cooperate to achieve a common goal. We all want to do it ourselves – all alone – because we erroneously think that’s the only way to be relevant in this world.

Islands may be beautiful for vacations but are ugly as people. I read a quote some years back which says, “Talent is developed in isolation, character in the stream of life.” I like that: stream of life – you want to be a better person you need people around you.

Contrary to much teaching you can be fulfilled in making another person’s vision come to pass. In fact many purposes are actualized only in working to actualize the purpose of another. There are some people’s visions I have totally bought into and am working every day to see happen. That doesn’t make me less of who I am but, in fact, more.

When you help a broader vision actualize you become a kingmaker. Kingmakers are people who identify a large vision, believe in it, and work to see it come to pass. They accept that someone else may be seen to receive the glorification rather than they because they believe in the vision.

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          A kingmaker doesn’t look out only for himself. Enough of starting tiny businesses that cannot compete beyond three years when you can merge your ideas with another person’s and hit it big. Enough of fighting to see your name hanging at the “top” when it doesn’t have to be there. Leadership isn’t the same thing as headship. Being a helper isn’t another name for being a failure. What matters is that you have found your place; and if your place is that of a kingmaker then so be it!

          Interestingly as Zig Ziglar beautifully puts it, “You will get whatever you want from life if you would help enough people get whatever they want from life.”

Best Success Secret II: God's Direction

A man’s heart plans his ways, but the Lord directs his steps. ­– Solomon David

Can you but love people who know how to plan? It is interesting working with such because it seems every advice you give yields good results. You can help anybody who has a plan get to where he desires to. What can you do with a plan-less folk? You cannot push him. You cannot motivate him for greatness. You cannot direct him because which way will you direct a traveler who has no idea where he is going?

Irrespective of my best intentions in guiding someone with a plan to his goal God does it beyond all imagination. He specializes on giving the right direction at all times to the person with a plan. God will tell you what steps to take, what turns to make, what foot to put forward next. He will guide you to the best stocks to buy, when to buy and when to restrain yourself.

It is God’s desire to guide you to heights beyond the limits you have imagined. Interestingly we find it difficult to believe. We often see our goals as ours. We think on a straight line that because if our hearts have conceived the vision then we must find our way through to it. With God in the picture it isn’t so by any stint of the imagination. He desires to guide you as you take one step and then another toward a vision. “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, “This is the way; walk in it,”” says an envoy from God.

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If you desire God’s direction in accomplishing your plans you must do your part by;

1.     Having a plan

2.     Acknowledging God’s place in your plans

3.     Pursuing goals that would be of benefit to others

4.     Overcoming crippling fear

5.     Taking steps in faith

6.     Obeying the last instruction received exactly as it was instructed

There are certain pointers I have identified through which you may know that God is leading you:

1. Breakthrough ideas you haven't thought of pop-up into your mind
2. You find help from people at times and places you never imagined to find them
3. You coincide with opportunities that suit perfectly with your inherent gifts, talents and skills
4. You encounter bigger burdens that move you to act

Best Success Secret I: Planning

A man’s heart plans his ways, but the Lord directs his steps. ­– Solomon David

The quote above outlines what may be the best success secret of all time. It shows two things that will ensure a person achieves his goals; your plan and God’s direction.

A colleague once wrote me a request that he wanted to work with me and help me accomplish the goals I have set. I appreciated his interest in my work but replied that he sends me his personal vision, dreams and goals set. I could have jumped on the opportunity of making my goals more achievable because of his input but I know two things; he would be no good to me if he has no personal goals, and the person who will help you achieve anything worthwhile must first know how to plan his own life.

          A plan is an outline of how a vision will be achieved. It tells, in detail, how a person will get from point A to B. It breaks down goal pursuit into simpler steps. To make effective plans every time you try, ask yourself the following questions:

1.     What do I want to achieve?

2.     Where am I at the moment in reference to my goal?

3.     What resources do I have at my disposal?

4.     Who can help me?

5.     How much time do I have?

6.     What are the small steps I can take today that will move me closer to achieving my goal?

7.     When do I begin?

The answers to these questions are the framework for your plan. As you answer them you begin to see what it will really take to achieve your goal and if you have what it takes at the moment to achieve it. I believe that it doesn’t matter how far a person is from his vision, he can achieve it if he has a plan that clearly tells how to achieve it.

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When you have outlined your plan you step out in faith that your plans will work. It is at this time that the second ingredient to your success recipe – God’s direction gets rolling. We will deal with that in the next article.