Do You Want a Revolution?

A revolution is not a bed of roses. A revolution is a struggle between the future and the past. – Fidel Castro

          Our world has experienced countless revolutions through the ages. In recent times we have witnessed the Log Revolution in Croatia, the Tuareg Rebellion in Niger and Mali, the Green movement in Iran and, more recently, the Arab Spring. It is obvious from history that revolutions are a part of human community.

Revolutions create platforms for change. Every revolution begins out of the desire to change something. Without a mind for change revolutions are out of place. In addition, they are a generational thing – as political activist Abbie Hoffman says, "... a revolution is a perpetual process embedded in the human spirit." There always come a generation that becomes uncomfortable with the norm. They see a future that cannot be achieved if things remain exactly as they are. They understand that to create the future they want they must change the present.

As it is with societies so it is with individual lives. To make the progress you envision you must create drastic changes today. Without these changes the future is impossible. There are four revolutions you need to have; a spiritual revolution, an attitudinal revolution, a responsibility revolution, and a knowledge revolution.

A spiritual revolution sets you up for an all-involving success. By this I mean the whole of your being joins in the process. You will not feel successful, irrespective of your outward attainments, without a spiritual revolution. A spiritual revolution sets you free. Makes you feel limitless.

An attitudinal revolution begins with a change in your thoughts. You are an embodiment of your thoughts. Your thoughts do two things – they show you who you are and reveal to you who you will become. In addition, a revolution in your attitude will make you change your participation in worthwhile ventures. You will no longer remain passive but will become active. It will then build your character. Character, it is said, is developed in the stream of life – as you relate with people daily.

A responsibility revolution exposes you to the fact that you are responsible for your every action – Everything you do is your fault. It changes your expectations toward people because you see that nobody is responsible for you.

Finally, a knowledge revolution expands your mind. An expanded mind is one with broader capacity. You are able to understand more, to do more and indeed be more.

Do you want a revolution?

Negative Habits Will Stop You

…let us strip off everything that hinders us, as well as the sin which dogs our feet, and let us run the race that we have to run with patience

 There is one thing I have learned from my life experiences – and it is that I rarely learn from my life experiences. How else can I explain the obvious fact that what stopped me yesterday just stopped me again?

I am not alone in this. As you read your mind will take you on that short journey on memory lane and you will have clear glances at the things you know are slowing you down. It may be procrastination, or impulsive overspending, or a lack of basic integrity, or some moral flaw secret to the world but obvious to you. What it is does not matter much. What matters is that if you do not stop it, it will stop you.

Our success paths are like pipelines. As we journey through life we pick up (for lack of a better word) impurities that clog our path. Interestingly these impurities are scarcely big things. They are simple actions and habits that, when individually taken, mean little but after a while, and as they keep clogging, would block off your success completely.

You can stop these little things before they stop you by exposing them. Do not keep them as secrets. That is exactly what will ensure you remain trapped in them. Failure loves secrecy – don’t give it. Get someone you can speak to and open up. You do not have to look good or keep a “superman” visage when you know that you are going down.

Second, learn to follow mentors. I affirm that we all have unique individual paths but none of us is in a path that has never been threaded. Our paths are common to people though our experiences on them are unique to us. Keep these in mind: “There is nothing new under the sun,” and “There is safety in the multitude of counselors.”

Third, impose a firm stand for yourself. You should not dance around thoughts, ideas, attitudes, or friends that will add more to the clog building up in your success path.

Forth, Do not expect (though it is possible) to get it perfect the first time you try. If you are like me, you probably have built some habits for years. If/when you fail forgive yourself and try again. Don’t give up trying to get it right until you get it right.

Are You Becoming a Leader or a Tyrant?

Initially: God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; … Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and every living creature that moves on the ground.

Later on: God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; … The fear and dread of you will fall on all the animals. – God’s Blessings

Many folks love to see themselves as leaders. Unfortunately, when the word, leader, is mentioned their minds paints the picture of what is actually not leadership. This is a picture of someone who is feared and revered by his “followers”.

For this leader only his opinion matters. Whatever he says is final. He is never wrong. At times when he is most obviously wrong the standards are simply changed to accommodate his misdoing. From him emanates the unspoken statement which says, “Do what I say but forget about what I do.”

You see this leader in every sphere of life. Yes, he is that religious cleric in your mind whose word is the unchallengeable word of God. He is the father whose children run in panic when they hear the sound of his motor car revving close to the house. He is the business owner who does not need his worker’s opinion because they are not part of his family. He is that Head of State who seeks your listening ears with pleas for your vote but does not incline his ears to listen to you any more until another election season.

Unfortunately for all these people, they are not leaders but tyrants. A leader is not respected because he is feared. He is feared because he is respected. This second fear is not that which cripples but which empowers. It is given willfully by the followers and not gotten by coercion.

It really does not matter in what area you are leading – whether it is being a father, business owner, governor of a state, or a class monitor – you should not be feared! True followership is never gotten where fear exists. In case you are wondering how to know if you are genuinely respected or merely feared, ask yourself this question: If I were not the leader will I still be respected? 

What to do When Your Dream Fails

FAILURE: to miss a personally set mark.

Joseph had a dream, and he told it to his brothers; and they hated him even more … then he dreamed still another dream and said, “Look, I have dreamed another dream.”

Is it possible for your dream to fail? Is it possible to take the reins of affairs, follow the formulas, cross the “T’s” and dot the “I’s”, and yet fail? I suppose it is very possible. Because of the various parameters that make for attaining any goal, attainment becomes subjective rather than an absolute.

So, then, what do you do when your goals fail? I would say, dream another dream. Get another vision. Build another plan. No matter what happens, do not give up on life.

Your success journey is like learning to ride a bicycle (if you have learned to ride one). One thing that is acceptably known by a hundred percent of bicycle riders is that they fell down – several times. Nonetheless they did not stop. They rose up, picked up the same bicycle and tried to ride again. If they stopped after the first fall they would never learn to ride. So in effect they accept that falling down is an integral part of riding a bicycle.

Most folks that can be termed successes had to dream another dream at one point or the other. This “another” dream may (or may not) be an extension and expansion of the initial dream. David started out with a dream of becoming a singing shepherd and ended up a warring king. Paul started out an adept Pharisee and ended up an apostle. Cup-bearer Nehemiah ended up a governor of a province. Have you fallen short of your initial dream? Dream another dream!

What matters is that you always have a dream – a reason to live. Dreams keep alive. They give you a reason to wake up in the mornings and to get headlong into the day. They give you hope. If you have dreamed before then you can dream again. Don’t let temporary setbacks keep you down on your back. Rise up and dream another dream. Keep this cycle going until you succeed – then dream another dream. 

If they can't kill your dream, they can't kill you

“Here comes that dreamer. Let’s kill him and throw him into one of these old cisterns; we can say that a vicious animal ate him up. We’ll see what his dreams amount to.” – Story of Joseph

 

All dreamers have haters. A young Joseph had his brothers, MLK (Jnr.) had Jim Crow, and Mandela had the entire apartheid system. Who is yours?

 

Before you go looking for enemies, hold on a bit. Chances are that they are not really after you. It is the dream in you they are after! They hate you because you dream! Imagine that MLK's speeches were titled, "I have no dreams!" He might have lived longer that way.

 

They want to kill your dream because they cannot imagine a world where a small you can achieve such extravagant dreams. They cannot imagine that you deserve to attain so much that your accomplishments alter the fabric of the world they know. Why should you be allowed to shake them out of their mediocre comfort zone and redefine the meanings of things around them? Why should they let you reconstruct what business as usual means to them?

 

My thoughts: If they cannot kill your dream, they cannot kill you! Well, technically. The point is that you are more than just your breath and physical existence. You can live beyond your time on earth because your very essence lives in your dreams. Be firmly rooted and founded in your dreams so that when (not if) opposition comes, you and your dream will survive it. Here are 5 tips on surviving dream attacks:

 

1.  Keep your focus on your goal
2. Allow like-minds to help you
3. Refuse to be distracted
4. Review and restructure your goals at intervals
5. Adopt a defense mechanism