By Victor Ochieng’
Once upon a time, President Robert Gabriel Mugabe called his royal staff and informed them that Russia was the first country to travel to the space. United States was the first country to travel to the moon. Then, he claimed that Zimbabwe would be the first one to travel to the sun. When he said that, his staff was shell-shocked. Of course, you know why they felt that flabbergasted. When you travel to the scorching sun, you can melt as butter exposed to heat or like ghee, they say. Albeit, in an interesting defence, he told them, they would not go to the sun during the day, they would get there at night.
The brief anecdote sounds seriously silly, but it brings out the power of positivity and optimism. There is always a miracle in positivity. Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.
In the distant past, James Allen penned in his heroic book titled As a Man Thinketh: the mind is the master power that moulds and makes. Humankind is mind. Rene Descartes observed, “Cogito, ergo sum”, I think and therefore I exist. Humankind can take the tool of brilliant thought, and shape something. Ideally, thoughts are things. Thoughts are seeds. The mind is a garden. Thoughts can bring forth a thousand joys, or a thousand ills. You think in secret, and things happen. Your mentality is your reality. Proverbs 23:7a says, “As a man thinketh so he is.”
The putative American essayist, Ralph Waldo Emerson observed, “Sow a thought and you reap an act; sow an act and you reap a habit; so a habit and you reap character. Sow character and you reap destiny.” Somewhat, our destiny is tied to what we choose to think about. We remember the wise and winsome words of William Jennings Bryan, “Destiny is no matter of chance. It is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for; it is a thing to be achieved.”
In an iconic book titled You Can Win, Shiv Khera shares the scintillating story of a man who eked out a living by selling balloons. He stashed all colours of balloons — red, yellow, green and blue. Whenever the business was not a going concern, he would release a helium-filled balloon in the air. When children saw the balloon going up, they all wanted to purchase one. They would edge closer to him. Buy a balloon. His sales would then swell. He repeated this process for the umpteenth time.
One glad day. He felt someone tagging at his jacket. When he turned around, he bumped on a boy that asked, “If you released a black balloon, would it also fly high?” Moved by the boy’s heartfelt concern, he said in substance, “It is not the colour of the balloon that makes it go up, it is what is inside that makes it go up.”
Likewise, this applies in our mortal lives. It is what is inside that matters. Attitude — mindset plus beliefs — is what is inside us that makes us go up. Ostensibly, ability teaches us how to do it. Motivation decides why we do it. Attitude determines how well we do it. In another treasure trove titled You Can Sell, Shiv Khera talks of two salespersons who came to a certain country in Africa. They came to sell shoes in different parts of the same country. They both saw villagers without shoes. One with a Negative Mental Attitude immediately sent a pessimistic message to his manager saying, “There is no market here. Nobody wears shoes. Therefore, I am coming back.” The other one with a Positive Mental Attitude sent an optimistic message saying, “Get ready for big sales, there is a huge market here. Nobody wears shoes. Therefore, we can make everyone wear them. So, spur up production.
Aptly put, the difference is the attitude.
Our attitude determines our altitude. As a penman, I can posit that Zig Ziglar, got it right, “It is our attitude not aptitude that determines our attitude.” Attitude focuses on right mindset and belief system. Aptitude is talent. Or the natural ability to do something. In this context, altitude focuses on the far you can go or reach.
Consider the Calgary Tower. It stands at 190.8 metres. The total weight of the tower is 10, 884 tonnes. Of which 6,349 tonnes is below the ground. Simply put, that is around 60%. This depicts that some of the big buildings that grace this ginormous globe have firm foundations. Just like a tall building that kisses the sapphire sky, and caresses the clouds — is anchored on firm foundation — so is success in this world of birth and death. My thesis is, attitude is the foundation of success.
A Positive Mental Attitude (PMA) is the single most important principle of the science of success. If you take possession of your mortal mind and direct it towards desirable goals, you will accrue bountiful benefits like success consciousness, which attract circumstances that in turn seduces success. You will entice wealth of health — both mental and physical. You will invite financial independence plus pristine and perfect peace of mind. You will render labour of love, and tap strength of faith, which exorcises demons of fear. Then, you will form and forge enduring friendships, as you bask in the sweet sun of longevity and a well-balanced life. There would be immunity from self-limitation. As you find wisdom to understand self and others.
Again, Napoleon Hill in Keys to Success, talks about the Choice of two Envelopes. At birth, you arrive in this wide old world figuratively holding two sealed envelopes. One reads ‘Rewards’ and the other one ‘Penalties.’ The first envelope contains a giant list of all the benefits you will enjoy from taking possession of your own mind, and using it to get what you want. The second carries a list of the consequences that will befall you if you neglect controlling your mind and directing it towards a good goal.
Somewhat, if you neglect taking possession of your mortal mind and directing it towards a good goal, you will consign yourself to poverty and paucity; misery and misfortune; defeat and despair. Fatefully, mental and physical ailments of all kind, will catch up with you. There will be self-limitations, which trap people in the mud of mediocrity – being on top of the bottom. Or at the bottom of the top.
Moreover, nature abhors two things ― vacuum and idleness. If you do not use a muscle, it will wither and become useless as we see in the Law of Use and Disuse presented to us in Evolution Theory. Likewise, if you do not use the powers of your mind, such things will happen to you.
In addition, success entices success. Failure also attracts failure. Striving for success makes you better and positions you for great feats in this life rife with strife. Doing nothing and accepting failure only brings spate of failure on your way. If you put your mind to work with a Positive Mental Attitude, and believe that success is your right, then your belief will guide you unerringly towards whatever your definition of success might be. On the other side of the coin, if you adopt a Negative Mental Attitude, and fill your mind with thoughts of fear and frustration, your mind will only draw those same things towards you. For you see the world not as it is, but as you are.
Finally, you must have a Positive Mental Attitude to make life pay off on your own terms. Without the right state of mindset, it is difficult to get great achievement. Therefore, prove to your own satisfaction by making it so, that every adversity, sorrow, misfortune, misery, defeat, or despair — whether you caused it to happen or not — contains the seed of an equivalent benefit, which you can nurture into a blessing that soars above the disaster that brought it.
The writer rolls out talks and training services.
