Check your Why-It is critical to your Wellness.

 

Simon Sinek wrote a book entitled ‘Start With Why?’ This is very good advice for any entrepreneur who wants to do well for themselves and in the process achieve the greater good. It is easy to answer the question by simply saying I want to make money which begs the follow up question why do you want to make money? The next logical answer is that you have bills to pay and want to give your people a good life. Does it mean that if I gave you all the money you will ever need and add a blank cheque for you to draw from anytime you need to you would close down your business today? A few people would answer yes but I guess many would still wake up and open shop the following day. What is this that would push you to keep going when your own issues are well taken care of?

What does your vision and mission statement say? For some people, it is possible that they hardly think about this when they wake up in the morning to go and open shop. If this describes you, then you need to sit down and rethink your motivation for going into business. I have an untested theory that says many businesses in Africa die with the founder because they weren’t started with the thinking of being passed on to the next generation. The vision wasn’t big enough to be fulfilled in subsequent generations. It is very easy to find businesses in Europe and Asia spanning more than 3-4 generations because they are built with that in mind. Many of our businesses in Africa are subsistent in nature just like our Agriculture. Divorce the need to pay bills and many collapse.

Your business should be an answer and a solution to problems bigger than you and your needs. Elon Musk for example didn’t build Tesla, X, Space X and every other company he has interests in simply to pay his bills. These are companies worth billions of dollars solving some of humanity’s biggest headaches both present and future. What challenges are you helping people deal with as an entrepreneur? What problems does your business solve for people? How does it contribute to a better quality of life? When do you get to say I have done what is required of me and I can now pass it on to the next generation?

We burnout because we do not know when to stop. We are not clear what it is we are chasing. This leaves us going in many different directions and as a result we fail to know when to say it is enough. The motivation behind you is very important to examine. When you are driven by greed, you will never know satisfaction. You will keep going without caring about the impact it is having on your health, family and many other important aspects of your life. When you are chasing money just for its own sake, it will never be enough.

For your own sake, make effort to define your why. Seek clarity on the demographic you are meant to serve. Understand the geography your business is meant to serve. Find the niche that you are meant to take care of and focus your attention on it. This will determine the opportunities you chase and those you leave for others. It will guide the hiring decisions you make, the business resources you need to acquire, the skills you should pursue and a lot more. You will stop being a jack of all trades which leaves you exhausted, burnt out and not really world-class at anything. This leads me to pose another question: What can you say you are world-class at or well on your way to becoming? You will realize that it is a narrow path and it requires you to cut off a lot of the baggage that you carry with you everywhere you go.

I recommend that you read the Book Essentialism: The Disciplined pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown. A strong why is a catalyst for a smoother how.  

Here are some wellness benefits to help you consider building a purpose-driven enterprise.

🧠 Mental & Emotional Wellness

1. Reduced Stress & Burnout
• When your business aligns with your values, the daily grind feels less draining. Even tough challenges feel more “worth it.”
2. Greater Resilience
• Purpose acts as an anchor during setbacks, giving you the emotional strength to keep pushing without losing hope.
3. Enhanced Fulfillment & Joy
• Work stops being “just business” and becomes a meaningful mission, which brings a sense of joy and pride.
4. Clarity & Peace of Mind
• A clear mission reduces decision fatigue. You know what to say “yes” or “no” to, which lowers mental clutter.

 

❤️ Physical Wellness

5. Healthier Energy Levels
• Founders driven by purpose often report higher energy and stamina because their motivation is intrinsic, not just financial.
6. Reduced Risk of Stress-Related Illnesses
• Lower chronic stress can protect against issues like hypertension, migraines, ulcers, or sleep disorders.
7. Better Work–Life Balance
• When your work feels meaningful, it’s easier to harmonize it with personal life instead of feeling like you’re sacrificing yourself.

🌱 Spiritual & Social Wellness

8. Sense of Meaning & Contribution
• Having your work tied to something bigger than money gives you a sense of legacy and spiritual satisfaction.
9. Deeper Connections & Support
• Purpose attracts like-minded people (mentors, partners, employees, clients). This support network contributes to your social wellness.
10. Alignment Between Who You Are & What You Do

• Living in alignment reduces inner conflict, guilt, or feelings of “selling out,” which boosts overall wellbeing.

✅ In short: A purpose-driven business helps the founder thrive personally—mentally, physically, socially, and spiritually—because the business stops being just a hustle and becomes a life-giving mission. 

How differently will you approach your business after this? What will you do to inculcate purpose into your thinking and strategy for the business? Share your thoughts and resolutions. 

Men, Love and Money-A Valentine's Day Special Issue

 

Men

Valentines is coming up in a few days. Let’s talk about money, love and Valentines

Are you excited about it as an opportunity to display your love or are you feeling the pressure because you know the finances are just not in place to create a memorable experience?

As a fellow man, I have known those moments where you want the day to be over and done with simply because you have nothing to offer-at least from a financial perspective. I have also known days when I was looking forward to the day because I was all set. I don’t know many things but this one thing I know-I am better off with scenario two than one anytime.

Before I go any further, I must put a disclaimer. Money is not the only way/tool you can use to display love to your significant other.  Supporting them, being present for them, taking a genuine interest in them and their passions will go a long way in winning them over. Different people have different love languages according to Gary Chapman author of ‘The five love languages’. Your job is to find out what the love language of your significant other is and express it to her like she wants it. 

Having said that, it is important to understand that money plays a significant role in the sustenance of any relationship. Love needs to be expressed. No one is interested in secret love. If you doubt it, check John 3:16. Because God loved, He gave. Money is not just a medium of exchange, it also doubles up as a medium of expression of love. Even those who do not necessarily find much value in gifts will appreciate being spoilt occasionally. My wife is like that. Such people are at risk of being neglected because they don’t speak up often about these things. The onus is on you to be intentional about showing love in this dimension. While money is not an end in itself, it facilitates you to express love to the people who matter in your life.

What makes things more interesting is that true love is expressed moment by moment not just on some special occasions. Those special occasions like Valentines are good because they remind us of the need to appreciate our loved ones away from our busy schedules. We must cherish and make the most of them. In addition though, we must put ourselves in positions where we can express love to our own randomly, without any special occasion on the horizon. I am of the opinion that doing this takes away the pressure of having to put up a performance every 14^th of February as a show of allegiance.

I know you have some deep love for your bae. What you need is to have a plan in place for displaying that love as and when the need arises.

The big question becomes. What should you do given your current realities?

We live and operate in different realities. Here are a few suggestions from yours truly.

Be honest about your current reality. Be clear about where your finances are at the moment. A lack of clarity here will lead you to make irrational decisions which you are likely to regret later. A good assessment of your situation will determine how much you can handle without overstretching yourself. I have a great tool you can use to assess your current financial state of affairs in case you are not sure what to look at. Talk to me if you are interested in making use of it. If the numbers make good reading, spare no expense in spoiling her. She deserves it. If the numbers don’t look good, cut your coat according to your cloth.

Manage Expectations. When you know where you stand, it also becomes important to manage your partner’s expectations well in advance. Have a sit down to talk about where things stand and what is possible. It is better to state the way things are early on than disappoint her on D-day.

Go out of your way. For the one you love, it shouldn’t be too much for you to make a small sacrifice here and there. While I advocate above that you do not overspend, part of expressing love is the sacrifice you make for the one you love. Let it be known that you are ready to inconvenience yourself a little to show love to your beloved.

Commit to improving your lot. There is nothing wrong with being in a tight spot financially at the moment. A lot of things could have led you to this point. The tragedy is if you resign to this reality and believe that you will never be and do better. 12 months is a long time if you are committed to turning things around. You can make up your mind to be at a different spot this time next year. Look at the present as motivation to turn things around fast.

Don’t go into debt. Going out of your way doesn’t mean you should go into unmanageable debt just to get things done. In these days of Fuliza, Tala, Branch and similar micro lenders you might be easily tempted to take on unsustainable debt for 1 day of fun. My advice… don’t.

Budget for it. Part of being intentional in expressing love to your personal person is to decide that from today onwards, you will have it as an item on your budget. This puts you in a position to give her mini treats without breaking the bank and also splashing on her during those special occasions like Valentines.

Create an income generating asset for her. Imagine having an asset that generates income to treat her. This could be an MMF account where you decide that the interest generated goes towards treating her. I can almost guarantee you that you will make more money from it than you need to treat her. This is what I call a win-win situation. If you need help setting up an MMF or a discussion on other available options, do not hesitate to contact me.

Remember there is life before and after Valentines. Valentines is not the end of the world. As a man. The responsibilities on your shoulders go beyond Valentines. You must think about your overall financial well being beyond the special occasions you have to contend with. The provision for your family is your responsibility. Their education is dependent on you. After you are done taking care of them, you are also expected to take care of yourself in your old age. How do you ensure that you remain focused and maintain your frame as all these things unfold?  At Optimize Institute we help you get a firm grip on your finances through our training, coaching and consulting programs. 

Do not sweat out the details all by yourself when help is available for you. Let us know if you need a hand navigating the web of the Financial intricacies we occasionally find ourselves in. It is possible to come out stronger and better when we hold hands and push in the same direction. You can reach out on +254725832477 or asenasam@gmail.com to initiate a conversation. 

I pray that wherever you find yourself this Valentines you will enjoy the moment as you make the most of it. Happy Valentines. 

From the Closet to the Pulpit

Private victories precede public victories. What you do in private defines who you are. The closet is a place of formation, the pulpit is a place of showbiz. Many people are saints in public but beasts in private. We have a persona we display before the people to make ourselves likeable but in our private moments we are something totally different.

We grew up with phrases like Sunday Best, creating good first impressions and the like. While impressions are good and helpful, what is more important and lasting is character and integrity. When you develop and display integrity, you don’t have to worry about impressions because they will come naturally for you.

Many have defined integrity in different terms but for me integrity simply means that my thoughts, intentions, words and actions are aligned and consistent. I am not one type of person to this crowd and a different person in another crowd. I do not mean that I shouldn’t play my different roles with what is required. What I want to put across is that whatever I am doing, there needs to be clarity and consistency in terms of my values. Values mean nothing if they can be adapted and discarded as you deem fit. You cannot be a flip-flopper.

In today’s world we hear about closet gays, lesbians as an example. You might not believe it but we have many people who are closeted in their respective areas of fault. If we were to pull back the curtains and see what goes on behind the scenes, we would be surprised at what we would see. There are many closet alcoholics and drug addicts, closet fornicators and adulterers, closet liars who will lie through their teeth if it will get them out of a sticky situation, closet corrupt people who will seize whatever opportunity comes their way.

There’s a classmate I had back in college who had a T-shirt which had the caption-Virginity is not dignity, it is lack of opportunity. While I don’t agree entirely with this statement, there is a segment of people for whom this is applicable. The question I have for you is, are you an inherently decent person or are you conditioned by lack of opportunity and societal expectations? Some of us haven’t been named in corruption scandals simply because we are not at the table where deals are happening. Given the opportunity, we would end up worse than those we point fingers at. It disappoints to see some people blowing the whistle on abuse of office and such other vices only to end up behaving in the same way once they are given the chance. Many Whistleblowers; especially on the political arena speak up only because the corruption isn’t benefitting them. Give them a seat at the table and the chest-thumping stops.

We have rules for everyone else but ourselves. We want others to toe the line but excuse ourselves and give room for error. If you deserve a chance to make things right after slipping up, the same chance should be given to others as well. It doesn’t make sense to demand of others what you are not willing to do. It is a lack of integrity to expect others to follow set rules while you as the enforcer are doing the opposite. It is pharisaic to ask others to do what you tell them without looking at what you are doing. The English call it preaching water and drinking wine.

My question to all who are reading this is; who are you in the closet? Does it match with your words and actions in public? Do you like the person you are in the closet? If we take the mask off, will we like what we see? How can you bridge the gap between the man in the closet and the man on the pulpit?

Speaking of the pulpit, I am not referring to that place where the preacher stands to deliver a sermon. I am talking about the public square where you and I perform to the audience that is watching us. About the place you report to for work daily. I am speaking about the way you act when your boss is around. About the way you behave when your children are watching, when you are in the presence of your parents or other figures of authority.

It is my submission that if you aren’t proud enough of what you are doing that you are ready to do it no matter who is around, then there is still a gap between your closet and your pulpit. I write to encourage you to do what it takes to close the gap between the two. Decide who you are and who you want to become. Be consistent in thinking, speaking and acting like that person. Someone said your thoughts become your words, your words become your action, your action determines your habits which determine your character. And when all is said and done, your character determines your destiny. You must choose to die daily to the person you don’t want to be and become alive to the person you want to be.

 

What it Takes: Bias for Action

 

Bias for action

Have you ever heard of the paralysis of analysis? Too much of anything can be detrimental in the long run. I respect thought processes and encourage people to think about what they want. I also respect the need to sharpen your tools before you set out to work. A sharp tool is vital to efficient work. However there reaches a point where action is the only thing that will move you forward.

It is necessary to prepare but it is also possible to overstay in the preparation phase. I don’t know whether there is a psychological term for it but sometimes people hide behind preparation while doing nothing constructive. All the theory you gather means nothing until you start applying it in real life situations. Dreams remain just that until you choose to step out and actualize.

Those who see their dreams become a reality have learnt to shorten the time between dreaming and action. In short, they have a bias for action. The more time you spend weighing the pros and cons of your dream the more likely you are not to get started on it. Consult as much as you want but the bottom line is that no amount of consultation will make up for your lack of action.

It is better to take that first step than to keep thinking about taking it. I agree that sometimes are better than others to get started on a certain pursuit but if you don’t have the luxury of time, it is wise to start where you are with what you have right away. Things have a way of coming together to enable the ball roll on once you take the first kick. Concerning your dream, what is the first thing you can do about it today. Forget about 100 steps ahead. What is that baby step you can take. Taking it will separate you from the club of dreamers to that of doers. Nobody will celebrate you if all you do is dream. Dreams alone don’t change the world. Action, concerted, consistent action is what gets it done.

At the beginning the quality of your action is not so important. It is better to start by putting in the work then refine it as you go along. Those who wait until they can do it perfectly seldom get started. If you can put in large quantities of action, it is easy to iterate and get better as the days go by. In the tech world the mantra is ‘done is better than perfect.’ Many people are stuck pursuing perfection and they end up with ideals in their heads but nothing on the ground. Your highest thoughts amount to nothing for as long as they are not actioned.

Many times, it is never about the quality of the dream. It boils down to the quality of the execution. There is a story about Kenya and how we have some of the best policy papers anyone can come up with out there. The sad bit is that we never implement them and others come, pick them up and run with them. Results come from action not wishes. It takes massive action to change the status quo. If your dream will see the light of day, that bias for action is indispensable.  

Let me invite you to take some action right now? If you are not subscribed to this blog, then pause right now and subscribe to ensure you never miss out on anything we share. Join other dreamers on my weekly newsletter here

https://samuelmwinamo.ck.page/4434955e4a

 I also want to challenge you to write down the next step you can take today towards your goal. Take it then share with me what that action is. 

Till next week. 

Sam. 

What It takes: A Strong Why

 

What is your why?

If someone asked you why you are chasing your dream, what would you say? You need a compelling reason to keep grinding especially when the going gets tough. A strong why ensures that you continue plowing until you see the results you are looking for.

What is going to happen when you have done what you are chasing? What results keep you motivated to go again tomorrow. It is good to be clear on why you are pursuing a certain cause to the exclusion of others. Your why is the fuel that keeps you going when quitting feels like the better option. Your why goes beyond the surface and looks at the core of your being.

A good question to ask is the 5 whys. It is important to seek the reason behind the reasons because only then can you keep going regardless of the opposition.

A strong why is an important component of whatever dream you are chasing. It is the ultimate benefit of al your efforts. It looks at the desired end. Without a clear desired end, you won’t be sure when and where to stop. With a defined destiny, you are clear on when to call it a day with whatever it is you are pursuing. A strong why will keep you focused and make it difficult to get distracted.

One of the things you have to fight on the path to your dreams is the Shiny Object Syndrome. There will always be exciting things along your path. Many of them are meant to take your eyes off the prize. Unless you know where and why you are going, it is easy to follow the next ‘big thing’. SOS will not be able to get a hold of you if you are passionate about your pursuit. Predators like lions have learnt to focus their attention on the prey they have chosen to the exclusion of anything else. Sometimes that kind of tunnel vision is what will work for you in taking you closer to your dreams. The tunnel might be uncomfortable, stressful and taxing on you but when you remember why you are doing it, you will be driven to persevere.

A strong why builds a persistent resilient spirit. The pursuit of dreams is often met with significant resistance. If your dream is worth pursuing, it will wear you out.  You will contend with untold opposition to test your resolve. The only thing that will keep you sane is the reason for the pursuit. If your why is weak, then you won’t last a day pursuing. If you have a mind fortified by the desire to make it, then your job is mostly done.

It pushes you out of your comfort zone. All of us have a comfort zone where we apply minimal effort and see things happening. That is a dangerous place to be because it leaves you exposed should there be a change of circumstances and life begins to demand for more from you. When the reason for action is huge, you will be willing to go into uncomfortable places and do a number of unpleasant tasks to get the difficulty out of the way. We have seen people come up with ransom money simply because a loved one was about to lose their life. How come this money is always available yet under normal circumstances it is hard to come by? It all boils down to a strong why.

It unlocks your innovation and creativity. With a strong reason, you will iterate until you get what you are looking for. It is said that necessity is the mother of innovation. The reason why your innovation game is down is that you have not been put into a corner. The moment you find yourself in that place where you have to think of a way out, you will surely find it. When the consequence of not getting something done threatens what is valuable to you, you will find a way around it. The reason why you would quit on your dream is that there is no compelling reason for achieving it. If there was, you would think about it until you have a solution. 

A strong why could either be something you are trying to get away from or get towards. The question you must answer is why am I on the path I have chosen? Why should I push beyond the current resistance? Only if I know that when all is said and done, I will rejoice. Before anything else, find your why.

Unleash Yourself(Part 3 of 3)

 Here is the last of our three part series on the common things that hold people back from becoming all they can be. you can check out the first two in the posts preceding this one. As you read through, take not of what you identify with so that you can find a way to deal with it and rise to the top. 

Self-Doubt

When God called Moses to go and deliver the Israelites from the captivity of Egypt, the first question Moses poses to God is who am I? Jeremiah is quick to say I am just a youth. Gideon has so much doubt in his ability that God has to prove over and over again that he is the man to get the job done. The interesting thing is that all these men went ahead and accomplished great feats the moment they believed in their ability to get it done.

Self-doubt is a huge limiting factor to the greatness of many people. Many of us don’t feel good enough or pretty enough or deserving of the honor that is being put on us. Like Moses we ask who am I? We have little confidence in our ability to accomplish anything worthwhile. We don’t see ourselves as capable of exploits. We are comfortable getting lost in the crowd.

Until we get rid of this doubt and believe God to be with us like he was with these great generals of the past, we will remain stuck in our predicaments. You need a healthy dose of self-confidence to be able to go out there and do what needs to be done. This should ideally stem from the understanding that God is by your side walking with you every step of the way. Are you a victim of self-doubt? How does it show up in your life? How are you dealing with it?

Lack of vision

When you have no definite chief aim, chances are that you will not go very far in life. Where there is no vision, people cast off restraint. Proverbs 29:18 The possibility of living aimlessly is greatly increased when there is no guiding principle for your life.  If you are keen on living a life of greatness, you must first define what that greatness looks like. There are many competing aspirations in our lives and we must choose where we will expend our energy. Without that, we will be spread thin in many different directions and have nothing concrete to show for our efforts. A failure to decide what we will pursue means we will have very little motivation for life or any of the other things that matter. When you have no vision, your efforts are haphazard at best because whatever results you get are okay with you. It does not matter how many resources you have at your disposal, if they are not channeled towards creating something worthwhile, they will amount to nothing. Resources, favor, luck and all those things we hope for follow vision and not the other way around. A vision keeps the wrong people out of your life. Those who do not align with what you are doing will not find room in your life for as long as it is clear. Part of the reason why we are surrounded by people who offer very little is that we are not yet clear about what we want and as such everyone feels comfortable around us. What is your core business here? That tells you what you should be spending 80% of your time on. You cannot call something a priority when you are struggling to create time and set aside resources for it.

A lack of vision guarantees you a lacklustre life. With scattered efforts, incongruent utilization of resources and no clear outcomes, your activity will not make sense even to you. A lack of vision is one of the greatest leashes used to hold us back from living a life of meaning and significance.

Money

I have put money as low as this because it is not such a limiting factor when you have taken care of a lot of the issues mentioned above. Like I said in my submission above, resources follow vision.

Having said that, a shortage of money can become a huge limiting factor to how much you can accomplish. Many people have great ideas that will never see the light of day because they do not have the money to execute on them. Great ideas require great men and women to carry them out. Great men and women do not come cheap. Money can limit how far you can carry out your ideas. The Super wealthy have the luxury of choosing what to do because their resources give them the liberty. One who is just starting out must make many compromises and sacrifice aspects of what they want to do until an opportune time. This keeps great ideas from being fully implemented. Anytime your ideas are caged, you are put on a leash and cannot move beyond your confinement.

There is a way around it though. You must be quick to embrace the concept of interdependence. Since you do not have all you need, instead of waiting forever to have it, you would be better served by joining forces with others who bring the strengths you don’t have. This is why Venture capitalists and angels exist. If finance is your limitation, look for someone who has it but doesn’t have a clear idea how to put it to work. Such a person will help you bring out your greatness. This brings up another leash that we probably need to talk about as well. Selfishness.

Selfishness.

Believe it or not, trying to make it all on your own is not usually the best strategy. Don’t let the need to call yourself a self-made man keep you from connecting with other people who can be of help to you. The concept of a self-made man is a fallacy. You must find a way to keep your ego in check if you will be able to connect with the missing pieces of your greatness. There were strategic people in the journey of Joseph to premiership in the Bible. Think about all the people a politician needs to surround himself with if he is to ascend to the presidency. From the funders of the campaign, to lobbyists and many other people who work in the shadows to make the campaign a success. You cannot run a one man show and expect to go very far. If you truly want to release your greatness, be willing to accept help from others who have a lot to contribute to your journey to the top. Don’t see yourself as the source of all wisdom and strength. Know what you are good at and what you suck at. That understanding will enable you select people who can come in and complement your strengths. Let’s be clear on the fact that you need a circle around you to reach certain heights and your task remains to choose the right people to be in that circle. Accept the help offered by others who see things in the same light as you. You must also be willing to accommodate divergent views within your circle. If no one questions your proposals or seeks to improve on them, you have the wrong people in the circle. Surrounding yourself with Yes-men is the biggest sign of a selfish individual. You want to have people who bring a different perspective so that the task is accomplished in a manner that encompasses the diversity and dynamism required.

Success/failure

Finally success and failure are both seeds which can either propel you forward or keep you stuck. Failure if it is misinterpreted can define you and determine your action going forward. It is possible for you to get stuck in the place where you are not attempting anything out of your comfort zone simply because you tried something and failed. Failure must be looked at as a lesson. Someone has gone as far as to say in everything I do I either win or I learn. Failure is you finding a way that doesn’t work. Thomas Edison failed 9999 times in his attempts to make the incandescent light bulb. How many times have you failed before you called it a day? You must keep trying and refining your method until you get the desired result. Failure can be a fatal blow if you let it. It can keep you from ever trying again. Failure is a terrible leash because it comes with evidence. Beware of the hold of failure on your ability to move forward.

Success on the other hand can also hold you back. It does so by numbing you. Bill Gates says Success is a lousy teacher. It teaches you to think that you are smarter than everyone else. You must guard against the effects of your success as much as those of your failure. Success makes you take things for granted. As hard as it is to get to the top, it takes a lot more effort to stay there for long. You must maintain the posture of a student if you will remain at the top. Success massages your ego and leaves you feeling invincible. The moment you begin to think you are immune to failing, you have already started your descent. It is wise to manage your success lest it destroys you. The enemy of great is good so they say. You are not kept from greatness by your failings rather it is your prior success that can stand in the way of another attempt at a bigger challenge.

What other leashes can you think of that keep people from reaching their full potential? What are you going to work on as a matter of urgency to ensure that you give yourself the best chance of finishing at the top? Share your thoughts and other contributions in the comments below. I am passionate about helping people break out of their limits and living remarkable lives. If you are keen on that, reach out to me and let's see how I can be of help. 

asenasam@gmail.com, +254725832477

Unleash Yourself(2 of 3)

We continue from where we left off last week. We started a conversation on some of the things that hold us back from going forth and becoming all we can be. We looked at four of them including your environment, the culture in which you grow up, lies you have believed and ignorance. In this week's post we look at four more 

 Beliefs

What we believe greatly influences our action. Jesus says that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. What we believe finds its way to the surface whether we approve of it or not. You can paint a different picture all you want, but your unguarded moments will reveal what your heart is made of. Our beliefs play a critical role in how we live our lives. Limiting beliefs can be a great leash holding us back from all the world has to offer. Liberating beliefs will take us beyond any obstacles and stumbling blocks along the way. A mindset of scarcity will see a dearth all around, a mindset of abundance will see possibilities all around even in the midst of a crisis.

There is an old analogy about how elephants are tamed. The process is simple. When the elephant is young, it is tied on a tree which it cannot pull free from. After several attempts, it is registered in the mind of the elephant that it can never break free from the tethering. At this point, the size of the tree doesn’t. neither does the size of the rope or the elephant for that matter. Because it has been conditioned to believe it can’t break free, even a small child with a rope can lead it anywhere and it will follow obediently.

Limiting beliefs have a similar effect on us. Today is a good day to examine what you believe in about yourself, the world, God, life and pretty much anything. Are your beliefs liberating or restricting? You will never live above your belief. You are where you are because you believe that is what you deserve. If you believed that you deserve more, you would have demanded more from yourself and your surroundings.

Seek answers about what you believe if you want to change levels. What you believe in will not take you to the next level until you change it. Break free from limiting thoughts and begin to see endless possibilities. They are yours for the taking.

Complacency

A lack of ambition can hurt your chances of finishing at the top significantly. Complacency sets in when you think you already have all you need. Are you in a place where you think your life is just fine as is and there is nothing more to strive towards? You could be suffering from a complacency crisis. There is nothing wrong with posing to enjoy what you have built. The only problem is when the pose becomes the final destination. It takes significant effort just to maintain your position as those who have risen to the top can attest. You will realize that even when you don’t have any drive to go further, if you lower your guard for too long, you won’t be able to maintain even that which you have accomplished. Harder than getting to the top is the discipline to stay at the top. Complacency will keep you from becoming all you can be. It will rob you of the exploits that are ahead of you. It will limit your experience of life. As humans we love novelty. Boredom easily sets in when we are not playing at a level that challenges and stretches our minds beyond the ordinary. Contrary to what we believe, you can only bask in your accomplishments for a while. In a few days, what looked extraordinary takes on an ordinary shine and we are left looking for the next frontier. Complacency will take you away from the zone.

What are some of the signs of complacency that you see in your life at the moment? How can you snap out of it before it is too late?

Laziness

A lazy attitude is a sure cause of a mediocre existence. If you cannot rise up and take care of the things you need to, you will be greatly limited in what you can accomplish. If you rise up and give your best every day, it will just be a matter of time before you are at the top. Laziness is a leash that is self-imposed and one of the easiest to cut off. You have a lot of power when it comes to dealing with it because only you can decide how hard you work or otherwise. Laziness has held people from accomplishing great feats. It comes to us naturally to want to be at ease with the things we are working on. We naturally gravitate towards a life of ease and little effort. This is a big issue because what it ends up doing is to leave us in a situation where our choices are limited. Hard work opens up many possibilities and takes us where we never thought possible. Laziness makes us miss out on opportunities and in some cases fail to take full advantage of the opportunities available to us. Laziness will keep us from honing our skills and competencies. It will limit our exercise of our gifts and talents and as a result we will remain stuck.  

Fear

One of the greatest leashes that keeps us from taking action to move us forward is fear. Fear is paralyzing and limiting. It often arises from a false sense of danger. For sure there are many dangers out there that we need to face and sometimes avoid but a majority of the things we fear turn out to be imagined rather than real. One of the greatest fears we have is fear of the unknown. This kind of fear keeps you in your comfort zone. Whenever you hear that you need to step out of what you are familiar with, you cringe at the thought. You have gotten used to the comfort of the crib and are unwilling to step out as a result. This keeps you  caged until you choose to act differently.

There is an interesting analogy about what Mother Eagle does to the young eaglets when she realizes that they want to overstay their welcome in the crib. At first the crib is comfortable with all the cotton and other fluffy material. As they grow, the cotton is removed and what is left is the grass. When it time for them to get out, even the grass is removed and the thorns do their trick. As a result of the discomfort that arises, they are forced to go out and learn to fly. The education goes on out there because they must also learn how to fly the hard way. This could teach us a thing or two about managing the fear of the unknown. Perhaps creating a little discomfort in our nest would push us to get out. We must engineer things such that we are never too comfortable in one place for too long.

Fear is real but even those who accomplish greater feats suffer from it in the process. Many have opined that courage is not the absence of fear but the ability to move forward in spite of the fear. Your desire to succeed must be greater than the fear you exhibit. For as long as that happens, you won’t get stuck in mediocrity.

Do you identify with any of these leashes in your life? How are you going to act going forward to cut yourself loose from these leashes? Are you keen on getting a handle on any or all of them? Make a point of reaching out to us and find help for dealing with whatever leashes are holding you back. You are meant to fly unhindered, don't let anything you can control stand in your way. Talk to  us today on +254725832477/ asenasam@gmail.com.

Unleash Yourself (Part 1 of 3)

 

What is a leash? A leash is that rope used to tie a dog when you don’t want it to wander off during a walk. A leash limits the movement of the dog to a few feet from the dog walker. To be unleashed is to be set free to wander, explore and see the world. It is a good idea to keep a dog on a leash, it is not a very good idea to keep a man on a leash. We keep dogs leashed because we don’t want them getting lost or causing harm to other people along our path. We are also trying to keep them from acting on their wild imagination.

What are some of the leashes that hold us as mankind?

Ignorance

You can choose to believe that ignorance is bliss or you can choose that ignorance is no defence. Either way you are right. Indeed there are times where what you don’t know cannot hurt you. I hear a lot of people say that it is okay when your spouse or other trusted individual is cheating on you for as long as you don’t know. So much so that Mario Winans sung “I don’t wanna know’ The problem with this though is that eventually the truth outs and the hurt is tenfold. It is better to know early on rather than live with the assumption that everything is okay only to get hit with the devastating news late in the day. I can’t honestly live in the school of ignorance is bliss. I am more of a believer in the school of ignorance is no defence. It is clear even in the law that the fact that you didn’t know it was illegal to act in a particular way does not fully exonerate you from the consequences. It might land you a milder sentence but you won’t go scot free. This is clearly alluded to even in the bible.

Ignorance is responsible for a lot of mediocre lives out here. When you don’t know about the better world that is out there, you will be content with your mundane existence. There is an African saying that puts it aptly. ‘He who has never travelled thinks his mother is the best cook.’ A failure to be exposed to the possibilities of the world around and beyond you can limit your options a great deal. I have always joked with my wife about the fact that a woman in Turkana will hardly crave pizza during her pregnancy. Why? Because pizza is not in her consciousness. It is difficult to aspire for the things you haven’t been exposed to. Ignorance is a big leash, perhaps the biggest ever placed on us. While we cannot change where we were born and what that exposes us to initially, as we grow up our options change significantly. Thank God for Television, books, education and so much more. We know a lot more about what goes on across the world and as such we can also dare to dream the same way people from a more privileged background can. YouTube can take you to places and give you experiences that are out of this world if only you take the time to watch. Don’t allow ignorance to be your undoing, not in this information age. Take advantage of all the resources at your disposal to position yourself for great experiences.

Lies

The narratives you grow up with are very instrumental in how far you can stretch. If you grow up believing you can, your reach will be significant. If you grow up believing you can’t, you will have placed the limits on yourself already. Many people have resigned to a life that is way beneath what they can be simply because they believed certain lies about themselves. The way you interpret the events of your life is key to the lies or truth you end up believing in. Two people can go through the same experience but come out with very different results. There are people who have allowed one failure to define them and because of that they have not been able to move beyond it. Others are on the other extreme. They have allowed themselves to be lulled by their past successes and failed to move beyond them. If there is anything you have done in the past and you are living there, referring back to it in present day conversations, then you have become the victim of a lie. You have allowed yourself to be caged by that experience and find nothing interesting in what is happening today. Other lies are built up over time. When you constantly have negative experiences around a particular issue, you will learn to associate it with those experiences and never see them in any other light. I always like going back to the story of how at some point I stopped eating pork because the first time I did, I suffered tonsilitis the following day. It was very difficult for me to separate the two and for the better part of my childhood, I shunned pork. I had become a victim of that lie. I had a similar experience with tomatoes. As a result of being choked by a piece of tomato cover, I ‘broke up’ with tomatoes for a long time. Much later in my teens when I could see things differently, I started eating pork and having tomatoes in my food again. I can tell you for free that I enjoy pork probably more than any other meat today. That lie would have kept me from pork forever if I had not been willing o interrogate it when I knew better.

Such lies keep you from leaving life to the fullest. They are a tight leash around your neck telling you how far you can go and how far you can’t. Some lies are passed down from one generation to another. That is jhow stereotypes are built and established. Stereotypes are lies which have been told long enough that they take on the semblance of truth. They will keep you from marrying from certain tribes, doing business with certain groups of people and so much more. In shot they place limits on what you can do because they are such a powerful hold on your mind.

What lies have you believed in and how are they keeping you from living life to the fullest?  Pose and answer this question thoroughly in your notebook and share a summary in the comments.

Culture

Culture is a beautiful thing. It is a people’s way of life and a great determining factor of how we live our lives. A lot of what makes up our culture is good and meant to safeguard us from excesses and give meaning and identity to our lives. However, there are certain aspects of our culture which if we buy into wholesale possess the potential to rob us of a full life. While aspects of our culture might have been useful in helping us survive in times past, you would do well to question their rationale in light of where we are today. Culture is conservative in nature and this is important because =certain things need to be preserved for posterity. To condemn anyone’s culture wholesomely is a foolish exercise that amounts to nothing. I also want to add that to embrace one’s culture wholesomely without question is also foolish on the same footing.

When your culture keeps you from exploring the world that is beyond and keeps you caged within the confines of your surroundings then it limits your possibilities. Anytime you ask why some thing is and the only answer you receive is that we have always done it, it is time to question that thinking so you can come to a better conclusion. Don’t be one to blindly accept it because it is the norm. One of my Nigerian friends once said that ‘the longevity of an abnormality does not make it normal.’ Think about our pastoralist friends whose ancestors have lived on cattle rustling and it is ingrained in them from, a young age. If someone with a better understanding and intellectual capacity from these tribes still goes ahead to spend his life in the same village engaging in this practice just because it is his cultural heritage, hasn’t this person failed? Would we be right to say that he has wasted his intellect in the process? Well he could be within his rights as an individual to choose that life but the truth is that he has allowed culture to keep him caged though he knows better.

What aspects of your cultural heritage do you think has been keeping you from becoming all you can be? What do you have to celebrate about your culture in that it has made you a better person? Remember more than 80% of your culture has a lot that is good about it.

Environment

Closely related to culture is the environment in which you grow up or operate in. there are always exceptions but more often than not, you are likely to end up like the people in the environment in which you frequent.  It is said that if you visit some of the informal settlements in Nairobi, they can tell you are an outsider. The dress code and mannerism will sell you out quickly. Every neighborhood has certain quirks that distinguish it from others. If crime is the norm in your neighborhood, chances are that you will become comfortable around crime whether you like it or not. Alliance High School has been known to produce a majority of the crème de la crème of Kenya’s society. There is something that environment teaches you that you won’t find in many other places. This is such a big deal because even if you are average at best, being in that environment pushes you to level up quickly. There is a confidence that comes on you when you know that you are associated with greatness. You can’t help but be great. Living in California exposes you to Hollywood and a lot of what happens on the entertainment scene globally that it becomes natural for anyone who wants to make it big in this particular area to find their way there. We coalesce around people of similar interests because we like familiarity. You must choose your surroundings carefully because they will rub off on you whether you like it or not. This doesn’t mean that if you find yourself somewhere not suited to your ambitions you won’t make it. People have still made it but it was way harder. Designing the kind of environment that allows you to bring out the best in you will go a long way in helping you thrive. It is way easier than trying to work against many odds.

How can you change your environment to position you to bring out the best in you? What is keeping you from doing so right away?

We continue next week so be sure to catch us here. 

in the meantime share your takeaways from this first part of or discussion. 

The Man in the Mirror.

 

If it is to be, it is up to me.

When Adam was confronted by God about why he ate the fruit of the forbidden tree, he chose to make a scapegoat of his wife. When God turned to Eve, she followed suit by blaming the serpent. (Genesis 3.) While it would have been much easier to take responsibility for their disobedience, they chose to find someone to blame for failing to do what was their job. This has been the trend for a majority of us ever since. We shy away from taking responsibility for the state of affairs we find ourselves in. We look for someone to blame and pin all our failings on. That is the way of losers.

Winners think differently. They take responsibility for the direction of their lives. Life has got many variables. Some of these variables are in our control while others are not. The key to taking responsibility is in understanding the variables in our control and giving our utmost best to get things done. No one gets blamed for variables beyond their control. The biggest problem is that we don’t often tell ourselves the truth about what variables are in our control. Like Adam, we want to pin our shortcomings on someone else and we therefore try hard to find that someone when we re cornered.

What I always wonder is why Adam would hide from God if he was certain that he had no part to play in the turn of events? Every time you fail to control your variables, it is no secret even to you. You might work hard to deflect the attention from yourself but deep down you know that there was more you could have done to change the situation.

Winners look for ways to get things done irrespective of the difficulty of it all. Losers look for the easiest crutch to lean on and absolve themselves of responsibility. Everyone who embarks on a significant task must be armed with the knowledge that tough times will come. The pursuit of any worthwhile goal will often meet with sufficient resistance. The challenge you have as an individual is to rise above it and still get the job done. You have to ask yourself this question. Will I magnify my goals or my excuses?  The choice is really simple. The battle is between your goals and your excuses. Your best excuses or reasons will not get the goal accomplished. Setbacks are bound to come and the best thing to do is to prepare for them in advance. One of the things that leads people to lean on excuses is that their plans were not rooted in reality. While you hope for the best and keep an optimistic state of mind, your planning must factor in the worst case scenario. When you have thought through what to do in the worst case scenario, you are all set to go and should anything go better than your worst case scenario, you are still good to go and will find yourself accelerating faster than you thought possible.

The best way to approach any task is to pray as though everything depends on God and plan as though everything depends on you. More often than not, we get frustrated with the turn of events because in our quest to walk by faith we forget that faith without works is dead. Faith is no substitute for action. Faith calls on you to listen for what needs to be done and go out to get it done. 

Whenever you experience failure, before you look for the source of the failure anywhere else, begin with a thorough introspection. Be sure that you carried out your task to the best of your ability. Be sure that you gathered all the info you needed and the resources for the job you had embarked on. Jesus talks about the need to count the cost before you embark on a building project. (Luke 14:28) You have to pay attention to his words in this regard. Before you blame God, the devil or anyone else for that matter, ask yourself what is my role in this matter? Until you have cleared your name, do not shift the issue elsewhere.

Our success or failure in life has a lot more to do with us than we care to admit. Other people might contribute to it but ultimately, the buck stops with us. If we accept substandard performance from ourselves, it teaches others that we are okay with substandard performance and that is exactly how they will relate to us. If we hold ourselves to a high standard, the same thing will happen with others who deal with us. We teach others how to deal with us by the way we deal with ourselves.

I challenge you to look back over one of your past failures and successes. Ask yourself what you did to find yourself there. Ask why you failed or succeeded. Without a hurry reflect on it all and tell the truth to yourself. You can even enlist the help of someone who was close to you through that journey. Clarity and accuracy are critical when it comes to a deep look at yourself. Part of the reason why we fail at the same thing over and over again is that we gloss over our own contribution to the whole situation. We are also not able to win consistently because we are not clear on what we did to attain our past victories. When this happens, the truth is that our victories are a result of chance. While there is an element of luck in every breakthrough, more often than not, the consistently successful make their own luck by controlling the variables in their power. The mantra to live by is do your best and leave the rest to God.

Many of us are quick to leave to God even that which is our own responsibility. The truth is that it feels good to experience miracles and find supernatural solutions to our issues. However God spares miracles for times of desperation where nothing else can save us. This is why the children of Israel ate manna in the wilderness for forty years but the moment they set foot in Canaan, the manna ceased. (Joshua 5:12) It is not a good place to be where you are uncertain of what will happen next. Constantly living with your heart in your hand is not the way we are designed to be. The plan is to position us where we will flourish by employing what has been deposited in us.

I want to challenge everyone who is reading this to take their role in their life, business, family, ministry and wherever else with the seriousness it deserves. You are ultimately responsible for how things turn out. If you don’t like the results your life is producing and you are looking for someone to hold responsible, begin with the man/woman in the mirror. Take an active role in determining the course of your life. Become intentional in pursuing the results you are looking for. Act with integrity when it comes to your goals. Let your actions speak louder than your words. Put your money where your mouth is. Quit talking constantly about what you will do and go out there and start doing it. Let it be clear to everyone around you what result you are looking for. When people know what it is you seek, they will facilitate you to get it. When it is not clear, they won’t be sure how to help you. Believe it or not, there are many people willing to help you but you have to give them room by clarifying what it is you are going after. Don’t make the mistake of leaving to chance the thing which is your responsibility. Every evening when you go to lay down your head, purpose to conclude that there was no more that I could do today in the pursuit of my goal. Until you can say that with sincerity, there is a lot you are leaving undone daily.

Take responsibility for your life son. No one is coming from outer space to get things done for you. You are all you’ve got. From today remind yourself that if it is to be, it is up to me.

In my article next week I will be sharing on the second side of this story. Be sure to check it out.

PS: I am putting together a WhatsApp group where we discuss matters opportunities and Key life Skills you need to thrive in today's world. Drop your Digits to +254725832477 if you want to be a part of this conversation born out of our recently held Crossroads Virtual Summit. 

Tight Spot Mentality

 

                                    Tight Spot Mentality

Dr. Benjamin Hardy, a psychologist is the first person I heard using the phrase forcing functions which is the basis for what I would like to share here. He describes them as the pressures you apply to yourself intentionally to raise the level of your performance.

One of the quotes I love which aptly captures the philosophy behind the Tight Spot mentality says that ‘Work expands to fill the time allocated for it.’

As humans we are surprisingly adaptable to the situations we find ourselves in. Whenever your boss or someone else in authority over you gives you a task with a strict deadline, you find ways and means to make it happen. The truth is that you always have this capacity only that you have not been called to bring it out more often.

Embracing a tight spot mentality is critical to anyone who wants to set high standards of performance for themselves. What if a tight spot mentality is something you can turn on anytime you want rather than wait for it to be forced down your throat all the time? How much more would you accomplish if you learnt to apply pressure to yourself irrespective of who was watching over you and waiting for you to deliver?

The Swahili have a saying that goes ‘maji ukisha yavulia sharti uyaoge.’ This can be loosely translated to once you have stripped yourself of your clothes, you have no option but to take that shower. Sometimes the best way to learn how to swim is to throw yourself into the water. When your survival depends on your ability to swim, you learn what it takes very quickly as opposed to when there is no immediate danger. Human ingenuity will help you find ways and means of coming out of tight spots that you would never know you had until you found yourself there.

Think about what happened with many of us when the current pandemic first came our way. We had to adjust swiftly in order to survive and we did it. If you had told us that we would wear masks, sanitize and keep social distance in 2019, it would have sounded strange to us but when COVID 19 showed up, we have had no choice but to adapt. Your ability to adapt depends on what is at stake. The things you won’t do in your comfort zone become easy breezy when your life is at stake. How many creature comforts did we give up quickly to survive the pandemic? All of a sudden, our unnecessary social gatherings were a thing of the past, some of our culturally significant practices like spending much time planning for a funeral for example were thrown out the window. Give a man sufficient motivation and he will accomplish the seemingly impossible. For a moment a majority of the things which looked indispensable in our lives took a back seat. Who would have thought we would close down schools, entertainment joints, places of worship and so much more. I can guarantee that it was never going to happen under normal circumstances. These things were and are vital to our living but once it was apparent that cutting down on them was necessary for our survival, we did it without blinking an eye. Visits to the hospital were also significantly scaled down and a lot of us realized that we visit hospital for trivial matters just because we have a medical cover.

The million dollar question is, what are the other things you have elevated in your life to a degree of necessity that is not reflective of reality? How many things can you do without yet you have made them a critical part of who you are and your existence? What are these things you can cut out or scale down in your life without affecting you adversely?

The secret is to become at peace with creating tight spots for yourself in all areas of your life. You will accomplish so much more once you normalize a tight spot mentality. Cut down the time you use to complete a task by half to see what you can come up with. More often than not, you will realize that you have the capacity to do it once you put your mind to it.

Creating a tight spot mentality

It is important to ask yourself what positive pressure you can apply to yourself in order to get there faster. For some people making public commitments is a way of getting in the zone. This must be accompanied by a heart of integrity such that you can’t be at peace if you fail to fulfil your commitment. For others it is about taking the first step of a project after which it is fatal to drag your feet. With this you have no choice but to carry the project through. In some instances, you apply pressure to yourself by committing to certain consequences which are severe enough to make you do what you have set out to do. A good example is a client of mine who committed to pay a hefty fine for any deadline she misses. The thought of paying that fine is enough to drive her towards doing the right thing. You could think of buying the things you need for a task especially if they are expensive. The fact that you spend money to get those things will drive you to get up and do it whether you wanted to or not. Another tactic is to enter into an accountability partnership with someone who will keep you on toes with regard to keeping your commitments. You can design it in such a way that failure to do what you committed to means you lose out on money that you have already committed in a common pool to your partner.

Many goals are abandoned midstream because there isn’t sufficient motivation behind them. We all need meaningful safeguards around our goals if we will have a chance to actualize them. There is no tool as effective as developing a tight spot mentality. You must make the consequences of failure severe in your mind so that you have no option but to press on. Sometimes it requires that you burn bridges so that there is no chance of going back.  This is a tactic that has been used by many generals to ramp up the motivation of their troops on the war front.  Alexander the Great burned his ships upon arriving in Persia in 334 B.C and when he was asked by one of his commanders about how they will get home, he replied ‘we’ll use their ships.’ This despite the fact that his army was outnumbered probably ten to one. A chines general Xiang Yu ordered his troops across the river and burnt the bride behind them quietly leading them to be so motivated that they beat the mighty Qin in the battle of Julu in 207 BC. It is a risky business but it works magic in getting people motivated to bring out their best. 

What fire are you going to ignite in yourself and what means will you use to ignite it? From this article and any other thing you know about engineering conditions to drive performance, what are you willing to do to accomplish your goals in 2021? What public commitments are you willing to make to get yourself out there? I would like to hear your thoughts and ideas in the comments below.

Do you need help developing a personalized tight spot mentality around your goals and key stone results? Are you ready to throw it all on the line and reach your goals in 2021? Reach out to me via my email asenasam@gmail.com or +254774776413 and let’s get you going down the road of no return.

Do you Love a Challenge?

 

                                                              Do you love a challenge?

Your perception around a challenge can determine what you do with it. What kind of attitude do you have towards the challenges around your life? If you ask many of us, they would rather live a life devoid of challenges. But is it possible or even worthwhile? The truth is it is impossible to live minus challenges. They are the fuel of life. It is also a mundane existence if there are no curveballs that need us to apply the best of ourselves.

Challenges create necessity. And necessity is the mother of all invention. There would be zero need for invention and innovation if there were no challenges. We advance as a race because of the constant need to deal with emerging challenges quickly enough.

Somebody had to encounter the challenge of moving swiftly from one place to another to be inspired to come up with the locomotive, the automobile and the aeroplane. Imagine what it would be like to still be travelling on foot over thousands of kilometers. Some other people thought about how inconveniencing it was to have to be in a fixed position to make calls across the world. This is how the world of cell phones came about. But that was not enough. We realized that there is a lot that we can do with a hand held device rather than just calling and texting. The need to do more with our hand held devices brought about the smartphone. The one thing that cuts across all these advancements is the presence of a challenge to be solved, a need to be met.

The best thing you can do for yourself is to fall in love with challenges. It guarantees that you will have an exciting, thrilling life. There is no greater thrill than to know you have worked on a challenge and put it to bed once and for all. Challenges make you constantly improve on your best self. Success is a journey of overcoming challenges and not just the final destination.

A life devoid of challenges is uninspiring and not something you want to constantly have. It has the potential to make you lethargic or numb. You run the risk to have a robotic experience of life which is the result of predictability. Such a life kills your imagination and creativity and leaves you high and dry. Cowards want to live where everything has been figured out for them. What kind of life is that?

Challenges do not have to be negative. Some challenges can be very positive in nature. You can create challenges for yourself for the purpose of pushing yourself to the next level. We must get into the habit of placing ourselves in situations where we crack our brains to come out of where we are stuck. Dr. Benjamin Hardy has an interesting way of looking at this. He calls them forcing functions. You need to start creating forcing functions all around you to push you further down the road. Not al your challenges need to be external and catch you by surprise. You need to get to the point where you are creating challenges for yourself and figuring them out in order to make good progress.

Think about things like making public commitments to get something done. The fact that the public is watching will spur you into doing the very best because you do not want your failure to be in the public domain. Another example of a forcing function is to get started down a road of no return. There are certain things you can do like jumping into the water which will force you to learn how to swim for survival. Many of us are capable of so much more in life but because there is no life or death situation facing us, we move at a leisurely pace. A little instability can help us adjust our pace and accomplish much more.

Challenges have a way of building our muscles. The more you encounter what you are unfamiliar with, the stronger you become both physically, mentally and psychologically. There is no shortcut to stronger muscles. The only way to strengthen is to engage in endurance training. David Goggins the renowned ex-NAVY SEAL says that our bodies start to shut down when we are only at 40 percent of their capacity in a bid to preserve themselves. The secret is to push through that resistance until you get to the other side. Once you overcome this initial resistance, you realize that you can go much further down the road.  

Question? What forcing functions are you going to apply on yourself going forward? What challenges have you been sidestepping that you are going to face going forward? I would like to hear your thoughts in the comments in this regard.

Challenges are not to be feared but embraced because in embracing your challenges, you embrace your future. Why would you run away from a better future? Your perception is much more important than the degree of challenge you are facing. If you see it as a way to grow and progress, that is exactly what it will be. If you see it as something to be avoided at all cost, then be ready for a mediocre existence at best. I am sure no one would choose a mediocre existence willingly but anytime you run away from challenges, you are slowly but surely drifting towards a mediocre life.

Would you like to learn more about being at home with challenges and how to make them work for you instead of against you? Hit me up on asenasam@gmail.com and let's talk. 

Feel free to also order a copy of my book Blessed to be a Blessing and learn more about why your experiences both good and bad, including pain are gold which you should embrace and extract value from. 

Improve on your best

 

Get into the habit of pushing the boundaries of what you can handle. Everything around us evolves constantly. What was great yesterday is considered trash today. The people who will remain relevant must change with the changing times and circumstances. While you rest easy enjoying your success, your problems are evolving. Improvement is required just to maintain your position before you even think of taking steps forward.

If you are in business, you will realize that your competitors are working very hard to close the gap between you and them. If you don’t work on getting better at what you are doing you will soon find yourself as a success story of the past. I constantly refer to smartphone manufacturers as the greatest example of improving on your best. For the better part of the decade 2001-2010, Nokia was the king when it came to manufacturing cutting edge phones that always surprised us with what they were capable of doing. At some point it looked as though they had a new phone out every week. Word has it that they had the technology to produce the first smartphones but they slept on it concluding for some reason that the world was not ready for this kind of technology. Since that time, it has never been the same for them again. The moment they missed the bus, they started going downhill. Several attempts later and they still can’t boast of any significant market share in the smartphone business despite having some great options along the way. Contrast that with what has happened at Apple and Samsung. People are so invested in what these two companies produce, that they line up well in advance to get their hands on the latest iteration of their flagship devices. They are sure to sell millions of devices across the globe every year. The thing that keeps them at the top of people’s minds is the fact that they come with the latest technology available. Their R and D teams have little time to celebrate the success of what came out last year. They almost immediately go back to asking themselves: what can we offer the market next year to beat what they currently have in their hands? In short they are keen on improving on their best.

In his acceptance speech for an Academy Award, Actor Matthew McConaughey made an outstanding statement that reflects what it means to improve on your best. He said that his hero is always 10 years ahead of him. In essence his hero is who he is going to be ten years from now. That means he is always chasing a better version of himself. The way he sees himself now as great as it is, he knows that his future self, is bound to be better than his present self and that is why he keeps chasing his hero. Another example from the incredible Dr. Benjamin Hardy is from onetime Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice. Her mantra is that she never refers to herself as the ‘Former’ anything. She focuses much more on what the future has in store for her that she has no time to get lost in thinking of who she was in a former role. That right there is the thinking of someone who is given to doing better and focusing on the improvement they can still reach rather than any greatness in their past.

However well you are doing at the present moment, it is important to realize that you are still a work in progress. You must constantly keep your eyes open to see the opportunities accorded you for improvement and to do better. That is the basis for living a great life. I am a strong proponent of living optimally and constant improvement can never be separated from the pursuit of an optimal life. The fact that you are excelling today should keep you on your toes. At some point, you are no longer in the zone of competing with others. Your competition becomes the pursuit of beating who you were yesterday. Grant Cardone in his masterpiece The 10X Rule has a chapter on Competition where he says that your goal needs to be domination rather than competition. He says that while others are pursuing best practices, you need to be in a place where you are pursuing ‘only practices.’ By the time you reach here, you are not only improving constantly on your best self but playing in a one man league where you are constantly assured you will win.

Would you do with someone to hold your hand in the pursuit of improving on your best? If your answer is in the affirmative, then talk to me on +254725832477/ samuelmwinamoa@gmail.com