Previously l wrote about how l changed my perspective on giving. What l didn’t mention at the time, was that  giving is only a part of an incomplete process.  Before l get into explaining what l mean let me start by illustrating.

I heard a story about a homeless man who had lived on the streets for 25 yrs. Living on the street had taken it’s toll on his life and he appeared to be in his eighties when he was only 43 years old. One day a limousine pulled up on the street and a stranger came out, inquired about the identity of the homeless man.  After that, the stranger gave him a brown envelope with his name printed on it. The stranger had introduced himself as the last remaining uncle and begged the homeless man to go home with him. The homeless man refused and said all his friends lived on the street and he liked it. After the uncle had left, the man looked at the clean looking envelope with his name nicely printed on it and got so excited. He told all his friends about the lovely envelop but never opened it until he died. He never got to find out that the envelop contained a will with a deed for ownership of multi million estate.  He died on the street clutching the envelop. When he was found after he had passed away, the estate was handed over to the government.

Giving is the most powerful true essence of human spirit but can only be completed when the gift is received.  Giving is impossible without receiving and giving is not fulfilled until receiving is complete (Dr Miles Munroe).  The man mentioned above accepted and acknowledged the gift but failed to receive it.

Could it be that we have given gifts that were never received before and now we have lost interest?

Jesus discussed the concept of receiving and how that can impact our giving. (In Matthew 7vs6) The bible summarised that giving is noble but we need to scrutinize who we are giving because someone may accept the gift, thank you for it but never receive it. Ultimately when we give and the gift is not appreciated, instead of giving up or becoming angry, we should choose who to give carefully. Our gifts should only be given to those who need and appreciate our gifts.

Seeking to understand any concept that stretches personal growth is a success principle.

A long time ago whilst l was growing up l nursed a dream to travel and live abroad. This was a big dream which was unaffordable at the time. Never the less l said yes to this dream and began planning and preparing. One of the things l did to prepare for this dream was choosing to work as travel consultant. This enabled me to obtain information about travelling legally and the type of visas l could apply for. Thereafter an opportunity to travel was presented in the form of a free ticket to travel abroad through a work incentive and the rest is history. My colleagues at the time who also received free tickets through the same incentive managed to sell (miss) their (opportunity) tickets and spent the money!

One of life’s misconceptions is that hard work leads to success. This is a myth which is quickly dispelled as soon as you become intentional about studying successful people.   I have encountered individuals who worked very hard all their life but had nothing to show for it when they retired.  Furthermore, I have observed individuals and noted with frustration that less gifted individuals can go twice as far with achieving greatness than the more gifted individuals.  Most people conclude and attribute this to luck but for obvious reasons l am not convinced by this conclusion.  Therefore, this leads to the question that if not hard work, luck or talent then what leads to success?

Success is realised when preparation meets opportunity.   Pastor Wayne Chaney argued that God rarely drags you into greatness but rather presents passing opportunities that must be discerned for what they are. Certainly, when l set about registering myself to volunteer in church although driven by the need to give more to God, l had seized an opportunity to grow.

 It is not always talent, intellect, pedigree or education that leads to greatness. Ultimately it is the ability to recognise opportunities that can take you from where you are to where you need to be (Pastor Chaney). Successful people are able to discern and seize opportunities immediately because these windows of opportunities are usually time sensitive and will be closed if you decide to seize them later.

 If you can spot these opportunities your life will be changed. Successful individuals are distinguished from the crowd by their ability to sniff out opportunity!

I usually come across forwarded messages on what’s app from my lists of contacts, some of these messages are a complete waste of time and some are worth taking note of. This time l received a message stating that in order to accumulate wealth in your life you needed to give first. Normally l would disregard this type of message as utter nonsense!  But this message reminded me to do something that l have been putting off for a while. On Sunday after church l walked up to the volunteering team and presented myself as available to work in church.

 I did this because my understanding about giving has totally changed. It never makes sense to give money when you haven’t got enough to feed yourself and your family l get that. This is why l did not give before. My moment of understanding was when l stopped thinking that money was the only resource l could give. I became moldable in that moment when l asked what l could give instead of declining to give money, which l didn’t have in the first place.

Progress is about challenging old perspective and relearning new and old principles. Consequently, the moment l understood l made a decision to give instantly because l realised that giving isn’t always about money.  I believed that if time is money l could give my time.

Giving is a command from the Bible and Jesus asked us to give without explaining any further. That tells me that God expects us to give even if we think we are too poor to give.   Therefore, instead of thinking that l have nothing to give, l should ask myself what l could give if there is no money to give?  Success principles are bible based and they are paramount, such that some people do not acknowledge the bible as the source of these principles but still reap the benefits.

Successful people are especially good at asking the right questions in their life in order to gain clarity. Most successful people believe in giving and this is no surprise as they have excess wealth to spare! The surprising thing which l didn’t realise was that they started giving whilst they were still poor.

Giving  is a prerequisite to attaining abundance. It demonstrates your faith and sends a message to God and the universe that you believe in abundance and that you could be trusted with handling more wealth. If you can’t give now you will never be able to give when you have more wealth (John Maxwell.)

One of the most crucial endeavours l committed to, when searching for answers in my life was reading.  Reading allowed me to understand that my life was not a hopeless situation and that most successful people, started off feeling hopeless, poor and ignorant

I was able to reach that conclusion through relating to the stories that the authors were telling. Utilising storytelling, these individuals were able to make avail something which l thought was not available to me.  I became convinced after reading their stories that success was available to me!

 When l was young there was an issue that personally affected my spirituality or my closeness to Jesus or God. Growing up in Africa was the argument that Jesus was not a God of the African race. He was a God of the Caucasian race.

On the other hand, the Bible clearly articulated that God created all of us in his image. Which  in essence meant that Jesus looks like any one of us! However, all the pictures available all over the World and all the movies portrayed a white Jesus. I even grew up in the Anglican church in Zimbabwe (Church of England) where they had posters of a white Jesus in the church.

Furthermore, Christianity was brought to Africa by white missionaries and thereafter the white colonialists, who resembled the missionaries, proceeded to colonise Africa.  Colonisation and Slave trade outclasses any act of inhumanity ever to be imposed on the African continent.

 Even though it was reiterated to me, that I was created in God’s image it did not make sense. My perspective of who  Jesus/God is, was being shaped by the stories that were revolving in my atmosphere.

Today l listened to a man called William Paul Young, he wrote a book titled “The shack”. Although l did not read the book itself l managed to watch the movie that was created as a result of this book.

I am astounded by this man. He made my day! William explained that, although he was berated for portraying the image of Jesus as a black African American woman, a Brazilian woman and a Middle Eastern man in his book, he could not  be dissuaded. His aim was to “take God out of the box” that was being created by the previous story tellers. Frankly William has no idea how much of a positive impact this has made.

Although we know that God is bigger than the limitations placed on him. It can be difficult if a few individuals in one society are determined to portray God as unavailable to other races!

This is how powerful good story telling can be, it challenges stereotype and aims to set the record right.

Being successful in life begins with changing your perspective and your perspective shapes your beliefs and values. The action that you decide to take to improve your life depends on the perspective that you command.

As l grew older especially when l was approaching the big 40 l was filled with a great sense of apprehension. Initially I thought l was having a mid-life crises, after pausing to take a closer look, l realised that actually l have been dreading every single one of my birthday’s for several years prior to approaching the big 40. I later discovered that this a classic symptom of fear caused by a feeling of being uncertain or agitated about the future.

The usual stresses in life such as job, personal challenges were keeping me in a state of trepidation. When I embarked on a journey to search for answers l discovered that while l was cowering in fear and wasting my time being idle. Successful individuals had managed to banish every ounce of fear from their lives!  In fact they are so fearless and excited about their future prospects they can’t wait for their next birthday to approach. I wondered how they had managed to achieve this?

Cindy Trimm revealed that her life is so exciting, she often feels that she can’t wait to wake up every single day. What’s more the next years in her life can’t come soon enough for her, she has planned upcoming exciting events in the next year, next 2 years, 5 years, 10 years etc.

According to Dr Trimm fear is caused by losing focus of vision and goals, it’s being led by what you see and feel. These are the external forces that create anxiety which can lead to fear. It may also be created by what you are listening to (radio), reading (newspaper) or watching (news on tv).

To eliminate fear you have to see, hear and watch something positive persistently. Reading the bible or anything positive such as this Blog. You also eradicate fear by identifying who you are and your purpose on this earth, being ignorant about this will create anxiety and discomposure in your life.

Creating a vision and setting goals in my life is what eliminated my fear, it changed my outlook about my future. Focusing on my inner goals in life enabled me to regain control and become optimistic about the future. When you create big dreams and believe in them wholeheartedly the excitement is immediate even though the dreams maybe in the future.

Successful people are not reactive to life they take control by planning their life.

 In order to achieve a state of mind that is focused on improving our lives, we need to learn to forgive. However there is a misconception about forgiveness that we all need to clarify in our minds. Forgiveness is releasing the unpleasant feelings that we may be harbouring about something or someone in our hearts.

 Choosing to unshackle ourselves from the adverse impression instigated by a particular situation or someone is forgiveness.  Forgiveness is so radical, that when real forgiveness has been accomplished, feelings of hatred or resentment are replaced by love. Although this may not always be an instant process but rather a gradual process.

Whether we choose to maintain a relationship with the offending individual after we have forgiven them is a very different subject altogether. This is where the misconception occurs. After forgiving we have to make a choice of remaining or terminating a relationship. We should never be pressured to remain in relationships that no longer serve us. If onlookers decide to assume that we have not forgiven on those basis, it is not our concern!

 Forgiveness is a very personal experience with the initial purpose of benefitting the forgiver. Allowing ourselves to forgive is not justifying the actions of the offender it’s about liberating ourselves. It’s never about the other person or whether what they have done is right or not. It’s about cleansing ourselves.

 When we decide to get rid of these negative feelings in our mind we are able to focus on being positive. Being positive enables us to become creatives and pursue our goals relentlessly and wholeheartedly.

 Forgiveness is an essential bible based principle practised by successful people. God knows how toxic harbouring unforgiveness is.  If not addressed, it might end up affecting you more than the person you are suppose to be forgiving.

I decided to always strive to forgive persistently as this enables me to focus on the right things  in my life and allows me to become super productive.

In a few of my Blogs l discussed how for the longest time, wondered why l was being motivated but still failing to transform my life. It occurred to me that, like most people l believed in the old adage that knowledge is power?  Contrary to popular belief, knowledge itself is useless unless you  change  your life after attaining that knowledge!

Sir Richard Branson the CEO of virgin business, aptly named his business “Virgin Group”. When he decided to venture into business he was a novice, which meant he had no knowledge at all of how to run a business. Yet today he is a very successful, world renowned business man! Furthermore Sir Richard Branson is not the only person who stopped pursuing knowledge to take action. Mark Zuckerberg the creator of face book is also known to have dropped out of college. He went on to create a social media platform that made him one of the richest man alive today.

 Although these individuals started as novices, they mastered that art of implementing acquired knowledge to be successful. They uncovered that acquiring knowledge without taking action is pointless. They did not stop acquiring knowledge, the new perspective was to absorb and implement knowledge immediately. Knowledge is only powerful when it’s supported by action!

I am very much aware that we are living in the age of information. Information which pretty much explains how to do anything in life, has become readily available for free online.  Yet I or we were still failing to achieve our dreams.  The reason being that, we only read, felt smart and assumed we had accomplished something, without actually implementing something new from the knowledge to improve our lives.

Knowledge is like faith, it’s dead without works and knowledge becomes useless when it’s not implemented for change immediately.

William Kamkwamba was an ordinary fourteen year old boy, who lived in a remote village of Malawi called Wimbe. William was passionate about learning but unfortunately, his father could not afford to pay for his education.  His education was terminated before completion due to poverty. Long after he had been forbidden school due to owing a large amount of tuition fees, William feeling dejected, carried on sneaking into the library and devouring books. He was hungry for knowledge!

In the midst of all this, his village was suffering a great drought and a colossal famine ensued.  Food became scarce. It led to immense struggling and suffering to obtain food.  People were starving in the village and William was deeply anguished after losing his adored pet, a dog which he could no longer afford to feed! Worst of all several people lost their lives in Williams village, it was tragic.

William started to wonder if he could use his knowledge to solve the problems he was facing. He occupied himself with more reading. His father, oblivious to William’s plight of searching for knowledge to solve the current problem, became incensed.  He felt exasperated that he wasn’t helping more with planting and sowing in the futile fields.

William was not discouraged he became even more convinced that he could create a solution to the problems, if given the opportunity. He pleaded with his father to let him try. 

His idea involved creating a windmill, which would draw out water for irrigation from the waterhole. His father vilified him all the more! William went as far as enlisting the help of his friends to implore on his behalf but his father wouldn’t hear of it.

 The situation got even more complicated because he required the dynamo from his father’s bicycle to necessitate powering of the windmill. Eventually his mother intervened and demanded his father hand over his bicycle to him.

With that he was able to create a working windmill that powered an irrigation system that saved the whole village from hunger. His father was proud of him the most!

 William who is now known as a famous innovator and engineer appeared on Ted Talks. He was asked how he was able to save his village and how he thought of this idea. He explained that he had come across a book discussing using energy and then he tried and made it work.

Stepping out of your comfort zone and trying something might be all it takes to achieve success. The secret to getting ahead is getting started (Mark Tweit). There is no friend as loyal as a book (Ernest Hemingway).

 Recently I watched a very old Oprah Winfrey TV show. A book called “The Secret”, which has also been made into a film was being reviewed. My attention was drawn to a couple that featured on this film. This couple was grumbling about a lack of intimacy in their marriage. At the time of watching “The Secret” film, they were seriously contemplating a divorce. After stumbling upon “The Secret” Film they not only managed to save their marriage but they began to enjoy a new level of romance and intimacy in their relationship.

Watching the film, enabled renewal of their marriage through applying new skills gained from watching this film. After implementing the newly acquired skills, their problems did not vanish into thin air! They changed their perspective and started appreciating their marriage. This illustrates the positive effect of procuring knowledge to solve problems. 

Creating a dream life is about maintaining a balance on everything that is important in life such as marriage, family, finance etc. Hence pursuing success at marriage is a very important aspect of living the dream.  

 Dr Miles Munroe argued that only one attribute was required for a successful marriage. Contrary to popular belief it is not love but attaining knowledge about how marriage works. Although his opinion could be construed as controversial, l considered that he had been happily married for 32 years when he made this statement.

 He was also a successful man at running businesses all over the world and he attributed all his success to gaining prior knowledge before executing new ideas.  He also interpreted that a numerous amount of unpleasant cycles and situations in life are repeated due to lack of information. He encouraged reading for personal success and to protect future generations as we will be able to pass on our learned knowledge.

It became apparent to me that successful people do not read for the sake of reading.  Reading is about  acquiring specialised knowledge required to undertake a new skill. This is what increases chances at being successful!

The goal of becoming successful is a marathon, a lifestyle and certainly not a sprint. Changing your life is about being intentional regarding daily habits. Success is hidden in your daily habits.

When you persist with the same actions for a prolonged period, success becomes inevitable. If success is hidden in your daily habits, it’s mandatory to reflect on your daily habits! Subsequently it takes introducing and maintaining one new habit at a time. Eventually moving to introduce another one, only after the last habit has been mastered.

Maintaining focus and persistence involves undertaking a challenge daily, and achieving small targets associated with attaining your life goal.  It’s not about focussing on results because if you focus on getting results you might start to feel impatient and this is not the state of mind required to acquire your dreams. (l wrote about this in my Blog titled patience).

Terry Saville noted that the difference between masters of success and ordinary people are the daily habits they engage in. In order to achieve life goals, you need to possess very specific daily habits and create time for practising these habits.  

Oprah Winfrey and other celebrities have furnished us with information on their routines.  They discussed the daily habit of waking up early to undertake specific tasks, before commencing a working day.  The tasks mentioned include objectives such as praying, meditating, reading, writing and exercising etc.

John Maxwell argued that a person working towards achieving their life goals should have an organised day. He revealed that he was able to determine if a person is headed for success or not by simply observing their daily habits on a single day.

 Scheduling thinking time ensures that you reflect on the actions you are taking and improve them. You are also able to reflect on the lack of actions and examine reasons for this to improve your outcome.

Success means constantly evolving and growing.