Posts Tagged ‘Dreaming’

There is a place within each and every one of us - a spark lies there - and from that spark is ignited a dream.

And from that dream explodes a blaze. And from that blaze there rages an ever-burning fire that cannot be quenched, that cannot be vanquished, because the spark itself is eternal. This is the eternal flame that resides within the framework that God has placed around your soul. It is the breath of God himself that was breathed into the dust at the very beginning - and once breathed - no matter what enemies continue to conspire - can never be snuffed out. No matter how devious, no matter how deceitful, no matter how detrimental the enemies plans are, this spark remains intact for an eternity.

So fan the spark into a flame with your longing to be all that God has created you to be. Place yourself in a windy passage and the embers will be thrust from your hand, and scattered to the four ends of the earth in the form of inspiration and encouragement for others who have for one reason or another allowed their light to dim, to fade and to falter.

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One Christmas, amidst the opening of presents, the singing of carols and the enjoyment of Christmas lights, I found myself engrossed in a book written about the life of one of the greatest men who lived last century, Winston Churchill.

As my children played with their new found presents I was traversing through the battlefields of the Boer War and the 1st and 2nd World Wars with the man who guided the FREE world to victory in the 1940’s with the power of his pen and the majesty of his inspiring words. He was a motivator par excellence.

He too lived in a time of incredible change and so spoke with great authority when he said himself that: ‘The only way a man can remain consistent amid changing circumstances is to change with them while preserving the same dominating purpose.’

Winston knew that he had been born for such an hour and when approached to lead his nation, at the time of crisis, as Hitler and his hordes marched across Europe, he was able to write….’I felt as if I were walking with destiny, and that all my past life had been but a preparation for this hour and for this trial.’

He knew that he’d been born to lead and went on to state that…’Power, for the sake of lording it over fellow-creatures or adding to personal pomp, is rightly judged base. But power in a national crisis, when a man believes he knows what orders should be given, is a blessing. In any sphere of action there can be no comparison between the positions of number one and numbers two, three, or four.’

And it is for that reason that in his address to the House of Commons he spoke confidently, ‘You ask, What is our aim? I can answer in one word: Victory - victory at all costs, victory in spite of terror; victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival….At this time I feel entitled to claim the aid of all, and I say, ‘Come, then, let us go forward together with our united strength.”

Here was a man with a Dominating Purpose in life.

‘The only way a man can remain consistent amid changing circumstances is to change with them while preserving the same dominating purpose.’

Wise words from a wise man who backed up his words with dynamic action.

And now that we find ourselves in the 3rd Millenium B.C. we are bombarded with an ever increasing rate of change that will swallow the masses, who refuse to move with it, and yet will transport those who flow with it into a world of incredible opportunity.

But first let’s take a look at the word CONSISTENCY. This word does not mean that one has to remain firmly entrenched in the past. It speaks to me of the need to be alert and of the importance of evaluating each and every event or every circumstance that happens to pass our way.

Throughout Winston’s political career, which spanned a period of 60 years, he was known for changing political parties and for even contradicting his views throughout that career.

The reason? Because he held true to his convictions and was willing to change his views when changing circumstances called upon such change.

At times, I view things so much more differently with the passing of years. Things that were of significant importance, and for which I rallied hard and long for in my twenties, are now but a distant fog that lack relevance and even the importance to even consider.

WALK WITH A WISE MAN AND BECOME WISE

Unfortunately, much wisdom often only comes through the years of experience and the road far travelled.

However, immersed in the wisdom of the ages, through reading and through the association with much wiser men and women will certainly speed up the process.

1. CHANGE WITH THE CHANGING CIRCUMSTANCES

There is only one way to change and that is to change.

Jump in the deep end and start swimming.

And how do you do that?

First you have to fix the interior and then, and only then, can you sort out the exterior.

Someone once told me that when people were set free from slavery, ‘that you can take the person out of slavery, but you can’t take the slavery out of the people overnight.’

The interior’s architecture must be changed first and foremost before the exterior’s beauty can begin to shine.

That’s why, if I dump a million dollars on your doorstep and you have never handled a million dollars in your life before, statistics tell us that the million dollars will slip through your fingers in no time fast.

So what do you do?

Become, as Robert Kiyosaki so eloquently shares, ‘financially literate.’

To be successful you must first think successful thoughts.

To win you must first think winning thoughts.

The battleground is found within your mind and it is there that the battle must be waged.

Positive thoughts injected into your life on a consistent basis, backed by positive action, will lead to positive results.

That is one reason why I soak myself in the biographies of great men and women who have lived and are still living.

That is why I am always reading half a dozen books all at once and a few extra on the side.

WALK WITH A CHANGED MAN AND BECOME CHANGED

That is why I read with pencil in hand and notebook at the ready waiting to capture that thought that will leap from the page and be imbedded in my mind. This is so that not only I am benefited but that those who read my writings receive the ‘best of the best’.

Read as a student, always at the ready to pluck a nugget of gold from within the dusty pages of a volume you have uncovered. Riches untold will not stay away from your door.

2. PRESERVE THE SAME DOMINATING PURPOSE

What births passion?

What produces drive?

What steers creative workmanship?

What forces courage to rise from within?

Winston Churchill was a man driven by destiny. He had an insatiable appetite for hard work and for learning. Whether it was politics, painting, writing, journalism, bricklaying or any other pursuit, he was gleaning from others, reading and studying, and with that ‘fill of information’ he would forge his way ahead into the unknown with the confidence that nothing was impossible to him.

Did he always get it right? Was he infallible? No. His life was filled with flaws and he committed reprehensible errors that not only impacted his life but even destroyed the lives of many others along the way.

And yet, he would rise up and above ‘the black dog’ that often overwhelmed him, left the errors committed behind him and pushed on ahead unrelentlessly.

And that is what it takes if you are going to preserve the same dominating purpose throughout your lifetime.

Winston never forgot this, even when he was in the political wilderness that lasted ten years before being called upon to lead his nation against Hitler.

With this example as our guide, each of us need to ask ourselves:

What is my dominating purpose?

That’s right.

If I was to ask you to give me in one sentence what is your dominating purpose is, could you answer me?

It is an important question, that any human being, who wants to not only exist on planet earth, but rather to contribute something of significance during their lifetime, needs to ask themself until they find a satisfactory answer?

Some other ways of asking yourself the same question are:

What is your passion?

What is your dream?

What is your burning desire?

What gets you more excited than anything else in this world?

Find the answer to these questions and you will be at the starting gates for the fulfilment of your dominating purpose.

Don’t waste another minute on planet earth without having this question settled in your mind once and for all.

You have been born for a purpose; a dominating purpose.

Motivational Quote: A dominating purpose is the pulsating heart of a successful life.

At dawn on July 4, 1934, Marie Sklodowska Curie, at the age of 66, finally died. Her death was caused by 30 years of exposure to her greatest scientific discovery - radium and its dangerous radioactivity.

Otherwise known as Mrs Pierre Curie, Professor at the Sorbonne in Paris, Nobel Prize Winner in Physics and Nobel Prize Winner in Chemistry, the words she had written when she was only 26 rang true in her life, “We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained.”

And as Abraham Lincoln expressed so eloquently when he was inaugurated as President of his nation for the second time, “With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, let us strive on to finish the work that we are in…”

Both GIANTS, one in the world of science and the other in the world of politics, impressed upon themselves and others the importance of attaining what must be attained and of striving for what needed to be striven for.

What passion? What courage? And yet each and every one of us have a mission which we have been born to complete.

My challenge to you is this: Is your train(life) on the tracks that will carry you towards your mission’s fulfilment?

Maybe you’ve been derailed. Maybe you haven’t even got on board and haven’t really thought about it. Maybe you think that you’re not important enough. Maybe you fail to recognise your own very personal giftings.

Stop right now and consider this!

YOU ARE SPECIAL! That’s right…S-P-E-C-I-A-L! And that is why I want to stir you into action so that you can create an explosive existence.

Don’t just cruise through another year. Don’t do the slipstream thing, sliding yet through another BOOOORING year.

EXPLODE!

Get yourself packed so full of DYNAMITE that you will literally blow-up. When tomorrow hits, the wick will be lit and you will be ignited; ready to shoot like a skyrocket whizzing off and into space.

Higher than a kite, you’ll be leaving your own personal jetstream where you can start to write your own messages in the sky for everyone else to see.

You’re not going to be the one anymore standing on the shore craning your neck to see what letter of the alphabet is coming as the skywriter breaks the blue background with his white grafitti.

You are in charge. You are the composer of the music of your life. You are the designer of your destiny. You have the power of choice within your heart and your hands. You are the master of the masterpiece that is YOUR LIFE.

Let me inspire you to make this coming year a year that will be remembered as your year of beginnings and your year of never endings.

MAKE YOUR LIFE A LIFE OF BEGINNINGS AND A LIFE OF NEVER ENDINGS

But how do you do that?

Here are five simple steps to guide you in your pursuit of an EXPLOSIVE LIFE that will keep exploding all the way into eternity.

1. BURY THE PAST

There are two types of past that we all experience and must bury.

One is the NEGATIVE PAST. Now the best thing to do with that, and we all have some part of our past lying in negative soil, is to bury it.

One person suggested that if you ever had anything of a negative coming back up to your mind haunting you, then the best thing is to write it on a piece of paper and then physically tear it up. Rip it into a million pieces if you wish. Really take out your aggression on that piece of paper. Burn it if you like, but once and for all bury the old baggage.

Even physically dig a hole in your backyard with a shovel and toss the torn pieces of paper in there if you wish and say a prayer or two if you like. The important thing is that you rid yourself of that negative past once and for all. Otherwise you will continue to be tripped up by your past for the rest of your days.

Second is the POSITIVE PAST. Bury this in your heart. Call up these positive events time and again for reinforcement of the fact that you are a winner and that you are possessed with the ability to overcome, no matter the circumstances.

Keep a list of these wins. Keep memorabilia in a success file if you wish and one way to keep a record of these events is to maintain a journal.

I have boxes full of old journals that I have kept in exercise books and I now keep a lot of my records on my computer.

2. DIG UP THE DREAM

Life has a bad habit of overshadowing and burying dreams. Many of our dreams were birthed in our lives when we were very young and for some reason have been put aside or allowed to have the dust of the years settle on them.

If you’ve lost it, go find your dream again.

Go on. Don’t put it off. Go get it. Write it down.

Because once you’ve got your dream in place there will be no stopping you.

YOU WILL EXPLODE.

It is the spark that will ignite your life. It will wake you in the morning. It will keep you pushing towards it throughout the day and it will keep you up late at night.

The dream will add years to your life and productivity to your years.

3. PLANT A NEW SEED

With the rediscovery, or the reignition of your dream, you must start to invest in your life and in the lives of others.

But the facts are that if you are hungry, then how are you ever going to feed others.

Invest in yourself.

Feed your dream.

Read and grow in knowledge and understanding of your chosen path. Read and inwardly digest. Gorge yourself if you like, because if you are full to overflowing then you will then be more than able to feed those who come to be fed.

Make learning your ambition and listening your habit. Listen with both your eyes and your ears for there is so much to learn.

A seed planted in your life will ultimately produce a crop that will feed so many more than you could, at first, have ever imagined.

Seeds hold an incredible power within them that will ultimately multiply. So plant a new seed.

FIRST THE SEED AND THEN THE HARVEST

4. WATER THE CROP

Planting a seed is not enough. You must spend time watering the seed through constant attention.

Read. Listen. Surround yourself with mentors. Keep the company of likeminded positive people. Teach. Share. Write. Finetune your dream. Readdress your daily, weekly, monthly and yearly goals from time to time and see if they still light the fire within your belly.

Track your progress and evaluate often.

Always remain teachable and correctable. Critics can at times sting and yet be some of our greatest tutors.

Stay on track. Don’t allow yourself to be distracted or pulled aside from the path you have chosen. But at the same time learn to recognize the breezes that will gently blow your sails  and guide your craft(life) in a more correct route.

Whatever you do, always follow after peace in your own heart. Utilise your strengths and open yourself up to new learning experiences.

5. REAP THE HARVEST

This is your finest hour: the ultimate fulfillment of your dream.

But don’t forget that the harvest time can at times require the greatest expenditure of effort. So don’t slacken off. Roll up your sleeves and pitch in.

Marie Curie achieved her dream. But even though it ultimately claimed her life, her discovery has positively impacted the lives of millions throughout the world.

Abraham Lincoln didn’t live much longer, after his second inauguration and the restoration of peace after the Civil War, and yet he freed millions from slavery both then and in the future.

Dreams are often paid with a high price, but a life lived without a dream is a life never lived.

Motivational Quote:  A life lived without a dream is a life never lived.

One of the challenges that those of us who have dreams often face, is to clearly understand timing.

But as an avid vegetable gardener (and I even have a stainless steel shovel to prove it) I have come to understand one thing. And that is, that there is a time lapse between when a seed is planted and when the fruit of that seed is harvested.

But how often do we, when we receive a dream, rush off headlong into one of two things: disaster or disappointment. And that, in many cases, is where the dream dies.

But may I encourage you, that when the seed of a dream is planted in your heart and mind, that you take time to remind yourself that there is a time to plant and that there is a time to reap. And there is also a time inbetween for growth to occur.

It may be weeks, or months or even years before that seed is fully grown.

But in the meantime, stay focussed, and be diligent in the daily disciplines of life by doing all the little things well. Demand excellence in everything you do and in due course you will see the unfolding of your dreams and the fulfilment of your heart’s desires.

Don’t let your dream die because you are forcing it to be birthed prematurely.

For as the good book states in Ecclesiastes 3: ‘There’s an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth.’