Power

Of

Intention

Aspire to Inspire

By Mazuba Mwiinga

Intention 5:            Motivate Your Practice

 “Failures to use our gifts which have been given to us for free are more serious sins than the comparatively insignificant lapses in conduct that are so often given the name of ‘sin’.” - Ralph Rolls

Each one of us I believe grew up with dreams or destinies to achieve in life. My son tells me he dreams of becoming a Pilot. And I always tell him that nothing is impossible and that he can be anything he wants to be and he will be a Pilot. When we develop dreams in our lives, we always look at what interests us; what resonates with our mind and what makes us excited when we do it; that’s the passion. Such a feeling immediately tells us where our gifts or talents are. These gifts do not just come up from nowhere; we are born with them. They are called gifts because indeed they are gifts from God. At the time of conception in our mothers’ womb God presents each one of us with a gift to arm himself with in this world. Some are lucky, for they get to grow up with so many of these gifts.

But what baffles us is the fact that, most of us when we become adults and pursue careers that resonated with our talents we hardly put sense to them but rather wish to do what other people do, just because someone’s pay check is fatter than what we do. In the end we find ourselves very un-productive, un-happy, and lazy and bored with life. Next comes pilfering.

What we don’t know is that, these gifts were given to us because God knows our capabilities, abilities and strengths in those areas of duty, so much that if we are to follow these talents and use them to the fullest, we won’t just be happy but prosperous too. We will love what we do and never get fade up with life because what we do is our life itself. We will put more into our work than we get from it in monetary terms and this in turn gives us more prosperity as Wallace Wattles says that the science of getting rich is “Giving every person more in use value than you take from them in cash value”. And this only becomes possible when one is pursuing his talent.

The dilemma however that has encroached most of us is that we don’t even know what are gifts are. Those of us who know what these gifts are, we hardly use them. We allow the inertia and security of our comfort zones to erode our gifts. Ralph Rolls puts it that the failures to use our gifts which have been given to us for free are more serious sins than the comparatively insignificant lapses in conduct that are so often given the name of ‘sin’. He says that it could well be the work of the Devil that we are kept thinking about unimportant and irrelevant ‘sins’ while falling away from our real humanity through not using some talent that has been freely given to us, goes unnoticed.

In order for us to buttress these gifts all we need to do is motivate our practice. We have to be worthy of our gifts by doing and re-doing them. As the famous saying goes, ‘practice makes perfect’, we need to inculcate a spirit of replenishing that which was given to us from the day of our conception. If we don’t use these gifts, slowly they fade away and when what we were given free of charge fades away from our soul, we are likely never to grasp any other replacement because our talents are in-born; they are skills through which the power of imagination takes root in our lives, making the universe be conscious of itself. These gifts come from the creative source itself, the rest are just replicas of what we see in others but are never in our blood system.

In my career, journalism we always say that ‘journalists are born and not made’. A true picture of reality because those who have tried to be one, when it wasn’t theirs, have failed to make sense of the trade. Most of them changed careers soon after graduating because they went into journalism just to be like someone they saw on TV or heard on radio or read a story he or she wrote in the newspaper or magazine. Its true ‘once a journalist always a journalist’, so we used to say and it can never be truer than this because no one quits his or her gifts for they are embedded in their blood.

Those who have left their gifts and sought to do other more lucrative careers are never satisfied with what they do. The perks may be enough, but their hearts still crave for something that completes their lives. We see some of them are lawyers or entrepreneurs but they still troop back to TV screens as News Casters because that’s where they belong.

Jack Canfield once said that, “If it isn’t fun, don’t do it”. He knows exactly what it means to have gifts or talents. That which you do with your heart exploding with joy is the one that makes you a full human being because you take your work not as a job but as something you are indebted in doing; as something that is part of your life.

Personally I believe the rife of corruption in society today is not about the mentality of human beings, but because most of the people are in careers, that do not resonate with their lives. The logic is that, why should someone pay you a kick back over something you enjoy doing; something that completes your life and makes you happy when you do it and makes you feeling low if you don’t do it in a space of time? Only the one who forces himself to the office because he has no motivation in what he does, will rather get a kick back to satisfy the hole in his career.

What we take for granted is taken away from us and often times we only realise this when it’s already too late. Whatever we own is on loan, and service to others is the interest we pay on our debts. So we need to be worthy of what we have and if we don’t service our debts by serving others the great landlord and lender of everything we have up there will repossess our belongings in no time. The best duty is to perform a service so we can service our debt. Just one tiny act of kindness is a great start.

As human beings we need to be worthy of our gifts. If we don’t know them, we need to have an intention of discovering them, then develop them and intend to aspire to inspire others to develop theirs not what they see being done by others. we will find that, the more we challenge our mind, the more powerful our mind becomes, and the happier and more successful we become in life.

Power

Of

Intention

Aspire to Inspire

By Mazuba Mwiinga

Intention 4:            Understand Life Backwards

 “It is only through suffering that we can hope to come to self knowledge.” -  Mary Craig

When I was growing up, I came to learn one adage that never left my mind till now. It says, “Don’t look back in anger, nor forward in fear but at present with awareness”. This proverb has been one of my life checking barometers in most time when things would be going the other way, and not my way. Present time means everything to anyone because it’s ‘the now’. Yesterday was but just a day we know what happened, and tomorrow is but a day we don’t know what it has. But today is our day, because we are living it. What we do now, counts how we will live tomorrow and how we will be remembered on our yesterday. But if we have to shape our tomorrow in the way we want it to be, we need to evaluate our yesterday so that we live our today according to what we want to experience in our tomorrow.

That’s why life can only be lived forwards, but understood backwards. This is a profound phenomenon that dates back to ancient times. We read some of these explanations in the bible where people did this and that according to the Law of Moses. And what they did was true and right in the eyes of God because it had to be that way. The law conformed to their lives. But when Christ Jesus came, a new chapter in humanity’s life opened. He says, ‘I did not come to change the law but to fulfil it’. His mission was to let people ‘Love God with all their hearts and souls and to love one another as they love themselves’. In doing this he renewed what was old by relating it to what was new.

When a woman who was accused of adultery was brought before him, Jesus asked all the men who were there to be the first to throw stones at her if they were so innocent of such sins too. And to my amusement, one by one they left her alone. Their actions of attempting to stone her were justified according to the Law of Moses, because they were ‘hard hearted’ as Moses called them, such that he was able to allow them to mate punishments of such nature. But Jesus brought a message of repentance and reconciliation among people. This could only be understood by explaining to them why Moses had allowed them to do certain things then, for them to be able to accept to live a fresh and new life he brought them. By understanding the past, we are able to accept the present and be ready for the future.

Whatever happened in the past of our personal lives needs to be understood that it was meant to happen because it had to happen. And it was meant to empower us with a message. So often when we experience fatality, we give excuses of witchcraft, being unlucky and so on and so forth. May be its true, may be its not; but what I know is that everything that happens to us happens not as a matter of chance, but because it was meant to happen. Mostly such occurrences come to us as messages. The only difference between those who learn and those who lose is simply the kind of message they take from their experiences.

Profound people; those who never bow down to failure and defeat; those whose resolve is to keep the fire burning no matter how fierce the wind is; these great people who learn from the message, no matter what happens to them, they remain in love with life. They never give up on themselves nor do they sit back and become cry babies, but they strive against all odds and reach their destiny. They learn from the circumstances and pick up the pieces again and mend them. From the scares that remain after the wounds are healed, come memories of where they were. They are able to look back in amusement and see how foolish they were then and be grateful that they had to pass through all that.

But often times today, we see some of us blanketed in a shell of indecision when misfortune befalls us. We curse ourselves and those we suspect to have been behind the acts. We become myopic minded such that we are unable to realise that in fact the occurrence is a wakeup call to us, to check ourselves up. But the great people understand that the price of wisdom and insight is pain. And that the pleasure of insight and wisdom makes any price worth paying. As Mary Craig says that, “It is only through suffering that we can hope to come to self knowledge”. But the losers in this instance waste the opportunity of growing into compassion without realising that we cannot run away from our battles without losing ourselves in the process.

When crisis strikes us, we need to ask ourselves, “What message does God want me to learn from this?” It’s from our understanding of this message that we will be able to find peace within ourselves and grow. It’s from such an experience that we will be able to find inspiration from those who went through such before us, and be able to learn and aspire to be like them tomorrow when the storm is over. And when we learn we start intending to aspire to inspire others who will come after us in similar dilemmas, because that’s what life was meant to be; to have our sorrows shared and our happiness celebrated together. And there is nothing more important than inner joy and freedom to give us abundance in life.

Power

Of

Intention

Aspire to Inspire

By Mazuba Mwiinga

Intention 3:            Praise And Bless

 “Don’t let each day pass without praising and blessing people.” - Rhonda Byrne

W. Mitchell said that, “It’s not what happens to you that matters, it’s what you do about it”. In our lives today, many of us are too quick to condemn others or too quick to take offence even on things someone may have said as a matter of a joke. This is so because people today have taken life so seriously that, there is no space for comedy left, yet life was meant to be enjoyed; to be fun and to bring fun to people. Someone once said that Angels manage to fly because they take themselves lightly. If we take time to look at things that are not seemingly fun and try to find humour in them, we will surely end up finding humour in almost every situation.

Often times we bother ourselves with thinking about things that aren’t bothering at all. We hate people for no apparent reasons other than that they don’t look like us. We get so upset with people just because we don’t like the way they walk or the way they dress or the way they laugh. What a waste of energy indeed.

In life if we have to progress and be happy all the time we need to evaluate our connections with people. We need to take life as it is; simple and as it comes. We need to live life one step at a time knowing that the next step will bring us closer to our destiny. Mostly we have a problem; we always predict failure and look for proof of rejection when there is none. And it’s this anticipation that mostly gives us the wrong interpretation about people and become pre-judgmental.

To live happily in our lives, we have to search our hearts and find self assessment within ourselves. We need to trust ourselves before we trust other people. We need to judge ourselves before we judge others. We need to realise that we cannot control or change other people. The only best thing we can do is to be an example for them on how life needs to be lived.

We need to cultivate a sense of belonging to any situation and be indestructible optimists in order for us to reap the rewards of faith. We have to be putting up with other people’s reactions and behaviours if we have to remain focused to achieving our own goals. The biggest drawback most of us have become entangled into is the attitude of pull him down.

Many of us have grown to be envious of others for their successes in life and wished them ill-luck or have spoken ill of people behind their backs to get an unfair advantage just because of inner ego. In most cases we have criticised people when we were supposed to have praised them because what they said was worthy praising. This attitude negates us from getting what we desire because, one single act of envy and destruction of others, takes away the chance we were given of attaining our glory.

In our lives today, we need to recognise the fact that, we are no different from others; that what we deserve in life, others too deserve it; that what we have as human beings are blessings that are thrust upon us in order for us to appreciate and be grateful. We need to honour the greatness in others and always praise them for their goodness and kindness towards others. When they do something magnificent, let’s celebrate with them and wish them the best, recognising their efforts and greatness in their endeavours.

It’s only through praising and blessing others that we too get praises and blessings from others. The art of happiness is all about reciprocal. You don’t expect to harvest in a field where you didn’t sow any seed. You don’t expect to have blessings when you have never dared bless anyone or wished anyone luck, but looked at their success as a detriment to your personal life.

To succeed in life in your achieving your dreams, you need to disallow other people from pulling you down. Whatever happens, don’t let other people’s negativity infect your dreams. Strengthen your determination against them. On the other hand, don’t try to pull others down yourself, because if you do, you are the one who will fall the farthest. That’s how the laws of nature work.

One motivator, Rhonda Byrne once said that, don’t let each day pass without praising and blessing people, because it’s from this stand point that we get the energy to find success in our lives. By sowing the acts of praising and blessing others, we are actually aspiring to inspire others who see and observe us, for them to do the same somewhere else.

We on the other hand, water our inner most spirit of humanity with such acts of blessings and praising and find peace within ourselves that drive us to see only good in others. For who are we in fact to judge others when God Himself only judges us at the end of our times? Yet ourselves we judge each other on impact. We refuse to realise that every time we gossip about any one other person, we create wounds in the soul of our lives; these wounds eventually bleed and causes hate that results in actions that blind us from tracking our paths to our dreams. That’s how misfortunes come about. They are not created by Satan or the Devil as we so often relate such. But they befall us due to our own mischievous acts of negligence and intolerance; so is jealousy and envy; arrogance and pride.

These vices never build anyone; not even the one who rides on them. They rather divert one’s route to happiness and success and drop them into a dungeon of negativity which results in retrogression on one’s life and livelihood. We therefore need to have an intention of aspiring to inspire others by praising and blessing people’s greatness in them. It’s only through this that we will be able to see our own greatness and success too.