“Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow.”–Helen Keller
Keeping one’s face to the sunshine is a metaphor for maintaining a positive, optimistic outlook on life. And what Keller is saying is that maintaining a positive, optimistic attitude to life is the best way to avoid being overtaken by negative, pessimistic thoughts.
The two critical windows that you want to always keep open are:
- Window of Hope;
- Window of Opportunity
- Window of Hope:
This window is so critical that you have to do whatever it takes to keep it open because everything else depends on it. Once this window closes on you, darkness takes over. Darkness is about doom and gloom, hopelessness, helplessness, victimhood and so on and so forth. When this window is opened, you keep seeing possibilities of good things, your self-worth, that your life counts and that it doesn’t matter how long it takes but eventually, through your deliberate persistence, it will come to pass. Constant motivation (intrinsic and extrinsic) keeps this hope alive even when it all seems impossible. You don’t want your life to be overtaken by negative thoughts. We are always exposed to negative news on TV, radio, social media networks, people and print media and the best for you is to avoid these as much as possible and instead feed your mind with positive thoughts and messages. It’s impossible to thrive in the world of rapid change and insane interconnectedness without building an effective defence perimeter around your mind. Jim Rohn said it well: “Every Day Stand Guard At The Door Of Your Mind”.
Optimism is the faith that leads to any achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence in yourself.
- Window of Opportunity:
Tom Peters said, “If the window of opportunity appears, don’t pull down the shade.”
This window is about taking action at the right time. It’s about seizing the moment. Thousands of people attend classes, seminars, conferences, workshops and receiving some brilliant ideas and coaching on the important things to do but guess what, they never act on that information. It seems like people just attend these platforms just to collect expensive notebooks. You see, knowledge not applied will never give you power. Having knowledge without acting on it in the right time will never work for you. Always keep your eyes and mind open for the opportunities, they are always there for you to take advantage of them only if you’ll notice them.
Your dreams have long been calling you, it’s time to pick up and answer the call!
Veli Ndaba is a Professional and Motivational Speaker, Life-Coach and Neuro Linguistic Programming Practitioner, Author of two books (You Are Born to Win, Your Dream is Calling You and SWITCH ON!), Newspaper Columnist and Entrepreneur. To book him to help you and your team unleash your greatness, contact him on veli@velindaba.co.za , www.velindaba.co.za and 083 304 9773