Reflections from the Halfway House

Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action -James Levin

A few years back when we were living in Zimbabwe, we used to visit our folks in the Eastern Highlands. The journey had a number of milestones including a place called Halfway House. This was halfway through the journey and is a place where we would normally stop for a number of reasons. I used to enjoy the fairly priced macadamia nuts, cashew nuts, biltong and some dried fruit from the farm store at this place. We would stop to rest a bit, take a comfort break, stretch our legs or body break, grab a bite, check tyre pressure, top up goodies for our folks among other things. At the Halfway House those travelling by bus would also stop for the same reasons, while some motorists would stop to change tyres, refuel or ask the petrol attendants for directions. This was the experience at the Halfway House and there are some lessons I would like to unpack.

This week marks the last week of June, and end of the 2009 first half. How times flies! At the beginning of the year, you set goals you wanted to achieve by the end of the year. You are at the ‘Halfway House’ of your journey, and let’s have a conversation around this place.

Time for A Break

Just as a drive on a long journey takes toll on your body, the pursuit of your goals also puts pressure on you physically. You might be getting grumpy, tensions headaches, muscle aches and general body stress. It’s a sign that you need to park yourself at the ‘halfway house’ and get a body break. A body break allows your body to regain energy while clearing your mind of clutter and giving you an opportunity to focus. Take the day, afternoon or week off. Go on a weekend breakaway to just get your body and mind back into gear. It doesn’t have to cost you money…go to the local city park, go to the village or spend the day at home just resting for a change.  From time to time the body needs a comfort break to release mounting tension and negative energy build up. As the negative energy is displaced it is replaced by positive energy which starts to fill up your tank…

Top Up Your Tank

The motorists and buses would normally refuel at the Halfway House. This refill would make them last the whole journey. They would also top up tyre pressure, oil and radiator water to cool down the engines. As the year progresses, your energy and passion tank might be half full by now. This is a time for refilling to make you last the whole journey. The wheels of your goals might be low on pressure and turning slowly, putting pressure on your energy tank.  It’s time to add some more pressure to help with a better bounce. Purpose is the fuel that fires the vehicle of your dreams. Goals are the pressure that helps you stay focused on your purpose. Passion is the oil that helps the wheels of purpose to turn. Discipline is the water that helps prevent you from burn out. Once you have enough fuel, oil and pressure in you, you will be ready to finish, and finish strong!

Are You Going in The Right Direction

Along the journey, there was no better place to ask directions than at the Highway House. I remember I would see a lot of motorists asking the petrol attendants for directions or remaining distance. It’s so easy to continue one’s journey without asking directions, but the chances and cost of ending up in the wrong place are very high. Just a quick check of your bearings or directions is a small price to pay than to go through the whole year chasing the wrong goals. Are your goals still in line with your purpose? How much more effort do you need to put in order to achieve your goals. You need to have the reassurance that you are on the right track and that your goal is within reach.

Change Your Goals

If you are on a journey, you cannot change your vehicle, but you certainly can change your tyres. Your vehicle is like your purpose. Your purpose is what and how you are wired. The tyres are the goals on the vehicle of purpose. If the goals are worn out, it means the vehicle of purpose won’t move. Tyres without treads will soon cause a car to crash or slide on slippery roads. If your goals are lacking traction because they are not SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound) then your purpose is headed for the skids. The only thing to do is to change the goals and put goals which fit in with the purpose.

I would like to encourage you to strengthen the feeble knees, prop up the drooping hands and square up the sagging shoulders. Take some time to reflect while you are at the ‘halfway house’ of your goals. Confirm your directions, fill up your tank, top up and make the rest of the journey fired up and ready to last the distance.

Extending Your Boundaries

Enlarge the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out; spare not; lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes – Yeshaiyahu bar Amotz (AMPLIFIED)

Last week we began to share about Breaking Traditions and Limitations.  As a continuation I would like us to look at going beyond the limitations and setting new frontiers in our lives.  This week I would like to encourage somebody who has not been making progress. You have been going round in circles. Lots of motion no progress? Lots of investment no return? You have been in that job for far too long? They probably have already given you an asset number. Your business can’t go beyond a certain revenue threshold? Your finances never seem to break even?  Let this be your season to break out and breakthrough.

Your comfort zone, has now become a zone of lack of progress? I want to encourage someone who is doing well, but is operating below full capacity. You can do better and you know it. As you break with traditions and limitations this is a time to go beyond the boundaries of fear, inadequacy, education, geography and any other challenges. Yes you can!

I would like to share some laws that are important to help you extend your boundaries.

Law of Dreams

Dreams are the seedlings of reality. In a moment of inspiration I took some pictures of acorns (seeds) from a giant oak at Johannesburg Country Club last week. In that seed lays the possibility of the biggest oak tree in the world. So it is with dreams…something so big might be hidden in your dreams.  A dream is a glimpse into the future. When you dream you take a peek into the future. To dream is a foretaste of what can be. If you are going to be dreaming you might as well dream big.

Law of Seed

The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them – Albert Einstein

You cannot plant lemons and expect to reap oranges. The Law of Seed means that what you sow is what you reap. In order to extend your boundaries you need to start sowing a different kind of seed than what you you have been doing.  You need to sow of your time, money, prayer, energy etc in order to go to the next level. Your seed will take you to the next level.

But how can I be a billionaire if I don’t have billions to sow? Good question. This law works in conjunction with the Law of Multiplication. A forest started as a seed which multiplied over time. You can start today to sow seeds to get you to the next level.

Law of Thoughts

Empires of the future are empires of the mind – Winston Churchill

As a man thinketh, so is he. You cannot extend your boundaries, beyond your belief system. You are a product of everything your mind has imbibed. Your life moves in the direction of your most dominant thoughts. Thoughts, habits and circumstances exist in a continuum where the one leads to the other. Thoughts turn into habits, which will in turn solidify into circumstances. To change or manage your circumstances of your life you need to change your thoughts. Think possibilities, health, success and soon you will become a product of your thoughts.

Law of Images

What you continually see you eventually become. This is the secret behind television advertising. They repeatedly show adverts on TV in order to create an affinity in your mind. You need to surround yourself with images of possibility. If you want a particular car, make it a screen saver on your computer or cell phone. If you want a nice house, put up pictures of nice houses around you. Set the context of your life. Images of what you wish for will inspire you.

This is a season to go to a new level. Change your operating system of thought and beliefs as you seek to upgrade your life and those around you.

You are a generation who, like the eagle, will soar on the thermals of My Spirit and mount up to new heights. I am the Wind beneath your wings, and I say to you arise…time to arise

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Breaking Traditions and Limitations

To succeed once, challenge the traditions of others; to succeed twice, challenge your own traditions – Lovemore Nyatsine, Founder of Seedbed

This weekend I have been reflecting on the things that limit us in life. I flashed back to my early years. I imagined myself in my mother’s womb for 9 months. I fast forward a little bit when I was now in my crib. I can imagine my mother’s protective eye and hands making sure I do not venture into danger. A few years later, there I was at the local crèche, in a classroom full of crying toddlers on the first day….I am crying the loudest.  It’s getting a bit uncomfortable, but soon the discomfort disappears and let the games begin. This place is fun, oh I love this place! I wonder why mum and dad did not take me to this place earlier. Two years later, my game is up and am now in junior school. My elder siblings go out of their way to ‘protect me’ to make sure I am behaving and not putting the good family name to disrepute.

At this school they soon begin to put us in groups, and they say we can’t do this or that sport. Everything in the school is directed by a bell which signals when a lesson is over and when we must go for breaks. And there are these people called prefects who interfere with my ‘liberty’. I don’t like this place. Fast forward. I am now in secondary school…having been forced to do some stuff called Biology and Math’s. But I really don’t like this stuff. I complete secondary school, and there is discussion in the family that I must go to an agriculture college so I can help in the family farm. A farmer?  Ummm wrong move.  That day I became a rebel.

My father had bought the family farm in Juliasdale in 1981 when I was in crèche and the routine had always been when the schools holidays come we would all go to the farm. Being the youngest I was the shepherd boy looking after the sheep in the paddocks. I believed there was more to my world than this routine. I took my brother, Livingstone’s old maroon blazer, and old school case (trunk) and went to high school with no school fees. I had decided to make a different investment in my life and break with traditions and limitations.  That day marked a new journey of self discovery.

Get Out of the Box

It is clear life is lived in a series of boxes. The womb, the crib, the home, school, town, faculty, syllabi, curricula, department, industry or job description. That is all good. However the danger is these boxes can rob your life of meaning and purpose. If you don’t challenge these boxes you can have a life without a soul, education without learning, a job without a career, happiness with no joy, motion with no progress. You become a slave to limiting paradigms, concepts, values, perceptions and practices. I could have been a farmer, but farming is no fun for me. I am not wired for farming. You need to get out of the box. It could be your hometown, industry, job description, qualifications. Life is too short to be lived in a box…burn the box and start to live as your Creator intended for you.

Challenge Traditions

The deeply encoded lessons of the past that are passed from one generation to another while good can be limiting. You cannot intercept the future by repeating the past. Neither can you drive a car by looking in the rear view mirror. To escape the gravitational pull of the past, be convinced that the future is a better proposition.

Let me quickly share with you something about kids. Kids are naïve. They don’t know what is possible and impossible. Why can’t you touch the stars, they ask. Adults are smart. They know the possible from the impossible. So they don’t ask silly questions and don’t hope for the impossible. And when confronted with a child’s mind, they quickly dismiss it and say, “Because that’s the way it is!” But it needn’t be that way. Why not ask “Why couldn’t it be different?” Having watched her father take a picture, Dr. Edward Land’s 3 year old daughter asked if she could see the results NOW. That innocent question set Dr. Land off to create instant photography now known as Polaroid. Years later Land was quoted, “We really don’t invent new products…, the best one’s are already there, only invisible, just waiting to be discovered.” We need to begin challenging everything by asking, “Why Can’t”, Why Couldn’t”, “Why Not”, “Why”?

We need to not only challenge the norm, but expand our peripheral vision and extend our boundaries.

In the next article I will share about Extending Your Boundaries covering the principles you must apply to break traditions and limitations.

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