So, sometime ago I had an interesting and unforgettable experience.
I was trying to describe a place called simply African place, which was the location of my office to an artisan over the phone. Now you must understand that this artisan could barely communicate in English so from time to time I had to switch to our local parlance.
Now what got my attention was that I kept saying “simply African place” yet this guy kept repeating ‘African place’ abi?
Regardless of the number of times I used the word that preceded African, his mind kept deleting that file. Then, it occurred to me why this was becoming an effort in futility.
As simple as the word simply is, because of his level of education (with no disrespect to him), his mind didn’t have a match for that word. Hence his auto-response in milliseconds was to search for a word that he had a match for and delete the other.
Then it hit me, this is how life is – Your mind can’t hold what it doesn’t have a match for. This is why people struggle. They want a level of success that they have no match for.
They have not taken time to build an image for what they want in their minds such that when the opportunity comes, it matches the picture in their minds.
Could it be, pretty much like this artisan, your auto-response has been to delete a suggestion that carries an opportunity? One that can grant you access to your destination. It might even be happening without you even knowing it and it just occurs that probably due to the capacity of your mind, bigger ideas and suggestions have no space to come in to.
So expose yourself to new words. Expose yourself to a world; to new experiences; to new friends that are indications of where your life ought to go. Expand your mind and stretch your boundaries. Don’t produce excuses for your inadequacies, instead produce results for your actions and enjoy the benefits of expanding your capacity.
Make new connections and (re) evaluate existing ones. It is a fact that our lives are a reflection of the closest people to us. ‘Roll’ with people who motivate you, and challenge you to accomplish great feats. If your mind cannot conceive it, and you have no one to tell you or better still, show you that it is possible, then it becomes ‘very’ impossible.
Imagine how many years, people spent believing that the clouds served as a seal or a cover over the earth… until people began to get more enlightened to the point of knowledge that a lot does exist beyond the clouds. Today, man has been to outer space, spent months and came back. Cultivate the right curiosity to know more and see more; and you would be able to do more and be more.
Our mind works with the mental picture we create with our thoughts, so develop the habit of positively creating the future you desire for yourself, so that when the opportunity to start actualizing those mental pictures comes, your mind already has a match for it. Expose your mind to the right things and you’ll start seeing opportunities where others see problems.
You need to extend the capacity of your imagination because no matter how hard you try, your mind cannot go on a journey to a place it has no match for. You doubt that? Okay, then imagine “shutubantu”. Aha! No match right? But if you had been there (via tv or reality) you could have imagined it (err…don’t stress google. I made that word up). Your mind can’t hold what it has no match for, so can you truly grow without exposure?
Pause… Ponder…
BANKOLE WILLIAMS
