BETWEEN NOW AND END OF THE TUNNEL

Let us talk about waiting. Let us talk about hope. Let us talk about patience. Let us also consider impossibilities. Let us try to analyze the balance between dreams and reality, vision and work. 

The now. The then. As a normal human being...where do we live? In the now or in the then? As a visionary, where do I spend most of my thoughts? Am I always having my heads in the clouds and blind to the present truth?

I think the balance between living in the now and living in the then is what I would like to call 'waiting'. It is true that both sides of the coin are important. For example, nearlly every one alive must think of how they can navigate the now: pay rent, pay school fees, medical bills, water, electricity and other amenities. Those are in the now.

For some people, that is all there is to life. I mean some are so consumed with the hassles of the now that they do not have time to even start thinking of the then. In fact, the thoughts of then are usually shoved aside as 'mere wishful thinking', dreams of utopia. Most of these people find themselves in this category by default...born that way, raised that way or pushed that way by life itself.

Still others have some space enough to think of the then. They have gained an upper hand on the pressure of the now and have the comfort to think of the then. Such people should find this 'upper hand' one of the most valuable assets they have now and use it as a seedtime, and not largely as a moment to celebrate the temporary conquest of pressure.

Then we have another group of people who have oscillated between having an upper hand and literally being chocked by the pressures of the now. They know about the then, they have seen a glimpse of it. They might even have tasted it. They have seen the light at the end of the tunnel.

The big question however is: between now and the end of the tunnel, how do I wait? There are two ways:

• Just waiting: Doing nothing but just waiting. Winding down the clock until you reach the light at the end of the tunnel. The major fueing factor here is hope. In other words, everything between now and the end of the tunnel is not in your hands, but in the hands of hope. Again, some people are in this group by design, others are in it by default.

• Doing what has to be done: These people know that they still have a say between now and the end of the tunnel. You find them doing what has got to be done. They are not afraid of their reputation or looks. They are not afraid of momentarily 'suspending' their vision to do what has to be done in the interim of getting to the end of the tunnel. Their thoughts are at the end of the tunnel, even though they are embroiled in doing whatever necessary for the now.

Friends, waiting is always in one of those two formats. I admire the latter more than the former. Yet in my human nature, I find the former easier to engage than the latter. In forming life signatures, you will notice that a prudent thing to do is to wait well. It is to do what a man has got to do at the present as you look forward for the change in fortunes later on.

There are millions of options to work with in the latter kind of waiting. You want to enumerate them and get down to business. Some business empires have been formed this way.