CREATING NEW NORMALS

Every once in a while, I normally surprise myself with this in the zone super performance. When I am at it, it seems to me like I have been turned into another man. The whole wide world gets your attention when an event like that one happens to you. Remember when Obama, a little known politician spoke at the Democratic National Convention some years back?

The boy was in the zone (excuse the language). When David Rudisha set a new Olympic record for 800 meters, the did this in the zone. Yet you have to note that these heroics never just happened by chance or by lack. 

Both these great icons in the world had some input to their splendid perfomances behind the scenes. That is what matters. What I do today towards my vision is most important than what the world recognizes. If I do not do today, then I cannot expect to be recognized tomorrow.

The doings of today are sometimes uneventful, uncomfortable, difficult and laborious. They are what counts. Sooner or later we are moving in stride, we are 'running with a smile', and are ready to take it to the next level. The next level happens when you enter into the zone after years of consistent preparation.

At such times, I realize that the in the zone performance could easily become two things:

1. A burden: 
2. A campsite:

A burden because I do not want to go back to levels below this performance. I think I love that kind of a burden, always spurring me to be better.

A campsite because I have intentionally built in enough effort to sustain the in the zone super perfomance to last as a foundation.The key word here is intention.

As much as I love the effects of performing in the zone, I have to tell you that a one off performance is at best, mediocre. When the stakes are raised and I am competing against myself, I need to realize that the in the zone performance will now become my new normal.

To be honest, some of those times catch me off-guard. Yet even if that is so, I have realized that the biggest component of delivering wowing and awesome fruits of my vision is that thing called consistency. The more I dwell in my forte, the more I fortify myself.

Sometimes this can be so benign that I would not even realize what daily consistency is doing to me and my vision. It can be so small in increment to the tune of a single degree. Yet over time this single degree coalesces to a mighty force that I am calling in the zone performance.

Crazy stuff happen when we are in the zone. The biggest reaper is ourselves, no doubt about that.

My only challenge is the thing called inconsistency. Why should there be an awesome new level in one's marriage for a day, or a week...and then you revert back to the 'good old days?'. Why should there be an awesome delivery in my talk to one group, and then I revert back to the normal?

Why should I run 10 Km under 30 minutes today and do the same well over 40 minutes next week?

We ought to realize that we need to be in the race of ascendency, always competing against ourselves, making our in the zone performances the foundation of our next level.

This is one of the surest ways of curing mediocrity in our lives and most certainly in our pursuit of the fulfillment of our vision.

May the stakes be raised today!

Have a consistent week, won't you?

NOW THAT WE ARE HERE...

I have come to realize that one of my greatest undoings in my own life signatures is the folly of being here and not being present!

I think one of the biggest resources that each and every human being has been graced with today is that thing called...Availability. In Swahili, we have a saying that goes: "asiyekuweko na lake halipo!" The direct translation of that statement is 'Out of sight, out of mind'.

Today, I am not talking about the physical availability per se. I am talking about being present and being present. I am talking about being in a place physically as well as being there mentally and spiritually. My biggest undoing this year has been living in two places at the same time.

I have been physically available at one place and have not necessarily lived there, but my heart has been somewhere else along with hope. 

Let me explain: There has been this hope that I have held for months on end. From the time that the notion of that hope rose up to few days back, I have not had my feet down. I have not been present where I am. I have not even been consistent with the vision. I have lived in the future and neglected the present.

I have kept things on post pone mode. I have been waiting to live on hope. I have been living as if the real life will kick in when the hope I was waiting for materializes.

I cannot begin to tell you how incredibly disorienting that situation has been. The biggest thing we can do about our lives is to be alive where we are, completely. Yes, let the hope be there, but for one minute, never let your eyes off the vision or the goal. For one minute, never let down your guard and build castles in the air. Someone said, "Have you built your castles in the air, Good, now go to work and put some foundations under them!"

The biggest folly of my life has been waiting while doing nothing. It just does not add up. It is important that whatever little I have at hand, whatever 'reveletion' I have at hand, it is critical that I be faithful to work it out as/while I await the big break to come.

I am talking about being so excited about the bright future of tomorrow that all you do for now is sit down and wait, downing your tools on what you are supposed to be doing right now.

In the end, when what I have been waiting for in hope and faith and earnest expectation comes through in the form of a dead dream...so much time has gone. You only realize late on that you should have kept your head and your cool and should have maintained priority, doing what matters daily even as you are living in hope.

Again, let me say this: There is nothing bigger than your dreams or vision. There is nothing more exciting than your life purpose that will take its place. I have realized that all the shiny objects will come our way seeking to distract us. With this need of getting into comfort zones, we sometimes jump onto the shiny objects. 

The trouble with them is that they are seldom rooted firmly. They are seasonal. When they pass on, what are we left with? You guessed right...we are left with the vision that we have absconded...what we should have been consistently working on anyway.

Now that we are here...now that I am here, it is important for me to roll up my sleeves and daily, consistently chip away on what matters...because at the end of the day, what matters in life is what matters at all times.

Now that I am here, it is imperative that I am present every day in the moment. It is when I am present twice (both physically and mentally) that I will seize the opportunities of the now.

Opportunities are better seized in the present than in the postponed life of hope. Make no mistake about it, it is important to dream. It is important to think about the future. It is important to live in expectancy. Yet that does not and should not remove from us the privilege of being alive and present in the moment to do that which matters to us the most-to be alive and working towards our dreams and visions.

Have a present day, wont you?