Empowering YOU to break out of YOUR shell!

WE believe that unless you break out of your shell you cannot adequately prepare yourself for the future. The truth is that career management requires individual initiative. It requires certain inquisitiveness about oneself (yourself) and the world and a willingness to take action and appropriate risks. Admitted the future is and has always been uncertain but you must predict what it holds for you. Unless you take, as an individual, the first step then you will always succumb to other people’s definition of success. Make sure you have the competitive skills to improve your chances of finding rewarding jobs. It is your responsibility to make sure that you possess what might be called portable competencies that could be applied in any number of organisations or work settings.

Often time’s people are taken aback by nostalgia, an unrelenting keenness to remain in yesterday. No wonder we hear many wish for the “Things were good then” times. In truth this thinking begets inertia, a wistful step towards oblivion. This lethargy results in negation of the reality that, “Knowledge is power”. The reverse of it would be that little knowledge is dangerously disastrous. The sad consequence is that the beholders of such thinking relapse into a pathological habit of criticising everyone except themselves. You hear some students and/ or parents pour varied accusations and blame about the poor results they or their children attained in their Ordinary or Advanced level examinations. They make such criticisms as “Teachers weren’t teaching, school administration is poor, government this, government that . . .” Why not avoid this pathology of human nature to exert your energies in negatives and in the process inflicting a lot of pain on yourself and inhibiting your ability to think in other terms and create better ways of achieving a failed goal in a different but better, rewarding way. In the words of Cedric Cullingford, “Such criticism you vent could be a sign of ultimate inadequacy and . . . merely the pathology of end of judgement”. Its time you realise that a key characteristic of the world of today is the explosion of knowledge and with this explosion come unlimited opportunities available for a variety of jobs, professions and vacations.

In my view the benefit of education has been among other things to enlighten people and raise their minds to a progressive level. Essentially education should not only make you more confident but enable you to break out of your shell with both physical and moral courage coupled with a true spirit of dedication and a tremendous sense of responsibility. Often times the beginning of this consciousness rests in your ability to introspect, to talk to your inner self and provide realistic findings and resolve on practical ways to resolve the uncovered phenomenal challenge. In doing so accept, embrace with both hands, a broad meaningful smile and a willing mind the reality that the only constant variable in life is change. Change is not a negation of the positives gained through generational experience rather it is the preparedness to think anew, open and avoid the “once upon a time” mimicry. Such thinking puts you in a comfort zone that agrees with your gut instinct. In addition, such a traditional approach of looking at things or life makes you to assume that the world is relatively stable and predictable. Ignoring the fact that the world has become riskier and more uncertain hence instead of doing things the traditional way, you must be good at learning how to do things in new ways. In that regard you must be prepared to acquire new skills and competencies to manage the new realities in this increasingly interconnected world. Unlock your greatest resource power — the brains — through learning and training. Through that you mitigate the risks of unemployment, layoffs, short working hours etc. These constitute the fallback strategies of today’s employer when faced with the challenges of what it is, they should do to save the company or grow the shareholder value and create sustainable competitiveness. Acquiring new qualifications hence new skills gives you the ideal agility to absorb any changes in the environment faster than others. Remember the 30 October 1974 fight between George Foreman, the reigning heavyweight champion of the world and Muhammed Ali in a bout dubbed the “Rumble in the Jungle” held in Kinshasa, Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo”. Muhammed Ali catapulted his boxing career through his agility to “float like a butterfly and sting like a bee” and punched George Foreman from all directions, including a steady barrage of body blows and periodic haymakers. Ultimately Ali won against Foreman who arrived in Kinshasa with a record unblemished by loss and stacked with forty wins. This boxing analogy helps you appreciate that the domineering thought of the good and easy past should not enslave you to think that the same formula would get you prizes undeterred in the future. Remember George Foreman’s preparation had caused Ali’s cornermen to become worried about their boxer’s safety. In panic mood Ali’s doctor Ferdie Pacheco had commissioned a jet to wait near the stadium, its engines running, with a flight plan to the nearest world-class neurological hospital. Fortunately, it was never Ali to lose but Ali to win and ultimately Foreman simply regretted and constructively remarked “After the fight, for a while I was bitter,” Foreman said. “I had all sorts of excuses. The ring ropes were loose. The referee counted too fast. The cut hurt my training. I was drugged. I should have just said the best man won, but I’d never lost before so I didn’t know how to lose.”

Advanced level graduates’ resort to procrastination as they allege, “I am still thinking about what to do next!” as they sit relaxed in front of the big TV screen at home praying that Zesa doesn’t affect load shedding in their area!

We implore these graduates to mind, as they say in the African philosophy, “where the rains started beating them” and ensure they wear appropriate protection against the thundering and incessant rains. We further invite you to take advantage of the fact that some of the reputable examination boards do not require spectacular results at O or A level as they have a “no previous qualifications needed entry policy”. It should be noted that this liberal policy does not translate into an array of easyto-do theoretical subjects/modules under their qualifications. Rather these boards have practical, skillbuilding and knowledge-enhancing subject combinations that ensure that the student is progressively taken through from elementary/ foundation subjects to practical joboriented subjects whose focus is performance and results in the job environment. Through studying and passing these subjects your mind is sharpened and raised to match the realities of the challenging work environments in any sector of the economy. So why waste your brains, your potential living a self-fulfilling prophecy instead of unleashing the excellence in you? Instead invest in lifelong learning to keep your skills relevant thereby transferrable.

It is now imperative that you commit yourself to studying and continue studying. Indeed this practice increases your graduateness and employability hence your upward movement to a better and sustaining or fulfilling living. This is only realised if you avoid the infatuation with the historical past rather learn, take responsibility to break out of the shell and discover new and endless possibilities. This discovery is not enslaving neither is it utopian. Instead it is nourishing and enriching hence “Woza eTrust Academy”

Herbert Taruwona Mbindi is passionate career guidance and counselling adviser. His key motivation is to help people make a difference in their lives. Feedback to: email mbindi@trustacademy.co.zw,Whatsapp 0773 616 665 or call 0712 212 179