Your name is ‘Blanket!’

THIS year, the late Michael Jackson, known as the “King of Pop Music”, would have been aged 60 years of age. Knowing him, he would have still been releasing chart-busting titles and his nimble age-less body would still have been making amazing inspired moves and new dance routines.

Great people in their strength element do not expire, they just get better with age. The late Jackson was an enigma. He was a confusing man yet his passion for his stagecraft is not easy to match. He thrilled the young and kept the old hocked on for years. He achieved greatness in a field that is fast moving, always changing and demanding.

Looking at Jackson you either see the best in him or the lost soul in him. You choose the glasses you wear and they magnify what you see in the man. Michael Jackson, true to his artist instincts, called his third son “Blanket”.

I am not sure what he had in mind. All I know is that this was an inspired thought that begs more reflection and attention. Imagine being called “Blanket” — what type of blanket would you be?

Imagine if the people you work or interact with nicknamed you ‘Blanket’ - what fires in their minds when they mention that name? Indeed you are a blanket of sorts.

Wet blanket

There are people who are like wet blankets. You have likely met someone who was a wet blanket. They are ever angry, bitter, cynical, disgruntled, edgy and foulmouthed. Nothing is ever good enough for them, and nothing ever works. They are always complaining, raising a stink and having a bone to pick about people, places and paces of life. For them, nothing ever worked, nothing is working and nothing will ever work.

They know who failed, what failed, what will fail. For wet blankets, there is never a good day because the weather is always offside. Try getting inspired by a wet blanket and you will feel like you are suffocating.

Wet blankets envelope you in toxic vapours of negativity. Choose to be different and do life differently. Complaining is not a special discovery. Finding what is not working does not require much genius. What is challenging is taking responsibility to right what is wrong, fix what is broken and heal what is ailing.

The wet blanket sees no good at all because every kick is an offside, foul or penalty. In everything that happens in life, there is something that works, is noble and can be built on. Find and build on that which is working or has potential to work. The wet blanket is regrettably self-absorbed, bitter, and ever complaining, criticising, and bemoaning what things have become. Change the energy content of your conversation and relationships.

Be the light and the salt. Preserve what matters most and season things for them to be better. There is nothing that is dead that cannot resurrect and nothing that can no longer be improved. The wet blanket knows who messed up, who is incompetent, what is being done wrongly and what does not work. By the time you have finished talking to any wet blanket, it will be lights out for you, world’s end for your dream and Armageddon for your universe. You feel low and broken. Your energy is sapped and you feel dry, useless and disillusioned.

You cannot see any good or potential in yourself, around you or in others. Once you have been in contact with a “wet blanket” person, you are not even sure if the sun will rise tomorrow or if you will find your bearings to your field. You start doubting yourself and others. The wet blanket is not the universe. First, do not be a wet blanket yourself and do not stay in a negative and toxic mental environment.

Get into the arena and choose to do something that counts towards the solution. Theodore Roosevelt was inspired when he gave his famous talk in Paris about the Man in the Arena.

In his talk he said, ‘It is not the critic [wet blanket] who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.’

You are not perfect, but you can get into the arena and play your part with passion. You will never have a perfect person but that does not mean that all people have turned into evil vampires. You will never have a perfect environment but that does not mean that you cannot work, succeed and be productive where you are.

The past may be toxic, broken and bitter, but you can choose not to be a victim of the past or the mummified of the present. You can look at this day as a beginning of great things and you can take great strides forward. Starting where you are today, you can create a new narrative, make bold moves and create miracles. You are not defined by your past nor are you bound by blind nay-sayers.

Do not be left behind digging your heels into a wet toxic mental environment. When a train leaves the station, make sure you are in the train and not outside it. There are opportunities of this present moment that you must not let pass because you are too blind to see, or too bitter to take a big bet. You may be in the pit, with warm company and dusty realities. It is a choice to either look up at the stars and possibilities ahead, or to look down in despair and see the deep dark hole you are in.

No amount of description of the hole will take you out of the hole except for this one fact: to get out of any hole stop complaining and digging any further. Do not bother making a bad situation even worse. Choose differently and start on a new path of possibilities. There is so much in your spirit, hands and mind.

Small blanket

Some blankets are regrettably small and do not cover much. You feel as though everything is in short supply and perennial deficit mode. There is a limited supply of opportunity, options and openings.

Everything may look small and tailored to deprive you of opportunity. “Small Blanket Thinking” holds you hostage in deficit mode and a shortage mindset. It is limiting because you always think that all the solutions are ‘out there’ somewhere with someone and you are a mere victim of circumstances.

Think differently and you will see differently because you stand right now in your plot of awesome opportunity. Instead of being obsessed with shortage, think abundance, ability and advantage. The advantages of the past are history. You can leapfrog and disrupt your space. Play by new rules, novel tools and you will see the virgin possibilities begging for your attention.

Abundance is first a mindset that unblocks your thinking and starts innovation engines firing. Believe that all you need is already available in potential form and awesome abundance. Believe in yourself, believe in others and believe in the greatness within. You may not feel abundant or your mind may have not been trained to think so.

If you do not break the limitations in your head, you will always be banging your head. Start thinking abundance, being obsessed with abundance and believing in abundance. All you need is already there and all you dream you can become real. The space for you is there.

The space for your idea already exists and you can land great things. You do not need to abuse anyone in order for you to win in life. Opportunities are there and you can access them. Think differently and do not be stuck in deficit thinking.

Torn blanket

Are you a torn blanket? Torn, tormented, broken, abused and needing to be healed. So much is torn will not be mended by pulling and tagging at the blanket. So much that needs healing will not be made better by waiting for someone else to move and act. The root of bitterness cankers your soul if you let it. ◆ Milton Kamwendo is a leading international transformational and motivational speaker, author, and executive coach. His life purpose is to inspire and promote greatness. He can be reached at: mkamwendo@gmail.com and Twitter: @MiltonKamwendo or WhatsApp at: 0772422634. His website is: www.miltonkamwendo. com