Model your greatness

RICHARD BUCKMINSTER once said: “You FULLER never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”

TOO much energy is wasted fighting the existing reality and banging heads on rocks. The current nagging reality is the stubborn grandchild of the past. Fighting the brutal reality is a futile change attempt. There is a better way.

Stop fighting the existing reality and start creating new models of greatness. The future does not belong to past glory, legacy problems, quiet disquiet or traditional complaints. There is no glory in dressing up complaints in new clothes. Unless you are willing to take responsibility, you will forever be blaming others for your circumstances. The future belongs to those who dare to dream and act, and who create new model solutions.

There is little one can do to change the past. Real leverage is in the future. The future should never switch from being a promise to being a threat. You will always be threatened by the future when you do not have any plans for it.

The future is waiting for you to show up with a model. The future is waiting in awe for your thoughts, frames and models of greatness. The future cannot understand how we can think so crazily as to push it away and pretend it is not coming.

The future belongs to people who model it today. Preparing for the future is not a protest over it. When you mistrust the future, you become a victim of the past and an unsettled historian. Think and speak differently to yourself and others. The future is created by conversations that spark new images of the future. Hold new conversations about the future and not complaints about the present. Create new models that make the present look pale and drab.

The past is always there living in you. It shaped, moulded and gave birth to the present. However, you must never let the past dominate your thinking space. Always leave space for new models, fresh dreams and radical possibilities of the future. Let the images of the future be full of light, life and vision. Dark images of the future simply rob you of energy and light. Never try to squash the future into your squalid past. Dream up new dreams. Fashion new models. Plan for greatness.

Visually driven

Your life is visually directed. A picture tells the story of a thousand words, and affects 10 000 lives. No wonder the power of advertising. However, it is not just in advertising that images matter. There are images all over, shaping and influencing people. An image becomes powerful when it is planted firmly in your mind and heart, and passionately believed. To change anything in your life, adjust the images of the future that you are holding. Images of despair, defeat and despondency are self-defeating.

The Dutch futurist, Fred Polak, in his 1961 work, said: “The rise and fall of images of the future precedes or accompanies the rise and fall of cultures. As long as a society’s image is positive and nourishing, the flower of culture is in full bloom. Once the image begins to decay and lose its vitality, the culture does not long survive.”

Each one of us is under the influence of two forces — the push of the achievements of the past and the pull of the future. With a strong foundation and pride in the achievements of the past and no vivid and model visionary pull, there is regression.

The future is birthed in the gap between the forces of the past and the pull of the future. Appreciate the past and the sacrifices made then, but do not park there.

When you park in the past, you stagnate and development shrivels up. Movement is only enabled by positive models of greatness. A big and bold dream magnetises you to greatness. The essence of transformational leadership is holding up a great and inspiring model of the future that is so magnetic that everyone wants to be part of it.

Imagination is more important than mere facts. Those who create are more important than those who complain. Those who do are more important than those who just watch what is happening. Your lived reality was born out of the images and dreams of the past. If you cannot dream and imagine a new future, you waste the present.

Change the models and images that you hold in your mind from negative to positive. Deliberately dump the negative and construct new models. You have power to choose the images that dominate your thoughts.

Do not consign yourself to a listless life. Be daring, bold and visionary. Dare to dream. Do not just gobble up the poisoned images full of horror, but dream and start to work for a new and exciting future. It is when it is darkest that projected images are sharpest. This is the time to dream big and see possibilities.

You do not need to be a visionary to see light at midday. It is when things are toughest that your resolve to create an exciting future should be keenest.

Vision without action is merely a dream. Dreams that are not acted upon become nightmares. Action without vision just passes time and aimless activity. Action without vision makes you a senseless hyperactive hero. Action with vision has the potential to create greatness. Heroism without purpose is wasted passion. Construct the model, then work to deliver it.

Transformational leadership is more than just working to keep things being what they always were. It is changing things into what they could be. Without a clear model of greatness, leadership loses meaning. Great visions of the future are the ones that make the past a trampoline, not quicksand.

The role of leadership is to find, define and secure the future. Leadership is not just about curating and preserving the past. It is about creating an exciting future bigger than the past and better than the present. Leaders are at their best when they paint bold and exciting pictures of the future. They are most respected when they act with integrity towards those pictures.

Why should anyone be led by you? Committed to your greatness.

◆ Milton Kamwendo is a leading international transformational and motivational speaker, author and an accomplished workshop facilitator. He is a cutting-edge strategy, team-building and organisation development facilitator and consultant. His life purpose is to inspire and promote greatness. He can be reached at: mkamwendo@gmail.com