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PATHWAYS OF LIFE

10/01/2017 08:34:00 BY Charles SaMunenge

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LIFE is about a series of positive and negative experiences. How we handle and respond to these experiences is what makes a difference between those who succeed and those who just spend most of their time crying, criticising and blaming others for their lack of progress in life.

Unfortunately many of us have inaccurate perceptions about challenges of life; this may be the consequences of our upbringing or past life experiences. Life has many stations. These stations serve to allow us to think and rethink over some things, actions or even certain relationships. Whatever we experienced throughout last year, whether positive or negative, must not be allowed to distort or imprison our potential for success this year. Kobi YaMaMda said; “Never let yesterday use up too much of today.” The image of success is not the same for everybody due to the fact that we are all different and unique in creation, purpose and destiny. Yet the process and principles that govern a truly successful life are the same for everyone. I believe that true success borders on knowing one’s purpose on earth, maximising one’s gifts, talents and potential. Success is only significant if it positively impacts on those in our sphere of influence.

Many of us want to climb the ladder of success without sacrifice, discipline and commitment to birthing our dreams. Sacrifice is a constant in real life. It is actually an ongoing process of a successful life. Sacrifice is an attitude that all of us who want to continue moving forward in life must embrace and maintain. One of the missing ingredients in today’s generation is discipline and sacrifice. The role of discipline and sacrifice is to remove bad habits in order to substitute them with good ones, especially order, regularity and obedience. Moving forward in 2017 will require bringing under control various areas of our lives so as to act systematically in any given situation, relationally, financially, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. Vision, strategic thinking, planning, determination, perseverance, hard work, prayer, faith, consistency and focus will help us achieve our dreams in 2017.
Our vision and dreams must always put us on a mission. A mission requires sacrifice and commitment.

Mission is that which we do day by day in order to accomplish our vision or dreams. Every day we must do something that is connected to the vision of our lives. Vision is always futuristic, and usually inspires priority and creates values. We must develop and cultivate a clear vision for the future, and be willing to pay the price of moving forward in life. Moving forward in life usually entails the ability to go through basically four stages of life:
Survival - We must develop the ability to survive different forms of adversities of life. Life is full of problems, valleys and mountains to climb. We must survive family and relational problems. We must conquer the attitudes of haters, critics, betrayers and accusers.

Then we must learn how to rise above our own personal mistakes and failures. In real life, as a human being you will make mistakes and fail sometimes. Failure is not final. We must learn to forgive ourselves, shake ourselves from the dust of yesterday’s mistakes and failures, and then focus on that which is in front of us.
Stability - After learning how to survive the negative issues of life, we must cultivate a stable lifestyle relation-wise, in our career, profession and finances. Stability only comes when we have purpose, vision, disciplined, organised, patient, persevere, determined, manage our time and stay focused.

Stability is the quality or state of being stable. It is constancy of character or purpose. To be stable is to be reliable and dependable. It is the ability to maintain equilibrium and an upright position even after passing through storms of life. The quality of stability is usually seen in our reliability in withstanding pressure, force or stress. Stable people are firm, steady and well balanced in their approach to life.
Success - When we survive the problems of life and are stable, success becomes our portion. Success is a result of a series of growth towards our potential. It’s a journey of our unfolding potential. The dictionary defines success as ‘the achievement of something desired, planned, or attempted’. True success is achieved when we fulfil our purpose and maximise our potential.

Significance - When our success begins to benefit other people around us that is being significant. Significance has to do with the quality of being important and worthy of note. The significance of our existence is measured in how our lives contributed to the betterment of other people, communities and nations. True success usually positively affects the future and impacts on individuals, communities and nations.
To move forward we may need to move back first in order to deal with mistakes of yesterday and create the momentum for 2017. We must use our time wisely this year. Psalms 90:12 says; “So teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”