When quitting is not an option

I've been dragging my feet lately when it comes to waking up in the morning and going to work. Every night before I sleep I set my alarm clock for 6am – when it goes off, I put the alarm on snooze every 5 minutes for an hour.

When I finally decide to wake up I beg myself to get up and start the day. I convince myself the day will be over before I know it and I at least get another chance to do what I didn't get to do the previous day.

What happens when one feels circumstance is taking over and they just want to quit? You should remember that quitting is not an option and that kind of thinking on its own, will drive you to choosing success.

Sometimes people don’t fail because they haven’t been trying at all; but fail because they are not doing what their heart desires. In one of Chris Gardner’s motivational videos he says: “This could be prime time for pushing your button rather than finding your button.”

He explains what he means by that statement and says: “This could be prime time that you find that one thing that you love doing so much that you would get up in the morning and do it free – prime time to find that one thing that the sun cannot come up soon enough in the morning because you want to go do your thing.  This could be that time in your life.”

Well, I know that right now is that time in my life. I've always wanted to be in the spot light. When I was in matric I wanted to go to Johannesburg and become an actress and a lawyer – young and naïve.

Where I am sitting today, I want to answer to my calling. Its prime time for me now – and guess what? I’ll still be in the spot light. It is prime time for me now because to answer I first had to go through the questions – and that was life and its knock-outs.

The knock-outs came so hard and at one stage I thought of just giving up on that one thing that made so much sense to me and I remembered one thing – quitting was not an option.

You probably sitting at that dead-end job wanting to quit – if your prime time has not yet come, don’t quit that job, because you must still provide.

My prime time has come but I am not yet about to quit the job that I must drag myself to every morning because reality is I must still provide for my family. So what other option do I have? – Many more.

When you are about to quit dreaming about a self-defined great life, take a minute to think of the countless options you have of making your dream come true and live that great life you dream of.

I know the type of life I want to live and right now I’m on the right track in pursuit of my great life.

You too can be extraordinary – quit being average.

Lately I’ve been thinking of a fast way to make my dreams a reality but I again thought if the journey will be so fast then I just might not enjoy the destination or I will have no story to tell – because I think life is about story telling.

As people we are driven, motivated, depressed, upset and made happy by different things – hence our different behaviours. All these emotions are triggered by our current and past experiences. Someone who grew up in a rich background will act differently to that of a poor background – that’s a fact.

It is said that: “your background does not determine your destiny” but does it not, really? I find it extremely shocking when I chat to young girls from my neighbourhood without totally any vision of success what-so-ever. The only vision they have is raising money for that next pair of Carvella to rock at the High School Interval Bash. Is this really what they think life is all about?

We might have different ideas of how life should be and I think one common one is living to be happy and not living to die. We might not all be able to change the world but we sure as hell are able to change our lives. 

When you walk in the streets of my neighbourhood (Khayelitsha) the only conversations amongst these young girls you hear is: “Yho he was so angry and he hit me with his gun but I went back to apologise chomie.” You’d ask yourself is this really how these girls think life should be? And it’s not just Khayelitsha, it is a common problem in the disadvantaged areas.

However, we do have successful people coming from our neighbourhoods and I think they would play an instrumental role in motivating young people for the better. I think the cause of negative behaviour in the townships is lack of self-esteem and confidence.

Young people are dreaming big but afraid of waking up and making their dreams a reality. In a song written by one of the most influential rappers in the world, Jay Z, the lyrics say: “I'd rather die enormous than live dormant that's how we on it.” Wouldn’t it be nice to have a great impact in someone else’s life than live life like you’re in a bad dream and when you decide to wake up – you’re about to die.

However, people have withdrawal symptoms because of fear. Fear prevents us from doing things we want to do and from performing to the best of our abilities.

To us that know there are opportunities in life to live for the better – let us mobilise to the schools, community halls in our townships and as living proof share our stories – anything is possible.

A positive mind-set can get you out of any situation and addiction. Why live average when you can live an extraordinary life?

Decide today what you want from life and start investing your time in things that will help you get ahead.

Click on the link below and watch the video about things that influence our behaviours towards life: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPAFgrSZhYQ

Take time out to find yourself – it's good for the soul!

I've been feeling a bit down and vulnerable lately and not really sure why. I guess I was just overwhelmed by life and didn't really know what to do until the past two weekends.

I recently had to go on a trip to Pretoria – to a baby shower. I was not looking forward to going at all. I made up all sorts of excuses why I couldn't go but the person I was meant to go with didn't want to take any excuse whatsoever. So I decided I’ll go.

On the day of departure I felt so nervous, weak and couldn't stop shaking – became scared there for a second. I did not understand what was happening with my body. Anyway, I eventually left and when I got to Pretoria I told myself I've arrived and I need to make the most of that weekend. My friend picked me up from the airport and we went to have supper then it was home time.

When we got to her flat we caught up on some news and had a great laugh. Bed time came, when I went to her bedroom I found her bible wide open and just sitting there next to the bed side lamp. She said “before you go to bed, let’s quickly say a prayer.” I was a bit disturbed that she reminded me of something I used to do before sleeping and now I just don’t.  We prayed then went to bed and throughout that weekend she was telling me how wonderful the Lord has been to her.

As I listened, I sat there bothered thinking I used to be that person who acknowledged the Lord’s work. The day of the baby shower arrived and we had a great time. Friends had to give advice on being a mother and what they all had in common was the fact that they kept saying to my friend “put the Lord first and motherhood will be a beautiful and enjoyed journey.”

On Sunday I came back to Cape Town. Now in the past weekend I attended the Passover in Worcester. Oh boy did it go down! Saturday’s youth programme had a huge impact in my life. I was helping the Western Cape Youth President with activities. I had to talk about “peer pressure” and “self-esteem” to try and understand the behaviours of young people in the church. Then we divided the congregation into two groups and gave them one topic to discuss. The question was as follows: How should a Christian behave? When answering they had to reference the Bible and reality. The groups reported back and it was time for me and the President to conclude.

The President posed a question to me and the congregation – are you saved? My answer was yes, immediately. When my time for concluding came I touched base on two things – being saved and how should a Christian behave.

I said I am saved because I believe there is a God who sent his son to die for our sins and I said as Christians we have our guideline book that says we should at least behave in a certain manner but reality forces us to behave differently.

A professor by the name of Brian O’Connell once said in his speech “We need to learn to adapt to change in order to survive.” He used an example of his religion saying: “I’m Catholic and it has been said there should be no sexual engagement until one is married. But people are sexually engaged before marriage and religion is against the introduction of condoms because people should not be sexually engaged.” He said but there are sexually transmitted infections (STI) that condoms might prevent a person from getting. Because some people will not use condoms because religion says they shouldn't  the number of people dying from STIs increases. People are obeying religion, culture etc but reality forces them to do otherwise.

I personally think we need to find a balance in life. Life is a journey. In this journey we go through different roads – some bad, some good. Still, we embrace life. Why? because we have to find a balance between good and bad. We often want to be happy in life and don’t understand that with happiness comes sadness. With darkness comes light, with fear comes bravery, with hatred comes love. I could go on and on to show you that it was written that these things would pair, like husband and wife. So when you happy, thank God. When sad, cry and thank GOD and heal wit time. Healing takes time – so give time, time.

Morale of this story is that we often forget where we find our strength – our source of life. We get caught up in the negative things that take all our strength and forget to refill or recharge our strength.

I get my strength from the Lord. Now, the past two weekends have helped me find myself and reminded me I need to take some time out every-now-and-then to feed my spirit so I can be physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually ready for any challenge.

What is your source of life, where do you draw your strength from? I hope I got you thinking and if you were a bit confused like me, take time out and figure out the things that save you from a dark place.

*Hope I've touched your heart*