Build your capacity …life can be full of surprises
Life is quite challenging and many times can be full of surprises.
There are moments in our growing seasons when we encounter issues that we never expected.
It could be positive and many times negative.
I remember once as a young adult still in the incubator of my leadership skills, I was asked to come speak to a sizeable number of adults. I almost froze at the thoughts of me standing up there to share my thoughts.
Now, I was used to speaking to my peers in smaller numbers but not this large crowds and definitely not adults.
If I had a choice I would definitely have ran away but I couldn’t.
My saving grace was the fact that over time I had been preparing myself.
At times I read at least four books a month and I took plenty of time to listen to other great speakers.
As I stood there to speak that very day all I had built into myself came to my aid.
I was able to not only utilize but maximize that opportunity to create more platforms for me to speak at future events.
Building my capacity helped me to take advantage of that opportunity when it came knocking on my door.
This was a positive story but life can throw some hard knocks at us too.
When that happens it is the extent that you have prepared yourself that will determine if you will survive or not.
Building your capacity is engaging the future before it shows up. It is preparing yourself for what is getting ready to appear before you.
In life you may not know what is coming but you are better off if you get yourself ready for when opportunity shows up It will be too late to get ready.
A great man wrote a book with the title – “Dig Your well before you are thirsty”.
Building capacity demands that you understand 3 things:
Your current reality
You expected future state
Your customized steps to reach it.
In my growth journey I have found four words that helped me build my capacity: Enlarge, Stretch, Lengthen and Strength. I will try to break them down here.
Enlarge your space
To enlarge is to make bigger or to become bigger.
Enlarging your space is to extend beyond what you can contain in your present. It actually means becoming bigger on the inside so you can grow greater on the outside. Enlarging yourself is what enables you to take more in life. That’s what makes you become more than you are now.
A few ideas to help you do this:
Review your belief system: we all become free or get caged in by what we believe. Believing is becoming.
You never attract what you can’t believe. It has been said that what your mind can conceive and believe you will achieve.
Truth is your believe is what grants you the relief you seek. What do you believe?
Reexamine the impact of your choice
Every man has been given chances but the chance you get is determined by the choices you make. Your choice determines your chance.
Many times we are in the place we are, simply because we have refused to make the needed choices that will get us to our desired state.
It’s our choice overtime that confines us to the places we find ourselves.
If you must blame anyone then blame your choice. Life itself is a choice.
Stretch yourself some more
Have you ever considered how a woman gets to give birth to her beautiful child? She had to do some stretching.
First the womb stretches to carry the child, then the cervix stretch to bring forth the bundle of joy. It is by stretching that you reach more
Always rethink your vision
Every vision is for an appointed time so never run with a vision whose time has passed.
The vision you have at 20 years of age may have expired now that you are approaching 40 so rethink your vision.
In the Bible we see an example in Joseph his first dream only had his brothers but the second time he had his mother and father to him.
Get a new vision so your venture can move.
My mentor Mark Cole advises that you can do this by getting around people who are doing bigger, better and brighter things that you are doing right now.
Face some new challenges
Change comes when we face and overcome our challenges.
The crisis we face are meant to stretch us.
It is said in Africa that the River is bent because it’s tries hard to avoid challenges.
I hear people say things like “you don’t know what I am going through”
but I would rather say, “you don’t know what I’m growing through”. Let your challenges help grow your capacity.
Set new standards for yourself
Products that thrive in the market are expected to meet certain standards.
As humans, who desire to grow and reach for more, we need to set new standards for ourselves.
When we lack standards we will get stranded someday. Your standards will determine how solid your life will be.
Lengthen your space
The word lengthen is a great word. It means to elongate or prolong.
When you lengthen anything it is enabled to attract more. It becomes more visible and better positioned to be seen.
Attracting more helps increase your chances.
How do we do this?
Adapt to the changes in your future:
We all need to be agile enough to adapt to the many changes in our space.
Many skills are getting obsolete no doubt. Holding onto such skills only kill your dream.
Keep challenging yourself:
Sometimes we face challenges that come to us naturally but I also like to encourage you to challenge yourself.
When was the last time you did something for the very first time?
Challenging yourself to do new things opens you up to new possibilities.
Strengthen yourself to stand strong
The way to stand strong and increase your resilience level is to get stronger by the day. When you are stronger you can do more.
To become stronger;
Be planted in the place of your calling or assignment: a rolling stone gathers but very little moss. It is only when you get planted that you grow greater. This calls for clarity of purpose and consistency in doing what you know is right.
Deepen your moral values: what do you stand for? What are the things you will not do? What lines will you not cross? The absence of morals is the beginning of misery.
Develop your faith level;
Faith is the currency living on the earth. We all have faith but what makes the difference is where we hinge our faith. Faith helps you access what you need for now and the future.
