Pursue upward mobility for life is not a dress rehearsal

George Chingarande | Monday July 28, 2014 12:23

We have remained faithful to that simple mission. In line with that mission, in this issue we would like to exhort you to pursue upward mobility. The nub of this exhortation is the idea that you are not a lifeless rock or an immobile tree. You do not have to remain where you are. You have the ability to scale heights greater and more magnificent than where your feet are currently set. No man can say to another this far shall you go and no further. Neither can circumstances stop you without your cooperation.

Upward mobility begins with a choice. And the greatest of human freedoms is the freedom to choose; and the greatest exercise of that freedom is to choose one’s purpose in life.  Where the purpose of a thing is not known abuse sets in.   A heavy weight boxer who does not know the purpose of this strength will use it to unnecessarily clobber innocent lives into submission.  The person who does not know the purpose of medical drugs will abuse them and invariably develop an addiction.  A toddler who does not know the purpose of a toy car will carry it on her back.  However, worst of all is the leader who does not know the purpose of the power and authority vested in his position who will abuse his subordinates and subjects.  We must always seek to know very intimately the purpose of everything we have, everyone we have on our teams and of everything we do.  We can never fully utilise the talents within us and the resources around us unless we know the purposes thereof.  Worse than death is a life lived without purpose?  Upward mobility begins when we are clear of what we want to achieve and where we want to go.

However, clarity of purpose will not take us anywhere without action. Vision without action is mere day dreaming; action without vision merely passes time but vision coupled to action gives traction to life. Our sense of purpose and direction; and our decisions should always be followed by massive actions. And in acting we must always be conscious not to focus on what we do not have, but on what we can do with what we already have. The key to a magnificent future lies in something already in our possession. We must also focus not on the problem but on the solution and seek to see opportunities in our problems not the problems in our opportunities.

The choice of our actions should be informed by knowledge, and when it comes to upward mobility we do well to learn from Dr Banfield. Dr Banfield was a Harvard University sociologist who was obsessed with what he termed upward mobility. He set out to unravel the mystery why some people become financially stable and prosperous in their lifetime while others come to financial ruin. Although he used financial upward mobility as the subject of his studies, in essence his work sought to find out the single most important factor that makes some people successful and causes others to lead enchanted lives. He started off convinced that the answer to this question would be found in factors such as family background, education, intelligence, influential contacts, or some other concrete factor. What he finally discovered was that the major reason for success in life was a particular attitude of mind.  Banfield called this attitude “long time perspective.” Simply put whenever you make decisions in the now you must consider the long term consequences of that action or inaction. The best decision is the one that takes future consequences into consideration and seeks to maximise future benefits. It is always associated with delayed gratification. Human nature seeks immediate gratification and immediate comfort and ease; but successful people are those who learn to discipline themselves to do what must be done now although it may be uncomfortable.

We must always remember that the time for action is now. The opportunity is in the present moment.  There are two things to be embraced in life, and that will take you to your desired future.  One is the present opportunity and the other is the present self.  These are the only raw materials with which a magnificent future can be constructed.  Accept yourself as you are right now; and also accept the opportunity that you have right now.  You do not have to embrace the present circumstances, but you can only begin to bloom where you are planted. No flower blooms where it is not planted or where it wishes it could have been planted. The only opportunity we have to begin; is to begin where we are with what we have and who we are. However, we must be alert to the fact that the ordinariness of the present moment, tends to mask the extraordinariness of the opportunities that it presents. But act we must; and now is the time.

Having acted, we must face the reality birthed by those actions and our other past actions. It is true that even the best laid plans of men; and their actions proceeding from the best of intentions; sometimes go awry. The fact that sometimes our plans do not work out as we anticipated they would, should not betray us into cynicism.  The easiest thing to do after plans come shattering at one’s feet is to become cynical, but the best response to setbacks is to learn from them and move on with relentless forward motion. Personal growth comes from personal learning.Winning in life demands two things.  First; that we replicate the behaviours that are working well for us in that they are yielding the desired results and second; that we terminate immediately those actions, behaviours and processes that are not giving the desired results. How can we know these unless we get feedback? Strive to get undiluted feedback from those around you; and allow this feedback to feed your forward actions. Armed with this we must live our lives to the full so that when the day the thief called death comes by night and tries to steal; he will find nothing left.