Purpose Calendar.

Last week I wrote about an exciting surprise, spending the day with Mt Kenya literally. It was a stark reminder of how greatness is within us and even stalks us but we are often oblivious of it. Small things tend to magnify themselves into mountains and they sidetrack us from where we should focus our energies on. Anthills of petty irritations and inconveniences of life often become mountains of concern. That’s not how to live folks.

But how do we live out our mountain daily? How do we climb it and experience the greatness she serves? It begins with small daily actions that help us climb towards our purpose. John Maxwell tells us, “the secret of your success is determined by your daily agenda.” I have always had trouble executing this over the years. I have an internal resistance to too much planning. I don’t do new year goals or targets. I feel like I’m boxing myself and limiting my options. My life has been a series of God-incidences (accidents planned by sir God) but as I have grown older I have realized the need for more intentionality. What got us here is not necessarily what will get us where we want to go. I need to take up more self-responsibility

There comes a time in our lives when we have to be ruthless with our calendars. Social media ranks high up as far as distractions go. It’s become an addiction for many. You check one thing and it leads you down a rabbit hole with link after link to open up. Before you know it you have forgotten or delayed the important thing you were doing before you picked up your phone. That’s a continuous struggle for me so work in progress. If we are to summit our mountain we have to reduce these (and other ) distractions. For me, I’m trying to use my phone less and my baby sharks are helping with that. They have often chastised me for giving my phone more attention than them. Sometimes I even lose my train of thought when typing these articles. I’ve got to be more focused.

Finding our mission in life is work and living it out is more work, but meaningful, fulfilling and fun work. I dare say it’s work that you don’t get bored doing. Being a thought leader in transition coaching is a huge part of my future mission. With that in mind, I strive to be more intentional in my posts (both in content and frequency). That way I am easy to find and hopefully will attract more opportunities.

Next month will be the sixth anniversary of this blog. Again I never would have dreamt that I would write let alone for this long. It’s taken sheer commitment but I have grown to enjoy telling stories. I am even self-editing now and that’s a personal point of pride. If you ask me where I got the time to write an article weekly I cannot tell you. However, I stopped watching the evening news on TV. That freed up some time jioni but also somewhat healed my mind from all the negative news coming in. A clean mind tends to be a positive mind. And a positive mind is a creative mind. How’s your mind folks? Remember it all starts in the mind.

My future is public service. This was confirmed after going through the halftime program, which I also had to make time for and pay for. I benefitted immensely as far as clearing the fog was concerned on what I should be doing next. My current version of public service is helping folks get unstuck and transition successfully into a life of impact and significance. To do that effectively I have made new (mostly older) friends and made time in my calendar for many coffees (and a few beers too hehe) dates. My older pals live fairly successful lives and I’ve been keen to find out their secret because I want the same for myself and those I coach. Hearing from these folks takes effort as I have to squeeze into their calendars. That meant reducing the time I played golf to be available to learn from these good people. The counsel and mentorship have been worth the sacrifice.

My other positively fatal attraction currently is nature photography. I love every minute out in the bush capturing our magical Kenya. It takes a lot of time seeking out animals and the perfect moment to catch the action. Blocking off chunks of time has been necessary but more importantly, doing it with my family has been special. Time away from my local watering hole has also helped especially in thinking time and saving chums.

Today I have tried to display how we can build our calling into our calendars by using my story. Hope it makes sense. It’s still a work in progress but I find my life more directed now. Frustrations still linger as many times I feel like I’m just planting and the rains seem far away. It’s a waiting game for most of the time but when we split our calling into small daily meaningful tasks then we may also start noticing small wins. That should keep us motivated. For instance, I pitched to do a webinar on transition coaching to the staff of a regional bank. While typing this article earlier in the week my contact at the bank called to alert me that he has shared my profile with a firm they use to source speakers. If that firm puts me on their panel then I get to preach the gospel of transition more and I get paid in the process. How cool is that? whatever the outcome I’m glad that the time taken to prepare for my webinar and my profile has received some good attention.

That’s how you start climbing your mountain folks. One step at a time by doing a few (maximum three) things a day that you believe will lead you closer to the life you desire and are destined for. Oh, and of course, if you want to start by climbing an actual mountain ata hio ni sawa. I can hook you up with some good affordable gear from Toi market. hehe