My post today is short. If you have been reading my posts , I hope you understand that my mission through all the story telling and truth telling is to push you out of your comfort zone into a place you have not been before so you can do what you have not done before thereby doing a new thing, which in many instances is a better thing than what you are used to doing. Do you get it?
My question to you today is “are you flocking…..?”. What does it mean to flock? This is simply put, to do things in a group where everybody is following someone else and if you break rank it usually leads to death. The birds do it because they have to travel hundreds of miles and there is safety in numbers. When a bird breaks ranks , sometimes it recovers and joins the group or it dies.
Flocking is considered an emergent behaviour arising from simple rules that are followed by individuals and does not involve any central coordination. A flocker does things because it is the norm. It is the culture they know. There is no one necessarily controlling them but they are just doing what they see others doing. Many flockers believe in the adage that there is safety in numbers. Since we know that flockers still die, flocking does not hold immunity from danger and disaster.
In some situations , looking at it from human instances, some flocking behaviour is actually dangerous. For example social smoking, eating, drinking. In schools these days some children are mocked because they are getting good grades and so they become flockers just so they will not stand out. It is excusable to be mocked when you are young but some people allow the mockers to keep them in the flock
Usually there is a lead flocker dictating the pace. If you are a flocker, are you the one dictating the pace and direction of the flock?
On the other hand , are you a lone flyer? An example of the lone flying bird is the eagle. Apparently there are some characteristics of the eagle that are interesting and everybody should have, they are vision, fearlessness, tenacity, vitality, nurture, high flying and only feeding on what is fresh not dead.
Vision is a picture of where you are going.If you don”t have a picture of where you are going how are you going to know when you get there and yet many people don’t have a picture. A picture gives you a sense of purpose, makes you confident and eager to wake up every day. Helps you to do away with with irrelevances in your life. Stuff that takes up so much of your time (which in essence is your life) and yet is not taking you anywhere.
Fearlessness is a characteristic that comes with confidence that you know what you are doing and who is supporting you. If you are going through life with blinkers on you will be afraid of every little thing and that will keep you in your comfort zone which is usually a very small area where not much happens.
Tenacity comes from fearlessness and boldness and having a vision. A vision gives you all the areas in which you have to acquire knowledge so you can be the best at whatever you have to be.
What are you feeding on in terms of actual food and in terms of what you are listening to and what your time is spent on.I once heard someone say that fast food companies employ Phd chemistry professors to mix junk in order to make it smell so nice that you can’t but eat it. Start cooking yourself so you know what goes into it. Eating properly keeps your brain alert and functioning well. There are so many health benefits from eating right.
What are you feeding your intellect with? What are you watching? What are you listening to? be careful what you let into your psyche. This can change the whole outlook of your life and make the difference between success, joy and defeat.
Nurture is so important. Who are you nurturing. If you have nothing to give, which is the more likely thing if you do not have a vision, please don’t nurture anybody. However if you have something to give and you are not giving it, you will end up with constipation. If you are taking in and not giving out, it will get backed up somewhere.Nurturing is a form of giving back. Get involved please.
All these characteristics give vitality and will make you a high flyer in every and any sense of the word. Just by the way exercise is so important. This does not necessarily mean going to the gym or running on the road. Just getting up to do stuff, dispensing with the use of remote controls for everything. This honestly makes you live life comfortably.
Does being a lone flyer make you a loner? Absolutely not, it just makes you someone who is thinking for themselves and are not beclouded by being close to the noise of the market if you catch my drift.
So back to the question, are you a lone flyer or a flocker? The truth is that there is nothing wrong or right with being either as long as you chose which you are and you have not just found yourself in that group. Well for sure you have to make an effort to be a lone flyer, you don’t just find yourself in that group.
This is the second half of the year. This has happened so fast because i am sure that we were wishing each other a happy new year only a couple of weeks ago. What have you achieved this year. As i have said before , it’s alright if you have not achieved much as long as that was your plan and the time did not creep up on you.
Very well done if you have achieved anything in the last six months that was as a result of you stepping out of your comfort zone. I can assure you that the more you do things un the zone outside your comfort zone you will always achieve.
We all feel good when we go out of our comfort zones, please take a step out of yours if you can. Some of you need to just make that call you have been putting off because you think it will be awkward as you have not kept in touch. Trust me when you make the call, things will go well.
Some of you just need to sign up for that course. Don’t worry the financing will come because the first step is the most important. Get a vision and start taking steps to achieving the goals that will lead you to the picture.
Ooops I almost forgot to tell you a story. There was the story of a lady called Joy who was a single mom, looking after her mother, grandmother and two children. She was extremely poor and desperate. She once dropped a glass and tried to mop up the contents that had spilled. She cut herself when she was trying to squeeze the mop she had used to wife up spilled glass content.
Joy designed a mop that you would not have to use your hands to squeeze. The easiest part was designing the mop. She had to patent the device, get money to manufacture the mop and then try and sell it. Was it easy, absolutely not. Did she face a lot of opposition from everybody even her family, most definitely yes. However she forged ahead and was relentless. She became a millionaire.
Have a great week and make this second half of the year count for something.
catapultbylb.wordpress.com 