Your life will never change until you change and literally take actions you have never ever taken before. Our lives isn’t made by knowing something new that we haven’t learnt before but only by applying it. Applying it is the hardest because taking action you have never ever taken before requires defying all odds, getting completely out of your comfort zone. It’s a do or die. You either get it right or get it completely wrong. You are either willing to get it all or lose it all. Yes it’s risky, it’s dangerous but you must do it otherwise if you don’t risk and take action your life will remain exactly where it is on that comfort zone for the rest of your life. The years will keep adding to your life but nothing exciting and new will ever happen. New actions brings new results. To have a different life you must start having different thoughts and actions guided by them.

Going to the next level is extremely very easy and very hard at the same time. It’s unfortunately one of the most toughest decisions you must ever make. I remember writing down the day I will resign from work, it was exactly day one, same day I started working. I had already visualized and dribbled down with a pen and paper so many times exact number of years I would like to be employed. I do this as my hobbies, imagining myself and writing down the things I want in life. I regret more because most of this papers I used to throw them away, nowadays I try to keep them all and this means having more than ten notebooks, different diary’s, journals and so many places I have to write down. I remember telling my girlfriend at that time and writing down to her the exact age I would like to be working for someone else then go be self independent, be my own boss, spend the rest of my life writing books, articles, having speaking engagements all over the world, transform over 50 million people in over 150 countries before the year 2050. I was so young but full of so many great ideas and brilliant dreams. Resign and go live my life to the fullest without a boss telling me what to do but being my own boss, making more money as I can without limit.

I had just finished High School got born again, enrolled to do Taekwondo, learn French, Chinese, Korean, upgrade my computer class and had to take Gospel class which was mandatory and gave me access to learn this since it was offered in a missionary school. I realized if I added my both Certificate and Diploma for Computer plus beauty, hair design diploma to my KCSE Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education I would be more marketable.

I finished high school on Tuesday I remember it was 14th November and on Friday 24th November same week I was already in college pursuing my first diploma when my friends were busy resting. Something in me has always been an attitude of “Do it Now” I wanted to increase my probabilities for success and get more opportunities. Since I had studied computer in my High School, Gititu High School for four years I ended up becoming a volunteer for being a computer teacher when I was supposed to learn. There was shortage for computer teachers, asking questions above normal students led me to being on the spotlight, given extra attention and I was asked to volunteer. It was both good and bad. Bad because I had now I could no longer sit and be taught. Good because I had all the time I needed to interact with computers, best computer books for the first time. Volunteering has become one of the best quality that has opened so many doors in my life apart from having a positive self image, faith, incurable optimism, confidence, communication,and courage etc

Then for Takwondo I also ended up becoming a volunteer after I graduated for being the first batch of five students out of over 200 university and college students to be dispatched outside the country. I choose Rwanda , Tony choose Burundi , Kepha choose Tanzania my other two friends Cate and Olivia went to South Korea . Sometimes call it luck, fate, destiny, God’s mysterious ways, favor or grace but I have to realize that in this life as long as you wake up and find something to do that is impacting the world, something outside yourself whether it’s sweeping, cleaning, teaching others in your local church, community, supporting the less fortunate and especially for free as a volunteer God has a way of compensating it in a bigger way. As long as you remain industrious, finding yourself doing something that benefits as many people as possible for free now, know that you are planting something big that you will reap in the end. 5 out of 200 is not a joke.

Our star shines brightest just in front of us but it doesn’t come as the best opportunity but it comes covered as work you must take as a volunteer for free. It comes as a request for taking volunteer work and then taking leadership position where you are accountable to deliver results despite not being paid.

When I see young people complaining being jobless I always ask them what work do they do? Most say nothing and for me I have never ever been idle from day one. You can never run out of work only out of paid work but sometimes the best paid positions are found when volunteering and working for free. We live in the world where you can’t get hired because you don’t have experience and you don’t have experience because you don’t have a job. Unless we start turning the tables to our advantages through volunteering where we can prove people wrong by learning, interacting with those experienced, being responsible, accountable, resourceful, dependable and delivering tangible results with speed we shall keep complaining about getting best jobs. We shall never ever have no volunteer opportunities only us who keeps turning down them. Where shall you get practical skills if you keep running away from volunteering and stay in the house idle watching Tv, Movies, series, being on social media whole day without doing tangible work even in the own house you live in. Same person can’t prepare a meal, cook for ten people and maintain a decent house work simply because they are a graduate. We are living so ironically today wasting everything and then we go to gym when we could have done what we are supposed to do in the house and save that money which we say we don’t have yet we are wasting it in buying WiFi, bundles and airtime to complain with other friends who are also doing nothing but complaining about the government. We are the first government me and you. We are the one who also give them work by voting. Being idle is the worst crime as a person to yourself and also to humanity. If only you can be doing something little each and every day of your life to yourself and for others then your life will never ever be the same again.

My grandmother who is 85 years of age today “Cucu Wandogo” the name we use to call her who brought me up since age two years always used to encourage us to be always be productive, resourceful and reliable. Always be doing something useful. Don’t be dependent on anybody. Growing up as three boys me being the last born out of my oldest cousin, uncle and myself we had to learn all skills in the kitchen from cooking, cleaning, washing the dishes, sweeping, preparing food, cooking, serving which at that era was considered girls skills but she was no nonsense women upto today. This was apart from hardwork like farm work, feeding chickens, goats, cows, milking, picking coffee, fetching firewood etc. I sometimes look back and say that my first philosophy came to me through how I grew up. Being prepared without knowing you are actually being prepared.

Unconscious mentorship. At that time you hate it with passion because you want to be like a child being given time to play like other kids not being always working, cooking, washing your clothes from two years of age, you think you ar oppressed but today I look back and say those were the best things that ever happened to me.

The things I really hated growing up, the things that gave me pain growing up, are the things that gives me greatest pleasure today. I can do any job no matter how tough it is and I can be dropped anywhere in the world and survive. I can cook and wash, do any tough labor smiling because I grew up doing it. I can survive with one meal a day and still be okay. I can survive hand to mouth.

I hated growing up in poverty and wished so many times I was born in a rich family but if you ask me again I would still choose to be born in the same exact context, environment and culture I was born. Who I am is because of everything I have gone through. Sometimes we feel we should cut some things because they were too tough but they shaped who we are. Yes when we are in teenage and formative age of life in our early twenties, thirties and some even forties we hate even to say where we born, who our parents are, schools we went because they are in the deepest remote villages, churches we went or mosques, temples etc but that’s who we are. We are ashamed of our past not knowing they left the dots of the person we are and if we are to draw something and make something of ourselves we must be proud of the dots we carry which is a byproduct of our genes, environment we grew up, culture, religion, parenting style we received, friends and enemies we made growing up, what we read, watched, listened to, got exposed to whether consciously or unconsciously. A man or woman who denies their past will never find who they truly are and can be. There is nothing like mistake in this great orderly universe of God. Everything is divine and everything you have gone through is not a mistake or coincidence. It has a meaning or lesson.

Why don’t people become great and transform their lives? It’s simply because they don’t develop the guts to literally take action. If I never accepted the request to be a volunteer when I deeply wanted to learn like other students I couldn’t be spotted. I couldn’t be given attention also if I didn’t ask so many questions and sometimes even the ones I knew the answers because I knew there were others who didn’t have the courage to ask. My greatest moments was getting students confessing to me that I asked the exact questions they wanted to ask but these are your friends who their hands becomes extremely heavy in front of the teacher and I mean any teacher or authority but who are free birds when no authority is around. They are as confident, courageous as long as no teacher or authority figure is around. Any action you do brings you closer to opportunities that will better you life. Any action you feel you should do but don’t do it also takes your destiny far away from you. The more actions you take the faster you get closer to your biggest destiny in life. Destiny is a journey that is arrived by a thousand actions. The only way to get closer to your life destiny is by taking as many actions as possible and you can only take one action at a time. You must dream big but take simple actions day by day and one action at a time.

As Chinese say, “A journey of a thousand miles can only be taken one step at a time” Your Life is a journey of a thousand actions. Start increasing your probabilities by taking as many actions as you can each and every day. You must taken sometimes radical and very bold steps. Going out of the country when I was very young, learning different cultures, languages, interacting with people from diverse backgrounds opened me up for the world. I formed my thought patterns at young age of the world out there by making friends of different diverse backgrounds than mine. I knew about the world not just from books but meeting people and making friends who grew up in those far countries as my baseline.

Your life turns around not because of knowing what to do to turn it around but taking action to turn it around. Though I wrote my resignation date from day one I didn’t resign exact day I said I would. Something always used to come up, I needed a loan to buy a good car which I bought my Mercedes Benz as my first car. Am a believer and lover of good and fine things from day. I was 22 years but also unapologetically ambitious with capital called faith. My salvation came at the right time because I learnt about faith and applied immediately in my day to day life. I didn’t had time to doubt what I was being taught. I don’t know whether it was foolishness and being young but am glad I stated taking big actions when I was very young. Working in a big company also gave me first class exposure and affirmed to me that my dream was possible. When in Rwanda which was a big risk I got introduced to motivation books and I was given my first personal development book, “The 7 Habits for Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey” This book literally changed my thinking now plus the Bible lessons and so many magazines I had read it opened my world and transformed my way of thinking.

I found myself being requested to join a team to learn journalism and broadcasting as the Church was starting its own TV Station GBS TV. Good News Broadcasting Station. With my free spirit I also lifted my hand and became a part of the team. Being the first students we went through hell, our teachers were Koreans and they spoke Koreans, they knew very little English, they had those small electronic dictionary translators even with pronunciations but the fact that we had latest computers, applications to edit we just had to learn. We were the Guinea Pigs but we were hungry plus the wildest imagination of seeing ourselves on TV becoming famous like the journalists we had.

After evaluating myself then I listened to one famous journalist’s who came to spoke to us and he helped me realize that’s not the path I wanted to do at that time. I love journalism and I know all the skills I learnt I will apply then but I had to quit. That action of quitting was one of the best things I ever did. Nobody could think of quitting journalism at that time. Almost everyone could have bribed or do anything to get that spot I had. It didn’t even go well with our Pastor, I became a sermon item for two Sundays. One saying I won’t get a job. For myself who had grown so much in faith and personal development I had to get a job and gave God a timeline before that weeks ends. Went interview on Friday and started job same day. I passed, told to go wear uniform which was white shirt and black pants, black shoes. I went bought them and was back immediately. God answered my prayers on my timeline. I made sure I went to Church on Sunday without missing and became the sermon that some people would take any job. I smiled and never looked back.

Working in a cyber cafe at Booksfirst opened me to the big world of books. As a staff I could qualify for amazing books discounts. From the latest books to best selling books. Working in Westlands Cyber cafe was the best as it was inside the Bookshop. The supervisor at the bookstore who was an avid reader became my friend immediately when we started discussing books. I started exhausting my discounts, started talking to my colleagues to give their discounts which anyway they never used or bothered.

Most people don’t use the benefits their employers give but for me reading exposes me to maximize all benefits my employer gives. You could have thought I worked in the bookstore and not cyber cafe. I could sell books to clients who I had just met and everyone in the bookshop liked me because I was helping them sell more books and they meet their target. In return some used to help me in cyber cafe and when we were free I used to teach them computer. With the volunteer experience of being a computer teacher it worked magically. Everything you have learnt has a way of coming to benefit you in your future but only when applied. I also started getting free books, worn out books, discarded ones, ones that couldn’t be sold by being useful to my fellow junior staff at bookshop. Everything you learn can be traded and bring your monetary benefits or give you friends who have access to what you really want which you could have paid so much money to get it.

My advice take volunteering positions today, take leadership positions, become accountable for results, become a leader or a volunteer who is known for delivering results. I always encourage my kids, young people as I speak with them to take leadership positions. Be more proactive and productive. Always be doing something not just for yourself but for others. When you start being concerned about others your life automatically starts to change. When you start thinking about others, the world has a way of thinking about you.

Yes some people will be extremely very selfish which you come to learn later in life but there will be few you will meet who are also extremely very selfless and they will go out of their way sometimes even better than you do it yourself just for you. Sometimes I want to be extremely selfish and focus only on myself but I always find myself going out of my way even for strangers I don’t know. Sometimes call it blind compassion and the reason I keep doing it isn’t because I don’t know some are taking advantage of me but because when I need compassion back God sends me strangers to fill my need. The reason I do it is because of God’s reciprocity. God works in reciprocal order and law. The law of Reciprocal states, “Give what you want” The moment you comply with this law everything falls in place.

Lastly take actions that you have never taken today and now. Everything changed not when I planned, wrote it down, deeply thought about it but only when I took an action of faith. When I stopped playing safe and took the greatest risk of my life and took that action. That day I handed stopped changing my resignation dates because of responsibilities that awaited me, so many issues that always came up every time I was near to my timeline I ignored all and printed four letters, gave them all to my bosses and wrote an email after to all my colleagues. The email worked even better because earlier before I had started to send weekly email on customer service which inspired me to finally to publish those articles as a book on the same. That day changed everything and no matter how I was convinced to keep working my day had come to an end. It was time to go pursue my dreams, spend time with my family, do what I love and whether I made less money than I made working 8 to 5 job I was ready.

My wife didn’t approve, my family didn’t approve, my in-laws didn’t approve, my friends didn’t approve, my colleagues didn’t approve, my relatives didn’t approve, neither my kids or community but there comes a time where you must make a decision that makes you happy and helps you live to your purpose in life. Your dreams and purpose in this world sometimes is very very personal. That day I packed everything from my office, wrote a commitment letter to continue paying my loans to my guarantors was my happiest day. Driving back home knowing I had made that step gave me both the happiest feelings and same time anxiety for what I had done.

Those feelings of self doubts and especially when you have crossed almost everyone because you know they will always tell you, “I told you so” I have come to realize that when you risk everything you have then only at that time you have grown to receive everything back.

Sometimes you have nothing to lose and sometimes you have everything to lose but if you want to go to the next level you must reach this moment when you stand up for yourself and say “Enough is Enough, I have heard it all and it’s my time to call it quit. This and this time will be my last working day here” There are also some people you must wake up one day and give them a warning order for taking you for granted. “If you don’t help me now, then don’t help me again” “This is the time I really needs your help, I know I have never asked you for help but kindly just do this for me once and I will forever be in your debt” Actions transforms destinies.

Some people wish for the next level but only less than ten percent take bold actions which are extremely risky who does it. Stop playing safe. You can’t go to the next level if you don’t reach your end and let go of the current level that you are in. I know it’s very safe now but if you don’t let go you will keep stuck there for the rest of your life. If you don’t let go off completely now, you will never ever do it.

You might think there will be tomorrow but that tomorrow never comes. Since I was born I have never ever seen tomorrow coming to pass. I wake up and tomorrow keeps shifting because I only wake up to today, as long as there is today, there will always be tomorrow.

In your life everything happens today and now. If there is something you are planning to do, it doesn’t happen later or in the past but today and now. You can’t change where you are coming from neither will you change where you are going, you can only change where you are today and the time to change that is only now. The only time you are guaranteed in this life life is today and now. Tomorrow never comes. It’s a good promise but a promise remains a promise. Only Now is a sure bet and your greatest JackPot. Yes it’s too risky, it’s too dangerous, you might lose it all but at least you have done it. You never want to live your life scared again or living scared again. What if what you have always feared is just fear? Everything I was afraid was just in my mind and not in the outer world. The day I took that risk and resigned the only regret I have even today was, “Why hadn’t I resigned earlier than that?”

You have to stop thinking, stop imagining, stop planning and just do it. Just do it and your life will never ever be the same again. Stop everything you are doing and take action just right now. As long as you have thought it through, in all angles, plan on what to do in the worst case scenario just do it because wishing never brings fortunes only doing. We act, we fail, we learn from those failures, correct ourselves, alter our plans and finally we succeed. If we never took the first action we would still be held hostage by fear of unknown, self defeating criticism, self defeating thoughts, loud voices of doubts in our sacred minds casted to us like nets everywhere telling us we are not good enough.

Only when we take that bold action of faith that we break all chains, self defeating thoughts and become free from all and we are newly born again. Born again and free from all bondage of self limiting and self defeating thoughts, failure patterns, playing safe and we join the big leagues of people who have made it in life.

Anything great and admirable had the owner once pushed extremely to the corner where they had to do it or die trying. I will always choose to die trying to make my life the best I can ever be in all ways. From failure to failure until I achieve success and move from one success to another bigger and better success. I want to finally wake up one day and never ever be afraid of failing again because failure itself will be afraid of me because I no longer mind failing or taking risks to go for what I really want in life. No failure or being told any “No” “Impossible” “It has never been done before” “Can’t be done” will stop me. The only thing that will stop me is only success of what I want and that success only.

As NIKE slogan says, “Just do it” I would just add say it, Just DO IT, DO IT RIGHT NOW” If it’s not today and now, then when? if it’s not you, then who? Why not you doing it today and doing it just right now?

Let’s meet at the Top with positive self image as you choose to remain an incurable optimist as you just take action and do it today and right now.

Receive warm hugs and greetings

From Dr. Bonnie Kim

#DrBonnieKimBK

#drbkselfimageguru

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