Inspiration - Learning to Fly

Inspiration –  Learning to Fly

By Nikki Viljoen of N Viljoen Consulting (Pty) Ltd

Fredrich Nietzsche says “He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying!”

Oh!  This one really had me smiling!  You see, whilst I am very aware that most things in life take time to achieve and that certain processes need to be followed to ensure a successful outcome, I am also terribly impatient!  I am always impatient to get the task started and done – no – patience is certainly not one of my strong points!

I understand that the journey of life goes through stages, where we start off by ‘standing’ and then ‘walking’ and so on, but that doesn’t mean that the goal of ‘flying’ is not constantly far from our thoughts and that we want to get there as quickly as possible and that we are not hugely impatient to get to it and of course, herein lies the challenge.

Much like the ‘short cut’ that we take on unfamiliar roads to get to a specific destination in a hurry, will often get us horribly lost and take us far longer to get there than the original route, so too often will the ‘shortcuts’ that we take in life often end in disaster.

I think that the trick is to savour the journey.  To stop every now and then and celebrate the achievements that we have made.  To look back and see how far we have come rather than just continuously chastising ourselves on all the things that we have not yet achieved.

I think that the trick is to deal with the issues as and when they arise and not to ignore or bury them in the hope that they will resolve themselves or even go away.  I think that where we can, we should be proactive and prepare ourselves for what we know will happen or can happen so that we can deal with them effectively and efficiently when they do happen.

I think that we should always look at life with a ‘can do’ kind of attitude, rather than actively trying to find ways to say “can’t do”!

I think that we should check our ‘mind sets’ on a regular basis and make the ‘minor adjustments’ that are required instead of waiting until life gives us a big fat smack or ‘wake up’ call.

I think that we must remember to ‘flex’ our fledgling wings from time to time to remind us of our goals and so that when it comes time to ‘soar’ we will do so without fear or restraint.

But until that time . . . . I think we need to pull in the reigns and ‘learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance’ before we start to fly.

Nikki is an Internal Auditor and Business Administration Specialist who can be contacted on 083 702 8849 or nikki@viljoenconsulting.co.za or http://www.viljoenconsulting.co.za