This is it. The launching of Munhu.com. It is a very exciting time for me and I have a deep feeling of accomplishment. Launching a website is a very big undertaking as there is much to learn from a technical perspective. It was last September that I first decided that I would launch a website. To tell you the truth, I did not know a css from an ftp. The learning curve lasted longer than I thought and although I am now able to publish on the web, I know that I have much to learn yet. There are so many little details to look after, but I am undaunted.
Big things grow from little things
“All big things grow from little things” said Cyril Stanley Smith, an MIT professor emeritus in a 1975 article in the New York Times. With what seems to be a perfectly obvious statement, Dr. Smith has put into just a few words the essence of growth and development. Every living being starts out small, a seed to a seedling, and eventually to a fully developed tree. Plants, animals, human beings or human accomplishment for that matter do not just sprout fully grown and developed. All growth and development follows an orderly process. All big things grow from small things, it can be no other way.
This website was only a thought at one point. Every human accomplishment starts at the beginning, each achievement starts out as a thought. A thought is like a seed, it contains the potential to grow into a fully developed accomplishment, however, like a seed this thought is small and vulnerable and without the right conditions and nourishment it is unlikely to develop and grow.
A nurturing environment is required for little things to grow into big things. Conditions within which the thought is nourished, cherished and appreciated are all necessary for full growth and development. Neglect or lack of attention to the little things will eventually destroy it. Thoughts, like living things need sustenance in order to grow and develop.
What do you think about? Are your thoughts about things you would like to see or about what you would not like to see? Remember, thoughts are the seeds that grow into big things. It is best to ensure that they are things that you actually want to see become big. Ask yourself if this thought were to become big would it be of benefit to me or to others? If the answer is no, then it is simple, don’t water and feed it. If the answer is yes, then by all means give it all the attention and care that you can.
The strange truth
I have found that thoughts are the seeds of of my daily life. What I carry in my head is what I experience throughout my day. What I think…I am. What I think…I will become. What I think…I will accomplish. Over the years I have run into many references to this idea. Perhaps the most influential was a book by Napoleon Hill called Think and Grow Rich. It is a powerful idea that has helped many people achieve things in their lives that they may not otherwise have been able to do. Other references to this idea are The Secret by Rhonda Byrne and As a Man Thinketh by James Allen. Many years ago I read a book by Jess Lair called I Ain’t Much, Baby–But I’m All I Got. This book contains many of the ideas of how thoughts drive who we become and what we accomplish.
The seeds we plant are the things that will grow. I want to build a website that will be of value to millions of people. That is the seed I have planted and today with the launch of this website I am nourishing and watering this seed, giving it the conditions to sprout and grow.
It is a major challenge to build a website that will see substantial traffic, but my mind is fixed on this goal. In a way this is an experiment, a testing of the ideals in those books I cited above.
Effort is required, success is essential
I do know that any goal requires effort to achieve. How long we stick with the effort is the result of a history of previous successes, each building on the last. There is one more idea I wish to give you today. Albert Bandura is a modern day psychologist. His ideas on social learning and human development have influenced much of psychology today. In particular, he developed the idea that as human beings, the most important thing we can develop is the belief and confidence that we can achieve what we set out to achieve.
Bandura says that our self-confidence is largely formed by the successes we achieve in our lives. Through successive achievements we learn that we are capable of reaching our goals. Let me put it this way, every achievement or success no matter how small is important to our personal development and enjoyment of life. Think of each success as filling our gunnysack of confidence that we have available to us. This gunnysack contains the nourishment necessary for us to achieve ever more complex and challenging goals. It feeds our self-esteem, our sense of who we are.
It is important that we recognize and celebrate each success. Each success is a foundation stone upon which succeeding success is built. Eventually, we have enough of a foundation to take on more and more ambitious and rewarding goals. Want to quit smoking, lose weight, become fit, grow wealthy, have great relationships? All these are possible and more with the correct choices in the goals we set and then persisting to success.
Select goals that you truly believe you can achieve and yet will challenge you. If you only experience easy successes then you will likely be easily discouraged by failure. If a goal feels too difficult today then build your confidence through the achievement of sub goals. If the goals are too difficult at the time then success may not be achieved and a loss of confidence may result, however, once you set a goal, persisting through obstacles and adversity to achieve it is perhaps the most important confidence builder that exists. Each successive achievement builds our confidence to achieve an even more complex or difficult goal.
I have a very high level of confidence. As with all people with high confidence, I have often worked through much adversity and dealt with many obstacles to achieve my goals. This goal of building a website that will be of value to hundreds, thousands or even millions is possible for me to conceive, believe and achieve. I have, however, broken the goal down into smaller steps. My first goal was to get a website online. I have achieved that today. I look forward to tomorrow and achieving the next part of my goal. To build traffic to the site.
Let me leave you with a saying by Napoleon Hill “What the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”
March 22nd, 2009 at 11:59 am
social development…
I hear ya’…