If this book doesn’t pick up several tables in your life, overhaul them and shatter them, I’m not sure what will.
Page after page, upward mindset shifts are triggered from every single chapter . That’s why one article can not do justice to the entire book so I’ll be focusing on chapter 2 which actually sets the stage for the events that unfurl in the entire book.
If this chapter had not gone right, then there wouldn’t have been the rebirth of Blake who was lying under the rubbles of shattered dreams, broken emotions and daunting weights of bleakness.
Blake is struggling with making meaning of his life. He is numb, dissatisfied and drained of life’s fuel to live his best. In this state, an old man breezes into his office space, and introduces himself as Tommy.
Crazy and out of his mind would not be out of place to describe how he looked. I couldn’t help crinkling my nose as I read the description of this odd-at-first-glance fellow.
Disheveled, faded clothes, everything but classy and flashy is how he looks. While I’m wondering, who is this? What does he want here? My jaw begins to pop open as Tommy begins to strike several chords one remark at a time.
As he tries to straighten out what is understandably an awkward scenario, he makes a connection with Blake’s life, and begins to grab his attention with the words below.
“Oscar kept me up to date about you, and everything you were doing. He always told me you had a ton of potential, and felt you were meant for some spectacular things.
He really believed in you, Blake. But he sensed that you needed someone to inspire and show you how to get to your best. And for whatever reason, he didn’t feel that person was him.”
Now, here is a little bit of context.
Oscar is Blake’s late father who happens to be a dear friend of the 77-year old man Tommy. So he isn’t some crazy fellow after all.
Many of us at one point or the other have felt like Blake. We have this knowing that we are called to do something special but we second guess ourselves.
We look down on the world class chef we could be, the best selling author we could be, the change agent we could be and how we could really live our best. Doubt keeps whispering it’s ugly voice in our ears until we either get up and get going or connect with the right teacher for that season.
Here is the big question: Will we recognize our teachers when they show up? Blake’s teacher for the season was nothing to write home about, judging by outward appearance, but that didn’t change the truth that he held Blake’s blueprint for the next phase of his life.
There are those who are ochestrated to lift us from that place of self-doubt to our next best place but may not come in the packaging we expect.
If we miss it here, we just might spend the rest of our lives in endless vigils and needless quests. Three years ago, one of the things that began to cause a drastic shift in my life and shoot me into the path of productivity was “meeting Funto Ibuoye on Instagram.
Reading about her life, her tenacity and her grit was like a glass of cold water thrown right in my face on a freezing harmattan morning when all you felt like doing was staying curl up beneath the sheets in bed (when there was a ton of work to be done).
Now, we are not friends or personal paddies, and we have never had a chat. But just by observing her life, reading about how she does life in a world where she gets to deal with the things I called limitations for the longest time was such a wake up call for me.
I could have summed her up with these words, “This small geh? What does she want to tell me?” But guys, the results in her life spoke! They spoke loud and clear.
Just like the results in the seeming classless old Tommy began to speak and became the turning point in Blake’s life.
When we are fixated on our unfounded beliefs that our teachers have to be a certain age, look a certain way, we would walk right past our moments of epiphany without recognizing them.
The focus should not be on how they look on the outside, but on the wisdom they carry and the results trailing them.
Blake could have missed that opportunity of a life time by concluding that Tommy was a lunatic.
The teacher for this much needed transformation in his life didn’t show up looking like what the world would ordinarily paint as a powerful and influential leader.
The next question tugs at my heart: Are we focusing on putting up a front that is far less than our reality? Are we posting more glory than we actually really enjoy in real life and real time?
It brings to mind a profound thought from the 90-Day Life Upgrade System webinar that emphasized having, and truly living a life that is way more glorious than what people see.
Tommy didn’t look like anything important but he was a soul afire and living his best in reality. Could we just be more determined to recognize those people instrumental for our acceleration to the next best version of us, beyond the seeing of the eyes?
We must be determined more than ever before to build and live a life that is authentic, working, vibrant and colorful behind the scenes, and beyond public glare of social media reel.
Written by MeekayWrites
