Embrace Your Magnificence

There is a magnificence and beauty in each and every one of us. In spite of our human imperfections, each one of us has an inherent value that only we can most meaningfully connect with.

There are acres of diamonds in each and every one of us capable of empowering us to transform our own lives and the world around us. There is a genius in every one of us that can only be meaningfully expressed by us. It is found and can only be expressed through the unique gifts, talents and abilities that each person is endowed with.          

Until I got in touch with the magnificence and beauty that resides within me, I could not fully appreciate how awesome I am and the enormous power that I have to achieve much more than I have achieved so far. Connecting with my magnificence empowered and enabled me to fully grasp the potential and range of possibilities that lie in my path.

One of the very first steps you need to take to get closer to your magnificence is to recognize the gremlins that live inside you. These are the negative inner voices that each one of us has or has had over the years. The louder these voices are the deeper they have buried the priceless diamond inside.

As we grew up and experienced varying situations and events we took up certain critical inner voices that told us that we were not worth much and couldn’t do it.

Our parents, siblings, relatives, friends and teachers may have said or done something that shaped the way we now look at ourselves.  It could have simply been our own self-doubt. The point is that we developed a negative self-talk that influenced the way we thought of ourselves.
For more than 20 years I lived up to the label –Chinyerere (The Quite One) that my parents, siblings and relatives had given me from as young an age as 5.  The more they said it, the more I believed it and the quieter I became.  

For many years I could not even imagine myself standing up to speak in front of a group of people. I remember freezing twice when I was asked to speak in front of a small group of people.

Breaking out of the mental prison of Chinyerere and being able to embrace my own magnificence has been a long process. 

In 1974 I fell in love with this beautiful woman- my wife and that transformed almost instantly the way I looked at myself.

For the first time in my life I felt truly special. My life just opened up and I found myself engaged in endless conversations with this special woman. I discovered I could talk for hours! 

The time I met my wife was the time I became a teacher. In fact I met my wife because I had been appointed to teach at the same school she was teaching.

I had never wanted to be a teacher but circumstances dragged me kicking and screaming and placed me smack in front of a group of teenagers.

Within three years of becoming a teacher, I was appointed to two positions of leadership and in my sixth year I took the very top position and became the principal of a boarding high school of 800 students.

In that very short time I had discovered that I could talk, teach and lead. Since then I have learnt to embrace the teacher, the leader and the communicator in me.

I also discovered that I was a good writer, a speaker and coach. These attributes took time to take root and establish themselves in my thinking and actions. But now I fully embrace my magnificence in these areas.

I also learnt to start talking a lot more kindly and positively to myself. We all talk to ourselves. It is the quality of our self-talk that determines how we feel about ourselves and ultimately the quality of our lives.  

Here are just two of the many affirmations that I say to myself every day.

1.     I am a genius and I apply my wisdom, writing, speaking and coaching. (Inspired by Dr John F Demartini)

2.     I am a powerful writer and speaker. I always write and speak from my heart and I do so with passion, clarity, certainty and authority   

When I started saying affirmations I didn’t completely believe in them.  They were simply things I deeply desired in my heart and so I wrote them down and started saying them to myself every day.

And today most of them have become a reality.

Another development that has helped me to embrace my own magnificence is the decision to stop blaming other people and circumstances for the way my life is and take 100% responsibility over what happens to me now and in the future.

At the same time I adopted a new belief and attitude that says, “I have within me all the resources that I need to create the life that I want.”  The more I embrace this attitude the more opportunities and possibilities I begin to see around me and the more convinced I become that indeed I have a magnificence and beauty within me.

Embracing your magnificence also means deciding to believe that “What you focus on is what you get.” While recognizing that you are not perfect, you don’t focus on your faults. Instead you spend most of your time focused on your value, on the many gifts, talents and abilities that you have. Whenever I do this the best in me always shows up.   

When you embrace your magnificence you come face to face with the endless depth of your own value. You discover the sprawling “acres of diamonds” that lie within you. You begin to appreciate that you are complete just as you are.

You enter the stimulating world of possibility thinking and are able to maximize your potential. 

You become your own best friend, are much kinder and forgiving to yourself. You become your number one hero, leader, encourager, motivator and inspirer.

You experience a significant growth in your relationships – with your creator, with your family and other people that you closely interact with.

You connect with other people’s magnificence and beauty and enable them to see it too. And together you create a synergy that transforms the world around you.

You accept other people as they are and it becomes easier to forgive them as their magnificence and beauty overshadows their imperfect characters and behaviors.

You realize that your true worth is not determined by the score sheet of your performance but by an inherent underlying value which you do not earn but simply have. 

Above all you are able to connect with the bigger vision of your mission and purpose in life and you give yourself the power to be the best that you can be.

Whatever it takes, it is worth your while to decide to confront your own gremlins, abandon your victim mentality, unearth your beauty and embrace your magnificence.  You will then be in touch with the truth and reality of who you really are and also with the numerous blessings that abundantly fill your life.

 David Pasipanodya