User talk:Maswabe

It is really enriching that the four principles that we all need for success and to achieve our goals are outlined in the ideas of Vision, Passion, Discipline and Conscience. While vision sets the pace by outlining goals and aspirations that need to be fulfilled, discipline ensures that the visions are practically fulfilled. On the other hand, Passion acts like an engine that ensures that the whole process works out fine. The moral support and guidance is provided by conscience. This was a beautiful and simple explanation of character. I felt that Covey explained to me just what I needed to know. It was also good that he brought out the idea of universal values which were entrenched in the declaration of Human rights. Every human being in the face of the planet subscribes to the values of love, honesty, kindness and truth. We all express these values and give them so much respect. The manner in which we express them may be different, but we certainly like to be treated well and with dignity wherever we go. Like Clover says, “there is an innate sense of fairness and justice; an innate sense of right and wrong, of what is kind and what is unkind, of what is true and what is false. Admittedly, culture translates this basic moral sense into different kinds of practices and words, but this translation does not negate the underlying sense of right and wrong.” This transcends across religious differences and it is a vital part of what makes humanity special. Left aside, chaos arise and humanity more or less behaves like animals and sometimes worse. When the values of respect and dignity for human beings were abandoned, we saw slavery, then we did not learn from that, we also saw the holocaust and then of recent years the Rwandan genocide. I think Clover is driving a very significant point in terms of conscience and acknowledgement of human values. We simply cannot live without them. Vision is such a powerful weapon to have. It is sweet to dream and one cannot achieve anything without setting out a plan, a vision on how to achieve fantasies. Dreams are turned to reality when we evoke discipline and commitment to the pursuit of that goal. A goal of being healthy may be achieved by eating healthy and exercising regularly. That may be hard, but with determination and commitment, one can achieve that goal. The passion should be being healthy and the conscious should be arrived by the good feeling of being healthy and living longer. While these ideas may seem so individual based, they also can affect nation or a given society. Countries with visions, with a well disciplined government and a passion to make their nation great and the will of doing well for the people usually achieve goals that they set. However, if countries set goals and lack discipline and conscience, the government and the political system usually do not work and a lot of issues remain unpacked. I am in agreement with the Covey’s statement that sometimes “mental and emotional identification is a more powerful force than involvement,” I find this particularly true with role models and people that I admire. It is this voice of influence that sets my goals. People like Nelson Mandela and Julius Nyerere are my greatest influences in life. I look unto them for character, motivation and examples. I read the books they read and look at their lives as a paradigm to me. I also accept the fact that they are humans and they make mistakes once in a while. On this, I am carefully to worship them but to accept only the good qualities and their ideas that I find meaningful and applicable. The mere thought of their actions and what they stood for, gives me the power and motivation to stand for the right things and to believe in my course. With them exists a very meaningful understanding of character. Character is one of the most difficult things to define and yet very important in our lives. Someone once described character as “the things that one does in private, when no one is seeing.” This definition is based on the concept that character is individual based, genuine and pure reflection of an individual’s thoughts and ideas. This is even emphasized by Covey when he quotes Mahatma Gandhi’s statement that “one cannot do right in one department of life whilst he is occupied in doing wrong in any other department. Life is one indivisible whole.” In as much as one can be good and righteous in one aspect of life, there is need to express this qualities in all other aspects of life. This is one aspect where many people fail to achieve a check. However, the good thing about character is that it can be improved and there is a big room and window for change if one wants to. There is immense opportunity in every humankind to do well and this can be attained when each of us recognize the potential that we inwardly possess. When we build our sense of integrity, we not only build the world but work for the benefit of humanity and for the planet as a whole.

Webster’s online dictionary defines trust as the “reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety, etc., of a person or thing; confidence.” This resilience on character and integrity is so important that when ruined, one becomes a vessel and a not a human being. Trust enables us to acquire loans, to develop friendships, share information and even raise kids. Because human beings are social creatures, it is almost automatic that one will need a friend or a companion at certain time in life. In order for this relationship, one may need a lot of emotional intelligence in order to make this relationship successful. While factors such as love, understanding, forgiveness, loyalty, kindness play a huge role in building relationships, it is trust that is the eventual product that is manufactured by these virtues. When trust is destroyed, love is lost, understanding one another becomes very hard, and the eventuality of divorce or termination of a relationship becomes inevitable. In order to build trust, one needs resilience that involves tough choices and vey big trade offs. This includes simple aspects like keeping promises, listening to one another, communicating constantly and just going the extra mile to express humility and empathy. This is of course another form of discipline that people cultivate. It is important to realize that while building trust is progressive, it also goes hand in hand with the cultivation of other virtues in a relationship. When one has trust for another, it means that he or she respects his or her partner that much, loves them and would not like to harm his or her partner. This creates an opportunity for understanding. In my words, with trust, we build a character that defines on how we look at ourselves, our inner sprit that is innate and drives us, and our community in general.