Book 278 - A Year of Magical Learning (2/2)

Reflection Title: Preparing for Purpose – Use Your Values to Stay Ready!

Book – Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela (Part 2 / 2)

Book Description:

Nelson Mandela was one of the great moral and political leaders of his time: an international hero whose lifelong dedication to the fight against racial oppression in South Africa won him the Nobel Peace Prize and the presidency of his country. After his triumphant release in 1990 from more than a quarter-century of imprisonment, Mandela was at the center of the most compelling and inspiring political drama in the world. As president of the African National Congress and head of South Africa's antiapartheid movement, he was instrumental in moving the nation toward multiracial government and majority rule. He is still revered everywhere as a vital force in the fight for human rights and racial equality.

Long Walk to Freedom is his moving and exhilarating autobiography, destined to take its place among the finest memoirs of history's greatest figures. Here for the first time, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela told the extraordinary story of his life -- an epic of struggle, setback, renewed hope, and ultimate triumph.

Reflection:

As Maya Angelou once said, "We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike.”

I can’t relate to the majority of Nelson Mandela’s life, what he fought for, and the incredible outcomes he eventually produced. To be fair, I don’t really want to as his purpose is not my purpose. However, after reading his autobiography, what stood out to me the most is how much more alike than we were not alike in how we go about our tackling our day-to-day existence in the here and now. These are the exact notes I wrote in my journal as I was reading this book…

Nelson Mandela LOVES TENNIS!

Nelson Mandela LOVES DAILY EXERCISE!

Nelson Mandela LOVES READING AND LEARNING!

Nelson Mandela LOVES CHALLENGING THE WORLD AROUND HIM!

Nelson Mandela LOVES GARDENING!

I was so excited to make the connection to all the values I have in common with the man while hearing his story. They stood out to me, because it made me feel a kindred spirit with him because of our commonalities.

If you know anything of my story, my purpose in life is Living for 2 for my deceased daughter, Emilia. How I do that is by making sure that I perform activities each day that relate to my values no matter what is going on in my life. When I do that, in my mind, I’m doing that simultaneously with Emilia and for Emilia while doing my best to live up to the example of how to live that she showed me in her short time on this Earth.

Some of those actions we do each day are reading, writing, exercise to bring out our values of Balance, Challenge, Endure, Learn, and Play.

It has been 873 days, as of this writing, since my daughter left this Earth. It has also been 873 days since her and I haven’t done these activities together each day, come hell or high water.

Living your values each day is how we survive and thrive together as our life path unfolds in front of us. Values keeps us in the game while we wait for the right times and places to strike on our mission in life.

I can’t speak for Nelson Mandela, but I feel like this is the exact way that he lived his life as well during his time in prison after hearing his story.

As best as I can tell, Nelson Mandela lived his values every day of his life…even in the 10,000 days he was in prison!

Each day he would get up to do his exercises while in his cell, he would try to read and write correspondences, learn about the news of the day if he could find a source, and in the latter half of his time in prison found a love of tennis and gardening.

No matter what demanding warder was overseeing him, no matter what terrible conditions they threw at him, no matter what his colleagues and friends were doing, no matter what protest they were undertaking…he found a way to be himself and do the things that mattered to him every single day.

In my opinion, this is how he was able to run that marathon he endured and the long walk to freedom he shared with us all. His values are what sustained him each day across his entire lifetime as his purpose slowly took shape around him during the marathon of life.

Purpose is powerful, but it isn’t something that you have control over in when and how it is performed.

Your values are a totally different story. You, and you alone, are singularly in control of what you value most in this world and can determine if the actions you do each day align to the meaning in those words. That is your job, while you wait for purpose.

In a lot of ways, I think we all are just preparing for purpose our whole entire lives. We don’t know where we are going, but we know what we can do on the way, and that is live your values.

Question: How are you using your values to sustain you each day while you prepare for purpose?

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Links:

What is The Year of Magical Learning? An Introduction

YOML Podcast Discussion - Coming Soon

YOML Bookstore - Long Walk to Freedom