Oliver Mtukudzi’s advice for young people chasing their dreams

August 28, 2010 by ZimboJam ·
Filed under: Inspire & motivate, Zimbos who rock

When I am asked what advice I can give to youths chasing their dreams or goals I do not restrict myself to the guidance that I offer them. When I advise youths, I seek also to counsel parents because they turn the goals of their children into pipedreams when they want to impose talent on their children. Yet only God gives talent and God takes it away. That is how I view life.

My first advice to youths chasing their dreams is to build the very difficult but achievable culture of self-discipline. Have respect for yourself first then everyone else will respect you. How you carry yourself amongst other people, how you engage others and your humility defines a well rounded youth in the context of self-discipline.

No one is born a squeaky-clean character. Self-discipline is a process that is cultivated or is inculcated. Our environs at family level, the parents, the peers, the school and social environment all have immense influence and bearing on discipline and parents are central in ensuring that children are not only raised to fear evil but to love, to learn restraint and to tolerate others who may have different views to life.

Where there is self-discipline it would be expected that youths must have the inner emotional power to restrain themselves from the indulgences of daily life experiences that often come with the peer pressures of growing up.

Because the road that youths will travel, in pursuit of their dreams and goals is certainly always littered with temptation, fear, pain, hate…the youths must build the emotional strength to go beyond those inevitable plateaus of life. But where does the emotional strength come from, the youths might ask? To remain entirely focused on the life goals regardless of whatever setback no matter the distraction - the pain, the detractors, the distance to the goal is the emotional strength that youths must build within as they chase their dreams.

But self-discipline is a prerequisite no matter what.

And parents, let us allow our youths to chase their dreams without negative interference but only positive guidance and informed counselling.

Let us allow children to live their dreams!

- Oliver Mtukudzi for The Zimbo Jam (Responding to a question by Teurai Chanakira on what advice he’d give to young people chasing their dreams for a special feature of her weekly column on the website).

Tell the world: