My birth country Zimbabwe recently held presidential and parliamentary elections, and like most African countries Zimbabwe invited international observers to come and observe the proceedings of the elections, take notes and give a report of their findings and recommendations to help with future elections.
As an active citizen with a vested interest in the future of my country I was religiously following the political proceedings and the other day I got to thinking about how funny the concept of observers is. My thoughts led me to conclude that there are three kinds of people in the world, the first kind is a group I call spectators.
Nine times out of ten, the presence of election observers doesn’t really affect the outcome of the election they’ll be observing. It’s not their fault either. By definition observers are not allowed to interfere in the proceedings of the elections, they’re invited to watch not actively participate.
Spectators
The world is so full of spectators. All over the world thousands of football stadiums have been built with terraces designed to sit tens of thousands of people yet the sport itself is played by only twenty-two people at a time. Which begs the question, what are the thousands of seats for? Spectators!
Spectators just like election observers are sight seers who rarely ever contribute to the end result. At best all they do is make comments, criticisms and share what they observed.
Even though the world is full of fans and spectators, the centre stage is not built for spectators but for runners, fighters, game-players & record breakers!
This leads us to the second group of people who I call, participators. The participators are the ones playing the game, these are the ones getting the injuries, scoring the goals, making history! These are the ones on the ballot paper (in an election), they are the ones organising political rallies and protest marches.
Participators
I remember one time watching the 44th POTUS, Barack Obama at an election rally, He said something very striking. When He mentioned the name of the now 45th POTUS, Donald Trump – the crowd booed in disapproval and in response Obama said something powerful, “Don’t boo, vote!”.
The internet as usual caught this and turned it into a meme haha! Beyond the meme though Obama was pointing something out – booing won’t change things, voting might. This is something all winners know, whilst spectators boo, participators act – in this acting meant going out to vote!
Though there’s more spectators in the world than there are participators the activities of the many thousands that sit in the terraces have little effect on the game below. They cheer, jeer and boo but cannot alter the course of events – only participators can do that!
Dominators
The third group of people is perhaps the rarest of all, only a few of these ever exist in each game. This third group is the group of dominators. Dominators, don’t spectate neither do they participate – their goal is to dominate the game.
In Basket-ball that’s Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal, LeBron ‘King James’, Steph Curry – in football that’s Abedi Pele, Diego Maradona, Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo… (I’m not going to go into who is better than who here lol).
While participators are actively involved and their actions have a bearing on the end result of the game, the actions and successes of dominators goes beyond the game and their names are etched in the sands of time.
We’re all part of the game of life, yourself included and in this sport just like in all sports there are players and payers (fans), spectators, participators and dominators. Never allow yourself to be eternally relegated to the terraces of life where you just watch while others play and score goals. Participate – Dominate!
Of course one way or the other everyone is a spectator somewhere including some of the most popular players you can think of. Though King James is King on the court, when it comes to tennis, football and others he becomes somewhat of a spectator. The problem with many in this generation is that they’ve become a society of spectators.
Don’t be a spectator of all games and a player of none. Become active! We may not all be football players or tennis players but there’s a game out there for each one of us.
Your game may be politics,
Your game may be business and
Your game may be activism.
Whatever your game may be, it is your life’s purpose to find that game and dominate it!
Find your ‘game’, take your place and dominate!
Wake up & run!
END
Have you found your ‘game’? If yes, I would love to know more about it and hear about what you’re doing to dominate that game. Share in the comments below.
If you haven’t yet found your game, I would love to help you discover it and dominate it! Follow me via my social media accounts, reach out and let me know that you’d want me to help you find your game!