#15-Special Episode - 3 lessons from Nelson Mandela

On Nelson Mandela's 102nd bday, Heroes of New York, remembers one of the greatest heroes of our times and how he endured a lockdown like no other in history. Listen to this 10 minutes special, where I take you through three key lessons from Nelson Mandela's time in prison.

00:02:07  Time bound goals

00:03:15  Power of positive habits

00:06:14  Forgive and let go

To learn more about building habits that stick, listen to Joshua Spodek's interview on my show 

Chapters

• 2:07 Time bound goals
• 3:15 Power of positive habits
• 6:14 Forgive and let go

Transcript

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This week marks the hundred and second birthday of Nelson Mandela. If he were around, how would he have handled the pandemic and subsequent lockdown? Last weekend I was talking to my aunt who lives in gamma India. Her town has been declared a containment zone due to the rising number of covid cases. She's a retired school principal and the lockdown is affecting her. I think we'll go through a depression she says she's referring to a mental depression. I think about it, if she was in fairly good shape, as well read has a family to take care of feels this way. What about those who live alone are old and frail and are probably influenced by media reports. It's understandable. When things are thrown off balance people feel helpless and lost. What can you do to stave off these feelings, especially when the external world is not necessarily projecting a positive image and social media amplifies it?

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I would look to Mandela.

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He spent 27 years in prison fighting for his ideals. He did not give up. And in fact, he emerged stronger 18 out of those 27 years was spent on Robben Island in a seven feet by eight feet cell. Now Mandela was six feet one inch tall. Imagine spending years in a cell that size. All he had was a court and a bucket for a toilet. They could have broken his spirit, but he held steadfast. Here are three lessons we can take away from what Mandela did to survive and thrive under a lockdown. One, he had time bound goals. Mandela studied law as a University of London student through distance learning during his time in prison. That was not easy studying law considering that the books he needed to study have to sent from the South African library.

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A lot of times the books that he requested for

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would arrive after a long time, given that Robben Island was in a secluded spot. By the time the books arrived, it was already past the due date of return and the wardens would just send it back. And Nelson Mandela would have not even seen it. He struggled, but in his own words, I had continued my studies throughout the trial, and I wanted to take the examination. I was single minded about it, and I later realize that it was a way to keep myself from thinking negatively. Having time bound goals that improve your life. Beat health, income relationships, or career goals have the power to elevate your mental state. Having the determination to achieve such goals will give you focus and drive.

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To use the power of positive

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habits to build routine. habits have the power to give you a sense of balance. We often look To our external world for stability and routine, having a nine to five job five days a week helps you build your life around it. having children in school from 8am to 4pm allows parents to plan their days around the children's schedule. What happens when work and schooling become remote? All at once you are the teacher, the office colleague, the spouse, the chef and the cleaner, chaos and pandemonium setting. Now, not only have your roles merged, you have also lost your routine. How many parents agree that it's been frustrating and an uphill climb during the lockdown managing all these roles at once? When the external world seems to function the way it did. Many people lost their anchor. They were adrift and that sense of helplessness became stronger. Listen to what Mandela said about prison life. prison life is about routine each day like the one before each week, like the one before it, so that the months and years blend into each other. Can you relate to that? Mandela loved boxing, he attempted to follow his old boxing habits of doing roadwork and muscle building from Monday through Thursday, and then resting for the next three days. He would do stationary running in itself for 45 minutes, hundred fingertip push ups 200 setups 50 deep knee bends and various calisthenics. Remember, this was a man who lost both his mother and his older son while in prison. He was not allowed to attend either funeral, not allowed to grieve properly. It's so easy to lose one's mind at such times, but not Mandela. Here's what he had to say about exercising as a habit. Exercise is a key not only to physical health, but to peace of mind. Exercise dissipates tension and tension is the enemy of serenity. Repeat. tension is the enemy of serenity. Big positive habits in any realm of life. Exercise, our cooking meditation, mindfulness reading, you choose, build positive habits that elevate your mood. Do them at the same time every day until it becomes second nature. See how those habits have the power to transform your life. They help build consistency and routines into your daily life, and you will no longer depend on external circumstances to define your day.

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To learn more about how you can build positive habits, and the power of building positive habits, listen to my episode with Joshua spodek TEDx speaker, who goes into the details of how he helps others build positive habits on my podcast. The third thing that Mandela did was to forgive and let go, Nelson Mandela, learn to forgive and let go. How many of us have asked at least once Why is this happening? How many of us have complained about it about the lack of political leadership? Nelson Mandela could have complained to, and nobody would have blamed him. Instead, he understood the power of letting go and forgiving. In fact, forgiveness is key to moving forward. I repeat, forgiveness is key to moving forward. Mandela chose not to be a victim of circumstances when he was released from prison. And as he was walking towards the gate, there was a brief moment when he felt very angry about the fact that they robbed 27 years of his life, but in a flash he replaced that thought with a different one. Now that I'm free, I should not be a prisoner to my thoughts. See, we are all free to take a stand. You can choose not to be a victim of your circumstances, you can choose to rise above it. Remember in a any situation that you seemingly have no control, you can do three things. One, it is what it is accepted, you cannot change it, it will either control you or you will control it. Remember, resistance is useless. The faster you can accept the facts, the easier it becomes for you to ground yourself to harvest the good. The more you look for it, the more you'll find. Here's an opportunity to learn to reconnect with yourself to slow down to reflect and maybe even rethink your business and career strategies. Three, forgive all the rest. Forgive means to let go off completely to abandon. If you change your perception of the situation, if you change the way you look at things, the things you look at will change. When Mandela was in prison, he learned Africans, the language officer presses and when he was released, he extended his hand Across enemy lines to work with his oppressors, not against them, but with them to bring about positive change. For this, he and his former adversary, Fw de Klerk, South Africa's last apartheid leader for jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The two leaders were a symbol of collaboration and compromise for bringing a peaceful termination to apartheid. Nelson Mandela had time bound goals. He used the power of positive habits to build routines, and forgiveness to let go of his past as he embraced a new future. Remember, he achieved all this while doing back breaking manual labor. He used to work in a limestone quarry under a searing sun all day. He wrote his autobiography during his prison time. He carried on secret conversations with allies outside the prison on liberating South Africa. He did all this and more while the world had no clue what he looked like. for 27 years, not a single picture

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of the world's most famous prisoner

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was released to the world. He was completely kept in the dark. Imagine the lockdown he went through if he could emerge stronger using sheer willpower and mental focus, so can we. It takes fortitude,

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resilience,

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and the willpower to overcome our circumstances. I would like to leave you with these lines from the poem Invictus by William Ernest Henley. This is one of Mandela's favorite poems, and he loved to recite these lines to fellow inmates. I am the master of my fate. I'm the captain of my soul. Transcribed by https://otter.ai