 Welcome back. Welcome back. This is Steve Wa in the morning. Thank you for staying with us. If you're just joining, you're on time for the first conversation of the day on career. And today we're talking all about tapping into hidden potential. And for that, we have Sarah Muni, who's a life coach, an executive leadership and management consultant as well as a corporate trainer and evangelist among many other titles that she holds and she's here to take us through this topic. Remember the hashtag we're using today is why in the morning at Y244Channel. So keep your questions coming if you have any as we go by. Sarah, carry with me, Sarah. Thank you. Thank you so much for the warm welcome. We're glad to have you. Yes, thank you. You hold so many hearts. Yes, of course. Sometimes we need to, you know, you need to, that's why we are speaking about hidden potential, right? You realize you're so many things because you've been created with endless, you know, greatness. So we need to keep on exploring it and we need to keep on exploiting it so that it can bring out the best version of ourselves. So yes, I do hold many titles. Yeah, just use the one you want me to use and I'll use it. Okay, today we can use the life coach. Yes, that's good. Okay, so let's talk about potential. Tapping into the hidden potential. Let's start from, how do you know, you know, your potential as a person? I think it's very important to at least know some of the gifts and talents that you have. We need to always have, you know, as a life coach what I do, I usually come into your life and ask you some very hard questions about your life. What are your passions? And sometimes you think you know yourself until you ask some questions and you realize, oh my God, you know, you start mumbling, you start, you know, stammering. Yeah. So I think you need to, first of all, be aware of your strengths and weaknesses as well. And also your abilities, you need to be able to point them out. These are my abilities. This is what I can do. These are the skills I have learned, I have learned by learning. These are skills I have, you know, naturally those are the gifts and talents. It comes as a process of realizing those kind of gifts and talents. Otherwise, if you don't know that, you'll end up, you know, getting into any type of career because you don't know really your strengths. You don't know really your talents. So you need to have people like life coaches or mentors or people who just can't just call out the potential in you. Sometimes you're not able to see it yourself. We need other people to look at you and say, oh, you're so good in this. You're so good in that. And then you are able to bring out, you know, the best version. Let me say this. I know, you know, you are speaking about soccer. I think you are speaking about Manu and Asano. Yes. And you know, the coaches, they usually have coaches, those footballers, right? Yeah. The coaches don't play. So the one of the coaches to look at you when you're playing and say, you can't play midfielder, your strength will best come out of you, play maybe number nine, which are the other positions. You best play a striker or you best play midfielder or 18, whatever, you know, because they're able to point or they're able to stand at a vantage point and look at you and say, oh, at this time, you need to sit down because your energy is out. At this point, you need to come back. You need people like that. To guide you. That's why those people are very successful, those footballers because they have coaches and they are people who always keep on bringing out their potentials and their strengths. And it's interesting to think that the same way that, you know, the footballers have coaches and it's normal. It's the same thing with life. It's the same thing. We need coaches, but someone would ask, so how do we start, you know, when you come, when I come to a life coach and I'm confused about something, so how do we, how do we start? What's the process? You've mentioned some of it. You asked some questions. What if I don't know? What happens? Yes, so we can start from there, from a point where you don't know, but we still need, but there are some things you know about yourself, you know. So, and you see coaching is not training that I have to come and pump things into you. First, I have to let you speak and I have to ask you the questions like what do you think are your strengths? What do you think are your abilities? I mean, what are your passions? What are your hobbies? Sometimes somebody doesn't even know their passions, but they speak about hobbies because they reflect your passions, you know. So, we let the person speak and people speak. I was, when I was in school, I was so good in this, when I was school, I was so good in that, you know. I've always had this passion. I've always, people will speak. People always know the areas that maybe they are stronger. Someone may not know clearly what it is, but these are my passions. People know that. So, we try now and build on that. We have to try and build on that. And then also there's that process of I'm knowing your life purpose as well. So, for me, when it comes to career, I like taking people through a process of purpose so that now you align your purpose with your career, you align your career with your purpose, you know. Otherwise, you may end up going through life and then you wake up at 40 and ask yourself, what am I doing in my life? I always find people like that. Somebody wakes up at 45 and say, I have no idea what I'm doing in my life. I don't even know how I got into this career, but I mean, this is what I do and I don't like it, you know. And you have to start now figuring out things from that point. So, what are your passions? What have you always loved to do, but you just don't have the energy or the strength to get into, you know. So, people will point out some things and we start from there. So, a good career should start from a point of knowing your purpose. This is my purpose and let's build a career on that. If you build a career on your purpose someday that you love, you never have to work a day in your life. Like you'd be wondering, do they pay me to do this? Because you're doing what you love. It's fun to me, yes. I don't work. I can be working. I can be doing that at 9 p.m. in the evening and for me, it's no work. It's wonderful. It's fun, you know. Yeah, you enjoy it. And what is purpose? You know, someone might wonder because some people, you ask them, what is your purpose and they are green about it. So, what is purpose? So, purpose is basically the reason for which anything is done, leaves or exists. And every life has a purpose, including you. And when God put you in this world, He put you here for a purpose, you know. And He packaged in you to execute a certain mandate. He packaged in you gifts and talents and abilities and, you know, those things. So, to help you, to equip you, execute your mandate or your purpose on earth. So, purpose is the reason for which you exist and you exist for a purpose. So, you're not just here, you know, you just happened on earth at such a time as this, in this generation. And we need to ask yourself, why did God let me live in a country like Kenya? Why on earth am I on earth? Why am I even here in this company? You always need to keep on asking yourself some of these hard questions. Why? You know, why am I here? What is my life purpose? That's one of the basic questions about like anyone should ask. Why on earth am I on earth? Why am I here? And because you're not here to just go, you know, walk through the motions of life. Adults and then die. You are here for a higher purpose and it's always good for you to identify that. So, the first point I always say, and there are many tools that we use to be able to find your life purpose. The first thing I always say, please, you need to find your purpose. The first place is in the, is through your creator. So, you need to seek God because he created you for our purpose. He has a blueprint for your life, you know? So, through his word, through reading his word and through even prayer, you can be able to know your purpose. For me, that's the foundation, that's everything. From there, there are so many other things that we can use to so many other tools that we use. There are some other very basic questions about life that we ask, like one of the questions is, what makes you happy? What makes you happy? What makes you happy yourself? What makes me happy? I can assure you, your purpose is hidden in something that makes you happy. Okay, and should it be something that, you know, is geared towards you doing something for the people or should it be about you, you know, you're giving service to the people or should it just revolve around you? Papas is about other people. Papas is not about you. You are not created so that you live for yourself and your little family and then you go. Papas is about other people. Even Jesus said, I came, that they may have life and have it more abundantly. So, why did you come and why did I come? You came for other people. You came for others. And when you don't discover your purpose, let me tell you, the world is deprived and is a way it is because people don't know why they came. You came as a solution to a problem in the world. So, your life's mission should be to find that purpose and step into it. Otherwise, the world is deprived and the world is lacking and nobody in life can ever, you know, take your position in life, nobody. Okay, so it's not all about me and my happiness. My happiness should be giving back to people. Yes, it should be giving back to people actually and that's where you find a lot of fulfillment and satisfaction, you know. Yeah, so if you're just doing things for yourself, it's just you, your job. There's nothing about it. It's just you. I think you still need to rediscover yourself because you have something that the world needs. You have something that the world needs. And you've said that this is connected to potential. So, once you know your purpose, then it's easy to know your potential. It's easy. Now, you're able to use your potential in the right direction. People use their potential to even destroy their lives, their potential because the potential becomes energy, you see, and you know, to destroy their lives. So, when you know your purpose, you're able to put your abilities and your potential in the right direction and something that will build your life and be even blessing to other people. Okay. And you said something, okay, in your bio, I heard something that there needs to be changed. Something about change. I don't know if they're connected with potential, but even when you're doing coaching or an organization, the corporate world, you need to create change fast before, you know, the company grows from where it is or it realizes its dream. Yes, change. I usually say change is a loss of something familiar. And the reason why, and change is very important, you need, even in career, you need to be, to keep growing, it's impossible to grow without change. If you want to grow from anything, anything you're building, whether it's your career, it's your business or anything, you need to keep growing. That means you need to keep changing and it changes the loss of something familiar. The reason why it's usually very hard for people to accept change is because it deals with loss. It has to do with loss. And as human beings, we are not very good when it comes to dealing with loss. We are not, you know, so you need to keep changing. You need to keep growing for you to, for you to kind of see the kind of changes that you want to see or for you to keep on achieving the kind of goals that you want to achieve. So change is very important. And even for career, if you want to grow in your career, you need to keep on setting goals and you need to keep on, you know, getting out of your comfort zones, you see, keep getting out of your comfort zones, keep on setting goals way beyond, you know, what you have done before, when is the last time you did something for the last, you know, for the first time. So you need to keep on smashing goals. You set goals, you smash them, get out of comfort zones for you to see the growth you need to see. Otherwise, you can never go in comfort and you cannot change there. And you want to change your finances, you cannot keep on doing the same thing over and over again and expect different results. It just won't happen. So change is very crucial when it comes to growth and especially career growth. Okay. And still on career growth, when still on change. So what happens when someone wants to change or someone wants to try too many things at once, because you want to tap into those potentials maybe that you have still in your career that you have not stretched to. So when do you know that you have overstretched and when do you know that I am operating in the right limitations? It's very easy. First of all, you want to be a jack of all trades, you end up spreading yourself two things, I mean, two things, because you're doing so many things at the same time. I know the people who have a lot of energy, especially the extroverts, you know, you have a lot of energy to do this and that, do this and that. You need to build something up to a point where you feel, I mean, you have been able to establish yourself, you know, and then from there you can maybe start something else. So if you start this career here and then you want to get into this, you want to get into that, you spread yourself two things and then we also don't know what really to call you. So you're a journalist and then you're a filmmaker and then you are what and then you are this and this. We really don't know what even brand you are, you know, so it also confuses people and you end up losing opportunities because people don't know exactly who you are. So it's good to build something, one thing first and then so many other things. There are so many other skills you can learn when you're building like one, but you need to build something up to a point where you feel you've established and then now if you want to venture in other things, you can venture, you know, but if you are trying to do everything at once, you know, you're spreading yeah, you spread yourself in and you want you you land up with two results little or nothing in everything you do little or nothing in terms of results. Yes. Okay. All right. So now when do you know that I'm operating in the right dimension? Should you have is that where they say you should be a jack of a master of one a jack of all traits, but a master of one yeah. So now should you when you're tapping into other things, should it be related to what you're doing the main thing, even as you you found the right the main thing. Now this other should they be related to the main thing or can you venture into something totally different still? Is this in terms of career or just like in career in terms of career. So yes. So if like let's say that you're a journalist, there are so many other skills you need that can support that or can help you refine that one career. So yes, you need to build one thing. It's good if you build yourself as a maybe as a salesperson or as a whatever career that already is an accountant. There are so many other skills that you need personal development skills. You need public speaking skills, you need branding skills. They all support this one. They're all to refine this one, you know. So it should be it should be that but if you're branding yourself there's this is an accountant the next time you are an auditor the next thing you are this the next thing you are you know we really don't know it confuses and even on the CV pool really don't know what else what really is your key skill or your core skill. There must be that core skill that you have and then others to just refine. So and even when it comes to purpose the purpose is one but there are so many other things you do they all support ultimately they all support that one. Okay all right and let me take you to now youth empowerment and still in potential because you're a champion for youth empowerment. So how much potential do we hold as youths? What are some of the things that we lag in in terms of career? It can't be quantified the potential in youth cannot be quantified and that's what I'm saying you are created with endless greatness endless potential so it's up to you to be very deliberate to be very intentional to be very purposeful about you know bringing it out and that's why you need people like mentors you need people like life coaches because in yourself you may not be able to do to know you know all the gifts and talents that you have and you know just have that self drive to bring them out sometimes you need somebody to push you and somebody to make sure that your goals remain your priority. So youth have endless potential and that is why we usually have myself I usually hold a lot of programs for youth you know you know just to just bring out that potential in different things you know like there are so many areas of personal development that somebody needs to grow in in their career in business in ministry in anything that you're doing there's so many of them and then by the way I was reading somewhere a certain you know study that a human being has how many gifts I think they were over one thousand and something gifts you know that somebody has but many people they only know two or one and there are even those who say yeah I don't me for me I don't have a gift I don't have a talent because I think a gift and talent is maybe running and growing and singing being able to sing no there are so many others even organizational skills leadership skills mean the ability to work with those are gifts and talents yes and so you need somebody who can be able to point their mouse as a youth so that and you know there's what I say for a youth for youth you have three things number one you have the dreams we have dreams youth have dreams I want to do this I want to do this you have the energy to pursue these dreams you have energy and then number three you have the time you actually have the time so these are your haters so this is the time to really bring out that which you feel you know that great person you've always seen yourself as you know that's the time and that's why you need these people if you don't know how look for help look out for me look out for life coaches look out for mentors look out for people who can see potential in you and bring you out and then let me say this for people who say that I don't know my gift please you discover your gift in service I remember um my mentor uh and you know he he mentored me in so many things and into leadership and he told me Sarah you discover your gift in in service so I'd want if you're in school if you're in university please volunteer don't ignore those clubs you only go there you're part of a club you only go there like once when there's like a some personality coming for their meeting you know you need to be there built make sure you're even like a treasure or something because you're committed people are able to see commitment and appreciate it yeah so be there and serve because that's where you start realizing oh I didn't know I have this ability I don't know I have that ability I don't know because for me I remember when I got into leadership I never saw myself as a leader because throughout high school in primary school I was a perfect throughout high school nobody called me a perfect nobody because you know and even in college in university I was not so for a long time I didn't see myself as a leader and even when I when I started working I was not like a manager or a director or you see so for me when leaders are being called and when responsibilities who will do this me I'll sit at the back I'm not a leader so that's the purpose that's a work of leader so until I got a mentor and they thrust me into leadership and then I realized it was not hard for me to plan and this is what my mentor told me I want you to organize a meeting for youth call a hundred of them how many people do you have on your phone book I say the 2000 you know I was a salesperson you have contacts of everybody everybody's a prospect so I have many so I only want to call a hundred I want I only want you to call a hundred and it was in a period of two weeks so I want you to call a meeting and this is what we will speak about and I test I was praying I was you know but then I is like a new exactly what I needed to do and I had called people personally let me tell you at the end of the day we had a meeting of over 300 people at one of the hotels here in town and it was wonderful and then from there it was establishing a team it was not hard you know for me it was in me it's just that I was not doing it so you volunteer you will discover your gifts in service you discover your gifts in service and they say that once it's your it's your gift you do it easily you don't you don't you flow yes you flow with it so of course you know I've done so many leadership programs from there I've done so many leadership programs I have followed leaders because you know one of the other ways you also know how to lead is by following you cannot lead if you can't follow and if you can't take instruction you can't give instruction and to be followed like you know so you need to be able to stay somewhere and obey you see the way he told me I want you to do this I didn't start saying I have never done this I can't we all just disappear you know that's what many people will do yeah this is hard for me and you just disappear so obedience is very key when it comes to leadership and if you cannot obey you cannot give instructions it will be hard yes it will be hard so learn to obey and when you're somewhere you have a mentor you have a coach you have people who you look at to listen to them and observe also because you learn by observing as well so of course I've had to do a lot of leadership programs today I'm a leadership expert I do a lot of trainings in leadership for companies and organizations and even two youth groups yeah but you need to first of all sit somewhere at somebody's feet and learn and learn yes all right this is very interesting we want to take a short break and then we'll come back to what you do tell us what you do and maybe what you can learn from from that eventually we take a short break stick with us we'll be right back