By Dr. Masimba Mavaza | A PLEDGE is a core value tersely and frequently expressed. It represents a fundamental belief that helps shape behavior as we try to live up to the message it expresses.
One of the most well-known corporate mottos is Nike’s “Just do it.” The power behind the motto is the way it reflects the nature of the product they sell. It is a symbol of action, of movement, of doing. It captures the essence of the company and reflects the core value it promotes. It has even taken on a life of its own, having been adopted by millions as a sort of personal anthem.
That’s the power of a motto, fully ingested, passionately endorsed, harmoniously aligned and fully integrated.
Millions upon millions of corporations, nations, cities and states, government agencies, non-profit organizations, clubs and events have created and adopted mottos as expressions of what they want to be and how they want to be seen, what they strive for and as a reflection of their core beliefs and values and as a way to infuse into the organization those values they want absorbed into the organizational climate.
Each organization chooses the core values it wants to organize around, so the mottos vary widely. In other words, one motto does not fit all.
Other well-known mottos include “This too shall pass” “The customer is always right” and “The Happiest Place on Earth.”
Having an organizational motto allows corporations and other organizations to instruct incoming recruits on what the corporate culture is all about, what drives them, what their organizational passion is.
If done correctly and infused throughout all levels of the organization, it informs all decisions and drives future planning as well.
It is, in other words, the heart and soul of the organisation.
Live with Purpose, Act with Character, Think with Clarity, Grow with Courage.”
This is the essence of what is to be done It motivates children and keeps them up late at night forging their way forward and thinking about ways to get what they have to say out into a larger world. It gives them a purpose to come to school for.
It also tells someone knowing the kids for the first time what they are all about and what do they aim to be. It conveys the spirit of Meant to be Happy at a glance.
If true of a company, why not a country or personally for yourself?
Imagine if we all had our own motto that instructed and informed our own internal identity or family climate! This world would be great.
Just as corporate mottos can be infused into the culture of a business, so a national or personal motto can work its way into the very DNA of our children personal lives and family culture as well.
Pledges and mottos act in many ways like mini sermons, rallying support, instructing values, teaching shared vision, inspiring action.
When the message is repeated over time (and lived up to), it can instill into the hearts minds of even the newest group and family members like tiny inoculations against the cynicism, habits, inertia, corruption and negativity of other less helpful cultures from previous experience family conditions or communities.
However, a pledge is not usually sufficient in itself. It’s a tool to reinforce concepts and principles already being explicitly taught. Without that explicit instruction, our use of pledges becomes little more than the idiosyncratic expressions of a quirky parent. Minimally, they are less effective than they would otherwise be.
But if they are used as little reminders of larger lessons taught, they can be powerful tools indeed.
So the pledge by Minister Lazarus Dokora is good for our children. Prophets of doom are trying to demonise it. The opposition to the pledge is motivated by the fact that it is a good thing but from ZANU PF. The opposition is politicising the pledge to gain credence. Churches are being used to bolster the political agenda. There is nothing devilish about this pledge.
“Life is what we make of it.”
In other words, you can be the horse driven by others who hold the reins to your life, or you can be the wagon master steering your own life in the direction you want it to go.
The option is yours; the reality of the choice is not. We either steer or are steered.
I’ve never done well with others telling me what I have to do and when to do it. I’m a deeply religious man, so God and religion is not what I’m talking about. But rules and regulations for the sake of rules and regulations, especially when they’re obviously divorced from common sense, simply drive me crazy.
So when I came to realize that unless forfeited to others, I was in control of my emotions, my reactions, my attitude, the pursuit of my dreams and happiness, I enthusiastically picked up the reins and began steering.
The pledge is for our children not the misguided political politicking.
My life is organized around this principle. I am self-directed. I choose how I will respond to other people’s behavior and attitudes.
My life pledge therefore, is a reflection of me. But it also inspires me to grow and strive to be increasingly true to that motto at the same time. I fall short of its principle, but I work toward its ideal.
So many people, it seems to me, act as though they were in the audience watching their lives unfold on stage, as if others were responsible for the unfolding.
As a result, they become pawns on others’ game boards. They bounce when dribbled and roll when rolled. But that kind of passive or reactive living can’t produce the happiness a self-directed, self-responsible, motto-driven life can produce.
The impact a pledge can have on your life and the lives of those who are influenced by you, underscores the need to give thought to the mottos you make your own. Pretending to be so religious and denying reality in the name of God is satanic.
Pledges are helpful to the degree we truly make them the pledges of our lives. Repeating a phrase over and over again creates emotional and moral dissonance if we never live by the phrases we use
Instead, let the words sink down inside, becoming part of the essence of who you are. Let your pledge become expressions of your character. And let your character be informed by the words you use to express it.
In other words, pledges can be powerful tools in your life to help you navigate your way through the clutter and noise out there in pop culture and elsewhere. They can also be powerful ways to communicate profound principles of human behavior to loved ones and others.
And finally, they can be useful reminders to ourselves, even as we use them to instruct others, that life is indeed what we make of it, that we can fashion a life of our choosing based on the core values that inspire us.
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