i

Life Capsules
for Personal Growth

50 Growth Capsules to Make You Utilize Life with

Confidence, Now!

Moffat Machingura

ISBN 978 – 0 – 7974 – 6812 – 2

9780797468122

Copyright © Moffat Machingura 2018

Moffat Machingura asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work. All
rights reserved in all media. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission by the author
and/or publisher.

ii
To You, Again

iii
“ The carterpillar that
wishes to fly, must be
first willing to transform

”
into a butterfly.
Moffat Machingura

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 Briefly, About the Author
Moffat Machingura has a First Class Degree in Psychology, he is an author
of 7 books including the popular Life Capsules for Success, How I Kissed
Heartbreak Goodbye and Cinderella Taught me Lessons. In year 2015,
Midlands State University made Moffat the first and only holder of the
Excellence in Leadership Award for having “made the greatest impact to
community life.” He is the founder of Ayoville Center - a Leadership
Development and Life Improvement Coaching online center he founded in
South Africa and has now established in Gweru, Zimbabwe.

My Story: “Life didn’t start off rosy for me either – I lost my Dad at age
twelve, was raised by my mum – a widow – and she also went on to be with
the LORD when I was nineteen. I am a story of that young man who left
home (Bulawayo) with twenty dollars in his pocket and came back four and
half years later with a First Class Degree, and having authored 3 books.
You have to learn to grow through what you go through.

v
 “Sometimes your care points
you to your call – what
attracts your compassion
reflects your calling.”
Moffat Machingura | Cinderella Taught me Lessons

Bill Gates wanted to see a computer in every home. Steve

Jobs wanted to invent the future and make a dent on the
universe. Mother Theresa wanted to be love’s arm. Buddha
wanted to build the temple of peace and Jesus Christ
wanted to give everyone a fresh new start in life. It is in
what they cared for the most that they found their reason
to live. Every day they woke up saying “this is what am
living for…”
What change would you like to see in other people’s lives?
What is it that you believe should be a right to have for all
mankind? If you were asked to make your own revolution
in the universe you live in, what would your revolution be
all about?
Life awakens every moment you answer questions that
matter. Your path of destiny will be decided by what you
choose to demand for others in this world.

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 “There is a Superhero in
everyone, only that it is
suppressed by our desire to
fit in.”
Moffat Machingura

Humans have one weakness in common – if they can’t

belong they try fitting in. If there are no white sheep similar
to what we believe we are, then we rather join the black
sheep than be not a sheep at all.
As I say in my book Journey to the Center, our minds
interpret being out-standing as the same as being out-of-
place, so for that reason we are scared of being extra-
ordinary so that we can remain in the company of the
ordinary.
Trying to fit in can cost you your purpose. If you are
surrounded by a company that can only accommodate less
of who you are – then you are in the wrong company. Be the
history maker you want to be, be the knight of your dreams
and the hero to your world - you will always be glad you
followed your Super You!

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 “Isn’t it sad how it takes us
a lifetime to understand
that we can never be
understood?”
Moffat Machingura

We fall in love claiming Mum and Dad don’t understand us,

then we cling to our lovers thinking that they are the ones
who do. It only takes a little while down the line and we
suddenly find ourselves telling our partners “You are
beginning to sound like my mother…”
Deep in the heart the actual question would be, “What
happened to the understanding person you used to be? I
thought you understood me!!!”
I guess the most sincere response should be: “What
understanding? I understood your situation, I understood
your language, but that didn’t mean I understood you.”
Seeing yourself being understood in life is as illusionary as
chasing after a mirage oasis in the desert. It’s a race without
a finish line.
Stop try to explain yourself to everyone. Remember the
saying, do what you do because – “those who mind don’t
matter and those who matter don’t even mind.”

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 “You need to grow from
knowing WHEN you were
born, to knowing WHY.”
Moffat Machingura | Cinderella Taught me Lessons

Being conceived through rape, losing your mother at your

moment of birth, or no-matter how worse a predicament
you were born into – there comes a stage in your life when
you should choose it will no longer make you cry.
Every rose has thorns.
Though thorny was your beginning, the good thing is – you
are the beautiful rose that came out of that thorny moment.
Why you were born is more important than when or where
you were born. Choose to give your life a better purpose
than mourning every day’s misfortunes. Ask yourself,
“whose life is going to be made easier by the fact that I was
born, how many lives am I going to touch before I’m gone?”

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 “If everyone understands
you, then you are not your
real you.”
Moffat Machingura

Jesus was controversial. Confucius was controversial. All

successful people are agents of controversy. What is
Controversy? Controversy is a prolonged public
disagreement with a particular state of issues.
In life you cannot agree with everything that surrounds
you. Some things will irritate you, upset you and offset you.
Being alive is standing up to those things that offset you,
and succumbing to them is to be dead while you live. To be
alive is to be controversial.
Many people feel they are called to make a change, but they
don’t want controversy. But every desire for change is a
result of something you saw and disagreed with. A
complaint is a disagreement verbalized, Controversy is
disagreement contested, Change is disagreement fulfilled.
Every call to make a change is a call to controversy.
In my book I’m Divergent not Deviant I write, “If you are not
going to make a change in this world, then you have no
reason ever having been born. But if you want to follow
your call to make a change, know that controversy is part of
the call.”

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 “I rather fail at being my
true self than succeed at
being a mimicry of
someone else.”
Moffat Machingura | Cinderella Taught me Lessons

Imitation is limitation. Success in being someone else is

failure. If the world still needed that someone else you
would have been born as someone else – the world needs
you that is why you were born as you.
The T-Ford car – first automobile to be manufactured and
sold in bulk – was available only in one color, black. With
time the T-Ford lost its popularity and other car
manufacturers started to catch up and overtake it in sales
and market share. What was one of the reasons the T-Ford
dwindled in popularity? It was its uniformity!
People easily get bored with uniformity. The more they can
relate how similar to someone you are, the more your
personal brand dwindles its value. Always thrive to be seen
as the only one who has the skillset, talent or aptitude that
you have. The best way to do that is to develop something
above everything that you learn from others such that it
becomes better than the ones who taught you. Where ever
you go - maintain an aura of Originality.
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 “You might not be born for
all, but definitely you are
born for some.”
Moffat Machingura | Cinderella Taught me Lessons

There is that common saying that goes “to the whole world
you might be no-one, but to someone you might be the
whole world.” The reason your ice bags have so little value
is because you are selling them in the freezing North Pole,
take them to the Hot Sahara deserts and dwellers there will
call you a god.
We live life surrounded by people who don’t need us and
we conclude we are unneeded in this world. We forget the
world is bigger than the people who surround us.
Grab your physical, mental and spiritual talents and ask
yourself “What need am I solving every time I am using my
talent?” Then ask yourself, “Who has that need more than
others?” It is the person who has that need the most who
actually needs you the most. Everyone might tolerate you,
but that person will celebrate you.
Somewhere in this world there is someone who is stuck due
to your absence. They are stuck in boredom, failure, ill-
quality or non-productivity simply because they still
haven’t discovered what you have. Go find the environment
that makes you relevant.
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 “Many have succeeded at
doing what others have
done, but no-one has ever
succeeded at being
someone else.”
Moffat Machingura | Cinderella Taught me Lessons

Even if you sing like Michael Jackson or Celine Dion, they

will never call you Michael or Celine. They will call you the
guy/girl who sings like Michael or Celine. You can do what
they did but you can’t be who they are.
Every time you act as someone else you are making the
world to remember someone else and forget you. Mimicry
shows you believe in someone else more than you believe
in yourself. Mimicry is a telltale that we look up on others
and look down on ourselves.
Imitators are doubters yet life is about believers – imitators
are duplicators yet progress is for the creators. It is for this
reason people forget imitators. The goal is not to copy the
practices of the great but to learn principles behind their
practices. Be Yourself!

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 ….SIDE NOTE
In my Life Coaching Sessions I always reiterate that, “If you
don’t deal with people’s rejection, it grows into self-
rejection. Self-rejection is when people’s negative opinion
about you becomes the negative opinion you hold for
yourself.”
Sometimes when the person you love rejects you, it doesn’t
matter how the whole world loves you – you still feel as if
you are rejected by everyone else. Rejection makes you
restless even when you are held up in tender embrace and
cuddled by those who surround you.
Rejection creates a fear of affection. It whispers that
intimacy results in separation. But you have to deal with it!

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 “We feel uncomfortable
standing out, this is
because being outstanding
feels as lonely as being out
of place.”
Moffat Machingura | Cinderella Taught me Lessons

The greatest percentage of the human population is

wandering aimlessly through life, very few people are living
with a direction towards specific goals. The greater
percentage of the human population in this world is waiting
for a better life to descend from somewhere, yet it is those
who are expecting a better life to come from within who
will find it.
People who will make something outstanding in our
generation – the movers and shakers of our time – the
trendsetters – they will be that breed of people that doesn’t
mind being lonely.
Being outstanding, breaking a new ground, is a realm of
loneliness. If you are not ready to stand alone then you are
not ready to stand with somebody.

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 “The fact that you fit in
with them does not mean
you belong to them.”
Moffat Machingura | Cinderella Taught me Lessons

When you were young you would be scared to go outside at

night, but if your mum or dad accompanied you, you would
forget all your fears. That shows you your real fear was not
really the fear of the dark – rather it was the fear of being
alone in the dark.
One of the most creepling fears of our lives is the fear of
being alone. Even our business ideas wouldn’t be that scary
if we knew we aren’t the only ones who had them. Asking
someone out wouldn’t be that scary if the “what-if-am-the-
only-one-feeling-this-way” thoughts never crossed our
minds. Many of our fears in life result from realisation or
presumption that we are alone in what we desire to do.
We all know we are different, but we try to hide it. It’s not
that we fear being different, but that we fear having
nowhere to belong. People are attracted to individuals who
are similar to them in one way or another. So our going
about trying to talk like, walk like and dress like other
people syndrome – is actually a result of our fear of being
alone. Growing is being able to stand alone in the dark.

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 “Good works can be
despised for a day but not
forever.”
Moffat Machingura

I remember in my teenage years I gave a splendid shirt and

tie to one young man I had never known. He had come to
our church youth group camp meeting. “Thank you man,
God Bless you!” “You’re welcome” is all that we shared.
We didn’t even tell each other our names neither did we
exchange phone numbers.
About five years down the line I bumped into that young
man. I had forgot him but he still remembered me. He
greeted me with a glowing face, “I am the guy you gave that
gift. Such a gift from a stranger showed me in a special way
that God loves me, for that reason I am a full time Pastor
now.”
Good works are like seeds, we don’t plant them for today’s
hunger. Those focused on today find very few reasons for
being good. It is only the future focused who can
understand how the good deeds we sow today reap us favor
one day. A gesture of kindness given in a moment can spark
a sensation of joy that lasts a lifetime. Do good even when
people despise it.

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 “One of the most tiresome
tasks of life is trying to be
someone else.”
Moffat Machingura | Cinderella Taught me Lessons

I was watching a Music Talent Show one day. The girl

upstage sang as beautifully as the original writer of the hit
song. She sang just as perfectly as the original composer,
dressed and talked just like the composer. Watching her felt
as splendid as watching the original composer… She was
spending but to my surprise, the judges failed her! They
said the original singer already existed, there was no need
for her to come up-front and be someone else! Gosh! They
were so so right!!!
We don’t want to be our true selves because we fear people
will reject us – so we think by being someone who they have
already accepted we can increase our chances of being
accepted too. The result – we fail ourselves by rejecting
ourselves for someone else – and in the long run we fail the
same people we are trying to please because we can never
stay good at what we are not.
Be yourself. Stop acting. Acting is a tiresome job, that’s why
professional actors go on vacations – and that’s why none
of them would build a home up the stage. If we live our lives
acting like other people, then we won’t be around for long.

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 “The beauty of being tried and
tested…and fallen, is that it
shows you a weakness you
never thought you had.”
Moffat Machingura

Sometimes we are tempted to believe we are too

experienced to be careful. Experience can deceive you into
thinking you no longer need the basic principles. When we
learn the tricks of the trade, we turn into tricksters who can
fraud the system, the situation and at times trick ourselves.
It gives you a false sense of invincibility.
Principles are the wings that make us soar upon the winds
of life. Those who think they are too experienced to need
principles are like one foolish eagle that claims it is flying
too high to still need its wings.
Life provides us its own acid tests. Sometimes we are going
to be tried, and at times we are going to fail the tests. We
may burst out in anger when we should have been calm, we
may make quick and perilous decisions when we should
have given some more thought. Don’t deny your fall, don’t
blame it on others – use your fall as a beacon that exposes
the principles you had started to overlook.

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 “Your value lies in the
values you have chosen to
keep.”
Moffat Machingura

You are as important as what you have chosen to regard

important. You are as valuable as what you have chosen to
value.
Mother Theresa chose to be poor among the poor, because to
her real poverty was not absence of money but absence of
love. She lived a life of clear values, and it is for that reason
that her life story is worth telling.
You can’t change that every day you are losing a part of your
life, but you can change what you are losing it for. What do you
find so important that you believe it is injustice for anyone in
this world not to have it? Is it wealth, justice, peace…?
Whatsoever came to your mind, it came because you value it.
At the end your life shall be measured, not by your medals and
trophies, but by the values you refused to compromise. To die
with your values is to die for your values. Statues are built for
people of noble values, because such people are worth to live
forever.
What would you die for? What you are ready to die for that’s
exactly what you are ready to live for. If you have nothing to
die for, then you have no reason to live!
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 “If you cannot discover your
destiny then just decide on
something and live for it; it is
your decision that will lead you
to your discovery.”
Moffat Machingura | Cinderella Taught me Lessons

There was a cry in the wilderness, but only John the Baptist
heard. It called him. It gave him a reason to live. He became its
voice.
Following that cry set him apart from all mankind. It
positioned him where both the rich and the poor, the learned
and the unlearned, would sit before his feet and hear him
speak. His greatness started with a cry in the wilderness.
Greatness was his destiny and that cry was a call of destiny.
Whose cry do you hear? Whose burden do you feel? Listen
attentively to that cry, it is the call of your destiny. It is the
voice from your place of greatness calling you unto whom you
were born to be.
Destiny is that idea that drops into your mind and shifts the
focus of your eyes and the direction of your life – and you
wonder how you ever thought of it. The truth is you never
found that idea, instead that idea found you. Many times
Destiny discovers us!

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 “What do you want to be,
now that you are grown
up?”
Moffat Machingura | Cinderella Taught me Lessons

In the African Traditions, a circumcision ceremony was held

for boys and girls entering adulthood. The boys were taught
to hunt and slay lions, girls were taught to cook and to turn
houses into homes. The ceremony concluded with the
ordination that they were no more boys or girls – but man and
women.
But things have changed today – there is no ceremony to tell
you that you are not a boy or girl anymore. And if you are
waiting to feel grown up, the sad news is, the only time that
age can be felt is when you are grown old. When you start
losing teeth, and starting to count black hairs on your head,
that is when growing can be felt. Growing old can be felt but
growing up has no feeling. Adulthood can pass by so fast that
Aging catches you by surprise.
How old should I be to start pursuing my dreams? The answer
is: as old as you were the first time you dreamt them. Life has
no respect of persons. As long as you are willing to get started,
to learn from mistakes and keep going – then you are grown
up enough for whatsoever aspiration you hold. What do you
want to be now that you are grown up?

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 “Life is not about how
many days you have lived,
life is about how many
days you are left with.”
Moffat Machingura | Cinderella Taught me Lessons

We don’t live one day at a time, we die one day at a time. Every
single day gone is a slice being cut off from your portion of life.
You can’t change that you are dying, but you can change what
you are dying for.
Plan as if you will live forever, but work as if today is your last.
Vow to be together forever, but love as if forever ends today.
This is because death is not a moment, death happens to us
one day at a time.
You cannot predict death, but you can prepare for it.

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 “Your complaints show you
what you have to run away
from; your ambitions show
what you have to run to.”
Moffat Machingura | Cinderella Taught me Lessons

Two things determine your progress in life: how deeply you

can let go and how strongly you can hold on. You don’t just
let go, you let go to get hold.
You don’t just let go of bad friends, you need to get hold of
good ones. To totally let go of a bad habit, you need to
develop a good habit. Desiring to let go of your old life is not
enough to get you free, you also need to desire to get hold
of the new life. Letting go of a dark past will get easier if you
have clear picture of the brightness of your future. Don’t
just let go because it hurts – let go because you want to get
hold of something better. Let go because you want to get
hold.
The other point is you have to let go. If your hands are full
of the past you can’t receive the future. If you are can’t let
go of the pain and bitterness from your past, then the pain
and the bitterness will keep stealing the joy in your present.
You have to let go of this to get hold of that!

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20
 “All the disappointments of
life say something about your
experiences, but they say
nothing about your value. You
are special despite all you
have gone through!”
Moffat Machingura

This pretty lady came to me this other day, looking so

downcast. She had lost her only son and she had lost
both parents. In love life she counted herself a loser. She
told me she did not find her life worth living…
I looked at this woman and smiled! She wasn’t seeing
what I was seeing.
I told her “Dear, in the story of death you are the story
of the survivor. Your life is worth living, because it is the
only symbol of life in a valley of death, all roses have
thorns and you are the rose in the thorns.”
It doesn’t matter you were conceived through abuse,
illegitimately or by an artificial method; or that you
were born into a family of drug addicts – always tell
yourself, “I am special despite all I am going through! In
these thorns I remain the rose!”

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 “The world will give you
laughter, but happiness is
something you will have to
make on your own.”
Moffat Machingura | Cinderella Taught me Lessons

I know how it feels like to spend your day laughing among

your friends, but have that cloud of sadness settle heavily
upon your head the moment they leave and you close the
door behind them. You would be left to face a sad reality
aspect of your life that you couldn’t share with your happy
friends because you didn’t want to break the laughter.
Sometimes you look for more friends, and you follow them
into danger zones and death traps. If your parent or your
partner tries to stop you – you shout back, “they are my
friends and I am only trying to be happy!”
It takes time to realize that all your friends can give you is
laughter, but happiness is something you have to make on
your own. Happiness is not a result of life turned out good.
Happiness is a choice. It is a choice to acknowledge the
little light of hope over the vast surrounding darkness.
Happiness is a choice to look at a life’s sad moment and
find in it a reason to laugh.

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 “I cannot change what the
world may do to you, but I
can change how you react
to what the world does.”
Moffat Machingura | How I Kissed Heartbreak Goodbye

Life is like an ocean, and you are boat sailing over it. You
can’t control the wind but you can adjust the sail. The same
wind that would have blown you away, carries the energy
to push you into your dreams.
You can’t totally choose what people say about you, but
you can choose which words to take seriously. The reason
we get so angry with people is that we believe in anger –
that it would make people fear us. The reason we fall so
sad when offended is that we believe sadness can win us
pity. In essence, we don’t react to the world according to
what it has done to us, we react according to the meaning
we have given to what has been done.
Next time someone calls you a pig, look behind you and
look at your hands, if you don’t see yourself growing a tail
or some hoofs, know they were definitely not talking about
you. And please smile, there is no need to be angry, a
person who cannot tell the difference between a human
and a pig really needs eye sight surgery. Keep your joy!

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 “All the pain that ever
happened in your life, it
happened to your body it
didn’t happen to you.”
Moffat Machingura | Cinderella Taught me Lessons

In my book Journey to the Center I mention that “there is a

freedom that comes when you learn to take nothing
personal.” Take nothing personal.

You are not broken, it’s just your heart that was broken.
You were never insulted, it’s just your body that was
insulted. In all that you go through, you have the power to
stand aside and comfort your soul while it goes through it.

Instead of weeping along when your heart is broken, the

truth is you have the power to stand in the pain and learn
a lesson or two about life.

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 “What we memorise can be the
same, but how we understand
will always be different.”
Moffat Machingura | Cinderella Taught me Lessons

How you understand the world will be influenced by what

you intend to do with the understanding when you find it.
When you understand something it stops to irritate you.
Instead you will sympathize in light of what caused it to
happen. That is why when we are angry with someone we
tend to say “I do not understand why someone in their right
mind would do that…” What is causing your fury is not what
the person did, but that you do not understand why they
did what they did. Your irritations can be a pointer to the
limitations of your understanding.
Nothing is to be feared in life, only understood. Seek
understanding with the goal of eliminating all fear. Your
point of greatest fear is also your point of least
understanding. It is actually the most ignorant who are the
most fearful.
Seek to understand with the aim of causing change. You
know you don’t yet understand something if you still can’t
change it. Understanding comes only to those who aim to
apply knowledge.

25
 “It’s not what we know but
how we understand what
we know – that is the
difference that causes the
difference!”
Moffat Machingura | Cinderella Taught me Lessons

Same school different careers. Same parents different

lifestyles. Same teachers but different results. At the end
it’s not what we were taught, or what we know that
makes us – but what we understand from what we know
and are taught.

Do you ever give yourself time to understand?

You need to make time to think upon life. To understand

its patterns, its recurrences and to ponder what causes
them. You need time to consider how much you have
known, how much of what you know you have applied,
and how far what you have known has got you.

If you know you will only talk about it; but if you
understand you will apply.

26
 “People don’t fear
learning, they fear change;
so they run away from
learning because learning
causes change.”
Moffat Machingura

We grow through change. To grow is to change often. But

humans are creatures of comfort. Comfort is a product of
familiarity. Familiarity is maintaining life unchanged. But
learning causes change, change introduces us to the
unfamiliar, in other words change disrupts comfort. Hence
for the sake of maintaining our comfort zones, most would
rather learn only those things that don’t affect their lives
too deeply.
If you cannot track or at least feel a significant shift
happening in your life within twelve months – then what
you are learning lacks touch with your reality. The real
purpose of learning is not to merely know the world, but to
change it; it’s not merely to interpret life but to improve it.
It is the person most willing to change who is most ready to
learn.

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 “Reading makes you know,
thinking makes you learn.”
Moffat Machingura

When you read, you gain facts, you find how others are
doing it or have done it; that is knowledge. But when you
take time to think how what you know can influence and
improve what you do – then congratulations you have made
a transition from a reader to a learner.
Those with much knowledge will teach others, but those
with much learning will do exploits. One of the most
awakening moments of my life was walking into our vast
university library and being visited by a question why with
so much knowledge and high literacy level our country still
remained the same. (By the way I come from Zimbabwe
where literacy rate is so high that you shouldn’t be amazed
to stumble upon a street kid reading a newspaper.)
That question was an awakening moment for me and for
many nations to whom all my works have landed. I realized
that to raise readers is not the same as raising thinkers.
That reading is not enough if the mind has not yet been
given the liberty to think its own thoughts. That reading
without thinking creates an indoctrinated mind irrelevant
to its context. That you can read to sharpen your thinking,
or read to suppress it.
28
 “It is just as important to
know who you should learn
from as it is to know what
you should learn.”
Moffat Machingura | Cinderella Taught me Lessons

It’s not age that makes good advisors, it’s experience. And
of course those who failed should teach us a lot, but that
does not mean they should be our mentors.
In your field, there are people who made it and there are
people who failed to make it, till you can discern between
failure and success then you are not yet ready to choose an
advisor. An advisor should be someone who succeeded in
your field.
Some people can only teach you how not to lose, and that is
not the same as learning how to win. People who lost know
how not to lose, but people who have succeeded will show
you how to win. If you want to win consult the winners.
In your life development many will have something to
advice, and some of them will be experts, but the best
advisors you can have are people who are achieving in your
field.

29
 “There is a pain that leads
to pleasure and a pleasure
that leads to pain. Wisdom
is interpreting pain and
pleasure not in terms of
how they feel but where
they lead.”
Moffat Machingura | Cinderella Taught me Lessons

Harvest comes after work. Celebration follows

achievement. Beware of pleasures that come before pain,
they are harbingers of everlasting pain. But embrace pain
that leads to achievement, it foretells a lifetime of
fulfillment.
Saving can be painful. Investment can feel as bad as loss.
Exercise can be strenuous. Forgiving, instead of taking an
eye for an eye can be as grieving as being victimized.
Lowering your voice when your partner is shouting at you
or throwing baby tantrums can feel like weakness. But
wisdom is the ability to do what is necessary even if you do
not feel good. It is the ability to take the pain for the gain
that it brings; rather than lose the gain for the pain that
comes in order to achieve it.

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31
 “Even those who persisted
on being stupid, they one
day met a deadly end that
showed their stupidity.
Persistence alone can be a
source of great
enlightenment.”
Moffat Machingura | Cinderella Taught me Lessons

There are some lessons that you can only learn after having
gone far with what you started. Christopher Columbus had
land in America and called American indigenous people
Indians, before he realized they were not Indians and he
was not in India at all. Nevertheless, he had found a
continent greater than the land he left home to find. He did
not find America by following the right direction – the
paradox is he found America by persisting in the wrong
direction.
Do your best to keep direction, but above all don’t be afraid
to persist with whatever direction you resolve to be right.
Sometimes how far right you are can only be revealed by
how far you persist on it.

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 “Caution is the only fear
that comes through
wisdom.”
Moffat Machingura | Cinderella Taught me Lessons

There is a thin line between fear and caution. Beware of

people that call you a coward when you are really being
cautious. If your eye of wisdom seems to be noticing some
clues missing before making a decision – then give yourself
time and effort to investigate your situation.
Beware of the paralysis by analysis – the tendency to over
calculate life’s moves to an extent that when you decide to
plant the seeds, the planting season would be long gone; or
to join the game when the players and fans would have long
dispersed. Yes, in thinking carefully don’t think too long.
If you keep thinking yourself out of time, then beware it
might be fear not caution.
However, be cautious. Learn to think through your fears
because they can be a clue to what your heart has seen
before your eyes did.

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 “Though humans have two
eyes, they have been gifted
with only one focus.”
Moffat Machingura | Cinderella Taught me Lessons

One lady once reported me, “I have so many plans Moffat,

but I take very little action.” Then I asked “So what do you
think you should do?” She hopelessly responded, “I must
apply more effort.” I smiled. Like most people, she was
wrong.
I told her…
If you have many plans and little action, what you really
need is fewer plans. Fewer plans will lead you to more
action. Our energy to act is lost in our tendency to make
unending plans.
My secret to writing books is simply focus – I stick to one
idea for months and for years. If we combine all the text
messages you have ever sent they make up a book – you
could have been an author too, the only problem is what
you write is not a single focused idea.
The word division comes from two words: di meaning ‘two’
and vision meaning ‘to see.’ (French Videre). Division is
seeing two things at one time. Too many goals are a
symptom of personal division. Grow from personal division
to personal vision.
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 “We all are born into the
world with our own world
trapped within us.”
Moffat Machingura | Journey to the Center

Tim Berners Lee brought us the internet, Thomas Edson

brought us the light bulb, Mark Zuckerberg brought us
Facebook and J. K. Rowling brought us Harry Potter. Either
you will spend your whole life learning of what others have
brought into this world, or you will spend it learning how
you could bring something new into this world too.
The world is the way it is because mankind has given. We
are not here to receive what others have built, we are here
to give to what has been built.
There is nothing we receive in this world that shall stick
with us when we are gone – and that is a sign we are not in
this world to receive, we are only here to give.
In my book Journey to the Center I write,
“The world owes us nothing, we are the ones that owe it
everything.”
The world does not owe us any sympathy or more days,
rather we are the ones who owe it our intelligence, love and
breath! Many have made a difference, you are here to add
to that difference.
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 “The world is bigger than
where your eyes end to
see.”
Moffat Machingura | Cinderella Taught me Lessons

At first we thought we were the only continent till we

realized there were many other continents. In fact we now
realize we are not even the only planet, and not the only
galaxy. Stranger than that, astronomical studies now
rumour that there could be another sun somewhere…
If I were you I wouldn’t doubt – because history keeps
proving there is more to life than where our eyes end to see.
In whatever you find you can always find more, and in
whatever you achieve you can always achieve more.
Sadly, even with a vehicle that can take you Around the
World in Eighty Days if the only map in your mind is that of
your country, you will live exploring a local territory when
you could have impacted global territories.
The limitations of our vision become the limitations of our
lives. A big talent in a small vision is a just as bad as a small
talent. You can’t make a global impact with a local mindset.
Expand your vision.
Think globally even though you still acting locally. In fact,
while others are thinking globally think galactic!
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 “Where there is life there is
growth and the absence of
growth is the presence of
death.”
Moffat Machingura | Cinderella Taught me Lessons

Whatever stops growing up starts growing old.

You start to die when you stop to grow.
You know you are not growing if you keep talking to the
same people, seeing the same results, asking the same
questions or making the same mistakes.
An ever growing life is an ever changing life. Whenever we
cease to change, that is a symptom we have ceased to grow.
As gravity keeps pulling down those who want to jump
high; so does life have a downward force for everyone
intending to go up. But birds fly high because they maintain
an up-thrust that is always greater than gravity’s down-
thrust.
Even winners have lost before. In life we all are ever losing;
but those who have much do have it only because they kept
their rate of gaining greater than their rate of losing. If they
stop to gain they continue to lose. To stop to grow is to start
to die.
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 “To move the world you
begin by moving yourself.”
Moffat Machingura

Whether it’s money, love or enthusiasm – you cannot give

what you don’t have.
Become the change you want to see in the world and the
world will become the change that it sees in you. That is
how by changing ourselves, we change the world around
us.
If you wish the world could be more loving or
compassionate, then step out and be the person that you
wish the world could be.
The pathway to a better world has always been entered
through the mirror. If you can change the mirror man you
can change the world of men. Our greatest strength is
proven, not in conquering the world, but in conquering
ourselves.
Every world changer begins as a self-changer.

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 “Familiarity breeds
comfort. That is how our
pursuit for predictability
hinders us from progress.”
Moffat Machingura

Familiarity reduces sensitivity. Poverty stops to feel like

poverty when you get used to it. Oppression stops to feel
like oppression when you get used to it. Familiarity breeds
comfort in a should-be discomforting place. Familiarity
creates tolerance and, sadly, in life you cannot change what
you can tolerate.
How far you go in life will be greatly influenced by how
much you can reject familiarity. To grow is to go beyond the
familiar.
It is in those moments when I least understand what’s going
on with my life that I am most convinced something big is
going on. Normally life changes faster than we can change
along with it, so the confusion that comes is only a sign
things have changed and I have become a stranger to my
own life.
We must embrace unpredictability, and must be all ready
to be strangers at some points of our lives. The surest sign
of a growing soul is unpredictability of life.

40
 “Intuition without imagination
is like words without a voice;
imagination without intuition is
like a voice without words.”
Moffat Machingura

Some people see birds fly by and their hearts intuitively tell
them people too can fly. But they laugh that off and call that
imagination fantasy.
Yet one day Orville and Wilbur intuitively stumbled upon
the same idea. The difference is, they took time to imagine
the possibility of their idea. The imagination triggered an
obsession for flying that set them to study and experiment
for nights, days, weeks, months and years. At the end,
Orville and Wilbur Wright had made the first engine
powered airplane. Without them there wouldn’t be
Boeings, Gulfstream jets and Turboprop airplanes today.
By combining the power of intuition and imagination, they
managed to pull open the door of a new era – the flying age.
Take time to imagine the possibility of your ideas. Alluding
to Les Brown; One day, on the last breaths of your life – your
dreams, gifts and ideas will stand beside your death bed
and cry out saying, “Do you know how greatly we would
have changed the world had you believed in us, and given
us the chance to be born into the world through you?”
41
 “Intuition finds the
invisible, imagination
embraces the invisible.”
Moffat Machingura

The heart is the womb of destiny.

Sometimes we wish for those things that make us wonder
where in this world they could ever happen. Yet isn’t it
funny how it’s those things that have never happened that
make history when they happen.
We don’t change our lives by maintaining what has been
happening, our lives change at that point when what
seemed impossible proves possible. Our lives are improved
by the possibilities we prove.
When your heart desires something that you have never
seen before – that is a sign your heart has travelled far
beyond where your eyes have ever been. If you follow your
heart you will see new places but if you only walk by sight
then the limitations of your vision will become the
limitations of your life.
Make time to imagine the possibility of ideas that intrigue
your mind. Write them down. The crazier the idea the
crazier the difference it will make – to your life and your
world. Resolve to make it happen somehow. Where there is
a will the mind seeks the skill.
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 “In a moment the heart will
know what will take eternity
for the mind to describe.”
Moffat Machingura

In your sperm days, travelling from your father’s loins into

your mother’s womb – who showed you the way? Nobody!
Nobody ever showed you the way to the ovum, there were
no sign posts saying turn left after a centimeter travel – yet
somehow you knew how to find your way into that ovum!
There is a part of you that knows who you were born to be
in this life. Even though circumstances and parents may
have forced you to follow a certain career path – there is
always that practice in which you are so sure you would
have been most fulfilled.
All of us, possess an instinct that drives us away from a
limiting life and we have a sense of destiny that draws us
toward a liberated fulfilling life. It is within the voice of
intuition that we connect with that instinct that drives us
and with that destiny that draws us.
Develop a habit of listening to your heart when it speaks.
It’s a busy restless world, but so is your heart. What does it
profit to calm a restless world while your soul continues to
go restless?

43
 “It’s only those who
believe in themselves who
can believe in others.”
Moffat Machingura | Cinderella Taught me Lessons

Do you know why they don’t believe in you? They see you
like they see themselves and they don’t believe in
themselves.

When people think they can’t do something, they want

you to believe that you can’t do it too. It’s because they
are afraid if you believe in yourself and succeed, you will
prove they are wrong for not believing in themselves.

In my book Life Capsules for Success I write that,

“The people who do not believe in my dreams don’t have
the power to stop it from coming true… not everyone has
to believe in your dreams.”

Not all are believers and not all are doubters.

44
 “The trust built in a period
of years can be lost in a
moment of suspicion.”
Moffat Machingura

We build houses for security. We hire bodyguards for

security. But if we don’t trust the strength of our doors and
can’t trust the loyalty of our guards – we will still feel
insecure in their presence. There is no such thing as
security, it is merely trust.
You know how much people trust you by the security they
find in you. It takes long to build and only takes an instance
to lose.
As a rule of life, never do anything that you have to explain.
Never park or stand at a corner where you will have to one
day tell someone, “let me explain, it’s not as it seems…” It’s
a fact, life hardly gives us chances to explain ourselves!
Never have a gaze that you will need to explain. Never give
a word that you will need to take back. Dress and walk like
a prospect and not a suspect. Remember: trust alone can
take you were your intelligence wouldn’t have placed you.

45
 “The time you spend criticising
others, is the same amount of
time you will need to build your
life, to make your own mistakes
and to receive your own
criticisms.”
Moffat Machingura

In a football game the commentator is never playing in the

field. Those in the field are too busy to be commentators.
Similarly, the greatest commentators in the world are
exactly those people who are ever watching everything but
never doing anything.
I have realized that it was in those days when I was doing
nothing to change my life that I complained the most about
it. And Whenever I decide to take a life changing action, my
lips somehow seal themselves. Action and talking are like
swallowing and breathing – they never happen at the same
time. The active are not normally talkative.
There is more happiness in giving than in receiving, and I
am sure that statement best applies to criticism. However,
the criticism you receive changes your life faster than the
criticism you give.

46
 “Measure the journey not
by the thrill of travel but by
the place of arrival.”
Moffat Machingura | Cinderella Taught me Lessons

Sometimes the only way to peace is war, and the only way
to abundance is through seasons of scarcity,
A beautiful path doesn’t guarantee a good destination. And
thorns on the path don’t mean there will be thorns at home.
It’s foolishness to take an easy road not knowing it leads to
a hard life; but its wisdom to take today’s pain for
tomorrow’s gain.
Studying hard when your classmates and peers are parting
and clubbing – that’s what is called taking short term pain
for its long term gain.
Investing your money on a new business or piece of real
estate when others bling in sports cars and wearing
expensive labels – that is taking short term pain for long
term gain.
Because you paid when others played, one day it will be
your turn to play when it’s theirs to pay.

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48
 “If you only had one chance to
live your life how differently
would you live it? Then go do it
because this is the only life
chance you have.”
Moffat Machingura | Cinderella Taught me Lessons

If you had an extra bullet, then you would afford to make a

miss. And if you had an extra life stocked up in your closet,
then you would afford to waste this one. But you only have
one life and no time to lose.
What difference do you want to make in your life, in your
family or continent? Why should the world remember you
when you are gone? Whatever it is that you want to do, then
do it now. Don’t wait for opportunity because opportunity
is this very life that you already have.
Life is an opportunity to bring a difference into our lives,
family and world. Opportunity often finds many
unprepared, hence we recognize its importance when it’s
gone. Many discover the importance of life when they are
already one foot in the grave.
You already have a chance to cause a change. This life is that
chance, and every day you are either using it or losing it.

49
 “You start to be wise when
you know you have little.
Always live knowing you
have little time left.”
Moffat Machingura | Cinderella Taught me Lessons

One day my former university lecturer wanted me to

accompany him on a long drive. However, for a minor
reason he hesitated and travelled alone. The very same day
he sent me a horrific photo – his car had overturned and
crashed. Strangely, he came out without a scar. BUT the seat
beside him, exactly where I was supposed to sit, had been
crashed and the window totally smashed.
His words were, “Moffat that accident hadn’t come for my
life, it had come for whosoever sat beside me. I thank God I
was alone.”
For weeks I stared at that photo, shocked how death had
missed me by a whisker. It was like death ambushed me on
the way, only to find I had stayed home.
My biggest lesson though was that tomorrow is not
guaranteed. You don’t have as much time as you think you
have to make a difference that you want to make. If there is
anything you wish to do some day, know that today is that
someday.

50
 “Fantasy is when you still think
it is going to be easy. A mature
dream is when you know no-
matter how hard it gets, it will
be worth it.”
Moffat Machingura

In the Bible there is an interesting story of a broke young

man called Jacob who falls in love with a beautiful lady
called Rachel. Because he was more broke than a church
mouse, he made a deal with Laban (Rachel’s father) that he
would work seven years as a bride price to marry Rachel.
After these seven laborious years, they surreptitiously gave
him a different lady on his honeymoon night. He woke up at
sunrise only to find the woman behind the veil was not
Rachel. He was angry but it was too late. His father said he
had to keep the new girl, and if he still wanted Rachel he
had to work seven more years.
For the love of Rachel he worked seven more years, and
that’s adds to fourteen.
If there is anything you strongly wish you had, know that
having it might take double the effort you expected. As a
rule of life all plans take longer than you expect. Don’t lose
a dream because it’s taking too long.
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 “When a river takes a rest, it
stops being a river; mud and
salt fills it. Always stay up to
something. Running waters
are never salty.”
Moffat Machingura

Be always building your business, building your

relationship or building yourself. A moving bicycle stays
upright. Always be up to something.
Don’t be that kind of person who when he is asked what he
is up to these days would respond “nothing, am so bored,
even tired watching a movie…”
Are you sure you are doing nothing? I mean nobody does
nothing, we are all doing something. Even just sitting is
doing something. But you call it nothing because you know
your something is worth nothing to be talked about in your
life.
Boredom is a symptom of an unused enthusiasm. Watching
actors in a movie can’t take away your boredom, because
the real person who should act for your boredom to leave
is you. You have to expend that energy to somewhere
useful. Volunteer at an animal shop, learn a programing
language or write a business plan. Stay up to something.
52
 “It is when words meet action
that life begins to happen.”
Moffat Machingura | Cinderella Taught me Lessons

I grew up in religious circles that believed in positive

confession. If you wanted something all you had to do was
to keep saying it till you had it – if you didn’t have it after
confession they said it’s because you hadn’t said it enough.
Then I also explored metaphysical beliefs and schools of
Eastern meditation. They taught positive thinking would
create a positive life, and by focusing your thoughts to what
you want, it would unlock the law of attraction that would
bring what you want to you.
However, I have also met countless positive thinkers and
positive chanters enslaved in negative results – and they
can’t understand why.
The truth is positive confession and positive thinking are
only necessary but not sufficient for your success. Beyond
positive confession and positive thinking you need positive
action.
Life is the words that you hear and what they make you do.
Life is the quality of your thoughts and how they affect the
quality of your actions. Life changes at the point that you let
the changes in your thinking and confession cause changes
in your actions.

53
 “We must beware lest
what we have built by our
words, we may destroy by
our works.”
Moffat Machingura

Advertising is using words to build brands. Wedding vows

are words building a marriage. Political campaigns are
words building credibility. Parental advice is words
building character. However, if we are not careful, what we
build with our words can be destroyed by our works.
Always remember people are watching – especially in those
moments when you think no-one is watching. You are not
to be a people pleaser, but you are to be faithful to the
words that you have used to build your life and the lives of
others.
What your words have built your works can easily destroy,
but what your words destroyed your works can’t easily
build.
Hence Stephen Covey says “you cannot talk your way out of
a situation you behaved yourself into.”
Keep good works for they will speak good of you when you
run out of words.

54
 “To spend your life
fulfilling your faith, or to
live it fulfilling your fears –
it’s all up to you.”
Moffat Machingura

Tick – Tock – Tick – Tock...

It doesn’t matter you are afraid to follow your dreams, start
a business, ask someone out or be a parent… life will keep
ticking away.
People are more afraid of flying than driving yet studies
show that flying is 230 times safer than using road vehicles.
Most of the things we fear are not as frightening as they
seem.
Most of the things that we fear in life never happen and
those that happen never happen as badly as we feared.
Don’t be afraid to try new things. The worst failure in life is
the failure to try; thus because that failure doesn’t teach
you anything.
Follow your faith and you will find freedom from your fears.

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 Congratulations!
… for completing these Life Capsules for Personal
Growth. If you found this book insightful, please drop a
mini review on Amazon.com . Simply Click Here. I
would appreciate it. Thank you.

More Books by Moffat Machingura

Cinderella Taught me Lessons: Secrets to Turning your
Wildest Dreams into Everyday Realities
How I Kissed Heartbreak Goodbye: Secrets to Finding
Love that Lasts While Keeping your Heart Safe
Journey to the Center: Secrets to Keeping your Soul Calm
in a World Filled with Chaos.
How to Do MORE with Your MONEY: Secrets to achieving
more with less.
The Life Capsules Series
Life Capsules for Success
Life Capsules for Personal Growth
Life Capsules for Your Faith

59
Get more life improvement books…
Also by Moffat Machingura

60
 Call Moffat Machingura to Speak?
Moffat Machingura’s literary works, experience in life
coaching and First Class qualifications in Psychology have
led him to be one of the rising most sought after speakers
in our generation.

Moffat Machingura resides in Centurion City, South Africa.

He mainly speaks on the following topics:

(You can also give him your theme so that your message is
customized according to your sessions)

1. How to Live by Choice and not by Chance

2. Cultivating Personal and Corporate Vision

3. Personal Management

4. Life – Time Management

5. Goal Setting and Time Management

6. Personal Branding

7. Fame Management

8. New Rules of Leadership

9. Personal Wealth Creation and Financial Literacy

10. Self Mastery

11. Mentorship

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 ISBN 978 – 0 – 7974 – 6812 – 2

9780797468122

Copyright © Moffat Machingura 2018

Moffat Machingura asserts the moral right to be

identified as the author of this work. All rights reserved
in all media. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted,
in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior
written permission by the author and/or publisher.

62
To the Breath that keeps me awake bidding that I write for
the transformation of human souls, Yahweh am forever
grateful to be the mouthpiece of your creative voice.
To my family, your faith and support continues to lead to
the development of many lives.

63
 Visit my website:
www.moffatmachingura.com
Let’s Chat on Facebook & Twitter
| www.facebook.com/sirmoffat | www.twitter.com/msirmoffat |

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