By Riaan Botha – RMI regional chairman for Eastern Cape
A new year can be thrilling, bringing with it all sorts of opportunities and possibilities. Unfortunately, for the many of us still reeling from the turbulence of the past two years, it’s easy to overlook this potential and instead worry about what fresh challenges may be in store.
But here’s a thought: what if you reframed everything that has happened since 2000 to give it a more positive spin? For instance, have you considered how those years have equipped us to overcome any trials and obstacles we may encounter? For one thing, we have learnt just how flexible our environment is. We have proved to ourselves that we can respond quickly to change (important because we have seen just how rapidly change can take place, and how we can be affected even by dynamics taking place overseas). And this, in turn, has helped us to build resilience.
I believe that the challenges we have faced recently have helped to create a sense of awareness. We now know things that we didn’t before, and with that awareness comes a compulsion to address issues that arise as a result. Awareness brings activation; it brings innovation.
If you’re willing to look upon challenging times from this perspective, you empower yourself. You become willing to accept that your attitude can, and indeed does, influence your altitude. Once you have awareness, you are primed to take action: you know what obstacles are in store, so you can start planning how you will overcome them.
I believe that 2023 will be a year of activation. We can either choose to sit in the dark, or we can choose to light a candle and become a flicker of hope in that darkness. Let’s open our hearts, be ready to receive new learnings, and make this a year of action and decision-making!