Passion and Resilience

December 13, 2013 by Candice Mncwabe 2 Comments

Most people are wrapping up the year and jetting off on holiday with immense relief and excitement. I can’t say I share these feelings though. Sure, I am relieved that I can rest, but I am also quite awe-struck by the fact that the year is actually over. I feel like pressing a rewind button and reliving some moments, doing things differently and taking notes from every experience. I am actually more stressed now than I was when the year began and actually quite overwhelmed by everything I have gone through. This is largely related to my absence on my blog as I have literally come out of a whirlwind of activities, challenges and introspection.  

Reflection. This is such an integral part of our journeys on Earth. I feel that we cannot advance to the next level without fully understanding the implications and lessons of the present moment. Luckily life is divided into edible portions that we can measure ourselves on; useful start and end points that we can leverage off. Each year should be a benchmarking process for our potential and progress. Socrates said: “The unexamined life is not worth living.” So go on, examine, test, measure and rate your progress.

For students, the measuring point could be your academic progress. As a student myself, I know the feeling of exam pressure and the even greater pressure of awaiting your results and I cannot help but feel we always get what we deserve; what we worked for; what we have earned. What is your goal? Do you know your potential? If you are an ‘A grade student’ then why are you ‘just making it’ with Cs, What can you do to change this? Do you actually want to achieve better? These are questions we should always present to ourselves. Aristotle said excellence is a habit, so academic merits are that too.

As a working woman I also understand the tension and challenges of the working environment. Did you truly give off your best this year? Are you proud of the way you handled difficult situations at work? What can you do to become a better employer/employee? Quite often, we look for external factors that hinder us when in reality the biggest variable that we can control is ourselves.

So the biggest lesson I have learned again is resilience: my favourite word. ‘Going from failure to failure with the same amount of enthusiasm.” We should never lose our desire to learn, grow, advance and become better.

I have been thinking a lot about adding value which I have decided to save for my next blog post because I feel that now is actually the time to do some introspection and rate ourselves, without the influence/opinion of others but just the real and honest internal voice called truth and reason. I feel like there is so much untapped potential that we are not harnessing and if we start getting to know ourselves we can relinquish the fear of finding and releasing it. The greatest successes are built on passion, resilience and honesty. I hope that as we wrap the year we can all offer ourselves the opportunity to look back, reflect, celebrate our successes and formulate plans on improving on our failures. Dedicate yourself to every area of your life that makes you ‘you’: family, work, academics, health, spirituality etc. Delve into each sphere and observe yourself and how you can offer more and better of who you are. Whether it is through a book, workshop, a chat, meditation, prayer, food etc. never neglect to enrich yourself and build a better and valuable you.  

Happy Holidays! 🙂

With Love,
Candice Mncwabe