Three days and counting… the excitement within cannot be contained. The idea of a brand new year, an opportunity to start over, make new mistakes and unlock new possibilities really energizes the soul. Fire works, bright Christmas lights and late dinner chats with loved ones;this is indeed the best time to be alive!
Common sense suggests that we stop for a minute and reflect back on the year that was; the mistakes we made, the opportunities we missed and lessons we took away. And rightfully so! How do you proceed forward when you do not know your short comings?
So let us get straight into it…
Like any other year, 2016 started on a slow ,yet positive note. It is only right to be grateful for the opportunity to be alive… to get another shot at life. The safety of knowing that we had another 12 months to go about our dreams and achieving our resolutions gave many of us the comfort that things were going to be fine. And indeed things were fine for most of us.
We saw many new couples say their ” I do’s” and some blessed with new born babies. We witnessed a large number of new entrepreneurs launch their businesses and the spirit of entrepreneurship rise in Lesotho. We saw young people join hands to fight corruption and poverty in their respective communities through various initiatives, living the spirit of “ubuntu”. Besides the ” Brexit” debacle, the #FeesMustFall and the ” State Capture ” report, many graduates finished their degrees and are starting their careers.
We also experienced a lot of pain and sadness and this is captioned under ” Death be not proud“. So many people lost their loved ones during 2016. So many people lost their jobs, their relationships, their identities. As the days went by and the months faded away; the reality dawned on many of us that life is really short and we cannot afford to waste a minute by being mediocre.
Going into the new year, we decided to focus on two pillars that we believe are important for us to live our absolute best lives. The biggest challenge we faced during 2016 was the fear of NOT being good enough; the fear of thinking our dreams are NOT feasible.The second challenge was limiting ourselves to mediocrity, never willing to break out of our comfort zones to pursue the dreams with have.
With 3 days away from yet another opportunity to start afresh, to correct our mistakes and make new ones; the challenge is to inspire you to believe in yourself and to break down any limitations you have placed over yourself. Like you, we also suffered the same challenges. We had doubt in the power of our dreams. We held back thinking we are not good enough. But eventually we decided we had something special to offer and drew a lot of our strength from the following quote by Marianne Williamson
“ Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” Marianne Williamson
Our challenge to everyone going into 2017 is to rise above your limitations and to believe you are able and capable. To rise up each morning with a fire and passion to go after the dreams you are blessed with. We challenge you to be confident and unapologetic about who you are and what you believe in.
Go out there, make mistakes… learn from them and embrace your failures. We have only one shot at this! Let’s make it count.
Live. Lead. Love
