Reflecting on 2018; looking forward, with purpose, to 2019

​ The start of a new year is always a good time to set new goals for the year ahead, or to reassess and check progress made towards long-term goals previously made. However, I invite you to reflect on 2018 first, before you look forward to what you want to achieve in 2019. One of the first exercises we do during the RenewYou workshop is to reflect ...

Who am I? I am every woman

I was recently invited to do a talk at a women's day breakfast celebration at a branch of one of the financial institutions in KwaZulu Natal (KZN). Being women's month, I decided to focus the talk on the different stages of being a woman, by looking at some key events in my life over the past 18 years. What I want...

The five books I read in 2017 and highly recommend

Books have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. Growing up, my family didn't have a lot of money. My parents, especially my dad, worked in the café 14 hours a day, seven days a week. During school holidays, when all my friends were going away with their families for a fabulous holiday (well, at least that's what I thought was happe...

Be fearless!

This past weekend, I was watching my one-year-old "flying" down the slide, the look of pure glee on her face as she picked up speed and then landed on her nappy-covered bottom with a gentle thud on the grass below, only to pick herself up, run into my arms with laughter, pointing to the slide so that we could repeat the entire process again … and a...

"I appreciate you"

At the end of November 2017, my three-year-old son's teacher passed away; it was sudden and it was surreal. The day before she passed away, I spoke to her like I usually do; she took my son, who hated the morning "good-bye", from me, assuring me that he would be fine minutes after I'd leave, as he always was. Later that afternoon, she was interacti...

Gratitude: when last did you give thanks?

Earlier in the year, I was working with a business coach and at one of our sessions she asked me to write down a list of the 50 things that I am grateful for. Needless to say, I gave her that "you must be joking???" look – you know the one. It's hard enough to think of three things to be grateful for on any given day; on the really bad days, I can ...