2023 - Awaken the soul

My wish is 2023 be your most special and exciting year, filled with good health and happiness.

I was so fortunate to have had the most amazing year-end holiday with my favourite travel buddies, my family. One highlight was the 3 days we spent at Tuningi Lodge in the Madikwe game reserve located close to the border between Botswana and South Africa.

The smells, sounds, and sights of theAfrican bush, awakens my soul. Being invited into the animal kingdom is a most humbling experience – a space where animals roam freely and rule supremely. 

Seeing a pack of wild dogs hunt, sharing the sunset with a pride of lionesses and the solitude of a cheetah, are some experiences we will cherish forever.

Reflecting on these experiences, I thought about nature’s lesson I could take into 2023 and invite you to also do so:
 

1. Determination

Because wild dogs have such a high metabolism they typically kill twice to three times a day and hence are always on the move. Nothings distracts them – they work interdependently, with total commitment. They are selfless in their service to one another. Their survival depends on their unwavering determination. As 2023 unfolds, what are you most determined to be and do? 

2. PERSEVERANCE

Weavers are named for their elaboratively woven nests. The male birds weave the nests and use them as a form of display to lure prospective females. The weaver, having painstakingly woven fine strands of grass, to our amazement, deconstructed and destroyed the nest as no female was sufficiently impressed. The bird then started all over – such perseverance. What, despite the challenges and obstacles, do you commit to persevere with in 2023?  

3. RESILIENCE

Despite a cheetah’s majestic presence, they are most vulnerable to lions, leopards, and hyenas. They are most vulnerable after a kill as intruding lions and hyena take away their kill, knowing cheetahs are too timid to fight back. Given their risk of extinction, their resilience and speed may save them. By accessing greater levels of resilience, what may be possible you achieve in 2023?  

As 2023 unfolds and to access more of your leadership greatness, I invite you Bernard to draw on these lessons of nature and commit to distinguish your leadership with invigorated levels of determination, perseverance, and resilience.         

May you and your team flourish in 2023.