#YourBetterSelf

  Every time you look in the mirror, you will see your face looking right back at you. The mirror is a great invention. Stories from the olden days, are told about how colonialists presented mirrors as gifts to African Chiefs who would be so amused in wonderment about seeing their own images for the first time. For some odd reason, in return, the Chiefs would permit the colonialists to take men and women and children away in slavery. But this is not a history lesson. As a Coach I am always intrigued by the mirror both as a metaphor and a physical object. In the song entitled: Man in the mirror, Michael Jackson sings: “I'm starting with the man in the mirror I'm asking him to change his ways.” The mirror is fair. It simply reflects back, what is placed in its sight. The mirror simply replicates what is placed in front of it. It shows exactly what it sees and how it sees it! “Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?”   So goes the famous line in ...

  “Every Coach needs a Coach.” That is what Pranesh Anandlal my Coach and Trainer, once said. Indeed, for any Coach to be authentic, he/she needs a Coach. This is one of the most interesting aspects about growing as a Coach. In fact, it is almost impossible to grow as a Coach if you do not have a Coach. Actually, everyone at some point in their lives needs a Coach. And you do not have to have one Coach. Depending on your need at the time, you can get a relevant Coach, as and when you wish to make improvements, in certain areas of your life. So regularly, I check in with my Coaches. And recently as I reflected on the space where my life is, and the results that I was getting. I quickly realized that I was ‘scattered.’ In the beginning I couldn’t place my finger on what was the cause for this. So I made time to check in with one of my Coaches. He said, something powerful to me, “Where-ever you are, be there!” In that moment, I realized what my challenge has been… I was no...

  On the morning of Friday 02 July 2021, my wife and I attended separate funerals. She attended the funeral of her former school-mate. He was quite well-established. He owned a number of mining business ventures including investments in Democratic Republic of Congo, among others. On the other hand, I attended a funeral of our church member, a twenty-one year old young beautiful lady who was well into developing her own career from her studies at the University. Sadly in both the above cases, the deceased had ended their own lives. In our training as Coaches, we are urged to be reflective in our professional practice. So the Coach in me has been reflecting on the above incidences, with lots of questions, trying to understand what could have led to the two persons ending their lives suddenly. By social standards, one would say that the gentle-man and the young lady were successful. The biggest question I have is: could there have been an alternative resolution to the i...

  Today, 01 July marks the beginning of the second half of the year 2021. What a tumultuous first half of the year that many of us have experienced. In some cases, the traces of pain are still existing. We have witnessed, or heard of, families that have lost their loved ones in a matter of hours or within days and weeks. In some cases, a whole family is lost, especially due to COVID. As a COVID survivor, and having lost my mother to COVID, each story that I have encountered has made me re-live my own experience of fear, pain, horror, and loss. I sympathize and empathize. But for some reason, I have also come to realize that one can still find courage and hope amidst all the bad things that may be happening around one’s life. Living in South Africa makes me appreciate more and more about Mandela’s stance on courage and fear. One day he said, “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but h...