DON’T WAIT FOR EVERYONE ELSE – START WITH YOU

THEY say that if you’re not on the cutting edge, you’re using too much space.

Think of your life as a wedge. The point is used to gently probe for a place where you belong. To feel you belong is vital for your mental, emotional and physical well-being. Nobody welcomes or enjoys rejection.

You want to feel you belong. It can be a need, a compulsion, a reassurance or just a launching pad for your dreams. The sad truth is that finding that niche often elicits negative reactions.

When you encounter this, remember to look for your signboard. It’s always there although nobody else can see it. It will always say: you have arrived at where you are.

If where you are causes a modicum of discomfort, consider a change. If you cannot make the change, be the change.

Life throws curve balls. Consider all the unnecessary and annoying things that clog your potential. Like strong-willed people who hog space, politicians who are useless and corrupt but won’t go away.

And indecisive people who expect you to hold your breath while they prevaricate. And loud people who talk incessantly without saying anything.

What can you do to make or be the change?

Don’t wait for validation. There is no starter’s pistol. Everything you are is already in place. You need to remind yourself of that.

Sure, you have to deal with unpleasant realities like debt, rudeness, laziness, ignorance and deceit. The vexations can occupy only the space you allow them. Like cellphones, set time for media programmes, timetables.

To centre the injunctions in present realities, consider the following possibilities:

Minister Patricia de Lille of the GOOD party will solve the land issues. The Zondo Commission is a smokescreen to divert our attention from realities that the sunset clauses in our Constitution guarantee the pale ones a haven even after apartheid.

EFF leader Julius Malema has no political validity except to scream constantly: “Pay back the money!” He should be shouting: “Stop giving away the money!”

Consider the myth that superannuated soldiers who serve no purpose are going to clean up gangsterism. A wag said ironically that, after the heavy rain, the ANC should withdraw the army and send in the navy. (Bad joke).

Think about the discussions for the renewal of teacher training. They will cause more debt by acquiring battery-driven gizmos. The cognition factor diminishes in the surge for more IT solutions.

Prepare teachers, not electronic experts. Change the world by reusing available resources. Like the parents, the church, social cohesion, respect for property, buy-in to commitment and focus. Utilisation of retired expertise.

Life expectations now go further than the retirement age. We have an existing, if unused, think tank waiting to be used.

Make the change.