Dear Dali, 

On Embracing  

I have written about embracing before (see Letter #4-what was I thinking) but thought to revisit this subject. There are many things that we struggle with and yet they are beyond our control. We exert a lot of energy of what leadership and productivity gurus have called things in ‘our outer circle or the circle of concern’. In the meantime, we lose focus on what is within our circle of influence- those things that we have control over. For instance, we have control over the following: 

• Being on time  
• Up to date with our work 
• Managing our resources (time, money, body, and relationships) 
• Developing our skills (see my next post on sharpening the sword) 
• Our attitude towards others (being pleasant)  

Yet we expend energy and emotions focusing on issues we have no control over in our individual capacities how wrong the politics is, the weather or the general state of the economy. 

I have learnt to embrace those things that affect me but are in the ‘circle of concern’ (have no direct control over) and find ways to work around them. For instance, I embrace the following.   

• That Geography is most likely to work against me. Let’s face it who is excited about funding our work in Zimbabwe. Only a few, right? So, move on deal with it. I have had to accept that as the truth. I can’t change how the country is perceived by myself- rather I must plan on how to work around that impediment. If it means registration in multiple jurisdictions so, be it.  
• That I am a black African and am bound to be treated with suspicion when I travel outside of my country. So? I volunteer information before it’s even asked for and at times the authorities get embarrassed by how willingly I share the information about my travel. Always ready to be searched. It’s part of travel. 
• I have embraced that my country is always going to have challenges with currency (for a while). I can’t fight the rate issues by myself, but I have a family to look after- so I need a personal strategy whilst waiting for a collective consensus.  

I can go on- but the point is- embracing who you are and the context you live in will most likely cause less headaches than try to fight the headwinds every day. I have heard it said, "capitalize on your strengths", but I prefer to say," turn your weaknesses into strengths". This is not about compromising or giving in. No. It’s a totally different strategic approach/framework. Making sure you are ahead of the pack always. It does not require much really- it’s just to understand the challenges in the environment, understand that you can’t change the circumstances by yourself (humility) and asking the question- is there another way around this challenge? You are not always going to find easy solutions.  

It takes a lot to embrace. But once you start working from that perspective there is a high likelihood of inner peace, joy, and productivity. Remember the target is to remain focused on the goal- do not allow distractions to sap your energy.