This one is a thought experiment to capture 20 observations about what’s happening within me and around me. It’s like holding a mirror to what I observe and absorb versus what I observe and deflect. Here goes!

1. Wisdom and self-awareness beget true personal effectiveness. 

2. Without these two, it’s possible that mis-directed intelligence leads to well-reasoned self-sabotage.

3. I’m capable of change but oftentimes the better approach is to change the situation to suit my personality and circumstance. 

4. Key words for our mental health conversations: 

   • Honesty: moving past avoidance and denial with voiced communication. Easily said, difficult to do in all the hard-to-reach corners of life.

   • Help: ask for it and be willing to pay for it if you can afford it.

   • Reset: adapt and iterate as many times as needed.

   • Boundaries: set and keep them personally and professionally.

5. After examining the archetypes assigned to leadership and genius versus its resultant staggering value destruction - I’m challenging myself to do more with what I have.

6. It’s possible to create good out of something bad through a process and not by assumption. Hope is not a strategy. Bad can get worse. 

7. Patience unlocks wisdom. Humility enables empathy. Trust precedes vulnerability.

8. When it comes to people: present but don’t pursue. When it comes to opportunities: persist until either success or the 'kill criteria’ have been met. 

9. Getting into an emotional posture of positive expectation is vulnerable and exposing. It can’t be separated from any physical steps taken to create change. Alignment is a foundational spiritual principle precisely because it unlocks flow.

10. The sentimental value of living up to my name has increased this year as I consider the type of impact I would like to have. Rumbidzayi means “praise (God)” and Munyaradzi means “comforter”.  

11. It’s possible to be whole and yet think of myself less in my external relationships.   

12. Purpose is individual. Vision is collective. Execution is collaborative.

13. Sometimes the best way to resolve a situation is to subtract, and not add.

14. Changing our politics will change our prospects.

15. Invest where you have superior information. Diversify when it is profitable to do so rather than because logic dictates it.

16. Organisational adoption of abundance and a growth mindset shows up as creative destruction.  

17. Public aversion for dealing with complexity is a dangerously exploitable trait by the bad actors who dominate leadership positions. We need to get comfortable dealing with the details of the kind of world we have created.

18.  What some perceive as luck is the by-product of a person consistently moving in spaces where they wield power or influence or both.

19. We are dominated by bold convictions that are simultaneously uniting sub-groups and dividing the collective. Question the motives behind whatever path you are following. 

20. Past success under different circumstances clouds objectivity in gauging repeat success under new circumstances. Mis-placed confidence has many causes but the outcome is the same.

What top reflections or observations have been influential to you?