The Company We Keep: friends, family and summer holidays

The Company We Keep is a column on the CN&CO blog that profiles some of the most interesting people in our networks. Here we share the details of the lives of people we know, showcasing the extraordinary diversity of our society and proving that people truly are at the heart of everything we do.

Company, people, reconnecting, and exploring are all things that we should value more than we do. So much of our life is built on relationships and yet often when life gets full one of the first things that we push to the side is people…

Before I left Joburg to head down to the Eastern Cape in the December of 2019, I read a Facebook post from Brent Lindeque (founder of the Good Things Guy) where he chirped that South Africa’s really know how to holiday. It honestly felt like Joburg had exhaled in early December, business was ready for a break and needed space to generate new ideas to tackle the challenges (and opportunities) that we will face in 2020.

Over the summer holidays I reconnected with many mates, laughed, drank too much, listened to many long form podcasts, spent time with my family, zoned out and rested my mind. Over the last couple of years, I have been bad at this, not logging out and at times letting molehills become mountains, because I haven’t approached things with perspective. In our fast-paced lives, it’s easy to feel like you can’t take your foot off the accelerator… but in actual fact you should because changing down a gear may give you the perspective that you need.

This summer has reminded me of the importance of real connections, relationships, people and experiences. If you read our December 2019, “where were you at noon blog”, you will see that my word and mindset for 2020 is mindfulness. The practice of mindfulness is powerful. It allows one to better understand and question why we entertain certain things or why we consume the sea of information that we do. Being mindful is a continuous practice and to get better at something requires consistently showing up.

So, THANK YOU to everyone who reminded me to reconnect this summer. Best wishes for what 2020 has in store, the ball is in our court… so let’s make a difference.