“Race doesn’t really exist for you because it has never been a barrier. Black folks don’t have that choice.”                                     

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie                

Social justice

What are your thoughts about addressing social justice at a private college like eta? What action do you think is required to create a more just society within our circle of control? Write to us and let us know.

 Recommended reading

Surviving to Thriving – Mental Toughness (Steve Harris)

Chapter 1. WHY SURVIVING TO THRIVING? (Continued from last week)

Small, smart, and mostly proactive adaptations lead to success and significance

My research and personal experiences have led me to believe that the evolution from surviving to thriving is achieved through incremental, smart, and mostly proactive adaptations that give us marginal yet significant gains.

My question to you is: Are you adapting so that you can progress from surviving to thriving? If you feel that you are already thriving, my query becomes: What are you doing to accelerate even further ahead?

I acknowledge that people struggling with harsh conditions, or persons with mental health concerns that draw them outside consensus reality, will struggle to adopt my ideas on thriving.

To thrive you need differentiators that makes you stand out from the crowd

This needs to be something different and indeed special that sets you apart from others pursuing similar outcomes. Therefore, you have a distinct competitive advantage.

This type of advantage is usually admired by others unless you are signalling superiority and in so doing you are “othering”. Othering means you are trying to establish that others are inferior to you.

For some, a stand-out competitive advantage may be highly stressful and therefore undesirable. This phenomenon is called FOSO – the fear of standing out. For them to benefit from standing out, they need to develop the skills to manage the stress and the possible resentment that could accompany this sometimes-lonely place. As is commonly said, “The tallest trees catch the most wind.”

The human polar bear created a unique competitive advantage

Lewis Pugh stood out for the right reasons when he created a unique competitive advantage. He achieved success through enduring extreme cold-water conditions and continued by achieving significance when he combined this ability with a passion for environmental sustainability.

I met Lewis when, as a junior, he joined the Clifton Surf Lifesaving Club in Cape Town. He was extremely driven and hungry for personal accomplishment. Lewis trained hard and showed extraordinary willingness to go the extra mile. However, no amount of training was going to be enough to make Lewis a serious contender for top honours in the swimming aspects of competitive surf lifesaving. Top competitors were usually of Olympic standard. This did not deter Lewis, who continued to train more than most, and helped to teach others.

An offshoot of his preparedness to train hard was his acceptance of the icy Atlantic sea temperatures off Clifton beach. His peer group lauded and respected him for this trait, and I suspect it was the acknowledgement and recognition that motivated him to use his adaptiveness to very cold water as a differentiator. Eventually, it led him to international fame as an environmentalist, and earned him the nickname ‘human polar bear’.

How well have you been adapting for surviving to thriving?  Write to us and let us know how.

We all know that the past few months have been really challenging for the fitness industry as a whole.

In an attempt to help this valuable community, I’ve connected with Tania Williams, an expert in the fitness industry with over 20 years of experience. She has some valuable training that could change the game for you. Tania was a National Champion at gymnastics back in the day but then transitioned into a fitness coach where she has specialised in kids’ fitness. She has a physical, brick-and-mortar gym and an online gym.

She knows the industry and more importantly, she understands what it takes to run a successful 7-figure business. She is trying to help fitness coaches, personal trainers and anyone involved with kids’ fitness to adapt to the current changes and grow thriving businesses while they are at it.

If her free training session (24 September 2020) is something you’d be interested in, then click here to learn more

Regards,

Dr Steve Harris | eta College CEO