2023 onwards - a road to success

 When writing a blog, in this case me plotting my life going forward, it is not easy when one is going through challenging times. Nobody wants to give the impression of struggling to keep head above water. We all want to be and feel strong in dealing with obsticales in our path. My lack of reporting - it is 5 months since my last post - is a reflection of the difficult times I've been going through. The holiday I had in Thailand at the end of a very cold winter in Cape Town last year, gave me the inspiration I needed, to focus on getting back on track. I lost interest in my work and the cold really got to me, but after 3 weeks in the tropics, and with summer about to start in Cape Town, I had my dream life come back to me. (And that dream life; to be able to not have to live in winter if you don't want to.) Summer has come, and it is almost Autumn again, and when winter is about to set in, I'm off to escape the cold this year, and explore Sicily this time, leaving in the mi...

 So, I've been invited on a holiday to Thailand with a lady I met on Tinder and with a further offer that she'll pay for half of my flight ticket; how could I say no.. My first holiday overseas was also an offer from the parents of a girlfriend; we could go anywhere, and we decided on a package called 'Razzle in Rio' at the time, a week in Brazil. This time around, it was the first time that a 'girlfriend' invited my on a holiday. The timing could not have been better as I've been freezing in this Cape Town winter. I also still had a month of holiday time left for the year, and we left about 3 weeks later, on 4 September, for 3 weeks.   I could understand about 30% of my new friend's English, so the Translator application was going to come in handy. It was the first holiday that I did zero planning, and left it all over to my lady. From the day we arrived, she took control. She could speak the language of the locals, knew the customs, she had a local SIM...

 When it feels like you are getting stuck, then nothing comes easy. The lack of regularly doing a blog is one of these manifestations.  At first, my reasoning for not getting a new post published was that I wish to remain positive in reporting my progress. When I realized 5 days ago that I may be able to start writing a new post without immediately publishing it, I finally got down to work. I blame my being stuck on the lack of progress with my work, my lack of anticipated income. This happened because I've lost touch with the market in that I didn't foresee a recovery take place as quickly as it is happening right now. I fell into some kind of a depression, but as my life now is not centered around income, other factors were also at play. My goal to get new clothes and have a summer break in Europe was also not to be. I've been procrastinating for too long, and had to postpone this plan to next year. The good part about this is that I will continue to wear my clothes until...

 It took a while to get to this point of recording the progress in my life and work, and it feels like such a relieve, now that I am - at last - ready to get on with it. Delays in doing the things you set out to do cause backlogs, and these can easily pile up. The result is distraction and a lack of focus on current events that need your undivided attention. It also results in a burden to carry, an extra weight on your shoulders, something you cannot forget about until it is done. The question then is, 'Why not just get the things that needs doing over and done with; just do it?'  This reminds me of the time I was working at Spur as a waiter, in Stellenbosch. You booked shifts back then, and even when you had a long shift that ended at midnight and was booked for a new, long shift the next morning, whether you were in the mood or not, you had to arrive for work, or you won't have a job. Back then, when I was working for a boss, or manager, it was all about showing up, and t...

I'm big on recycling, or to put it differently, I try to keep my contribution to landfill to an absolute minimum, and hardly throw anything in my black municipal bin. The city of Cape Town handed out free composter about a year ago, and this is where my organic waste now goes. This was a welcome contribution to my recycling efforts as my banana peels and leftover organic stuff ended up in the corner of my garden before.  Notwithstanding my best efforts, sometimes there are leftovers from cooked meals that do not work in my composter. I therefore found a place in my garden for leftover food and bones, meant for the birds and animals visiting my garden. The Cape Robin is one of my most frequent visitors. I do have cats that come at night, but as I'm not a fan of cats, I found a way to make it more difficult for them to visit. The biggest consumers however are rats. I'm not a fan of rats either, and by attracting them, I got my opportunity to reduce their numbers and monitor h...

The life of an entrepreneur - in my case at least - consists of high times and low times. High times usually mean that you are up to date with your financial targets, while you are feeling down in the dumps when business is not coming your way as expected. The challenge is to deal with these low times in a way that you can uplift yourself in spite of the fact that 'no-one wants to do business with you'.  A great way of empowering - for me - is to get out of bed early and go for an hour run. The blood running through my brain during this time usually gives me strength to get more than the usual amount of work done in a day. It gives rise to high productivity, and in the long run, earlier or easier access to the business that feels elusive. When down in the dumps, following through on commitments like writing a blog also becomes a challenge. Notwithstanding this, here I am feeling confident that with experience and knowledge gained over the years, that I can get on with my life a...