I wish you teachability and courage

The first week of January is filled with reflections on mantras that will guide us through the incoming year.

This being the beginning of a new decade, it is befitting to share two of the most important things I wish for you.

One, may you remain teachable, and I say this with a strong belief that your inability to learn is the beginning of your end.

As you grow older, you become stuck in particular ways of being.

You create a zone you're familiar with and stay in it.

You carry on with the conviction that you've done all the growing you can do, but just like snakes shed skin and trees shed leaves to keep growing, we, too, must shed who we previously were.

To be teachable requires that whatever had defined us in the past in terms of ideals, beliefs or knowledge must be challenged.

For example, we're all raised with an order of what a successful life should entail; excel in school, secure a job, get married, have children and live happily ever after.

What isn't factored in this order is how it fits into a rapidly changing world. It doesn’t accommodate the differences in people's needs.

It, unfortunately, remains rigid in a world where notions of what a successful life is insistently challenged, rendering it an impractical order.

So kindly let go of your rigidity because teachability is about being able to recognise why something that may have existed before can't exist now and being willing to change your mind. It is accepting a new way of existence.

Set humane expectations for yourself and others and always remain teachable.

Two, do work that matters by moving towards the things that scare you.

I often get asked if I get scared doing the many things I do so visibly and loudly while chasing my ambitions, and the answer is yes.

I am scared almost all the time. Like any human, I am scared of failing, for example when I started writing this very column that you're reading, I was so scared that no one would read it.

So I turned to the people around me, friends and family, who reminded me that I had to use my fear as fuel.

I quickly realised that I was scared because I wanted my writing to be perfect, which is the death of any piece of writing.

Then I did what I usually do every time I'm scared to speak or do something, that’s when I speak and do because there's no burden heavier than the weight of undone things or unspoken words.

I, therefore, wish you the courage to do the things that scare you, things that will stretch you, bring new lessons and reward you with utmost fulfilment.

It isn’t easy but slowly you'll begin building the muscle that pushes you through every moment when you’re scared or doubtful.

These are my two wishes for you.