Rarely can anyone have all aspects of their life going swimmingly without loss, pain, or suffering. There’s bound to be something else that acts as a reminder that one cannot always have what one wants.

Then, we should be ready to improvise and make the most of what we have despite difficulties and setbacks.

Joy and pain are intertwined. You can’t have joy without having experienced sadness, and even if one is joyful, pain is what will erode that joy. Sounds obvious but when we’re in the thick of things, we tend to forget that we can’t always have what we want. We need to learn to make do with whatever we have, while doing our best to overcome our discomfort.

With so many lives dependent on the President, we can learn, though still early, from President Cyril Matamela Ramaphosa to make the most with little desirables we have. By Nimroth Gwetsa, 28 February 2018.

Events leading up to the announcement of the recent cabinet reshuffle by President Ramaphosa attest to this need to make the most with whatever one has. I’m not a body language reader but the President wasn’t in a jovial mood when he announced his cabinet changes. Prior to this announcement, he was seen daily on our television screens with a broad smile on his face, inspiring hope to many and promising that change will and has come.

On the night of his cabinet reshuffle announcement, his usual joy we have been used to, seemed to have disappeared. He appeared like one needing our motivation. The President looked dejected and lethargic as if one who had recently been through the most disheartening experience and had to quickly make a forced appearance while pretending all was well. The president wore his emotions on his sleeves. He could not hide his displeasure of what might have transpired earlier.

But the next day with Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, he seemed to have regained his energy and joy. His renowned jovial mood was soon visible in his facial expression when newly appointed ministers and deputies were sworn in.

Perhaps it dawned on him that the new dawn he has been preaching to us requires that he too should make the most of what he has.

Improvising has been the hallmark of our lives for years and in the past decade, having to endure hardships imposed on us owing to rampant corruption and disdain for ethical leadership by politicians and bureaucrats. Notwithstanding this onslaught on our psyche, as ordinary law-abiding citizens, we had to remain faithful to the Republic by continuing to pay our taxes so social services can be provided despite knowing that some of our taxes would be misdirected corruptly for selfish needs.

We all have similar experiences of conflicting experiences in all aspects of our lives. You may have a good job fulfilling your ambitions, but the company may be too bureaucratic or risk-averse to let you thrive peacefully. You may have a good loving partner, but the partner may be too controlling or having an irritable disposition affecting the general mood in the household. You may also be having a good time at the moment, but concerns about safety may necessitate premature ending of that fun. You may be interacting with a decisive person, but being a fool, that decisiveness may be in doing wrong things while being indecisive or abdicating in doing the right things.

These dichotomies are necessary for there to be progress, growth and development. Without pain, there would not necessarily be solutions.

Emerging business owners and managers should be careful of growing weary from setbacks. Lamenting the lack of resources as reasons for the regression of business progress isn’t going to help unless an immediate way out is found. It is one thing decrying the woeful situation or burying the head in the sand hoping for a better outcome because one does not have any idea about getting out of the predicament, yet it is another doing so out of temporary feelings of rage and frustration.

Given the inevitability of undesirables in our lives, how then can we make the most with the little we have?

Hypocrisy, hard-headedness, refusal to learn, pride, fear and lack of confidence are impediments to success. By these impediments, I am referring to the settled attitude that creates convictions, and not an occasional relapse owing to temptation or being temporarily overwhelmed.

Though hopelessness can be overcome through taking time off, avoiding encounters with causes of the rage or through the passing of time, humility, meditation on and acceptance of advice can help in overcoming difficulties.

While identifying barriers to impediments, let those hindrances not ground businesses from progressing, but spur owners and managers to amass more strength to operate at a higher and more powerful levels.

These principles are not only limited to our professional but our private lives as well. Let nothing stop us from pursuing goals to attainment of our prosperity and joy.