A Note On Rest And Restoration
This is my last community email of 2024 and I feel both happy and exhausted.
Over the past two weeks, my behaviour has been increasingly puzzling.
At times, I’ve felt exhilarated and overjoyed. During our programme celebrations, I was whooping with joy. At the Top 5 Startups event, I cried openly when hearing about the impact that South African entrepreneurs are making. At our team meetings, I’ve been incredulous at how hard my colleagues have been working to serve entrepreneurs.
At the same time, I’ve also been grumpy with friends. I’ve been curt with colleagues. I’ve been surly with restaurant staff. I’ve avoided telephone calls and been snappy with my kids.
Yesterday, I even yelled at Lola, my loyal German Shepherd, when she jumped up to greet me returning home from an overnight stay out of town.
I thought of writing a cheerful ‘happy holidays’ final mailer, but that would not be authentic. 2024 has been both inspiring and tough for me. It feels way more real to write about why I’m feeling this way. I’m trying to get a handle on this sense of wariness as I write this.
I am conflicted because 2024 has been an incredibly successful one for Heavy Chef. In some ways, it also feels like our toughest year to date.
Over the past twelve months we’ve conducted extensive learning programmes with hundreds of entrepreneurs across the country. We have established community ambassadors in multiple entrepreneur hotspots. We have published another popular, easy-to-read business guidebook. We hosted another epic awards event, Top 5 Startups 2024. We created dozens of engaged community events across the country.
There’s a voice in my head shouting, “Be GRATEFUL, idiot!”
I have spoken to several people over the past week. When I explained how I’ve been feeling, most have nodded their heads vigorously.
“Hey? HEY!?!”
“Yoh! Yoh! Yoh!”
“2024 has been hard!”
The general response has been vigorous agreement. Some have had a shitty year financially. Some have had a wildly lucrative year. Most agreed that it has been gruelling, despite what the bottom line has looked like.
I had lunch with my friend Verity earlier today. Verity is the former Toastmasters World Champion. She won in 2021, beating over 30,000 other entries.
Verity told me she’s had her best financial year since she started her speaker coaching business. Her star has been rising steadily since she became the first African to win World Champion status in over 80 years of Toastmasters competitions.
Verity informed me that she feels similar. Tired. Exhausted. Stretched. Overwhelmed. Many of her clients do too.
This stuff is hard to define. It’s easier to unpack a feeling of exhaustion when life is objectively difficult. If I was broke, downtrodden and beaten, then I could point to some obvious causal realities.
I believe it’s important to hold two realities at the same time. 2024 was both a good year and a very, very challenging one for me and for the Heavy Chef crew.
This is not a bad thing. The great philosopher Bruce Springsteen once explained to Conan O’ Brien, “At the age of seventy I finally feel like an adult. Someone who can hold two opposing truths at the same time.”
After decades of wearing masks - and countless therapy sessions - Springsteen finally feels like he can be himself.
Jung defined ‘Self’ as that which makes us, us. It is our essence, our psyche. The word ‘psyche’ comes from the Greek word for soul. Forged on the foundation of our psyche is the Ego, which shapes our personality.
Disruption to our Ego, Jung explained, comes in the forms of Complexes. A ‘Complex’, was how Jung defined the pockets of energy that burst forth from our psyche.
A typical Complex shows itself in puzzling behaviour that we can’t really explain. Sorta like shouting at one’s loyal German Shepherd when all she wants is love and skritches.
In the past weeks I’ve seen loads of puzzling behaviour, both in me and in the people closest to me.
I’m not sure what’s happening, but I feel like many of us need a proper rest.
Our collective soul is shouting a message.
And so, I’m gonna listen.
I hope that everyone reading this does too. If this paradox feels familiar, then perhaps there is a message bubbling up from your own psyche. My closing prayer for 2024 is that we all get a chance to hear these messages.
As for myself, I’m going to stop, breathe, reflect on this past year with gratitude and introspection.
For the next few weeks, I’m deleting social media from my phone. I’m shutting down my inbox. I’m putting my laptop away.
Heavy Chef closes on Friday with my brother Louis’s last research mailer of 2024.
We’re going on skeleton crew until the second week of January.
You’ll find me by the beach or in the mountains.
You’ll spot me easily.
I’ll be the guy giving loads of skritches to a tail-wagging German Shepherd.
Sending you much love and, as always,
Peace -
