What drives you?
When it comes to driving, I’d rather not. I’ve had dreams for as long as I can remember, to be a passenger princess. But that dream was quashed the day I was born as a first-born daughter. My parents made sure that as their deputy parent, I got my driver’s licence as soon as I turned 18 years old. It could have been a day later if they had their way, but I attended varsity away from home and had to wait for the winter break three months later in July to do my lessons and the test.

My first unofficial car was my parents’ Honda Ballade 1.8e Luxline. It was assigned to me to run home errands and I could also take it to go out with friends when I asked. That car packed enough features to delight a newbie driver. According to reviews at the time in 1998, its performance was superior to the Golf GTI. It was a smooth ride, fuel-efficient and it did not look too shabby.

My true first car – the one that I bought for myself when I was 21 – was a feisty Ford Fiesta 1.6 RSI, in champagne gold. That car was the personification of dynamite in a small package. It was an effortless smooth drive and unleashed ample power when needed. Needless to say, I was in love. My guy friends called me Michelle Schumacher because of how I drove my car – like a carefree 21-year-old. If I was a trust fund baby, I’d have kept it as a memento of my memories with it. But I needed the trade-in value to buy my next car when it reached 150k kilo-meters.

Fond memories aside, just because I love cars, it doesn’t mean I enjoy driving currently. What I enjoy better than my fantasies about us having a version of the German Autobahn in SA, is sitting on the passenger’s side, shades on, seat slightly reclined and listening to music while being driven. Or on those busy weekdays when I have other meetings besides work at my practice, nothing sounds better than sitting at the back of a car killing admin while being chauffeured through the never ending Joburg traffic. I have been driving for 26 years now and I’m ready to retire and fulfil my dream of being a passenger princess.
Memories of my early days of driving flooded my mind while I was thinking about things that drive me to thrive in life presently. Apart from setting great examples for my kids on how to navigate and do life, all aspects of my work greatly contribute to why I wake up looking forward to give my very best to each day. Last week I celebrated another birthday anniversary. Part of this involves introspecting on where my life is and setting new goals “for the new year”. While doing this, I found myself down a rabbit hole of “I wonder…”.

I wonder out of the 8 billion people on this planet, how many people do this exercise? I am curious to know the percentage of people who are internally driven to live with the intention to thrive forward in life. Do YOU do it? Do you regularly check in with yourself to see if you are on that track that you’d like to be on? That you didn’t get thrown off by distractions and obstacles onto a different course of life you don’t particularly enjoy or want to be on? And you are now stuck there because for whatever reason, the task of holding yourself accountable to your mission seems too huge and you just cannot bring yourself to check in, regroup, and find your way back on the course that brings you joy and makes your life feel meaningful. Don’t get me wrong, I am not judging or implying that I am part of “an elite few” who do this important self-work of introspection
We just started yet another new month and it’s safe to say the new season of autumn is in full swing the weather is getting cooler. Let’s take advantage of the newness of the cycles of the universe to also renew, redefine or reaffirm our commitment to ourselves and the lives we want to live. Because when it comes to being driven to thrive in life, nobody can do it for us. Only we know deep in the hearts of our souls the course we would like to follow in life. Therefore, we simply cannot afford to be passenger princesses (and princes) on this journey. We have to be in the driver’s seat steering our lives with the passion of the 21-year-old me in her Ford Fiesta 1.6 RSI.