Coping capacity in life's challenges

I'll use the names Eve and Adam and Ruth for this blog post, based on a WhatsApp interchange with someone caring for someone in need...

Good morning, Eve. How are things going now for you and for Adam? Is he receiving the medication and guidance that he needs? Are you receiving what you need? 

Well, maybe the first Eve did not have a friend to send her a message on WhatsApp - who taught the original Adam and Eve any of the things that they needed to know to face the challenges of being first parents? Who taught them to change nappies, what foods were safe to eat, and so many things that they needed to know?

Sometimes our wilderness is rather bleak, like this scene in the Northern Cape

with Sally and me travelling from Nieuwoudtville to Augrabies Falls

I asked a friend if he might have a long - or short-term opportunity for Adam in motor mechanical work. I pointed out that Adam could contribute meaningfully in motor mechanics, and could also help in Information Technology related things that are a real part of any business in 2026. 

This led to sharing thoughts with Eve, and her and Adam's family members that are supporting him in a very difficult season in his life.

More between Nieuwoudtville and Augrabies Falls

Each and every one of us is likely to face seasons in life when we are impacted by hurricanes, floods, droughts, illnesses, or other challenges. We might desire to change employment, change careers, or anything that will lessen the clouds that are hanging over us, or take us far away from where those clouds are likely to be now or in the future! We just need a change!

I've asked the IT department at Kirstenbosch, but I haven't had any response. I've asked two friends if they have opportunities for him in their IT work. Networking is not just cabling, but also describes making acquaintances in business to help exploring possibilities and potential collaborations.  

Strength to you as you help your brother in his time of serious need, and may he co-operate and do his part.  You are coaches helping him to accomplish what he wants to accomplish, but there will be times that he is not able to focus on - or remember - or believe - the good things that he actually wants to achieve.

Then we got to enjoy Augrabies Falls, water flowing
that had simply been held up in the sky by the Almighty

We visited waterfalls near Nieuwoudtville 

You can imagine how it hurts Ruth that her mental illnesses have taken away her ability to practice medicine and use her wonderful gift. But she was blessed for more than twenty years to be able to help in healing and blessing the lives of others. Times and seasons can change, and life can become really tough. But just because someone is underground in a mine and cannot see the sun shining, the sun is still shining delightfully. I can see it right now - well, at least I can see that light is coming through a window that suggests that the sun did rise this morning. 😉🤔😅

Some vegetation in the Robertson-Montagu area.

Sometimes it is necessary to have an involuntary admission to a mental institution like Valkenberg or Stikland. Ruth had that in Stikland, a friend's son had that in Tygerberg Hospital, another family member had that at Valkenberg - more voluntary than involuntary. It is not a desirable thing, but it can be a blessing to the patient and to the loved ones.

Imperfect people like me, your Pa and Adam, create imperfect apps like WhatsApp that are used by imperfect people all around the world and then gremlins are also around and bugs creep in and fiddle. But those apps do enough that is wonderful that we put up with the less than wonderful 😉

Sometimes our life might feel like a desert. I loved my time in the Namib Desert, seeing how much delightful life there is in the desert - spiders, geckos, gemsbok, springbok, hyaenas, grass seed that blends in with the bounteous sand until after the rain when it germinates and makes the desert look like a green meadow. The grass then flowers and seeds, and then it dries out and becomes detritus that blows around and is food for beetles, birds, mice, and many animals, and the seeds blow around with the grains of sand and wait for the next rains. 

I've asked Aunty Judy and Uncle Ron if they recall anything about a challenge that Granny Sippy had with depression. Your Mom had challenges. There seems to be an increasing frequency in the occurrence of many challenges in the 2020s, either presence, awareness, detection, or something. Such challenges have been around for thousands of years. I am fascinated by how King Saul might well have had bipolar disorder as I read about how he suddenly tried to kill David who was playing a harp to help to calm King Saul. Many great world leaders or notable people have had mental or psychological disorders. But the frequency of presence, or detection and diagnosis, certainly seems to be increasing for many issues. I think that I may well have had some disorder, but I probably still have... like ADD, ADHD, ASD (autism spectrum disorder), Asperger's Syndrome, or something 'out of the ordinary' 🤔😰🥴😂 or am I just a weirdo 🤔

Some vegetation in the Agulhas-Overberg region.

It reminds me of an insight that I gained in a workshop that I attended at United Nations in Italy. They were teaching about climate change and its impacts in the developing world. They said that averages would not change dramatically, but we would see an increase in frequency and intensity of extreme events. I certainly have been aware of that in the years since 2002 when they said that. They were encouraging working on 'coping capacity'. That year, people in Mozambique were devastated by floods along the Limpopo River and for them it was a disaster. But they pointed out that most of Bangladesh is less than 10m above sea level and on a river delta that floods every year and everyone living there loses everything, so they don't invest in TVs and things that will be devastating, for them it is not a disaster because of their coping capacity. 

Another insight that came to me was how we were taught so much about food storage, preparing for bad times, increasing our coping capacity. You remember the wheat, wheat grinder, and all that your parents had in your home ☺️

One important coping capacity in our time is coping with mental challenges that seem to be increasing in frequency and intensity, just like extreme climate events.

Eve: "Yup. But some of us make a conscious effort every single day to be the best we can be, and others don't bother and don't care about their impact on other people"

Yes, indeed. But sometimes it is not that person that is negligent, but a disability that is holding them back, retarding them, hindering them, impacting on them. It is easy to see if someone is in a wheelchair that they have some disability. But some people have very real disabilities that cannot be seen. Only trained professionals like cardiac surgeons, oncologists, neurologists, or psychiatrists can detect and diagnose those 'invisible' disabilities. 

I have had to learn to trust their diagnosis and help Ruth to keep in as good 'shape' as she can by using meds that slow her down, prevent her from being able to practice as a doctor, but give her 'mobility' that she really did not have when she was having a depressive following a hypomanic stage of bipolar, or when she has a seizure or hallucination due to her Temporal Lobe Epilepsy. She did not choose either, it was not her fault that she inherited those genes that caused her as a matric student to not get the sleep that she needed and to burn through matric in a hypomanic state and then crash in a depressed state. 

Those episodes were not dramatic then, and she and her colleagues did not diagnose her disorder! As she got older, those episodes caused more and more damage to her brain and so now she is far worse than she would have been if she had received medication earlier in life. She had many wonderful years, but those came to an end - a horrible end. Yes, she was suicidal on several occasions. Ruth did some things that Ruth would never do, going off driving up the West Coast and not having any idea where she was going and what she would do, or why she was going off on her own. That was not her choosing, but her malfunctioning brain making her body do things that Ruth would not do. She might have been at a lower percentage performance level for decades if she were having medication, but she would have been able to, and still be able to, treat patients and prescribe medication if she had been receiving the preventative maintenance that she needed. 

Blessings on you as you help Adam to cope with this nightmare season that he is experiencing. Sometimes it is really best to hand over his treatment to trained professionals in a hospital to care for him and help him to get to a stable state, and then to regularly have them help to keep him in as stable a state as he can be in for the rest of his life. He does not seem to need a wheelchair, but spectacles, hearing aids, heart pumps, knee replacements, medication, and other treatments and interventions help many people to be far more capable than they would otherwise be.

One thing that I often share is that in the last few years in my work, Performance Evaluations were introduced in the Public Service. Every six months we would meet with our supervisor and evaluate ourselves, and they would then agree or modify our evaluation and report it to their supervisors and submit it to the HR department. My boss, who was at Director level, and I at Deputy Director level at the time, told me during one of those assessments that the CEO, his supervisor, had told him that he was not expected to be at 5 all of the time. The expected level on the scale of 1 to 5 was 3. If someone had 2, then training and correcting were needed. If he was at 1, then discipline and warning, potential dismissal were needed. If at 4, credit and congratulations were appropriate. If at 5, then acknowledgment, merit, salary level increase, and sometimes promotion in rank were appropriate. 

But to try and be 4 or 5 at everything would lead to burnout and the person could not be expected to keep it up. Of course, the more one learned and advanced, the more was expected. A good performance evaluation was rewarded by moving up the ranks. Then the next assessment would be in the higher rank. More was expected from scientists or accountants or IT systems analysts than from gardeners or cleaners or security guards. It is saddening to me that some people never tried to advance beyond gardener level in all of their 45 years at Kirstenbosch. But I cannot judge them. If they were excellent gardeners, they were extremely valuable. If they were just mundane gardeners for 45 years, then that would be kind of disappointing. 

Granny Sippy often said "The world needs streetsweepers, but, more importantly, the world needs excellent streetsweepers." That has been a meaningful concept for me all of my life. On one occasion, I was pondering this and wondered 'What if every citizen in Cape Town were to be responsible and never littered?' The Spirit whispered moeniwarrienie, the trees will always drop leaves and there will be space for excellent streetsweepers. 

But, there will almost certainly be times that an excellent streetsweeper is sick or less than well enough to be their normal selves. We need to then be compassionate and try to help them to become what we know that they would want to become again. I was fortunate to be sent on a coaching course at one stage in my career - the focus of that was helping others in our team to be what they wanted to be, but needed encouragement, support, and so forth to achieve their own goals. It is important to bear in mind that a coach helps someone to achieve their own goals, and not goals that the coach sets for the team member that is being coached.

And then, of course, there is the delightful view of Table Mountain from across Table Bay.

Ekpraatteveel 😉 Enough for now. 

I would love to take you to Kirstenbosch for you to enjoy some re-creating in what Grandpa Ken loved to call a little bit of the garden of Eden that has remained intact. Even if you just go and walk ten paces into the garden and sit in the shade and sleep or read or have a picnic, it is a wonderful place to be for ten minutes or for ten hours. The offer is always there. I love to have the privilege of taking up to five family and friends in with me. Then, they do not have to be in my presence once they are inside the gate - I just hope that they will not misbehave 😉 and break any of the rules of the garden 😂☹️😖😭🤔but that they will be excellent streetsweepers or whatever they choose in their career.

Intellectual disciples of the God of Abraham

I was asked to prepare some thoughts for a youth camp, discussing intellectual disciples. I put some thought into it, and although I was not able to attend the camp, I thought that I could at least share my thoughts on my blog so that, just maybe, some person will have some upliftment and draw closer to the God of Abraham as we strive to be His disciples.

Some of my study of Moses 5

I invite us all to prepare ourselves as disciples of Jesus Christ whom the Jews and Christians worship as Jehovah, Jesus Christ, Father God, Elohim, Lord, and various names, and whom the Muslims worship as Allah. I write using some scriptures, but the concepts apply to all and can be found in the Old and New Testaments, Torah, and Qur'an. The most important things that I share is that what I write is simply here as a guide to the reader to read his or her own scriptures, ponder how what they are reading applies to situations in their own lives, and then to ask God to guide them in applying what any scripture inspires us to do to change our lives and become more one with the God that Abraham followed.

• All that the Father hath shall be given unto you. D&C 84:38. My younger brother pointed out that this includes all intelligence, His creative priesthood power, glory - it sets a high target for us in this life! We need to prepare ourselves to become worthy to be trusted with that greatest of all powers. (See also scriptures under footnote b, e.g. Luke 12:44, John 17:11-24, Rev 21:7, Rev 78:5-7, 3 Ne 28:10, D&C 132:18-20).

• I looked at For the Strength of youth - if we follow these guidelines, we will have strength, and the aged folk like me can have strength like youth - well, a lot more than we would otherwise - if we follow these basic principles. 

• I would invite who reads this to share things from the FTSOY Guide that they have felt inspiring to help them to achieve greatness, and not just to be;

• Make inspired choices;

• Walk in God's light;

• Truth Will Make You Free;

• Find joy in Christ;

• Temple recommend questions for youth; Young Women Theme; Aaronic Priesthood Quorum Theme; The Ten Commandments;

• Index: Education, integrity.

• I looked at the Children and Youth: Introductory Guide

• Vision; Following the Saviour in All Areas of Your Life; Keep Moving Forward (Gospel learning, Service and Activities, Personal Development); What's Next? Start the conversation.

• Looking at the Youth Guidebook

• You Have a Purpose;

• You Are a Precious Child of God;

• You Can Follow the Saviour (Jesus grew in “wisdom.” You can study in school, learn new skills, and improve your talents);

• A Pattern for Growth (Discover, Plan, Act, Reflect);

• Get Started!

• Impressions and Ideas;

• Things To Remember;

• Ideas for Growing in All Areas of Life (Intellectual);

• Resources.

• I believe that the Lord probably does not see minimum wage earning as our potential. 

• He has provided so much guidance and opportunity to enhance education that I am confident that He would wants us to rise far above slavery. He would want us to rise and shine! But - if we were slaves, as were the children of Israel in Egypt, He would want us to be excellent slaves, having a godly walk and conversation, walking in holiness before Him (see D&C:20:68-69).

• We need not be hopelessly competing with thousands of other candidates for a minimum wage position. The Lord makes many resources available to us to help us to stand out among others - to be a light, like salt, like leaven in the loaf;

• The Lord expects us to make our desert blossom as a rose, to be a blessing in the nations, to eat our bread by the sweat of our face, to be fruitful, to multiply, to replenish the Earth, subdue the Earth, and to have dominion over the fish of the seas and the fowls of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth, and so many other challenges that suggest to me that we need to aspire for high goals;

• Our aspiring for higher is not for our own glory, but to add to Zion - our fruit is not for our glory, but to give glory to the true vine, and to seek for riches to help our fellowman. That is the consecration that we give in the Temple. I love how King Charles said in his coronation 'I am here to serve and not to be served'. That should be our intent, not to accumulate glory for ourselves, but to elevate all of His children to become closer to what He would have them become.

• Topics and Questions: Education

• Whether or not we pursue formal education, we need to rise far above just existing. We ought to act and not just be acted upon. 

• Members of the body of Christ are strongly encouraged, and it is made possible to receive a good education. We have to choose to obtain that education.

• That does not mean that everyone must be doctors or lawyers. As my mother often said, 'The world needs street sweepers. But, more importantly, the world needs excellent street sweepers.' I pondered this years later - what if everyone never littered? Then the Spirit pointed out that even if everyone was perfect and never littered, the trees would still drop their leaves and street sweepers would always have a place. If sweeping streets is your passion, then do it - excellently. You will not always remain at the lowest rank if you are excellent in what you do. 

• Choose your love, then love your choice. I suggest that this applies to your life mission as well as to your eternal pal and partner.

• My sister, a psychologist, shared with me a lot of information about Types and Temperaments. I was struck by the comment that in any school class anywhere in the world, there is likely to be a similar mix of the following temperament types: choleric, melancholic, phlegmatic and sanguine. 

• Temperament refers to behavioural style, the 'how' of behaviour. Personality describes 'what' a person does or 'why' they do things. Long recognized as different, researchers have investigated connections between the biological aspects of behaviour seen in temperament, vs. personality structure and development.

• You will have a basic type and temperament. But - as I went through it all, I wondered - 'Is Heavenly Father deficient in any type or temperament?' and I received the confirmation that He is not deficient, but has a wonderful balance of each.

• There is a place - and need - in the world for each type and temperament. Our goal should be to use our talents as best that we can, to multiply them, to magnify them, and to balance ourselves in them.

• The origin of the four personality types goes back to more than two thousand years. In ancient Greece, Hippocrates termed the types of personality after body fluids: choleric, melancholic, phlegmatic and sanguine.

• Think of the messages in the most recent General Conference - and in any General Conference - that encourage us to be more than the world would have us be. I think that just about every talk guides us to elevate ourselves higher than the norm.

• I have shared with a few people how I was once hearing a friend telling how much he was earning - about 4 times what I was earning! I felt sorry for myself, but I loved my work and I remained true and faithful to my employer, and ended up retiring with adequate while it appears that this friend cannot retire yet and will possibly not have as much as I do when he is no longer able to work. We need to seek to earn well, and then to make wise use of what we earn.

• Career Explorer For Teens — an online assessments that is personalised, and offers specific feedback on areas of improvement.

• Finding out your talents, aptitudes and Interests is very important in finding your best potential career, and then using every opportunity that is made available for you to develop those potentials and to use them to build Zion where you are.

In conclusion, I invite each reader to pray to the God of Abraham and ask if this - having all that the Father hath - is indeed your potential, and start now to build foundations on which to structure your life in order to reach that potential. Start today. The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is today! Please do not underachieve your eternal potential.

Careers in Biodiversity - or careers in life

This blog post is written for anyone thinking about what to do with however many minutes, hours, days, weeks, years, decades, or any amount of time during her or his mission on this planet Earth. 

This is based on a talk that I have given at schools, universities, to audiences that included interns, youth, young adults, and others. I hope that you enjoy reading it and broadening your outlook on career development for you and anyone that you might influence - like children, grandchildren, or anyone!

Before I go any further, let me point out that I worked for more than 30 years at Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden on the slopes of Table Mountain in Cape Town. This garden is one of the top 7 botanical gardens in the world. Here are some photos that demonstrate some of the beauty and wonder of this place, and the delight that I had working there.

Now for the talk...

The tax payers of South Africa that largely fund the SANBI work

SAFARIS volunteers

Interns

SANBI staff

Early biodiversity explorers in southern Africa

Anyone contributing to making the world a better place.

I would invite the members of the audience to:

Introduce yourself.

Explain your interests and background.

What is the level of expertise already in the room?

Take a photo of the group for the SANBI record!

I have a cute GIF that I prepared that shows this dog being wagged by its tail. I would say to the audience:

Don’t let the tail wag the dog

Just because many people around you seem to have more of anything than you have – money, beauty, fame, skill, talent, glam, power, or sommer anything! – don’t let that cause you to be anything less than you are created to be.

Just because MS Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Access, Macros, GIS, Visual Basic, Python , field work, careers, or anything that I teach, can do or be something is not reason for you to have to do it.

Keep it simple, concentrate on what you need to accomplish, and don’t lose sleep over all the things that life can do or be that you don’t know how to do or be.

This talk will introduce you to things that you may not remember, but at least you will have an idea of some things that can be done.

The most important thing is to be the best that you can be. My mother often said ‘The world needs streetsweepers, but, more importantly, the world needs excellent streetsweepers.’ I include shepherds, carpenters, fisherman, plumbers, mechanics, electricians, doctors, lawyers, accountants, scientists, or any career. Be excellent in whatever you set out to be. No career is insignificant or inferior if you will be excellent in whatever you choose for your career path and see your role in helping to make the world a better place for each of its occupants. 

As I was typically talking at or for SANBI, I would remind them of the SANBI motto.

uGreat, the SANBI motto: Ubuntu; Growth; Respect & Tolerance; Excellence; Accountability; Togetherness

You are part of the uGreat team

Know what I am presenting today can do, or at least you have an idea.

Then you can communicate with a team member who can get this tool to do what you need to do at the time that you need it.

This presentation is on the network

If I move too fast for you, or if you want to review something, find this presentation later in [M:][\\172.16.1.170\KRC Department Folders]\Public\InternSkillsDevelopment

The examples, questions and practice documents will also be there

Following are some images the depict some of the exciting things that I have done during my career - only a small part of what I have done!

Some of my journey

Born and grew up on the West Rand

Spent time in Transvaal, Cape Province, Natal, Orange Free State, England, SWA/Namibia, Isla Do Sol, New York, Utah, Los Angeles, Iowa, Washington DC, widely in all 9 provinces of South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Italy, Germany…

Florida Primary School, Florida Park High School, Wits University, University of Cape Town, Latter-day Saint, Ensign Scout Troop…

5^th generation African besides deriving from Cradle of Humankind in Africa!

Earthling! Human! Each of us is a Child of ‘our Father which art in Heaven’, the King of all Creation – we are princes or princesses.

Employment: Self-employed doing home repairs (I am embarrassed to say that the first dividing wall that I built was not all perfectly vertical); Technician in Namib Desert; horticultural chemist; biochemistry SU Medical School laboratory technician; Herzlia teacher; Kirstenbosch; troop Scoutmaster; …

NBG (MSc, plant chemical taxonomy, education officer and botanist, garden guide), BRI (Stress Ecology Research Programme), NBI and SANBI (head of IT in NBI Cape, data basing, programming, coding, simulation modelling, climate change studies, degradation modelling, vegetation mapping, ecology, technologist, First Aider, health and safety officer and committee chair, employment equity, mentor, teacher, lecturer, …)
Son, brother, husband, father of 5, grandfather of 11 in 2024… 

The following 17 slides show just some of the interesting things that have been part of my wonderfully fulfilling career.

I loved working in this team, and being part of so many wonderful experiences, tasks, travels, projects, responsibilities, and so much more.

I would ask the audience who they imagine might be employed at the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden where I was based for more than 30 years:

The more obvious:

Botanist

Zoologist

Ecologist

Nature conservator

Horticulturist

----------------------------------

And then I would point out others that work in such an organisation.

The behind-the-scenes:

Artists

Assessment

Biochemist

Biodiversity informatics

Bioregional plans

Bus driver

Climate change

Collections manager

Compliance

Dietician

Draftsman

Economists

Editors

Education officer

Entomologist

Estate manager

Ethnobotany

Forestry

Gardener

Geneticist

GIS/GIS technician

Graphic designer

Groundsman

Health & Safety

Herpetologist

Herbarium curator

Infrastructure

Invasives (Early Detection and Rapid Response)

Investers

Journalism

Librarian

Marketing

Marine biologist

Marine ranger

Motor mechanic

Media (photos, film)

Molecular biology

Movie director

Museum curator

Nature Conservationist

Photographer

Policy advice

Population biologist

Project management

Publishing/Publications

Red listing

Statistician

Stewardship

Taxidermist

Taxonomist

Technologist

Training

Vegetation survey

Vet

Web design

Then I would include SANBI as a whole: 

The list goes on!

Accountant

Administrators

Agriculture

Architects

Assets

Auditors

Bookshop

Caterers

Cleaner

Clerk

Climate change

Communication

Corporate Services

Data management

Driver

DTP

Events coordinator

Facilities manager

Finances

Handyman

Human resources

IT procurement

IT technician

Laboratory technician

Landscaper

Lecturer: natural resource/biodiversity governance and management, land issues…

Legal adviser

Mowers

Municipal support

Occupational Health, Safety & Environment (OHSE)

Operational and Quality Managers

Outreach

Permitting

Receptionist

Reservations Consultant (conserve Africa's spectacular biodiversity)

Restaurants

Scientist

Secretaries

Security

Supply Chain Manager

Systems Management

Teacher

Telephonist

Typist

Urban Development Experts in urban sustainability

And more…

The biodiversity sector includes:

SANBI

Botanical gardens

SANParks

Universities

City Parks

Garden Centres

and more...

Groups with whom we interact include:

National, Provincial, Local Government

CSIR

ARC

Industry – Dimension Data, 

Tourism

Consulting Ecologists – Environmental Impact Assessments etc.

NGOS – WWF, TMF, SANCCOB, Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)

IUCN

Museums

Municipalities

Military

Denel

Africa Media

ESKOM

Mining companies

Construction & Engineering

Zoos

Schools

Nature reserves

Railways

Agriculture

Architects and engineers

Sustainable energy

and more…

My journey since 1983:

NBG (National Botanical Gardens)

Gardens

Horticulture

Botany

Tourism

Indigenous

BRI (Botanical Research Institute)

Botany

Taxonomy

Vegetation

Agriculture

Indigenous

NBI (amalgamation of NBG and BRI)

Plants

Indigenous

SANBI (further development of our statutory directives – South African National Biodiversity Institute)

All Biodiversity – terrestrial, marine, mammals, birds, reptiles, spiders, insects, bacteria, GMOs, aliens, invasives, ecosystems…

Office of the Chief Executive Officer

Biodiversity Research Portfolio Management

Climate change

Museums

Applied research

Knowledge, Policy & Network Management

Planning

Education

Conservation Management & Corporate Services

Human Resources 

Finance

Marketing & Communications

Information Technology

Conservation Gardens & Tourism

Gardens

Building & maintenance

My journey in practicing my career:

• Handyman most of my life.
• BSc
• Namib Desert (4 visits)
• BSc (Hons)
• Commercial horticulture research (one year)
• Medical biochemistry research (21 months)
• Teaching science, mathematics, computer studies, business economics in Middle School
• Plant chemical taxonomy
• Graduating with an MSc
• Herbarium and Education in Nelspruit (Lowveld National Botanical Garden)
• Tour guiding
• Stress ecology research
• Investigating potential impacts of Climate Change on plant species distributions
• IT manager
• Database developer
• Field research, travelling very widely in South Africa, and visiting parts of Lesotho, Swaziland and Namibia
• Ecology
• Herbarium collections
• GIS work
• Programming (BASIC, VisualBasic, Avenue)
• Author/co author of scientific and popular articles and books

During this time, I was involved in Employment Equity (including interviewing and selecting several candidates for employment), Occupational Health and Safety (OHS rep as well as chair of the committee, First Aid), mentoring interns, and assisting people in the education, administration, gardens, and other departments with technological solutions.

I was never bored!

I am somewhat a ‘Jack of all trades, and a master of few’ (even although I am a Master of Science 😊)

I would say that your career can be as exciting as you choose to make it, no matter where you are, but I choose to make my career exciting in the beautiful setting of Biodiversity

Having botanical, zoological and ecology training and having an engineering way of thinking makes me more versatile in the Biodiversity setting

I have given a talk about enjoying your personal desert wherever you are, using examples of my time in the Namib and other desert areas.

While this relates to the inevitable depressing times of life, I think it is very relevant to your career choice

Months and months of nothing but months and months

Unless you get down to ‘smell the flowers’ you probably will not even see that they are there

Employee attraction and Retention

Employer of choice

Equal opportunity

Rigorous recruitment processes

Incentives above market rate

Benchmarking

Continuous Professional Development

Rewarding high performance

Conducive working environment

Human Capital Development – the greatest asset of an organisation is its human capital.

Whether you choose 

a biodiversity career in the biodiversity sector

another career in the biodiversity sector

a biodiversity career in another sector

another career in another sector

Being happy or unhappy is still your choice

Being environmentally conscious, responsible and friendly is also up to you.

I hope that you will choose

a biodiversity career in the biodiversity sector

another career in the biodiversity sector

a biodiversity career in another sector

another career in another sector – yes – I hope that you will choose a meaningful career!

Being happy

Being environmentally conscious, responsible and friendly

To enjoy our gardens, parks, mountains, our wonderful natural heritage…

One of the most important things that I can suggest is that anyone wanting to choose a career do a profile to determine your own talents, interests, type, temperament, and to see what might be suitable options for your own career. These are so easily available in this period of our history (just do a Google search such as 'career profile assessment', or 'types of temperaments and their characteristics'). It is always amazing how diverse the options can be for one person. For example, my profile points me to a variety of things ranging from engineering to accounting to physiotherapy to clergy to ...

I hope that you will choose – to be intentional in your life – to choose to be part of the solution and not part of the problem

Question time

Questions, then I’ll briefly conclude my talk.

Sharing time

Floor open for 

questions and 

sharing skills. 

Some of the interns may be more skilled in some things than I am, so that will be the greatest value – learning from a peer, teaching the ‘buddy system’. 

I may well learn some things from you that I have not known or used before.

Does anyone have a cool thing to share regarding recording, transcribing, georeferencing?

You are the person who is living your life – live it – enjoy it – be fruitful, multiply, replenish, subdue, have [righteous] dominion – make a difference – be leaven in the loaf, light to others, salt of the Earth...

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25 August 2023 - about 8 months after posting this blog, I watched this video shared by Rob Whittaker about choosing careers. In this case, he is discussing working with the disability of Bipolar Disorder, but I fully agree with each of these considerations in choosing your career - with or without a disorder - letting a long-term view guide you. You may find unanticipated less-than-ideal things as you go, but near the end he shares counsel that he received from a friend that proved to be very valuable for him in filtering out many careers that were less suited to his character, strengths, weaknesses, passions, and needs.

10 JOB TIPS -- (Living With Bipolar Disorder) - or Living with Life!