A new day

Things don’t have to be crystal clear for us to know what they are or what they mean. COVID-19 has caused us to change what we define as “normal”. So many things that we used to consider as “obvious” are no-longer so.

On 15 August 2020, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the moving of South Africa from lockdown level 3 to level 2. With that came the opening up of many more services that were previously not allowed.

As an essential services provider, we at Primorial have been working right through lockdown. Those felt like dark days to me, where some of our team members were working from home and others (our new Grads2020) were still coming in to the office. It was a time (and still is) of daily temperature taking self-assessment questionnaires and strict application of COVID-19 physical distancing rules. In the beginning, it felt like something we could never get used to. Five months on, it has become almost normal.

A few changes have happened at Primorial since the start if the lockdown, we have:

• welcomed new staff – Taff on Saturdays;
• lost some staff; but
• more excitingly, gained new team members : Felicia, Gift, Mpho, Cynthia, Jeaneth, Beauty, Phumelelo, Khethiwe, Kamogelo. We hope you will find your time with us empowering and enjoyable.

In this short time, our Grads2020 have made several achievements, the most notable being qualifying as CERTIFIED XERO ADVISORS!

September and October are going to be busy months for us with it being individuals tax season as well as EOH Mthombo deadline. Even when things are very busy and stressful, it is important to remember that, work is important for many reasons but we need not be so stressed and paralysed by work that it starts to negatively affect our health and well-being. If you feel this way about work or life, please reach out to me or Mrs B.

What do I say to us as we start this new month? The same thing I say every month:

You need to ask yourself, “What do I want to do differently this month?” and then you do it.

It need not be something big. Small changes make big differences. The key is that you need to be deliberate about WHAT you are going and also be CONSISTENT.

As we go headfirst into the month of September, the message of spring and Heritage Day come to mind. I encourage you to reflect on yourself and your life and see if there is anything that you feel needs freshening up. This must not be what other people believe needs freshening up, but what YOU want to change. If you decide you want to change anything, start small and be kind to yourself as change is difficult to achieve and you might not get it right at first, but with focus and commitment, anything and everything is possible.

Have you seen the articles in our monthly newsletter this month?

Who will Emerge as Winners and Losers in the Post Covid-19 Marketplace?

Your Tax Deadlines for August 2020

Do you watch the news or keep up to date with current affairs? You don’t have to confess to everyone around you, but you know in your soul. If you need somewhere to get news relevant to your career and our industry – go to our app under Stay Informed and get a daily feed of relevant current affairs.

These are tough times, team. We can choose to be depressed and sad, or we can choose to see them as opportunities to excel in something different.

Our quote for the month is :

we rise by lifting others – Robert Ingersoll