Thakgalo at the Heart of Everything
Inspiration
August 4, 2016By First For Women
‘More time!’ is the rallying call of women everywhere; balancing the demands of work and home life while still reaching to insert the interests they have and the causes they care about into their busy schedules.
In modern times, that eye-rolling adage of ‘women’s place’ can be defined as ‘everywhere’. And as most South African women gracefully walk this high wire, we often wonder how they do it all so deftly.
One such amazing woman is Thakgalo Mashabela; one part of the dynamic threesome behind the well-loved blog A Well Heeled Woman. As most women today consistently juggle several important things at once, we talk to Thakgalo about how she’s mastered this juggling act with such extraordinary ease.
The fine art of planning
“Plan ahead,” says Thakgalo. “It’s the only way I manage; I stick to my schedule and run everything in accordance to my plan. It’s much like the old saying ‘if you fail to plan, you’re planning to fail. For that reason, everything comes with a plan’.”
When asked what advice she’d give other women striving to find balance Thakgalo says, “The first thing we need to do is accept that it isn’t easy to do it all. But we have to focus and find time for ourselves. In that time, we can set our priorities and decide what we need to manage first and get that out of the way before tackling the smaller things. And in setting priorities, we have to stay in tune with ourselves: know what matters most.”
Women make it work!
But even Thakgalo agrees that that’s a tall ask. According to her, however, we have the inherent ability to make it work. “Women are strong and adaptable. When faced with a change in circumstances we might panic at first, but if we focus we’ll quickly solve it. In my experience, women manage change very well as soon as they realise that they are bigger than the situation they face.”
In a nutshell, then, it boils down to the realisation that modern women juggle a lot of responsibility from careers, to family, to interests to causes – and our ability as women to easily adapt to change, plan ahead and make it work.
“And that’s the very insight this company was founded on,” says Marketing Manager of 1st for Women, Casey Rosseau. “Knowing that women have their own needs and interests and making sure that we provide fair cover for them based on who they are. It’s a service offering that’s as unique as it is necessary.”
