{"id":173993,"date":"2020-12-03T03:04:19","date_gmt":"2020-12-03T01:04:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mypr.co.za\/?p=97162"},"modified":"2020-12-03T03:04:19","modified_gmt":"2020-12-03T01:04:19","slug":"saray-khumalo-the-first-black-african-woman-to-reach-the-top-of-the-world-discusses-the-importance-of-mental-resilience-in-forging-a-purpose-and-changing-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/saray-khumalo-the-first-black-african-woman-to-reach-the-top-of-the-world-discusses-the-importance-of-mental-resilience-in-forging-a-purpose-and-changing-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Saray Khumalo, the first black African woman to reach the top of the world, discusses the importance of mental resilience in forging a purpose and changing the world."},"content":{"rendered":"
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Many of us have grown up hearing that age-old saying that the sky is the limit. Few of us, apart from flying through the clouds, have put that statement to the test. As the first black African woman to summit Mount Everest, Saray Khumalo is one such individual.<\/p>\n

But would you believe that accomplishing that achievement brought her to tears? Having endured several failed attempts prior, Saray recalls looking out across our worldly home overwhelmed by the realisation that even the highest summit \u2013 high above the clouds \u2013 is not the limit.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s this message of hope that Saray brought down with her for young women. \u201cI want young girls (particularly in Africa) to know that anything is possible. It is not about where you are from, what you look like or what the next person says or thinks about you. Despite it all, you have the superpower to get to the top of your world. We are all here for each other and need to enable each other\u2019s success.\u201d
Having achieved so much and having dealt with failures along her unique journey to success, Saray has picked up a thing or two on the importance of being mentally resilient in uncomfortable situations.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs women, we are more mentally resilient than we think. Resilience is defined as our ability to suffer through setbacks and stand right back up again. It is not a trait you are born with. It is a response that you choose through your thoughts, behaviours and actions. Our failures can only make us more resilient and that is the mantra we should all embrace,\u201d says Saray.<\/p>\n

Saray has a realistic view of success, only seeing failure as experiences that she doesn\u2019t learn from. She adds, \u201cLiving limitlessly doesn\u2019t mean there will be no curveballs. Trust me, they will come. But you can conquer them if you persevere.\u201d<\/p>\n

She explains that visualising her climbs \u2013 and life \u2013 going wrong, not only going right, enables her to persevere despite those curveballs. That realistic foresight empowers Saray to, as she says: \u201cnot get stuck in the valley. Mourn, then move on.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no such thing as \u2018I can\u2019t\u2019
Perseverance is a recurring theme for this avid achiever. Mental resilience is an obvious requirement of her sport. Here, Saray\u2019s stubbornness comes in handy. \u201cIt is difficult for me to say, \u2018I can\u2019t\u2019,\u201d she notes.<\/p>\n

When pressed about her failed summit attempts (resulting from bad weather or deaths on the mountain), Saray explains she follows the philosophy of failing forward. \u201cUnderstanding my \u2018why\u2019, knowing my purpose,\u201d is crucial to what has kept her coming back and what keeps her taking on new challenges. That \u2018why\u2019 is wholly centred on the impact she can have in the lives of others as a partner on their journey to success.<\/p>\n

\u201cKnowing your purpose is more about mental toughness than resilience,\u201d says Saray. \u201cIf you are mentally tough, you have some degree of resilience but not every resilient person is mentally tough. Mental resilience is the mountain, mental toughness is the strategies we use to climb that mountain.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is Saray\u2019s upbringing and formative journey that allowed her to understand what it meant to be mentally tough.<\/p>\n

Every hero has an origin story
This life\u2019s purpose is rooted in Saray\u2019s upbringing. Raised by missionary grandparents in the DRC until the age of 13, she is fuelled by the unshakeable force that if you are not serving others, then there is no point to what you\u2019re doing. As a family, their motto was to take only what they need, always sharing with others. Her grandfather\u2019s words ring in her ears, to this day: \u201cWe live on borrowed time.\u201d Since childhood, Saray has been determined to make that borrowed time count, to leave a legacy that is inspiring and impactful.<\/p>\n

As a teen, she was moved to live with her mother and younger sisters in Lusaka, Zambia. A self-proclaimed tomboy, it was this shift \u2013 from the youngest to the eldest \u2013 that sparked her activism. \u201cWhenever my sisters would have problems in the neighbourhood, I would go and stand up for them \u2013 and they didn\u2019t have problems any longer,\u201d she recounts.<\/p>\n

It was the death of a sister, in 2009, that made Saray look in the mirror and question the kind of legacy she was leaving behind. She left a high paying job at a financial institution after 10 years and went to work at the Post Office for just under a year, joining an effort to help bank the unbanked, she eventually moved on, unsatisfied. It was in her next role in the Financial Services industry that she made the decision to tick off a bucket-list item: to summit Africa\u2019s highest peak, Kilimanjaro.<\/p>\n

A mountain deserves a purpose
Informed by her life view and her grandparent\u2019s lasting impact on her own life, Saray\u2019s first summit became as much about fundraising \u2013 for an outdoor gym and library for children in need \u2013 as it was about the climb itself. This dual focus has continued, seeing fundraising and charity become the primary driver of Saray\u2019s climbs since.<\/p>\n

Saray recalls a young girl, after her Kilimanjaro success in 2013, asking her in disbelief: \u201cDo you come from the township?\u201d Realising the potential to \u2018change the narrative\u2019, she counts this as a pivotal moment and \u201ca huge shift in my thinking.\u201d Since then, each of her endeavours, have been married to fundraising missions (largely centred around disadvantaged youth).<\/p>\n

Taking African women to the top of the world and beyond
Nearly 7 decades after the first Everest summit, Saray became the first black African woman to reach the highest of all mountain tops. It\u2019s an unjust delay that doesn\u2019t sit well with this conscious climber. \u201cI want to leave an Africa where the youth see a sea of opportunities,\u201d she explains. \u201cWe are stronger because of the people around us.\u201d Her innate sense of ubuntu continues to fuel her fire.<\/p>\n

Balance
Perhaps it is only by living limitlessly while putting others first, that true success \u2013 a new kind of success \u2013 can be achieved. If Saray\u2019s inspiring adventure is anything to go by, maybe it is this balance that is the mountain we each need to summit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever enables and empowers your journey to success, it will take mental resilience and mental toughness to get there. Find out what balance means to you, what legacy you want to leave and then determine what it is going to take to get there, both mentally, and in my case, physically as well,\u201d concludes Saray.<\/p>\n

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