Feb. 24, 2025
"Half my face had collapsed." A life affected by Bell's palsy
The player is loading ...
In this episode, we explore how Lesego’s life changed when he developed Bell’s Palsy, and what it took for him to reframe identity, hope, and resilience
If you've been listening to something shifted for a while, you've probably wondered about your own life quake. For Lesego, there are two distinct moments when the ground beneath his feet gave way. When he was fifteen, his dad passed away. And again, when he was 32, he thought he was having a stroke.
Eventually, it was confirmed that Lesego Majatladi had Bell's Palsy.
Bells Palsy is a strange condition which doctors can only diagnose once every other possibility has been ruled out.
An unexplained paralysis of facial muscles often associated with the latent effects of stress, Bell’s palsy begins suddenly and can get progressively worse.
In Lesego’s case, contracting Bell’s palsy was an acknowledgement that the life he had wasn’t what he wanted for himself, and things needed to change.
QUOTES:
'I stopped interacting with the world more than anything because it became an irritation. You walk into a room and people literally gasp, and then you must explain what's going on.'
'Experiencing Bell's palsy at 32 was terrifying, but it forced me to reevaluate my life and priorities.'
'The gift of Bell's palsy is an appreciation of mortality. You suddenly realize that life is not guaranteed, and if you want to do things, you better do them.'
GET 50% OFF YOUR FIRST UCOOK ORDER:
Use the code #SHIFT50 at check out.
👉🏼 https://ucook.co.za/
WEBSITE:
👉🏼 https://somethingshifted.co.za
INSTAGRAM:
👉🏼 https://www.instagram.com/seanloots
RECORDED AT LATITUDE PODCAST STUDIO:
👉🏼 https://www.staylatitude.co.za/latitude-podcast-studio/ Youtube · Instagram · Website · 3-2-1 Shift Newsletter
00:00 - Intro
05:05 - Bell's Palsy Diagnosis
07:21 - The impact of bell's palsy
09:46 - Reflections and realisations
13:11 - Dad's gift to Lesego
19:01 - Transformation
WEBVTT - This file has cues.
00:00:00.140 --> 00:00:02.351
Hey, how are you?
00:00:02.732 --> 00:00:12.237
And if you say you're fine, I'm going to assume you mean like the acronym, freaked out,
insecure, neurotic and emotional.
00:00:13.658 --> 00:00:16.579
So have you heard the term lifequake?
00:00:16.880 --> 00:00:26.465
Well, in this podcast, we talk about lifequakes, those unpredictable seismic shifts that
in time lead to profound personal growth and empowerment.
00:00:26.965 --> 00:00:28.536
Here, you can expect
00:00:28.536 --> 00:00:35.054
heartfelt stories that reveal both the joy and the discomfort of unexpected change.
00:00:35.755 --> 00:00:38.999
And I think you're going to like it here.
00:00:40.001 --> 00:00:44.706
My name is Sean and this is Something Shifted.
00:00:49.048 --> 00:00:52.009
Today's story belongs to Lesego.
00:00:52.558 --> 00:00:56.303
15 years ago, 2010, and half my face had collapsed.
00:00:57.226 --> 00:00:59.889
And I was like, okay, what's going on?
00:01:00.391 --> 00:01:02.333
My father died from a stroke.
00:01:03.756 --> 00:01:07.321
So part of my process is, am I having a stroke?
00:01:08.494 --> 00:01:09.588
What's next?
00:01:17.166 --> 00:01:22.266
I know, you're busy and planning what your family will eat isn't always top of mind.
00:01:22.266 --> 00:01:28.166
Well, that's why we love YouCook and I can give you 50 % off your first order.
00:01:28.226 --> 00:01:38.486
YouCook has really helped us eat tasty, nutritious food and it saves me from spending time
in the shops because they deliver all of the ingredients for my chosen meal kits right to
00:01:38.486 --> 00:01:39.366
my door.
00:01:39.446 --> 00:01:46.484
YouCook's always adding new recipes to the website and I've even picked up some new skills
because of their easy to follow recipe cards.
00:01:46.484 --> 00:01:52.596
And because YouCook gives you exactly what you need for each recipe, you never waste any
food.
00:01:52.796 --> 00:01:54.956
I love the convenience.
00:01:55.036 --> 00:02:07.200
I love the variety and the flexibility of their meal kits because you can choose two,
three or four different dishes to feed one, two, three or four people and stay in control
00:02:07.200 --> 00:02:08.840
of how much you spend.
00:02:08.840 --> 00:02:11.441
Everything on the website looks amazing.
00:02:11.441 --> 00:02:15.310
So choose from meal kits or ready-made frozen crafts.
00:02:15.310 --> 00:02:18.850
Weekend boxes, desserts, pizza, lunch boxes, wine.
00:02:18.850 --> 00:02:22.150
They've got it and you can have it for less.
00:02:22.150 --> 00:02:31.290
Go to youcook.co.za and use my code hash shift 50 and pay half price for your first order.
00:02:31.310 --> 00:02:32.470
Go get it, shifters.
00:02:32.470 --> 00:02:42.910
That's youcook.co.za and use the code hash shift 50 at checkout to get 50 % off your first
order.
00:02:42.910 --> 00:02:44.310
Do it today.
00:02:54.464 --> 00:03:00.916
If you've been listening to something shifted for a while, you've probably wondered about
your own life quake.
00:03:01.437 --> 00:03:06.459
Well, have you pinpointed the moment that things changed radically in your life yet?
00:03:06.899 --> 00:03:13.182
For Lesego, there are two distinct moments when the ground beneath his feet gave way.
00:03:13.742 --> 00:03:17.163
When he was 15, his dad passed away.
00:03:17.444 --> 00:03:23.356
And when he was 32, Lesego thought he was having a stroke.
00:03:24.014 --> 00:03:26.075
I can tell you exactly what happened.
00:03:27.257 --> 00:03:33.541
There was like a local kind of a retail cafe like down the road.
00:03:34.042 --> 00:03:37.264
Went there to buy the paper, the star.
00:03:37.525 --> 00:03:42.579
And at the time I was developing a bit of a smoking habit, but not fully acknowledged.
00:03:42.579 --> 00:03:45.632
So I used to, they used to buy like single cigarettes.
00:03:45.632 --> 00:03:49.414
So I bought a single cigarette and I lit it.
00:03:49.635 --> 00:03:51.676
And I just couldn't pull on the cigarette.
00:03:52.377 --> 00:03:54.078
And I thought, God.
00:03:54.414 --> 00:03:55.814
fake cigarettes.
00:03:55.894 --> 00:03:59.694
The protocol I had at the time was to smoke the cigarette and then brush my teeth.
00:04:00.054 --> 00:04:11.054
And so I tried to, you know, kind of smoke the cigarette and then went to brush my teeth
and looked in the mirror and half my face had collapsed.
00:04:11.320 --> 00:04:12.032
you
00:04:12.750 --> 00:04:15.232
I was like, okay, what's going on?
00:04:15.734 --> 00:04:17.655
My father died from a stroke.
00:04:19.098 --> 00:04:22.642
So part of my process is, am I having a stroke?
00:04:23.072 --> 00:04:33.856
As the second eldest of six kids and the firstborn son, Lesego stepped into a role that
was never meant for him when his father died.
00:04:34.238 --> 00:04:40.866
And then 15 years ago, Lesego woke up in a body that stress had changed.
00:04:41.630 --> 00:04:43.452
And so I'm this conversation with myself.
00:04:43.452 --> 00:04:45.052
Am I having a stroke?
00:04:45.830 --> 00:04:50.837
I'm like, but if I was having a stroke, would I be able to think about whether I was
having a stroke?
00:04:51.638 --> 00:04:52.259
No.
00:04:52.259 --> 00:04:57.663
Like, so you've got your faculties, like, are working, the fact that you're having this
conversation with yourself.
00:04:57.744 --> 00:05:00.286
Okay, so now you need to go to a doctor.
00:05:00.286 --> 00:05:01.378
There's nobody else in the house.
00:05:01.378 --> 00:05:03.087
You need to go to a doctor.
00:05:03.628 --> 00:05:04.629
Can you drive?
00:05:04.629 --> 00:05:05.750
Yeah, I think I can drive.
00:05:05.750 --> 00:05:10.333
Okay, but you need to shower now and get into a shower.
00:05:10.446 --> 00:05:12.627
I can't close my one eye.
00:05:12.807 --> 00:05:15.108
I then get swimming goggles.
00:05:15.728 --> 00:05:24.432
I put the swimming goggles on and I shower and I get dressed and I get into a car and I
drive to my local GP.
00:05:24.612 --> 00:05:25.333
She's not there.
00:05:25.333 --> 00:05:31.875
There's a young doctor who's there in her stead in Locom and she freaks out.
00:05:32.056 --> 00:05:33.956
So she's not very reassuring.
00:05:35.037 --> 00:05:37.658
And she says, you've got bells, palsy.
00:05:38.584 --> 00:05:45.602
But then she then says for her to be able to definitively diagnose me as that, we need to
run tests.
00:05:45.932 --> 00:05:47.603
So they run the tests.
00:05:48.925 --> 00:05:56.610
Lesego goes to see an audiologist, an ENT, and they run a bunch of blood tests.
00:05:56.871 --> 00:06:00.013
The not knowing is exhausting.
00:06:00.574 --> 00:06:02.796
Eventually it's confirmed.
00:06:02.796 --> 00:06:05.658
Lesego has Bell's palsy.
00:06:07.700 --> 00:06:12.644
Bell's palsy is a strange condition to have.
00:06:12.824 --> 00:06:15.306
We don't really know what causes it.
00:06:15.586 --> 00:06:18.487
There is no test for it.
00:06:18.948 --> 00:06:24.570
You get to the diagnosis once your doctor rules out everything that it's not.
00:06:25.231 --> 00:06:33.355
It's an unexplained paralysis of facial muscles that is often associated with the latent
effects of stress.
00:06:33.515 --> 00:06:40.032
It begins suddenly and can get progressively worse over 48 hours.
00:06:41.760 --> 00:06:44.751
It can affect anyone at any age.
00:06:44.931 --> 00:06:51.554
It's not considered a permanent condition, although it can have long lasting effects.
00:06:52.455 --> 00:06:55.996
Most people start recovering within two weeks.
00:06:56.116 --> 00:07:02.279
Some take up to six months and in other cases it doesn't go away.
00:07:03.299 --> 00:07:06.880
There is no known cure for Bell's palsy.
00:07:07.521 --> 00:07:10.222
So, know, you cross your fingers.
00:07:10.424 --> 00:07:19.549
treat the symptoms as best you can, and get down on your knees to pray you're not one of
the rare cases for whom this will be permanent.
00:07:21.390 --> 00:07:27.094
I mean, stopped interacting with the world more than anything because it became an
irritation.
00:07:28.416 --> 00:07:30.997
You walk into a room and people literally gasp.
00:07:31.739 --> 00:07:33.980
And then you must explain what's going on.
00:07:34.101 --> 00:07:39.144
it's how they were responding versus how I felt.
00:07:40.306 --> 00:07:42.347
And the work of having to explain what it is.
00:07:42.347 --> 00:07:47.211
at the time, I can hardly even explain to myself what the hell Bell's policy is.
00:07:47.211 --> 00:07:49.893
now I'm playing doctor.
00:07:51.458 --> 00:07:54.460
Like I said, it's a strange condition to have.
00:07:54.580 --> 00:08:04.527
It can happen in response to diabetes, high blood pressure, exposure to toxins, certain
diseases or after a viral infection.
00:08:04.768 --> 00:08:13.174
When you lose control over your facial muscles, all of the things you never give a second
thought to become really hard to do.
00:08:13.570 --> 00:08:15.031
You can't blink.
00:08:15.091 --> 00:08:19.393
mean, something that we're doing every minute, you just blink now and you just blink
again.
00:08:20.034 --> 00:08:21.295
Your one eye can't blink.
00:08:21.295 --> 00:08:27.938
The big risk is that your eye dries out and causes like real damage to it.
00:08:27.938 --> 00:08:31.250
So you walk around with all of these eye drops all the time.
00:08:31.250 --> 00:08:41.126
So that was the, if there was some sort of physical manifestation or sensation or was the
constant need to
00:08:41.324 --> 00:08:46.078
be aware of the fact that like your eye is getting dry just purely because you're not
blinking.
00:08:46.102 --> 00:08:50.986
Sometimes Bell's palsy can cause hypersensitivity to sound.
00:08:51.046 --> 00:09:00.684
can cause drooling, excessive tearing, loss of taste, headaches, obviously it changes your
facial expressions.
00:09:00.942 --> 00:09:07.722
And even being on the phone is difficult because you have to hold your lips together
because just to be able to speak properly because people can't just understand what you
00:09:07.722 --> 00:09:08.862
say on the phone.
00:09:09.402 --> 00:09:16.762
And when you bite into something, your lips have a role into getting your food into your
mouth and now half your lips aren't functioning.
00:09:16.762 --> 00:09:20.342
And so you're of like chewing with one, biting with one.
00:09:20.342 --> 00:09:22.622
Like it's that kind of weird stuff.
00:09:22.622 --> 00:09:26.722
Our relationship with our body is often visual.
00:09:26.782 --> 00:09:27.062
Right?
00:09:27.062 --> 00:09:29.582
So you don't feel fat until you look in the mirror.
00:09:30.897 --> 00:09:34.464
You kind of like okay with it until you do that.
00:09:34.464 --> 00:09:40.159
Lesego started a course of steroids, went for physio and electrotherapy.
00:09:40.520 --> 00:09:46.346
But something had started to shift for him, even after the first couple of days living
with this condition.
00:09:46.432 --> 00:09:50.323
In a day is like this realization that, I'm not the same.
00:09:50.763 --> 00:09:54.904
I need to put an eye drop into blink to ensure that I, you my eye stays okay.
00:09:54.904 --> 00:09:57.855
And I need to kind of like eat from the side of my mouth.
00:09:57.855 --> 00:10:03.587
And when I frown and look at myself in the mirror, only half of my face is frowning.
00:10:03.587 --> 00:10:04.947
So it's, it's things like that.
00:10:04.947 --> 00:10:11.809
But in the moment, I guess it's a nature of life in the moment, things feel bigger than
they actually are.
00:10:11.929 --> 00:10:14.510
The first week was me trying to
00:10:15.148 --> 00:10:26.715
just get on with life and having these awkward interactions with people and frustrations
about being on the phone and trying to speak to this person about work related stuff.
00:10:26.715 --> 00:10:31.988
And I think towards the end of that first week, I was like, this is, this can't work.
00:10:31.988 --> 00:10:32.969
That was the irritation.
00:10:32.969 --> 00:10:42.294
But, but also I think there was a real understanding that I need to figure out what
happens next.
00:10:43.139 --> 00:10:47.245
So that was the opportunity to then reflect.
00:10:48.099 --> 00:10:49.960
So what happens next?
00:10:50.521 --> 00:10:53.864
Lesego started taking himself for walks in the park.
00:10:54.565 --> 00:11:06.277
It was how he escaped the confines of his living space, released his mind, and tried to
take stock of where he was, how he got there, and where else his life could potentially
00:11:06.277 --> 00:11:07.058
go.
00:11:08.558 --> 00:11:17.081
because I guess it was an acknowledgement that the life I had before just, I couldn't go
back to it.
00:11:17.122 --> 00:11:25.024
A lot of the stress was coming out of a desire to not even disappoint others, but not to
disappoint myself.
00:11:25.185 --> 00:11:30.767
So I had a very, I mean, I had a very, I think I still do.
00:11:31.127 --> 00:11:34.448
Some people might say a highly exaggerated sense of self.
00:11:35.769 --> 00:11:38.110
I think I can do really amazing things.
00:11:38.350 --> 00:11:43.050
And I was going through a time where I wasn't doing amazing things.
00:11:43.050 --> 00:11:50.210
And I wasn't enjoying what I was doing and I wasn't actually making a lot of money doing
the thing I was doing.
00:11:50.574 --> 00:11:55.224
time, Lesego was working as a creative producer in Johannesburg.
00:11:55.224 --> 00:11:58.535
There was a time I was working, for example, in the South African Music Awards.
00:11:58.536 --> 00:12:13.604
You build an army for a particular mission and you oversee that and at the end of it you
have an event or you have a well shot TV commercial, drama series and then the team
00:12:14.164 --> 00:12:14.939
disintegrates.
00:12:14.939 --> 00:12:19.767
I that's the nature of a lot of that media entertainment space.
00:12:19.767 --> 00:12:21.348
It's a lot of freelancers.
00:12:21.348 --> 00:12:25.130
So you build teams and then execute it in.
00:12:25.880 --> 00:12:28.393
very mercenary in nature.
00:12:29.876 --> 00:12:37.245
The thing that I had a full passion for, which is filmmaking, was just a source of
frustration.
00:12:38.498 --> 00:12:40.379
this is such a human condition.
00:12:40.379 --> 00:12:44.864
Why do we stay when deep down we know we need to go?
00:12:45.104 --> 00:12:59.698
We stay in careers, in relationships, in spaces where we need to contort ourselves to fit
in instead of acknowledging when we don't have room to grow here anymore.
00:13:01.518 --> 00:13:10.502
think the one gift that my father gave me was this highly exaggerated sense of self, you
want to call it confidence in self.
00:13:10.522 --> 00:13:12.123
I've never felt less than.
00:13:12.123 --> 00:13:19.006
I've never felt like I walk into space and the people in that space are better than me.
00:13:19.006 --> 00:13:19.926
They might be different.
00:13:19.926 --> 00:13:27.970
They might know certain things I don't know, but I don't have an inferiority complex.
00:13:28.490 --> 00:13:32.937
That sense of self-worth is an amazing gift to receive.
00:13:33.539 --> 00:13:42.324
But the thing I have learned is that our best gifts can become our undoing if we don't
manage them intentionally.
00:13:43.020 --> 00:13:49.292
Sometimes you can run the risk of not being realistic about what you can do in a given
situation.
00:13:49.292 --> 00:13:58.476
Sometimes things aren't working out and your enthusiasm or your passion, your work ethic
just can't fix them.
00:13:58.476 --> 00:14:04.558
You can't put yourself under immense pressure to make yourself proud, to make others
proud.
00:14:04.558 --> 00:14:11.043
For Lesego, that gift of confidence from his dad was also connected to the first seismic
shift.
00:14:11.404 --> 00:14:18.970
The loss of his father and the impact a loss like that has on a boy transitioning into
adulthood.
00:14:21.538 --> 00:14:22.779
death of my father.
00:14:22.779 --> 00:14:29.543
It's like, you know, like we talk about BC and AD, for me it's like nothing was ever the
same.
00:14:29.604 --> 00:14:35.648
I was 15 years old when he passed away, raised by my mother from then on.
00:14:36.449 --> 00:14:38.930
So very close-knit family.
00:14:39.691 --> 00:14:48.157
I suspect that close-knitness was magnified by a loss of a parent at that age.
00:14:48.157 --> 00:14:49.806
I'm number two of six.
00:14:49.806 --> 00:14:56.726
I've got an older sister, but you know, we live in a society that we live in, incredibly
patriarchal society.
00:14:56.766 --> 00:14:59.266
So I'm the oldest boy.
00:14:59.406 --> 00:15:05.286
So that always has its own set of, I guess, specific requirements.
00:15:05.306 --> 00:15:08.966
And I also think I was quite impatient to grow up.
00:15:09.086 --> 00:15:14.606
you know, at 15, I think I imagined myself to be older than I actually was when I look
back at it.
00:15:14.606 --> 00:15:18.366
You know, my father's estate has been wrapped up and all these.
00:15:18.828 --> 00:15:27.624
clue strings and I got quite immersed in that, for example, became incredibly involved in
my siblings education.
00:15:28.345 --> 00:15:30.526
I look back and I think what the hell is going on?
00:15:30.606 --> 00:15:39.362
You know, I would sit and look at my sister, my siblings reports, school reports, and have
a whole session with my mother about who's performing, who's not performing, what is
00:15:39.362 --> 00:15:40.592
performing.
00:15:41.534 --> 00:15:48.218
And not to say I was like, you know, shooting the lights out myself, but I think there was
a, there was a sense of.
00:15:49.142 --> 00:15:54.770
is wanting all of us to survive that moment.
00:15:55.336 --> 00:16:06.315
Sometimes that first quake sets us on a path that is so different to the direction we were
travelling in that we spend years in survival mode.
00:16:07.176 --> 00:16:14.662
And we get used to survival mode, to the point where we thrive in survival mode.
00:16:15.263 --> 00:16:24.570
But we don't realise that in survival mode, we're running on fumes and we become
threadbare.
00:16:24.596 --> 00:16:31.773
He says to himself, Sean, knowing that this has been his own story for the past nine
years.
00:16:34.211 --> 00:16:35.133
Psst!
00:16:36.236 --> 00:16:43.631
We make this show as a labor of love and because we believe stories about possibility are
what the world needs to hear.
00:16:43.912 --> 00:16:55.380
We'd love it if you left this show a five star review and followed something shifted on
Apple podcasts, on Spotify or wherever you listen to good podcasts.
00:16:55.680 --> 00:16:58.282
Go ahead and share it with someone you love too.
00:16:59.938 --> 00:17:01.179
Now where were we?
00:17:02.561 --> 00:17:16.497
Sometimes, it's only when the second quake hits, like Bell's Polsey, that we get woken up
and we have the awareness to evaluate what components of our survival toolkit don't serve
00:17:16.497 --> 00:17:17.468
us anymore.
00:17:19.030 --> 00:17:24.432
so with his one eye open, because unable to blink.
00:17:24.932 --> 00:17:36.297
Lesejo had to wrestle with these questions more than a decade after his dad died, as he
was walking around a park with a collapsed face, dealing with what was right in front of
00:17:36.297 --> 00:17:39.668
him and way behind him.
00:17:40.418 --> 00:17:42.689
There were a few questions I was trying to answer.
00:17:44.384 --> 00:17:47.315
I had decided that I don't want to live in Johannesburg.
00:17:47.415 --> 00:17:48.996
That I knew for sure.
00:17:49.474 --> 00:17:58.630
I found Johannesburg incredibly extractive and transactional in terms of just how people
interacted with each other.
00:17:58.630 --> 00:18:06.063
And that, I think that was a big part of kind of depleting my, do you sound very warm and
fuzzy, depleting my soul.
00:18:06.204 --> 00:18:10.986
I was thinking of leaving the country, but I,
00:18:11.694 --> 00:18:27.021
incredibly close with my family and an idea of not having proximity of some sort with them
just yeah I just didn't feel like I had the emotional energy to do that.
00:18:27.221 --> 00:18:31.283
At the time one of my sisters lived in Cape Town and always enjoyed Cape Town.
00:18:31.283 --> 00:18:37.746
The question around where to next was then answered and then the next question is what are
you gonna do in Cape Town?
00:18:38.134 --> 00:18:43.017
I'd always had a thing for hotels, everything about hotels.
00:18:44.058 --> 00:18:50.554
The real estate component of it, the design component of it, the brand and storytelling
component of it.
00:18:50.554 --> 00:18:54.786
I thought, well, Cape Town and hotel industry.
00:18:54.786 --> 00:18:56.827
And that was the answer.
00:18:57.174 --> 00:19:00.670
I want to live in Cape Town and I want to work in the hotel industry.
00:19:02.115 --> 00:19:12.602
Contracting Bell's palsy became the unlikely catalyst that gave Le Serreau the opportunity
to reflect and something significantly shifted.
00:19:13.262 --> 00:19:19.927
Fortunately the Bell's palsy only lasted about a month and Le Serreau was lucky enough to
make a full recovery.
00:19:20.748 --> 00:19:27.412
He tells me if you look really closely at his face you can still see a slight droop on the
one side.
00:19:28.333 --> 00:19:30.496
But while his external recovery was
00:19:30.496 --> 00:19:36.052
And near perfect, the internal shift was permanent.
00:19:36.954 --> 00:19:47.425
He uprooted his life, relocated to Cape Town and jumped into a completely different career
and ultimately anchored himself in a marriage.
00:19:47.544 --> 00:19:59.941
think probably in terms of relationships with other human beings has probably been the
most instrumental in as a learning experience, as a journey of learning.
00:19:59.941 --> 00:20:04.223
I think my relationship with her is definitely number one.
00:20:04.223 --> 00:20:11.987
I think what the gift, if you want to call it that, of Bell's Palsy is an appreciation of
mortality.
00:20:12.188 --> 00:20:16.250
You suddenly realize that it's not that difficult to die.
00:20:17.076 --> 00:20:23.089
And that life is not guaranteed.
00:20:23.450 --> 00:20:41.980
So if you're this person who thinks that they can do some interesting, amazing,
consequential things, having that kind of experience sets off a timer in you.
00:20:41.980 --> 00:20:44.940
You realize that if you want to do things, you better do them.
00:20:44.940 --> 00:20:47.331
Maybe that's the thing you need to hear today.
00:20:47.592 --> 00:20:55.958
At the time of releasing this episode, we're already two months into a new year that feels
like it only started last week.
00:20:56.239 --> 00:21:10.590
And I'm so aware of how quickly life goes and that the only way things will change is if
we stop for long enough to realize that they need to change.
00:21:11.286 --> 00:21:14.928
came to appreciate the importance of happiness.
00:21:15.466 --> 00:21:33.488
I mean, it sounds very airy-fairy, but I think a lot of people are so focused on success,
whatever that is for them, because the thinking is that one of the end products of that is
00:21:33.488 --> 00:21:34.579
happiness.
00:21:34.579 --> 00:21:36.880
And that's often not the case.
00:21:37.400 --> 00:21:40.942
If anything, for lot of people, the pursuit of that success
00:21:41.726 --> 00:21:44.088
is like the mind of unhappiness.
00:21:44.088 --> 00:21:55.295
they just, as they dig for that diamond at the bottom of the hole, they are digging
themselves into a hole of unhappiness.
00:21:55.976 --> 00:22:02.040
And so I came out of that appreciating the need to be happy because you're happy.
00:22:02.120 --> 00:22:07.894
My sisters are gonna be my sisters and my brother's gonna be my brother until I leave this
world.
00:22:07.894 --> 00:22:10.306
My mother's my mother until that happens.
00:22:10.380 --> 00:22:12.692
My wife is my wife until that happens.
00:22:13.413 --> 00:22:19.058
Those relationships are a lot more important than any spreadsheet.
00:22:19.350 --> 00:22:27.357
And so Lesego's dad's passing shifted him into making the most of his confidence that he
can do anything.
00:22:27.659 --> 00:22:37.728
Bell's Palsy shifted him back to doing things he enjoys doing, at a pace he enjoys doing
them, so that he has time with the people that matter.
00:22:38.349 --> 00:22:43.614
Bell's Palsy reminds him of the power of the gift his dad gave him.
00:22:44.598 --> 00:23:00.915
And so if you go back to this notion of having an exaggerated sense of self or ultra
confident, I believe that at an individual level, I can make an impact.
00:23:00.915 --> 00:23:06.219
Not even we, I can shift things.
00:23:06.800 --> 00:23:08.602
And if I can find
00:23:08.750 --> 00:23:14.115
20 people who believe that they can shift things, suddenly there's a multiplier effect.
00:23:14.115 --> 00:23:23.322
But I know that I can make change and I've seen myself make change in myself, in those
around me.
00:23:24.063 --> 00:23:34.672
And because I have that, it can only translate into optimism, Cultures optimism and
rational optimism.
00:23:34.790 --> 00:23:37.006
I'm...
00:23:37.006 --> 00:23:39.626
innately an optimistic person.
00:23:40.026 --> 00:23:54.586
went for a jog the other day and I was feeling a bit down, demotivated, struggling and I
listened to a song by the brand new heavies called You Are The Universe.
00:23:55.306 --> 00:23:56.426
What are the lyrics?
00:23:56.814 --> 00:23:58.174
arguably cheesy.
00:23:58.174 --> 00:24:00.894
If you can conceive it, you can achieve it.
00:24:00.894 --> 00:24:04.414
And that's why I believe in you and I believe in me.
00:24:04.414 --> 00:24:07.194
So that's kind of like the refrain in the song.
00:24:08.662 --> 00:24:19.130
Lesego Majatladi lives in Cape Town with his wife and enjoys taking time to cook delicious
three course meals and take leisurely strolls.
00:24:19.871 --> 00:24:27.357
I hope you take a stroll today, a time out, to slow down and think about what you want.
00:24:27.958 --> 00:24:32.782
Because if you can conceive it, you can achieve it.
00:24:33.503 --> 00:24:37.586
And here on Something Shifted, we believe in you.
00:24:38.334 --> 00:24:40.364
and impossibility.
00:24:44.994 --> 00:24:48.035
Thank you for listening to this episode of Something Shifted.
00:24:48.215 --> 00:24:55.777
We make this show as a labor of love and because we believe stories about possibility is
just what the world needs to hear.
00:24:56.017 --> 00:25:01.177
We'd love it if you would share this episode and be part of that shift for someone else
too.
00:25:01.177 --> 00:25:08.260
I'd really love it if you left this show a five-star review and followed Something Shifted
on Apple podcasts or Spotify.
00:25:08.260 --> 00:25:11.841
You can also leave a comment if you're using Spotify mobile.
00:25:11.841 --> 00:25:14.796
I read them all and respond and
00:25:14.796 --> 00:25:17.357
I might even give you a shout out in the next episode.
00:25:18.428 --> 00:25:27.273
and don't forget to use my code hashshift50 at checkout when you place your first order on
youcook.co.za and you'll get 50 % off.
00:25:28.314 --> 00:25:37.559
Join my mailing list 321 shift and you'll start the week off right with three things for
your mind, two things for your body and one thing for your soul.
00:25:37.559 --> 00:25:42.602
Every second Sunday, you'll automatically go into the draw for giveaways.
00:25:42.602 --> 00:25:46.684
and have first dibs on tickets to live events too.
00:25:47.385 --> 00:25:51.468
All the links to all of the things that I've mentioned are in the show notes.
00:25:51.868 --> 00:25:58.492
Big thanks to my executive producer, Ruenda, and of course to you for believing in
possibility.
00:25:58.492 --> 00:26:03.156
My name is Sean, and this is Something Shifted.
00:26:04.237 --> 00:26:04.498
Bye.
00:00:00.140 --> 00:00:02.351
Hey, how are you?
00:00:02.732 --> 00:00:12.237
And if you say you're fine, I'm going to assume you mean like the acronym, freaked out,
insecure, neurotic and emotional.
00:00:13.658 --> 00:00:16.579
So have you heard the term lifequake?
00:00:16.880 --> 00:00:26.465
Well, in this podcast, we talk about lifequakes, those unpredictable seismic shifts that
in time lead to profound personal growth and empowerment.
00:00:26.965 --> 00:00:28.536
Here, you can expect
00:00:28.536 --> 00:00:35.054
heartfelt stories that reveal both the joy and the discomfort of unexpected change.
00:00:35.755 --> 00:00:38.999
And I think you're going to like it here.
00:00:40.001 --> 00:00:44.706
My name is Sean and this is Something Shifted.
00:00:49.048 --> 00:00:52.009
Today's story belongs to Lesego.
00:00:52.558 --> 00:00:56.303
15 years ago, 2010, and half my face had collapsed.
00:00:57.226 --> 00:00:59.889
And I was like, okay, what's going on?
00:01:00.391 --> 00:01:02.333
My father died from a stroke.
00:01:03.756 --> 00:01:07.321
So part of my process is, am I having a stroke?
00:01:08.494 --> 00:01:09.588
What's next?
00:01:17.166 --> 00:01:22.266
I know, you're busy and planning what your family will eat isn't always top of mind.
00:01:22.266 --> 00:01:28.166
Well, that's why we love YouCook and I can give you 50 % off your first order.
00:01:28.226 --> 00:01:38.486
YouCook has really helped us eat tasty, nutritious food and it saves me from spending time
in the shops because they deliver all of the ingredients for my chosen meal kits right to
00:01:38.486 --> 00:01:39.366
my door.
00:01:39.446 --> 00:01:46.484
YouCook's always adding new recipes to the website and I've even picked up some new skills
because of their easy to follow recipe cards.
00:01:46.484 --> 00:01:52.596
And because YouCook gives you exactly what you need for each recipe, you never waste any
food.
00:01:52.796 --> 00:01:54.956
I love the convenience.
00:01:55.036 --> 00:02:07.200
I love the variety and the flexibility of their meal kits because you can choose two,
three or four different dishes to feed one, two, three or four people and stay in control
00:02:07.200 --> 00:02:08.840
of how much you spend.
00:02:08.840 --> 00:02:11.441
Everything on the website looks amazing.
00:02:11.441 --> 00:02:15.310
So choose from meal kits or ready-made frozen crafts.
00:02:15.310 --> 00:02:18.850
Weekend boxes, desserts, pizza, lunch boxes, wine.
00:02:18.850 --> 00:02:22.150
They've got it and you can have it for less.
00:02:22.150 --> 00:02:31.290
Go to youcook.co.za and use my code hash shift 50 and pay half price for your first order.
00:02:31.310 --> 00:02:32.470
Go get it, shifters.
00:02:32.470 --> 00:02:42.910
That's youcook.co.za and use the code hash shift 50 at checkout to get 50 % off your first
order.
00:02:42.910 --> 00:02:44.310
Do it today.
00:02:54.464 --> 00:03:00.916
If you've been listening to something shifted for a while, you've probably wondered about
your own life quake.
00:03:01.437 --> 00:03:06.459
Well, have you pinpointed the moment that things changed radically in your life yet?
00:03:06.899 --> 00:03:13.182
For Lesego, there are two distinct moments when the ground beneath his feet gave way.
00:03:13.742 --> 00:03:17.163
When he was 15, his dad passed away.
00:03:17.444 --> 00:03:23.356
And when he was 32, Lesego thought he was having a stroke.
00:03:24.014 --> 00:03:26.075
I can tell you exactly what happened.
00:03:27.257 --> 00:03:33.541
There was like a local kind of a retail cafe like down the road.
00:03:34.042 --> 00:03:37.264
Went there to buy the paper, the star.
00:03:37.525 --> 00:03:42.579
And at the time I was developing a bit of a smoking habit, but not fully acknowledged.
00:03:42.579 --> 00:03:45.632
So I used to, they used to buy like single cigarettes.
00:03:45.632 --> 00:03:49.414
So I bought a single cigarette and I lit it.
00:03:49.635 --> 00:03:51.676
And I just couldn't pull on the cigarette.
00:03:52.377 --> 00:03:54.078
And I thought, God.
00:03:54.414 --> 00:03:55.814
fake cigarettes.
00:03:55.894 --> 00:03:59.694
The protocol I had at the time was to smoke the cigarette and then brush my teeth.
00:04:00.054 --> 00:04:11.054
And so I tried to, you know, kind of smoke the cigarette and then went to brush my teeth
and looked in the mirror and half my face had collapsed.
00:04:11.320 --> 00:04:12.032
you
00:04:12.750 --> 00:04:15.232
I was like, okay, what's going on?
00:04:15.734 --> 00:04:17.655
My father died from a stroke.
00:04:19.098 --> 00:04:22.642
So part of my process is, am I having a stroke?
00:04:23.072 --> 00:04:33.856
As the second eldest of six kids and the firstborn son, Lesego stepped into a role that
was never meant for him when his father died.
00:04:34.238 --> 00:04:40.866
And then 15 years ago, Lesego woke up in a body that stress had changed.
00:04:41.630 --> 00:04:43.452
And so I'm this conversation with myself.
00:04:43.452 --> 00:04:45.052
Am I having a stroke?
00:04:45.830 --> 00:04:50.837
I'm like, but if I was having a stroke, would I be able to think about whether I was
having a stroke?
00:04:51.638 --> 00:04:52.259
No.
00:04:52.259 --> 00:04:57.663
Like, so you've got your faculties, like, are working, the fact that you're having this
conversation with yourself.
00:04:57.744 --> 00:05:00.286
Okay, so now you need to go to a doctor.
00:05:00.286 --> 00:05:01.378
There's nobody else in the house.
00:05:01.378 --> 00:05:03.087
You need to go to a doctor.
00:05:03.628 --> 00:05:04.629
Can you drive?
00:05:04.629 --> 00:05:05.750
Yeah, I think I can drive.
00:05:05.750 --> 00:05:10.333
Okay, but you need to shower now and get into a shower.
00:05:10.446 --> 00:05:12.627
I can't close my one eye.
00:05:12.807 --> 00:05:15.108
I then get swimming goggles.
00:05:15.728 --> 00:05:24.432
I put the swimming goggles on and I shower and I get dressed and I get into a car and I
drive to my local GP.
00:05:24.612 --> 00:05:25.333
She's not there.
00:05:25.333 --> 00:05:31.875
There's a young doctor who's there in her stead in Locom and she freaks out.
00:05:32.056 --> 00:05:33.956
So she's not very reassuring.
00:05:35.037 --> 00:05:37.658
And she says, you've got bells, palsy.
00:05:38.584 --> 00:05:45.602
But then she then says for her to be able to definitively diagnose me as that, we need to
run tests.
00:05:45.932 --> 00:05:47.603
So they run the tests.
00:05:48.925 --> 00:05:56.610
Lesego goes to see an audiologist, an ENT, and they run a bunch of blood tests.
00:05:56.871 --> 00:06:00.013
The not knowing is exhausting.
00:06:00.574 --> 00:06:02.796
Eventually it's confirmed.
00:06:02.796 --> 00:06:05.658
Lesego has Bell's palsy.
00:06:07.700 --> 00:06:12.644
Bell's palsy is a strange condition to have.
00:06:12.824 --> 00:06:15.306
We don't really know what causes it.
00:06:15.586 --> 00:06:18.487
There is no test for it.
00:06:18.948 --> 00:06:24.570
You get to the diagnosis once your doctor rules out everything that it's not.
00:06:25.231 --> 00:06:33.355
It's an unexplained paralysis of facial muscles that is often associated with the latent
effects of stress.
00:06:33.515 --> 00:06:40.032
It begins suddenly and can get progressively worse over 48 hours.
00:06:41.760 --> 00:06:44.751
It can affect anyone at any age.
00:06:44.931 --> 00:06:51.554
It's not considered a permanent condition, although it can have long lasting effects.
00:06:52.455 --> 00:06:55.996
Most people start recovering within two weeks.
00:06:56.116 --> 00:07:02.279
Some take up to six months and in other cases it doesn't go away.
00:07:03.299 --> 00:07:06.880
There is no known cure for Bell's palsy.
00:07:07.521 --> 00:07:10.222
So, know, you cross your fingers.
00:07:10.424 --> 00:07:19.549
treat the symptoms as best you can, and get down on your knees to pray you're not one of
the rare cases for whom this will be permanent.
00:07:21.390 --> 00:07:27.094
I mean, stopped interacting with the world more than anything because it became an
irritation.
00:07:28.416 --> 00:07:30.997
You walk into a room and people literally gasp.
00:07:31.739 --> 00:07:33.980
And then you must explain what's going on.
00:07:34.101 --> 00:07:39.144
it's how they were responding versus how I felt.
00:07:40.306 --> 00:07:42.347
And the work of having to explain what it is.
00:07:42.347 --> 00:07:47.211
at the time, I can hardly even explain to myself what the hell Bell's policy is.
00:07:47.211 --> 00:07:49.893
now I'm playing doctor.
00:07:51.458 --> 00:07:54.460
Like I said, it's a strange condition to have.
00:07:54.580 --> 00:08:04.527
It can happen in response to diabetes, high blood pressure, exposure to toxins, certain
diseases or after a viral infection.
00:08:04.768 --> 00:08:13.174
When you lose control over your facial muscles, all of the things you never give a second
thought to become really hard to do.
00:08:13.570 --> 00:08:15.031
You can't blink.
00:08:15.091 --> 00:08:19.393
mean, something that we're doing every minute, you just blink now and you just blink
again.
00:08:20.034 --> 00:08:21.295
Your one eye can't blink.
00:08:21.295 --> 00:08:27.938
The big risk is that your eye dries out and causes like real damage to it.
00:08:27.938 --> 00:08:31.250
So you walk around with all of these eye drops all the time.
00:08:31.250 --> 00:08:41.126
So that was the, if there was some sort of physical manifestation or sensation or was the
constant need to
00:08:41.324 --> 00:08:46.078
be aware of the fact that like your eye is getting dry just purely because you're not
blinking.
00:08:46.102 --> 00:08:50.986
Sometimes Bell's palsy can cause hypersensitivity to sound.
00:08:51.046 --> 00:09:00.684
can cause drooling, excessive tearing, loss of taste, headaches, obviously it changes your
facial expressions.
00:09:00.942 --> 00:09:07.722
And even being on the phone is difficult because you have to hold your lips together
because just to be able to speak properly because people can't just understand what you
00:09:07.722 --> 00:09:08.862
say on the phone.
00:09:09.402 --> 00:09:16.762
And when you bite into something, your lips have a role into getting your food into your
mouth and now half your lips aren't functioning.
00:09:16.762 --> 00:09:20.342
And so you're of like chewing with one, biting with one.
00:09:20.342 --> 00:09:22.622
Like it's that kind of weird stuff.
00:09:22.622 --> 00:09:26.722
Our relationship with our body is often visual.
00:09:26.782 --> 00:09:27.062
Right?
00:09:27.062 --> 00:09:29.582
So you don't feel fat until you look in the mirror.
00:09:30.897 --> 00:09:34.464
You kind of like okay with it until you do that.
00:09:34.464 --> 00:09:40.159
Lesego started a course of steroids, went for physio and electrotherapy.
00:09:40.520 --> 00:09:46.346
But something had started to shift for him, even after the first couple of days living
with this condition.
00:09:46.432 --> 00:09:50.323
In a day is like this realization that, I'm not the same.
00:09:50.763 --> 00:09:54.904
I need to put an eye drop into blink to ensure that I, you my eye stays okay.
00:09:54.904 --> 00:09:57.855
And I need to kind of like eat from the side of my mouth.
00:09:57.855 --> 00:10:03.587
And when I frown and look at myself in the mirror, only half of my face is frowning.
00:10:03.587 --> 00:10:04.947
So it's, it's things like that.
00:10:04.947 --> 00:10:11.809
But in the moment, I guess it's a nature of life in the moment, things feel bigger than
they actually are.
00:10:11.929 --> 00:10:14.510
The first week was me trying to
00:10:15.148 --> 00:10:26.715
just get on with life and having these awkward interactions with people and frustrations
about being on the phone and trying to speak to this person about work related stuff.
00:10:26.715 --> 00:10:31.988
And I think towards the end of that first week, I was like, this is, this can't work.
00:10:31.988 --> 00:10:32.969
That was the irritation.
00:10:32.969 --> 00:10:42.294
But, but also I think there was a real understanding that I need to figure out what
happens next.
00:10:43.139 --> 00:10:47.245
So that was the opportunity to then reflect.
00:10:48.099 --> 00:10:49.960
So what happens next?
00:10:50.521 --> 00:10:53.864
Lesego started taking himself for walks in the park.
00:10:54.565 --> 00:11:06.277
It was how he escaped the confines of his living space, released his mind, and tried to
take stock of where he was, how he got there, and where else his life could potentially
00:11:06.277 --> 00:11:07.058
go.
00:11:08.558 --> 00:11:17.081
because I guess it was an acknowledgement that the life I had before just, I couldn't go
back to it.
00:11:17.122 --> 00:11:25.024
A lot of the stress was coming out of a desire to not even disappoint others, but not to
disappoint myself.
00:11:25.185 --> 00:11:30.767
So I had a very, I mean, I had a very, I think I still do.
00:11:31.127 --> 00:11:34.448
Some people might say a highly exaggerated sense of self.
00:11:35.769 --> 00:11:38.110
I think I can do really amazing things.
00:11:38.350 --> 00:11:43.050
And I was going through a time where I wasn't doing amazing things.
00:11:43.050 --> 00:11:50.210
And I wasn't enjoying what I was doing and I wasn't actually making a lot of money doing
the thing I was doing.
00:11:50.574 --> 00:11:55.224
time, Lesego was working as a creative producer in Johannesburg.
00:11:55.224 --> 00:11:58.535
There was a time I was working, for example, in the South African Music Awards.
00:11:58.536 --> 00:12:13.604
You build an army for a particular mission and you oversee that and at the end of it you
have an event or you have a well shot TV commercial, drama series and then the team
00:12:14.164 --> 00:12:14.939
disintegrates.
00:12:14.939 --> 00:12:19.767
I that's the nature of a lot of that media entertainment space.
00:12:19.767 --> 00:12:21.348
It's a lot of freelancers.
00:12:21.348 --> 00:12:25.130
So you build teams and then execute it in.
00:12:25.880 --> 00:12:28.393
very mercenary in nature.
00:12:29.876 --> 00:12:37.245
The thing that I had a full passion for, which is filmmaking, was just a source of
frustration.
00:12:38.498 --> 00:12:40.379
this is such a human condition.
00:12:40.379 --> 00:12:44.864
Why do we stay when deep down we know we need to go?
00:12:45.104 --> 00:12:59.698
We stay in careers, in relationships, in spaces where we need to contort ourselves to fit
in instead of acknowledging when we don't have room to grow here anymore.
00:13:01.518 --> 00:13:10.502
think the one gift that my father gave me was this highly exaggerated sense of self, you
want to call it confidence in self.
00:13:10.522 --> 00:13:12.123
I've never felt less than.
00:13:12.123 --> 00:13:19.006
I've never felt like I walk into space and the people in that space are better than me.
00:13:19.006 --> 00:13:19.926
They might be different.
00:13:19.926 --> 00:13:27.970
They might know certain things I don't know, but I don't have an inferiority complex.
00:13:28.490 --> 00:13:32.937
That sense of self-worth is an amazing gift to receive.
00:13:33.539 --> 00:13:42.324
But the thing I have learned is that our best gifts can become our undoing if we don't
manage them intentionally.
00:13:43.020 --> 00:13:49.292
Sometimes you can run the risk of not being realistic about what you can do in a given
situation.
00:13:49.292 --> 00:13:58.476
Sometimes things aren't working out and your enthusiasm or your passion, your work ethic
just can't fix them.
00:13:58.476 --> 00:14:04.558
You can't put yourself under immense pressure to make yourself proud, to make others
proud.
00:14:04.558 --> 00:14:11.043
For Lesego, that gift of confidence from his dad was also connected to the first seismic
shift.
00:14:11.404 --> 00:14:18.970
The loss of his father and the impact a loss like that has on a boy transitioning into
adulthood.
00:14:21.538 --> 00:14:22.779
death of my father.
00:14:22.779 --> 00:14:29.543
It's like, you know, like we talk about BC and AD, for me it's like nothing was ever the
same.
00:14:29.604 --> 00:14:35.648
I was 15 years old when he passed away, raised by my mother from then on.
00:14:36.449 --> 00:14:38.930
So very close-knit family.
00:14:39.691 --> 00:14:48.157
I suspect that close-knitness was magnified by a loss of a parent at that age.
00:14:48.157 --> 00:14:49.806
I'm number two of six.
00:14:49.806 --> 00:14:56.726
I've got an older sister, but you know, we live in a society that we live in, incredibly
patriarchal society.
00:14:56.766 --> 00:14:59.266
So I'm the oldest boy.
00:14:59.406 --> 00:15:05.286
So that always has its own set of, I guess, specific requirements.
00:15:05.306 --> 00:15:08.966
And I also think I was quite impatient to grow up.
00:15:09.086 --> 00:15:14.606
you know, at 15, I think I imagined myself to be older than I actually was when I look
back at it.
00:15:14.606 --> 00:15:18.366
You know, my father's estate has been wrapped up and all these.
00:15:18.828 --> 00:15:27.624
clue strings and I got quite immersed in that, for example, became incredibly involved in
my siblings education.
00:15:28.345 --> 00:15:30.526
I look back and I think what the hell is going on?
00:15:30.606 --> 00:15:39.362
You know, I would sit and look at my sister, my siblings reports, school reports, and have
a whole session with my mother about who's performing, who's not performing, what is
00:15:39.362 --> 00:15:40.592
performing.
00:15:41.534 --> 00:15:48.218
And not to say I was like, you know, shooting the lights out myself, but I think there was
a, there was a sense of.
00:15:49.142 --> 00:15:54.770
is wanting all of us to survive that moment.
00:15:55.336 --> 00:16:06.315
Sometimes that first quake sets us on a path that is so different to the direction we were
travelling in that we spend years in survival mode.
00:16:07.176 --> 00:16:14.662
And we get used to survival mode, to the point where we thrive in survival mode.
00:16:15.263 --> 00:16:24.570
But we don't realise that in survival mode, we're running on fumes and we become
threadbare.
00:16:24.596 --> 00:16:31.773
He says to himself, Sean, knowing that this has been his own story for the past nine
years.
00:16:34.211 --> 00:16:35.133
Psst!
00:16:36.236 --> 00:16:43.631
We make this show as a labor of love and because we believe stories about possibility are
what the world needs to hear.
00:16:43.912 --> 00:16:55.380
We'd love it if you left this show a five star review and followed something shifted on
Apple podcasts, on Spotify or wherever you listen to good podcasts.
00:16:55.680 --> 00:16:58.282
Go ahead and share it with someone you love too.
00:16:59.938 --> 00:17:01.179
Now where were we?
00:17:02.561 --> 00:17:16.497
Sometimes, it's only when the second quake hits, like Bell's Polsey, that we get woken up
and we have the awareness to evaluate what components of our survival toolkit don't serve
00:17:16.497 --> 00:17:17.468
us anymore.
00:17:19.030 --> 00:17:24.432
so with his one eye open, because unable to blink.
00:17:24.932 --> 00:17:36.297
Lesejo had to wrestle with these questions more than a decade after his dad died, as he
was walking around a park with a collapsed face, dealing with what was right in front of
00:17:36.297 --> 00:17:39.668
him and way behind him.
00:17:40.418 --> 00:17:42.689
There were a few questions I was trying to answer.
00:17:44.384 --> 00:17:47.315
I had decided that I don't want to live in Johannesburg.
00:17:47.415 --> 00:17:48.996
That I knew for sure.
00:17:49.474 --> 00:17:58.630
I found Johannesburg incredibly extractive and transactional in terms of just how people
interacted with each other.
00:17:58.630 --> 00:18:06.063
And that, I think that was a big part of kind of depleting my, do you sound very warm and
fuzzy, depleting my soul.
00:18:06.204 --> 00:18:10.986
I was thinking of leaving the country, but I,
00:18:11.694 --> 00:18:27.021
incredibly close with my family and an idea of not having proximity of some sort with them
just yeah I just didn't feel like I had the emotional energy to do that.
00:18:27.221 --> 00:18:31.283
At the time one of my sisters lived in Cape Town and always enjoyed Cape Town.
00:18:31.283 --> 00:18:37.746
The question around where to next was then answered and then the next question is what are
you gonna do in Cape Town?
00:18:38.134 --> 00:18:43.017
I'd always had a thing for hotels, everything about hotels.
00:18:44.058 --> 00:18:50.554
The real estate component of it, the design component of it, the brand and storytelling
component of it.
00:18:50.554 --> 00:18:54.786
I thought, well, Cape Town and hotel industry.
00:18:54.786 --> 00:18:56.827
And that was the answer.
00:18:57.174 --> 00:19:00.670
I want to live in Cape Town and I want to work in the hotel industry.
00:19:02.115 --> 00:19:12.602
Contracting Bell's palsy became the unlikely catalyst that gave Le Serreau the opportunity
to reflect and something significantly shifted.
00:19:13.262 --> 00:19:19.927
Fortunately the Bell's palsy only lasted about a month and Le Serreau was lucky enough to
make a full recovery.
00:19:20.748 --> 00:19:27.412
He tells me if you look really closely at his face you can still see a slight droop on the
one side.
00:19:28.333 --> 00:19:30.496
But while his external recovery was
00:19:30.496 --> 00:19:36.052
And near perfect, the internal shift was permanent.
00:19:36.954 --> 00:19:47.425
He uprooted his life, relocated to Cape Town and jumped into a completely different career
and ultimately anchored himself in a marriage.
00:19:47.544 --> 00:19:59.941
think probably in terms of relationships with other human beings has probably been the
most instrumental in as a learning experience, as a journey of learning.
00:19:59.941 --> 00:20:04.223
I think my relationship with her is definitely number one.
00:20:04.223 --> 00:20:11.987
I think what the gift, if you want to call it that, of Bell's Palsy is an appreciation of
mortality.
00:20:12.188 --> 00:20:16.250
You suddenly realize that it's not that difficult to die.
00:20:17.076 --> 00:20:23.089
And that life is not guaranteed.
00:20:23.450 --> 00:20:41.980
So if you're this person who thinks that they can do some interesting, amazing,
consequential things, having that kind of experience sets off a timer in you.
00:20:41.980 --> 00:20:44.940
You realize that if you want to do things, you better do them.
00:20:44.940 --> 00:20:47.331
Maybe that's the thing you need to hear today.
00:20:47.592 --> 00:20:55.958
At the time of releasing this episode, we're already two months into a new year that feels
like it only started last week.
00:20:56.239 --> 00:21:10.590
And I'm so aware of how quickly life goes and that the only way things will change is if
we stop for long enough to realize that they need to change.
00:21:11.286 --> 00:21:14.928
came to appreciate the importance of happiness.
00:21:15.466 --> 00:21:33.488
I mean, it sounds very airy-fairy, but I think a lot of people are so focused on success,
whatever that is for them, because the thinking is that one of the end products of that is
00:21:33.488 --> 00:21:34.579
happiness.
00:21:34.579 --> 00:21:36.880
And that's often not the case.
00:21:37.400 --> 00:21:40.942
If anything, for lot of people, the pursuit of that success
00:21:41.726 --> 00:21:44.088
is like the mind of unhappiness.
00:21:44.088 --> 00:21:55.295
they just, as they dig for that diamond at the bottom of the hole, they are digging
themselves into a hole of unhappiness.
00:21:55.976 --> 00:22:02.040
And so I came out of that appreciating the need to be happy because you're happy.
00:22:02.120 --> 00:22:07.894
My sisters are gonna be my sisters and my brother's gonna be my brother until I leave this
world.
00:22:07.894 --> 00:22:10.306
My mother's my mother until that happens.
00:22:10.380 --> 00:22:12.692
My wife is my wife until that happens.
00:22:13.413 --> 00:22:19.058
Those relationships are a lot more important than any spreadsheet.
00:22:19.350 --> 00:22:27.357
And so Lesego's dad's passing shifted him into making the most of his confidence that he
can do anything.
00:22:27.659 --> 00:22:37.728
Bell's Palsy shifted him back to doing things he enjoys doing, at a pace he enjoys doing
them, so that he has time with the people that matter.
00:22:38.349 --> 00:22:43.614
Bell's Palsy reminds him of the power of the gift his dad gave him.
00:22:44.598 --> 00:23:00.915
And so if you go back to this notion of having an exaggerated sense of self or ultra
confident, I believe that at an individual level, I can make an impact.
00:23:00.915 --> 00:23:06.219
Not even we, I can shift things.
00:23:06.800 --> 00:23:08.602
And if I can find
00:23:08.750 --> 00:23:14.115
20 people who believe that they can shift things, suddenly there's a multiplier effect.
00:23:14.115 --> 00:23:23.322
But I know that I can make change and I've seen myself make change in myself, in those
around me.
00:23:24.063 --> 00:23:34.672
And because I have that, it can only translate into optimism, Cultures optimism and
rational optimism.
00:23:34.790 --> 00:23:37.006
I'm...
00:23:37.006 --> 00:23:39.626
innately an optimistic person.
00:23:40.026 --> 00:23:54.586
went for a jog the other day and I was feeling a bit down, demotivated, struggling and I
listened to a song by the brand new heavies called You Are The Universe.
00:23:55.306 --> 00:23:56.426
What are the lyrics?
00:23:56.814 --> 00:23:58.174
arguably cheesy.
00:23:58.174 --> 00:24:00.894
If you can conceive it, you can achieve it.
00:24:00.894 --> 00:24:04.414
And that's why I believe in you and I believe in me.
00:24:04.414 --> 00:24:07.194
So that's kind of like the refrain in the song.
00:24:08.662 --> 00:24:19.130
Lesego Majatladi lives in Cape Town with his wife and enjoys taking time to cook delicious
three course meals and take leisurely strolls.
00:24:19.871 --> 00:24:27.357
I hope you take a stroll today, a time out, to slow down and think about what you want.
00:24:27.958 --> 00:24:32.782
Because if you can conceive it, you can achieve it.
00:24:33.503 --> 00:24:37.586
And here on Something Shifted, we believe in you.
00:24:38.334 --> 00:24:40.364
and impossibility.
00:24:44.994 --> 00:24:48.035
Thank you for listening to this episode of Something Shifted.
00:24:48.215 --> 00:24:55.777
We make this show as a labor of love and because we believe stories about possibility is
just what the world needs to hear.
00:24:56.017 --> 00:25:01.177
We'd love it if you would share this episode and be part of that shift for someone else
too.
00:25:01.177 --> 00:25:08.260
I'd really love it if you left this show a five-star review and followed Something Shifted
on Apple podcasts or Spotify.
00:25:08.260 --> 00:25:11.841
You can also leave a comment if you're using Spotify mobile.
00:25:11.841 --> 00:25:14.796
I read them all and respond and
00:25:14.796 --> 00:25:17.357
I might even give you a shout out in the next episode.
00:25:18.428 --> 00:25:27.273
and don't forget to use my code hashshift50 at checkout when you place your first order on
youcook.co.za and you'll get 50 % off.
00:25:28.314 --> 00:25:37.559
Join my mailing list 321 shift and you'll start the week off right with three things for
your mind, two things for your body and one thing for your soul.
00:25:37.559 --> 00:25:42.602
Every second Sunday, you'll automatically go into the draw for giveaways.
00:25:42.602 --> 00:25:46.684
and have first dibs on tickets to live events too.
00:25:47.385 --> 00:25:51.468
All the links to all of the things that I've mentioned are in the show notes.
00:25:51.868 --> 00:25:58.492
Big thanks to my executive producer, Ruenda, and of course to you for believing in
possibility.
00:25:58.492 --> 00:26:03.156
My name is Sean, and this is Something Shifted.
00:26:04.237 --> 00:26:04.498
Bye.
