What does gratitude look like when there is very little to feel grateful for?We often talk about gratitude after the promotion, the breakthrough, the new opportunity or the answered prayer. But some of the most powerful work gratitude does happens when circumstances are still difficult.In this episode of The Divine Edge, I share one of the greatest leadership lessons I learned during an intensely demanding season: Q4 in retail, the launch of a major client, operational challenges piling up around me — and discovering that I was pregnant at the same time.Everything that could go wrong seemed to be going wrong.It was in that season that I began to understand gratitude differently. Not as denial. Not as forced positivity. But as a co-pilot.Drawing from 1 Thessalonians 5:18 — “give thanks in all circumstances” — I explore how gratitude can stabilise us when pressure rises, help us slow down before we overcorrect, and give us perspective when we cannot yet see beyond the storm.Because leadership is not only about knowing how to fly when the skies are clear. Sometimes it is about learning how to land the plane in turbulence.IN THIS EPISODEWhy gratitude matters most when circumstances are difficultHow pressure can cause leaders to emotionally overcorrectWhy slowing down can actually help you lead with greater controlThe practice of taking “praise walks” during overwhelming seasonsHow faith gives us perspective beyond what we can currently seeWhy gratitude can become a practical leadership discipline, not simply a feelingCHAPTERS0:00 When everything starts going wrong1:02 Gratitude as a co-pilot1:24 “Give thanks in all circumstances”1:54 What leadership looks like in turbulence2:14 Gratitude stabilises you2:50 Slow down to maintain control3:00 The practice of praise walks3:30 Look for a perspective beyond your own3:43 Seeing beyond the storm4:17 How gratitude helps you landWORK WITH CIKIDAWebsite: https://www.thedivineedge.co.za/Speaking: https://www.thedivineedge.co.za/speakingCoaching: https://www.thedivineedge.co.za/coachingConnect with Cikida on LinkedIn:https://za.linkedin.com/in/cikida-gcali-mabusela-74458946#TheDivineEdge #FaithAndLeadership #Gratitude #Leadership #ChristianLeadership

What do you do when the life you are living looks nothing like the life you planned — and the gap begins to feel like failure?In this first episode of The Divine Edge, I open up about disappointment, ambition and the stories we tell ourselves when life refuses to follow the vision board. I reflect on a journey that has taken me from engineering to consulting, technology and entrepreneurship, alongside seasons marked by xenophobia, racism, loneliness, depression, chronic illness and years of professional frustration.Through Isaiah 55:8–9 and the story of Joseph, I explore a confronting question: are we discouraged because our lives are going badly, or because we are measuring them against versions God never promised us?Joseph’s dream was real, but so were the pit, Potiphar’s house, prison and the years of being forgotten. The painful chapter was not the final one.In this conversation, I invite you to reconsider whose definition of success you are using, recognise that an unfinished season is not a failed life, and learn to hold ambition without assuming you can control the route.This is not about minimising pain. It is about leaving room for the possibility that God may be building something beyond what you could have planned for yourself.---IN THIS EPISODE• Why disappointment can reveal our attachment to a particular version of success• The difficult experiences that can exist behind an impressive career• What Isaiah 55 teaches us about the limits of our plans• Joseph’s journey through the pit, Potiphar’s house, prison and leadership• Why an unfinished season should not be mistaken for a failed life• Learning to surrender the route without abandoning the dream---CHAPTERS00:00 This Is Not the Life I Dreamed for Myself01:17 God’s Plans Versus Our Plans01:39 The Life and Career I Never Expected02:40 The Lowlights Behind the Highlights04:40 Joseph: The Dreamer and the Process05:54 Whose Version of Success Are You Living?07:09 Maybe Not Getting Your Plan Is the Point---SCRIPTURE REFERENCEDIsaiah 55:8–9Genesis 37–41 — The story of Joseph---WORK WITH CIKIDAWebsite: https://www.thedivineedge.co.za/Speaking: https://www.thedivineedge.co.za/speakingCoaching: https://www.thedivineedge.co.za/coachingEssays: https://www.thedivineedge.co.za/essays---CONNECT WITH CIKIDAYouTube:   / @thedivineedgebycikida  Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/the_divine_edge/LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/cikida-gcali-m...TikTok:https://www.tiktok.com/@mrsmabs_Substack:https://substack.com/@thedivineedge---ABOUT THE DIVINE EDGEThe Divine Edge is my leadership platform exploring conviction, ambition, faith, pressure and the lifelong work of becoming.Drawing from my experience as the founder of LOURO, a former McKinsey consultant and a former Uber Eats GM, I have created this space for honest conversations about the questions serious leaders keep returning to.The Divine Edge exists to help leaders build extraordinary lives and careers from Source, not pressure.Subscribe for Part 2, where I share more about surrender, my journey in technology and what happened after four years of professional frustration.#TheDivineEdge #FaithAndLeadership #ChristianLeadership #TrustGodsPlan #PurposefulLiving

What if the identity you worked so hard to build is the very thing standing between you and the life God is calling you into?For ambitious people, identity can quietly become attached to qualifications, titles, achievements, past experiences and the version of success we believe we should pursue. Then every misunderstanding feels like disrespect, every closed door feels like rejection, and every impressive opportunity looks like purpose—because our ego has learned to protect the person we have constructed.In the final part of the This Is Not the Life I Dreamed for Myself series, Cikida explores what happens when what we do becomes confused with who we are. Drawing on ideas from Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth and the words “I Am Who I Am” in Exodus 3:14, she examines identity, ego, collective pain and the freedom of being rooted in God rather than performance.This is not an argument against ambition, qualifications or achievement. It is an invitation to allow them to become expressions of your gifts—not evidence that you are worthy.Because sometimes the obstacle is not a lack of favour or talent. Sometimes we are pursuing an identity God never asked us to carry.IN THIS EPISODE• How ego creates a false identity from achievements, possessions and the past• How personal and collective pain can shape the way we interpret situations• Why attaching our worth to titles can manufacture unnecessary suffering• What “I Am Who I Am” teaches us about identity beyond performance• How ambition can create identity detours that look like purpose• Why surrender often reveals how the different parts of our lives connectCHAPTERS00:00 The identity behind our unhappiness00:37 A New Earth and freedom beyond ego01:20 How we become authors of our own suffering01:42 Collective identity and the “pain body”02:48 When achievement turns a mistake into an offence04:27 “I Am Who I Am”: identity beyond performance05:23 You do not need to earn your existence06:00 Identity detours: ego versus purpose06:39 Are your prayers tied to the wrong identity?07:04 Surrender, alignment and connecting the dots07:49 Closing the three-part seriesKEY THEMESIdentity and egoFaith-rooted leadershipAmbition and purposeFreedom from performanceSurrender and alignmentBuilding from Source rather than pressureWORK WITH CIKIDAWebsite: https://www.thedivineedge.co.za/Speaking: https://www.thedivineedge.co.za/speakingCoaching: https://www.thedivineedge.co.za/coachingEssays: https://www.thedivineedge.co.za/essaysEnquiries: [email protected] THE DIVINE EDGEYouTube:    / @thedivineedgebycikida  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedivine_edge/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cikida-gcali-m...TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mrsmabs_Newsletter: https://substack.com/@thedivineedge#TheDivineEdge #FaithAndLeadership #Identity #Purpose #ChristianLeadership

What happens when ambition—the very thing that helped you build, achieve and keep going—starts getting in the way of your happiness?In Part 2 of This Is Not the Life I Dreamed for Myself, I share why I stopped being ambitious in the way I once understood ambition. For years, I struggled to enjoy anything that did not come with a visible measure of performance. Even running, something I genuinely loved, became difficult when I could no longer produce a pace worth posting. If there was no scoreboard, public win or proof of excellence, the effort began to feel invalid.That same pattern followed me into my career and my relationship with God. I spent four years trying to secure major partnerships, praying boldly and believing that success would confirm both my ability and God’s faithfulness. Instead, I experienced repeated disappointment.Psalm 103:5 helped me see that God may be satisfying desires deeper than the outcome I am asking for: assurance, identity, wisdom and the freedom to fail without believing He has abandoned me.This episode is about surrender—not the surrender of desire, excellence or meaningful work, but the surrender of the scoreboard. It is an invitation to trust that God may be forming something essential in us while the visible answer is delayed.IN THIS EPISODE* How ambition turned something I loved into another performance metric* Why visible achievement became proof that my effort was worthwhile* What repeated professional disappointment revealed about my relationship with God* The difference between surrendering a goal and pretending you no longer want it* How God can satisfy desires beneath the outcome you are praying for* Why assurance, identity, wisdom and resilience may be part of the answered prayerCHAPTERS00:00 This Is Not the Life I Dreamed for Myself00:38 Why I Stopped Being Ambitious00:49 When Performance Steals the Joy01:46 Learning to Show Up Without a Scoreboard02:33 What Surrender Really Means03:08 Four Years of Losing the Deals04:04 Dangerous Prayers and Bigger Expectations05:01 Trusting God and Still Being Disappointed06:43 Psalm 103 and the Promise of Good Things07:03 The Dreams We Pretend We No Longer Want08:22 The Desires Beneath the Desire09:44 Why I Released Ambition10:05 Becoming Childlike in Surrender10:32 What’s Coming in Part 3SCRIPTURE REFERENCEDProverbs 16:3Psalm 103:52 Kings 4 — The Shunammite womanMENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE*Dangerous Prayers* by Craig Groeschel“Umbhedesho” by Joyous CelebrationA sermon by Dr Anita Phillips on the Shunammite womanWORK WITH CIKIDAWebsite: https://www.thedivineedge.co.za/Speaking: https://www.thedivineedge.co.za/speakingCoaching: https://www.thedivineedge.co.za/coachingEssays: https://www.thedivineedge.co.za/essaysEmail: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])CONNECT WITH CIKIDAYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheDivineEdgebyCikidaInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedivine_edge/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cikida-gcali-mabusela-74458946/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mrsmabs_Substack: https://substack.com/@thedivineedgeABOUT THE DIVINE EDGEThe Divine Edge is a leadership platform by Cikida Gcali-Mabusela—founder of LOURO, former McKinsey consultant and former Uber Eats GM—helping leaders in high-stakes environments build extraordinary lives and careers from Source, not pressure.This channel explores conviction, leadership under pressure, ambition, identity, faith and the lifelong work of becoming.Subscribe and stay tuned for Part 3, where we will explore identity, God’s will and the ways we can unknowingly stand in the way of what He is doing.#TheDivineEdge #FaithAndLeadership #ChristianLeadership #SurrenderToGod #AmbitionAndFaith

What happens when the path that made you successful no longer feels like the path you were made to follow?Most of us begin life in the same lane. We go to school, work hard, achieve the next milestone and follow the version of success we were given. For a while, it works. Then the lanes begin to split.Your gifts, your contribution and the person God made you to be may no longer fit neatly inside everybody else’s definition of a successful life. Yet instead of trusting what is unfolding within us, we often begin performing for the gallery—going left when we are told to go left and right when we are told to go right.Eventually, carrying somebody else’s version of success becomes exhausting.In this introduction to The Divine Edge, Cikida Gcali-Mabusela explores what it means to stop performing and begin building from source: from conviction, identity, faith and the truth of who you were made to be.The Divine Edge is for leaders, founders and people building ambitious lives who know that the straight and narrow blueprint does not always exist—and who are ready to pursue success without losing themselves along the way.IN THIS EPISODE• Why the traditional blueprint for success eventually stops working• What happens when your gifts no longer fit the expected path• How pressure turns achievement into performance• Why borrowed definitions of success become exhausting• Building an ambitious life from identity, conviction and faith• The vision behind The Divine EdgeWORK WITH CIKIDAWebsite:https://www.thedivineedge.co.za/Speaking:https://www.thedivineedge.co.za/speakingCoaching:https://www.thedivineedge.co.za/coachingEssays:https://www.thedivineedge.co.za/essaysEmail:[email protected] THE DIVINE EDGEYouTube:   / @thedivineedgebycikida  Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/thedivine_edge/LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/cikida-gcali-m...TikTok:https://www.tiktok.com/@mrsmabs_Substack:https://substack.com/@thedivineedgeTIMESTAMPS00:00 When success becomes performance00:13 The lane we are all told to follow00:25 When your path begins to split00:39 Performing for the gallery00:51 Carrying somebody else’s definition of success01:04 The straight and narrow path does not exist01:15 Build from source, not pressure#Leadership #Identity #Purpose #FaithAndLeadership #PersonalGrowth