The Edge of Confidence: Navigating Threat, Growth and the Psychology of Progress
– Insights from the PSASA Johannesburg Chapter Meeting October 16th 2025
By Saul Rosenberg (Media Comms)
The Joburg chapter Meeting took place on 16th October 2025 at The Wanderers Golf Club. The evening was another success with a lot of high energy, and momentum being built from a fantastic team. We are very proud of the work you have achieved this year
Confidence is not just about what happens on stage. It is shaped by how we respond to pressure, how to navigate uncertainty, and how we continue to grow when progress feels hard. We had two energetic speakers Khotso Pekane and Mark Grobbelaar.
Khotso Pekane
Khotso is an up and coming speaker with lots of talent. He explored the Psychological and practical aspects of making progress. He offered a guided process of reflective meditation. Looking at actionable steps to move forward, he had an engaging talk.
Anxiety develops into a crippelling fear. Courage is important to produce your best work. Minimizing mistakes creates the likelihood of creating more mistakes. “Be careful not to erode your self-confidence”, he said. Professional speakers will tell you that courage can keep you going enough to get you there.
‘Life is Simple’ Khotso said. “Why is it that we don’t know what to do but not how to do it”. He gave an example about being a husband. Another example from the work-place. We get hired, and there is an assumption that you should know what you are doing.
We go to school being told what to do and how to do it. Then we get a to a place where people say just do it. He says, “Knowledge is money”. Get clarity. Being told what you need to do isn’t always clear. So it is important to ask what do you mean by that. Have the courage to ask the question. Find someone or something that tells you ‘how’ to do it.
When you find the information do something about it. Get feedback and interact with the feedback. Apply the learning. Most of us are afraid to act. That is a mistake. That is the how to framework.
Mark Grobbelaar
Kim gave a brief introduction. She gave a fun example of imagining your favourite song.
For Mark, people have often asked. People have often asked him what is it that he actually does? He gave an interesting anecdote about a stabbing incident. He holds a sixth Dan in Karate. Self defence is important.
You have power inside you, you don’t even know is there. He spoke about Multiple techniques. Typical self-defence, some unrealistic attacks. We don’t teach self-defence the way we teach martial arts.
He showed a quick video about self-defence. He then did a strength test of punching through a board. He told a story about his girlfriend and a jack in the jack in the car.
In a life-threatening situation, there are only three things you can do. Fighting is an art.
It’s a choice, super simple. Adrenalin over rides pain.
He told another anecdote about his son, who hit him in the throat. If you want to punch someone in the throat, you stand in front of them. Then a story about a girl in Durban.
One of the concepts he spoke about in the programmes is focus. And that energy follows the focus. You have to focus on where you are going and not the problem.
He ended his talk and demonstration with great song.
The evening was high energy overall, with a real atmosphere created with good music and , great effort from the team, and variety of attendees from all age groups.
