Evolve & Elevate

Zama Mthombeni
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Welcome to Evolve & Elevate a reflective space for purposeful growth and authentic becoming. Hosted by Dr. Zama Mthombeni, a Christian and development scholar, this podcast explores the layers of human development spiritual, emotional, intellectual, and social through thought-provoking reflections and honest conversations. Each episode invites you to grow with intention, live with depth, and rise with purpose. Connect with us Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/evolve_elevate21/ email: evolveelevate21@gmail.com

  1. 2D AGO

    #105.Black Excellency: Meaning, Resistance & Exception

    Black Excellency is a phrase that circulates widely celebrated by some, rejected by others, and rarely examined carefully. In this episode, we slow the term down. Rather than treating Black Excellency as a slogan, the conversation unpacks it as a social idea that shapes how success is understood, how belonging is negotiated, and how growth is directed. The episode explores why many people resist the term, how racialising excellence can feel both affirming and unsettling, and what happens when excellence becomes tied to exception rather than expectation. Moving beyond surface debates, the episode examines the role of exceptionalism, the anxiety that emerges when excellence appears in numbers, and how these dynamics play out in everyday settings such as schools, workplaces, and neighbourhoods. The episode closes by asking what a reclaimed Black Excellency would require one that supports purpose, sustainable growth, and collective development rather than performance or distance. This is a reflective, development-focused conversation about excellence, identity, and the conditions we build for becoming.

    19 min

  2. JAN 23

    #104.When Leadership Needs Crab Mentality

    When Leadership Needs Crab Mentality Crab mentality is often framed as a people problem jealousy, insecurity, small thinking.But what if, in some environments, it is structural? In this episode, we explore how crab mentality can quietly become a leadership ecosystem one that discourages growth, reframes excellence as betrayal, and redirects attention away from leadership accountability. When people begin policing each other’s progress, leaders are rarely questioned. Over time, individuals shrink themselves not because they were told to, but because the cost of standing out becomes too high. This is not an episode about bitterness.It’s about clarity.And once you see it, you cannot unsee it.

    15 min

  3. JAN 16

    #103.Crab Mentality and the Fear of Confronting Limits

    Crab mentality is often misunderstood as jealousy, but it is really about what happens when someone confronts a shared limitation. Using the image of crabs in a jar where any crab that tries to climb out is pulled back down this episode explores why movement unsettles people more than success ever does. Through five focused reflections, the episode examines how limitation becomes normalised, why movement provokes resistance, and how fear, scarcity, and loyalty are used to keep things the same. The aim is not to accuse, but to create clarity about what resistance is responding to when it shows up. Reflection questions explored in this episode: Which limitations have I accepted simply because they are shared? What does someone else’s movement out of limitation awaken in me? Where might moral language be disguising discomfort with change? How does scarcity shape the way I interpret other people’s growth? What am I being pulled back from — not because it is wrong, but because it disrupts familiarity?

    17 min

  4. JAN 12

    #102. New Year , Same Frustrations

    We often enter a new year with renewed intention and the hope that things will finally change.But for many of us, growth begins internally while external conditions remain the same. In this episode of Evolve and Elevate, I reflect on what it means to start a new year as a different person in unchanged spaces the same environments, systems, and relationships that once drained us. I explore the quiet frustrations that arise when growth comes before change, and the responsibility we carry in how we show up while navigating that tension. This conversation is about learning how to grow without making others pay for what they didn’t do, how to avoid becoming emotionally unbearable when we’re dissatisfied, and how to sit in spaces we’ve already outgrown with integrity. It’s also about managing transition well — without burning bridges, withdrawing care, or exporting frustration onto people around us. This episode invites you to reflect on how you carry yourself in seasons of waiting, constraint, and internal change and how growth can be practised responsibly, not carelessly.

    11 min
  5. #101. Over-giving: When Care, Fear & Guilt collide

    JAN 4

    #101. Over-giving: When Care, Fear & Guilt collide

    We often talk about overgiving as if it’s a behaviour problem as if some people simply give too much. In this episode, I argue something different. Overgiving is not about generosity. It’s about repression. We overgive when giving becomes the place where unspoken things are stored: fear, guilt, lack of distance, loss of self. Instead of naming needs, limits, or responsibility, we give and relationships quietly reorganise around that silence. This episode unpacks different types of overgiving, what is being repressed in each, and the relational consequencesthat follow. I look closely at empathic giving as identification with the one in need, how rescue creates dependence, and why imbalance is often the unintended outcome of care that was never meant to carry so much. This is not an episode about becoming less caring.It’s about learning to give without losing yourself or the relationship. Connect with us:  instagram: @evolve_elevate21 Email: evolveelecate21@gmail.com

    18 min

  6. 12/26/2025

    #100.When Cutting People Off Becomes Avoidance

    every year end cutting people off becomes a ritual rather than a decision. In this episode, I interrogate how the language of boundaries and peace is often used to avoid accountability at teh turn of the year. And also how the same language can also describe necessary, ethical distance. This episode examines: Why end of year cutt offs intensifyHow victims and perpetrators use the same language differently.When cutting people off functions as avoidance When it is a legitimate response to repeated harm.This is not a motivational episode.Its a critical reflection on accountability, distance and discernment. Please follow us on instagram: evovle_elevate21 Email us: evolveelevate21@gmail.com

    22 min

  7. 12/18/2025

    #99.Overthinking: Why It Feels Productive But Is Actually Procrastination

    Overthinking can make you feel busy, responsible, and productive even when nothing is actually moving. In this episode, I reflect on how overthinking quietly becomes procrastination, why “thinking it through” can delay action, and what it really costs us when we stay in our heads for too long. If you’ve ever felt mentally exhausted but still stuck, this conversation will resonate. Press play when you’re ready to move past preparation and into action. Connect with us Instagram: Evolve_Elevate21 email: evolveelevate21@gmail.com

    12 min

  8. 12/13/2025

    #98. When Competence Is Punished and Confidence Is Rewarded

    We often assume that competence naturally leads to confidence. That if you are good at what you do, confidence will follow effortlessly. But what if that assumption is wrong? In this episode, I unpack a difficult truth many capable people live with quietly: competence is often absorbed, while confidence is rewarded. We explore how being taught to “let your work speak for itself” can produce silence rather than self-belief especially in systems that value speed, certainty, and performance over depth and substance. This episode is not about becoming louder for the sake of visibility. It’s about discernment understanding where your excellence is valued, where it is exploited, and when silence serves wisdom versus when it costs you. If you’ve ever felt capable but overlooked, prepared but unseen, or exhausted by carrying more than your share, this episode is for you. Because sometimes the most confident thing you can do is stop disappearing behind your work and start choosing where your competence belongs. Follow us on instagram ; evolve_elevate21 email: evolveelevate21@gmail.com

    10 min
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About

Welcome to Evolve & Elevate a reflective space for purposeful growth and authentic becoming. Hosted by Dr. Zama Mthombeni, a Christian and development scholar, this podcast explores the layers of human development spiritual, emotional, intellectual, and social through thought-provoking reflections and honest conversations. Each episode invites you to grow with intention, live with depth, and rise with purpose. Connect with us Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/evolve_elevate21/ email: evolveelevate21@gmail.com

Information

  • Creator
    Zama Mthombeni
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    104
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Zama Mthombeni
  • Show Website
    Evolve & Elevate