Resolutions

Have you ever made a New Year Resolution that you kept? When was the last time you ticked done to a resolution you made on New Years Day? 

Most of the time, even before New Year’s Eve, sparks of New Year Resolutions fill the minds of everyone and the popular saying of ‘New Year New Me’ takes over the media, as everyone enters into an invisible battle of being a better version of themselves once the new year arrives. Everyone begins to make decisions and take steps into being better than they were the previous year. For those who keep journals, pen inks will be emptied as they pour out their heart into their journals, writing everything they want to be and all that they want to achieve; financial goals, personal goals, relationship goals, physical goals, health goals, name it all; drawing up daily, weekly and monthly schedules on how they will live and run their lives throughout the year.

Sadly, most of these goals don’t make it till the end of the first week of January, and most people, by the fifth or sixth month of the year, look back into their journals or flashback to the first few days of the year and can’t seem to understand nor explain why things didn’t go all rosy as planned or why they couldn’t just stick to the things they wrote down themselves. Slowly, they begin to lose all the self-confidence they spent the last few days of the previous year acquiring. They start comparing themselves to the people they think seem to have it all planned out and can’t decipher why their case seems different. It turns out to be a battle of the mind, and soon, the year is over again, and there they are, making different New Year Resolutions, promising themselves to be better, and cutting off every form of toxicity by the following year, and the whole cycle continues.

I’ll be sharing some tips today, on how I’ve learned over the years to keep up with the goals I set and the New year Resolutions I made:

1. Take a Different Approach: I know you were expecting to see ‘Start your year with a positive mindset’ or ‘Get a Journal and pen things down’. We all start the year with great optimism and higher expectations, which makes us have the ‘New Year Resolutions’. This time, take a different approach. Before the previous year ends, before you start scribbling down the resolutions, take a self-check on yourself, your attitude towards things and people, how effective you are in time management (Check out my article on time management in the previous post), your general attitude towards certain areas of life you would like to change, and in what ways you will be willing to set your heart to that change. Make the resolutions in line with the answers to the questions you asked yourself, making sure that the change you’re making, is one step at a time. Never skip a step in the process of becoming a better person because there are always lessons to learn and experiences to take note of. That is life’s way of teaching us.

2. Don’t start big: Never start a plan with a huge intention if you’re not looking at the long term benefits. If you’ve never earned a penny in your life, never make a goal of earning a million dollars in six months. This will only put you into an unhealthy competition between yourself and the media, which never tells the full story of all the struggles, and by the time you’re done, you will be filled with a thousand and one reasons why you are not good enough. There is always a fine line between success and reality. The road to success is never rosy, and so, no matter what you aim at achieving, never start big. Let’s face reality, I know a lot of motivational speakers will tell you it’s possible, but don’t be fooled, life always happens. You might end up lucky, and you might not.

3. Never put yourself in a situation where you feel indebted to someone or something. Read that again. This new year, this shouldn’t just be one of the numerous resolutions but an attitude to imbibe this year. Feelings of showing gratitude to someone for something done will definitely come up with time, however, never put yourself in a situation where you become so dependent on someone that you become indebted to that person. People are easily manipulated through this and find it really hard to get out of this situation.

4. Set your goals before you each day: Someone once said, ‘if you set your goals before you each day, they are certain to become a reality’. The importance of this quote cannot be overrated. Yes, write them down, put them in any place you can access easily, your bedside cupboard, your shelf, your clothing drawer, your makeup mirror, any place you access daily. You should always make a daily reminder of all the goals you want to achieve.

5. Be intentional with your hustle: Envision yourself where you’ll like to be in the next few months or years. Know where exactly you want to be and how to get there and consistently work towards it. Connect with the right circle, build the right networks, surround yourself with people that would love to watch you win. Keep that mental picture in mind, and that alone will fuel your desire to consistently and intentionally work hard, and never forget that to grow, you have to learn and unlearn some things. So be ready to constantly evolve.

6. Master the act of Time Manipulation: Setting long term goals, such as goals to achieve in ten years doesn’t mean you should get half of it done in six months. Such goals require a lot of time, dedication, consistency, and a complete resolve to achieve exactly what you set, or even more. So never be in a hurry to please the internet or friends by hurrying to accomplish goals you’ve set to achieve in ten years within a time frame of six months. You must master and imbibe the virtue of patience and learn how to just deal with time.

Just a quick reminder, the world is constantly evolving and humans are evolving with the change. Don’t be left out in the change and don’t get so cut up with the trend that you forget the core values of life and wisdom. And just so you know, there will always be chances to start afresh before the year runs out, and so you don’t have to wait for an entirely new year. Besides, even the new year does not guarantee an entirely new life if you’re still stuck in the past and unwillingly to change your attitude and the energy you give to people and things.