Towards every end of each year, there are emotions while taking a stalk of the past year’s achievements and challenges.
Every December 31 or January 1, we always feel refreshed and reinvigorated, forgetting that it is just one or two figures changing on our calendar. Accordingly, somehow everyone commits to better plans with fresh or even more challenging resolutions.
Towards the end of last year, I was personally grappling with some financial issues that raised my ambitions. I shared it with a friend who advised that I had to practice patience literally because I couldn’t pour from an empty cup. I underscored pouring from “an empty cup” and expounded it more.
To me, it meant that even if you’re to advise someone, you need to be knowledgeable. This precisely means you can’t give what you don’t have. Even when it comes to sports, any serious competitor needs serious training and practice or honing for improvement. This is the only way to endure the usual challenges with great fortitude.
With the stance taken on New Year’s resolutions, usually the easiest to think about are categorised into finance, health, fitness, business, adventure, etc. Each of these goals is ambitious enough that we get excited about them, but they should also be realistic enough that they’re actually achievable.
There are statistics showing that only 8% of the people achieve their New Year’s resolutions. This is a challenge that our intentions lack the stern accompaniment of the requisite actions. Most of these resolutions are premeditated and self-initiated. We all know that there are extrinsic rewards for individual performance in formal settings, but on the other hand, we do things we enjoy not because we expect rewards.
I think everyone needs to read David Allen’s “Getting Things Done.” Here, we can learn to persistently pursue our dreams by breaking down our New Year resolutions from annual goals to quarterly quests and later on weekly or daily manifestos. But to start with, I think it is important to first weigh through and understand how solid our plans or goals are.
I received a social media meme last week that was in the form of a gentle reminder that New Year’s resolutions don’t have to be about positive changes. It ended that one can commit to seeking revenge and remain petty and disrespectful to their foes. Much as I personally find this resolve to be very mean, there is an element of reality in this statement.
In actual sense, it sounds concretely formulated and easily achievable. In my view, it is foolhardy to set grandiose goals that don’t match one’s financial potential. In most cases, these are set in the presence of those who preach the gospel of hope. It is usually better to reflect and start with those goals that you can pursue easily.
This is like knowing the timing of when to listen and when to lend a hand. The former calls for reflection while the latter requires getting one’s skates on. There is no blueprint on how to buckle down one’s goals, but the biggest impediment to remaining resolute is that we set goals too high and eventually run out of motivation.
If your resolution this year is to exercise regularly, it is better to resolve to run 1km three times a week as opposed to running instead of 5km three times a week. Before resolving to build a mansion, secure a plot of land, and before resolving to apply for a better job, have your skills revised with an updated resume.
If you have resolved to be a hero in 2025, don’t omit the hero’s journey through little, consistent commitments. The sustainability of any New Year’s resolution is in making it bite-sized and understanding this is the only gateway to something spectacular in 2025. Wishing you a fruitful year, 2025!
elvisnsonyi@gmail.com
The writer is a concerned citizen