When New Year Resolutions Drive Passion

At the end of every year some people, institutions or companies set themselves an agenda to achieve the following year. Call it a plan, a goal, a resolution, a project or whatever terminology that suits your purpose.  A kind of stock taking or looking back in retrospect and assessing performance and then building new and improving standards for the new year.

The writers focus is the individual. Our lives can’t go according to plan if we have no plan in the first place. How successful were your resolutions, plans and targets for the last year? What about the area of career development, personal development, spiritual development, national commitments etc?

Stock taking in crucial in tracking ones progress in life. Such reorientation breaths a new sense of urgency, passion and resilience towards the life ahead.  The philosopher Socrates said -an unexamined life is not worth living. The apostle Paul also warns of examining oneself every step of the way in order not to lose the faith or forfeit salvation.

Sometimes we have some beautiful and ambitious dreams which we sit and watch to fulfill themselves. Only waiting and wishing will keep it been just a dream. We’re aware of some reasons our dreams and plans don’t materialize: indecisiveness, fear, procrastination, lack of belief or self-confidence, indiscipline, abuse of time, laziness and many more. Sad to say but many in Africa live for survival rather than impact. But the story is changing now. Ordinary input will equal ordinary result. Extraordinary input will lead to extraordinary result/output. There is nothing extraordinary on its own; everything extraordinary will be as a result of man’s extraordinary effort into his business.

There are some fundamental principles that can guide anyone who desires the most top in his field. Success takes vision, information and hard work. The law of abundance says that we live in a world of unlimited abundance where there is plenty for everyone who knows how to get it.

It all begins with attitude. It is said that the most important determinant of what happens to us is our attitude to time. Longfellow states – the heights that great men won and kept, were not achieved by sudden flight. But they, while their companions slept, were toiling in the night.

I’ve learned that mastery in any field is as a result of tiny incremental advances, each of which may be small but when added leads to an extraordinary performance. Since we understand that we were created and engineered for excellence – we are therefore not limited by the place of our birth, nor the colour of our skin but by the size of our hope. (J. Johnson)

Let us all pick up some vital lessons in our quest for excellence in the New Year and the years ahead. You must build your daily agenda around your dream. There is no way out of this.  The atmosphere we permit determines the product we produce. Or has your heart not caught fire for any feat outstanding? Know today that – the saddest tragedy of life is a heart that has not caught fire for anything. You are not the pity of the earth- but a time bomb waiting to explode when you wake up that sleeping giant that lies within you.

Napoleon Hill tells us – what a different story men would have to tell, if only they would adopt a definite purpose and stand by that purpose until it becomes an all consuming obsession! Your bull dog determination and persistence in standing by a single idea, is destined to mow down all opposition and bring you the opportunity you are seeking.

Let us resolve today that our dreams will not perpetually remain dreams but with belief, hard work and dogged determination, we can reach those heights and inspire future generations. You are an answer to a prayer. Never give up!!