Achieving your resolutions this year

 “last year I could not achieve my new year resolutions”. Does this sound familiar?

A lot of people find them­selves making this state­ment year after year. At the beginning of each year, they are full of conviction that the resolutions they make will definitely be achieved only to realise sadly, that the things they resolved to achieve by the end of year have not ma­terialised.

This situation creates a sense of despondency and if not addressed with time, could demotivate a person to lose confidence in himself.

I have not seen any survey that reveals the effect of this on people who attempt suicide, but I believe it can easily drive a person to lose hope in life, which can easily influence him or her to take his or her own life.

Setting goals for the year is therefore something that should be taken seriously to prevent serious mental conse­quences and you should also not ignore the God factor, it is very helpful.

The first thing to consider in setting New Year resolu­tions is determination. It is important that you have a clear understanding of what you want to achieve, in other words to have a clear picture of what success looks like for you and to make a personal commitment to ensure its or their achievement.

In other words nothing is going to be a hindrance to the attainment of what you have imagined to acquire, or the height you want to attain or the exams you want to pass or whatever.

Having decided on the thing or things you want to achieve, then comes the strategy because without a strategy, there is no plan. Assuming your goal is to write an exam for a certificate and you are a worker you definite­ly have a strategy of utilising or maximising the time avail­able to you both at work and at home.

The plan then will be to use part of your break time to study and after work you either stay in the office or do some more studies if you are living in an area where there is frequent power outages.

A project management approach should be adopted and the implementation of the plan should have specified review stages. It is important to evaluate progress of the execution of the plan other­wise you may not successfully achieve the desired goals.

There are issues or circum­stances that can affect the plan so it is important to re­view and if necessary modify and continue. Adjustment is a necessity of life due to uncertainties.

No matter how well you plan, life with its uncertain­ties can happen, which will require some adjustments otherwise the set goals, cannot be attained. A typi­cal example is the Covid-19, which disrupted the plans of many countries.

Any country which refused to adjust its budget was definitely going to encounter serious challenges. What is important is to identify opportunities that such chal­lenges may bring.

During the COVID era, local industries started producing nose masks, sanitary items etc., boosting the local econ­omy. In my personal life the COVID era provided me with an opportunity to meditate a lot on the word of God and boosted my relationship with God.

A man once told me that any calamity, disaster or any misfortune that you encoun­ter, try to identify the op­portunity it brings instead of focusing on the challenges.

Determination is the value you must cherish in your quest to attaining your New Year resolutions. You need to have a mindset of overcom­ing every obstacle until your goals are attained.

Let this year be a different year where you would achieve at least 90 per cent of your resolutions so that at the end of the year, your usual statement would change into a positive one that “I was able to achieve my New Year resolutions“. God bless.

By Laud Kissi-Mensah