When I was growing up, we had this thing about writing ‘New Year Resolutions’. This was the highlight of the year, marking the end of one year and beginning of the next.
Somehow a year seemed like such a long period of time. Serious resolutions were made and depending on one’s age they would range from working on academic grades, to weight gain or loss, to understanding your parents and such like concerns.
They say work expands according to the time allotted to its completion (Parkinson’s Law).
Clearly a year was a long time for our young minds noting that most resolutions would be implemented for a whole twelve months. Of course, there was the real possibility of abandoning most of the resolutions by February of the same year. There was also the tendency to have ‘Recurring Resolutions’ having abandoned the same resolutions multiple times within the same year.
Fast Track to the 21st Century
The year 2021 practically flew by at an incredible speed! One minute it was January 2021 and the next minute it was January 2022. One minute we were all so hopeful that the pandemic would be over soon and the next minute we were talking about the D variant and the O variant and well, how to live with it since it is not going anywhere soon.
There was simply no time to write down the ‘New Year Resolutions’ as we knew them.
The older I grow (okay, what I mean is the more experienced I get) the more it is clear that time is fluid. Time can be as much or as little as you would make it. There is so much to be done hence work seems infinite, while time is finite.
What I Want to Do
“What I want to do, I do not do and what I do not want to do, I do” said a certain experienced man in the Good Book. It may not be possible to do all that you want to do. However, you can do more of what you want to do if you can be deliberate and intentional. Then you will have less time to do what you do not want to do. That is just a mouthful way of saying that you can live intentionally and strategically.
Speaking of strategically, a long-time friend, with whom we wrote New Year Resolutions a couple of decades ago, gifted me a book at the beginning of the year. Knowing my love for new beginnings and new adventures Alice Oyaro graciously gifted me Sunny Bindra’s Up & Ahead, an amazing book about Strategy.
Surprisingly, I had been mulling over appropriate readings for the year on the very same day that the book was delivered (talk of divine revelations). Not surprising that the book was promptly devoured by an ever-curious, hungry, and parched reader. And just like that a New Year Resolution was made to read at least one book per month. This book is obviously already changing my life even before January comes to an end.
Present Day Resolutions
One of the main differences between present day and the past is that resolutions are not made on 31st December or 1st January. Instead, they are made on a more random and frequent basis depending on circumstances and happenings. There are many endings and beginnings scattered in between January and December and many seasons that are not necessarily aligned to the Gregorian or Julian calendar or any calendar for that matter.
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The idea today is to have a basic blueprint of the long-term vision then continuously adjust, develop, modify the strategy along the way. Life throws in surprises (pleasant or otherwise) to sprinkle the journey and make that trip even more worthwhile.
Some of the surprises are great opportunities to catapult us to our desired goals, while other surprises threaten to derail us from the path to success. If we stay woke, we can distinguish the elements, seize the opportunities, and mitigate the threats. This will enable us to stay true to the blueprint and achieve our goals.
Millicent Mello is an experienced banker and business writer.