2018 What’s New. . .

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So 2018 is has arrived what has changed? If you are like me you still woke up in the same bed, the same house, still have the same clothes, same qualifications and so on. Yesterday I went to bed feeling excited that indeed 2018 is my year (as always is the case every year-end). If I’m being honest this feeling started sometime back when I wrote down my plans for 2018 waiting for the Newyear to come.

However, now that it’s here I noticed this morning that this could very well be a continuation of 2017 since 99% of the things around me remained the same. Today might as well be 32 December 2017 if I were to exaggerate a little. The truth is that the only thing that will make today and the rest of the next 364 days to come any different is a change in mindset and actions.

As long as you and I do the same thing we were doing yesterday everything will remain the same except for the date on the calendar. It’s easy to look at the change in calendar dates as a change in our own lives but this is hardly ever the case. If we want to change 2018 we have to make it happen by taking acting and doing something. It’s the choices we make today that will determine the difference between our yesterday and today.

Now that we have sent and received all those Happy New Year messages it’s now up to each of us to define how ‘new’ 2018 will be. My greatest challenge when it comes to moving forward and getting things done has always been procrastination. Telling myself I will do it later either out of fear, doubt, confusion or sometimes pure laziness. However, the truth is that the first step to getting anything done is to start, if you don’t start you will never accomplish anything.

So if it’s a book start by writing a paragraph, if it’s a business write a plan and invest a dollar, if it’s school apply and register for one course, if it’s saving start with as little as a dollar a day whatever it is just start now. Don’t worry too much about the result because sometimes times we get discouraged from starting because we are too focused on what challenges may come along our way before we reach the end.

I say rather take it a day at a time, slowly but surely. Deal with issues as they come up if you fall pick yourself up, learn from your mistakes and keep moving. Don’t worry about what others are doing or how fast they are doing it instead, run your race and aim to finish. Be like my brother he has been running the Comrades Marathon for several years now. Whilst there is always someone else who comes first his main objective is to always finish the race and do better than he did in the previous race. Who knows the more he continues to focus on improving his last performance perhaps one day he might find himself in 1st position. He is never discouraged because he didn’t come first but rather his joy and self-fulfillment come from the fact that he started and finished the race. This 2018 let’s aim to start and complete the race.

Don’t drown yourself with too many goals and resolutions, after all, you can only do so much at any given moment. Have SMART objectives, plan, put milestones and work towards achieving your objectives. For some of us who didn’t manage to accomplish the goals, we set out to achieve last year we may have to carry them over into 2018 rather than coming up with completely new ones. Will it be an easy task achieving all the goals we set very unlikely but certainly not impossible. Just remember already one day is gone and only 364 days remain before you know it we will be in December once again. Time waits for no one and once lost it can never be recovered so make each day count.

I believe every new year ushers in a new season and it is up to me to tap into the word in season and activate it into my life. It’s not automatic you have to do your part, the grace is availed for everyone who desires it. Remember faith without works is dead so working is important in other words you need to do something.

Right now I find myself in a sober state of mind as I look towards the next 364 days, gone is yesterday’s excitement of feeling that 2018 is my year, I am here now and the change starts now. I recognize that it is not enough to just feel rather I have to get up and do something lest this becomes just another extension of 2017.

As I conclude, one revelation that God gave me in 2017 was that he opened my eyes to see the people who were taking action and chasing after their dreams. Perhaps in the past, I used to see them but I was not moved but last year I got to a point of pure frustration thinking but if they can do it why not me? Watching and reading about others is no longer enough for me I now have a burden to break out and write my own story and fly alongside those that have already taken off. The good thing is that there is room enough for everyone to fly and soar high in life that’s why we can never tell where the sky begins or ends. By God’s grace, I hope you and I can look back to this moment come 2019 and say yes we have managed to achieve this much. Let it not be just another moment lost in time but rather the start of something great in the days of our life.

Happy New Year and I wish you a prosperous 2018!!!