• Things might not always go the way you planned. This does not mean you will not get what you want.
• It means it might take a bit longer because you may have to go back and rearrange some things.
Image: OZONE
Happy New Year!
For those who thought things would magically change at the stroke of midnight on December 31, are you all okay? Did it change?
Never has a year been cursed at more than 2020, at least in my lifetime. The way I see it, every year is someone's worst year. People lose loved ones every day. Diseases kill thousands, if not millions daily. Employees get laid off, and business people lose their means to earn a living. Last year had a lot of press though. I dare say 2020 was blamed for more things than the devil.
I am not trying to downplay anyone’s pain or heartache but life happens every year and we all know it is not just a bed of roses. That we were forced to slow down may have made life’s mishaps a little louder than usual. We had time to really sit in our corners and really think about our lives. Maybe that was part of the reason 2020 stunk so much. We finally looked inwards.
Many are now praying and hoping that the New Year will be kinder. I remember a dark time in my life when I thought the success of the New Year depended on how hoarse I screamed myself in a church. The pastor would ask us to scream how the next year would be our year and we would oblige. How lazy and audacious! To think just yelling would make a change as if we were the only ones capable of yelling. As if we knew this secret that only worked for us. As if we were special.
Of course all the things we yelled for never materialised. I guess that was the whole point. To keep us going and hoping. I mean, if it worked, we would never go back.
Someone once said to me that the world runs on principles. If you cook meat, it will be good enough to eat. If you leave it on the counter, no matter how many religious scriptures you recite to it, no matter how loud you shout or how vigorous you dance, it will be raw.
Another quote caught my eye, "The success of the New Year depends on what you bring to the New Year". It depends on you. You decide.
Things might not always go the way you planned. This does not mean you will not get what you want. It means it might take a bit longer because you may have to go back and rearrange some things. Hope, prayers and affirmations are not strategies, please. You need to deliberate action.
As we get into 2021, let us do so consciously. Let us live on purpose. We cannot just sit and hope that because the calendar says it is a new year that things will magically change. That is where we go wrong. Things will change only if we change them.
A relative of mine passed away a few days to the New Year and I remember sharing with someone. They said, “Oh dear, can this year just end, too many people dying!”
We really need to remember we are adults. People will not start being immortal because the year is new.
We must take ownership of what we did or did not do last year. It is easy to just propagate a narrative and somehow feel good about doing nothing. The euphoria of “New Year, new me!” and leave it at that. You can only be new if you change, otherwise every year you will be begging the air for a better new year.
So we have agreed, whatever we do, it is on purpose. There is no hocus pocus. Do your thing. Do not wait for the man or woman, the markets or the trends. If it needs doing, it is up to you. Weigh your options and go for it.
By now we have already figured out that life is short. As Rick Ross said in an interview I watched the other day, “Go harder than you did, whatever you thought you did was not enough. Find a way to enjoy it, push yourself. Master the game.”
May your 2021 be as great as you make it.