• Students are not the only ones feeling there is never enough time
I ran across a post on social media that read: “2023 is only four months away!” For some reason, that post stopped me in my tracks and made me ponder the ramifications of the words.
I had never looked at a year in that way. Throughout the years, I have only ever observed the turn of a new year as the beginning of something new, but I had never imagined it in hindsight as time lost.
In just four short months, I will be submitting my New Year's resolutions article. Those of us who make New Year's resolutions have about 120 days to complete our goals for the year.
Time passes us by as we keep making excuses for ourselves. 2020 was the year of the global catastrophe, so nothing much could be accomplished. 2021 was the year we were sluggishly trying to recover before we were hit by the Omicron variant. 2022 is election year in Kenya, so businesses were slowing down towards August. Now that we have four months ahead of us with no excuses and no interruptions, what should we do?
My niece is a KCPE candidate this year. She has faced so many interruptions in her studies since 2020. They are trying to make up for lost time by having extra school hours.
I recently sat her down and told her, “You have had enough outings in your lifetime. You have rested enough during lockdown and all the other mandated holidays. Think of the next four months as a personal sacrifice that will take you through a defining moment in your life. Come December, you can sleep in all you want.”
Most candidates sitting their national exams take this approach. They put their heads down and focus on nothing but studying as they prepare for a quintessential moment in their lives. If candidates have an understanding of the essence of time as you approach a destination, why can’t we?
If you have not done something significant this year, you have some time to make up for it. I believe that every year that passes should have quantifiable progress so that when we look back on our journey through life, we feel a sense of pride in our achievements.
While the last eight months have passed in a blur of uncertainty and anxiety for the elections, we have four months to reel it back in and push towards December with the prospect of achieving some if not all our goals, ready to usher in the New Year feeling accomplished.
Here are some guiding points to make the most out of the reminder of the year.
- 1. Focus on one goal
If candidates can focus on their exam as the end-goal for this year, we can also pick one goal to chase after with all our might. We are more likely to achieve a particular goal if we gave it all of our focus and energy. If we scramble with too many objectives in a short time, we might end up achieving none.
- 2. Sacrifice
I am sure you have attended many outings, had enough trips and treats in the past year. Giving these up for the reminder of the year is a necessary sacrifice to make you more focused on your goal. A sacrifice is like a stepping stone towards our goals, it allows us tunnel vision towards our destination without getting swayed by temptations.
- 3. Review your goals
To go forward, we must look back. When we set our goals for 2022, we had no idea how the year would turn out. Now that we have lived some months out of this year, we know what is or is not realistic in our plans. Sometimes, we are faced with situations that are setbacks in our plans or completely throw them out the window. This is a good moment to re-evaluate our goals, edit them and focus on the ones that are feasible.