1. LEAVE THE FAILURES OF 2013
You cannot make any
meaningful progress this year without leaving the failures of 2013. Those
expectations unmet, targets not hit, hopes dashed and opportunities unprepared
for are better left in 2013. This New Year presents an opportunity to begin
again more intelligently by putting to use, lessons learnt from your failures.
Of course once in a while these failings pop up in your mind and try to rattle
the peace you have, but you have to find a way to keep them where they truly
belong- in the past. This you will
not be able to do if you are not productively engaged at the moment; keep in
mind that “losers live in the past. Winners learn from the past and enjoy working
in the present toward the future”- Denis Waitely
2. MAKE A PLAN FOR 2014
Don’t join the bandwagon that just makes
superfluous, superficial and shallow statements for the New Year in the name of
resolutions-resolutions are more than statements made in the ecstasy, euphoria
and magic that accompanies the entering of a New Year for some people- (Read my articles on RESOLUTIONS). Sit down
with a pen, paper and your very active mind and properly map out what your goal
for the year will be. As you do this, you will find that “the goal shapes the plan; the
plan sets the action; the action achieves the result; and the result brings
success. And it all begins with the simple word GOAL”- Shad Helmsetter.
Ensure that the goals you set for yourself in 2014 are:
Specific
Measurable Attainable Relevant Time-bound (S.M.A.R.T)
Though traditional
management principles teach that goals be SMART, John Adair has stretched the
concept by adding ER thus making
goals SMARTER. That is,
apart from your goals satisfying the SMART conditions, it must be Evaluated and Reviewed periodically. So much has been said on goal setting but
remember that “plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into
hard work”- Peter Drucker
3. BE FINANCIALLY PRUDENT
Don’t be carried away
by fads because they fade away. Fashion in no time becomes unfashionable and
indulgencies could be intoxicating. Commit your financial resources only to
those things that are absolutely necessary and prevent holes appearing in your
pocket. Determine that a certain percentage of your income will be saved (no
matter how difficult it is to save or how ‘small’ the percentage to be saved
is) and be disciplined enough to stick to the plan.
Don’t compete with
those who are more financially buoyant than you are in ostentatious display,
it’s a race you won’t win but will end up drained. Remain true to yourself even
as you strive for an improvement in your finances in 2014.
4. LIVE INTENTIONALLY
It will be a fatal
mistake to just glide through 2014 anyhow. In every aspect of your life, you
should be seen to be functioning with intent, definitiveness and purpose. Be intentional with your life as a parent,
live intentionally as a student. In your career, work intentionally. This way,
you will eliminate haphazardness and clumsiness that lead to unfulfillment and
failure. Living with intent or purpose
will help you take decisions (out of so many options) that are strategically
relevant to your goals and objectives thereby making your attention more
focused and concentrated. Refer to my article on PURPOSE.
5.
ASK
QUESTIONS
According to a Chinese
proverb, he who asks questions is a fool for five minutes; he who does not ask
questions is a fool forever. As you set out to put your goals and plans
to work in 2014, you will come up against perplexing issues some of which can
only be resolved when you ask questions. Asking questions open up new frontiers
for you, adds perspective to the insights you already have and makes the
horizon less fussy. It is instructive to note that “when you stop learning, stop
listening, stop looking and asking questions, always new questions, then it is
time to die”- Lillian Smith. Asking questions takes you beyond the
surface of issues into their underlying causes, consequences and possible
answers. Asking questions sometimes could be difficult especially if you think
you ought to have known the answers to such questions before asking them; yet
these questions have to be asked because progress has to be made in 2014 and
beyond.
6. ADD VALUE TO YOURSELF
a)
If you are a parent, learn how to be a
better parent (read more books on parenting, listen to and watch more radio/TV programs
on parenting, attend seminars {secular or faith based} on parenting, ask
questions, etc).
b)
In your career, resolve to be better
this year. You can do a better job as a marketer, auto mechanic, food vendor,
accountant, lawyer, brand expert, etc by reading more books, listening to more
audios, attending more workshops and training whether at the organizational or
personal level.
You
are a human capital asset; to remain useful and relevant, you must appreciate
in value. The more you appreciate in value, the better chance you stand of
taking advantage of the opportunities that will come your way. This however
demands effort on your part, and this you must be committed to in 2014.
7. GO THE EXTRA MILE
Don’t be contented
doing the minimum required. Go the extra mile and add to that minimum. This is
how high achievers are distinguished from ordinary ones. Go the extra mile in
your home, career, organization, church, mosque, and community. Whether your
effort is appreciated or not, go the extra mile because in so doing, you add to
your self-worth and increase your market value. Execute seemingly small tasks
in big ways and you’ll be set apart from the pack. “I have discovered that the extra
mile is a vast unpopulated wasteland. Most people who go there think, ‘wait…no
one else is here…why am I doing this?’ and leave. Make the extra phone call.
Send the extra mail. Do the extra research. Don’t wait to be asked, offer.
Every time you do something, think of one extra thing you can do”- Kamani.
Go the extra mile in
2014
8. GUARD YOUR DOORWAY
Protect your mind from
contaminating influences. Your mind is the seat of your power. Your power is your
ability to do work. There is no action or work you do (good or bad) that doesn’t
pass through your mind. I want you to resolve in 2014 to allow only those
thoughts that will prompt you to take positive, creative and life enhancing
actions to pass through your mind while erecting a big roadblock against the
rest. You have a life because you have a mind and you have a productive life
because you have a productive mind and vice versa; guard the entrance to your
mind.
9. COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS
A heart that shows
gratitude is a heart with great attitude. How would you feel if you gave a
child food and after eating, the child breaks the plate that was used to serve
him deliberately because to him, the food was not enough? In 2014, learn to say
‘thank you’ for little and big favours you receive. Don’t diminish the value of
what you have now because of expectations that were not met or the ones you are
doubting your ability to meet because in the end, “it is not what you don’t have
that limits you, it is what you have that you don’t use or appreciate”- Steve
Harris (Words not in italics are mine). Don’t diminish the value of your children,
job, health, family, colleagues, neighbours or country by what they aren’t,
appreciate them for whom and what they are and the opportunity they give you to
be a better person.
Count your blessings in
2014.
10.
LEARN
FROM YOUR MISTAKE
It is very natural and
human to make mistakes although some of them are so costly we would almost kill
ourselves for committing them. Yet that is not where it ends. In 2014 you will
make lots of mistakes (big or small) but resolve not to repeat any of them. In
other words, learn from your mistakes. Examine why the goal you set out to
achieve became a mistake instead. Interestingly, some mistakes can be avoided
if you can simply learn from those who have committed them. This is the wisdom
Roy H. Williams shared when he said “a smart man makes a mistake, learns from
it, and never makes that mistake again. But a wise man finds a smart man and
learns from him how to avoid the mistake altogether”.
11.
BE
YOUR OWN PERSON
As much as it is good
to share with others, it is equally important that in sharing you are not just
a consumer, taking from others; with nothing of value they can take from you.
If you are persistently a consumer, your dependency nature will constitute a
nuisance value to others with the attendant disrespect and total disregard they
will have towards you. Be your own man/woman. Learn to stand on your own two
legs; else you will have nothing but a baby value. Refuse to be pampered and
cuddled when you should be in the position to pamper and cuddle; it will do you
no good because “until you accept responsibility for your life, someone else runs your
life”- Orin Woodward.
Be your own person in
2014.
12.
MASTER
YOUR FEARS
Fear and courage are
states of the mind that we experience as humans. You are not less human when
you feel fear because “fear makes us feel our humanity”-
Benjamin Disraeli. The difference between one who is fearful and another who is
courageous is that the later has found a way to master his fears while the
former is mastered by his fear(s). In 2014, master your fears. ‘But how?’ you may
ask. Well, very briefly “fear is a question. What are you afraid of,
and why? Just as the seed of health is in illness, because illness contains
information, your fears are a treasure house of self-knowledge if you explore
them”- Marilyn Ferguson.
13.
KILL
PROCRASTINATION
“Procrastination is the
habit of putting off until the day after tomorrow what should have been done
the day before yesterday”- Napoleon Hill. In
2014, kill this thief of time by cultivating the habit of seizing the moment.
Don’t postpone to tomorrow what you know you can and should do now, because in
the end “procrastination makes easy things hard and hard things harder”- Mason
Cooley
To overcome
procrastination, you need to replace it with superior habits that eventually
become part of your personality- these habits are focus and concentration. But
then “you
need three key qualities to develop the habits of focus and concentration. They
are all learnable. They are: decision (to develop the habit of task
completion), discipline (to learn those habits) and determination (until the
habit becomes a permanent part of your personality)”- Brian Tracy
14.
RAISE
YOUR SPIRITUAL ANTENNA
Be a better Christian
if you are one and a better Muslim if that is your faith. Solutions to some
problems in life will only come if you are spiritually fit hence; do not
outsource your spiritual responsibility to those you think are more spiritually
mature. Doing that will make you more spiritually weak. Wayne W. Dayer, quoted
by Seyi Wright in his book “Choose to Make a Difference” gives three steps for
accessing what he referred to as ‘spiritual direction’.
a)
RECOGNITION- There must first be
recognition of an invisible spiritual force that can be put to use in solving
problems.
b)
REALIZATION- acknowledging the power
that is within you to receive divine guidance.
c)
REVERENCE- communing quietly with the
spiritual force at work within you.
Raise your spiritual
antenna in 2014.
I hope these nuggets
have helped. You can contact me directly to expand on them on 08034618891,
07054243732 and akpaemeka@gmail.com
Be Inspired!
Remain Motivated!
REFERENCES
Tracy, B. (2007). Eat that frog. California:
Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.
Wright, S. (2007). Choose to make a
difference. Lagos: Bluebird communications Ltd.
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