Reviewing The Year And New Resolutions

It's almost a tradition nowadays for people to make new year resolutions and set new goals for the year. This is usually the product of an end of year reflection on our life and goals and how much closer we are to achieving it. More often than not, these reflections tells us we have either fell short or failed on ourselves on the road to achieving that which we desire.

Depending on the kind of person you are, that might challenge you and cause you to rearrange you goals into lofter goals, or it might cause you to suffer a series of bouts of depression, or cause you to lose your joy for a few days. This exercise is actually a dreaded one as most people fear it will only show their failures and shortcomings, but it's also needed for a proper appraisal of where we are and where things stand.

This exercise is less emotionally tasking on people you can call goal-oriented as they don't usually take stock yearly, but weekly, monthly or even daily, hence they are used to all the emotions that comes with it, whether they are behind or ahead.

I for one, am the kind that only take stock at the end of the year and even then, I just scratch and skim the surface for fear of been heartbroken by an in-depth review that will most likely tell me I'm very much behind.

What most people refuse to learn is that why it's within our power to make goals and resolutions, as these are simply statement of our thoughts, most of the things that will need to align for us to achieve them is really not within our powers to decide. We live in a constantly changing and fluid dynamics, what's set in stone today, float in air tomorrow. While you factor all this into your goals and dreams, it's not really up to you to determine their constancy and all that.

Think of a diligent staffer who has been working under the same boss for five years. The records for each staffer are there of course, but having worked with them for such a long time, the boss knows way more about each staffer than the record can possibly ever say and you as a staffer knows that as you can see pretty much that you're his favourite. It's a new year and you make a resolution to work harder and get promoted on that grounds, great. By the end of January, your boss is transferred and replaced with a new boss who knows nothing about all your diligence and hard work and all that, what happens to your resolution of getting the promotion that year? Gone with your old boss.

Of course, it's still within your powers to work hard, but where's the assurance this new boss will even notice you? How are you certain he will even like your personality? How are sure he's not even planning a retrenchment that might include you?

One of the downside to making goals as well as taking stock of it is the fact that, realising you've not been able to achieve it despite all your effort can be really depressing and demotivating, and that's totally human. We are a species that likes to think we don't like wasting things including our efforts and whatever is wasting our effort, we stop doing.

How Do You Prevent This?

Taking stock of our year is a delicate business that should be done with a certain kind of mindset. We should learn that we ought to be commended not for achieving our goals, but for actually putting all the effort that we possibly could. With a mindset like that, it's hard to get dejected. I'm not saying give yourself false hope or commendation, I'm simply saying recognise the fact that for you to achieve success in any area of life or anything, your effort has to be complimented by other things that are not within your control ( depending on who you are and the ideology you hold, that other thing might be God, nature, karma, friend etc).

Conclusion

When you sit to take stock of the year and prepare your new year resolutions, remember that you did yoJur possible best to get all your goals for the year, and that is the true definition of success, not the achievement of it, but the constant strife to get it until you do. So, pat yourself on the back, give yourself a little treat for all that effort and go at it again.