NEW YEAR, NEW BEGINNINGS

Yaay!!! It’s my first blog post.

Welcome to the anticipated New Year; we are already two weeks deep into the New Year. The newness of it all has started to wear off for most people if it hasn’t totally worn off already.
 Do not get me wrong. I totally appreciate the concept of looking forward to new things and a dramatic turnaround in the New Year. My only problem with this is the magical abracadabra way people approach the New Year. In reality, it’s just another day. Another day that holds as much potential as the day before or the day after.

Setting targets and goals for the New Year, a.k.a New Year Resolutions, sounds like a splendid idea, right? I mean, your intentions are good. You want to drop that habit, get good grades, be a better person, your own boss or whatever it is you have written in your secret book of magical transformations.

As noble and harmless as the idea of New Year resolutions sound, the wrong approach to it can leave you feeling like a failure at the end of the year. And sometimes stops you from genuinely noticing how far you have come and all the other things you have achieved that you didn’t set out to at the beginning of the year.

In deciding what you want out of the New Year, it’s important to know what is and what isn’t in your control. For example, while being a better person in the New Year is something you can control, having a boyfriend this year isn’t. Yes, you can work on yourself, be a happy person because “you are what you attract,” tell God about it day and night…the truth is if it isn’t time, it isn’t, and letting a new year resolution depress you into settling for someone or something you know isn’t right because the year is almost over and you are still single isn’t worth it. The end of a year isn’t the end of your existence. If it doesn’t happen this year it can happen in the next.

“To everything there is a season,
A time for everything under heaven “ Ecclesiastes 3:1

God is a God of perfect timings, never too late or too soon He is always on time.

Come up with plans to actualize your desired change and stop making excuses. If you want to lose some weight, clearing out the junk in your fridge and stocking up on healthy fruits and veggies is a good place to start. Sitting on your butt and expecting the New Year to work its magic and be good to you is a very ridiculous plan that’ll leave you feeling like a failure at the end of the year.

Being realistic with your expectations and realizing that baby steps in the right direction are achievements too is very important, this is one of the lessons 2015 taught me. As a child of God, lines will fall in pleasant places for you but understanding that you may not start to see all those improvements you prayed about overnight is important.

Good things require time and consistency. Do not give up when you do not see it yet. Not seeing progress doesn’t mean you are not making progress. When you start that business this year that you want to, do not start getting discouraged about how it’s not working after the first few months. Instead, focus on being grateful that you had a business idea or you are your own boss to start with.

Do not fall into the habit of asking God over and over again for the things he has done, and you have thanked him for. Even if you are yet to see a manifestation resist the urge to ask again. God is not deaf. Pray instead for patience and the grace to see what He is doing around you. When you start to pray this way, you’ll start noticing other seemingly little things that are working out in your life that are thanksgiving worthy. This makes you have a more grateful heart and helps with the stress and pressure of waiting for a manifestation. For example, if you are searching for a job, you’ll find yourself becoming grateful for the really nice secretary that told you your CV wasn’t properly arranged at that firm you went to that are yet to call you back because in reality, on top of everything else she could have been a grumpy nonchalant person. Nothing is too small to be grateful for.

However, understanding that it can’t happen overnight is not a call to crawl when you really can fly, but a call to be able to identify when crawling before walking is part of the process.

Disappointments are okay too. It’s okay not to get everything you want this year, trust me, it really is. It’s okay to cry about it too. What it’s not okay to do is not move past your disappointment. Yes, you put your all, even invested a lot of money, you are hurt. You can’t believe it didn’t work out. As insensitive as it might sound, reflect on what caused you to fail, get up, fix it on your next try if it’s something in your control to fix, and if not, just get up and keep the ball rolling. The entire game doesn’t stop ‘cos one player is injured, so pick up yourself and get back in play position because that is the only way forward.

If you haven’t decided what you want to “achieve” this year and you are just taking each day in its stride fret not. Not having clear plans on what to expect in the New Year doesn’t make you a lost person, it also doesn’t mean you’ll achieve nothing in the New Year. There is no set time of the year to start having goals; having goals at the beginning of the year doesn’t equal achieving them, as I have stated earlier. Sometimes in our everyday journey, we achieve goals we didn’t set and make a reality dreams we never even knew we had. Just keep working diligently, whatever your hands find to do, do it well with the confidence that God’s got you. Come the end of the year you’ll be able to say 2016 was a good year for you.

Finally, pray, pray, and pray. You can never go wrong with prayer. The Lord knows the end of a thing from its beginning, and what feels good to you right now might not remain that way all through the year.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and he shall direct your paths” Proverbs 3:5-6

Trusting that God knows what’s best for you this year is the key to happiness and fulfillment. Continually dwelling in the place of prayer helps to know God’s will concerning situations and decisions and can help you desist from filing away every bad decision and disappointment into the “not God’s will” cabinet. The fact that something didn’t happen doesn’t mean it wasn’t God’s will; sometimes, we, by our actions or inaction, stifle the manifestation of God’s will.

By all means, make positive changes in your life this year. Positive changes are necessary for growth.

I wish you a very happy new year filled with lots of exciting things and God’s peace.