There are some things you can do to take this next season with renewed energy and a sense of purpose. Here are five things to do as we celebrate the New Year.
- Acknowledge your own story. We often look to others for inspiration and that’s great. But everybody including you has a powerful story filled with may lessons, challenges, triumphs and failures. I have just come out of a women’s entrepreneurship forum where the speaker asked us to introduce ourselves; not by what we do but by the stories that got us wherever we happen to be. Majority of the lessons in that session came out of the stories that people shared. Imagine you had an audience. What would be your story? Once you do this you will be amazed and how the dots connect. At how the challenges you have faced all contained lessons that you have used in some way. You will get to see and define your own success. We need to stop shifting the bar of success (bigger, more, better) and just be grateful for what we have already achieved.
- Set intentions. Is there a car you like? A car that just makes you drool. What happened around you the moment you decided you like that car? You start seeing it everywhere. It is suddenly not that unique. You gave your mind an intention and it started picking up information about that intention. This intention has been referred to as goals, objectives, vision etc. It doesn’t matter what you call it. I like the word intention because it alludes to a decision rather than just setting a goal for the sake of setting one. There is a difference between deciding you like a certain car and saying you will figure out which car to like. Don’t go overboard with this. Choose three to five that matter. This can be for different areas of your life e.g. spiritual, health, financial, family etc. Write them down.
- Read something different related to your intentions. Remember to have any hope of making some progress with those intentions that you have set. Your mind probably has to start operating differently. You have to become exposed to different ways of thinking. What you choose to read is up to you. It could be something giving you practical information or even just inspiring you. Put that phone of yours to good news and get away from the usual noise on social media or on the news. You can visit my blog on centonomy.com for some ideas or any other site that you feel drawn to. You may even have a book sitting on your shelf that you never got round to or read a while ago that has chapters you can revisit.
- Give something away or do something for somebody else who is not particularly close to you. Generally, a life that is all about you will be very small. Giving shows us how we can be of help to others and in ways that we take for granted. This giving does not have to be monetary in nature. You could just have something that you do not need that will help somebody else. Maybe it is your time that you can give away. It could even be a phone call that somebody needs. Giving has direct benefit to you as well. You are only able to give when you recognise you have something worth giving or sharing. We spend so much time thinking about what we do not have and forget to appreciate what we do. When somebody else appreciates it for us, we stop feeling so sorry for ourselves. It starts to change our perspectives on our resources, abilities, time etc.
- Pray for the year and purpose ahead. There are so many things that will continue to be out of our control. There could be some goals or intentions that you do not know exactly how they will manifest. Well faith is believing in the unseen and there is a power and wisdom that is beyond our human nature. I’m sure even in your own story there are things that you can’t quite explain. God is always working even when we can see it so spend some time in prayer.
And that’s it for this year. Thank you for reading my articles and for giving me your time.
Waceke runs programs on Entrepreneurship and Personal Finance Management. Registration is currently open and ongoing through our website centonomy.com For more information get in touch with her through waceken@centonomy.com /Facebook-Waceke Nduati /Tweet @cekenduati