3 Pragmatic Steps to Prepare for the New Year

“Learn from the past, set vivid, detailed goals for the future, and live in the only moment of time over which you have any control: now.” –Denis Waitley

It is almost only a few hours remaining before the clock hits 12:00 AM on the first day of year 2014. Everyone must be so busy preparing for the celebration of the New Year! Reunions and family get-togethers are rampant here and there. Shopping malls are always crowded, and even the streets are so filled up that traffic jam is almost at its peak (you really need to bring a lot of patience with you). It seems everyone has that unexplainable joy and inexplicable bloom on their faces, getting ready to confront the upcoming year.

Then, how should we face the New Year? Do we have to gear up on something to better place ourselves in a position where success is inevitable? Here are some practical steps to make ourselves ready for 2014.

3 Pragmatic Steps to Prepare for the New Year

1. The Past is always a great teacher. Learn from it.

I have learned that success is more of a subjective thing or event. Some may define success as “the bringing of the desired results into a reality.” Some may describe it as “the accumulation of wealth, respect, and fame.” But I think the best definition for success is:

Success is “an event that accomplishes its intended purpose”.

One thing I have learned from my past, even the painful circumstances and heartbreaking moments can be considered a success if you have learned the lesson that comes with it. These lessons will make us stronger and wiser, and eventually will help us become a valuable channel of blessings to others who might be undergoing the same situation we had in the past. A story about a boy and a butterfly can teach us this kind of lesson.

“A little boy was playing outdoors and found a tiny caterpillar. He took it home and asked his mother if he could keep it and take good care of it, and his mother agreed.

The little boy put the caterpillar in a large jar together with healthy leaves and little sticks. He observed the caterpillar, feeding it with fresh new leaves, each day.

One day, the caterpillar climbed up a stick and started acting strangely. The boy asked his mother about the strange event. His mother explained to him that the caterpillar was creating a cocoon, and how it was going to go through a metamorphosis and become a butterfly.

The little boy, excited after hearing the news, watched the caterpillar every day, waiting for that time when the butterfly would come out. Then one day, a small hole appeared in the cocoon and the butterfly started to struggle to emerge.

At first, the boy was excited but soon became worried. The butterfly was struggling so hard just to get out! It seems to the boy that it looked so desperate and was making no progress.

The boy was so concerned that he decided to help. He quickly got a pair of scissors, and clipped the cocoon to make the hole bigger. The butterfly quickly came forth.

Bewildered, the boy noticed that the butterfly had a swollen body and weak shrank wings. He continued to look on the butterfly expecting that at any instant, the wings would dry out and expand to support the swollen body. But it never happened. The butterfly had never been able to fly.

Later, the boy had known that the butterfly was supposed to struggle. The butterfly’s struggle to push its way through the tiny opening of the cocoon pushes the fluid out of its body and into its wings, making them stronger.”

2. Failure to plan means you’re planning to fail.

Setting goals is a vital part of the planning stage. Without any goal, you would wander all throughout the year and you would wonder why you failed. I remember the movie “Alice in Wonderland”. The moment when Alice inquired the Cheshire Cat about some directions. The Cat then replied with a question of where would Alice want to go, but Alice answered back that she does not care much where as long as she gets “somewhere”. Then the Cheshire Cat said this to her:

"If you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there."

In creating a goal, you must realize what you would want to accomplish this coming year 2014. What are the areas of your weaknesses that you would want to convert into your strengths? What are the aspects that you would want to enhance more? Then set your goal. Create a deadline for each goal. Schedule an “Evaluation Date” after the deadline for each goal. Log these all in a journal to properly guide you on your journey of accomplishing your goals.

3. Enjoy every moment.

Each day has its own sets of blessings and challenges. The past can be a great teacher if you would learn from its lessons, but it can be a terrible warden if you would dwell on it too much. The future can give you a bright hope if you would envision yourself to be a better person, but it can cause you a dreadful despair if you would anxiously worry too much about it.

A verse in the Bible says a lot on this, and just like what I have shared on my previous post about prioritizing what is more important, Do You Love Coffee?, Matthew 6:25-34 says:

 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

With the delight of every moment of every day, always remember that each day is indeed a blessing from God. Just like the birds of the air and the flowers of the field who do not worry at all, but the Lord provides for them, you are even much more valuable that God knows of your each and every need. If God can provide for your needs, then all you have to do is to seek Him with all of your heart.

Learn to have a balance of everything: the past and its lessons, the future and its hope, and the present and its blessings; and I assure you that you will be a better version of you this coming New Year 2014! It is a matter of perspective.

© 2013 Erickson Ibana

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