Of new year resolutions and unachieved past year resolutions

It was never Happy New Year for me. It has always been a HAPPY NEW HOPE.

The one thing that has been a constant every year for the past 12 years is my retreat with Yasmin to plan the coming year. In the year 2010 as we were embarking on our journey together as co-founders of neOOne Associates, there was only two of us. Our associates got wind of it two years later and made a request for us to help them do the same. The following few years, there was Yasmin, me I and a few associates. As we did ours we facilitate theirs. It then evolved to become one of our best-selling public programs called Plan the Year (PTY). While all these were happening, we continued with our tradition of retreating for a few days reflecting, learning, embracing and crafting our destiny.

?At this year’s neOOne retreat, there were eight of us; the biggest so far for neOOne. We always make a point to not only reflect, but also analyse and learn from the year that was and plan for the year that is coming. We also used this opportunity to chill and bond with the team. We also encourage whatever we do for the company, we are also doing for our personal and professional life.

Why do we do this religiously? Of course, the obvious answer is so that we can plan our direction in next year ahead. It is the company’s equivalent of a personal New Year resolution. The similarity doesn’t just end there. Other similarities are listing the resolutions down, producing an action plan for each resolution, and planning the rewards of achieving the resolut

All these are useful no doubt. However, these steps are no guarantee of achieving the resolutions. The key is still our commitment; effort, not letting up, perseverance etc. It is this key that is missing yet not many people that doesn’t achieve their resolution would want to admit this. Therefore, many of us get disillusioned by resolution because most never come true. In some of us that are more extreme and radical, we even start championing that new year resolutions don’t work, a waste of time and demotivating. There are now people out there that are anti-new year resolutions.

Unfortunately, with this extreme measure of not declaring a new year resolution, we lose a vital part of our life which is HOPE.

?Hope is defined as “a feeling of expectation and desire for a particular thing to happen.” Hope puts us in a forward and projecting mindset that provides us with “a way of thinking that pushes us to action.” When people have hope, they're more likely to make their goals a reality. When people have a clear belief, a clear hope, about what's possible, they're more likely to take the action needed on that goal to bring it to fruition.

?With the lack of hope in our lives, we lose the tingling feeling of anticipation that makes us feel alive. We lose our desire to want things that keep us motivated. We lose the push that gets us to wake up in the morning full of energy vigour.

Yes, of course, like all failures in life, when we do not achieve our resolution for whatever reason, we feel down, demotivated and frustrated. At times we even feel deep sadness and anger. These feelings are natural, predictable feelings to have. We can’t let the anticipation of experiencing these feelings if we fail to govern our life. If we do so, the whole of our life is void of desire, energy and anticipation.

?Look at it as a numbers game. Would you rather lose a whole year; 364 days of desire, anticipation and motivation so that you don’t feel frustrated, demotivated and sad on one day at the end of the year? The maths seems simple for me. One strategy you can do have is to have your reflective retreat a few days before the new year so that you can feel all those negativity even before the new year starts because I agree, having it at the beginning of their year is really, really yucky.

?So, for me, new year resolutions are all about igniting HOPE at the start of a new year so that once again my life for the coming year is full of desire, anticipation and motivation; bringing back life into my life.

Happy New Hope guys.