Resolute

The 31st of December. A New Year. When the clock strikes midnight and the ball drops in New York. The song of the year announces itself out of the speakers in the streets of Soweto. Fireworks paint the sky in a kaleidoscope of colours and explosions in Jakarta. All these global customs signify the beauty of the previous year while ushering in what is to come with another spin around the sun.??

It is a common custom for people to reshape themselves mentally with a new wellness app or physically with a health club membership. Virgin Active is inundated yearly with “January Gymers” who barely know how to operate the treadmill. But we do not judge; the EntreprenerdyZA team welcomes any form of self-improvement.

Whether you have downloaded the app and are sitting quietly listening to Russel Brand, soothingly guide your meditation with your heads tilted and legs crossed. Or are you clenching your jaw trying to figure out how to use the elliptical machine effectively at the gym, your pride halting you from asking for assistance? These activities usually begin with a resolution.

Birthdays and Christmas have physical, tangible presents that you unwrap and get to hold in your hand. Usually, these gifts are made by someone else far away, adding convenience to your daily life: slippers, an apple watch, and a new Bluetooth speaker. However, New Year's Eve gives us a different type of gift. One that we have to work on for 365 days of the new year.

According to the Economic Times, only 16% of people stick to their resolutions, and the majority give up within one to six weeks of starting. Resolutions are great for the 16% of people that adhere to them for the entire year. However, on many occasions, resolutions tend to make us feel bad if we haven’t kicked the habit or kickstarted the habit we had promised ourselves we would when the new year shows up with a progress report.

I have decided to move resolutions to the guest room in my mental space house. What practice gets the master bedroom this year?

Just that, practice. Practices.

This year will be about taking time to take on new beneficial practices. The beauty of practice is that it needs to be more resolute. It does not point the finger at you whenever you drop the ball. It does the opposite. It tells you to pick the ball up again and learn why you dropped it in the first place. In the age we live in with an influx of information, we have to leave room for time to better ourselves in a healthy way that does not detonate our self-esteem and self-progress. A great quote I read reads, “A winner is just a loser who tries again and again”. The only way to achieve this betterment is to try and try again and again.

To practice.

Practice kindness, empathy, rest, exercise, breathing, laughing, self-talk, positive affirmations, risk-taking and love.

Let us, this year, sharpen our senses and, therefore ourselves. And whenever you feel yourself faltering or maybe even failing, take a deep breath and remember: Practice makes perfect.

Yours in entrepreneurship

Muziwethu Mtshali

CEO Entreprenerdy South Africa