If you are genuinely determined to have a resoundingly successful 2017, there is no better time than now to start reviewing your progress in every critical area of your life.
inspiration with Cynthia C Hakutangwi
While it’s good to conduct quarterly and monthly reviews of our progress, any delay in ascertaining what we need to stop, start or continue in order to obtain our significant goals can derail our plans and ambitions. To become successful in your pursuits, you must be aware that there are certain people and certain elements in your life and around you that have the tendency and potential to reduce your desire to be all you can be in life. These factors, if not properly monitored, and dealt with early in the year, can turn into dream killers.
Destiny killers or destiny makers?
In the same way that we make resolutions and commitments to drop unproductive habits from our lives, we need to apply similar principles to audit our networks and associations. The two dangers that we will discuss here are people-pleasing, and the assimilation to lower standards. As we surround ourselves with loved ones, friends and mentors who support our goals, visions and dreams, it becomes a problem when we look to them as our sole source for glorification, gratification, and elevation! Pleasing other people at the expense of our destiny is very dangerous. Inasmuch as no man is an island, the tendency for any individual to succumb to peer pressure is very high. The company you keep is perhaps the most powerful influence in your life. As the saying goes that we are the sum total of the five people we spend time with. The company you keep can indeed build or destroy your destiny. Dr. Mike Murdock said: “Whoever cannot increase you, will decrease you.” Do the people in your network have direction and purpose? Are they taking you somewhere? While it is important to interact with serious-minded, success-minded, and positive friends, we should also take time to audit whether we have surrounded ourselves with more people that need us than those that feed us. If you are not fed in the critical areas of your life it is very easy to get choked with people who just dump their stuff on your life.
Do you doubt your abilities?
Prolific playwright, Shakespeare, said: “Our doubts are traitor and make us lose the good we oft might gain by fearing to attempt.” Doubt is another destiny killer. It makes you lose confidence in your ability to do great exploits. Just when you want to take an action or to execute your plan, doubt comes in; you begin to see many reasons why your plan will not work. The moment you start entertaining doubt, fear will creep in. As you allow doubt to gain control of your mind, it gradually begins to weaken your confidence in your ability, and together with fear, they conspire to destroy your destiny. When you take time to review your goals and audit your progress early in the year, you are most likely going to find yourself energised with passion to keep the end in mind.
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Procrastination means putting till tomorrow what you must do today. Procrastination is a thief of time. Anything that steals your time steals your money because time is money. If you keep procrastinating, you are delaying the accomplishment of your goal. The way to overcome procrastination is by forcing yourself to do today what you have planned to do. Every night before you retire to your bed, take up a piece of paper and write down everything you wish to do the following day. When you wake up the following morning, read what you have written. Start doing those things you have purposed to do. You learn to do by doing. The more you force yourself to implement what you have written down, the more victories you record over procrastination. Strive to do today anything you have planned to do today.
Mediocrity
Unfortunately, many of us have planted ourselves at the terminal, and have concluded that this is how far we are created to reach. The truth is, you determine how far you want to go in life. You have already been equipped with what it takes to reach the pinnacle of your career. Whether you will reach there is up to you. The starting point to realising your destiny is to constantly resist the temptation to live a mediocre life. It is what you demand from life that life gives to you. It is really bad that due to economic pressure, we have come to like mediocrity in our country. Mediocrity is a killer of destiny and the way to deal with it is to change your orientation. Begin to set high standard for yourself. Dream big and set high goals for yourself. Aim high.
Short-sightedness
Short-sightedness here means the inability to see far into the future. To foresee is to rule. The people that rule their world are those who peep into the future and prepare for it. There is a vital lesson we can learn from the ants. Though the tiniest insect, ants have the ability to see into the future and prepare for it. They gather and store their food in the time of harvest in readiness for the summer. We should stop living as if tomorrow will not come. How we live our life tomorrow is dependent on what we do today. We can only do this effectively when we take time to regularly audit where we are.
Cynthia Hakutangwi is a communications and personal development consultant, life coach, author and strategist. She serves as the executive director of Africa Reform Institute, an organisation whose mandate is to enable citizen participation in value-based leadership for sustainable socioeconomic development in Africa. If you would like assistance with personal or organisational, you can contact her on: E-mail: [email protected]. Facebook: Wholeness Incorporated.
