What’s your plan?

by Hareem Deeba

While checking my to-do-list at work, something interesting caught my eye. It was the last week of December – the moment of realization of the fact that I have entered into the beginning of the end of this year. Oh yes! Another year is moving towards its conclusion and, in this fast paced life, this is the ideal time to slow down, take a break and look back at the prior eleven months before moving ahead and making new plans.

During this month, a common practice followed by more than half of the world each year is, to develop a resolution plan for New Year. Be it a plan of some business, a plan of the government bodies or a plan designed by a student – large number of people or groups of people, from all divisions of life; produce their yearly plans to achieve their set targets. Though many of us do follow this act, the question arises here is that how many of us actually tag along with the decided plan. Even before that, does anyone actually glance over the past plan which was manufactured last year to be followed this year? On individual basis, are we bothered to do some groundwork to count our achievements and our losses and the reasons behind those victories or failures? I think very few people nudge their mind to go through this exercise. 

I have noticed people listing numerous goals for themselves at the end of the year and the amusing part is that, they believe they can fix all the loopholes and will succeed with flying colors without ado. This, I think, can only be true if the superman was among your forefathers. Sounds realistic? No? Great! That’s my point. No one is perfect on this planet earth and keeping this perspective, we should try to be specific with our goals. You can achieve several targets but not all of them at once. Therefore, the focus should be on what are the most important tasks that must be completed in the upcoming year to bring a positive change in your life.

To exemplify, making a resolution to quit smoking may not be useful if you’ll not be practically trying to give up. And honestly, your sudden breakup with cigarettes is not the right solution. As you are habitual of smoking regularly, you’ll be provoked by the temptation of having one or two and then three or more cigarettes and next, you’ll be back to zero level. Hence, the best way out is to quit smoking gradually. There should be a proper plan to follow assertively and before that you should be determined by heart and soul that by the end of this forthcoming year, you’ll get rid of this habit. If you are taking ten cigarettes per day, be assured that you’ll be decreasing the number of cigarettes each month and then strictly follow the decided timelines. Every time when you yearn for a cigarette, remind yourself of all the worst scenarios that you could be facing due to this habit. It may look difficult but it’s not impossible. All that you need is the will power.

Similarly, just listing a mission of loosing weight will not turn you into a sensational, slim and stylish star. First, think of all the positive reasons about why do you want to loose weight and be affirmative about it. Then, create a diet plan to pursue and go on diet. Hey wait! Don’t die of hunger please. I sincerely want you to stay alive to create another resolution plan next year (kidding!). Here, dieting doesn’t denote starvation; this means that your diet plan should contain such food items which are healthy to eat. Avoid junk food and exercise regularly. Repeat your motive each day to yourself and re-examine your agenda frequently.

May be, one of your old resolutions was to help poor and needy people. Did you do that? In fact, did you actually think of how you could change someone’s life by helping them? Giving a penny to a beggar is not the achievement. The achievement is in helping this particular community to quit begging and being dependent on their own by persuading them to work and earn. Donating a huge sum of money is valuable only if that’s what your resolution was; it’s actually not worthy enough to bring betterment in the life of those who look towards you for your support. The pride is when you’ll think of taking an action far better than just contributing cash. You may use that cash for doing some constructive work for the needy which would benefit them for longer time period.

With every end comes a new beginning and your New Year Resolution plan must be the beginning towards a positive change. So, think positively, be kind to yourself and to others, identify your goals and set your targets, aim to achieve but don’t fear the failure and keep calculating your progress. I am going to go through the process of self-evaluation and to list down my resolutions for the approaching year. What’s your plan?