As we came to a close of 2013, I got to review my activities for the 12 months period that constituted that year, so that I could come up with a solid road map for 2014.

One thing however, that struck me as odd – at the beginning of 2013, I had not written down any resolutions. So I got wondering how it was that I never committed to a specific plan for that year……then it dawned on me…..

We often take for grant the ability to come up with New Year resolutions. Most of the time we see it as an effortless activity, not giving much thought to it.

But think about it, if you are not sure of what the future holds for you, will you really spend time planning for it? In this case, it does not mean for you as an individual only but the society you are living in at that particular time. I guess this is where I found myself last year.

2013 was an election year here in Kenya. With it came a lot of uncertainty. There were several firsts that were to come with it, the most conspicuous being that it was going to be the first general election under the new constitution.

And with the backdrop of 2007 elections ugliness, there was a lot of apprehension in the air and hence no real plans were being made till after the elections. Majority adopted a wait and see attitude, and instinctively this is the group I found myself in.

 

Is it really crucial to have resolutions at the dawn of a New Year?

 

With every New Year, comes a lot of expectations, hopes and dreams and 2014 holds such great promises.

I look at it as an opportunity to start over, to do better or to do things differently. It feels like truly the old is gone. From failures to achievements, all that I had achieved or fallen short of achieving seems to be just but a distant memory. And am presented with a new platform from which I can launch myself however high I want.

So 2014 is here and this year am starting with a set of New Year resolutions which I intended to use as indicators throughout the year.

You may ask why it is important to make resolutions which for most of us are forgotten by Easter.

Think of a new year as a project. Before you start any project, common sense dictates you plan. This should be the same way we adopt. After all, there are those things you want to achieve in the New Year, so why not plan ahead.

Looking back at 2013, I realized that in the first quarter of the year, even though I had projects going, there was no actual plan, so I went with the flow. The problem this presented was that when the second quarter came and the dust settled on the elections, I had no plan for the coming months. And by the time I narrowed down on what I wanted to have achieved by December, we down to the third quarter and finally the end of the year.

Does this mean I was not successful or I was broke throughout the year? On the contrarily, I had a pretty successful year. I signed on several corporate clients which included business from several county governments. I even got several hosting clients through a hosting blog I run and a ghost writing job for book from a Google search results …..(SERP works)

But when I look back, I wonder, how well did I invest my resources both time and money? Would I have done a much better job, had I made some resolutions at the beginning of the year 2013?

What do you think? Share with me your take on making New Year resolutions………

 

 

Written by: 

Pauline is the CEO at Allen Cole, also consults for iWork and Elite Writers Hub. She works with small and medium size organizations to increase their visibility online through corporate blogging, content creation, website development and social media engagement.