The New Year

It’s a new year, the one that we have all been waiting for and hoping would be the year that changes everything and starts our winning run. With the new year, I’m sure that at least one person reading this has been wondering, “What next?” as the days pass by. How do I begin? This post is probably for you, to say to you, you are not alone.

It’s normal to feel overwhelmed when beginning, and for someone with a lot of targets, high expectations, and creative skill set, it’s natural to feel stuck about where to begin. Hopefully, though, something will finally click after reading this.

For me, getting out of my thoughts is an excellent place to start. Excessively worrying about the new year is likely to cause more harm than good and may even trigger early burnout. As someone who is most likely like you, I had one crucial reminder going into this year: my God is my greatest asset, and everything else is essentially a liability.

With this in mind, I wake up daily to remind myself that all of my expectations, dreams and hopes, pretty much have to draw from that source, or else it’d all be me ‘boxing the air’. At the end of the day, I can boldly say my greatest achievements have been the ones that had less of me and more of God in the drive.

So, having this in mind, I can get off my head and try to escape the pressure to not waste a new year (for some of us, this is a continuous state of trying).

I have been doing some deep thinking about being more effective in the new year, and I have come to realize, that some of the things I have to figure out are not things out of my scope or alien to me. It is more of a fight to achieve consistency in the little things as against doing a lot to see the small results roll out – which is the fastest way to burn out for me.

I know there’s someone here and you have just newly registered for multiple online courses that you probably can’t keep track of after the first couple of weeks. Calm down, it is a 365-day spread, not a 30-day sprint – note to self.

I am not so much of a boxing fan as a sport activity – beats me as to what would make a man succumb to exchanging punches for a ridiculously huge amount of money. Well writing this now, I figure it is probably for the money, but nah, not for me.

Levite, come back

Anyway, back to boxing, I have come to realize that the one who wins the match isn’t always the one who throws the most punches, but the one committed to landing deliberate blows. This brings to mind the 80-20 rule, that’s says something like 20% of your effort/planning/resource or input, is what will give you 80% of your output.

This pretty much means I don’t have to put so much into doing everything all at once, which probably would only lead to frustration and burnout. Instead, I’d rather focus on the 20% that will make the most difference for me at the end of the year.

So, if you are that person trying to learn a new skill, start a new career, run multiple online courses in different fields, and with a sprinkle of tech (who doesn’t like tech money?) maybe it is time to sit down and choose the right blow to release per time.

For me, this year, I have chosen my battles rather carefully and that’s the filter for everything I can try to do. This is supposed to help me do only what is important at a time while making sure I am doing too much that it becomes a problem.

As a bonus, most especially for someone reading this who is also running a small business and you can’t just ignore every other thing to focus on just the 20%, maybe it is time to look at how you can automate some of the less important tasks, to give you more room to focus on the crucial stuff. This didn’t make so much sense to me in the previous years when I first got the advice, but it suddenly made a lot more sense in recent times.

And I’ll leave you with one scripture that is a reminder for me on this path, and it says

“Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air.”