Just like the blooming of flowers and leaves after a cold winter, the first ray of sunlight after the night and a fresh Monday after a stressful weekend, the first day of a new year brings a bundle of hope and positive vibes — an opportunity to grow.

The problem is that we do write our resolutions and objectives for the new year to some extent, but along the way, as the year passes, they get missed out or we become occupied with other things. The initial goals set by us become less of a priority. This is true because life is unpredictable and we often need more time to be ready to take what life has put on the plate for us. Just like a runner loses momentum after some time into a race, we too lose sight of our New Year resolutions as we pass though the months.

So here are some pointers that can help us go along with our resolutions and objectives, despite the unpredictability of life.

Specify your goals

Many of us are quite ambitious and try to set goals for the year that are quite large and do not fall under the ‘SMART’ criteria. ‘SMART’ — an acronym for specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-specific. As a result, we keep on thinking dejectedly about why our goals are not fulfilled towards the end of the year.

“The new year stands before us like a chapter in a book, waiting to be written. We can help write that story by setting goals.” —Melody Beattie

Let me give you an example. I wanted to set my goal that in the year 2024, I would buy my parents a new car as I am about to graduate and soon I would be starting my job. But how much this goal is feasible is uncertain due to various factors, and there are chances that I might not be able to fulfil this goal. A more specific goal would be, I would save at least 50 percent of my salary for the car so that if not this year, then in the coming two to three years I would be able to buy the car. This way, it would be easier to achieve the goal rather than just stating an ambitious goal that we might fail to achieve, thus adversely affecting our self-esteem and enthusiasm for resolutions. The key is to break the goal into pieces that are achievable.

Prepare for the worst

As I mentioned earlier, often things slip out of our hands and minds because of the unpredictability of life, so it’s always good to incorporate that in our planning too.

This would first require making up our minds at the start of the year that no matter what misfortune takes place, we would stay optimistic. For this, try to practice resilience daily. No day goes perfectly or as we want it, since we are humans and do make mistakes. Try to learn from those mistakes and then, instead of giving up, try to find solutions to get out of the problems.

Follow monthly plans

Always make sure that apart from the goal being specific, it should also follow a monthly planning schedule. Just stating the goal and aiming to achieve it by the year’s end would not be enough. This is because we all tend to leave things for the last minute, when there is little time to do them or they are done poorly due to haste.

We have to make our resolutions so that some portion of the goal is to be achieved each month. In this way, it would be easy for us to achieve the goal and follow the strategies along the way.

Maintain a diary

You don’t have to go through the hassle of making multiple planners and journals to stay connected with your goals. Just making and maintaining a simple resolution diary would be enough.

Often, we plan things out on so many notebooks and planners that it becomes difficult to manage, record and keep track of them. So buy yourself a cute medium-sized diary and jot down your goals with the above-mentioned monthly criteria in beautiful handwriting. This will help you take your planning seriously and you will also invest your energy in achieving the goal with seriousness till the year-end. For daily reminders, however, sticky notes can be used.

Get inspiration

Over the year, you will find yourself becoming too laidback and sometimes even demotivated toward your goals. To tackle this, a good trick is to watch videos of acclaimed motivational speakers or speeches of famous personalities. A lot of them have stories of struggle that are very inspiring.

Speaking for myself personally, whenever I find myself feeling either hopeless, disgruntled or too careless, I try to listen to the national anthem of Pakistan, to speeches of Muniba Mazari, and watch documentaries of the greatest migration in 1947 from India and Pakistan. The documentaries depict how millions of Muslims had just one goal in mind — to reach their newly created homeland Pakistan and to fulfil the dream of Iqbal; and the struggle of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah fuels me with energy. It pushes me to constantly work for the achievement of my goal.

Create something new

A mistake that people often make while making their resolve is that they repeat the goals they could not achieve from the last years, and use the same strategies to work towards them. If the goal was not achieved last year, it means that the strategies used proved ineffective.

So I would suggest not changing your dream goal, but changing the strategies by bringing some different planning and creativity that would promise goal fulfilment. The destination is the same, but you have to just alter or change the road that leads to the destination.

Some examples could be exploring different strategies, adding budget and financial opportunities, and starting with small steps and then gradually working your way up.

Seek guidance

It does not matter how learned you are and what knowledge you have, you will still get stuck at some phase or point of your goal achievement listed down in your resolution. It’s always good to adopt a learner attitude as that attitude can do wonders for you in life.

There are many people around you whose wise advice can be really helpful for you. These are firstly your parents, then your teachers and other senior members of society. These people will tell you the feasibility of your strategies, the prospects, the different financial aspects involved, and, most importantly, the ‘right’ ways to reach your goals. Seek guidance from them and surely this will help you stick to your resolutions till the year end.

Last, but not the least, enter into the year 2024 with a blast and do wonders not just for yourself, but also for your family, fellow beings and eventually for Pakistan. Apply all the techniques I discussed above to consistently follow the resolution throughout the year.

Published in Dawn, Young World, January 6th, 2024