New Year, New Thinking, New You

New Year

Happy New Year! Hope the star dust from the newly minted year is shining on you. There is something about a brand new year that gives a burst of energy, hope and enthusiasm. A sense of new beginning and possibilities that is invigorating, a spring in our steps.

Wrapping up an old year and ushering a new provides an opportune moment to take stock of where we stand in life, health, career, relationships and retirement planning. A new year symbolises a fresh start on a clean slate, where new colours can be painted over the old for a new palette.

What will the next 12 months bring? Which new cities will I discover? Who will I meet and become friends with? What challenges will I encounter? How will my life change?

Many people mark the start of a year by setting New Year’s resolutions and goals, in a hope to spark positive change. Have you been successful in keeping your New Year’s resolutions or are you part of the 54% who fail? Regardless of the answer, are you game to try a different way to make a success out of 2023?

New Thinking

New thinking is the seed of change as it precipitates new action. So for a start, instead of thinking about desired changes just for this new year, let’s list down the things you want to accomplish for a successful life. 

Life is a flow to be lived and experienced continuously, not compartmentalised into calendar years. Keeping this helicopter view in mind without fracturing into annual segments provides a natural and constant reminder of the overall direction and personal growth you seek. 

From this list, pick 3 to  5 (maximum) of the most appropriate to accomplish this year, based on your time availability, financial resources and physical ability. 

Say for example your life goals for personal growth are to:

1. 1. Experience living overseas
   2. Travel to 6 continents (excluding Antarctica)
   3. Cultivate a positive mindset
   4. Learn to fly (get Private Pilot Licence)
   5. Do volunteer work

Now suppose you have been assigned to lead a work project this year that will demand a lot of your time and effort but gives you exposure to senior management and a good shot at promotion. 

Then for this year, item 3 would be the appropriate choice to focus on in the category of personal growth, given the expected time deficiency. All the other goals would run head-on with your work commitment. Next year though, you can take on item 2, 4 or both, after you’ve secured a handsome performance bonus or promotion for completing a successful project. 

Choose the most appropriate 3 to 5 (maximum) from the most relevant categories of goals (ie financial, health, relationships, career, spiritual etc). This way, your action will always be aligned with your life goals instead of flavour-of-the-year approach.

This process increases the likelihood of success as it takes into account actual limitations and conditions from a range of aligned choices instead of just being standalone goals. It is also more motivating knowing that you are putting a tick against your broader set of life goals.

New You

Do you feel stuck in a rut at work, a bad relationship or life itself? Instead of moving forward, are you  stagnating or even regressing? Are you putting up with it hoping things will get better or that you will get used to it? 1 of my lessons from 2022 is resilience vs endurance . The former is to recover and overcome while the latter is simply to put up with an undesirable situation. 

For any change to happen, you need to think and act differently. Know that change does not happen by some divine forces, it comes from within. External events are merely triggers to spark an internal shift. Don’t depend on external events (boss getting fired, hiring freeze being lifted, partner’s temperament getting better once ailing parent dies) to right the circumstance you’re in.

Make this year a turning point for impactful change. Instead of accepting a bad situation, open up your mind to seek new solutions. Nothing is absolute except death so every bad situation can be improved. Force a change by changing the environment. Look for a new job, move to a new city or country, take a sabbatical to travel or study if finances permit. When you change your environment, you change your life.

Life does not get better by chance; it gets better by change.  ~ Jim Roh

Create the ability to apply new lenses to old views. Holding on to a bad situation is a waste of precious time and energy, which none of us can afford. Keeping the status quo is to stagnate. Moving is energy, it gets you out of the rut. Life is movement. 

Just like the way our body cells continuously renew themselves – average cell age in the human body is 7 to 10 years – draw on the will and courage to transition to a new state whenever stalemate hits. After all, no one else but WE are the master of our own life. And what better time to create a new you than the start of a brand new year?

Happy new you!

Savvy Maverick

(Main image: Ray Hennessy, Unsplash)

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are drawn from my own experiences and do not constitute financial advice in any way whatsoever. Nothing published here constitutes an investment recommendation, nor should any data or content be relied upon for any investment activities. It is strongly recommended that independent and thorough research be undertaken before making any financial decisions, including consulting a qualified professional.