It is almost the end of another calendar year. It has gone by so quickly and so slowly. There is much flowing through my mind as quite a bit has changed. I am certain that we all can agree that one way or another, we have changed this year. For example this year I officially became a business owner, check out the website here. I also had the most number of students ever for a semester of tutoring. I could go on listing a lot of things; but not all the changes were positive or easy. Persons have died, yes people die every year, but it seemed to hit home more for me this year. In verity, it would seem to me that I felt things more viscerally this year. I am not quite sure why. Ultimately, what I can say is that the person who started January 2021 is not quite the same in December 2021.
As the holiday season draws ever so near, some of us will be with loved ones and others of us will not. Some of us will dread spending time with family as we will be reminded of all that we are not and others of us will enjoy being in the company of persons who love and cherish us the way we are. We are awash with a plethora of differing emotions, good, bad and in between during the holiday season. However, I want you to really take some time away from the hustle and the bustle and assess yourself. How did you do with your goals this year? Did you look at them after you set them? Did you overshoot? Why did you miss? How did you meet them and at what cost?
Every new year we plan and we make resolutions; some of us will be doing vision boards. Have you consulted the Lord as yet as to what to include? Or, will you like every other year just make the plans based on whatever whimsical thought crosses your mind? What do you want to do differently? And how will the changes that have happened to you, or that you’ve created, affect those plans?
I know I am asking more questions than I am writing to inspire. I guess it is because these are the things that are on my mind. I have grown increasingly quieter this year. I have spoken a lot less about everything to just about everyone. I don’t know if it is either good or bad. I really don’t know and it doesn’t matter. We know that as we grow older the things that are important to us will change . Some things that we used to do, we just stop doing and sometimes we don’t even know why. This year I have questioned a lot of my previously held beliefs, modus operandi and so much more. I believe we have all been pressure tested in many ways. As we hope to live to see the end of this year and the beginning of another; as we plan, dream and envision; as we continue to grow and learn more about ourselves; let us not forget some things:
If God is for you, no one can be against you. However, a big however, being in the wil of God is not always easy nor is it always pleasant.
Don’t give up! Sometimes it is hard to continuously wait on things for which you have been working so hard and so long. Nonetheless, the next piece of the puzzle could be the one that unleashes everything for which you’ve been waiting. I know it sounds cliche and I wish that I could tell that I have supporting empirical evidence but I don’t. I just know that we have to keep pushing, and we cannot give up, as long as we are certain that this is what we should be doing in this season. Also remember to wait on God, not on the things you are anticipating nor the people around you. Misplaced expectations are our greatest source of disappointments.
Rest and live. Take time to breathe. Find a way to just ease your mind. It doesn’t fix the circumstances but it gives you an opportunity to refuel, regroup and move forward. I liken these types of respite to a neurosurgeon cutting a small square out of the skull to ease the pressure on a swollen brain by giving it more space. We all need a breather every so often; and these don’t have to be expensive.
Love people from a distance when necessary. We cannot force anyone to love us with the same intensity with which we love them. We should also understand that people can only love based on how they were loved until they learn otherwise. Some people have been so crushed in life that even when good friends and true love find them, they cannot recognize it because they only know hurt. However when you do decide to love, don’t just love when it is convenient. Don’t just buy expensive, meaningless things to cover up your wrongdoings. Really love! Really love the persons and not just at Christmastime but all year round. Love knowing that you will be hurt through miiscommunication and misunderstandings and sometimes down right spitefulness. Love knowing that there is no loving without being prepared to forgive.
Plan knowing you cannot anticipate nor plan for every single thing. And that is a good thing! Be patient with yourself, you are human. There will always be someone who knows more than you, can do that thing better than you, and so on. If everyone was exactly like you, the world would be a boring place and many things would go unaccomplished, regardless of how talented you are.
Lastly, thank you. Thank you for spending another year of your lives reading whatever I write. Thank you for supporting me through buying branded merchandise. Thank you for trusting me to tutor you or your loved ones and with your academic papers. Thank you for letting me into your minds and for sharing my writings. We don’t know what the next year will bring. Maybe I will write more, maybe I will write less. Who knows? We plan but we are never fully certain if the next year will be the year when everything falls into place. However, we are people of realistic optimism. We are hopeful and so we plan with that knowledge. Speaking of planning…
Have you bought our 2022 Cerebral GW Planner as yet?
GMW