Jennifer Nagu: Make Your 2018 about Family, Faith, Career & the World

They say girls just want to have fun, but in reality everyone wants to have fun.

Sure, we’d all rather be playing than working, but that’s not plausible for a successful life. Many people I meet are so caught up with their social responsibilities and trying to be part of a crowd that they neglect other aspects of their lives.

It’s all fun and games until you are 40 and you have nothing tangible to show for the forty years you have lived.  To have a fulfilling and successful 2018, it is essential that we make a conscious effort to be dedicated to family, faith, career and the world.

Family
Family should come first, because there can never be a replacement for a family lost. To live successfully in 2018, we should make adequate time for family. Past research suggests that children who experience multiple transitions in family structure may face worse developmental outcomes than children raised in stable families. Indeed a happy family is tantamount to a happy life.

It’s essential that this year, you surprise your spouse at least once a month, turn of your phones and keep the  emails away when you are home. Make time for kids and forgive transgressions.

Faith
There is overwhelming research evidence that shows that people can live longer if they actively engage in formal religious activities and follow their faith’s behavioral prescriptions. This is especially true for religions that encourage healthy diets and discourage smoking and alcohol.

Regular and frequent religious attendance does seem to be one of the significant predictors of less stress and more life satisfaction. Religion gives a sense of hope, a belief in the supernatural that things will be better. I am a Christian, and am a firm believer in the peace that stems from my communing with God. In 2018 I implore you to do same in your religions, for the sake of the hope and peace that it brings.

Career
I said to a friend late 2017, that 2018 was the year to make more money! It is the year to work hard, hustle harder. It is no secret that the Nigerian economy experienced a free fall in recent years, however so many seized the opportunity for wealth creation and career advancement. To soar in your career this year, you should:

-Understand yourself, skills, attributes, & market them

-Explore a career change.

-Set goals and write down your plans to accomplish them.

-Put your plans to practice

-Accept challenges

-Network & Be positive

The World
There are diverse issues plaguing the world today. The world is a global village and we are global citizens. In 2018, why not select any of global or local socio-economic issue and in your little way try to make a change? As long as there are problems, they will always search for solutions.

Join advocacy groups, invent solutions for social good, and take part in talks and symposiums for social change. According to Statistics by the WE forum in 2016, here are some of the biggest global challenges of today:

Food Security
It is estimated that by 2050, the world must feed 9billion people. Yet the demand for food will be 60% greater than it is today.

Climate Change
The Earth’s average land temperature has warmed nearly 1°C in the past 50 years as a result of human activity, global greenhouse gas emissions have grown by nearly 80% since 1970, and atmospheric concentrations of the major greenhouse gases are at their highest level in 800,000 years.

The internet
Within the next decade, it is expected that more than a trillion sensors will be connected to the internet. By 2025, 10% of people are expected to be wearing clothes connected to the internet and the first implantable mobile phone is expected to be sold. If almost everything is connected, how will this affect personal privacy, data security and our personal relationships?

Gender equality
It would take the world another 118 years or until 2133 to close the gender & economic gap entirely.

Healthcare
There are challenges to global health care, ranging from dealing with pandemics to the rise of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) to the prohibitive costs of care, particularly in developing countries. The number of people on the planet is set to rise to 9.7 billion in 2050 with 2 billion aged over 60.

Lack of economic opportunity and unemployment
The international Labor Organization estimates that more than 61million jobs have been lost since the start of the global economic crises in 2008, leaving more than 200 million people unemployed globally.

Poverty
Poverty remains high and deep, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. There remain 900 million extremely poor people in 2012, the last year for which surveys are available, and a projected 700 million people in 2015. Over the last decades, the vast majority (about 95%) of global poverty has been concentrated in three regions: East Asia and the Pacific, South Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa.

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