Georgette Monnou: New Year, New Beginnings

It is hilarious how there is always so much hype about the New Year. Everyone is talking about new beginnings. Social media goes nuts with messages like, ‘2014 is my year of excellence!’ This can easily be interchanged to be the ‘year of grace/blessing/overcoming/overachieving.’

There is something about all those messages that carries an element of falsehood. I feel like it is almost as if people think that because it is a New Year all their problems are going to magically disappear. Yes, it is a New Year and yes, you have a new start but I have found that if you go into the New Year thinking that all the issues you had in the past are all going to just miraculously fade away, it won’t. At least it won’t just because it is a New Year. There is need for personal reflection and growth for any change to happen.

I find that people also seem to look at the previous year with disappointment thinking about what didn’t happen or with regret at what happened. All the experiences you have gone through in the last year have happened for a reason. In 2013 you cried, you laughed, you joked and loved all for a reason. Embrace that. A person once told me that he doesn’t believe in regret because at the time of whatever happening, you wanted it to. Even though the consequences of your actions or your experience wasn’t what you hoped, you should see it as a lesson, not regret. I love that.

In order for this New Year to be your ‘year of excellence’ you are going to have to work hard to make sure that it is. You are going to have to push yourself in all aspects: mentally, physically and spiritually. Most important of all, is that you make a conscious effort to learn from your mistakes and change your tactics to ultimately become who you want to be this year.

My prayer, is that you do accomplish all that you set out to this year. I hope that you learn from your past and focus on the future. If anything was made plain and clear last year, is that death is the only thing in this life that is certain. Life is short. As a result, push yourself, challenge yourself to achieve your fullest potential, don’t just brush it off and say, “There is always next year.”

Photo Credit: huffingtonpost.com

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Georgette Monnou was born in Lagos, Nigeria and has lived in various countries since then. She is in the final year of her Law degree in the UK. She updates her two blogs regularly, which are inspired by her passion for Nigeria and life itself.http://theunspokenwords93.blogspot.co.uk/ and http://wordsanddesigns.wordpress.com/.