Life operates within the timeline of two major points. People enter the world at birth and exit at birth. Careers are started and eventually get terminated at retirement. The year starts in January and ends in December. The year remains just a few days before it ends. We are at the end of what began over eleven months ago. How time flies—it looks like yesterday when we began the year.
At such a time as this, many people respond to the end in many ways. Many feel disillusioned about the year because their dreams and expectations were not met. Some feel short-changed by the year, he environment was not as they expected. The economy nose-dived, security was a major concern and life was just tough. Others are just glad it’s over. They want the year over and done with and they cannot wait to send the year into the oblivion of history. They cannot wait to shout on the 31st December: “Good riddance to bad rubbish”. Many are looking up to the new year. They think the new year is magical. New year, new year resolutions. New year affords the brand new opportunity to have a brand new start. We cannot afford to be sentimental or emotional about the year almost gone. We must sit down and have a frank look at the year. We must have a critical review of what has transpired in the year. We must analyse the year to see the mistakes we have made so we can plan to avoid repeating them in the new year. “Getting over a painful experience is much like crossing monkey bars. You have to let go at some point in order to move forward.” C. S. Lewis
Great is the art of beginning, but greater is the art of ending. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
“Everything must have a beginning… and that beginning must be linked to something that went before.” Mary Shelley
“The opposite of the happy ending is not actually the sad ending—the sad ending is sometimes the happy ending. The opposite of the happy ending is actually the unsatisfying ending. “ Orson Scott Card
“Ends are not bad things, they just mean that something else is about to begin. And there are many things that don’t really end, anyway, they just begin again in a new way. Ends are not bad and many ends aren’t really an ending; some things are never-ending.” C Joybell. C
“It’s a lot easier to say when something ended rather than when it began. Most of us can recognize the end from a mile away, but the beginning always slips up on us, lulling us into thinking what we’re living through is yet another moment, in yet another day.” Steve Yarbrough.
“Life is not so much about beginnings and endings as it is about going on and on and on. It is about muddling through the middle.” Anna Quindlen.
There are some common ills and plagues that many people fall prey to in any year (and we will do ourselves a whole world of good to avoid them in the new year).
Some of them are:
(1) Procrastination (2) Distraction (3) Loss of focus (4) Disorganization (5) Bad time management (6) Ineffective communication (7) Wrong relationships (8) Pessimism (9) Discouragement (10) Bad planning.
If we are to have a better new year than the one about to end, we must deal with the above issues.
We must also check to see our strengths and successes so we can build on them in the new year.
As we end the year, be encouraged as the new year will be better.
“Forget about what’s happened; don’t keep going over old history.
Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new. It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it? There it is! I’m making a road through the desert, rivers in the badlands.” Isaiah 43.18-19
Beloved, your best days are just ahead of you and let me be the first to wish you an outstanding 2025, your best year so far.
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and then