Take a breath, halt and then move to the new calendar

Before the onset of a new calendar year, we start pondering about our personal and professional goals. It is also a time to reflect on what we did in the calendar year. Alongside umpteen emotions, successes and failures — the clock that ticked in the past 365 days gave us both attained and unfinished goals.

A good place to start is to note down all that you would attempt to achieve this year. Which goals would you want to carry forward in the coming year? Did you keep putting off a haircut? Did you keep postponing a medical checkup? Did you keep thinking about finally starting to eat right and lose weight? Did you wish to join a marathon but didn't participate? Did you plan to take your parents for a trip of a lifetime but your schedule didn't allow it? Did you start writing a book but abandoned it midway for some reason and let your thoughts wander? It is an endless list of tasks that were left unfinished because you probably were too busy. And that is something that might not even matter in the long run.

Now's the time for introspection. Just breathe, take a pause and figure out what right you did this year. It could be that you were able to follow your daily journaling, or that you didn't lose faith in positive affirmations despite all the difficulties. You might have been able to make efforts to learn new skills or to maintain a structured diet regime.

Once you have identified the good that you did for yourself, you have to applaud, appreciate and celebrate yourself because no one else will do it for you. You must feel happy and motivate yourself as you step in a grand new year, with new aspirations and hopes in life.

For this grand New Year 2024, the digits of which total to infinity (∞), one must believe in infinite possibilities and good. One must start with zest for life and with an avalanche in your chest. For this, I offer you my personal talisman, and it begins with befriending yourself.

Be kind: Be it the personal or the professional space, if you are tempted to blast someone, exercise the option of being kind. So, choose kindness because being kind has a direct positive effect not only on others but also ourselves. No matter the weather, kindness works by spreading sunshine in other people's lives.

Fitness is quintessential: Being healthy is the greatest accomplishment in order to respect this human birth. Your mental health is just as important as your physical health, and so is your financial health. So, tread the path of right workouts, meditation, yoga or another activity that makes you align with your own self and helps you reach set targets. As far as financial health is concerned, one needs to make the right kind of investment, follow financial experts and make right decisions.

Reading as a part of life: Identify what you are aiming at or suffering from. Try to read to overcome in your life. Focused reading will enhance your analysis of various skills that you want to hone in life.

Invest in healthy relationships: There can be an abundance of happiness if you know how to find it. Build healthy relationships with communication, commitments, trust, genuine appreciation and warmth. Right relationships, for instance, that right hug from the right person fills our heart with joy and lightens the darkness of our life.

Exciting hobbies: Hobbies makes you feel alive and break the monotony of life. Soul-nourishing activities makes us feel anchored in ourselves. So, reach out to those pleasures of life that you have always wanted to pursue: go for a trek, climb a mountain, write a journal, learn a musical instrument, start your own startup, and so on.

New ways of setting goals: Specify your goal because no one else can do it for you — and to specify your goal, you have to look at the deepest part of who you are, what it is that really moves you and inspires you in life. You have to jot it down by making a list, specifying your targets and prioritising them at the same time every day.

Decluttering your life: Most of us today are infected with the idea of “more is less” — so, we are in possession of endless clothes, footwear, stationery, gadgets and so many other things in our closet. We need to really pick and keep what we really want, and the rest can be given to those who never ever had the luxury to use it in life. Because if you don’t do this yourself, after you are gone, it is all a waste. Therefore, even a gold chain around your neck has no value after you are gone.

You... focus on yourself: Why? Because you have been sent on earth with a purpose. You have to make the best of it. You are here to connect with your own inner self and with souls that are an indispensable part of your journey. Extend a helping hand to those who need it. At the same time, remind yourself that you can’t be a fixer of everything always, but a human who requires help and support. So, take a step back and nourish your inner self. As someone rightly said — Be the reason why someone believes in the goodness and in of other human beings.

This 2024, make it happen for you.

Dr Tanu Jain is a bureaucrat and writes on topics of self-help and mindfulness. The views are the author's own.