It’s that time of year again – the “most wonderful time of
the year”! It is my favourite time of the year, I admit. There’s happiness in
the air, this expectation of celebration and good things. There’s the
relief of having made it this far and anticipation of new beginnings in the new
year. There's Christmas carols to sing, Christmas cards to send, and of course gifts to give and receive.
This year, I am adding a new item to the list that is making the season even more exciting. I learnt from John Maxwell that it is also a good time to start planning for the year ahead. In his book “The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth” he mentions that his favourite time of the year is the week after Christmas. It is
then that he sits and evaluates the past year and plans for the coming year.
I cannot promise that I will sit still in the week after
Christmas long enough to comprehensively plan my 2020, given that that time is
set aside to catch up with family and friends, so I am starting early. I have
learnt over the past year that improvement does not happen by accident. If I
want each of my subsequent years to be better than the last one, I cannot wait
for the 31st of December to make some dopamine fuelled, half-hearted
new year’s resolutions that will probably not see the end of January.
I attended a Straight Forward Financial Growth session on
November 30th, which has given me a framework on which to build my
year’s financial plan. I am reviewing my schedule to allocate ample time to spend
time with God, to exercise, to rest, to study and grow and to build
relationships. Life is busy as the year winds down but I am finding time to at
least lay out the various frameworks that I will then flesh out during the
holiday.
My 2020 will definitely be better than 2019, and my 2021
even better still, so help me God.
