With hope, let's plan for a successful 2024

Those who doubt the existence of God need to read the works of Aristotle the Greek philosopher who was employed by Prince Philip of Macedon to tutor his son Alexander the Great, who later became a revolutionary king, who in collaboration with Aristotle built the first ever university in the world at Alexandria in Egypt.  In the Metaphysics, the book written by Aristotle the founder of education and a philosopher who had something to say on most forms of knowledge that exist today, argued that “there must be some eternal and imperishable substance, otherwise all substance would be perishable, and then everything in the world would be perishable”. He further argued that “This eternal actual substance must be a single prime mover, which, while the source of all process and change, is not itself subject to process or change.  This substance does what is the highest form of life ought to do, namely to think. The God of the philosophers, perhaps”.

 

This means that our lives have a prime mover who has been, is and will be and is not changed by circumstances or events as happens to human beings. We can take comfort in the fact that this supreme being, God, will always continue to order our lives once we surrender unto him and also seek His divine leadership and guidance.

When He appeared to Moses – note that Moses is a central prophet in all Abrahamic religions that include Christianity, Islam and Judaism among others - in Exodus chapter 3:14, He tells Moses “ ... I AM WHO I AM..” which means that He is a God who orders all things and processes. It is because of that superiority of God that we are almost coming to the end of the year 2023. 

Many activities and things happened in the year and we made many lessons and gained greater understanding of diverse things. We should forever cherish and entertain the idea of being good human beings to our neighbours and the country at large and seek to do worthy things, things that bring honour to our nation and region. 

The end of the year provides an opportunity to evaluate our achievements and losses for the year, providing us with an opportunity to learn some lessons, evaluate ourselves and to draw an action plan for the coming year. At such a time, we should be guided by six major undertakings as the year comes to an end. First, we should be grateful and be filled with gratitude to the Almighty God, and to people who have been of remarkable influence, assistance and help to us. This is because gratitude brings wholesomeness, completeness, positive reinforcements of behaviour, healing and more success. This is supported by the Bible in Luke 17: 11-19, from the story of the 10 lepers who were healed by Jesus and only one came back to show gratitude, and whose sins were forgiven and healed! 

Secondly, we should critically evaluate our achievements made in the year.  We should then celebrate any win and victories recorded, whether small or big. This is because every win is important and it’s the magic that makes your mind ready for the next battle. Always make a habit of celebrating small wins because they are the foundation for the bigger wins and hence it makes a magic of some sort for greater success. 

Thirdly, we should declutter our life and environment including the living spaces, homes, office, and our social circles. Some of the friends we have had in the year may not be what we need going forward, you may need to disassociate yourself with some friends for your miracle and success to come. This logic is made clearer by the maxim that you are an average of the five people that you spend most of the time with. There is need therefore to ensure that your circle of friends includes people who challenge and motivate you to do more. The success and greater performance of some people have been killed by staying in toxic relationships which hinders their full realization of their potential. Ensure that your mind is free from anything that hinders you from greater success; ensure you tap into the right mind frame for greater victory. 

Fourthly, aspire for a healthy financial status through systematic reduction of unnecessary and unproductive debt, avoid too much consumerism without corresponding productivity. Attend some financial literacy classes online or physically and learn how to create wealth, grow your savings, ensure that money works for you going forward and don’t compete with others but yourself. Set your own goals, accomplish them and set more goals without caring so much on what others are doing since you do not know their goals or sources of such funds that they flaunt around. 

The fifth issue, going forward, courageously face and walk into your dreams and imaginations for 2024 with boldness and confidence. The world loves and rewards confident people, which makes them successful than cowards. Cowards will burn in the fiery lake of burning Sulphur. Imagine your cowardice making you to share the lake burning with Sulphur with the unbelieving, the vile, murderers, the immoral, those who practice magic, the idolaters and all liars because of just because of cowardice – see Revelations 21:8. Do not be shy of your challenges and where you need to be in future, acknowledge your challenges and plan on how to overcome them in the coming year. Author Joseph Conrad quipped that “facing it, always facing it, that is the way to get through, face it”.  After imagining and facing your dream life, draw an action plan to achieve your targets in 2024 that will act as your monitoring tool to keep you within the range of your desired life. 

The sixth issue is for you to prepare to take up the many opportunities that will show up in 2024, because author Ayn Rand noted “the ladder of success is best climbed by stepping on the rungs of opportunity”.