To set or not to set New Year resolutions – does it make sense?

In the to-do list for the majority of people are financial resolutions at the beginning of every New Year. This is because most people struggle with their personal finances for their entire lives.

Unfortunately, many of the resolutions never outlive the duration required for the ink that wrote them to dry up. Many others, never outgrow the piece of paper or notebook on which they were written.

This habit keeps going on from year to the next one. Sooner rather than later, most people realize they are in their sunset years without any good financial base. Trust me, for most people who practice this ritual of the New Year, the majority will forget or completely abandon their financial goals as soon as the January 2023 salary hits their bank account. Everything will be forgotten and reset to the default factory setting until 2024 comes knocking again!

In this first article for 2023, I will share my thoughts on this matter. As far as possible, I will share my personal experiences for you to decide what you can pick if it works for you.

1. For the avoidance of doubt, the beginning of the New Year is neither magical nor different from any other day in the calendar. The best way to look at it is as a date that gives a 12-month timeline to measure your own financial performance. In essence, it is a good duration to assess if you are on course to achieve your long-term financial goals. In business language, we call it the Accounting period. For accounting and reporting purposes, this date can be any other day for as long as you remain consistent with that date in 12-month intervals.
2. New Year resolutions do not have to be written on paper – they can be commitments that you make in your mind and resolve to abide by them. Personally, I have no recollection of any point in time I wrote them on paper. What is sure of is that I have practiced the habit of taking a few minutes off to reflect on my achievements, what worked or did not work; what I should improve and target in the New Year shortly after the clock ‘switches over’ into the New Year. Based on my faith, I follow this with a ‘Thank You’ prayer for the year that has gone by and make a petition to my God to lead and strengthen me to keep my commitments for the New Year. Mine is that simple and it has worked very over the years!
3. Keep it simple, clear, and specific – again at a personal level, I have never believed in tall lists of New Year resolutions. I have always stuck with 2-3 specific points that I mentally commit to –then follow them through to the last details. For instance, if I note that I shall increase my savings to a particular amount in line with the year’s target, then I just do it (take immediate decisive action towards it) and live with it for the remainder of the year and beyond. Taking decisive action is the winner, not the act of making or writing the resolution down!
4. If you can’t live your resolution, then do not bother making them in the first place – am sure your time and energy can find other better uses than thinking/imagining things that you cannot master the courage to act on and turn them into reality. You are better off not wasting that energy on what you cannot make happen.
5. Ultimately, what counts is what you achieve not what you proposed to do. Writing your resolutions down is a means of stating your faith or a point of reminder of what you set for yourself at the start of the year –that is if you cannot remember them off the head. For me, committing my goals in the mind and actioning them immediately gives a definitive step towards achieving what I set for myself.

In conclusion –what should be the way forward? For me, the year is extremely young for anyone of us to fix what we need to fix to make 2023 count. Whether you put it on paper or not, for as long as you can decide and stick to what you desire to achieve in 2023, then you are good to go.

There never is a better time to start or take action towards your desired goals than now! The only other better time would have been yesterday.

From me, I truly pray that each one of us would find the courage, strength, and mental resolve to follow through on your set goals for 2023 without fail. And should you fail, then raise up again and just keep walking.