With only a few days left for us to bid bye-bye to 2024, most of us will be thinking about what this year has been about and starting to ponder what we want for the new year.
At times, this year has been positive, filled with many surprises, achievements, new initiatives, and everything we wanted.
But what if we end the year without having an accurate knowledge of how we fared in the year. In my opinion, it is not a bad idea that we look back so that we will be able to move forward, though there are phrases like “the past is the past” or advice like “if we keep looking back, we will never reach our purpose.”
True, we don’t have to open a Pandora’s box of our past nor do we allow the past to hold us back. Our past is attached to the present, and the future. It's better to fully understand our past before we start living in the future.
Our past should not constrain us if we decide to use our talents to shine our light in the present.
A reflection on the past is a positive way to express our gratitude for what has passed, and this will allow us to move forward into the next year. When we reflect on what we have learned, we will be able to learn from our experiences and, most of all, our mistakes.
So, it's important to look back to see what went right, celebrate it, and carry forward it to the next year in a better way for a better life. Reminiscing about the past year helps us understand what went wrong, reworking that, and trying to redefine and rectify those mistakes in a way that we can craft and shape a better new year.
Nobody else is responsible for what we do in our life. What is about to come from today on is ours, and we are the architects of our lives, our success, our happiness, our relationships, or our careers.
For me, the recent years, especially 2021, when I was infected with the deadly coronavirus and had to fight for my life, have taught me my own strengths and my self-proclaimed corners, which proved my presence to be much beyond what I thought.
I was full of anxiety when I retired from my job in July 2022. Of course, retiring from work is a major life change that can bring stress as well as benefits. “The more resilient you are, the better you’re able to cope with challenges like retirement,” I have learned.
The recent years have made me realise that my battles are my own. I learnt and trained myself with a combination of tears and laughter.
“It is always important to know when something has reached its end. Closing circles, shutting doors, finishing chapters — it doesn’t matter what we call it; what matters is to leave in the past those moments in life that are over,” advises Paulo Coelho, a South American author who has sold over 165 million copies of his works.
Coelho's books focus on spiritual awakening, discovering one's purpose in life, and learning to move beyond one's fears in order to pursue that purpose.
Having said that we should set our terms and not get pulled in, have a look, and have a full perspective on things; with that, we can make better choices.
At the end of every year, we should be able come out with pride at how hard we have worked despite all the hardships and then to move forward with more enthusiasm towards the next year. The best is yet to come.
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