Achieve Your New Year Resolutions by Taking Control of Your Life
New Year resolutions suck!
At least, they have always done in my life until last year. I start off making a long list of Dos and Don’ts on the first day of every year and promptly forget all about it by the twentieth. By the time February begins, I am back to my earlier self, gorging on cream rolls, skipping Pilates and whiling away more time scrolling down the Facebook timeline than writing.
The Wake-Up Call
2017 was no different except that I woke up from this reverie sometime around the middle of the year. I realized, with a shock, that I was still hungover from the euphoria of publishing my first novel and had hardly written a single word for the last seven months. This was despite being commissioned for three separate books. Netflix was tempting, Netflix coupled with potato wafers was bliss and I couldn’t get myself to follow through on my obligations. Despite being blessed with opportunities, was I going to be such a lazy failure?
I sat down, had a good cry and then picked up a fresh sheaf of papers. I made a list of resolutions once again, but I tweaked them a bit this time. The following six months must be one of the most productive phases in my writing life.
The Magic Six Months
In those six months, I completed the first draft of two crime thrillers, wrote two children’s books, completed and registered a screenplay for a two-hour-feature film, published a collection of my flash fiction stories and wrote four short stories.
One of the children’s books involved intense research on a scientific subject and I read nearly a dozen ‘fat’ books on that subject before penning it. Apart from this, I read about thirty-five novels and more than ten non-fiction books during this period.
I made sure that I got at least an hour of physical activity every day. I spent at least two hours every evening with the children, didn’t work on Sundays and took a two-week-vacation in October.
Frankly, compared with many other writers, this is not a lot, but I am proud of myself. For the first time, I understood how I could transfer dreams into action. While it would take an entire book to list all the steps that I had taken to achieve this, I have mentioned the first most important step that you can take immediately to achieve your resolutions this 2018. (By the way, I did write that book and I am offering it, along with a Workbook, for free on my website.)
Focus on the Present
Every year, when I made my resolutions, I think there was a small part of me that never expected me to follow up on those resolutions. So, though I showed enthusiasm in making them, my PAST performance was already catching up with me.
This time, I decided to let go of my past.
Along with that, I was struck with a nagging feeling that all my best-laid plans were going to go astray. Haven’t they always? Why should it be any different this year? Aren’t I going on a vacation in May? That will bust my schedule! How can I expect to write every day? What if the kids fell sick?’ These misplaced anxieties about the FUTURE ruined whatever little chances were left.
I told myself firmly, I will not worry about the future.
Only the Present Matters
The past is over, and the future is unpredictable. The only thing we have in our hands is the ‘present’. There is a reason why it is called the present; it is the best gift you can give yourself.
To let go off the past and march into a dream future, we must BE PRESENT.
Be Present
When you are in the present, FOCUS ALL YOUR ENERGIES AND ATTENTION ON THE TASK AT HAND. Distracted presence and multi-tasking have become a part of our lives today.
We have turned into beings that are incapable of giving attention to one thing.
How many of you read this article till this paragraph without getting up from your seat? Or answering the phone? Or checking your Facebook or Instagram? Or doing anything else that took your eyes off the screen? If you are lifting your hand, hats off to you! Out of the first twenty people who read this article, eighteen of them answered in the negative. It is a sad that we are unable to read 1000 words without losing concentration.
“For him who has no concentration, there is no peace.” — Bhagavad Gita
Multi-tasking is not a talent.
The first principle that you need to equip yourself on your journey to achieve all your resolutions this year is to concentrate on the present with all the focus that you can muster.
If you are interested in knowing how I tweaked my resolutions to make them easier to accomplish, visit the website www.readwriteinspire.com and sign up with your details.
You could also drop me an email at MailReadWriteInspire@gmail.com with the subject line ‘2018 Resolutions’. I’d love to share with you what worked for me. This eBook is my New Year gift to you.
