Now we are in 2024 did you sit and ponder over New Year Resolutions, or do you think they are a waste of time because you will only break them? Are you a planner for the year ahead or are you going to wing it?

This year I am going to make not so much a resolution but a decision to do more of the things I love, spend time with those whose glow lights up my life and to plan but to allow the unplanned to give me an opportunity to learn whilst going with the flow.

Often, we find ourselves doing things because we think we should, we ought to, we will be judged if we don’t, but our lives should be about one thing and that is to do things that fill us personally with joy. I know there are times when we have to do things that maybe aren’t 100% joyful but where you can look to where you can make choices to make those choices with joy and a passion in mind.

Start 2024 by looking at your business and indeed your life, do an audit, are you sticking with things, people, jobs, business projects, clients, general situations because you think you have no option or choice? In honesty we all in fact have choices, for example we can choose the people we spend time with, spend more time with the radiators than the drains if you can, (this is an NLP term that basically means spend more time with positive minded individuals who will keep you warm as opposed to the drains who soak away your energy).

During the years of 2004 and 2009 I stuck at job that I grew to dislike, the majority of people there were drains, I felt stuck in a relationship with a drain, I lived in a city I didn’t like; all of this was what lead to the burnout. A situation that at the end of 2009 I vowed would end, I made a resolution that year I would never live through another 2009, I stood strong, I made changes and over time grew to enjoy the blessed life I do today.

I am sharing this with you because for the five years mentioned above, I had a choice, I could have left the job or the relationship or the city at any time, but I didn’t because I didn’t exercise my right to choose. Now not all bad choices end the way mine did but indeed they can.

So, in 2024 and I analyse my life to check that I do what I can to limit the drains, may I suggest you take this on as your New Year’s Resolution, this year start controlling the controllables, spend as much time as you can with radiators and look for the joy in every moment.

Happy New Year to all.