Oh time be my ally

Beloved reader, welcome to the New Year and the first Sunday of 2013. Most of all, welcome back to reality after all the eating and lazing that defined Christmas and the New Year celebrations. I hope the holiday had anodyne effects on you after a year of hard labour. You need that freshness and readiness to confront the challenges that are already lurking and ready to pounce.  

oh time be my ally!

I’m talking about those New Year resolutions that fill the first few leaves of your sleek new 2013 diary and that are already begging for the implementation to begin! And if you are a nonconformist that abhors anything to do with resolutions, at least your boss or wife expects you to perform better than you did last year.  

Just in case you don’t realise, it is some good days into the New Year already. That says as much about the rashness of time. It’s a precious commodity that we cannot afford to squander. As it has been rightly said, time waits for no man. But I’m not saying it should hold us for ransom. And I’m not saying we should rush lest we crush. I’m only saying let’s utilize time better.  

Moreover diviners of pessimism have already spelled out that this year is going to be way tougher than the previous. They are partly right because there’s no worthy quest without a major test. And the person with the winning mentality cannot be intimidated. He's already preparing and when the test comes, it will get the best out of him.   

If you are saying it’s easier said than done, you’re among those that let others stifle their potential. Don’t listen to anyone with dispiriting words. We all enter this world naked and crying, meaning we share a measure of vulnerability and invisibility that make us fail or excel depending on our attitudes and approaches. Whereas some are busy unfurling their potential, others are busy becoming shrinking violets. Saying the odds against you are insurmountable is giving fear the license to rob you. Fear is that great robber that robs man of his greatness beforehand. One must therefore adopt a fearless stance to become a man or woman of substance.  

Also learn to encourage yourself through motivational literature. Find someone with whom you gel and motivate each other to the top through words and deeds. With this, you can make your life sublime, and as poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow beautifully put it, “leave footprints on the sands of time.”