10 Crucial Truths You Must Take Into The New Year

Some are already staring you in the face and avoidance will continue to weaken the courage muscle till it wastes away.

In the final days of every year as we begin to take stock of our lives over the year, we make resolutions for the new year. Resolutions we hope will help improve our lives from that point on.

Unfortunately, a lot of our resolutions get broken because, among other reasons, they are so many they turn into a mere wishlist, they might not have been specific enough, or they require unsustainable financial commitments.

However, unlike resolutions, you don’t have to wait till Christmas is over, or it’s new year’s eve to recognize and affirm these crucial truths to yourself. They will lead to a more fulfilling, happy, and meaningful life in the coming year and beyond. In fact, the best time is now.

These simple truths will give you the much-needed stability, inner peace, and drive to be all you can be.

Your best time now

Sure the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago but the second-best time is now.

So waste no time whenever you have a worthy goal in mind. Somehow there will always be a reason to wait on something, and if you keep waiting, you won’t achieve much.

To say, life is too short, sounds cliche but there is a lot of truth in those words. And who’s to say there won’t be a thousand unforeseen obstacles in your way tomorrow anyway? Or there will even be a tomorrow? So seize the moment. Your best time is now.

“I never wanted to be the person who said, “I woulda, coulda, shoulda.” Life is way too short, and you may not last that long.” -Joy Bryant

You are the best measure for yourself

If you are better today than you were yesterday, you are already a success! Striving to make yourself even marginally better continuously is a much more fulfilling and achievable goal.

A better version of you incrementally is far more successful than a weak imitation of someone else. So even if it is incrementally, you are doing good.

“If you are better today than you were yesterday, you are already a success!”

Being fixated on those you think are doing so much better than you at the moment, can make you seem like a failure. You most likely have no idea of their struggles or their opportunities. You are different from them so strive to make yourself better continuously and measure yourself by yourself.

Know your limitations or disadvantages and work on them. Never overestimate your capabilities because if you create an identity that doesn’t fit who you really are, there are going to be problems down the road. “Fake it till you make it”, can only get you so far.

“Being fixated on those you think are doing so much better than you at the moment, can make you seem like a failure.”

The key to your happiness is contentment

All your heart desires will mean nothing without it. When you are content it means you’re experiencing satisfaction and ease in your situation and motion.

That experience is what separates those who can be truly happy with their lives, regardless of their situation, from those who cannot.

Contentment will be the secret ingredient that fuels your happiness. When you have it you realize that it is a gift above all other gifts because there are people who have so much more than you probably ever will but happiness still eludes them.

“We carry inside us the wonders we seek outside us.” -Rumi

Meaningful goals will take time and effort to achieve

Sometimes it takes a lot of both. Struggles can make life seem like a drag but those struggles also make life meaningful in the long run.

People who lead meaningful lives have all had struggles and obstacles they had to overcome. Goals of any real significance will take time and effort to realize. A long-term relationship, a successful career, building a profitable enterprise all take time and effort.

So do you give up because just because it is hard? If it holds any real value for you, you roll up your sleeves and put in the work, and eventually, you will reap the rewards.

“Success is the sum of small efforts repeated day in day out.” -Robert Collier

You have to stop looking for love in all the wrong places when it’s already right there staring you in the face

recognize and appreciate the people in your life who understand and accept you for who you are, care about how you feel, and are always there for you even when you are not. Open your eyes.

These are the ones with genuine love in their hearts. So commit to doing your part in building healthy, stable relationships with them because those relationships will have a far more positive impact on your well-being than all your possessions.

As far as your happiness goes, your money is better spent in other ways anyway.

“Spend your valuable time with those who love you unconditionally, dont waste it on those people who love you in some condition” ―Pranab Dutta

The best investment you can make is in yourself

It may hurt your chances if other people don’t invest in you but it’ll hurt for sure if you don’t invest in yourself. The returns are guaranteed- future returns are unquantifiable and the immediate pay-offs are fantastic.

Whatever the level of success you may have already achieved it is still worthwhile to invest in increasing your ability to achieve more. So always take the opportunity to increase your knowledge, skills, acquire new tools, or further your professional standing, or learn to tap into your creativity.

“The most important investment you can make is in yourself.” -Warren Buffett

Truth is a better long-term strategy than lying

All all the short-term payoffs of lying aside, the long-term physical and emotional toll extracted by the lying lifestyle should give anyone cause for concern.

When you build yourself a fortress of lies, with high walls of justifications, you can feel safe perhaps even invincible, but sooner or later the walls will be breached and in, will come to the unrelenting flood of reality and dire consequences.

Being honest, on the other hand, confers so many benefits.

To mention a few, you will always be your authentic self and present yourself as such. This way you earn the trust and respect of people you come in contact with, even the dubious.

You will form deeper social bonds because honesty is the foundation of healthy relationships. When you are always truthful you save yourself the stress of having to keep track of all your lies so as to craft new ones to continue the facade.

“Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain’t goin’ away.” -Elvis Presley

Haters are always going to hate, doubters will doubt, disappointers will disappoint, and the cynics will never believe you will amount to much anyway

That is who they are. They can’t change their outlook anymore than a leopard can change its spots.

The sooner you accept that fact the quicker you get to focus more energy on living up to your own values and earning your own approval. Your peace of mind depends on it.

People will let you down too. It’s a fact of life and if you do not accept that, then that will be your first disappointment. Just keep your expectations realistic. When disappointments eventually happen, acknowledge them, deal with the aftermath and move on.

Don’t be too quick to fly off the handle either because they may have genuine excuses and that is how people make the best speeches they ever regret.

“There will be haters, doubters, non-believers, and there will be you, proving them wrong.” -Jennifer Van Allen

You can’t control everything

Denying this fact is how micro-managing control freaks are born. They are always trying to exercise control over everything and everyone all the time because that is the way to ensure there are never any negative results. Or so they think.

Smart people know there are a lot of things you can control and influence for sure, but ‘everything’ is not one of them. So they focus on what is controllable. In life, many things seem to have a mind of their own but the one thing that should always be under your control is how you react to adversity.

Determine what can go wrong, evaluate your spheres of influence, and prepare for all eventualities

Death is a part of life

You are going to lose people you care about and eventually, they are going to lose you. There is no escaping the pain but you can eliminate later regrets.

Build intimate relationships with your loved ones starting now and cherish the moments you spend with them. Let them know you appreciate them and give them the chance to appreciate you.

Reestablish connections with the people that matter in your life by catching up, making amends, and burying the hatchet.

Death is scary for sure but this awareness of our mortality rather than depress us should encourage us to properly prioritize our lives, our goals, and our values. This sense of an approaching deadline should, therefore, be what helps us to make essentially better choices in our lives.

Conclusion

Accepting truth, sometimes even simple ones, though necessary can be difficult. Sometimes truth can be easier to deny and simply carrying on as usual. The denial usually comes from a place of false hopes, regrets, or a disconnect from reality. However, there is power in recognizing and accepting these truths one of which is taking control of our lives.

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