Extra Time

December is finally here. A month we all anticipate with mixed feelings; some welcome December with joy while others do so with dread all for different reasons. A few weeks ago I was privileged to be on a group that was reviewing a book “Where are the Goals I set?” After the review session, several things dawned on me. Whatever feeling we have at the end of the year depends largely on how much of our set goals we have achieved so far. Most times, we all set high and beautiful goals at the beginning of the year only to realize as the year comes to a close we did not reach our own cut-off point.

Just today, an analogy of the year dawned on me. Each year can be likened to a soccer match. There are eleven players on a team and each player has the responsibility  to make use of the time given, lessons taught, experience gotten to bring home one result – a win! One thing I've noticed so far is that tension in the ninety minutes of the game is almost never as high as it is in extra time (dying minutes). And I ask myself the question ‘why?’ only to find out the same applies in life.

Let’s say the first eleven months of the year are for the eleven players on a team.  We apply ourselves to achieving our set our goals in the first part of the year but most time it seems we don’t apply ourselves enough and start to rush in the dying minutes (December). Since it has happened again this year, I made a resolve, take the lessons I've learnt this match and apply them to the next match. So for next year I put in all I have from the first minute so that by December I don’t have to worry about a loss.  Just like Paulo Coelho said, “it isn't what you did in the past that will affect the present, it’s what you do in the present that will redeem the past and thereby change the future.” 

Let's make the resolve together, let's start working NOW to make TOMORROW different. We CAN!