Matt Avery, in his book series, “Secret of Happy People” mentioned that if you choose to surround yourself with positive individuals, negative disappears, leaving the room for positivity, energy, fulfilment, and feelings of wellbeing, and by associating with the company of positive people, you will feel yourself, being empowered, focused and prosperous, poised to following your vision all the way. However, the opposite is the result when an individual chooses to surround himself with pessimists and negative minded people. Personalities that do not have the same or similar vision as you, will only serve as de-catalyst, dragging you back. Plato once put it: ‘People are like dirt. They can either nourish you to grow as a person or they can stunt your growth and make you wilt and die.’
Over the years, I have personally noticed the spontaneity at which almost everybody takes special decisions; most call it New Year visions or resolutions, at the end of every year and the beginning of new ones. Some might decide to work on their weight loss, some to spend more time with their families, some to change their career, some to start a retirement or savings plan. But unfortunately, by the time it gets to the end of February, a gradual silent decline sets in, especially in the energy, personal pressures and enthusiasm required to proceed in actualising these special decisions, designed by individuals to change their lives for the better.
There is no better way of addressing this, as I have actually identified some major factors and reasons that could decline your morale as you are determined to rise to your New Year visions and resolutions, geared towards changing your life. The most prevalent and dangerous one is not being certain of what you want in the New Year. Setting goals and vision for a new year requires that you realistically identify what you really want to achieve in the year. Once your subconscious mind registers a certain number of what you actually want, then it becomes easier for it to be accomplished. Writing down these selected goals will also create a systematic string of mental activities, which are needed for continuity and consistency without a major breakdown in journeying through the year.
Another major side to this topic is lurking around negative people and pessimists. This, unconsciously, has killed a significant number of visions and dreams in the lives of people and also plays a major role on people’s New Year visions and resolutions. Still on research about the human brain and what impact the environment has on it, till now, I have found that a significant set of neurons in the brain, referred to as “mirror neurons” are wired to reflect whatever we see in our environment. Put differently, if someone smiles at us, there is a part of our brain that smiles as well; that smile is reflected in our brains physiologically. If you are in the audience listening and the pastor sounds loving and confident, then those traits are similarly now reflected in the brains of all that are listening. If the case is otherwise, the listeners will also reflect the same in their attitudes and behaviour.
It then boils down to relatively high tendencies for you to respond to the negative influences around you in the New Year, therefore hampering the actualisation of your visions, goals and resolutions. No wonder David wrote in Psalms 1:1 “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.” The set of people mentioned in the words of David above have something in common, but if you have no similar attributes, the company is not meant for you.
Another factor worthy of mentioning is being laid-back in taking a logical and systematic set of actions towards achieving the New Year goals and resolutions. As usual practice, a lot of people draw a set of goals and aspirations to be achieved in the New Year, but do not make time to also draw out realistic set of action plans designed to activate these goals. Simplistically, a set of realistic goals and aspirations requires systematic action plans to achieve these. In other words, the moment you draw these realistic resolutions, coupled with the required action plans, with consistency in mind, within companies of positive people, you are not far from actualising the strategy to changing your life in the New Year and beyond.
Ayo
For counselling and prayers, please send a request to info@vesselsofvirtues.com
