Oral East Africa>Having trouble sticking to resolutions, try mantra this 2025 At the hut of the story

Happy and blessed 2025 to you all!

It is that time of the year when some of us are in reflection and writing down our New Year resolutions. Or maybe, you already wrote yours down during the holidays and now starting off on the actions towards keeping up with your commitments to yourself. Well done and good luck.

Over the years, I have realized that writing down resolutions is one step towards making these commitments real. Keeping yourself accountable. While I have my accountability friends with whom we develop five-year plans, and keep each other in check, I like to maintain my own review.

I have found annual plans are easier to make. Ideally, I do not really have resolutions but intentions for the year. What I intend to do to get closer to or to accomplish my five-year goals.

I will give an example. Five-year goal- own a house. Year one intention/plan – increase SACCO contributions by 'x' amount to enable me to secure 'y' amount of loan for land or mortgage. You get the drift?

There is this old adage “Man plans, and God Laughs”

Many a time, we plan and are truly committed to our plans or resolutions of the year however life throws at us curve balls that are not only disorienting, but they can also ground our intentions and plans to a halt never to be completed.

How can you stay on track?

What has worked for me over the years is in addition to resolutions or plans I develop a personal mantra for the season of life I am in. Some people refer to them as ‘theme of the year’ or personal affirmation.

Usually, I set them during a season I identify my life to be in sometimes well into the year when I have clarity on what kind of year it will be. Other times I would know by the end of the previous year what my next year would look like.

For instance, when one is changing jobs, or had a job loss at the end of the year, you pretty much know what to expect of your next year. For the people in school, going into form four if in high school or fourth year if in university already starts you off in the year with clarity of what is expected.

What is a Mantra?

According to Oxford Dictionary a mantra is defined as a word or sound repeated to aid concentration in meditation. Originally in Hinduism or Buddhism. It can also be defined as a statement or slogan repeated frequently.

Away from the spiritual practice of meditation, Mantra is always used interchangeably with positive affirmation. For purposes of this exercise, I use the word ‘Mantra’ mostly as statements of purpose.

I believe this to be more than having a personal affirmation. Some people like to also use the idea of personal theme of the year. A personal mantra not only helps you have a positive outlook on life, but it could also help you stay confidently on track with your goals even when faced with delays, curveballs and challenges.

Here are three personal mantras I developed to navigate some important seasons of my life. They were very helpful in keeping me on my purpose and on track toward my five-year goals and plans.

Swim or Sink Florence

This Mantra carried me through a 15-month period in which I was not on payroll. A project I was working in was unexpectedly cut short and all of us were let go from our work. The news was given to us as we were receiving our January salaries. There was no warning, no time to plan.

For many of us who work in the NGO sector, this reality becomes a norm that one cultivates a mechanism to survive however at that time, neither I nor any of my closest friends were prepared. We were all caught up in this mess. A lot of life changes happened in this period too. I look back and wonder how I got past this period. “Swim or sink Florence” was what I chanted through my panic attacks or whenever I felt pressed between a rock and hard place.

The 20^th president of USA James Garfield once said, “Poverty is uncomfortable, but nine times out of ten the best thing that can happen to a young man is to be tossed overboard and compelled to sink or swim.”

This period was testing. Its own version of testing. Through it I discovered how creative and versatile I can be. After surviving this period, I have never ever again questioned my ability to survive anything.

To whom much is given, much is expected

Sometimes we are called to do too much. Particularly when a prayer made whilst in your ‘desert season’ gets answered in the Luke 6:38 kind of way.

Because it was not lost to me how blessed I was to be able to serve and work in that period doing what I loved to do best, no matter how tired I was, I would always remind myself. “To whom much is given, much is expected.”

In review, doing this immediately after ‘sink or swim’ did eventually catch up with me body, mind and spirit. At the end of 2018 I was depleted and burnt out.

Look, I loved this period, I was on the go!! I did great things. Again, an abrupt end to my job contract got me to a screeching halt. A move to another much slower job revealed just how beat down I was. This is why in the next few years my mantra became ‘Stay down’. I really did slow down in this season.

Reviewed my measure of success, recovered, developed new ways of working, and became intentional about health and rest. I am still learning here.

Stick to your WHY and get it DONE

Early last year during a leadership alignment meeting with my Co-Ed it became very clear that the year would require some bold and tough organizational decisions whose impact would last for most of the year. We were embarking on an organizational change process.

Needless to say, last year was rough on all fronts. What kept me going was repeating these words to myself loudly and most times silently. They gave me the courage to soldier on through the rough.

Do you have a mantra or theme for the year? Are you motivated to develop one? Good luck!