Why you should have only one New Year's resolution

There are certain aspects of the 8-4-4 system which will always bring laughter and joy when we reminisce about them.

If you are a millennial, am certain you can remember the morning parades which used to be held on Mondays and Fridays, the austerity with which we would sing the national anthem and the confusion that would come when we recited the loyalty pledge because most of us would stop at “I pledge my loyalty to the president and the nation of Kenya…”

Being found on the noisemakers list was dreadful especially if the class prefect headed with the list to the staffroom. Your name being found on the Kiswahili speakers list would also spell doom if that teacher who always carried a red plastic bucket handle for a cane was on duty.

How about the long-anticipated “maziwa ya nyayo” which would make even the school truants go back for their share on Fridays?

Somehow we survived all the challenges that came with being in a public primary school. There is one event that always brought me chills in primary school – The school closing day!

Quite ironical, isn’t it? There was often a challenge that was given by a classmate, a few weeks to the closing day. For no logical reason the “rude” boy in class would tell you “nitafunga na wewe” (I challenge you to a fight on the closing day). This gave me problems because one, I wasn’t a good “fighter” and two, reporting the issue to a teacher would cause all the girls to laugh and taunt at me because the norm back then and unfortunately is that a man should toughen up no matter what.

I couldn’t miss the school closing day in as much as I had fears of being whooped. This was because my name would always feature on the top three students list and that meant receiving prizes for exemplary academic performance.

Once the closing ceremony was done, the challenger would approach me and soon my classmates would mill around to witness the brawl.

The classmates would incite us to fight but the best the challenger would do is muscle his chest on mine. A line would then be drawn on the ground by one of my classmates and a challenge that says “let he who believes is psychically better among you be the first to cross over to opponents’ side.”

As expected the other boy got the upper hand. A second challenge to prove physical strength would be to touch your opponent’s crown of the head which we all did in unison, challenger and opponent.

Soon, the expected brawl would spiral down to who is better at this or that and a verdict made “hao watu wanatoshana” (Those people are equal in physical strength) and everybody would disperse for the holidays.

More often than not, we have found ourselves in situations which have challenged us to prove our resilience, will and determination. These challenges are good because they make us grown especially in the cognitive realm.

The problem, however, comes in when we try to prove our resilience and abilities to other people. Most of us will make New Year resolutions but break them on the second week because the intention is not to make us better but please other people or at least try to prove a point.

Like the challenger I had in primary school, most of us will go ahead to brag of how strong we are but not do anything tangible to show for the claim.

Your resolutions are uniquely yours; don’t go about telling people what you intend to do because you will lose the zeal and drive.

Have ‘one’ resolution which is to accomplish what you have set out to do! Whether the resolution list reads three items or nine or even one, go on and try to resolve them!

If you don’t accomplish all of them, review why you flopped at them and give it another shot. This is the only sure way of getting ahead of the curve, little talk and more action.

Don’t wait till January 1st to make resolutions, start now! Resolve to do something for your life every day. Let every day be fresh and new. Like my challenger in primary school, don’t wait for the appropriate time to “funga mwaka” to start making resolutions, start now! Seek to please yourself and yourself alone! Have only resolution – TO ACCOMPLISH ALL THAT YOU HAVE SET OUT TO!