THE PRELUDE

Every New Year brings one of the first things most people intend to do in the year; make a resolution for the things they want to do. I am sure that many Ghanaians including you have made a vow to make things better this year.

As to whether these resolutions work or not is a different matter. Fortunately we do have research on the success or achievement rates of New Year Resolutions.

According to Health.com research, about 75 percent of people who make New Year’s resolutions are on target a week later, but that figure drops to less than 50 percent by July.

A New Year's resolution is a tradition, mostly common in the West but also found in other societies all over the world in which a person makes a promise to do an act of self-improvement or observe some guidelines and targets they have set for themselves.

In Ghana, New Year Resolutions has become almost like a ritual and many people make time to do their resolutions and many openly share some of these resolutions with friends and families.

It may be a good idea to share a resolution because it gives one an opportunity to have a “watch dog” over what the person hopes to achieve. It is said that a problem once shared is half solved. So perhaps sharing your resolutions make other people have vested interest in it and could offer help to achieve them.

A 2007 study by Richard Wiseman from the University of Bristol involving 3,000 people showed that 88% of those who set New Year resolutions fail, despite the fact that 52% of the study's participants were confident of success at the beginning. According to the study Men achieved their goal 22% more often when they engaged in goal setting, (a system where small measurable goals are being set; such as, losing a pound a week, instead of saying "lose weight"), while women succeeded 10% more when they made their goals public and got support from their friends.

I can safely say that if you make a resolution and you cannot keep it on your own there must be a problem. The most important thing about setting a resolution and achieving it is commitment. Without commitment whether you have New Year resolution “watchdog” or “partner” it may not work.

Now this is not to discourage you from taking your resolutions seriously and that doesn’t mean New Year’s resolutions should be abandoned before they even have the chance to be successful. It only means that people have to be more committed to the goals they set and work towards them. A goal doesn’t implement itself and no resolution will be realized if the person who pledges it has no intentions of working hard to realize it.

 In the words of the respected Oprah Winfrey, “Year’s end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us. Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.”

So let us see some of the common resolutions set by people all over the world as catalogued by Wikipedia. I bet you will definitely find yours here.

•             Pray more, be closer to God and be more spiritual

•             Improve physical well-being: eat healthy food, lose weight, exercise more, eat better

•             Spend quality time with family members

•             drink less alcohol

•             quit smoking

•             stop biting nails

•             Improve mental well-being: think positive, laugh more often, enjoy life

•             Improve finances: get out of debt, save money, make small investments

•             Improve career: perform better at current job or  establish own business

•             Improve education: improve grades, get a better education, learn something new (such as a foreign language or music), study often, read more books, improve talents

•             Improve self: become more organized, reduce stress, be less grumpy, manage time

•             be more independent, perhaps watch less television, play fewer sitting-down video games

•             Take a trip

•             Volunteer to help others

•             Get along better with people, improve social skills, enhance social intelligence, Make new friends

•             Settle down, get engaged/get married, have kids

•             Be more involved in sports or different activities

Now the good news is that I was pleasantly surprised when I read an article that suggests a few apps that can be assist in keeping New Year resolutions and this I find thrilling.

Now what on earth can we do without technology?  So go check out the apps that can make you lose weight or keep your finances or be a better manager of your time.

One may ask, can the State (Government) also make yearly resolutions? Someone may say their resolutions already find expression in the budget statements presented to parliament every year. But I think more can be done; call it a yearly resolution that can make MMDAs and other public institutions do more as part of their own personal improvement initiatives in relation to the bigger targets set. This can apply to all corporate institutions.

For the next few weeks, I am going to share my own expression of what I think are probable New Year Resolutions for Ghanaians especially those in the public sector. The next one will be what I call the “Social or Citizen’s Resolutions” for all of us “ordinary Ghanaians” and in week three I will share resolutions for those in authority.  This was just a prelude.

Happy New Year to all my readers. I wish all achieve our targets and resolutions.