By Debowale Adekunbi

Recipes for success are infinite. The ingredients vary but the success dish remains the same.

I send a heartfelt Happy New Year greeting to you. As we set high hopes and expect a fruitful year, this letter aims to tell how to make the best of the year. It is written to explain how the juice of fruitfulness of a fresh year can be poured into every sphere of life, all year long. 

The will to succeed is birthed within a person. So, mental preparation is a rudiment. The next thing to be done is to set clear goals, with realistic and appropriate timelines. In setting goals, be sure not to compromise your core values and keep an open mind to receive beneficial ideas.

 Recipes for success are infinite. The ingredients vary but the success dish remains the same. Many books have been written which centre on individual elements of success but this note aims to highlight just a number of simple ‘things-to-do’ to succeed in the New Year. 

Herein do I write to various segments of society: employees, businesspeople, students and homemakers, and recommend how people classified by this convention, can truly succeed.  

Begin thinking of the year as 366 days to help you realise the brevity of time and appreciate the importance of channelling inward and outward resources: mental, physical, intellectual, emotional, financial and social resources, to accomplish true fruitfulness in 2012. 

For employees, I strongly advise upgrading of training and proficiency as this would add value to your institution in the quality of the work done and otherwise. Succeeding is not necessarily about working harder but it is about working better. Much more important, and often belittled, is working smarter. We live in the information age: thinking patterns of the industrial ageneed overhaul. Being better informed and innovative in thinking has a greater advantage over increasing productivity through more physical effort. 

Businesspeople need to establish better channels and positive partnerships congruent with the reasons for being in business. Building a brand of premium quality is foundational to continuous business success, and at the heart of this is good customer service. Customers are to receive more than the physical worth of a product or service. So, make the purchase of your products a rational process, for them to appropriate its qualitative value. Doing this attests to competence and builds pleasant confidence in your brand. 

Hello students, you are not exempt from making investments, especially in intellectual resources. Buy more textbooks specific for you and other relevant books as well, because balance is necessary in life. Learn to improve study methods, sharpen study skills and train your memory. Books abound to help you in these areas. In addition, seek the advice and tutelage of people who know better, and invest your time and energy profitably.

If better performance is the dream, aiming for more study hours is the way. An understanding of the purposes of your courses and mastery of their materials guarantees better grades. Determine to be a fine definition of that success. 

The class I do not see obscurely are homemakers. It is about investing in your home and in growing children primarily. Do your bit to make the home more interesting and create better family time. Introducing new ideas and topics for discussion, makes the atmosphere more lively and interactive. Preparing new dishes would is sure to be admired and appreciated by all.

Although, no one seems to give plaques or profit figures to successful homemakers, their successes are real and unquantifiable. 

Dear rich, wealthy, affluent and influential person, do give away some of your money this leap year. A life of sharing is more beautiful and blessed, and do not make much noise about your generosity. The demeanour in giving should be pleasant as opposed to paying a forced tax. Withhold not more than what is meet. 

Consistency is fundamental as well. Commence in a way that can be sustained and build steadily. Also, the journey of success is not selfish. Many opportunities and resources come to ensure that we do not eat with ten fingers but forlife’s best to be enjoyed by sharing. Which lives would be touched through yours this leap year? How about your community in 2012?

Make adequate time for family and friends? People will always be part of our success for it to be meaningful, and they must be appreciated in heartfelt, tangible and intangible deeds. 

About keeping track of time, do everything possible to beat time. Time in travel time can be used for reading or listening to CDs that enrich and inform. Make conscientious use of weekly planners for effective scheduling, not to forget appointments and to avoid double-bookings. Most smartphones have weekly planners built into them. 

The way for me to beat time and effectively communicate how to succeed in this year is to be comprehensible and concise.  

Expect the incredible this year. Life can become a miracle when lived by faith. Miracles need faith to happen. 

I wish you a splendid year!

 

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