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W Eare in the middle of the last month of the year and it is tempting to press that relax button to reengage in 2024. However, the stark reality is if you are to have a great new year, your planning starts today.

For many, it began in the last quarter of the year. Some companies are already at the apex of their budget planning. We also saw some of the town councils soliciting budget views and inputs from stakeholders from August.

The new year does not begin on the new year; it begins before. The reason why many other people seem successful when the year starts is because they began planting seeds in the previous year.

You are probably reading this and thinking, how can one plan a year when most companies are already closed and we are off for a long-deserved break? The reality is that we have been having breaks all through the year on weekends, holidays and leave days.

The festive season is a more extended break that can be used for rest and resetting for the following year. It won’t be easy to try and plan a year once you are already in it. Your core objectives for 2024 need to be listed in 2023.

Your resolutions cannot be listed in 2024; they must be listed in 2023 and implemented in 2024.

Hence, we need to use this last half a month wisely. It is not a

Fsome of us, emotions are overwhelming, while for others, their presence remains undetected and only suspected. These are the two common extremes of emotional difficulties.

The non-feeler may suppress emotions while the overwhelmed person tends toward indulgence and escalation of emotions

It is important to allow emotions to surface without shutting them down. Eckhart Tolle in ‘The Power of Now’ writes, “If you cannot feel your emotions, if you are cut off from them, you will eventually experience them on a purely physical level, as a physical problem or symptom.

OR EMOTIONAL SUPPRESSING

“When emotional energy is blocked and is prevented from flowing in its natural channels, it gets stored in our body as tension and pain. Suppressing emotion may also turn into depression, month for ‘sidla busha betfu’ (enjoying our youth), but conversely, it is a month for that youth to reposition themselves for a sober and impactful coming year.

I love this quote by Charlie Chaplin, “The best thing in life is to go ahead with all your plans and dreams, to embrace life and to live every day with passion, to lose and still keep the faith and to win while being grateful.

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“The world belongs to those who dare to go after what they want. And because life is too short to be insignificant.”

It is laced with lots of wisdom and relevant to the topic today. Interestingly, it comes from a comedian or entertainer. Yet some of the most intelligent people I have ever met are comedians. sadness or anxiety or flare up as volcanic rage.

“The trick is to let the emotions out in a healthy way through writing, verbalising, exercise, breathing or some other benign form of expression.

Instead of suppressing an emotion, some people refuse to let it go. They indulge themselves in it, like bathing in clean water until it turns dirty. How many of us, for example, refuse to let go of our anger and resentment, even though it’s harmful to us and others?

The third problematic response to a strong emotion is escalation. If for instance, you experience anxiety daily. In the midst of an anxious mood, you will think “I’ll never calm down, I’m nervous, I’m a mess.”

SUBSTITUTING

Instead of stopping your thoughts or substituting positive or neutral thoughts in their stead, you will escalate your anxiety and work yourself into a frenzy.

And while we’re on the subject of anger and automobiles, how many accidents are caused by road rage - a driver talking himself into a fury instead of talking The fact that they can search and find our funny bones is a testament to their high IQ. I could never locate a funny bone, even if I were to carry an Apollo light.

As the quote suggests, they view the world from an exciting position and have some insights that carry the world.

EMOTIONAL

What does planning ahead in the Eswatini context entail? It is a lot of things; for parents, it means while we want to enjoy the festivities, we also have to be mindful of the school fees for next year.

For business people, while we want to get that two-week rest, we need to remember that the Provisional Tax Bill awaits us at the beginning of the year and we need to plan for it.

himself into a state of calm?

Deeper examination will lead to what is going on below the surface, to what is driving the thoughts that are producing the emotions and behaviors. After all, we all want to drive safely and not crash.

Being controlled by your emotions sucks. What does that even mean? After all, emotions are going to rise up in you whether you want them to or not. You can’t stop the physical sensation and resulting thoughts from happening.

We’re only controlled by our emotions when we react to them in an unhelpful way. Instead of a reactive mindset that leads to rash responses, we want to shift to a more considered and productive state of mind.

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For example, irritability, frustration and rage are all points on the spectrum of one emotion — anger. Instead of trying to avoid the experience of anger, we can learn to use it in a positive way. So let’s take a look at some of the prime reasons why emotional regulation is tough.

First of all, we tend to intellectualise our emotions in a way that makes us feel better in the moment, but diminishes our ability to regulate our feelings in the long term.

These small but very big things can ruin our start of the year. Once we sort out such things, we can slay a year.

An article titled “7 Simple Ways to Plan Your 2024 Business Goals” emphasised that you must check in with yourself as a business owner.

“Are you living in the past, present or the future? Living too much in these areas can be detrimental to your business planning.

“You need to be able to reflect on the past without letting it dictate your future and you have to be realistic about your future to set yourself up for success,” the advisors wrote.

One of the seven indicators I liked was simplified to Key Performance Indicators (KPI). They stated that these KPIs are your compass in the planning process.

They advise that you select a maximum of five KPIs that align with your goals and track them religiously. This simplification keeps your focus sharp and helps you measure progress effectively.

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According to numerology, a system that lends meaning to numbers based on patterns and ancient context, the importance of the year 2024 will push us to step into our power.

It’s a fitting vibe for the sequel to 2023, which carried with it a numerology meaning associated with discovery, curiosity and compassion.

After spending the past year contemplating or considering the big picture amid rapid changes in technology and nature, we’re poised to own our personal stories and go after what we desire with renewed vigour.

Interestingly, the year should be predicted as that because

By shifting our actual emotions into concepts, we teach our brain to fear the experience of that emotion, which makes matters worse.

This in turn leads you to judge yourself negatively for how you feel. You’re essentially feeling bad about feeling bad, which compounds the problem in a way that can become overwhelming.

The worst part and the activity that leads to both of the above, is trying to control your thoughts when an emotion arises.

Personally, I try to rationalise away the thoughts I have when I’m frustrated or full-on angry, which instead leads to constant rumination about often trivial matters.

CONTROL

Nick Wignall suggests that you have much more control over your attention than the substance of your thoughts and this is key.

Your thoughts are going to arise on their own just like emotions do and the only way to stop them is to let them pass as you focus elsewhere: Nick gives the example of providing a co-worker some valid criticism. Even though you feel it was the right thing to do, you worry that you were too harsh and start to feel anxious and guilty.

As I mentioned above, you already, as we see with the advent of content creation, there are now many content creators.

We live in a world where we are all sellers with fewer and fewer consumers in the digital space.

That a man like Skomota can be an internet sensation shows just how the lines have blurred over the years. One hopes people can look beyond what appears true and stick to authentic things.

So, in line with the numerology reading, the biggest goal will be to be authentic in 2024. Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Year for 2023 is authentic— the term for something we’re thinking about, writing about, aspiring to and judging more than ever.

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The dictionary experts state that a high-volume lookup most years, authentic, saw a substantial increase in 2023, driven by stories and conversations about AI, celebrity culture, identity and social media.

Authentic has several meanings, including ‘not false or imitation’, a synonym of accurate and actual, and ‘true to one’s personality, spirit or character’.

Although a desirable quality, authenticity is hard to define and subject to debate—two reasons it sends many people to the dictionary.

Authentic is often connected to national or personal identity: Words frequently modified by authentic include cuisine and dish, but also self and voice.

So, as you plan your New Year’s resolutions and look at ways to have a fabulous year, they may all be centred around authenticity.

might try to rationalise with yourself that what you did was completely appropriate. Instead, the pondering leads to even more anxiety.

Or, you could ‘put on a podcast, and go for a quick 10-minute walk, then come back and refocus on a different project’.

In other words, divert your attention in order to allow the negative thoughts and emotions to pass without further fueling the fire.

You can control your attention, even if it feels difficult. And an intentional diversion can work wonders to avoid fixating on thoughts and negative emotions in the short term.

MEDITATION

A more fundamental fix, however, comes from meditation practice. Beyond the countless other benefits, meditation gives you the ability to watch your thoughts and experience the energy of emotion without reacting.

More importantly, you learn to appreciate the transitory nature of thoughts and emotions and more effortlessly let things simply pass with less angst.

If starting (or resuming) a meditation practice is one of your goals for 2024, add one more big reason why it may just change your life for the better.