Rutendo Gwatidzo-Changing Perspectives
Last week, I celebrated five years as a newspaper columnist. Five years of showing up, week after week, with something to say. I wrote about it, you read it, and many of you wrote back to say happy anniversary. Thank you. I have kept those messages.
But, after the cake was eaten and the messages stopped coming, I sat alone and asked myself a strange question: What now? That is when it hit me. My anniversary is not just a celebration. It is my New Year.
Happy New Year!
Come to think about it. Many of us have been taught that everyone’s New Year starts on the 1st of January. Fireworks, new diaries, resolutions, “new year, new me.” Yet if I am honest, January is not the only new year for me. I also have my birthday and anniversary days in different aspects which count the beginning of new year also.
Think of the woman at Mbare Musika. Her New Year does not start in January alone.
It starts when the new farming season starts. When she gets her first load of tomatoes from Mutoko or Murehwa. When she counts her capital again and says, “This season, I will not give credit to everyone. This season, I will save first.” That is her January. That is her moment of decision.
Think of the kombi driver who plies the Chitungwiza-Harare route. His New Year starts the day he finishes paying off his kombi. The day he stops working for the owner and starts working for himself. That day, he buys a new seat cover, he washes the kombi properly, he even changes his route music. That is his new beginning. Nobody told him to wait for January.
Think of the teacher in Dande. Her New Year is not January. Her New Year is the day the exam results come out. She looks at her class, her pass rate, her own life, and she decides: “Next term, I do it differently. I will prepare earlier, I will mark faster, I will believe in my learners again.” That is her moment.
So why do we force ourselves into January alone?
I think it is because we have confused celebration with transformation. January is loud.
Everyone is shouting about goals. Social media is full of vision boards. We feel left out if we are not also shouting. So we make resolutions we do not believe in, for a year that is not really ours, and by February we have already given up. Then we say, “I have no discipline.” No, my friend. You are not undisciplined. You are just living on someone else’s calendar.
My five years as a columnist taught me this. In my first year, I was just trying to survive.
I would write on a Sunday night, scared that Monday morning would expose me. In my second year, I found my voice. In my third year, I found my readers. In my fourth year, I almost quit. I was tired. I thought I had said everything. In my fifth year, I understood that this work is not about being brilliant every week. It is about being faithful every week.
That is the lesson. Transformation is not a one-day event. It is a daily discipline. It is showing up when you are tired. It is writing when you have no inspiration. It is starting again after you have failed. If I had judged my life by January, I would have missed all of that. Because my growth did not follow January to December. It followed anniversary to anniversary.
That is why this week, I am not making a January resolution. I am making an anniversary resolution. My New Year started last week. And I am asking you: When does yours start?
Maybe yours started the day you got married. Maybe it started the day you lost a job and had to start again. Maybe it started the day you buried your father and became the head of the family. Maybe it started the day you opened your small tuckshop in Highfield and sold your first airtime. That day is special, mark and honour it. Build your year around it.
Do not be caught up celebrating other people’s New Years and neglecting yours. When you celebrate a year that is not yours, you will always feel behind. You will compare your Chapter One to someone else’s Chapter Ten. You will think you are late, when in fact, you are just early in your own season.
A farmer does not plant maize in January because everyone is planting. He plants because the rains have come for his field. Your rains are different. Your season is different. Your time is coming. And that is why we cannot afford to focus only in January and then relax. If we have different New Years, then we must continue to refocus throughout the year.
Each New Year is a checkpoint. Your birthday asks you: Are you growing? Your wedding anniversary asks you: Are you loving well? Your work anniversary asks you:
Are you still faithful? January asks you: Are you planning well?
Do not wait for one big day to change your life. Use every New Year to refocus. Stay focused through and through. When your birthday comes, sit down and ask yourself what you will do differently. When your anniversary comes, sit down and correct what went wrong. When January comes, sit down and plan again. That is how you grow – not by one loud resolution, but by many quiet refocusing.
Organisational Status!
Every serious organisation knows that its New Year is not necessarily January.
Companies have what is called a financial year. For some, it ends in December. For others, it ends in March, in June, or in September. A school’s year ends when the exams end. A church’s year may end at its conference. A tobacco company’s year follows the tobacco season. A construction company’s year follows the rains. You must do the same for your life. Stop and check your status. How is your health?
How is your marriage? How is your business? How is your faith? How is your money?
Do not wait for 31 December to ask those questions. Ask them on your anniversary.
That is your year-end. That is where real change begins. My prayer for you this week is simple.
Find your own New Year and keep it. Buy yourself a small notebook. On the first page, write the date your real year started. Write what you learnt last year. Write what you will not carry into this new one. Write what you will do differently. Then do one small thing this week that proves you have started.
Happy New Year to me. And happy New Year to you, whenever yours begin. All the best.
Rutendo Gwatidzo is a Human Capital Executive as Managing Consultant at The HUB HR Consultancy. She is a Multi-Award Winning Leader, Transformational Speaker and Coach. She is also an Author of Born to Fight and Breaking the Silence books. Contact detail – 0714575805/ [email protected] / Rutendo Gwatidzo_Official fb public page.
