As the year peels days, weeks, and months off the calendar, certain truths serve as rallying calls in moments of uncertainty.
- Start as soon as you can. There is no time like the present. The right time to start your fitness journey, that creative project you have been putting off for the longest time, or that much-needed career change is now. Not later—right now.
- Continue as best as you are able to. One day at a time, little by little, one hard-earned effort after another—there are no shortcuts to truly worthwhile goals. Preparation and planning, and then execution and perseverance. And after all of that: hope. In that order. Always.
- Recalibrate as you go along. If, after following a particular path something feels off, change it. Try something different. If nothing works, start over. There is always time to reset. Nature has always rewarded experimentation and discovery.
- How you do the smallest thing is how you do everything. Complexity requires simplicity—the basic principles and fundamentals of any practice are repeated over and over again, albeit in different guises. There can be no mastery without repetition, there can be no learning without study. Success always demands sacrifice. And remember: that which you do most becomes that which you do best.
- Fight the algorithm. Avoid the distractions, the “quickest way”, the supposedly “newest hack”, and the latest “bro science”. Commit, rather, to the right way, which might be the longest way around and, quite possibly, harder. Trends come and go—as they always have, as they always will. Before being caught up in the current, it bears remembering that only dead fish go with the flow.
- Respect your rest. Temperance is key.
- Pursue that which lasts. The things that have stood the tests of time are those that weathered the algorithms of their eras.
- Cherish that which nurtures you. Enjoy all of your victories, no matter how small.
- Make time and space. Know that the same sun rises and sets on all of us—what you do in between is up to you.
- Make do. The most important resource in any undertaking is you—most of what you need is already inside or around you.
- Make it count. “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
- There is no easy way from the earth to the stars. And no such thing as sweet medicine.
Plan, prepare, pivot—let’s go.
Rémy Ngamije is an award-winning Rwandan-born Namibian author, editor, publisher, photographer, literary educator, and entrepreneur. He is the founder of The Forge.