What’s next after you made it?

BY SAMUEL UFOT EKEKERE

I looked up over the congregation in church on New Year eve and I’d never  seen my church as filled through the last year as we had on New Year eve. Every Jackie member had failed not to miss the night’s program. They had ran into church to thank God and find some new words of prophesy upon which they could bank their future expectations on.

At every prophetic phrase the pastor mentioned, I could hear a vehement amen. Happy New Year, happy New Year erupted from lips with a barrage of fireworks and smiles erupting from faces after the ministers exhortation that I had never seen smile before. Indeed, the battle into the New Year had begun.
As I stepped out of church, I felt uncommonly easy. Though I had suffered some bouts of cough and maybe lost my voice but the tranquil that arrived that morning surpassed any peace I had tried to find in the last year. I knew certainly that this New Year would be some great year to look up to.

You are reading this piece because you cruised along with me into this New Year. By now you’ve had your plates of rice, bottles of choice drinks and perhaps visited places of interest. You are beginning to settle into the New Year. You might have heard or read the New Year speeches of our nation’s political big wigs. They seem to be preaching peace in this pre-prophesied turbulent election year. Our religious leaders have had one or two words to say and we’ve carried the believe of a better year into 2015.

Well, it’s interesting to note that as much as those we ascribe prophetic status have spoken, we are our biggest prophets. The fact that we are jumping into a New Year doesn’t necessarily mean everything’s changed over the New Year eve. The prophets might have made prophetic declarations about the New Year and its promises but the benchmark for our achievement is solidly based on how much we have prepared for the year.

The year has so much to offer. It’s filled with so much emptiness that has to be filled by our own prophetic declarations. These prophetic declarations are your goals, visions, dreams and aspirations. They are your prayers. The prophets might have led the way in showing you what God’s mind is. But God also wants you to do some home work. He wants you to tell him you can also think of big things that may seem impossible now but which you want to arrive at as we get into this year.

What are your 2015 goals like? I hope I’m not poking into your own personal business. But you see, the best time to set those goals is now, this very early. If you’ve not being given to setting yearly goals, I suggest you give a try. Personally, I wasn’t a goal setting person until I decided there is no harm in trying last year. I wrote down a set of achievements that at the end of the year I should have achieved. I started from small ones to very great ones.

I longed to run a leadership centre, to be a renowned national writer, to become a renowned change causer, to publish a number of my finished books, to meet Nigeria’s foremost writers, to start my college monthly newspaper, to start a radio show and then a TV show. These were amongst my biggest goals. I was just a wanabee at the beginning and had no idea how my 2014 goals would end up at the end of the year plus the fact that I was financially handicapped. However because I had a goal, it was as anyone can consider done. I might not have achieved all the big goals but I got somewhere.

I started a leadership centre, my writing is increasingly gaining attention, I met and spoke with a couple of Nigeria’s foremost writers and editors, and my college monthly newspaper is hitting schools come January while I am also walking towards the accomplishment of more goals with my vision partners. It’s incredible what can happen when you write your goals down and work towards it.

You may elope at the joy of an awesome better prospect in 2015 and thank God that difficult 2014 is fast gone. I celebrate with you and I encourage you to review the past year and see where and how mistakes were made. Seek for ways to make change happen right away as this New Year begins. Then will the better prospects become astounding realities.
Welcome to a year of uncommon possibilities. 2015 is a chance to evolve. Take it .