“I'm gon’ put it on the line Gotta win so I'm gon’ grind Put in overtime, overtime Overtime, overtime” - Aliaune Thiam
Happy New Month, faithful and consistent readers. Welcome to the first timers. As today is only December 4, 2020, we are still fresh into the new month. The “new car” or “new clothes” scent has not worn off yet. As we are getting used to this new month, one thing is obvious to everyone – if you have looked around you lately – there are signs that the year is winding down. Whether it’s the neighbors’ decorations, Christmas carols on the radio, or the sales in the stores around us, we can hardly hide from the fact that another year is coming to an end. While today is only the 4th, before we know it, it will be mid-December and we will vividly remember the first day of the month. Then we will wonder where the days and weeks went, like we do every year, as we get closer to the end of the year.
Here are some usual occurrences towards the end of the year: some offices/places of business will experience/enforce shortage of hours because tasks are reducing as the year comes to a close. For other places of work, and especially school, it may be the complete opposite – the pressure may be mounting because we are approaching the end of the year. Another occurrence is that some places may have already closed for the year. For those ones, the bulk of their work must have been completed already and now is the time to rest. For yet another group, they are already into next year with regards to planning and execution. Whichever of these three categories we may find ourselves, one thing that is important to note is that the year is not over, yet.
It is possible that we feel as if the year is already over with because of the signs around us. For some of us, daily weather forecast may not even help our situations. The fact that it gets dark early and the slow rapid onset of the “winter blues” might just put us in a semi-depressed state where we feel nonchalant about everything and console ourselves by saying “I’ll get ‘em next year”, or “I’ll start on the right foot next time”. It might sound like a broken record playing, but I want to remind you that the year is not over yet; there is still time on the clock; it has not run out yet.
I could easily relate this to sports, and I know that most of us will get the analogy. In a basketball, football, soccer, or whatever timed sport you prefer, there are those “down to the wire moments” where it seems like hope is lost. Your team is down by a score but the game clock is not on your side. You feel nervous because you trusted in your team’s abilities all game long and you still deeply believe they can pull off a miracle. You glance at the clock and you see a few seconds left; your team has got the possession and the coach just called timeout. You breathe a sigh of relief because the chance to do the almost impossible is there, about to be realized. You have hope because there is still time on the clock. It is exactly the same thing with this year. We are a few weeks away from the end, but it is not the end yet.
So…what’s next?
So what’s the point of the rant this week? Now that we have accepted that we have not run out of time yet and that there is still so much hope to achieve our goals for this year and plan for the next years…what’s next?
What is the advantage of the time still left on the clock if we do not plan to make use of it properly? We might as well let it run out and lose, right? But we were not made to lose. Now that we know that there is still time, we have to put in the maximum work during the time that is left. The fact that you are alive is an opportunity to strive for more greatness. You’re exhausted? Do more. You don’t think you can make it? Re-strategize, stop putting yourself down and do more. We all know what “more” entails in our different lives. So, even if we ask many questions like Kanye, we know what we can improve on. If you are a player on the team in the previous scenario, you know what you will do during the timeout – you will cross every T and dot every I to make sure that you do not come out without that one score that will secure victory. Fight the distractions. Strive hard to rise above the “defenders” so you can come up with the catch…just like…
Hey, yours might be to put in the work now so that the tasks will be easier later. If you know that your goals are long-term, it’s never too early to prepare towards achieving it. It will feel unreal to some when you breeze through seemingly difficult situations later on. It will look like pure luck to some people, you can’t help that. However, you and those who saw you preparing would testify that “luck” is what it looks like when opportunity meets preparation. They say Heaven helps those who help themselves. I think you owe it to yourself to do the work it takes to come up victorious – whether yours is immediate or not. You owe it to yourself to do more because you still can. Remember, there is still time on the clock.
RANTS FROM THE PRIVILEGED SEAT 