THERE IS always a common complaint in January: people crying of being broke. It is understandable for one not to have money at that point in time following heavy expenditure in the festive season. But that does not mean we cry till the end of January. Some people even use the season as an excuse not to pay their debts even when they would have raised the money by reducing on the band-wagon expenditure in the season.

The major point I want to make in this article is that the year begins on 1st January, not 1st February. Thus, we must begin working on our goals as soon as the year begins. The more time we spend relaxing and lamenting over the brokenness the longer the brokenness will stay by our side. I am not against resting, but when we over rest it stops being resting; it becomes laziness.

Last year I shocked people when I posted on my Facebook wall that I had set only four New Year’s Resolutions and I had achieved the first one in January. It’s because I know that January is as important to my success as December. I would wish to encourage you to get up on your feet and start working on your dreams. Don’t cry of scarcity of resources; start with what you have at your disposal.

When resources are scarce you devise better way of using them. I’ve known of people who kept walking home from work, only for them to start a powerful business from their savings, after some time. They not saved the money they would have spent on transport, they also did exercise, which was good for their health. The money they would have spent in the gym trying to fight fat, or in a hospital battling with heart problems was saved by just walking!

Personally I enjoy music and so several times a week I go for choir practice and I spend my time enjoying playing my guitar, while some of my colleagues spend their income boozing at the bar. Many people have failed to progress in life simply because they have not learnt to use scarce resources profitably. Drunkards in my village even say they booze because they are poor, not knowing that by drinking they are worsening their poverty situation.

Do you really have to buy a bottle of beer every day to be happy? Must you attend every music concert being announced? Must you drive that expensive car to feel comfortable? Must you rent that big house? Must you have a house-help? Must you spend money on washing your car? Must you have an office for your young business? A success-minded person is not going to be afraid of cutting down his expenditure in order to prosper in 2014, no matter what others think or say.

Like Anthony Robbins once said, "Stay committed to your decisions, but stay flexible in your approach.” Maybe what you need are not better goals for 2014, but rather better approaches. If you have been setting goals such as buying a vehicle, starting a business, quitting smoking and getting committed to God, but haven’t been achieving them, what you need now is not to phrase them better but rather to set better strategies to achieve them

Let us wake up and start from wherever we are, using whatever we have. And the time to start is this January. If we remain consistent in utilizing every opportunity that comes our way, then December 2014 will be a month of jubilation over our prosperity and the next January we won’t be broke.

Bake is the MD WORLD OF INSPIRATION & Founder, AUTHORS’ FORUM / +256-704666851