2011 has dawned

Ashley Mwanza

As the year comes to an end, it’s time to really stop and reflect on the past 12 months. Did I get everything done that I wanted? What am I grateful for in my life? What did I want to do, but really never did accomplish?

As I think about these questions, I also think about my goals for the new year. Am I going to call them my New Year’s Resolutions? Nope. See, to me it seems most people make New Year’s Resolutions at midnight on 31 December. Then probably go full force with them for say 2 weeks. Then they start to slip away from our minds. Oscar Wilde once said: “Good resolutions simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account.”

Mine are solid goals. Why? What makes them different? I am starting now. As I said, I am reflecting on 2010 and seeing what I loved, liked and yes disliked throughout the year. I am seeing what I want now, which many call dreams, but I call them my goals. I am not only writing them down, I am making a plan of action to achieve them. I am starting today (actually, I already started) so that they are not my New Year’s Resolution, but they are what I will accomplish in 2011. And, I’m just getting a little bit of a head start on them.

Yes, the clock is ticking so fast that before I know it, I have turned a year older. Year 2010, like the last few years, had its fair share of ups and downs. As I make my entry into another age of wisdom and maturity in 2011, there are many things that I have to learn to LET GO.

The final days of 2010 have a bittersweet feel about them -- just as the look to the future gives us much optimism. It's hard to believe that the year has come and is almost gone. It seems like only yesterday that we were talking about the dawning of 2010, it's always a good opportunity to take stock of the past year.

As this year draws to a close, we can look back with pride and enumerate our accomplishments. We are well poised to make significant strides in the year ahead as the preeminent assessors and ‘managers’ of risk for a better world.

Again, we are only at the beginning; those with the right skills, the right temperaments and the right opportunities will offer a glimpse of the promise and potential our world has to offer for many years to come.

Let everyone be reborn on the 1st day of January 2011 AD. Start with a fresh slate. Take up the challenge, risks will be necessary to achieve greatness; on the 1st of January gird yourself, with your face to the front, and take no interest in the things that were and are past. Don't let 2010 keep you down. Learn from it and reach for 2011. MOVE ON. START AFRESH. MAY EVERY BLESSING BE YOURS IN 2011.