Gabazira's blog

We know it’s festive season and that appetite for long reads is thin. So we will keep this festive season series short. It’s about new-year goal setting confetti — something that we do every end of the year, directly or indirectly, conscious or subconsciously. Many of us are about to embark on the ritual of the year, not so?

It’s time for the Effectiveness lab to pen its ‘new-year goals’ blog series. It continues to fascinate us, how at the year-end most of us jubilate aloud before and away from our God/s, prepare new goals, but without taking stock of whether we have attained or not the goals we set ourselves.

The end of the year seems to trigger the traditional goal setting ritual. With life practically guaranteed year on year (or we think), this time of year has become a vicious cycle of annual goal setting, and for many, carrying over unattained goals into the new year – or even merely dumping the old goals in a dustbin and set new ones. It’s the new year new goals jamboree. After all, unlike the staff performance appraisal, no one holds you accountable for this planning ineptitude.

Well, suffice it to say that individual accountability for the lack of structure and effectiveness in the goal-setting process will happen – it’s a matter of time before we are held to account for our planning sins.

Sadly, when it’s time to be accountable – we are normally too old (retired) or vulnerable for whatever reason and lack the cerebral wattage and time to correct what we didn’t do right.

So, as part of this festive season three blog series, we would like to suggest a new approach to the customary new-year goal setting confetti.

We suggest that in 2019, you use a different lens to plan for what is still ahead – both the known and unknown. We want you to know that effective personal ‘purposing’ and ‘goal setting,’ maybe your insurance when you run out of road

Upping your cerebral wattage for effective new year resolutions

Now, don’t get us wrong please. We aren’t saying that you are a lazy human being wilfully disregarding key aspects of personal planning for a rainy day. Not at all – but we also know that wanting to do something and having the cerebral wattage to effectively do what you want, are two different things. It’s on the latter point that we plan to provide help this year.

We propose in this series what to include in your thinking-and-planning-toolbox, as you embark on your new year resolutions molding process.

Think differently this year!

The archetypal thinking process starts with the – ‘what,’ then the ‘how’ and if lucky the ‘why.’ The ‘why,’ sadly, is considered last and in many instances, not at all.

Influenced to act by what others think about us, we live in a ‘what’ and ‘how’ world. That is how we feel, behave and present to others. The same linear approach also translates to our planning – making it a flawed approach and subject of this blog series

Like mercantilists, we have become pawns in a show-casing theatre. Apparently, the external and visible determines how we are perceived – the internal isn’t seen and therefore is of little importance. We have thrown away the soul and heart when defining want and purpose

We plan for what others perceive of us and not what we believe and will make us happy and helpful to our neighbors. If we all think and feel – good neighborliness, perhaps we may just be able to focus on the right things and plan for the good of the individual and those next to us. A one-world thing in 2019

We were driving through Kampala this weekend on our way to Nakabugu, and an example of mercantilism from Uganda, since we are writing the from Pearl of Africa, struck us. The on-going mobile phone Christmas sales blitzkrieg.

But then – you pause for a moment and realize that phone companies won’t tell you ‘why’ you should buy a Nokia or Huawei phone – instead, they will sale the physical attributes of the phone and how it’s operated. They deal with all the other product attributes but the ‘why.’ It’s manipulation.

When we deal with the ‘what’ – we are merely presenting an artificial situation – but not the raison d’etre. This is indeed what we plan for – perception

Well, we will call it a day and delve into the ‘how’ in series 2 before we do the ‘why’ in 3 – just before New Year’s Day

See you next week….