The most personal resolution to me in the last seven years was to do away with smoking. I smoked for about 18 years. At one point, I realized that it wasn't good for my health and I decided that it was time to quit. Quitting it was however not as easy as I thought. I remember a time when I stopped smoking for a month and I later found myself in the act again and this time, the number of sticks I was burning per day tripled what it was before going for a break in the name of quitting - addiction of a kind.
For more than five years, quitting smoking became my yearly resolution. Unfortunately, it remained a mirage.
Like the previous years, about a year ago, I made a resolution to quit smoking. It coincided with my wedding and this made me to pray fervently to overcome the addiction. I reflected on the dangers of having a child meet me in such an act. I held on to the resolution and for the past 51 weeks, I have been living a new life. A more fulfilling and healthy life that I haven't lived for almost my entire adult life. I faced temptation many times but I allowed my desire to live a better life rank ahead of my urge to smoke. It took me about three months to suppress such an urge.
Presently, I detest finding myself where people are smoking.
This convinced me that with determination, one can leave any act, no matter if such has become an addiction.
My resolution for the year 2023 is about the growth and development of my family. I wish to establish a business for my wife in order to strengthen my family financially. By this time next year, God's willing, I wish to see my wife in her flourishing shop. We have been blessed with a cute son whom I am ready to sacrifice all it takes to give him the best care a father could give a child.
My second resolution is to give social media a break and concentrate on building myself professionally. Over the past few years, I have been losing many hours to unproductive activities on social media. However, I wish to interact more on hive. For the past nine months that I joined this wonderful community, I have not been able to explore this space to the fullest. It is time to engage more and bring some developmental contributions to hive.
My new year eve tradition is to offer prayers to my loved ones that lost their lives in the ending year. This is followed by praying to God to keep me safe in the new year. I pray to him to always give me the courage to be ready for death at any time. This has helped me a lot in my relationship with people. I live as if I am meant not to see the following day.
As a child, I remember staying awake till 12 am on the 1st of January so that I could witness the coming of the new year. Other children would join me to be screaming ‘happy new year’ with the sound of fireworks renting the air. This really spread love among both young and old. I hope to stay awake and experience it with the younger generation having fun this year. We shouldn’t be tired of spreading love to others in unison.
Above all, the world needs peace and I hope to be an agent of peace in 2023.