Ten things to do in 2009

2008-12-18 11:30

Georgina Guedes

It's a depressing time to be an Earthling. The global economy is falling to pieces, the political landscape in Southern Africa isn't looking that pretty either, crime is rife, the whole planet is heating up, oceans are rising and as soon as we manage to calm our panic down to a dull roar on one issue, another raises its ugly head.

New Year is traditionally a time when we take stock of all that we have and all that we want out of life, and try to make resolutions to get us there. Unfortunately, most resolutions are made on the spur of the moment after two weeks of holiday, when we're thinking with our champagne rather than our brains, and anything seems possible.

Little wonder then that a week into the New Year, when we are back at work and the reality of life looms large, our resolutions are abandoned like the flipflops and kikois that have been our uniforms for the past three weeks.

So, make a resolution now to plan your New Year's resolutions and stick to them. Our planet and our attitudes are in such a bad place at the moment that any effort to improve them will make a difference. So here, without further ado, is my list of ten things we could all try to do to make things better for ourselves and everyone.

1. Become waste aware. Reduce the amount of packaging you bring home. Recycle what you can't reuse. Don't ever throw anything out the window of your car (that includes cigarette stompies). This is a step towards living a greener lifestyle that doesn't require a huge amount of self-denial or a massive change in behaviour, just a shift in attitude. Extend this awareness to water and electricity usage as well.

2. Make a budget. Stick to it. Take a realistic look at your expenses - actually add them up on paper - and then work out how much to save and how much you can afford to splurge on little luxuries. I'm not going to go into any equations about how much should be allocated to each activity, but work out savings that will mean you're not in serious trouble if something goes properly wrong, but also make sure that you leave enough over to spoil yourself a little bit every month.

3. Support a charity. It's easy to get into the habit of saying "no" to every blind person, fake cripple or destitute homeless person that comes up to your car window. We become so used to saying it, that we forget that sometimes it's worthwhile to say "yes". Identify a few key charities that you would like to support and send them a small amount of cash every month (remember your budget) to make a real difference and ease your conscience.

4. Fight crime. This may sound like a fatuous statement - and I'm not suggesting you don a cape and prowl the streets at night, but there are a thousand ways to help out with projects that reduce crime in South Africa. Get in touch with volunteer organisations or teach an adult literacy class. If you're going to stick it out in South Africa, you might as well do your best to improve things here.

5. Find the time. Life seems to be full of things that we can never find the time to do. But how many evenings do we spend just lying on the sofa or feeling bored. Identify ten things or people that you'd like to allocate more time to in the New Year, and then every month on payday, sit down and plan how you're going to make sure it happens that month.

6. Stagger your goals. Think long and hard about where you want to be at the end of next year, and the year after that, and work out what you need to do to get there. Set each step in the process a timeframe and stick to that throughout the year. This way, you won't find yourself in November with nothing achieved and no way of doing it in a month before the year is over.

7. Don't gripe. South Africans are fantastic whiners. We take great pleasure in sharing horror stories and bemoaning the state of our country, our politicians and our friends. But getting sucked into this negative space becomes self-fulfilling. Pull out of conversations that don't offer solutions, and don't complain endlessly or relish the opportunity to pass on bad news.

8. Look after yourself. All this improving the world is hard work. Identify a few key things you'd like to do to improve your health, attitude or appearance in the New Year. They can be as simple as doing a face mask and painting your nails once a week and if you commit to going to the gym, don't over-commit. If you promise to go every day, you'll probably give up before you've even started.

9. Broaden your mind. The human brain has an enormous capacity for acquiring new knowledge. Just because you've finished your studies and landed a decent job doesn't mean it's time to watch endless reruns of The Simpsons. The best part of studying without a goal is that you are free to learn about anything you want to. Identify that one thing that fascinates you - fixing your car, baking, understanding astronomy, learning an instrument, learning Mandarin - and devote yourself to self-study with the help of the Internet or library books. Or you can enroll in short courses that pique your interest.

10. Vote. You've given up griping anyway, but you don't have a right to an opinion if you don't participate in this country's democracy. With huge changes taking place on the political horizon, now is the time, more than ever, to exercise your democratic right.

Georgina Guedes is a freelance journalist. She's not getting it right either, but she's doing her best.

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