By Sola Adebawo
The turning of a calendar page carries a quiet, almost unreasonable hope. In the first full week of a new year, before routines fully settle and inboxes regain their grip, time feels spacious again. A new year becomes more than a measure of days. It feels like permission. Permission to imagine better habits, stronger finances, healthier bodies, calmer minds. This is the season of the New Year resolution, that annual ritual where we say yes to versions of ourselves we have not yet met.
Still, experience whispers a caution alongside the optimism.
Most of us already know how this story tends to unfold. Not because we have failed yet, but because we have lived through enough Januaries to recognize the pattern. As the weeks progress and the year finds its rhythm, intentions that began with clarity can lose their edge. The danger is not a lack of discipline. It is that many beginnings are powered by emotion alone.
The urge to change is often sparked by the symbolism of the date itself. January 1 feels like a boundary line, a clean break from disappointment or fatigue. But when goals are built only on the energy of a moment, they struggle under the weight of ordinary days. A truer beginning asks harder questions. Why do we want this change? Is it aligned with what we genuinely value, or is it a reaction to comparison, pressure, or the quiet fear of falling behind?
Goals rooted in self-understanding tend to endure. They survive past enthusiasm. They carry us through the months when progress feels slow and unremarkable.
Change also demands awareness of our environment. In demanding cities and crowded lives, personal growth rarely happens in isolation. We often underestimate how much our routines shape our outcomes. Trying to become someone new while holding on to the same schedules, stressors, and overload is an uphill battle. Many habits we dislike are not moral failures. They are coping mechanisms. Letting them go requires replacing them with kinder, more sustainable ways of carrying our responsibilities.
This is where resolutions often fall short. They imply a binary outcome, kept or broken. Life, however, moves in rhythms. A rhythm allows for interruption. It accepts that some days will be productive and others will simply be survived. Financial stability, health, and emotional well-being are not built in a single month of intensity, but through repeated, patient choices over time. When we choose rhythm over rigidity, we stop treating ourselves as problems to be fixed and start treating ourselves as people who need care.
For those looking toward a wider world while remaining firmly rooted in local realities, this struggle is universal. Whether in Lagos or in cities far beyond it, the human desire is the same. Growth that lasts. That growth is rarely found in dramatic declarations made on the first day of the year. It is shaped quietly, in the choices made long after the excitement fades.
As 2026 unfolds, the invitation may be simpler than we expect. Not to overhaul everything at once, but to choose a steadier way forward. January is a meaningful doorway, but it is not the only one. Every morning still offers a chance to begin. The success of this year will not be measured by flawless consistency, but by our willingness to return to what matters with patience.
If there is a resolution worth keeping, perhaps it is this. To lower the volume of self-criticism. To resist unnecessary urgency. To allow change to grow at a human pace. Let this year be less about dramatic reinvention and more about steady, honest progress. That, quietly, is how real change takes root
Sola Adebawo is an accomplished business leader and communications expert with extensive experience in the oil and gas industry. He currently serves as the General Manager of Government, Joint Venture, and External Relations at Heritage Energy. Adebawo is also an author, scholar, and ordained minister, known for his writings on socioeconomic issues, strategic communication and leadership.
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