The new year eve ,is always an exciting time of the year, where we have an opportunity, to reflect on the past and create the future of our choice. All of us ,go through a lot of ups and downs ,during the course of the year. This happens in our personal as well as professional life.

The new year is a great opportunity to reflect on the past, learn from it and move on ,to create the future we want, for ourselves. It is like driving a car ,on the highway. While, we need to look ahead at the highway and drive safely, the rear view mirror, helps us to check for any hinderances ,on the sides or any traffic from behind, before we overtake or take a turn.

Life is no different. It is almost like driving your car on the highway. The new year gives us ,an immense opportunity ,to look at the rear view mirror and learn from our successes and failures ,of the past. While successes help us rejoice, the failures give us important lessons in life.

All good things in life ,make us happy and not so good things, make us sad. Life is always a mixture of, good and bad. We need to cherish the happy memories ,of the past year and forget the unpleasant ones. It may also help, if we learn to forgive people ,who hurt us during the last year and pray for their good ,in the new year.

We do realise that neither forgetting the past nor forgiving people who hurt us ,is easy in life. However, the best way ,is to learn lessons from the mistakes we did and resolve not to repeat them ,in the future. Forgiving may not be easy but it may help us to rise ,above the ordinary.

I have never believed in a long list of new year resolutions, at any time. This is because , the longer the list, the more likely we are going to break them. I always believed in making one resolve to myself and trying to live upto it. It could be as simple as a walk every single day in the new year.

I am a born optimist in life. I always believe, that the future will always be brighter than the past. But, just believing in it ,may not be good enough. We need to work ,to create the future ,through systematic planning and diligent execution.

We need to realise ,that we are the masters of our own destiny ,in life and work. We can neither blame our family or friends ,in life nor our colleagues at work ,for not achieving our dreams and aspirations.

It may be useful to remember ,that brooding over the past may not help us ,in creating our future. The lessons from the past ,may help us to prevent similar mistakes ,in life and work.

Today is the time to sit back, reflect and chart your future.

Wish you all ,the best of everything ,in the new year.

S Ramesh Shankar

31st Dec 2024