Keeping it real

 

IT is the beginning of the year and with it comes the usual New Year’s resolutions.
 
In fact, many of them are so grandiose and unrealistic that they don’t even make it past January.
 
While it is important to set goals and targets, it’s also important to be realistic.
 
Certainly a new year for many is the perfect starting point for a new outlook, time for renewal and a fresh start. We’ve heard them all.
 
In my humble opinion, we ought to strive to be better than the previous year. While it is important to set goals, when we don’t reach them many of us see ourselves as failures. However, we should look at it as a lesson on what we need to do to improve while at the same time striving not to make the same mistakes.
 
One of the areas that many of us can certainly address is our lifestyle, particularly as it relates to being more active, and our general health.
 
Officials from the Queen Elizabeth Hospital are quite open about the problems plaguing that health-care institution and much of it comes from persons who are literally making themselves sick. As a result, they find themselves being placed on medication for the rest of their lives, many of them having to seek medical care on a long-term basis. This is extremely expensive.
 
While more ways are being found to living with the effects of non-communicable diseases, we must ask ourselves – do we really want to be in this category? With the population facing a growing number of persons that are living longer, how do we balance their care which might be hampered by all of these considerations, plus the younger generation including children who are being diagnosed with childhood obesity and diabetes?
 
They say hindsight is 20/20. Someone also said, we can’t learn from all of our own mistakes, we should learn from the mistakes of others. With this in mind, we should cut our portion sizes, eat more vegetables, drink more water and of course exercise.
 
It might seem a bit too simplistic, but at the end of the day little lifestyle changes will go a long way in keeping us healthier and improving our quality of life.
 
Another area that can be addressed is our debt management. While this can easily include changes needed at the macro level, it is also something that should be acted on in households.
 
After a hectic Christmas, it is without a doubt that Barbadians spent some extra cash on items to spruce up the home. Another reality is that by the end of January, many may be questioning if they really needed those new curtains or many other trimmings that could’ve ran them into the hundreds or thousands.
 
With the economy still facing challenges, it is undoubtedly a good time to reassess what we do in our own homes in the event that some drastic decisions have to be taken. Admittedly, cutting spending would grind our economy to a halt, but surely we can try to eliminate or reduce some of our personal debt.
 
There are a number of ways that we can be better persons, and one of them is by being better neighbours and citizens. While looking out for each other may seem random and not worthy of a mention, we must remember the number of persons who died this year and were not immediately found by a loved one. This means that there are people who are living alone and have no one to check daily on their comings and goings and would be able to sound the alert immediately if something is out of ordinary.
 
We can also be better citizens by how we treat our country. Certainly the level of indiscriminate dumping is a health hazard waiting to happen, but it is also unsightly. Additionally, we cannot turn our backs on our country and speak ill when things are not going exactly according to plan.
 
These are just a few matters that we can seek to address in 2017, striving not to be perfect, but putting one foot ahead of the other and striving to be better, while maintaining a positive attitude.

Barbados Advocate

Mailing Address:
Advocate Publishers (2000) Inc
Fontabelle, St. Michael, Barbados

Phone: (246) 467-2000
Fax: (246) 434-2020 / (246) 434-1000