By Elizabeth Mackay

Do you still make New Year’s resolutions? Do you still hold the hope of something better, something more, as you leave one year behind and embark on another? It’s easy to feel hopeless, there are the old year’s resolutions unmet and the gaping question of whether you’ll see the new year, much less live it out. Yet, progress is the basis of humanity. It is our natural state to want more, to aspire to something greater. Besides, what is life if not lived with hope for better days ahead?

So in the spirit of hope, here are my real estate resolutions for the new year.

I will embody temperance. No more will I be tossed about by the fierce storm of real estate ups and downs, successes and failures. Like life, real estate is a game and I will play to win. But win or lose, I will embody temperance. I will accept both outcomes in the spirit of growth. I will call on humility in times of triumph, and perseverance in times of failure; for all failure is temporary – if we do not quit!

I will never give in. Never! When I feel defeated and small, I will listen to the words of Winston Churchill and I will stand tall. “Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty. Never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense.Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.” I will not give in to defeat, to fear, or to doubt; I will never give in to the ruthlessness or insincerity of others. I will not give in even to my own limitations.

I will forgive. I will forgive myself for the mistakes of yesterday and I will forgive others for theirs. I will forgive and move on in the assurance that no one can take my good away, and that all men are perfect on their own plane. I will forgive because, “I will permit no man […] to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him.” (Booker T. Washington)

I will guard my self respect. I will erect my personal boundaries and cross them not for man or fortune. “For what shall it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:36, KJV). Whatever the road I take in life, I will walk my own way and let the crossroads be navigated according to what I hold dear and true. I will step forward in confidence and keep moving until the fluttering subsides. I will believe in myself!

I will take the hard road. I will labour at my craft, I will learn and apply the tools of my profession, and I will succeed. Where others falter I will endure. I will not give in to fatigue and desperation. When I am tempted to submit, I will remember the words of Longfellow and I will work harder. For, “The heights by great men, reached and kept, where not attained by sudden flight, but they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night.” I will persist and I will win.

I will stay in faith. When all else fails and I lose my temper and harbour animosity, when I temporally give in to the vagrancies of real estate, when I lose hope and succumb to despair, I will hold on to faith. I will lift myself up and try again and again. When another year ends and a new one approaches and I find unmet goals and botched resolutions, I will make new resolutions and start all over again in renewed faith that better is before me, and that perhaps the glory is in how we walk our path rather than where we ultimately end up.

I’d love to hear your resolutions. Please feel free and brave and share them with me in the comments below. Together we’ll stand on this point in space and declare ourselves great!

Wishing you a new year filled with wonder and delight!

Elizabeth Mackay, MBA, is a salesperson with CA Christie Real Estate in The Bahamas. Connect with Mackay at livelifebahamas.com or[email protected].