The same excuses and empty promises as 2022 comes to an end

The days of 2022 are numbered and running out faster than sand through the hourglass.

After 11 months of hard work, enduring electricity woes, the bouncing petrol prices, the increase in inflation and the increased cost of living, it is safe to say we had enough.

It is as if the arrival of December brought a sigh of relief. It was in with the Christmas decorations and festive spirit and out with the everyday stresses of life to survive.

As always, the year was filled with several highs and lows and moments like finding out I might be part of the last 44 Afrikaans people left in the country.

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This saw the iconic video of the girl learning to ride the bicycle and crashing into a single rugby pole in the 2019 joke, My f** Marelize changed to My f** Charlize. I usually welcome some comic relief such as the Charlize memes, especially in a year packed with politicking politicians throwing around the motion of no confidence card like a +4 card at an Uno game.

The crime front didn’t look any calmer after convicts such as the Samurai sword killer and Chris Hani’s killer were released this year, causing further upset.

It has been a violent year of tavern deaths and other violent crimes that should be highlighted during the 16 days of activism for no violence against women and children. Instead, most of those cases will end up unsolved because of the backlog of DNA testing and other excuses such as a lack of boots on the ground, or resources.

Soon, New Year’s resolutions will again be the theme of the month where we will see many posts of a new year and a new me. CNN recently reported despite the best of intentions, once the glow of a new year wears off, many people struggle to make good on their plans.

According to a study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology, only 46% of people who made New Year’s resolutions were successful. Forbes magazine reported nearly 80% of people admitted to abandoning their New Year’s resolutions by February every year.

Some of the most common resolutions included setting goals such as exercising more and losing weight. Then people flock to the gym at the beginning of the year, only to drop out after a few months.

Let’s face it, saving money was also a to-do on the list that couldn’t be achieved because of the cost of living rising by the minute. Travelling more was another resolution that failed, considering the petrol prices that never fail to surprise us.

Sadly, the quit smoking also didn’t happen again. I will spare you the excuses and empty promises because next year will simply be the same challenges in a different year.

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Elbert Einstein said insanity was doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Before we know it, 2023 will be here.

The question is whether we will be repeating the previous year’s mistakes and missed opportunities by falling back into our older selves, or we will dare to change?