DAR ES SALAAM: WITH just a few days if not hours left until the end of the year 2025, people around the world in their respective time zones are looking forward to enter the new year at midnight on the eve of January 1, 2026.
As in previous years, those who are blessed by His Almighty God to see the new year, enter the new year with a memory of what they did in the past year, whether good or bad.
Many people only remember the good things that happened to them; many of them do not remember the bad things they experienced, whereby various experts including psychologists say that it would be good for people to remember the worst and know what to do to avoid such disasters from happening again.
Commenting on the issue, the Director of the non-governmental organisation the Kilimanjaro Consortium for Development and Environment (KCDE), Professor Fr Aidan Msafiri says that forgetting the worse that a person has gone through is a hurdle that many persons like to do while entering another year.
He says that these people resemble an ostrich who believes to be safe is to cover its head in the sand while its body is left outside something which gives its enemy a chance to harm the ostrich.
We must accept the fact that every year we encounter various challenges in life; the main thing here is not to run away from these challenges but to identify the source and deal with them” says Prof Fr Msafiri.
He goes on to say that there is a saying that a coward dies seven times, meaning that every time he or she remembers the bad things that happened to him, he or she experiences new pain.
“One of the bad things that many people go through every year, perhaps without even knowing it is a problem, is the challenge of being afraid; a person cannot move forward in life if he has excessive anxiety or fear.
“While more than 9 billion people prepare to enter the year 2026, there are two groups of people who end the year 2025; the first one is those who finish the year with great joy and expectations for the New Year 2026 and the other is those who end the year with fears to the point of having despair in life,” he says.
Prof Msafiri continues to say that many people enter the new year with fears, which he says most of them are due to wounds and pains they have experienced either in their marriages, bad relationships at work and in other areas of life.
“All these hopefuls and those with fears are on the bridge to cross the year 2025 towards the new year of 2026; the main thing here is to find a way to heal the wounds of those who have fears in life as we enter the new year 2026”, says Prof Msafiri.
Quoting the philosopher Albert Einstein, Prof Msafiri says: ‘In the midst of life’s worries and challenges, there are hidden positive opportunities; they are invisible but the wise people do see them’.
Prof Msafiri says that due to the challenge of people ending the year and entering another with fear, it is good to find a way that will enable them to heal what has befallen them so that they can enter the new year with great hope in life.
“It is from this context that I have come up with eight main principles to enter the new year 2026 with”, he adds. According o him, the principles include;
1. Searching for the hidden treasure or gold; Everyone should search for the hidden gold where he says, it is to use positive thinking for the betterment of the world; every human being has a good and positive thinking that he or she can use to bring about positive changes in life; one cannot change external life without using what one has inside his or her heart.
2. Taking personal and general responsibilities seriously; if everyone takes and fulfils his or her responsibilities seriously, the world will be a Paradise.
3. The Principle of Compassion; Let everyone enter the new year 2026 with a principle of compassion for others while considering the example of the Biblica’s Good Samaritan.
4. Deep life change; this should start at the family level so as to avoid wars within the community in areas such as marriage, in the political arena, wars between countries, dangerous eating that does not consider the quality of health as well as misleading news (toxic news).
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5. Internal change; Here everyone should develop the habit of using their heart especially when making decisions instead of using their mind alone; the heart is the basis of change so decisions should use the heart more instead of the strength that comes from one’s will.
6. Solidarity with others; In this, everyone should enter the year with a specific agenda of doing good things within the community by collaborating with others; one should not sit alone as if they are on an island; people should live on the basis of collective thinking, awareness, etc.
7. Contentment; People should develop the habit of being content with the basic things that God has provided them with at the present time; It is not necessary for a person to accumulate wealth that later becomes a burden to him in one way or another; this will prevent people from breaking the cycle of life by wanting to hold on too many things without having any limits. 8.
Principle of Creativity: Everyone should use the Talent given to them by God to create productive things within the society; everyone has been his or her talent but many bury their talents either knowingly or unknowingly; if everyone uses his or her talent well, the world will continue to be a very good place to live.