Why I love January

When you keep sweeping a house yet it doesn’t become as clean as you desire, next time try cleaning it with water. You will be amazed by the results. That is what I did, it gave me a reason to love January.

Ever since, I have heard a lot of people complain about January. When you think enough lessons have been learnt, the same complains still emerge when another year sets in.

Do you remember what happened last December? Of course, it was time to treat ourselves. There was a hired car to ferry us to the village in style. There was uber to town, then there was KFC and Pizza inn every time we received visitors. There was dial for delivery and let the party go on. There was holidaying – beach, road trips, first-time fliers and so on.

When we arrived in the village, we had to give handouts. That is how we, Kenyans, do it. You give ‘tokens’ to all your aunties, uncles and neighbours back home. Your area chief and your old friends who stay back in the village must be counted too. That is how you create a name for yourself.

We had family gatherings, we attended party after party and it was truly beautiful. We ended up spending beyond our budget, ran to our trusted loan apps and borrowed some more to maintain our standards. That is how we ended up in debt.

It is now January, it makes it worse that our employer had already paid us our December salary by 23rd December, now we have to wait till the end of January for our next salary. All we can do now is gnash our teeth.

Now that we are here, in the most dreaded month of the year. The same situation that we were in the previous year – broke. Is there a way we can do things differently to make it a better month for future years?

Just like the other months, we can purpose to make January favourable. The trick is in planning and changing your lifestyle. Having a budget for the festive season while keeping the future in mind will ease things for you. The reason why January seems difficult is because we spend double in December leaving nothing for January.

When our December salary sets in we forget that it is supposed to cater for the month of January and end up spending it on the December festivities.

I used to be among the lot that used to complain and say that January has 52 weeks but not anymore. I had to make a conscious decision of what I want to spend on in December. I also had to set a budget for both December and January.

There is nothing that cannot be achieved when we make a deliberate move to make it work for us. Today I can comfortably look forward to January just the same way the rest of the world looks forward to December.