We are at the end...or perhaps the beginning?

Well this year has been hard work! They don't tell you this when you're grazing your knees or eating sand but the older you get the tougher the years become. 

8 days into 2013 I surprised myself by making a list of "resolutions". I have to say looking back at that list fills me with gratitude and pride. God has definitely been good to me this year. Could I have done better? Most definitely! Was I as bad at keeping the resolutions as I thought I would be? Not even remotely. So perhaps it is safe to say that I have changed my mind somewhat about resolutions...

TIPS 

What I will say about resolutions is be vague. I'm not saying be complete obscure just don't get bogged down in the specifics. At least that worked for me. If you say to yourself I want to lose exactly 12.39kg this year and I wont be happy otherwise it becomes a little more difficult to maintain, not to mention unrealistic. However if you say I'd like to be healthier this year, you'll able to achieve the same thing without beating yourself up about it or worse still hurting yourself in the process. 

Which brings me to my second point - don't pressure yourself. Yes it is good to set goals you want to achieve but no it is not okay to make yourself feel awful if you miss the mark. Missing the mark is practically human nature so cut yourself some slack. 

Thirdly tell someone about it. This advice was given to me in my second year of university and I have seen it in action more than once this year. If you share a goal you are trying to achieve you are more inclined to stick with it because not only would you disappoint yourself if you don't, you run the risk of disappoint those you've told. So tell someone, preferably someone who will hold you accountable or who you wouldn't want to let down. And even if you end up not sticking to it to begin with, there is added motivation to get back on track.

And finally have fun with it. There is no reason why your New Year's Resolution can't be you indulging yourself a bit more. We often see them as an excuse to break bad habits and perhaps that's what put me off to begin with. You can break a bad habit at any point during the year. If your liver was failing you wouldn't put off your no-alcohol diet till the New Year. So make it something light hearted, for your own enjoyment. 

I hope you guys have a safe, blissful and exciting entry into the New Year. God bless and keep you. See you on the other side!

P.S. 

I still don't know what to do for the holiday and I have 2 days off work! Any ideas? Also what will you guys be up to?

THIS IS NOT A REVIEW: War Reporter by Mohamed Amine Boukhris

There is a common misconception in journalism, one that I have had a problem with for as long as I have known of it. It is, to me, a very Western ideology, the belief that journalists in all walks of life should be passive observers simply relaying 'truth'. It is something that I would see changed.

Perhaps there was a time when this could have been the case. Perhaps there are still branches of journalism where passive reporting should be the go to method though I am unable (or maybe unwilling) to think of one such scenario. Whatever the case maybe, I think it is fair to say that front-line journalism really ought to be an exception to the rule. What we ought to realise as journalists and as citizens is that we are seeking the impossible. These aren't robots covering the stories for our pleasure and our viewing. These are people; they feel, they bleed, they die. And unfortunately as one of the reporters featured in the documentary put it, the only time they are noticed is in death. When reporters die, are kidnapped or injured in war zones they become an event all of their own. That in itself is interference. You cannot stick living, breathing people in the middle of a war and then say 'don't interfere'. What in heavens name do you think their very presence is? If you want a science experiment get lab rats. These are human lives.

To watch this documentary without feeling some kind of emotion is a challenge and I dare say an impossible one. It's easy enough to hop on Reporters Without Borders on your laptop and chant statistics about the death of journalists but this is real. Emotive and thought provoking as it was, I would highly recommend it for those who have the opportunity. Although it's focus is mainly in the Arab world (Northern Africa included), this is a global story.

For more information on the documentary visit the Dubai International Film Festival webpage or watch the Trailer on YouTube