Here are some smart women goals for 2019

Thank God, we have already sailed through 2018. As we have begun the journey to cross the New Year 2019, there are some targets that we individually set during the last year but we failed to achieve due to one reason or another. Taking into consideration the experience of 2018, it is obvious that there are some areas that we hope to fix up so as to achieve our New Year goals.

Women have a lot to set for the New Year.

Some women interviewed by Woman said it is important for a woman to individually set her personal goals. Some of the goals that would help her clarify her direction in 2019 including aspiring to live a spiritual life by making peace with God, live healthy, spend more time with other women and support each other, speak up, go natural, say no more often to what she thinks is not right and to work hard in her career in order to get a pay rise.

Finance

Saving money is one of the ways for a woman to boost her financial capabilities. But saving money without meaningful investment will not make women increase their income.

Arese Ugwu, the author of the book titled: “The Smart Money Woman”, provides several advises relevant to all women. In her book, Arese shows how a smart woman can raise and manage her own finances.

“Relentless execution (so not just talking about what you want to do but taking action every single day to achieve your goals regardless of the obstacles), investing in assets that grow your net worth by at least 15 per cent, consistently creating value that people will pay you for,” the Nigerian author tells Woman Magazine.

Spiritual life

Myoma Kapya Chilala, a group leader for Bible Study Fellowship at Lutheran Church in Tangi Bovu, argues that women should ensure they dedicate much of their time to God, by following “what God has instructed us to do.”

For Myoma, despite other concerns on women shoulders, such as family matters, earning a livelihood, being a good neighbour and so on, seeking God’s kingdom far outweighs all other concerns.

“We seriously need to wake up; our families depend on us. By shaping our spiritual life, we will find ourselves saved from some bad habits,” she argues, saying most women do not realise that prayer is the major channel to directly communicate to God.

Myoma urges women to ensure they spare at least some few minutes daily to read their respective Holy books and digest the word of God. “It is also the right time women should volunteer to religious activities, through serving others especially the needy people. In doing so they would be serving the Almighty God,” she says.

Stand up, speak up

Mercy Kahenda, a journalist, says women should be courageous enough to stand up and speak up. “This is something that bothers women as most of them fear to speak of their feelings and decide to keep calm,” she says.

In marriage, for example, when women realise things aren’t working and efforts to have the matter solved have failed, they should be able to just say no. “I’ve seen more killed, men marry other wives, and even infect them with HIV because they failed to speak up and say no,” she says.

Mercy says women also lack confidence, and would never pick up roles. “For instance, on leadership is perceived to be a man’s role, and women who join in are stubborn. In politics, for example, the society believes that it’s a man’s responsibility to rule, so if a woman vies for an elective post, they view her as someone arrogant,” explains Mercy.

This makes women fear giving it a try, she says, adding; “This happens even in the media houses where we do not have many women in the management position, because they are considered to deal with soft news like leisure magazines and not tough stories like investigations, politics and crime. Now when they don’t get the opportunity, they should fight for it, engage the management e.t.c,” she advices.

“In marriage, women stay because of society’s expectation of them. The society expects them to make marriage work, and in case it fails, they’re the ones to blame. This is why we have women being left to provide all necessities for their families, as they do not have a voice. Women should be empowered economically to make decision if they have to live a life of frustrations or be at peace,” she adds.

Go natural

Bernadeta Paul is one among women who decided to go natural this year. She opts to cut her long hair and maintain her normal hair look. Being one of her 2019 goals, she thinks other women should go natural so as to own their full self.

“A hard working woman would like people to see the actual her, the real her that is working and hustling to be great. So why not in the process of showing the real you, show people that you are a strong African woman even by your hair style,” she says.

Bernadete believes that with natural hair, a woman would be showing others that they should liberate themselves from mental slavery.

“Being natural and yet a working smart, a woman shows that, smartness in and out can be achieved even with natural hair. You can be smart in natural hair. It’s about breaking the old norms that natural hair is ugly and can’t be styled to a professional look,” says the mother of two.

Read more books by women authors

In order for women to achieve their New Year goals, Magreth Mushi, a feminist activist, encourages women to read more books, especially those written by their fellow women and learn from those women who have succeeded.

Magreth argues that reading books written by fellow women will inspire, motivate, uplift and boost their morale that a woman can do and even achieve better than what the author has described in her book.

“There are women who are more talented and gifted and they have something to share with other women and society at large through their books and when other women follows what is advised or written by these gifted women their lives will change and be encouraged as well,” adds Magreth, who is also a motivational speaker and an author.

Making changes to the society

Women have been seen in some societies as inferior and they cannot do anything to make some impact in their communities. Women can change the society.

Support other women

Winnie Lukona, a medium scale entrepreneur, says 2019 is the year for the women to uphold one another.

“We should uphold each other as charity begins at home. Women should support and encourage each other in everything and by doing so they will achieve their goals,” she says.

Building a powerful community, women should push for small changes in society. Women knows how to build capacity for and create system change, they know how to provide education and support to the community including young generation.

“What I would like to say is that, women are proud of their leaps and bounds, and they know how to press for progress. Through women, I believe that small changes can have big impact,” she says

Eat Healthy

Lillie Igogo is one among the women who decided to live healthy. According to her our lifestyles affect our daily lives and has impact on our mental and physical wellbeing.

“In 2019, women should consider not only physical wellbeing by eating healthy and engaging in physical activities but should also consider recreational activities to enhance their mental well-being.

For physical health - food choices are a first point combined with physical activities. Good nutrition is an important aspect for leading a healthy lifestyle. Unhealthy eating habits increase the risk of chronic diseases (heart disease, diabetes etc…),” she says

She continues “Women should develop healthier habits by making small changes to their daily routines. Small changes can make big differences to your health,” says the owner of Lillie’s Cocktails.