How To Make 2013 Work For You

I congratulate you for making it to 2013! I hope your holiday was awesome. Mine wasn’t. As much as I enjoy the tradition of spending Christmas with my siblings and family, I was stuck with work and couldn’t go home for Christmas holidays for the first time all my life. I however had some time alone to reflect and regroup for the New Year. So it wasn’t totally bad after all. I was able to pen down awesome lessons from 2012 and goals for 2013.
More than anything else, I have a renewed passion to generate measurable results and am determined to make 2013 work for me. I know you are too. Here, are six easily-overlooked but powerful principles that can ensure 2013 works for you.
1.  Learn from the past. If there is any truth in the saying that “history repeats itself”, then the past is a powerful teacher. Recognize what worked last year and what did not. Focus on what worked and figure how to make it work even better for you. Learn from others too. Learn what to do and not to do. Don’t make their mistakes, recreate their successes.
2.  Begin with the end in mind. In other words, have goals. There is no achievement without goals. What is a goal? A goal is an aim or objective, the end toward which effort is directed. How will you know whether or not you are progressing if you have no goals? I love how Brian Tracy puts it, “The establishment of a clear, central purpose or goal in life is the starting point of all success.” It is however not enough to just have goals; you must also have a plan. A goal without plan is a mere wish. According to Stephen A. Brennan ”Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.”
3.  Do not procrastinate. Procrastination refers to the act of replacing high-priority actions with tasks of low-priority, and thus putting off important tasks to tomorrow (a later time). Unfortunately, there is no tomorrow. I don’t know who you are or what your dreams are, but there is one thing I know; this year will not work for you if you procrastinate. Bottom line? Procrastination is a habit that can keep you broke. Physically, mentally, spiritually and financially.
4.  Be consistent. Excellence is a habit. It’s not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives; it’s what we do consistently. There is no truly successful man who is not consistent. Be consistent this year and watch its effect on your life.
5.  Be yourself. Unapologetically. True success finds its source in originality. Ralph Waldo Emerson recognized this when he said, “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” This world is ruled by people who know who they really are and are courageous enough to be just that.
5.  Leave your comfort zone. Attempt things you’ve never dared before. Don’t limit yourself. Helen Keller was blind, deaf and dumb, but she was aware that “Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.” Don’t be paranoid by fear of failure or rejection; but be energized by the hope of success. What will you attempt if you were 100% certain you can’t fail? “Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary.” Cecil Beaton.