Make 2013 Your Best Year Ever

Make 2013 Your Best Year Ever

by Paul Gorney

Now that the dust has settled from the holidays and we have started rolling through 2013, now is the perfect time to work on your plan to make this year your best year ever. Wouldn't it be amazing if you had a formula to make 2013 a great year? A year where you achieve and accomplish great things in your life? A year of results and progress. I'm going to share with you a plan that I use that will get you on track to having an amazing year.

For years during the course of my adult life, the holidays would come and go with little thought about the brand new year. I would give little consideration or reflection on the year that just passed. From time to time I might make an occasional new year's resolution. However that would typically lose steam a week or two into January. For another year, I would just float down the river of life, pretty much doing the same things I had done in the prior years, simply hoping for the best.

As a sales manager, I have developed a saying that I periodically use with my sales reps that goes "hope is not a strategy"! We need to take control and determine where we would like to be and what we would like to accomplish in the future. We have to decide on the outcomes we want in our lives. Just floating through life on the raft of random destiny is easy but it may not take you in the direction you want to go. Particularly if you have dreams and desires for your life that continue to just be dreams and desires year after year after year.

Taking some time to reflect and review the past gets us grounded and establishes sort of a "current location" from which we will move toward our future destinations. Just like a GPS system, or the Map App on your Smartphone. These tools need to know where you're currently at to get you to where you want to go. I believe that living a life of advancing toward the things you want to do and accomplish very much parallels this concept of knowing where you're at and deciding exactly where you want to end up.

To make 2013 your best year ever is a simple process that involves the following steps:

1. Gather up the past: It's easy to lose sight and forget key moments and events of your life as time passes. Meaningful events that we can learn from can just be lost in the sea of time. It's important to recollect and note these moments to preserve the value in the learning's from the past. Take some time and go through the events and accomplishments of 2012. Review your calendar, journal and memory month by month. What events took place? What were some of the challenges and victories? How did you celebrate your birthday? Keep in mind we're always trying to keep this constructive and productive. We're looking for wins and the things we learned. Capture all these events in a log or a journal. My 2013 journal opens with a review of 2012.

2. Current Location: The next step is to get grounded in where are you today in the 5 key areas of your life which are: Family Relationships, Personal Finance, Health and Fitness, Business/Career and Spiritual Connection. It's important that you do this in a gentle, constructive and honest way. There is no value in judging or criticizing yourself as to how you're doing in these areas at the moment. Just like your GPS system doesn't judge where your starting location is when you're heading to a particular destination. This is just your honest nonbiased assessment of where you are at this point in time. Furthermore, as an achiever, we are always looking ahead to take things to the next level. I like to approach this part of the process both subjectively and objectively. I use a blend of factual data and mix in my general feelings and attitudes about how I'm doing versus where I would like to be. For example, in the area of personal finance I will look at my income, debt and overall net worth year over year. These are the hard facts. I look for the trends and explore what I can do differently as I move forward. In the areas of career, I'll look at what I learned from the past year, what areas do I want to develop? How can I increase my income, job satisfaction, contribution and productivity? There is a sense of power and peace, with knowing exactly where you're at in these areas. As you continue through the process, you inevitably start formulating ideas about where you want to go in these 5 key areas of your life. The question I like to ask myself as I go through this is; "how do I make this area of my life even better than it is today"? We are now starting to formulate the outcomes we want in these 5 key areas of our lives.

3. The Destination: The third step in making 2013 the best year ever is to set goals for each of the 5 areas of your life. I had a friend recently tell me a line I really loved with regard to goal setting. He said, "A goal is just a dream with a deadline." Your goals are your dreams. However, setting goals enables you to formulate a plan to achieve the things you want for your life. You're creating a target or destination to aim for. I love Zig Ziglar's quote on this, "If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time."

I'm sure you came up with a number of thoughts and ideas already in going through the last part of the process. Now it's time to take the outcomes you came up with in the last section and shape those into powerful and actionable goals for 2013. When setting goals I like to use "The Ultimate Success Formula" for each of my goals.

>Clarity: Determine exactly what you want and when.
>Purpose: Why is this goal important to you?
>Strategy: Develop a plan to achieve the goal.
>Priority: What is the very first thing that needs to be done to achieve the goal?
>Action: Move toward your goal every day

When writing goals, I believe we should write them as if they have already been accomplished. Instead of writing "I will" or "I am going to ". Write "I have". This is an important goal setting technique. By doing this you put your subconscious mind to work with you to accomplish your dreams and desires. Additionally, not all your goals need to have a target of twelve months. You may want to have some short term, mid-term and long term goals. It's also good if some of your goals are what I refer to as "stretch goals." These would be big and perhaps a bit uncomfortable goals. However they will be huge accomplishments once you achieve these. Having five to ten goals for 2013 of things that you want to accomplish and achieve with your life is a critical success factor to making 2013 the best year ever. You are no longer just floating down the river of life, but have programmed in your specific targeted destination in your own built in mental GPS system.

4. Stay the course: Now that we have reviewed the past and set our course for 2013, now we need to ensure we stay inspired and motivated throughout the year and maintain our focus on achieving our goals. The first part of this part of process is to identify your "Mission Statement". What great things are you here to do for the world? I like to ask myself "How can I better serve the world?" Isn't that a great question? We are all here to accomplish great things with our lives. We are ALL born with some unique gifts or talents. How will you use these in service to the world in some way?

Now I know firsthand that some people might say to themselves "Oh, I really don't have any unique talents". This is simply not the case. You may not have identified or refined them just yet, but you have at least one and most likely more than one unique talent or gift. If you're not sure at the moment, think of something you love to do. How could you put that passion to work in service to the world in some way? Now package up your mission statement into one or two simple direct sentences.

For the next step I like to capture my favorite inspirational quotes and a few affirmations. I love to collect quotes that resonate and inspire me. I like to take four or five of my favorites and note them after my mission statement. One of my personal favorites at the moment is "Let the beauty of what you love, be what you do" - Rumi. Lastly I like to make a list of a number of "I AM" statements. I AM are two of the most powerful words we use. Many times the words that follow I AM may not be so empowering however. In this case, I note a number of empowering "I AM" statement that declares what I AM. A few examples "I AM Happy", I AM in Excellent Health, I AM an Achiever. These should be whatever inspires you. Repeat these "I AM " statements to yourself throughout the day.

Now that you have gathered up the past, set your targeted destination for the future and have created some extra energy with a powerful personal mission statement backed up by some great quotes and affirmations you have all the ingredients to make this your best year ever. To put this to work for you, all you need to do is package up your goals, mission statement, inspiring quotes and affirmations in a document or in a note book. Review this every day first thing in the morning, at night before you go to bed and periodically throughout the day. I like to type this out in a document and then save it as a PDF file. From there I can store it on my tablet or my smart phone for easy access.

It's critical you review and reflect on your goals daily. In the morning, ask yourself, "What can I do today to advance toward my goals?" There is a natural power and attraction to accomplishing your goals and dreams when you keep them in front of you. Periodically visualize yourself having accomplished your goals. What would it feel like? What would you say to yourself? What would others say to you?

It's also important that we actually recognize and acknowledge the moments when we are advancing toward achieving our goals. For example, if you have a goal to become more fit, recognize the moments when you're on your way to the gym or on a run. One of my goals is to be a good public speaker. Often times before I speak, I'll get those butterflies and my mind will start saying things like; "I can't remember a thing that I was going to say". A technique I use to get over this is to tell myself, "I am about to take a major step toward accomplishing my goal to be a great speaker". I'm not worried about the outcome so much. I feel a sense of personal power that I am achieving and advancing toward something that is important to me and that I want for my life. It's important to take the time to recognize and acknowledge the moments when you are in the process of achieving and advancing, especially in the face of fear.

In closing, one of the most powerful and helpful things you can do along the way is to keep a journal. Keep track of meaningful events and things that happen. Be sure to capture all the highs and the lows as you go through the year. A great time to journal is when your emotions are high. I like to journal when something makes me really angry. What buttons were pushed that made me so angry? By journaling out what happened or how we feel, we start learning more about ourselves. It's also great to capture moments when you're feeling grateful, blessed or loved. Sometimes it's easy to lose site of the fact that we are loved and people do care about us. This is something to be really grateful for. Capture these moments of gratitude in your journal. Keep track of the books you read. Write a little summary in your journal of what you took away. Keep track of anything that inspires you. Write it down, before it's gets lost in time. Note any quotes or "lines' that resonate with you. I love the Nike tag line, "just do it"! Say that to yourself a few times a day when you need a little pick me up. In a year from now you will be amazed at the great content you have collected. You will have a history of your life that you can reflect on and learn from.

There you have it. Just put this simple plan to work and you will be amazed at what you will accomplish this year. It's empowering to know where you're at and where you're going. You are taking control of your destiny and set yourself on a course for achievement and success. Put this plan in place and YOU WILL make 2013 your best year ever.

If you have questions on the process or if you're interested in some personal coaching in this area, I can be reached at PJGorney@gmail.com.

About Paul Gorney
Paul Gorney enjoys writing and reading self help books and articles focused on living an inspired life. Paul has a passion around helping people to consciously and intentionally shape their destiny to live the life of their dreams. Paul is a motivational speaker and author and enjoys writing and speaking on a variety of topics focused on helping people to set goals and accomplish amazing things with their lives. He is a certified Life Coach specializing in career coaching and a certified NLP Practioner.

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