7 Ways to Make 2013 the Best Year of Your Life

The grandmother of one of my friends used to say that the graveyard is full of good intentions. So, why do so few people successfully materialise their great ideas and dreams? And how can you achieve what you want in 2013 so that your good intentions become your reality?

Here are 7 simple steps that you can take to do so:

1. CONSCIOUSLY CLOSE 2012.
It is very difficult to move forwards whilst the past is weighing you down. Therefore, it is important to take the time at the end of the year or in the first weeks of next year to consciously close 2012, which means:

- Celebrating your successes and advances
- Feeling gratitude for all that you have and all the people who have accompanied you during the year
- Learning from what did not go as well as you had hoped
- Being clear about anything that is not resolved and bringing it to closure or into your plan for 2013

2. HAVE CLEAR OBJECTIVES FOR 2013
In my 20 years of coaching people, I have seen over and over again how having the courage to clearly declare to yourself what you would like is one of the defining factors for achieving what you want.

Many people resist this step, sometimes because they don´t know how they will achieve them, for fear of failure and even for fear of success. However, once you are clear about what you want to achieve, you will find how to do so and learn how to look both potential failure and success in the face and enter onto the field of the game of your life.

3. ALIGN YOUR INTERNAL SELF-IMAGE, BELIEFS, THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS WITH YOUR OBJECTIVES
It is estimated that 95% of what you do is driven by your unconscious mind rather than from rational and conscious decisions. This means that the deeply seated image of yourself, your possibilities, the way you see the world and your habitual thoughts and feelings are driving your actions. Therefore, it is important that you align them with your objectives. I talked more about this subject in my article True Synchronicity (http://howtomasteryourlife.com/self-leadership/true-synchronicity/).

4. DEFINE AND TAKE THE FIRST STEPS
In order to make changes in your life, it is not enough to just have a clear vision of what you want to achieve, you also need to have specific and completely achievable first steps. They are one of the principal motivators that will lead you to actually taking action to create the change you desire.

5. DEVELOP YOUR LIFE SKILLS
We tend to forget that the main invisible driver for your success are your life skills. Then when we meet people with finely honed life skills, we tend to think that they were born that way, rather than realising that they learned them. Now, if they were able to learn them, then so can you. Research has shown that successful people have developed the following life skills:

- How to be a great communicator
- Self leadership
- How to manage your emotions and inner state
- The ability to make time work for you
These are often called social and emotional intelligence and can be learned step-by-step.

6. ENLIST EXPERT SUPPORT
There are times when saving money actually results in losing money. There are areas in our life that are so worthwhile enlisting expert support, where the money you spend on it is returned to you several times over in your happiness, wellbeing and even in bottom-line money in your pocket. An expert coach, for example will help you keep your focus and motivation, develop the skills and knowledge that you require, support you to align your unconscious mind with your objectives, as well as supporting you to define the appropriate actions each step of the way. Even if you only take one session a month, you could find yourself for as little as 45€ or £55 each month achieving what you want from 2013 instead of letting another year pass you by with your good intentions staying just as that.

7. KEEP GOING
A common pattern is that people begin their year or a project with great enthusiasm and energy. However, the mind invariably works faster than reality. Therefore, the results usually take longer to come than you had imagined and you meet challenges, that you hadn´t expected, on the way. 95% of people give up at this point and start at the beginning again with a new idea. The smart 5% of people, however, know that the first part of any project requires the most energy, in the same way as a car uses up most effort and fuel when it is accelerating from 0. These people just keep reminding themselves what they want to achieve, why and how they will feel when they get there, they keep breaking the project down into the next steps that are required and they see each challenge as an opportunity to become more powerful and skilled.

So in reality, the difficult part of realising your potential are not the actions required to do so, it is having the inner clarity, motivation, alignment and skills that make the journey to being the best you can be the exciting and enjoyable journey of your life. Will you embark on that journey in 2013? Will you allow yourself to realise your potential? I certainly hope so, because you are unique with a wonderful destiny that only you can create.