It was a toss-up: To do a big wrap for 2012 or a look ahead for 2013 for the last blog post of the year? I was leaning towards the year-end wrap like 2011. It’s been a phenomenal year. My business grew by leaps and bounds. I hired my husband out of his corporate job to work with me on our business. I traveled to my heart’s content and signed a real book deal with a traditional publisher who found me through my self-published books. And I finally responded to my true yoga calling: Ashtanga! What better way to celebrate it than to share it with you, my beloved reader?
But that kind of post would have been mostly about me and I began to wonder what if you had a hard year? What if you struggled at your job or your business or at home? What if your health gave you a hard time despite your greatest intentions? Or what if someone you cared about was going through a tough time? My 2007 was like that. My Dad was in the ICU for months and my heart was aching all that time and more and if I heard people say 2007 was a great year, I would cringe. But we pulled through and better years were ahead.
Better years lay ahead. You need to believe in it before you can make it happen with the force of setting new intentions. So first, believe in it. Would you?
That’s why I tossed the idea of doing a 2012 wrap. Whatever happened happened! We are going to look ahead together, baby!
If 2012 was a great year for you, then I am over the moon about it. Celebrate. Reflect on it. Indulge in your achievements. Enjoy the things that went well. Use the energy to propel you forward into a better-yet 2013 and keep your momentum going strong.
But if 2012 was one of those years, and you are happy to just put it behind you, then I’ll do that with you here on one condition: If you promise to really leave it behind.
That means you won’t take any of the bad energy and remnants of negative feelings into 2013 with you. Just as a juice fast cleanses and purifies your body, cleanse and purify your mind to start 2013 with a fresh new intention.
This new year can be a great year, no matter what happened in your 2012.
Little-known fact: You do not take your past into the future with you and whatever happened this year has no bearing on what’s to come next year.
An application of this little-known fact that makes the casinos in Vegas a bajilion dollars a day: What came up in the Roulette wheel on this round has absolutely and positively not a thing to do with what comes up next. Every single toss of the wheel is independent. No relation to its past. It might as well not have a history. A new roll and a new game every time so you can make the same old bet every time and be just as fine as a gambler that randomizes all his bets.
Speaking of fabulous Las Vegas, I’ll be speaking on the podcasting panel at NMX Live in Las Vegas and acting as one of the Ambassadors in this fabulous conference on January 6-8, 2013. Will you be there? Come say hi! I want to meet you in person!
Remember: No bearing. Don’t let 2012 or the years past have any bearing whatsoever on your 2013! Got it?
~ If you felt like a victim of circumstance in 2012, then come from an empowered place in 2013 and don’t allow that mindset anywhere near your thoughts.
~ If you felt that you couldn’t keep up with the pace of your life in 2012, then make changes that will modify the pace better for you this year by learning to ask for help where you need it without feeling shy or bad about it and by being honest with yourself instead of worrying about what is expected of you.
~ If you felt overwhelmed with doing too much for others, learn to say the words you learned as a 2-year old: No! Just say it with more tact and poise. When you say no to others, you say yes to yourself, and like it or not, you need to think about your own needs first before you can give the best of yourself to others.
~ If you felt that your job drove you to the edge of insanity, then do something about it in 2013 and stop with the excuses and with postponing. No matter what your situation, there is someone out there who has turned a similar situation around with more handicap. Don’t make me find you examples :)!
Use the free resources out there such as my free career course or my savvy entrepreneur friend, Marlee Ward’s great resources about online business or start a blog with this killer program (affiliate link). Blogging was the start of my escape from corporate chains. Maybe it can be yours too?
Do Something that you have not done in 2012 because if you keep doing the same things, you will get the same results. Change it up!
~ If your health was an issue, then I am really sorry. Even the healthiest among us get sick. We are never immune to it but we can always pay more attention and get stronger and healthier. Sometimes, it strikes some of us worse than others. My heart-felt advice: change your thoughts first.
The power of your mind is simply immeasurable. People have healed diseases and cancer from their body with changing their thoughts. It’s not fool proof of course but the fact that it has such an enormous effect on our health should be incentive enough to try it. Learning to think better thoughts can change your health.
~ If you felt lost or confused about the direction of your life, you are not alone and you can do a few things to get a fresh start there. Work on your life purpose. Set a new intention.
Make ‘clarity’ your word of the year and seek clarity in your life by answering questions such as: What matters to me? What’s important to me? What do I value? What do I hold dear? And then come up with a direction that aligns to those values and beliefs.
~ If you fell short of your goals, then either you set them very high which is exactly how you should set goals – achieving them all means you set the bar a wee bit too low – or that you really slacked off. Both are OK! If it’s the former, then you have achieved plenty and you are just pushing yourself hard which is a good thing. If it’s the latter, then try a new approach.
Start your 2013 focus on one big goal all year along – one that aligns most to those values above. Maybe it’s your health or your relationships or your work. Don’t try to tackle too much so you can go far on just one area.
On this great and endless path of self-discovery and personal development, everything is connected – our thoughts, our beliefs, our body, mind and spirit – and our decisions and actions stem from those very thoughts and beliefs.
Understand what’s really happening at your core and figure out how you can change so you can have great impact on your results.
Just don’t do it all at once. Everybody who does regrets it. Even Tim Ferris was telling Pat Flynn in a recent podcast not to do it all at once! Take one small step towards the right direction by learning the lessons and forgiving what happened in 2012 if you felt you didn’t do a good job and by insisting – demanding – believing no less than the fact that 2013 will be – shall be – your greatest year year.
With that, I wish you a most Happy New Year. Use the Let’s make it a really good one!
I am Farnoosh, the founder of Prolific Living. So glad you are here. My mission is to empower you to unblock your creative genius to live your dream life.