7 Things You Can Do To Make Your 2013 Better than 2012!

Hey guys, how was your year? I had a fantastic 2012, and with 2013 only days away I want to share with you 7 things that you can do to make this coming year better than the last. My 2012 was significantly more productive, fun and enjoyable than my 2011 and these 7 things are what improved my year so much from the one before! Hopefully they can do the same for you

1. Stop Spending Time With The Wrong People - This is probably the single most important thing you can do if you want to achieve something, it’s also the thing that takes the most courage. But it’s not impossible, and boy is it worth it! When I talk about the “wrong” people I simply mean anyone who routinely brings you down, who pooh poohs your ideas and aspirations, who uses you as nothing more than an outlet for their negative energy. There are two basic types of people, those who expand you and those who contract you. Naturally we wish to be involved with those who expand us, who encourage us and motivate us to continue and always do better in a realistic and positive manner. However the reality is that most of us have people in our lives, be they friends or even family, who contract us, who zap our energy and good vibes with nit picking, sniping and cynicism. As hard as it might be to come to terms with, you won’t find the “right” people for you until you make room by removing yourself from enough “wrong” people. The best way to stop spending time with the wrong people is by developing strong personal boundaries and learning everything you can about bullying. Take your time, these things don’t happen over night, good thing you’ve got all of 2013 to shake off as many wrong people as you can

2. Create Reasonable Goals, and Stick To Them - The mistake so many people make when setting goals or new years resolutions is that they create unrealistic targets. We set goals well beyond our means and when we inevitably fail we wallow in self pity. This cycle of manic goal setting followed by failure and wallowing gets us nowhere. That’s why it’s so important to set goals and targets that you can reach. If for example you decide that 2013 is the year that you will conquer your fear of rejection you might set a goal of starting a conversation with one attractive stranger per week, rather than “I must have 10 dates within the first month of the year!”. Set targets that you can meet easily, then ramp things up slowly. Once you do set your goals and targets be sure stick to them. Keep a check list and tick your targets off as you go, talk to friends and family about your progress so that you create some accountability and get some support. Some thing just can’t be done in a single year, try to think of big projects and changes in terms of 5 year plans, 2013 is just the beginning!

3. Affirmations and Holistic Healing - If you are, or someone you know is, the type who has always had health issues, or are simply looking to diversify the way you think about your own health and well being, why not look into metaphysical affirmations and holistic healing? Affirmations and holistic healing, including psychic healing, have had incredibly profound effects on my life, and I’ve heard countless stories from friends and family which correlate with mine. I haven’t been to a GP for 10 years, and even then it was because I went in to get my Bronchitis checked out. The Doctor told me that I have Bronchitis (duh!) and charged me $80, thanks doc. Don’t get me wrong surgery, penicillin and antibiotics save lives, god knows I’d be happy to see para medics and surgeons should I even need their services, my own brother would not be alive today if not for modern surgery! But for our general, everyday, non-emergency related health there are some great supplements and alternatives to your GP that are well worth checking out! A quick search for Holistic Healing should provide you with many options to check out. As with anything be sure to do your research, there are quack healers just like there are quack doctors, only ever use well known and well respected practitioners.

4. Practice Self Discipline - Self discipline is extremely important in my opinion. The problem is that 99% of the time we have virtually no self discipline, and so when we actually need it, for example we want to quit smoking, learn a new language or whatever, we have no framework and so we are destined to fail. Try and bring self discipline into your life even in times when it’s not particularly needed. Choose something fairly easy, for example to shower every day, get up at the same time every day, stop working after a certain time each day, or stop watching tv after a certain time. Creating even a small amount of structure where there was none before builds your self discipline, so that when you need it for something important, say you want to quit something, take up something new or finish a certain project by a certain date, you have a history of easily setting and sticking to routines and rules. Whatever you decide to do be sure to do it for at least 30 days, tell yourself, for example, “I will stop watching TV at 10pm every day for 30 days”. Don’t ever scare yourself by committing to something “forever”, this is self defeating, only ever commit to 30 days, when those 30 days pass then decide if you want to commit to another 30 days or not. This is how you develop self discipline.

5. Try Abundance Consciousness - Like attracts like, if you’re the type of person who emits a vibe of self defeating cynicism and yet wonders why everything always goes wrong, and everyone you meet is depressing and morbid, then you must not be familiar with the concept of the laws of attraction. Just like when we start looking for a place to rent we suddenly notice all the “to let” signs as though they’d just appeared. Or when you buy a new pair of Nike shoes, suddenly every one else seems to be wearing them as well, we magnify and attract that which we focus on. So if you tend to focus on the things you believe you lack, the things you want and desire, your consciousness and perception will be dominated by what you don’t have, and you will emit a vibe of poverty and scarcity. When you instead choose to focus only on the things you have, the things that are already working well in your life, your pervading consciousness and perception will be that of gratitude and abundance, and you will emit to those around you the vibe of limitless possibility! Learn about abundance consciousness and start using it to improve your life in 2013!

6. Learn to Love and Accept Yourself - You cannot truly love and accept others until you learn to unconditionally love and accept yourself. Plus the confidence emitted by someone who truly loves and accepts themselves is irresistibly attractive. One of the major barriers to self love is critical inner voices, nagging away and criticizing our every action. Through Stoic Philosophy and Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy I once and for all eradicated all traces of needless and nasty self criticism. As for the physical side of things, I’m always saddened by the stigma and shame that still exists in certain cultures in regards to “self love” or masturbation. Self sexuality is not only extremely important to our overall health, it is even becoming a viable sexual orientation as a branch of Asexuality. So make 2013 the year that you finally start to love every little bit of you!

7. Read Some Old Philosophy - Read a book gosh darnit! It’s not hard to take a little time to read some great old wisdom, and yet so few take the time to do it. Be sure to add “The Enchiridion” by Epictetus, “Meditations” by Marcus Aurelius, “The Bhagavad Gita”, the “Tao Te Ching” by Lao Tzu, The Gospel of The Living Christ as written by Thomas and “The Apology Of Socrates” by Plato to your reading list for 2013. All of which can be read for free online! These works are all quite short and easy to read, but the knowledge and wisdom they contain cannot be understated. I’ll bet at least some of you reading this got through the 50 Shades Trilogy in 2012 (not that I’m at all against the subject matter or erotic literature), you’d read my little list there in under the time it took to do that and just think of wonderful insights you’d have by the end! Well worth it, trust me

So there you have it, my tried and tested suggestions for making this coming year better than the last! I wish you all a great 2013 and beyond, I hope some of these tips will help you move into a new, better life for yourself As for me I have 2 more books planned for 2013, I have to finish my album and by the end of the year I hope to be traveling, blogging and playing music in the South of France and surrounding area! Keep well and a happy new year to you all!!

See y’all next year!

Thanks for reading

Rohan.

Related Articles:

• Resolutions
• Advance Happy 2013
• Ending 2012
• In This Turning: A New Years Day Meditation
• The New Year is Upon Us
• 10 Things I Learned About Life in 2012

Rohan Healy is the author of “Greeks to Geeks: Practical Stoicism in the 21st Century” and “The 7 Things That Made Me Genuinely & Irreversibly Happy: And How They Can Do The Same For You”

Click the book titles to visit their Amazon pages, read the reviews, and sample or purchase the books.

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