Another year has passed and a new one has just begun! I hope that 2011 has been a meaningful and fulfilling year for you as it has been for me. At the same time, I would like to wish you all the good health, success and happiness in 2012!

In this post, I would like to share with you a powerful ritual that I do for myself at the beginning of each year. It helps me to clarify the lessons I have learnt the year before and empowers me to start the new year with more focus, more energy and more wisdom.

The Past Year In Review

I have always found it very useful to reflect on the year that has passed. As we all know, things do not always go according to plan in life. Sometimes, life throws us unexpected challenges that knock us off course temporarily. Sometimes, we go through setbacks and disappointments. We may achieve some of the goals we have set and we may have missed the mark on others. I have found that in my own life, 70% of the things I plan to do never go according to plan. Yet, by consistently changing my strategy and taking massive action, I get myself back on track and keep progressing forward until I get the results I want (or somewhere near there).

Always remember that success is not a destination. Success is an ongoing journey of moving towards your goals consistently. In other words, you do not have to achieve all your goals for 2011 in order to declare it a successful year. As long as you have made progress towards your goals, it has been a successful year. As long as you have grown in terms of character, emotional strength and wisdom…you have more knowledge and skills today than you had a year ago, it has been a successful year! As long as you have experienced joyful moments with the people you care about, it has been a successful year.

Celebrate Your Successes in 2011

So, the first thing I would like to ask you to do is to celebrate your successes for 2011. Write down and reflect on the following…

1) What goals have I achieved or made progress on in 2011? Think of progress you have made in your career, relationships, health & finances

2) What have I done this year that I am proud of? (e.g. Overcome a challenging setback? Helped someone in need? Etc…)

3) How have you grown as a person? What new skills and knowledge have you gained in the last 12 months?

4) What are the most memorable and cherished moments of 2011?

5) What are the lessons you have learned from setbacks and feedback in the past year? How has it made you a smarter and a wiser person?

Now that you have embraced and learnt from the past year, it is time for you to design the 2012 that you want for yourself. Remember that success does not happen by chance, it happens by choice. Begin the year with the end in mind. BY the end of 2012, what would you want to have achieved, experienced and created in your life? Write down at least one goal you are going to focus and take action on the 4 areas of your life: personal, career, family, health and finances.

Setting Your Goals and Action Plans for 2012

As you write down your goals for 2012, ensure that it is SPECIFIC, MEASURABLE, STRETCH (It stretches you), has a set of ACTION PLANS with a DEADLINE.

1) My Personal Goals (How would like to improve yourself as a person-physically, spiritually, mentally, emotionally etc…)

2) My Career Goals (what achievements/progress is to be made in your career/business)

3) My Family Goals (What experiences would you like to have with your family. How could you make a difference in their lives)

4) My Finances (what would you like to improve/achieve financially)

Focus On Your Goals Daily and Take Massive Action

Most people set New Year Goals/Resolutions, get all excited for a short time and forget about it for the rest of the year. 12 months later, they find that nothing has been done about it. if you have read my books, you would know that the only way to stay focused is to review your goals EVERYDAY. Write them down and stick them up at a place where it is in front of you every day. Make it a habit to read your goals every morning and reviewing them every night before you sleep. It will be the daily actions you take towards your goals that will make a huge change in your life 12 months later.

Remember that the past does not determine the future. Your future is determined by what you do TODAY. This moment is a new opportunity for you to create the future you truly desire.

Have An Awesome Year Ahead
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If this video has inspired and empowered you, please share it with all your friends and loved ones. Everyone deserves the opportunity to live their life with success and abundance

If this video has inspired and empowered you, please share it with all your friends and loved ones. Everyone deserves the opportunity to live their life with success and abundance

If this video has inspired and empowered you, please share it with all your friends and loved ones. Everyone deserves the opportunity to live their life with success and abundance

If this video has inspired and empowered you, please share it with all your friends and loved ones. Everyone deserves the opportunity to live their life with success and abundance

Yet, in order to live our life to the fullest and be all that we can be, we have to take risks. To be happy, rich and successful we have to take risks. If you want the freedom and financial success that entrepreneurship brings, you have to take the risk of losing money in a business startup. If you want to experience the joy of being married, you have to take the risk of having your heart broken and losing half your assets in a divorce.

Success is Directly Proportional to the Level of Risk

The level of success you will experience in life is directly proportional to the level of risk you are willing to take. At the same time, society pays a huge financial premium for uncertainty.

For example, if you are a relationship manager who sells insurance policies and unit trusts in a bank, your income will not be more than $50,000-$60,000 a year. However, if you are a financial planner with an insurance company selling the same quantity of life insurance products, your income could be $300,000-$500,000 a year. Why is there such a big difference in the level of compensation? It’s because the bank manager is paid a fixed salary (with a small commission) while the financial planner has no fixed salary but is paid huge commissions. Financial planners are paid much more because they are willing to take a higher level of risk (i.e. not earning anything if no sale is closed).

It is for these very same reasons that CEOs and bosses of companies are paid an average of 5-10 times more than their employees. An employee has the certainty of a fixed salary. Business owners and CEOs’ income are based very much on profits, stock options and variable bonuses. The boss of a company takes the risk of making nothing and he even risks losing money if the business goes bust. At the same time, they have the chance of making millions when the company does well. They are again compensated for taking on this uncertainty.

This is also why money placed in a capital guaranteed investment (i.e. fixed deposit) pays an interest of a paltry1%-3%. However, money invested in the stock or property market can grow as much as 20%-500% a year. When you want absolute certainty, do not expect to achieve or receive much in return. When you are willing to accept uncertainty, you have a good chance of being handsomely rewarded for it.

The Most Successful People Take the Biggest Risk

“Often the difference between a successful person and a failure is not one has better abilities or ideas, but the courage that one has to bet on one’s ideas, to take a calculated risk and to act”
-Andrew Malraux (French Statesmen 1901-1976)

The most successful people in the world became who they were because at a certain point of their life, they were willing to take a risk and to go for their dream. Susan Boyle realized her dream of becoming an international singing superstar at the age of 47 because she dared to take the risk of competing in a singing contest (Britain’s Got Talent) against people half her age. Despite looking plain, frumpy and unattractive, she bravely took to the stage and faced an audience hostile to her because of her age and appearance. Everyone laughed and expected her to squawk like a duck. Instead, they were struck with awe when she gave a stunning performance.

With her newfound fame, Boyle released her first album, ‘I Dreamed a Dream’. In only six weeks of sales, it became the biggest selling album in the world for 2009, selling 9 million copies. In September 2010, Boyle was officially recognized by the Guinness World Records as having had the fastest selling debut album by a female artist in the United Kingdom. She was also awarded the record for being the oldest person to reach number one with a debut album in the United Kingdom.

Bill Gates and Steve Jobs are credited for starting the technological revolution of the 1980s-1990s and changing our lives forever with Microsoft and Apple because they dared to take the risk of dropping out of school, rejecting the safe route most people take and going for their entrepreneurial dreams instead.

Imagine if these people were afraid to take a chance. Imagine if they had the mentality of having to be 100% sure all of the time. They would probably have taken a safe boring and not attempted anything. And the world wouldn’t be where it is today…if not for these exceptional risk takers.

“The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing and becomes nothing. He may avoid suffering and sorrow but he simply cannot learn and feel and change and grow and love and live”
- Leo. F. Buscaglia

This is an excerpt from my latest book, ‘Winning The Game of Life!”

So, what stops most people from taking action and using their full potential? Whenever I ask this question, the same reasons seem to come up. Many people will admit that what stops them from taking action is ‘fear’, ‘uncertainty’, ‘doubt’, ‘depression’, ‘frustration’, ‘anger’, ‘laziness’ or ‘feelings of helplessness’. Many salespeople don’t succeed because they have the fear of getting rejected. Many people who have the desire to start a business never do so because of their self-doubt and fear of failure. Many people who experience adversity do not take the necessary actions to turn their life around because they feel too depressed or frustrated. In other words, NEGATIVE EMOTIONS are the main reason why people do not take action and realize their full potential.

Negative Emotions Serve a Positive Purpose. They are Signals that We Need to Change Something.
So, if negative emotions are so ‘bad’, why do we have them? Why do they exist? ! I believe that our creator did not give us negative emotions to limit us or to punish us. In fact, negative emotions serve a positive purpose. They are signals that tell us that we need to change something. They are giving us the message that we need to either change our perceptions or our actions!

The Positive Message of Fear
Throughout our lives, our minds will create the emotion of fear whenever we face something new or challenging. The salesperson experiences the fear of being rejected. The presenter experiences fear before going on stage. So, why does our mind create this feeling of fear? Fear is an emotion that signals to us that we need to ‘get better prepared’. This feeling is giving us a message that in order to deal with the challenge ahead, we need to gain more knowledge, skills and resources to succeed. That is a useful message, isn’t it?

Many people are surprised to know that I still feel fear before I go on stage to give a talk, despite having been a professional speaker for the last 15 years.

In fact, 3-4 days before any speaking engagement, I start feeling the fear that hundreds of people will be listening to me and judging me. I have the fear that I may not live up to their expectations. This fear signals to me that I have to get prepared. It motives me to plan way ahead. I spend hours doing research on my topic, writing a powerful speech and crafting my slides. This fear drives me to rehearse my speech in my mind over and over again until I know exactly what to say, how to say it and when to say it. The moment I am fully prepared to give my absolute best, my fear is at a minimal. I have made use of my fear to help me constantly deliver my best each and every time. I can imagine that if I had no fear, I would not have bothered to have prepared so hard and would probably have given a lousy speech.

So, it is perfectly normal to feel fear. Everybody gets scared, both ordinary and extraordinary people. The difference lies in how they deal with it. Unfortunately, most people allow their fears to limit them from taking action. They get the fear of public speaking so they avoid it completely. They will never dare to speak in public.

Frustration Signals to Us that We Have to Change Our Strategy
Another common negative emotion that many of us may experience is ‘frustration’. Frustration is an emotion we feel when we are not able to get the result we want despite repeated attempts. Most people allow the feeling of frustration to overwhelm them so much that they get angry and quit ever attempting it again. Haven’t you been so frustrated at something or someone and said to yourself, ‘whatever!’, threw your hands up in surrender and walk off?

Once again, Frustration is there to give us a message. It serves a useful purpose. When we feel frustrated, the signal is telling us that we have to change our strategy. We have to do something different, to get the results we want. One of my students is an insurance advisor (specializing in corporate insurance) that was getting so frustrated with her job that she felt like quitting after three months. She was getting frustrated that despite making hundreds of calls to prospects, she couldn’t even secure an appointment. She kept getting rejection after rejection.

When she attended my ‘Patterns of Excellence’ programme, I told her that as long as she did not listen to the message of her frustration, she would never reach her sales targets. Her frustration was a clear signal that she had to change her strategy in the way she engaged her prospects.

Upon reflection, she realized that whenever she said that she was offering ‘corporate insurance evaluation’, people closed their minds and immediately said that they weren’t interested. She decided to use a different strategy. She would call her prospects (bosses of companies) and say, ‘I am a corporate strategy advisor. Do you have the intention to list your company on the stock exchange?’ That statement immediately got their attention.

If their answer was no, she would say, ‘do you realize that if something happens to you, the shares you own in your company may become worthless? Your loved ones may not be able to sell the shares to extract its value. Could you spare a few minutes to learn how to assign a market value to your company so that it can be easily sold in the future?’ By using this unique approach, her appointment rate shot up and she increased her sales by 400% in just 6 months.

So, you can see that ‘negative emotions’ like fear, frustration, anger, depression and disappointment are not really bad at all. They can really help us to become much more successful. We just have to ensure that they serve us and not immobilize us from taking action. So, whenever you experience a negative emotion, listen to the message and act on it. Once you have heard the message, breakout of the negative emotion so you no longer feel bad about it.

This post is an excerpt from my upcoming book ‘Winning the Game of Life!’ Watch out for it!

I recently watched a documentary about Aimee Mullins who is a true role model of the power of possibility. In times of our life, we always need to be reminded by people like Aimee that our problems are nothing compared to the problems of so many others out there. Yet despite their problems/obstacles they go for their goals because they refuse to accept anything less than an extraordinary life.

Aimee Mullins was born without fibula in both her legs and her parents made the painful decision of amputating both her legs when she was a baby. Despite being a double below-the-knee amputee, she set the goal of becoming an Olympic athlete, a catwalk model and a Hollywood actress. BY the age of 28, she had set world records in the 100m, 200m and Long Jump Para-Olympics. She became a catwalk model and was voted ‘The 50 Most Beautiful Women in the World’ by People Magazine. She has also become a Hollywood actress, staring in movies like ‘The World Trade Center’ in 2006. As someone who has the learnt the power of focusing on what is great in her life, she lives an extremely happy and fulfilling life dancing, roller blading, skiing and swimming. I hope the video inspires you as much as it has inspired me to keep going for my dreams despite the odds.

This is a story I would like to share with you about pursuing our dreams. The story is about Anna Mary Robertson (born 1860). Anna was a young farm girl who loved to paint. He dream was to become a world famous painter. Alas, her parents told her that she would starve as a painter and she should forget her stupid dream. She was told that her role in life was to marry a good husband, look after the farm and raise children.

Being the obedient girl that she was, Anna put aside her dreams and started a family in her teens. She had 10 children by her 20s, had grandchildren in her 40s and was a great grandmother in her 60s.

By the age of 75, after her husband died and her children had grown up, she became too old to work on the farm. So, she decided to fulfill her childhood dream of becoming a painter. She went to the town’s art store and bought brushes, paints and canvases and started painting in front of her barn. She self studied and painted ‘Primitive American Landscape’ and sold her first painting at age 77. She became affectionately known as Grandma Moses.

By age 79, her paintings were showcased in the Museum of Modern Art (New York).
During the 1950s, her exhibitions were so popular that they broke attendance records all over the world. The National Association of House Dress Manufacturers honored her as their 1951 Woman of the Year. At age 88, Mademoiselle magazine named Grandma Moses a “Young Woman of the Year.” Philadelphia’s Moore College of Art awarded her its first honorary doctorate degree.

In the last 10 years of her life, her paintings were selling for $100,000 each. She had painted 3,600 pieces in the last 20 years.

She made more money in a year than in an entire lifetime working on the farm
In November 2006, her work Sugaring Off (1943), became her highest selling work at US $1.2 million.

It is estimated that If she had starting painting in her teens, she would have become one of the richest women in America.

So, my question you is….
Is there hidden talent within you that you have never given yourself a chance to discover?
Have Your Dreams been Extinguished by the Criticism of Others?
What are the dreams that you have been putting off in your life?
Are you going to wait for the last years of life before you discover your hidden talents?