At the end of each year, it is always a norm all over the world for people to reflect on the out going year and also plan for the New Year. So many people are filled with regret when they discover that the out going year has been wasted and they couldn’t point to something tangible they have achieved in the year.

Having a successful year is as simple as ABC if only you know how to. Like everything in life, success is a series of processes turning into a system. It is this system that we all need to follow, consistently, if we are to look back at our year with so much satisfaction.

These processes may look simple but if followed to the later, they can bring a huge transformation to one’s life. Make use of the steps below if it is your desire to be successful in this New Year.

1) You need to have a dream. I have looked at my life so many times and I have always discovered that most of the things I have been able to achieve, had been the offshoots of the dreams I had years back.

With a dream, there is no limit to who you can be, what you can have and where you can go. In the New Year, you can’t afford not to have a dream because you will be short-changing yourself if you do not have one. Those who succeed are people with dreams.

2) Think good thoughts. As a man thinks, so is he, is a popular cliché that is heard almost everyday. It has been discovered and proven that our predominant thoughts do become a reality and if this is so, we need to dwell on good thoughts. The main reason people NEVER achieve much in life is because their minds always dwell on negative thoughts.

If all you can produce from your mind are negative thoughts, then you should expect negative results in your life this year. I am sure you don’t want to experience negative things in the New Year, if you don’t, now is the time to begin thinking positively.

3) Discover your potentials. Deposited within every one of us is a huge deposit of diamond that we all need to discover. Life becomes easy for us if we are able to discover our potentials and make use of them.

Our potentials have the ability to take us to places where nothing else can. The gift of man, makes way for him, is what the Bible says and I am a living testimony of this. You too can experience an uplifting in your life if you can discover and exploit the potentials within you in the New Year.

4) Believe in yourself. People that achieve so much in life are people that believe in themselves. Faith in yourself is the binding factor for any achievement. If you are engaged in anything and you don’t believe you can achieve anything from it, then it will be very difficult to make any success out of it.

It is pertinent that you build up your esteem in the New Year so that you can achieve what ever you set your hand on in the New Year. Those who have lost faith in themselves, have lost all.

5) Don’t listen to the critics. Those who want to achieve any meaningful feat in life must face criticism! You need to come to term with this. If you have NEVER being criticized, then you need to take a look at your life. It is possible you are not engaged in anything worthwhile and you may end up living below your standard.

People will always say things about what you are doing and it is your prerogative not to allow their opinions sway you from the line of success you are towing. I would not have been where I am today if I had listened to all the distracting voices years ago.

6) Learn, learn and LEARN! You can’t ever learn enough when there is a dream to achieve. Between where you are and where you want to go, there is a void that needed to be filled and learning is the best way to achieve that.

If all it takes you is to read a book, listen to an audio, watch a video or attend a seminar in order for you to achieve your dreams in the New Year, then so be it. Your quest for knowledge must NEVER be saturated in 2007 and for ever.

7) Never give up! I can tell you that it is possible to achieve your dreams but it won’t be fair if I don’t tell you that there will be challenges on your path as well. You are going to face numerous obstacles along the way, but you must NEVER quit.

No matter what happens to you, quitting must NEVER be an option. So many people have given up just one feet to discovering their gold. You must NEVER be one of this people. If you quit, you will NEVER see the reward of your dream and obscurity will be your portion. I am sure you don’t want this to happen to you.

You can NEVER do without ACTION! Of what use is a dream that is not backed with ACTION? It is better not to dream at all than have one and not act on it. Acting on one’s dream is what makes the difference. Your dreams can become a reality if you can ACT on it.

Nothing will bring you result apart from action! If you are not ready to act, then you are not prepared to reap the reward. In this New Year, you should endeavor to be a person of ACTION. Even if all it takes is for you to take a minute step every day of the year, PLEASE JUST DO IT! You will be surprised at what you have been able to achieve at the end of the year.

9) Let go and let GOD. So many people have doubted the existence of God but I will be so foolish to be one of them. Whenever I look at my life, I see so many events happening that I couldn’t just fathom. I could have explained them away as mere coincidences but it will still amount to foolishness.

There is a God that directs the affairs of men and you need to be in tune with Him if you are going to be TRULY successful this year. You must allow Him to be in the driver’s seat of your life and let Him take you where ever He pleases. By so doing you will experience true success in the coming year.

In surveys done across many job categories, including construction, service industries like hotels and restaurants, small business owners and corporate moguls, a large percentage of those surveyed said that they felt they needed to improve their time management skills so that they didn’t need to spend as much time at work.

Many wanted to reduce the time they had to spend reworking tasks they had already performed because they had done it wrong the first time.

You will find a few simple tips below, to get your time under control.

If you do these things, you will find that, even in the most stressful and time-consuming jobs, you can reduce the hours you spend at work, and arrive home in a less stressed, more family-friendly frame of mind!

Make a ‘To Do’ List – Then put these items in order, starting with the most critical. If you could only get one thing done today, what would be the most important? Cross the items off the list as you complete them, and don’t be distracted. Stay focused!

Since we all have interruptions, be sure that, if you don’t accomplish the items toward the bottom of you list on that day, you add them to your list the next day so you don’t drop them. Use a daily planner if that makes things easier.

Don’t Waste Time – Use your spare minutes well. Take the train to work instead of driving and use that time to read critical reports you may have to review, or read your new equipment training manual on the bus on the way home.

If you are going to take a break during the day and there is someone you have to see, stop by their office and grab them to go for coffee, then talk about the issue and resolve it while you are walking out in the sunshine and enjoying your java.

You’ll feel like you took a break AND got something accomplished at the same time.

Just Say ‘No’ - If your boss wants you to work late and you have a family engagement, but you could work late the next night or come early in the morning, suggest alternatives and see if those will work.

Don’t be so quick to accept the command without probing to find out if there is another way to handle it.

If a co-worker asks you to lunch and you MUST finish a report by 3:00, politely decline the invitation and suggest dinner or coffee later instead, and get the report done.

That way you don’t have to give up the pleasurable experience, but you won’t be stressed out and working until 9:00 p.m. with your boss standing over your shoulder bemoaning the delay.

If the project your boss dumps on your desk is a ‘rush’ but she already gave you something that must be completed today, ask for clarification on priorities and give your boss a reasonable projection of how long it will take to do both projects and whether you can do both.

Don’t just take the project on and then not finish the other task she gave you, or you will both be unhappy. Speak up!

Know Your Brain – Do you know what the Circadian Clock is? It’s that little clock in your brain that controls when you feel the most wide awake and when you want to go to sleep.

If you are a morning person, attack the most difficult problems in the morning when your brain is the sharpest. That way you won’t have to rework the problem the next day when you discover that the ‘afternoon you’ made the wrong decision about the budget.

Get Enough Sleep – Your brain can operate on a short nap for a day, but if you are not sleeping enough, you will not think well or process information and you’ll make mistakes and end up staying late to fix them.

Advertise Your Schedule - If you hate getting phone calls first thing in the morning, before you get your day organized and have your first cup of coffee, then let your calls go to voicemail until you feel ready to take the calls.

You will be more focused and get more accomplished, instead of having to say, “I’ll have to get back to you on that” after hearing a ten minute explanation of the latest crisis.

Be Your Own Master – Sit down with a pencil and paper or a calendar and figure out how much free time you have.

Schedule and plan your activities at work and get your personal and family obligations on the calendar. Treat these personal obligations with the same respect you would treat a business meeting.

Don’t cancel personal appointments unless it is a real work emergency and, in the case where you MUST cancel, reschedule immediately and apologize to your friend or family member.

Explain what is happening so they don’t think they are unimportant to you. And be sure to keep the appointment you make with them the next time!

Adebola Oni

In the first edition of Chicken Soup for the Souls, written by Mark Victor Hansen and Jack Canfield, there was this story of a 15-year old boy that decided to set 117 goals for his life. This is incredible but true.

While going through an article directory, I saw an article written by Vic Johnson of Goals 2007.com. I was excited to read John’s article again and I decided to share the article with you. There are so many important lessons to learn in this article.

Enjoy it

Remember when you were 15? Can you recall some of the dreams you had then? How many have you accomplished?

My reflection on that is what attracted me so strongly to the story of John Goddard, of whom the LA Times called, “The real life Indiana Jones,” and one of his expeditions, “the most amazing adventure of this generation.”

When he was 15, Goddard was inspired to create a list of 127 “life goals” (he called it “My Life List”). By his last count, the young seventy-something has accomplished 111 of these PLUS 400 others he set along the way!!

Here’s just a few of the ones he’s reached:

He’s climbed many of the world’s major peaks including the Matterhorn, Ararat, Kilimanjaro, Fiji, Rainier and the Grand Tetons.

He followed Marco Polo’s route through all of the Middle East, Asia and China.

He’s run a mile in five minutes, broad jumped 15 feet, high jumped five feet and performed 200 sit-ups and 20 pull-ups.

He was the first person to explore the 4200-mile length of the world’s longest river, the Nile. (It was the number one goal of the 15-year-old Goddard and the one the Times called “the most amazing adventure of this generation.”). He has also been down the Amazon, Congo and others.

John has been to 122 countries, lived with 260 different tribal groups, explored the underwater reefs of Florida, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, the Red Sea, and more.

He has flown 40 different types of aircraft and still holds civilian air records; has read the Bible cover to cover and learned to speak French, Spanish and Arabic.

The last two on his original list included marrying and having children (he has six) and living to see the 21st Century, which he has done in style.

And I’m just getting started. But I think you get the point.

More than just one of the greatest adventurers the world has ever known, Goddard is an incredibly wise person, as this quote of his demonstrates: “If you really know what you want out of life, it’s amazing how opportunities will come to enable you to carry them out.”

How did John Goddard manage to live such an incredible life of achievement? Two simple, easily duplicatable “secrets:” He chose BIG dreams and he WROTE THEM DOWN.

There’s no power at all in small dreams. When the dream isn’t big enough, it’s too easy to give in to the obstacles that appear in our life. It’s very difficult to maintain the persistence that all great achievement requires when the dream is small or ordinary.

Harland Sanders was 65-years-old, with little more than a $105 Social Security payment in his pocket, when he started Kentucky Fried Chicken. He is said to have been rejected by over 1,000 banks before he became successful. If he hadn’t had a big dream his self-esteem could never have withstood such rejection.

One of the biggest dreamers in the world is Mark Victor Hansen. Working with his partner, Jack Canfield, their idea was rejected by 140 book publishers as “unsellable.” Today, their Chicken Soup series includes more than 70 titles that have sold more than 90 million copies in 39 languages. Mark says, “The more goals you set - the more goals you get. Think big, act big and set out to accomplish big results. ”

Not only must your dreaming and goal setting be big, but it must be in writing. Brian Tracy says that this act alone increases your odds of success by 1000%! Like many people, I’d heard that I should write my goals down, but like most people, I rarely did. Looking at Brian’s formula another way, the failure to write your goals and dreams down means that you’ve got less than a 1-in-10 chance of succeeding. Can it be any wonder then that most people don’t live their dreams?

Who knows where your life can go after it is driven by life goals. You may find yourself landing on the moon someday, which happens to be one of the few original dreams that John Goddard hasn’t realized.

Whatever you dreams may be, when you’re doing your goal setting, make them BIG and WRITE THEM DOWN! Don’t be like the chap in this poem that Napoleon Hill included in the original edition of Think and Grow Rich:

“I bargained with Life for a penny,
And Life would pay no more,
However I begged at evening
When I counted my scanty store.
For Life is a just employer,
He gives you what you ask,
But once you have set the wages,
Why, you must bear the task.
I worked for a menial’s hire,
Only to learn, dismayed,
That any wage I had asked of Life,
Life would have willingly paid.”

Copyright © 2004 Vic Johnson

Vic Johnson is a popular motivational speaker, author and Internet Infopreneur who has created some of the most visited personal development sites on the Web. His flagship site AsAManThinketh.net has given away over 200,000 eBook copies of James Allen’s classic. He is co-author of “Goals 2007,” which is found at http://www.Goals2007.com