Dear Reader,

As the New year is fast approaching, I am sure like me you are eagerly anticipating the extraordinary things that lie ahead & the change that a new year brings.

But sometimes, the hardest challenge can be starting the New Year with gusto, grace, elegance and ultimately having ‘the best start’ we possibly can.

The trap many fall in to is waiting for the new year to come before deciding how we truly want life & business to be. It’s not the worst strategy but can often leave us reeling out of control & very ungrounded as the busy-ness of change kicks in.

Lets Dive in to Deep and Know : How to Make 2018 Successful

In todays read, I want to share with you 11 very easy to implement steps and strategies that you can begin doing now to ensure you have a more successful & fulfilling year ahead of you.

If you are reading this article during any other phase of the year, you will find these practices are very applicable for you too.

1. Spend time on Self Awareness & Reflection

Self Awareness truly is the first step to a breakthrough and if you want to harness the power of the new year that is coming, one of the best practices you can do is to reflect and create awareness on how you feel the year has been, what has worked & what the key areas of improvement are.

Whether you want to take your business to the next level, create more free time for yourself or do better in your career, reflection & awareness which ultimately means identifying your blindspots is absolutely the one of the first critical steps forward for transformation.

I often ask myself

• What am I proud of from the year that has just been?
• What would I do differently if I were to start the year again?
• What could I do differently to be my best for the coming year?

Hindsight is truly a powerful thing and as they say, ‘good judgement comes from experience & experience comes from bad judgement’.

Leverage the learnings from 2017 and may they add to the foundations of a new extraordinary year!

2. Plan & Envision

A new year is here, so what do you want?

It’s a powerful question but what is the vision for the new year? What do you want to create, achieve and accomplish that would make 2018 extraordinary and truly fulfilling for you?

Be the visionary of your own world and define, dictate and commit to the results you want.

So what will your vision be? What does 2018 hold in store for you?

3. Develop Your Growth Plan

Growth is the life force that feeds who we are. Our being, our character & and the impact we have in the world both personally & professionally.

Once you have identified your blind spots and potential obstacles from the reflection exercise (point 1), design a growth plan for the year tailor made for you.

• What books will you read?
• What courses will you take?
• What are the knowledge gaps you want to fill?
• How many skillsets will you be enhancing?

In the Japanese culture, they have a concept called Kaizen which means constant and never ending improvement. CANI isn’t just a mindset but a powerful way of life that fosters creativity, innovation & high performance.

Design your growth plan according to the opportunities you wish to seize this coming year & your future self will thank you for it.

4. Get clear & make extraordinary decisions

Is there anything right now in your world that you are doing with a 50/50 effort mentality, a 5/10 consistency or a serious lack of conviction?

If so, why are those activities or tasks on your list. One of my coaches often said that if there was anything in my world I was doing that wasn’t a clear HELL YES from me… it should be a HELL NO.

At times we have to do what we find challenging or difficult, but if there are any activities or situations you find yourself in that doesn’t call out the best version of you or your passion & creativity, is it time to let go?

Less is more & freeing up the time to give your best to what is most important to you can be the most needed new years gift in disguise.

5. Prioritise your values

I was truly inspired when I heard about a practice Anthony Robbins implements in his company Robbins Research International.

At the beginning of each year, he asks all the workforce to plan their holidays and recreation time in the annual calendar first well in advance before work duties officially kick in.

The challenge many high performers face is with so much to do personally & professionally, everything tends to come first and they themselves then naturally come last.

It’s very easy to become a slave to time but to avoid this trap, create the space, time & the environment to honour everything that is important to you.

Along with your career/business whether what you value is family, connection or travel, honour your needs as much as possible and this is excitingly a huge secret to avoiding stress and burnout too.

To give your best to the people around you, you must first…. be your very best.

6. Qualify your environment

Who you spend time with is who you become.

Is your peer group and the people you spend the most time with serving you, or holding you back?

We often forget how powerful our environment can be on our thinking, focus & decision making capability. High performance engines are created in the highest quality settings.

If you want to soar, perform at your best & have the impact you desire in the New Year, qualify your peer group and ensure they are adding immense value to your character and your vision & you doing the same for them.

Keep building relationships with people that inspire you too & inspiration will never leave you.

7. Contribute

As Tony Robbins says ‘The Secret to Living is Giving’ and when we can find a means and way to help those in need, we are rewarded in truly fulfilling ways.

If you want to find a way to reach real fulfilment for you now and in the future, spend time serving people and communities in need and being part of a mission much greater than any one person.

Give your time, energy & support to people in underprivileged situations that may not be able to do anything for you in return and watch the magic unfold.

The impact of doing so never goes unseen, unheard or unfelt by the people you gift your time to.

8. Develop your own Morning Ritual

If you look at the top performers in any field, you will find that the level of success they have is no fluke or accident.

The reason they are the top performers is because they have certain habits, routines and rituals that allow them to unleash their potential.

Similarly, one of the best practices high achievers adopt to ‘own their day’ and get the best from the time they have is to create a morning ritual that serves them powerfully throughout each day till the next.

If you want to find out more about morning rituals and how to create your own, I recently wrote an article I am sure you will enjoy here https://bit.ly/2E2MQeO

I challenge you to create a morning ritual that works for you and you’ll be amazed by how much impact this will have for you on your performance and effectiveness.

People often forget that we create our future from what we do each day. If we aren’t winning or consistently loosing each day, what future are you creating?

9. Health First

Another challenge I see with high achievers, leaders & Entrepreneurs is that is can become very easy to neglect your health in pursuit of success and professional excellence.

As I said very easy to do and I have personally been down that road myself years ago, but health is truly wealth.

If you want to have a better work life balance, perform better in your business/career & have the energy to do the things outside of your professional life that inspire you, energy, vitality & health are the key.

• Is your health currently at the level you are satisfied with and serves you well?

If not, NOW is the best time to make it happen because if you can’t implement the strategies today, it is very unlikely to happen tomorrow.

Only 8% of people make it past the 1st month who set New Years Resolutions.

Shocking I know…

but if you want to be a member of this 8% club, don’t put off to tomorrow what you can do today with regard to your health.

By setting your health system/routines in place now and before the new year begins, you will be approaching your goals from a place of commitment versus setting resolutions because of what the masses do which is why they are setting themselves up to fail from the very beginning.

Health is wealth!

Give yourself the energy & vitality you deserve to lead an extraordinary and fulfilling life.

10. Be you, be fearless & speak your truth

I grew up being a people pleaser and wrongly had held a belief that the more I can please others, the more successful I would become. This way anything but the truth as you can probably guess.

It’s scary how many of us at times live our life, run our business & act in a way to please or not hurt the people around us. Showing up to situations looking for approval, validation or recognition without taking in to account what is true to us in the moment.

The most interesting thing about putting others before our own needs, is that this does anything but win trust, build powerful connections & create magnificent relationships with the people around us.

I challenge you to be bold this coming year & speak your truth (gracefully of course without ego), to own what you feel, think and know from one moment to the other.

This may change or alter the number and quality of relationships you have, but this is always for the better.

Whether you are in the board room or at home, BE the extraordinary you!

11. Hire a Coach to unleash your potential

As a coach, it is very easy for me to say hire a life coach…..and over the last year I have personally invested in some of the best coaching talent to ensure I can be my very best and deliver extraordinary coaching and results for my clients.

The reasons I hire my own coach & pride myself in doing so is because a coach will push your comfort zone, help you see where you are holding yourself back in your life/business, identify what your blind spots are, call you out when you are making excuses or not achieving what you have set out to do, hold you accountable & provide you with a third person perspective that very few people are willing to share with you out of fear.

A coaching conversation is high flame, intense, powerful, life changing and not for everyone.

Having a coaching conversation is by far one of the most powerful conversations you will have where everything you envision personally & professionally starts becoming an inevitable reality.

If you want to truly unleash your potential in 2018, find a coach you resonate with & get ready for a phenomenal year.

So there you have it…. 11 steps and strategies you can start implementing immediately today that will ignite your potential for the very events and experiences that lie ahead of you.

Enjoy and I hope this article has served you powerfully. Comment below and i’d love to hear from you with what you will personally implement now and in to the new year to make 2018…..your best year yet!

Here’s to your continued success & if there is anything I can do to serve or support yourself and/or your business or if you have any questions about my latest article then please feel free to reach out to me here or at [email protected]. 

Live Empowered,

Your friend and coach, 

Raghav Parkash