I know this came in a little bit early but I woke up early today and looking back on 2012 I can't help but wax optimistic about 2013. 

But before I even begin, allow me to tell you something really important:

You are awesome.

You are going to do, create, imagine and achieve so many things in 2013 that it would simply astonish - even yourself. 

Now, I'm not a self help guru or a motivational speaker. In fact, in my online social circles I'm mostly a negative guy - (if you like you can check out my Google+ profile to see for yourself). But today is different and I can feel this about you right now. Somehow, through sheer determination and the desire to make something good, you are going to achieve all of this in 2013 and beyond.

Sure, there will be challenges and catastrophes but knowing you, I have a feeling that you'll keep getting back up and fighting, until you just "get it". 

Every night has its weariness of the yesterday that was. But in the morning, you will wake up as fresh as oranges in a good day and daring to go back up to finish what you started. You'll do this with an inexhaustible energy that will surprise you and it will come from within yourself. Because you are simply going to make it happen no matter the difficulties and challenges you'll face. 

You Will See Catastrophes in a Different Light

Big events have a way of driving us down like a nail being hit on the head with a hammer. Every single one of them feels like one hit.

Bang! Sandy Town!

Bang! Mall shootings!

Bang! More hurricanes and typhoons!

Bang! Bang! Bang! 

Different people are like different nails. Some are like 1 inch wood nails that go down in 1 or 2 blows. Some are like 4 inch nails that are tough and meant for harder work - they only go down if there's a bigger hammer. But these too, can sometimes bend. Some are like concrete nails, tough ones they are, but unlike wood nails, they break and shatter when the pressure is too big. 

2013 will have its own share of calamities and tribulations.

Make no mistake about it, there's no such thing as a perfect year. There'll be small events, there'll be big events. But they won't hit you by surprise and they won't hit you with a bang! Rather, you'll anticipate them in a calm and gentle demeanor. You'll expect them as you would expect a day to come in a calendar and when that day comes, you'll be prepared to the point that you'll actually be staring it for what it is. An event. 

Events don't change people's lives - people change their own lives.

People change how they see life when an event happens.

Think about it. 

But what you'll be is something else. You'll experience those events, you'll experience all those emotions, you'll experience all the pain, the sadness, the feeling of losing hope, you'll be on your knees, sometimes your face could even hit the ground and you'll taste it. Maybe you'll even taste your own blood in your mouth...

But then, you will wait for that moment - and that moment will come, after everything, after every event when your mind tells you - "Time to get up. Let's go."

Amidst all the pain, the sorrow, the events, the catastrophes, the hopelessness you will know that:

Love will replenish your strength.

Love will be that inexhaustible energy source you'll get power from. 

You will be reinvigorated and you will experience all its forms and extend it to your work and to the people around you. 

Love will heal all those wounds. 

And this love will be more than the love that we have known. It will be something totally unique and unfathomed. It will be borne out of forgetting yourself, forgetting your own pain, tiredness and everything. It is something that simply transcends into the infinite. 

You will know of this love and you will share it. 

You will move and you will empower. 

You will create out of it and impart it. 

You will be #Awesome because of it.

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