2013 was such a grand old year, I’m almost sad to see it go.

And yet, as always, there is the spectacular magic of the clean slate to look forward to. There are all the things we might accomplish, the trips we might take, the relationships we might forge, the love we might give and receive. That is why we make such a fuss over new year’s dawn–not merely because we want an excuse to wear sequined dresses and drink champagne. We are hopeful optimists, after all. No matter how the year immediately past may have burned us, we perpetually believe: this year will be different. This year will be better. This year will be the year.

It is my opinion that the continuing belief in the infinite possibility contained in a new calendar year is not naivety or delusion, it is faithful determination incarnate. It is our spirit responding to the effect of everything beginning again, which allows us to shed the burden of our past errs, to disenthrall ourselves from past limits, and to think as the universe does: all is possible.

Whatever you desire or envision in 2014 can be yours. If you find that fact hard to believe, then for the meantime, lean on my conviction in that statement’s accuracy.

The world is constantly conspiring to create and spread goodness, and as your goals intersect with that larger aim, you will see your desires come to fruition.

Get clear about what those things really are. Choose wisely, because each requires a certain amount of focus and work to pursue.

Understand that everything is a matter of cause and effect. Good thoughts will lead to good realities, sending love out will let love flow back in, and gratitude will lead towards greater abundance, just as focusing on lack will create more lack.

Life is meant to be joyful, not to be a struggle. The world is your greatest ally, not the entity with which you have to do battle to get your way.

Do not fall prey to the limited thinking of the modern world, which would have you believe that it’s inevitable that you’ll have to settle, or that your boundless aspirations are too large.

Let your year be lived according to the following five instructions:

1. Give love… to yourself and others, constantly, and independent of logic, or any grievances.

2. Be grateful…for all that you already have, for the good that exists in any situation, no matter how bleak.

3. Make right…whatever messes you have made in the past, people’s feelings you may have hurt, affairs you may have mishandled. Face the dragon, say you’re sorry, get on a repayment plan, hire someone whose help you need, begin the task of getting it handled whatever it is, and watch as the universe immediately supports your righteous efforts to do so.

4. Release expectation…because you just can’t control the outcome, and to even try is to enter a realm of manipulation, anxiety, and fear.

5. Have fun…that’s the whole point, after all.

Cheers, my friends, to a totally Simply, ridiculously joyful 2014.