There are many interesting New Year’s messages I received last week. One of them read: "On behalf of Donald Trump, Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates and other billionaires, we wish you a prosperous New Year.” I am sure you also received several messages wishing you success and prosperity in 2013. These messages remind us what we can actually achieve.Most of us have already set New Year’s Resolutions and other targets for the year. Some have vowed to build houses and get saved from the menace of monthly rent. Others feel they must wed. There are those who have resolved to get out of debt, those who want visas to travel to other countries and others who want to start income-generating activities. All the above are good targets but are we prepared? It psychologically feels good to know that the old year is gone, but there is surely no difference between 2012 and 2013, except in the kind of goals we set for ourselves and the strategies we lay down to achieve them. And in my view, many people do well at the level of goal-setting but fail when it comes to strategising to achieve them.If you wish to see this year yield better results than the last one, then you should be ready to do something new that you never did last year. Good preparation is important. Don’t set goals and sit down to just wait for results.During the Christmas period I got the shock of my life. Right in the middle of the city, I witnessed a woman delivering a baby in her car. She was aware the pregnancy was due but she went ahead and came to town without any preparation. She did not even have a piece of cloth with which to kneel and deliver or one in which to hold the baby. It was the kind passersby who intervened and helped her. As the crowd gathered and shuddered at this woman’s lack of preparation, she argued that she had packed everything necessary and left them in the bag at home because she knew that in case of any emergencies, since she had a car, she would drive home very fast, pick her bag and rush to hospital. She seemed ignorant of the fact that some things cannot be postponed even for five minutes.When it comes to business, career and work generally, we have to remain prepared all the time. If you are not prepared opportunities will keep passing you by while those prepared grab them. Preparation can be physical, emotional, financial, intellectual, spiritual and so on. Are you prepared for success in 2013?When Nelson Mandela was asked how he survived for 27 years in prison he said: "I did not survive; I was prepared.” How true this is! Indeed, if he was not prepared then chances of surviving those harsh conditions for all those years would have been minimal.There is the ‘law of cause and effect’ which dictates that all outcomes have to be caused. So as you set resolutions for 2013, don’t forget to do good preparation. The way you prepare will determine whether you achieve them or not. When you are prepared you can stand anything; you can navigate through any waters and reach your destiny. Bake is the Managing Director of WORLD OF INSPIRATION & Founder of the AUTHORS’ FORUM in Uganda –