Are you ready for take-off?

If you read saw my post last week, you know that I’m taking off on an adventure today. I will be living in Paris for a whole month, and am enormously excited as I embark on this experience!

There's something magical about the moment we start a new adventure.

Whether it is traveling to explore and have new experiences in special places, or when you start anything new and meaningful, great opportunities await you.

This is a perfect time to consider the adventures you want to create in 2023.

What are you ready for now?

The fresh new year is full of vast possibilities!

What projects — related to your work and your personal life — do you feel called to make your focus this year?

What are you ready to start?

Is there a dream, or project, or initiative that you want to get off the ground?

Think about business-or work-related efforts, and also personal initiatives.

For a personal initiative, perhaps you want to start a new friendship, or create a new dynamic with family members, or plan a new garden so you can have fresh flowers and produce to enjoy as the year unfolds.

Also consider you.

Is there a new way of being you want to cultivate? Do you want to start showing up in the world in a new way?

Perhaps it’s time to start creating more space for your wellbeing — like reading, or expressing yourself through music or drawing, or pursuing a particular interest?

I’d be happy to send you a lovely guide, Creating Space for YOU to help you do that with ease, Simply email me and I'll get it right off to you. (You can forward it to friends, too, so you can start making great changes together.)

What have you begun that you want to accelerate the pace on now?

Perhaps something you started stalled out, or had to be put aside for some reason.

Is this the time to bring renewed focus and energy toward getting it moving with more velocity?

Think about things that might fall into this category that are related to your professional life and your personal life. Which one feels most meaningful or exciting to get moving?

Returning your attention — and setting clear intensions — to something that your care about that was put aside for any number of reasons will be very satisfying.

Make a plan for what your first small step can be. And put a date on your calendar when you will take that step.

What do you dream of launching now?

There may be a new project or enterprise you’ve been thinking about and you feel ready to plan to make that dream a reality.

How will you lay the foundation?

Who will you talk to for input or advice?

What research will you do?

Who might you invite into the process?

What first steps will you take to move it forward this year?

The choices you make now matter

You have the power to create the reality you truly wish for. 

How is that possible?

Start with willingness to transform and grow, to embrace the mystery and go deep, and to engage in the process of creating the life you want.

Add belief — belief that you matter. Belief that you deserve to put yourself first, knowing that when you make yourself a priority you perform at your best and are better for everyone else in your orbit. And when you embrace all of your creative power, you naturally believe in every possibility. 

Dive in to find clarity about what you truly desire, what really matters most. What will you make your focus, and why? When you mine your heart and listen to your intuition you will make clear choices.

Then make commitments. It’s necessary and worthwhile to create structure and space in your life to take action to make what you care about your reality. And commitment to cultivate creativity of every kind. This commitment to yourself and to the ongoing focus and effort required to implement change in your life will lead to remarkable growth, satisfaction, and joy.

Whatever you choose to set your sights on will will be fueled by new clarity and energy. 

If you want to talk about the year (and life) you dream of, and what may be holding you back from realizing that vision, I would be happy for us to talk.

Although I’ll be away, I am making time for 5 Live Big Breakthrough Calls this month — and there's no cost to you. I’m happy to support you in gaining perspective and new insights as you step into a year that’s full of potential for adventures of all kinds.

Email me and we’ll find a time that works in both of our time zones. 

One word can impact your whole year — really!

Welcome 2023! Wishing you a happy, healthy, joyous new year.

In last week's post I shared my word-of-the-year process. If you chose a word for your year, this is the moment to start living it.

If you missed it, or have not yet chosen your word, it's not too late to use the process. Find a few minutes to sit quietly and choose a word to guide you for this year.

Your word can have more impact than a resolution

I have found this practice to go deeper and have much more impact on my life than making new year resolutions, which quickly fall to the wayside for most people. My clients have also chosen words to guide their years that have significantly impacted their lives.

In last week’s post I offered a list of questions to chose from to get you started, and the post includes a link to my streamlined process, too.

You can combine the approaches or stick to the simpler version.

I hope your word will be meaningful for you now, and throughout 2023.

Last week I also promised to share my word for 2023 with you.

My word for 2023

As you can see, in addition to selecting a word, I always add the specific ways I intend to live into my word.

By printing it out and pinning it were I see it each day, I stay inspired and clear about my intentions throughout the year. I invite you to do that, too.

My new year gift to you

When you have selected your word for 2023, I'd be happy to typeset it for you, as I do for mine each year. I will do this for the first 10 people who send me their word for 2023.

Simply email me, and if you are one of the first 10 responses I receive, I will send you a PDF that you can print out and hang where you will see it, and be inspired by it, each day.

I am eager to hear the word you choose to help make 2023 your best year ever.

Sending you wishes for a new year filled with creative energy to fuel abundant love, happiness, peace, and prosperity.

How to end the year with insight and inspiration

In the last few days of 2022, many people have time away from work. Some are focused on family, some share a string of holiday celebrations, some are on vacation.

Whether you are busy in any of these ways, or you are working through the holiday, this week is an ideal time to create space for reflection and dreaming.

Start with using the guide below to do a “year in review” of your life in 2022, then look ahead to 2023.

Give yourself the gift of time to reflect

Our days flow by, and as we move along we rarely pause to take in the bigger picture.

I made a date with myself this past weekend to get cozy, sit with my journal, and do some reflecting. With music playing and candles flickering, I posed a number of questions to myself and did a bit of writing about each if them.

Pick questions from these lists and see what happens for you. (You may want to print this out and have it next to you as you write.)

First, go through your calendar for the past year and ask these questions:

What were the key things that happened each month?

Are there themes or patterns that you notice?

What excited you? What highlights do you want to put a star next to?

If you were making a top-10 list of your year, what would you include?

Why was each item on your top-10 list so great or meaningful?

Continue to reflect with some or all of these questions: 

Where did you struggle last year?

What were your wisest decisions? Your lessons learned?

What new habits did you develop, or deepen?

What did you stop doing?

Who influenced you the most this year?

What was the biggest or most meaningful thing you completed?

What relationships did you start, or deepen, or release?

What was left unfinished this year?

How did you take care of yourself?

When were you courageous?

What are you ready to let go of now?

What are you most proud of? What can you celebrate? (Don’t overlook the small things!)

Can you find gratitude for all of it — the things that delighted you and things that challenged you — knowing that all of them have been meaningful?

Next, look ahead to the new year

You may want to pause after taking stock of the past year, and then start fresh (later, or the next day) and look ahead.

Consider these questions, and feel free to add any others that come to mind:

What would make 2023 a great year for you?

What intentions do you want to set now?

What will you say “yes” to, and what will you say “no” to?

What do you want more of this year? What do you want less of?

What will you explore?

How will you invest in yourself?

How will you express yourself?

What will you create?

What new declaration are you ready to make now?

Then, choose a word to guide your new year

I have been choosing a word-of-the-year for a long time, using a short practice I have shared in the past. I am glad to share it again, as I’ve just returned to the process before embarking on 2023.

As you will see in this word-of-the-year post, that I wrote in 2018, I propose that you start by answering a short list of questions. They are similar to the longer list I shared above.

Whichever questions you use, your answers will prepare you to follow my process — and reading the examples I've shared in the post may help you consider the word that fits best for you now.

I will share my word for 2023 with you soon, and would be happy for you to share the word of the year you choose for yourself. Simply send me an email.

Until we connect next week, at the start of a fresh new year filled with wonderful possibilities, I’m sending wishes to you for abundant health, happiness, creativity and love.