Ready to raise the bar this year?

Most people are thinking about the year they want to create, as the holidays are now behind us and we all get back to our usual routines.

What about you? Are you ready for — or craving — significant change of some kind?

If you want to create something new, you need to take a new approach.

After all, if you operate as you have in the past, sticking with old patterns of thinking and your usual ways of approaching life, you will continue to live as you have been and you’ll struggle to make the changes you yearn for.

It’s time to uplevel!

Now is the time to slow down and create space to gain new levels of clarity about what your heart desires and what really matters most. 

Are you ready to create a big clear vision for yourself in 2025?

Having s bold vision in mind, you will have the opportunity to clearly focus and set new, higher standards:

• for how you will show up in the world

• for the way you will spend your time

• for the important relationships you will nurture

as you move forward.

Now is the time to raise the bar and commit to becoming the woman you want to be, and doing what is called for to reach your destination.

How to get clear, stay committed, stay on track

1. Choose a word to guide your year

A great tool to help you bring a sound focus to your intentions for 2025 is choosing a Word of the Year. My process will guide you to find clarity, so you can anchor to that clarity throughout the year.

Check out this blog post from a few years back for the process that will guide you to choosing your word for 2025. I use the process each year as the calendar turns, and having my word has always had a significant impact for me.

It is easier to stay committed when I look at my word, that I keep posted on my pinboard. I often look at it multiple times a day. Whenever I feel unclear or know I am veering off-track, I return to my word and can find a way to move forward.

2. Choose to be supported

The other way I stay on track is having support — something powerful that you can seek out, too.

I have a great coach and am part of a wonderful community of people who are doing brave work alongside me. Being supported, by my coach and colleagues, to commit to becoming my best self and pursuing my dreams is something I do year after year.

I would not be the woman I am today had I not made this ongoing investment in myself. 

This can be the year that you get support to rise higher.

3. Take action today

Good intentions are not enough! When you take action you are in motion. Momentum can build and milestones can be met.

Your action can take many forms. It can start with a conversation, a declaration, making a new commitment to yourself.

The key is to start.

If an action you choose is to explore how we might work together, so that you are supported to create a year of significant satisfaction and movement toward your goals, schedule a call with me today. 

It will be a pleasure to hear about your dreams and talk about helping you make them your reality.

Your best year yet: 3 powerful steps to launch 2025!

As we step into a huge new year, you have incredible opportunities! Here are 3 great ways to launch a great 2025.

1. Mind your mindset 

Cultivating your mindset is the best way to move forward for your best year. See how these approaches work for you.

• Create a morning practice

Your morning practice can be 5 minutes or longer. You might consider meditation, journaling, movement (stretches, yoga, dance), pulling an oracle card, saying affirmations, or any combination that appeals to you. Consistently startling your day with a few minutes of focus like this sets you up for a better day every day.

• Cultivate self-love 

The power of strong self-love cannot be overstated. Check out this blog post to understand self-love and get some great tips for ways to practice self-love.

With a strong foundation of self-love you will have powerful belief in yourself!

• Try a new way to move through tough times

No matter how much we set ourselves up for our best day every day, we all have times when things go sideways or challenges arise. In those moments, it’s important to feel the frustration, anger, sadness or disappointment.

First, choose an expressive way to process the difficult emotions. How? Write out your feelings; make an angry or ugly drawing; find a private place to shout out your emotions or slam a pillow into a wall; go outside and stomp in nature. When you feel you have worked the emotions out of your system, move on to the next step.

Once you feel calmer, consider a new perspective. If you look at the circumstances through a new lens, can you see a new way forward, a new possibility, maybe even a new opportunity?

2. Sharpen your focus

This can be the year you get crystal clear about what you want to make your reality next year.

Ask yourself:

• What big ideas and desires do I want to make real?

• What do I want to start doing?

• What limits me that I am ready to ditch?

When you are clear, you can get a good start and will be better able to stay on track.

3. Decide on your best path forward

Many of us start the new year with great intentions and soon find ourselves living the same way we have before, not making headway to realize the changes we yearn for. 

Now, take a moment and imagine that it’s December 2025. You are looking back with satisfaction and fulfillment realizing that you found true clarity and focus and created a great year! You built new levels of confidence, lived at a sustainable pace, showed up boldly and made your vision a reality.

That outcome is possible for you when you have support and accountability. 

I am living proof of the power of making myself a priority and working with great coaches. And for the last 12 years year I have been honored to support my clients to create remarkable, abundant lives of purpose, that bring them great happiness and satisfaction.

If this is the year that you are determined to create your best life, with deep support to unleash your creative power, let’s talk soon.

Create, love and dream a vibrant 2025!

I was moved by the big response I received to what I wrote last week, about how important it is to slow down, and the big benefits of celebrating yourself. 

I am not surprised that these ideas touched so many women in a deep way, given how much we typically aim to do.

We have lofty ideals for the impact we want to have with our work. 

We set high standards for many, if not most, of the things we do.

We want to build and sustain important relationships.

We want to care for and love our families and friends.

And we want to care for ourselves — though, for many, self-care often falls to the bottom of the list.

My wishes for you now

Whether you are on the road, or hosting family, or you are consciously focused on making space for quiet during this week of holiday celebrations, I invite you to add pleasure and meaning to this special time in these ways:

• Look for wonder and savor the beauty you notice

• Feel and spread love

• Play and laugh

• Create in as many ways as you can think of

• Let gratitude fill your heart

This is a great time to dream, too!

When you look ahead to the closing days of 2024 and the year that is about to begin, dream your biggest dreams.

Hold a vision of yourself as the women you want to be in 2025.

The vision may be of you being strong, vibrant, loving, bold, confident, unstoppable, healthy, generous, kind, brave, brilliant.

Choose all the attributes you want!

Then think about what you want to do in 2025, and hold all of that in your vision.

Whether you want to embark on an adventure, learn something new, make a career or personal change, begin to knit or paint or cook, or challenge yourself in an exciting way, see yourself doing what you desire.

And think about what you want to have — add those desires to your vision.

The things you want to have may be intangible, like more time for a pursuit that delights you, or peace of mind. The things you want to include on this list can be grand (a home in a place you love) or tiny (warm new boots). Add what you want to have to your vision.

With dreams in mind, write them all down.

You can also sketch what you want to be, and do, and have (stick figures are a fine way to make things visual!).

Look at your list and/or your drawing often.

What you visualize now, that you keep visualizing, will support you to make those things your reality in the weeks, months and year ahead.