Welcome to 2023!
This a new opportunity for us all to press the reset button!
I don’t know about you, but at the end of 2022, I was limping to the end of the year, desperate for a break, feeling bloated and blah .. and ready to celebrate the holidays! I took several weeks off and it was the best, I am excited for all this year holds — and excited to be back in your inboxes!
What’s your word or phrase for 2023?
For the past 20+ years (yep, I am a little old lady), I set a context each year using a word or phrase.
One of my favorite things each year is sharing it with clients during keynote speeches and 1:1 Executive coaching sessions, and I love when they tell me what their words are!
Think of this contextual word (or phrase) as a decision-filtering system.
Last year my phrase was “Deux Choix” (which is French for “two choices”) — I wanted to double my numbers — so it seemed àpropos (did I mention I am also learning French?!).
Last year I was thinking about choices. Every day, every minute of every day, we constantly make decisions.
We can choose:
- Kindness or cruelty
- Focus or distraction
- Smile or frown
- Save or spend
- Energized or exhausted
- Present or absent
- Give or take
This year, my phrase (and choice!) is “Live Luxe.”
We can all choose to live luxe.
Luxury is not about being expensive.
You have heard me say that luxury is a mindset.
Living luxe to me means being inspired and in awe each day and looking forward to the future. I believe that luxury is a choice we make, one that we make every day. While a luxe life looks different to each of us (learn more about what our Luxury Mindset told us about that and sign up to download a copy of our Executive Summary here), for me, it includes attention to who I spend time with and how I invest my time.
To Live Luxe is to choose to create a beautiful life and share it with others.
What does 2023 look like to you?
Share your word or your intention with me, and let’s choose to make 2023 our best year yet. Are you with me?
The Five Area Goal Setting Framework
If you want to feel more energized and excited about people, projects, and passions, you could consider setting goals in five areas!
We designed a goal framework that you might find helpful that focuses on the:
- Spiritual
- Physical
- Relational
- Financial
- Educational
What are your personal goals for 2023? What are your professional goals this year?
What are your inputs and outputs for 2023?
Every January, I assess inputs (social media, newsletters, news sources) and outputs (commitments, meetings, board service, charity involvement, mastermind participation, projects) to decide where to focus.
Over the past month, I unfriended, unfollowed, and unsubscribed from multiple platforms (and people). I happily deleted apps from my phone, canceled subscriptions, removed meetings, and stepped away from projects.
Think of it like an annual closet cleaning, but for your life!
Remember how good it feels to clean out clothes that don’t fit, you don’t need, or don’t work with your lifestyle?
When you donate these items to charity or someone who needs them more than you, it feels very liberating, and you feel lighter.
Find the people and projects that don’t fit your life or goals anymore and set them free, easy peasy (well, not really, it can be tough and emotional). But I promise you that on the other side of the tough decisions you will be stronger for it.
We can constantly remember WHO and WHAT matters most.
The email inputs I kept included:
- Ann Handley’s bi-weekly newsletter Total Anarchy
- Meg Kristel’s daily blog Well Dressed Life
- Morning Brew (a daily financial newsletter)
- The New York Times
What are your fave daily inputs?
If you want a great tool to help manage your inbox — try Unroll.me. It unsubscribes you from newsletters.
If you are looking for a resource to help focus on what really matters this year, consider reading (or listening to the audiobook) Attention Pays — it will help you and your team set yourselves up for success personally and professionally.
