2023: Beautiful, Bountiful, Blessed!

Can you believe that we are blessed to walk together for the year 2023? I recently sent the following note of enouragement to clients and colleagues I have the pleasure of co-creating with. Now I'm sharing with you too Friend... if you're landing here to read this, it's meant especially for you as well! First and foremost, Thank You from the bottom of my heart for your talents, your vision, your forethought, collaboration, friendship, and trust in our partnership in whatever form that may be. I do not take it lightly and am in Appreciation that I get to do what I love every day and be of service. Second, we all know many make a strategic plan, set new resolutions, new goals, as the calendar turns to a new year. May I offer that it's helpful to also set intentions, which are different from goals. Mindful Intentions Intentions are more of a state of being, while goals tend to have a quantitative measurement with a deadline. It's easy to miss goals, a definitive outcome, particularly in this world where the shifting landscape keeps most everyone guessing. But intentions are so wonderful in that you can feel and measure the alignment and realization of them every day -- simply by the way you feel, your overall way of being that day, how others are responding to you, and how life and work is either lining up... or not. Ease or angst... you get to CHOOSE isn't that so wonderful?! As a mentor of mine always reminds me, you can get frustrated... or fascinated . Every moment you have an active choice in the words you choose, the attitudes you embrace, the energy you emit, and ultimately, the quality of your day. 2022 had it's particular turns in the road, its' challenges, some bigger than others. As so many of you know, it's in our measure of reacting to them, and our mindset, that ultimately determines how those challenges shape our work and lives. So as new intentions are set for 2023 and all is continually changing, adapting, readjusting, surprising, please remember... Invoke more kindness, more patience, an extra smile, a lending hand, in every situation you can. Both for yourself and for others you encounter along the way. The receiver and you as the giver, are both made bigger and better and more resilient as a result, to weather any storm, and to reap any reward. And your behavior may well inspire the receiver to do the same for another, and another. Presence A client and friend of many years once said "Success is never a solo act. It requires the talents of many." Actively surround yourself with those who want to see you WIN. Who challenge you to rise up to a fuller version of yourself. Who don't always agree with you and instead, share a truth from their point of view. Choose how you invest your time and energy and BE PRESENT for them. Far too often in the technologies of today, we can easily forget what it looks, sounds, and feels like to simply BE in the presence of another, and offer our devoted attention to them and only them. The difference is felt. Create "Be a tuning fork." Whether it's through music, woodworking, photography, gardening, cooking, dancing... find a way to nurture your creative nature. It matters.

Service

Lead with a servant's heart. Offer your time, money or both in service of good work. Doing well by doing good has been a mantra of mine for many decades. Many of you have heard me say it time and again. Because it's as true today as it was in ancient times. Tithe of your time and money, talents and capabilities, and watch it come back to you tenfold. Nature Lastly, a vital component for a vibrant and expanding 2023 is putting yourself out in nature. Again with technology and remote work, it's quite easy now to lock yourself away and hermit in your home. If you're going to be a hermit for a day, do it in the woods. Meet the real you, who you're meant to be anyway, and bring back to the office, to your partner, your kids, your friends and co-workers, an enervated, enlivened, joyous, at ease, YOU. Nature will feed you that way like nothing else, and help shape you into the you your heart desires. Wishing You and Yours a blessed and bountiful 2023. All the Best for Living Well Today! Angela