New Year, New Me?
In the past weeks, I decided to take a break from social media. However, despite not scrolling through Instagram or Facebook, I still received several mails a week about other people’s new year resolutions, most of them newsletters I had signed up for. There’s this whole expectation around the beginning of the year to make a change, to exercise more, eat healthier and drink less alcohol.
Easing into the new year
January and February have always been the longest, darkest months for me. Add the pressure of reducing sugar and forcing myself to exercise and it’s a recipe for disaster! A couple of years ago, I started to take a step back from all the resolutions and expectations around the new year and decided to start the year with ease. January has been for the past two years a month where I’m a bit lost, because I’m not entirely sure yet what my intentions or focus for the year ahead will be, but also a time where I’m trying to give myself some grace and time in order to really figure out what it is I want to make this year about.
So what have I been doing in the past couple of weeks? Let me give you a little update as well as some ideas if you are still struggling to figure out what you want 2024 to be about. First of all, why find a focus of the year? I’ve realised that with a focus or a word of the year and simple, yet powerful goals that are aligned with my focus, it’s been much easier for me to move forward, be it with my business or in my personal life. It helps me see exactly what it is what I’d like to achieve, check in with these goals on a regular basis, adjust them if needed, and move towards them one step at a time. The main aim is to be kind and gentle with yourself, to meet you where you are at in your life and to accept that at times life gets in the way and we simply cannot follow through with the routines and habits that we have.
A year of change
Last year was a big year of change for myself and my family: I stepped out of employement to set up this business, we moved to another town and my son started kindergarten. These changes were predictable and I consciously chose (some of) them. A few months ago, 2024 looked to me like it would be the year of settling in, of really falling into a routine, of analysing what works, what doesn’t work in our new environment. And then life happened - and 2024 will once again be a year of change. The main changes for myself and my family will be:
a new childcare routine for both kids that started in January and will be settled probably around the summer
a whole lot of new routines for myself as I will be going back to paid employement in Spring, which just feels so right at this point in my life, and I am determined to keep growing my business
Emotionally the childcare routines are for me the hardest transitions - and I am so relieved that the start of a new nursery for my youngest son - the first time he is alone at a nursery without his brother - has gone really well so far. But going back to paid employement will definitely have the biggest impact on my life. I will lose some of the flexibility I have right now, there will be deadlines, commuting to Bern and more strict routines. At the same time, it feels like the right decision that is aligned with my values at this point of my life, allowing me to take up a for me meaningful task in an environment that I am relatively familiar with and connecting with other people - something I have been missing in the past year.
Some tools to reflect
While I am a bit apprehensive about how things will be once I will start my job and worried that I will just spend my days running up and down, I have clarity on what it is that I want to achieve in my job, in this business and in my personal life. I’m still wrapping up my yearly planning but here are some tools and websites that have helped me know exactly what it is that I’d like 2024 to be about:
(#unpaidads - I just truly love these different tools that have been so useful in my life)
In order to move my business forward, I have signed up for the membership of Catherine Watkin, a coach working with heart-centered business owners. I’ve already attended a few of her workshops in the past and within her membership, I’ve been able to follow her vision and planning process that has been very useful to pinpoint clear, simple goals that I’d like to achieve in my business in the next 6-12 months. If you are in a similar position, I’d recommend having a look at her blog as she offers quite a lot of free content too: https://catherinewatkin.com/blog/
For the past few months, I’ve been using the Notion templates from my lovely coach Holly whom I worked with through a big part of 2023. I’ve found that focusing on planning my goals and vision for each month, week and day has been so helpful in order to consistently move forward with my business. Even though the financial side does not reflect it, I feel like I have grown a lot in the past year just by setting up these simple structures that I can always refer back to when I’m lost so I see clearly what to work on.
For my personal goals, I’ve been using the Hello Goodbye Journal for four years now and I really love it! Because of all the planning for my business in 2023, I’ve felt like I forgot a bit about my own personal goals as they always seemed to mix up with my business goals. This tool has helped me gain clarity on what it is that I want for myself outside of my business in the new year and the quarterly check-ins are helpful to track any progress and set new goals. It’s also been lovely to look back at previous journals and realise that I have indeed achieved most of my goals - maybe not always in the way I had anticipated, but I have done it nevertheless!
My final tool I love to use is very simply my journal. I’ve been working on my business vision since mid-December and I’ve finalised most of it now, over a month later. I’m still pondering on my word of the year and the specific goals I want to set myself for 2024 in my personal and family life, and even though I have done quite a few reflections, it’s helpful to take some time and just write down what it is that I really want and how I see it - and then conclude from there. One thing I found really helpful on Sophie Cliff’s recent podcast about finding your word of the year was to pick a word and give it a try for a couple of days, see how it sits with you, if it feels right, before really settling on it.
I’ll end this post with a permission slip: give yourself grace and start the year slowly, reflect and find your way. Don’t rush to set goals when you are not convinced or intentional about it, just because you have the feeling that you are late. Trust yourself and your instincts in order to find the right path!
I’d love to hear what your intentions and words of the year are, drop me a message if you feel like sharing them :).