Cheers to More Connection, Growth, and Sharing in 2020

I’m ready, 2020.

I started my New Year’s resolutions a bit early this year by doing a deep dive in self-assessment. As I’ve been shifting my professional goals toward more contributions to conscious leadership, I’ve really had to examine where I’ve failed to apply all that I’ve learned over the past 20 years. It’s humbling, and frequently embarrassing, but necessary.

Once the challenge of reflecting is done, I know that making a public proclamation of my 2020 intentions is the best way to transform intentions into actions and actions into results.

(I’m not calling them resolutions, as it feels like a re-solution that didn’t work before.)

Let me just dig right in, and rip the band-aid off.

I believe I have grown a bit stingy with my time, but more so, my presence. This could be due to overextending myself. How to reconcile this is tricky. I have been making contributions to various communities, but I’ve felt as though I was never giving them enough. It’s time to really own my time, and keeping a calendar is what I know works.

In the year ahead, I commit to focusing more on specific contributions I aim to make and delegating everything else that keeps me from making a contribution that feels like enough.

This means letting some things go. In 2019, I really improved in this area. In the next year, I’ll continue to pick up steam – letting old hurts go, letting physical stuff go, letting others take on tasks I’d feel compelled to do, and forgiving myself for where I fell short of my own expectations – this is the hardest one. The better I get at this, the faster I can go from ego to highest self.

Letting go requires balance, though, as I have to know when NOT to let things go, too. I still intend to speak up for myself, to stand up to those not leading with good intentions, and to be a stand for my clients and students – to shine a light on the self-talk and outdated systems that threaten to give them less than what they really want in the long run.

I also will be more vigilant about money and will work on my confidence as a good steward of finances. I will no longer continue to pay for programs that don’t support forward progress.

I’ll be sharing a lot more in 2020. Once I’m clear how best I can communicate and share, I will do so on a regular, predictable, reliable schedule.

I want to get more connected to people’s nature. To be with people, really with them. There will be much more openness, eye contact, deep soulful conversations. I will be more mindful of how I respond and punctuate conversations. I will improve my awareness of others’ feelings. I will learn how to be a better conversationalist and how to channel my curiosity while recognizing and neutralizing judgment. I want to get better at understanding how individuals prefer to be respected and regarded.

I will put myself on a follow-up schedule so that I stay in better touch with clients. I will organize more get-togethers and create more opportunities for people in my network to connect with each other, which I know is where the magic happens.

There’s one place where I have not walked the walk, doing exactly what I recommend – sending thank you sentiments. I’ve certainly dropped a heartfelt gift or note sporadically, but I want it to be a regimen, and not just the delivery of said gratitude, but the practice of really being in gratitude. This has been a part of daily routines before, and it’s time to work it back in with new rituals that will become part of systems. I will do this for how it transforms me, but also how it transforms my relationships and nurtures my network.

Sadly, I’ve been curating a collection of wonderful things I could do to better serve my mission and better support people’s professional growth, but have not done a good job in several years bringing offers into creation and I’ve never done a great job of enrolling large quantities of leaders in them so that I make the impact that I want.

This year, that changes. I’ve hired a team of coaches to hold me accountable and to help me craft, create, promote and deliver programs that transform corporate careers for my clients and their teams. They will help me finally put together the pieces of the puzzle I’ve been staring at cross-eyed, and to systematize all of this so that I can deliver consistent quality, not let anything or anyone fall through the cracks, and be a reliable solution provider.

I have a TON of content, as well, just sitting in various files where they’re doing you no good. As I’ve scaled back outgoing marketing, I’ve also started to become a harsher critic of myself, and have been scared to be too revealing of who I am through what I create. At the risk of your judgment, but also my own, I’ll be more unabashed in my expression.

All of these proclamations scare me, but that’s only when I think of myself as the person who fell short. If I focus, however, on all I have achieved, I know I’m totally capable. I have confidence in the talent supporting me, including my coaches and my virtual assistant, Cynthia.

Now comes mapping it all out. Thank God I don’t have to do that alone!

I’m excited for a new year and a new decade. I’m ready to redeem myself where I fell short, and even to make more mistakes and gain more wisdom.

I’d like to take a moment to send you a new year’s wish that you can look back 10 years from now and know that you gave the 2020s everything that you had, and so it gave you back everything you want. And, I wish that you know you’ve got a friend in Pennsylvania.

It’s me. I’m a friend in Pennsylvania.

This time I’m sending you a special gift, a song – not my song, but sung by me. It’s my first big, bold share in accordance with my 2020 proclamations, as well as my last big share of the decade. I hope you enjoy it.

Karen Huller, author of Laser-sharp Career Focus: Pinpoint your Purpose and Passion in 30 Days (bit.ly/GetFocusIn30), is founder of Epic Careering, a 13-year-old leadership and career development firm specializing in executive branding and conscious culture, as well as JoMo Rising, LLC, a workflow gamification company that turns work into productive play. 

While the bulk of her 20 years of professional experience has been within the recruiting and employment industry, her publications, presentations, and coaching also draw from experience in personal development, performance, broadcasting, marketing, and sales. 

Karen was one of the first LinkedIn trainers and is known widely for her ability to identify and develop new trends in hiring and careering. She is a Certified Professional Résumé Writer, Certified Career Transition Consultant, and Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist with a Bachelor of Art in Communication Studies and Theater from Ursinus College and a minor in Creative Writing. Her blog was recognized as a top 100 career blog worldwide by Feedspot. 

She is an Adjunct Professor in Cabrini University’s Communications Department and previously was an Adjunct Professor of Career Management and Professional Development at Drexel University’s LeBow College of Business She is also an Instructor for the Young Entrepreneurs Academy where some of her students won the 2018 national competition, were named America’s Next Top Young Entrepreneurs, and won the 2019 People’s Choice Award.