Here's To a 2024 Full Of Vibrancy ?

A friend said to me about a month ago, “It feels like 2023, she’s got someplace to be because she’s getting out of here fast!” The sentence cracked me up for 2 reasons:

• thinking of 2023 as female and
• because it feels so true!

I know “they” (whoever “they are!) always say that time speeds up as we age… and I know that COVID messed with our collective sense of time spans… and yet, 2023, she sped by!

And here we are. At the season of light. Coming to the shortest day of the year when there’s more darkness than any other day. The end of the year holidays and the beginning of a brand-new year. A time filled with joy… and yet also for so many, sadness. And at a point where there are so many ways in which we are divided and polarized.

It's probably not surprising, therefore, that I am working with a client?on launching a belonging initiative, just received a request to deliver a keynote to a large DC based organization on Civility, and have a proposal on my desk for an organization seeking help with DEIB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion; Belonging) in general and microaggressions in particular.

Because just as we ourselves are struggling with making our way in a polarized world, organizations are navigating through times of unprecedented change – where not only are organizations needing to respond to the needs of a changing workforce but also the pace of change is increasing.

And we humans, in general, are pretty darn change resistant.

When I was growing up, we had very meaningful traditions around the Christmas holiday. We spent the holiday with my Mom’s family – and we’re a small family so (back in the day!) we were all under one roof with us kids on the floor. It was a joyous time, filled with fun and family, laughter, stories and lots of “visiting.” Fast forward to today, my grandparents are gone, my aunt is in a memory care facility, and many of those old traditions have been replaced. And, while some of the new traditions are wonderful, a part of my soul will always yearn for “how it used to be.”

And isn’t that part of so many of our experiences, whether around the holidays, within our families, our communities, our workplaces, our world. There’s a part of us that is pulled by “how we’ve always done things.” It’s where things are familiar. Cozy. And, as a colleague of mine is fond of saying, we don’t grow at 72 degrees. We grow when we stretch. When things are uncomfortable. When things change.

So here’s to honoring our memories, remembering that memories may often be “rose colored,” and that we get to be most vibrant and magnificent when we stretch into change. The?calendar is moving forward, whether I’m ready for 2024 or not! So here’s to a 2024 full of vibrancy. Magnificence. Light into the corners where new possibilities get created. Joy. Fun. All that you wish for… and some things that you might need… whether you wish for them or not.?

Onward.