My 2025 wishes for you, one for every month

As we open the door to a whole new year I have twelve wishes for you.?One for every month of the year.

I’m sending them to you with hope, and tenaciousness for a happy healthy year full of learning, laughing, and leading.

Here we go.

January – Gratitude (in a card)

• After my annual experiment of making and sending a gratitude card to one person every week for a year, I decided to keep going for another year
• Did I do it? (Spoiler alert: yes!)?
• And here’s how you can do it too and what I learned from the process: part one and part two

February – Motivation

• February’s Learning and Development Roundtable was all about Getting motivated and building healthy habits (especially if you’re lagging and sagging)
• Uncover clues about what motivates others, including your colleagues in order to bring some ease and reduce conflict.
• Learning and Development Roundtable members get access to all 12+ years of learning resources.? If you’re not a member and want access to this workshop and others, all for free, join here now.

March – Mind your S.O.F.T. spot

• My simple, S.O.F.T. technique to light your fire and keep you going.
• It was a cold day in Nairobi, exacerbated by the concrete house I live in which was keeping the chill in like nobody’s business.? I was curled up on my couch with a good book but was distracted by the cool temperature.
• So I set about building a fire in the fireplace, all the while thinking of you and designing my S.O.F.T technique to keep you going.

April – Lessons from marshmallows

• The Marshmallow Experiment Revisited: Key Lessons from Kids in Shelters
• Remember the Marshmallow Experiment? It’s a classic psychology test where kids are offered a choice: gobble up one marshmallow now or hold off and score two marshmallows later.?
• The idea is to see if they can resist temptation and wait for the bigger reward.?
• What’s the big deal about being able to wait and delay gratification you may ask?
• Turns out a lot.

May – How to (literally) virtually escape

• How to use virtual escape rooms as an engaging, effective onboarding tool?
• I love it when readers give their suggestions and ask questions.? Like when Manuela emailed me asking if I knew of any low-budget, easy onboarding tools.
• (I cut this sign out of a newspaper ages ago and have always thought it was such an incredible example of welcoming or even in our case, onboarding, people.)
• Even if you don’t need an onboarding tool, use this method to create a fun way to virtually escape when you need to.

June – Unlock your voice

• Unlock Your Voice: Strategies for Powerful Public Speaking
• Sweaty palms. A million butterflies tossing around in your stomach, threatening to escape out of your mouth.??
• Your tongue feels like it’s wearing a sweater made of sandpaper.? Your voice is wavery and quavery.?
• Public speaking can be a nightmare at worst or nirvana at best
• Discover how to unlock your voice

July – No Boo hoo here. Goblin tech tools for neurodiversity

• Regular readers know I’m a huge fan of tech tools.
• If your eyebrows just climbed to meet your hairline, because tech tools generally make you want to vomit, let me explain.
• I love tech tools so much that I make it a goal to try a new one each week, like this free and super easy-to-use suite of Goblin tools.

August – How to get your learning to ‘leave the room’

• You’ve invested a lot in your learning, including both time and money.
• The lack of emphasis on follow-up and implementation results in lost opportunities for putting learning into action.
• However, have no fear.??
• There are lots of opportunities to leverage the learning to achieve real and lasting impact by including a focus on the follow-up.
• Here are ten ways to help make sure the learning leaves the room:

September – How to work for change without losing your joy

• Ten Takeaways from the Lightmaker’s Manifesto; How to Work for Change Without Losing Your Joy by Karen Walrond
• 1. Why joy and not happiness
• 2. On finding meaning
• 3. Massage your ego through trusteeship
• 4. Activism can and should include empathy, compassion, joy, and kindness
• 5. Pair a ritual with a goal
• Those are the first five. Check out the post for more details on each and the other five.

October – How to Handle Conflict

• Death, taxes, and conflict are inevitable parts of life.
• Need to brush up on your conflict skills?
• During a UN Teambuilding event I designed and delivered, I invited the Regional UN Ombudsman to participate.
• Get a peek inside the resources from the UN Ombudsman: How to Handle Conflict: 5 Strategies for Maintaining Respect and Dignity Part One and Part Two and learn from some of the best.

November – Beat back overwhelm

• How To Beat Exhaustion And Overwhelm: A Proven Solution
• Are you feeling overwhelmed, anxious, exhausted, ‘cause you know, it’s been another topsy-turvy year?
• Have I got a proven solution for you.
• Seriously, at the time of writing this, I’m more than 6 weeks into using this tool, and wowza, what a difference it makes.?
• Check out the Miracle Morning. I promise you it will make a difference.

December – Celebrating you, yes you, with a special gift!

• It’s been several years now where you could be excused for thinking gravity is going to stop working.
• War, conflict, famine, climate change, political upheaval, gender-based violence, racism, and more are all top of mind.
• It’s enough to leave us talkin’ about a revolution.?
• Which is why I made you a sweet, little, motivational gift.
• Enjoy!

Would you like to get these wishes sent to you on the first of each month??Simply sign up here and ‘poof’ they’ll appear.

Now go on and learn, laugh, and lead

Learn

• Click on the posts above that call to you and check out the linked resources.

Laugh?

• You can never wish for too much kindness.?Or can you?

Lead

• Thank you for your commitment to learning, laughing, and leading.? Pass on your superpowers, share your strengths, maintain hope and curiosity, rest, relax, and approach 2025 with vim, vigor, and above all, curiosity.

P.S.

• After taking a break for the holiday we’ll be back with the first Learning and Development Roundtable of 2025, on how to create a customized learning plan for yourself. More information here. Sign up here now!