Two ways to make sure your business planning for 2023 gets you closer to a life of freedom and fulfillment.

If you’re anything like me you’ll be knee-deep in a range of reflection, visioning, and planning activities. For decades I have refined and tweaked the way that I look back on my year and think through what it all means so that I can be intentional as I project forward to plan for a new year.?

I’m a deep introvert and love to be by myself. Still mornings, quiet days, and space to let my thoughts dance, bring me real joy. But whether you are like me and spend DAYS in a space of reflection, or you’re someone who finds snippets of time here and there to reflect and plan, I want to share two ways that I’ve found helpful to weave more freedom and fulfillment into my life as a business leader.

1.?????The first is to remember it starts with you…

2.?????The second is to think about your business in a more holistic way.

Let me unpack both of those for you to put a bit more meat on the bones.

If your end of year reflection is raising a whole bunch of questions and discomfort for you, that heighten your sense of dissatisfaction, and make you realize that you're not actually fulfilled, then I would encourage you to think about your business in a different way in 2023.?

The reality is your business is already making an impact in the world. The question is, is that impact positive, negative, or a mix of both??

The next question, which takes it deeper and makes it more personal for you, helps us start to uncover some of those reasons why you may not be feeling fulfilled. The reason why some of your motivation might be gone is that you may have lost the connection between your business and its alignment with what you care about most; with your core values; with how you want to contribute and show up in the world.?

If as you're doing your end of year thinking and reflection, you're starting to feel uneasy and unsatisfied; rather than just be demoralized and sit with that, I want you to do two things.?

It Starts with You

The first is to get really clear on understanding yourself better. Knowing and understanding what is important to you and being grounded in your values is a critical first step. When you have clarity around what is important to you, then you can step more fully into making sure that the vision you have for where you want to take the business is aligned and leading to the fulfillment that you're looking for. It impacts how you want to grow, what markets you want to move into, and the types of customers you want to work with. Clarity increases the chance of loving the life you lead.?

So, that's the first thing, pause long enough and use this time of year, and your reflections, to get clearer on understanding yourself.?

Thinking Holistically About Your Business?

As a business leader one of the most critical assets you bring to the table is your ability to think. You won’t have to work with me for very long before you will hear me imploring you to “Think like a system. Act like an entrepreneur”. The second step to ensuring your planning and visioning for 2023 will move you closer to the freedom and fulfillment you're looking for is to start to think about your business in a more holistic way.?

It is so easy to fall into the trap of setting goals, projecting, and framing budgets around numbers, percentages, revenue growth, customer acquisition, and retention rates, and in the process to lose sight of the fact that so much of your blood, sweat and tears are being poured into this business. If you don't find ways to broaden your focus and goals, to make sure the incentives you are setting for yourself tap into some of your drivers beyond simply profit maximization, then it is going to be difficult for you to stay motivated long term.?

Now that you’ve got more explicit about what it is that you want and care about in step one, you can translate that into how you think about, and run, your business. Here’s a few areas you could reflect on and use as entry points to help you insert more meaning into your business.

• Identify where you are spending the most money in your business

- Are there changes you could make to your spending that would reduce the negative impacts your business is contributing to environmentally or socially?

- Are there companies you’re buying from that you don’t feel comfortable with in terms of misalignment of values?

- Are there products or services you’re purchasing that you could have someone on your team review and then search for local options, minority business owned options, or businesses committed to and transparently reporting on issues you care about?

- Would setting up a Preferred Suppliers List, that explicitly tied back to your stated values as a company, help not only save time in procurement but also demonstrate to your employees that there is genuine thought and commitment going into putting your values into practice????

• ?Map out where you’re spending the most time

- Are you undervaluing your time and the time of your employees?

- Are the urgent (squeaky wheels) dominating focus and attention while the important get neglected?

- Are you driving your calendar, or is it driving you?

- Do you value, plan for, and protect time in your diary for thinking, rest and recovery, reflection, conversations, and fun or life giving activities?

• Think about the decisions you have direct control over. These might relate to:

- How you choose your suppliers??

- Who you buy from?

- How you recruit

- How you treat your staff

- The customers you choose to serve.

Using levers like these that are within your direct control as a business leader gives you a sense of agency.?

I would love for you to incorporate into your planning for 2023 some reflections that drill into your business model and pull apart both where the most obvious opportunities are for you to start to put to work, and some of the drivers that will keep you motivated. Those can be around your sense of contribution, of making a difference or having a positive impact in the lives of your customers or your team.?

I want you to focus in and find at least one area where you could set some new goals, frame up some new activities or habits, and ways of behaving in 2023 that will begin to bring more purpose and meaning into your business. Not in ways that undermine the profitability or sustainability of your business; but in ways that make sense financially as well. When I talk about having a both/and mindset or worldview, what I want you to do is to stop falling into the trap of thinking you have to pick either/or. Stop acting as if you need to make decisions that are either good for business, OR good for the world.?

Start to look for the ways that you can run your business to create the win-win. Figure out what you care about, what you can control, and start there. Make sure that some of your business goals for 2023 move you closer to your business creating the freedom and fulfillment that you are seeking.?

There’s no point working this hard to simply make money yet be left with the emptiness of asking “was it worth it?” If you want to sustain your energy and engagement for the long haul, you need to start to think differently about how meaning and purpose can be woven into your business in ways that allow you to do good AND make money.?

Don't forget as you're doing your planning for 2023 the ideal scenario is to improve the financial sustainability and profitability of your business, but to do it in a way that brings in more meaning and purpose allowing you to feel a sense of contribution. When you do both of those things in ways that are mutually reinforcing, you create a self-propelling model; rather than one that requires you to make a compromise on one side of the equation.?

Both/And. I'm asking you to have both/and mindset. I've been saying it for decades; but remember, you can in fact do good and make money in the same business model.?

Enjoy your end of year planning and don't forget to incorporate these two tips to make sure 2023, in your business, is the year that sees you experience freedom and fulfillment. I'd love to hear where you land and please reach out if you'd like to explore in more detail what this might look like in your business.