Will this year be better than last year?

As 2024 looks like it's going to be another chaotic year, I'm practicing what I preach ...?when we stop worrying about what we can't control we have time to change the things we?can?control.?

One of the things that makes the biggest difference to how we feel and behave is the people we choose to spend time with and where we focus our energy.?

Lauren Hug, J.D., LL.M. just shared a wonderful thought about furnishing our minds the way we furnish our rooms and, as William Morris suggested, “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful”, this seems like a good thought to take into 2024.?

I'd like this to be a year of imagination, joy, experimentation, change, and action and that we can do something great together.?

One of the things I'm always happy to do is to share the work of the amazingly talented people I work with. Knowing where to go for help and who to trust means we all have a lot less to worry about!?

These are some of the people who will be sharing what they know this year in?Drive, the Collaborative Network. ?Their work is often both beautiful and useful. If you don't want to read the whole list and you know what you don't know and what you'd like to know, let me know and I'll point you to the right person ???

Adam Brooks - creating apps & RPGs, software engineering,

Adrian Storey - making award winning documentaries?

@Alex Wall - buying wine for investment and gifts?

Andrea Constable - using social media for good causes and living with neurodiversity

Andy Boothman - creating branding, designing, manufacturing and ecommerce

Annabel Harper MA, FRSA - empowering women in the middle east?

Anne Bailey - empowering students to choose careers that suit them

Anne-Marie Miller - making valuable visuals for businesses?

Annie Deakins - proofreading and editing?

Antony Quinn - using drama for workplace training in DEIB

Berenice Howard-Smith, MA - designing websites, social media, print, books and branding

Bernie J Mitchell - making co-working spaces profitable?

@Caroline Rainbow - selling sustainable maker-produced gifts

Charlotte Ashley-Roberts - coaching women leaders

@Clair Slade - building communities?

Dan Ince - creating opportunities for organic social media engagement?

David Brown ACC, CPCC - teaching the potential of mind, body and spirit connection?

@David Grove?- taking care of all the distractions and noise in your business

@Emma James - bookkeeping the?Number Ninja way

Gill Robinson - designing print and packaging?

Heather McDougall - creating? wild-life friendly gardens

Helen Lindop - managing email marketing?

Jacque Williams - harnessing quality management systems

@Jenny Howard?- creating whiteboard cartoon style videos and teaching the Thrive approach to improving mental health?

@Jo Bryant - educating through role play with puppets

Jo Stansfield -? supporting innovative tech and engineering organisations with DEI and AI ethics

Jo Twiselton - promoting the care of both people and planet in organisational change

Jodie ?? Greer - advising on disability inclusion through a holistic lens

Jon Torrens - training people in effective verbal communication?

Joe Deany-Braun - exploring the intersection of language and community, meaning and movement, and reading as art

Juliet E. - copyediting and proofreading?

Lauren Hug, J.D., LL.M. -?teaching how to share the world we want to see, digital hope, community building and participation

J Laurence Sarno - explaining ESG in marketing communications?

Len Keenan - copywriting, naming, taglines and mission statements

lynda jeannot - designing graphics in English and French?

Martyn Sibley - building a community of change makers for disability influence and inclusion and beyond?

Nathan Whitbread ACC - creating neuro-inclusive conversations and workplaces?

Nicola Smith - making sense of the numbers for business accounts?

@Paul Chiy - bringing humanity to the law?

Rachel Extance - teaching business writing skills for engaging content

@Richard Slade - designing brand identities and supporting creative entrepreneurs and artists.?

Ruth Farenga - promoting conscious leadership?

Sophie Wadsworth - coaching speakers to inspire action?

Sorrel Pindar - building inner resilience for?peace, happiness and freedom

Susie Tobias - troubleshooting and untangling WordPress websites?

Susie Hinchliffe - creating websites that tell stories with animations and motion graphics?

Tania Verdonk - producing sales without being annoying?

Thor A Rain - teaching to overcome pain, fatigue, stress and anxiety?

Toni Hunter - taking a collaborative approach to accounting

@Wendy Johnstone - providing virtual business services?

William Dale - collecting client feedback via SMS

As well as being talented, these people are all generous and kind, wise and funny, so spending time with them is a joy.?

I’m not making any predictions about this year, but one thing I know for sure is this ... our overall well-being and sense of happiness is dictated to a large extent by the support and guidance we get from the community we build for ourselves.

If you're thinking about goals and making a plan for 2024 and would like to talk, check in, or catch up, just let me know!