I accidentally thought of a word of the year.
I was sitting there thinking about something else (one never knows with my brain…) and all of a sudden, I kept coming back to the idea of connection.
To myself—what I need, how my brain works, who I want to be, what I want to prioritize, to how I want to be known, my own emotional regulation muscles (or lack thereof).
To my kids—all the parenting advice I’ve been absorbing lately ALWAYS comes back to connection-based techniques.
To concepts—this ability to connect people and ideas to each other is one of my greatest strengths as a consultant, strategic advisor, and thought partner. I want to hone and harness this more, for myself and for my clients. (One way I’ve been doing this is by exploring business anthropology, behavioral economics, and other fields that put formalized frameworks around what I’ve been doing inherently for years.)
To my professional orbit—my favorite parts of my business involve the relationships I’ve built over the past 7+ years. But in my year-end reflection, I realized how much I had neglected both new and existing connections last year.
To causes I care about—every personality test I’ve ever taken classifies me as an “advocate” or something similar. And I care about so many things, but I haven’t committed or contributed in a concrete way for years. I want to figure out where I can put that advocacy gene to good use, in my personal life and/or through my work with clients.
To my community—between COVID, then pregnancy, then postpartum life, then baby #2, and trying to maintain some semblance of a functioning business, I’ve been much less tapped into my local community (or even online ones) than I used to be. I want to do more in-person meet-ups AND actually add to and receive value from online communities I’m part of.
Basically, I realized connection has been a gaping hole in so many areas of my life and work, even though it’s something I desperately need to feel like I’m thriving!
(I’ve long said that contribution is one of my core values, which I’ve defined as “feeling connected to something bigger than myself.” Clearly this has always been important to me, but it’s finally front-and-center. More on my Establish, Define, and Apply approach to values-alignment here.)
So, connection is going to be a guiding force in my decision-making and day-to-day activities for the foreseeable future.
❓Whether you officially (or accidentally…) chose a word of the year, or you have some other sort of anchor to guide you, I’d love to know what you’re focusing on in your life or business.
📍If you want to talk through what you care about and how it can show up in your decision and everyday actions, book a free Alignment Call.
Or join us our Conscious Marketing Circle to verbally process all the moving pieces that come with running and growing a human-first, values-aligned business. We start our 6-week small group on February 4.
This is an excerpt from Toward Purpose & Progress, my newsletter where I share business tips, good news, shoutouts to Founder Friends, and other juicy snippets. Subscribe here for more rants, reflections, and resources.
