My 2023 wishes for you, one for every month

Kudos and congrats on making it through another topsy-turvy year!  You’re still standing.  And that deserves a high five (or two)!

Whether you’re starting 2023 on fumes, with an empty gas tank and a furrowed, worried brow, or with vigour, motivation, and excitement (or somewhere in between) I have you covered, with our annual tradition of  twelve wishes, one for each month of 2023.

If you haven’t reviewed my wishes for you from 2020, 2021, or 2022 you can do that here, here, and here if you wish (wink wink, nudge nudge, pun intended).

Here we go.

January – Get rid of clutter

• I was tired of having so … much…. stuff.  It was hard to find things. My beautiful treasures were hidden amongst things I didn’t care for so much and it seemed like the timing was right to get rid of a lot of stuff.

• I decided to get rid of three things every single day of the year – a minimum of 1,095 things.

• Did I do it? (Spoiler alert: yes!)

• Here’s what I learned in the process: The results of my grand, year-long experiment – how I got rid of three things every day last year.

February – Handle strong emotions

• Have you ever had an issue with managing strong emotions in the workplace and/or at home? I love you dear reader, but if you say no, I’m going to be literally shook to my core.

• Strong emotions are a signal. They’re a strong signal that something is wrong. That may seem obvious but we can get blindsided by the emotion and ignore the message it’s trying to tell us.

• I share ten super simple tips for managing those strong emotions, so you can get on with business and your life.

• Discover those tips here: Ten simple tips for handling strong emotions in the workplace part one and part two.

March – Banish your biases

• Bias has a huge effect on how we think, how we act, and how we move through the world.

• There are three types of biases you for sure have.  We all do.

• Not to worry, here are three ways to kick them to the curb: Three types of bias you have and three ways to overcome them.

• Plus check out bias in learning and teaching with this tool of mine.

April – Foster teamwork

• Based on one of my favourite books I found this research on high-functioning teams truly fascinating.

• For example, there were some surprising discoveries: When it comes to great teams, it’s the norms, not the people, that make the difference.

• So what does matter in creating highly effective teams?  Two things.

• Discover the two things to foster great teams here: Two surprising (and simple) things that great teams have in common.

• Then download the worksheet and use it yourself at your next team meeting or project (once it’s downloaded you can edit the worksheet online).

May – Discover your feedback love language

• I’m guessing that you may know your love language.  But I bet you don’t know your love language when it comes to giving feedback.

• When I do client team building, one thing that always comes back in my prep work is the need for a focus on communication, including giving and receiving feedback.

• Which led me to use Gary Chapman’s work to focus on giving and receiving feedback, including how to discover what your feedback love language is.

• Take the survey now.

• Find out more: What’s your (and your team’s) love language when it comes to giving feedback? Here’s how to find out and why it matters.

June – Make learning pop

• Quiz time! Bring to mind a workshop you took in the last year or so.  Could you find your notes / what you learned from that workshop within five minutes?

• I’m guessing not.

• We spend so much time focusing on learning that we tend to neglect how to remember what we learned (and how to apply and share our learning, but that’s for another time).

• All the reason to use my spiffy tool to help you gather your learning easily, in one place.

• Here you go: Play your H.A.R.P. and make learning pop

July – Give fab feedback

• One thing that consistently rises to the top of client needs – both at the team level and the individual level – is learning how to give feedback.  And in a way that is effective, feels genuine, and not like a thousand moths have suddenly occupied your gut.

• Which is why I created the H.A.(n)D.S. technique, based on the work of Chip and Dan Heath in their wonderful book, the Power of Moments.

• Ready for a complicated, difficult, hard-to-remember system to follow? No?! Me either.

• Check out my super easy technique for giving fab feedback: High Five to the H.A.(n)D.S. Feedback Technique.

August – 3D Goal Setting (and Achieving)

• When I achieve a goal I often have a sloppy grin on my face.  From ear to ear.  It feels soo good!

• That got me thinking about affecting change, getting motivated, and achieving goals.

• Which is how I came up with my 3D path to achieving your goal with three seriously easy steps → 3 x 3 x 3 + D.

• Here’s how: 3D your way to achieving your goals with these three easy steps.

September – Top Notch Learning

• For lots of folks around the world, September means back to school and focusing on learning.

• Speaking of learning, I had a wonderful email from a Learning and Development Roundtable member asking me for my top Learning and Development books.

• Voila!  Here you have thirty-plus years of Learning and Development summed up in thirty books (including a few podcasts): Part One and Part Two.

October – Avoid the familiar/similar trap

• What did you eat for breakfast this morning?  Who did you check in with when you had some good news this week?  What music did you listen to today?

• I bet I can guess all three.

• And here’s why. Four reasons why the familiar/similar trap isn’t good for you.

• Keep your ease with some familiarity AND make a conscious effort to try some things that are not familiar or similar to you with these four tools.

• Four ways to stay out of the familiar/similar trap and four reasons why that’s important.

November – Mindset mana

• I read two of my all-time, top favourite books this past year.  More about that in an upcoming post but in the meantime know that one of them focused on mindset.

• Mindset is your way of thinking and your opinions.

• Our expertise mindset can be a barrier to learning.  To changing, and growing.

• Here are four simple things we can do to adopt a learning mindset: 208 seconds to a learning mindset (bright red runners recommended but optional)

• Our mindset can literally cure a broken ankle. Seriously: The surprising power of your mindset; can you use it to cure a broken ankle?

December – Make a difference

• The opportunities to surprise, delight, and make a real difference are everywhere. From hiding critical secret messages in pop songs to radios that play only out of the right speaker in order to raise awareness of a specific health issue, opportunities are everywhere.

• Here’s how you can take inspiration to surprise, delight, and make a difference yourself: From morse code to wonky radios, the opportunities to make a difference are everywhere.

Whether you’re reading this at the start of 2023, somewhere in the middle, or as 2023 is about to end, know I’ve got your back with these twelve wishes.  Go softly, yet with vim, and vigour, as you tread towards next month and/or next year.  I’m with you.  All the way.

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

• I continue to have faith in you. I really do.

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 2023 with vim, vigor, and above all, curiosity.

P.S. For all you Learning and Development Roundtable (RT) members, as we’re taking a holiday break from the Roundtable, during that time I’ve been sending you my weekly tips on how to learn, laugh, and lead. Like this one!  The week after next I’ll be sending out the invitation for January’s Learning and Development Roundtable. Therefore this will be the last newsletter I send to Roundtable folks, so Roundtable folks, If you want to also sign up to get these weekly tips you can do that here.

P.P.S. And newsletter folks, if you want to sign up to receive monthly invitations to my monthly Learning and Development Roundtables plus get access to all ten-plus years of Roundtable resources sign up here.