It's that time of the year - the New Year is almost here and we farewell 2022. I'd like to say a heartfelt thank you for coming here, reading and commenting on my posts, joining my programs and sharing your style journey with me.
After the past 3 years of Covid impacting my life heavily I've felt a bit like I've been in a holding pattern, particularly this last year, as things have gotten back to the "new normal" but really, life is still different and will be for at least another year or so as this virus keeps mutating.
After pondering some time on what my focus word for 2023 would be and reading plenty of lists of possibilities and playing with a couple, the one that jumped out at me, that felt aligned and spoke of what I'd been thinking about is the word CULTIVATE.
Cultivate Through My Work...
Cultivate New Ideas
New ideas and ways of doing things is something I love to spend time thinking about and cultivating. I've had a few new ideas and will be launching my Level Up in Style program in early 2023 as well as creating a couple of new masterclasses and mini-courses that are currently in percolation phase.
When people ask me where I get my ideas from, it's really about keeping my eyes and ears open to everything, to reading widely, to taking online courses, to listening to podcasts that stimulate me to think about a range of topics, some which may not at first seem related to style, but can be applied to it in some way or other.
Cultivate My Program Members
I love helping my clients and program members grow, taking their style (and hopefully life) to a better level, one that helps them get what they want out of life. I love creating connections with them and getting to know them and their lives. Understanding people helps me to be a better image consultant and without that connection, it's hard to give the best advice as there is no one way to be stylish.
Cultivate My Image Consultant Students and Graduates
I love mentoring, it's something I've discovered in the past few years that it really brings me great joy. I love seeing people who are passionate about colour, style and image, like I am, turn their passion into something that creates a positive impact in the world. This is why I love mentoring and sharing my extensive experience. Along with creating comprehensive image and colour programs for personal stylists and image consultants, I want to spend more time mentoring people in my industry who are as passionate as me so they too can fulfill their potential.
Cultivate On a Personal Level...
Cultivate Friendships
I've spent some time recently after hardly seeing anyone outside of my family for most of the last 3 years (and even then barely seeing anyone but my husband and kids) I've really felt like I need to create more connections and cultivate friendships as it's super easy for me, an introvert who is happy to spend an inordinate amount of time by myself inside my own head, to forget to ever arrange to see friends or develop new friendships and connections.
Cultivate Family Relationships
It's always important (in my book) to keep on working on your close relationships. My kids are almost grown and I have limited "daily" time left with them as I'm sure some will be moving out of home in the next few years. So I love to spend time cultivating my relationships with them and their partners.
My Dad has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's, and he and my Mum live an 8 hour drive away from me, and over the past few years because of Covid and my parents being elderly and not wanting to get sick, I've only seen them a couple of times. Given my Dad's state of health and how fast his memory has started deteriorating in the past year, it's important that I spend more time with them while he still remembers who I am.
And of course, I want to continue to spend quality time with my husband and cultivate our relationship.
Cultivate My Health and Fitness
This year I managed to shift the Covid Kilos that I'd gained the previous 2 years and have gotten heaps stronger again as I've discovered the form of exercise that really works for me and my body at this stage in my life. Pre-covid (and the discovery of arthritis in my lower back), I was doing more HIIT and high-impact training, but that no longer felt right and my back was sore all the time. It didn't feel like it was in harmony with my body. Fortunately, a pilates and yoga studio moved into my neighbourhood and I've been doing reformer pilates and yin yoga for over a year and I really feel so much better for it. I've become heaps stronger and yin yoga is the best form of exercise for switching off my overactive brain (plus giving me the stretch-out that my body needs).
I've given up sugar too this past year (except for Christmas dessert, which is a once-a-year treat) and I feel way less hungry as my blood sugar is much more stable. So I will continue to cultivate my health and fitness in 2023.
Cultivate My Creative Outlets
One way for me to switch off my brain is to do some sort of "art therapy" and that for me has been painting (this year I started to learn how to do watercolour painting) and I have really started to get back into sewing clothes again. I'm enjoying the process as well as the results and will continue on with this and keep cultivating my skills and will be on the lookout for a course here and there to learn something new as well.
And I may even get into my garden a little more and do some cultivating there too!
Finding Your Focus
So that's my focus for 2023.
Do you have a focus word for next year? Here's a handy list
What is it? I'd love to know what it is and why you chose it!
Happy New Year!