Become a better manager Join Mind Tools
Reduce your stress and improve your wellbeing at work
Mind Tools on-demand resources help you feel in control, calm under pressure, and ready to perform your best. Join today for 20% off Annual and 3-Month memberships!
Join Mind Tools
Reduce your stress and improve your wellbeing at work
Mind Tools on-demand resources help you feel in control, calm under pressure, and ready to perform your best. Join today for 20% off Annual and 3-Month memberships!
Join Mind Tools
MAIN MENU

Sign-up to our newsletter

Subscribing to the Mind Tools newsletter will keep you up-to-date with our latest updates and newest resources.

Close
Working on it...
Successfully subscribed to the newsletter
Sorry, something went wrong
December 28, 2022

Lessons, Leave-Behinds and Looking Forward to New Year

Mike Barzacchini

Share this post:

The New Year is on its way, and it always reminds me that it's time for reflection. So I recently brewed a cup of my favorite black tea, added a little honey, and spent a few moments in front of my kitchen window view to consider the following three questions: 

  • What did I learn this past year?
  • What do I hope to leave behind in 2022?
  • What do I look forward to in 2023?

What Did I Learn in 2022?

While not new lessons, 2022 continued to teach me humility, resilience, empathy, and kindness. Those last two lessons I hold especially close. As I navigate life, I experience challenges and loss, like we all do. But I find that empathy, beginning with myself and radiating out to others, combined with even the smallest acts of kindness, pave my path forward.

Mike Barzacchini

Both empathy and kindness are practices that take focus and intention. This year I want to deepen my commitment to, and my practice of, both. For my own benefit and to make even the smallest positive difference in my world.

As I Bid Farewell to 2022 What Will I Leave Behind?

I hope to leave behind the limits I place on myself. As I look back on my life and plan forward, I continue to learn that my biggest obstacles are those I create.

Self-doubt, anxiety, inertia, and a host of others. They all add up to limits. In 2023, I intend to limit myself less and strive toward achieving more of what matters most.

What Do I Look Forward to in the New Year?

I look forward to connecting more dots. The icebreaker of a recent #MTtalk asked, "If you had unlimited charitable funds, where would you donate?"

My first response was to list three things – feed the hungry, especially children, promote literacy, and help rescue dogs. Then I thought, "What would happen if I connected these dots?"

Could I, for example, start a free lunch program that would provide children with opportunities to read to foster dogs? While I will pursue this idea (and keep looking for that large bag of money to fund it!), the lasting takeaway for me is to be open to the power of connecting ideas, resources, and people to solve problems and create opportunities.

Maybe what I'm looking forward to most is applying those lessons of empathy and kindness, to guide these connections and build community.

Now it's your turn. What has 2022 taught you? What do you hope to leave behind? And what will you carry forward to create a bright, successful new year? 

If you have big ambitions for 2023, personal or career-focused, our Life Plan workbook will help you to achieve them! 

Share this post:

Reduce your stress and improve your wellbeing at work

Mind Tools on-demand resources help you feel in control, calm under pressure, and ready to perform your best. Join today for 20% off Annual and 3-Month memberships!
Join Mind Tools

You may also like...

November 6, 2023

What's Your Story?

"A story never ends because it changes who we are, how we think, what we do. Its threads and impact continue to grow in ways we know, and don't know." - Yolandé Conradie

, ,

October 19, 2023

Transitions

Some transitions are harder to face than others. The Mind Tools coaches share their experiences of going through transitions, and their tips on how to deal with change.

,

October 9, 2023

Whose Job Is Strategy?

Before the pandemic, strategy was mostly the responsibility of top-level executives and managers. But after Covid-19, strategic leadership is much more a collective effort.

,

© Mind Tools Ltd 2024. All rights reserved. "Mind Tools" is a registered trademark of Mind Tools Ltd.
linkedin facebook pinterest youtube rss twitter instagram facebook-blank rss-blank linkedin-blank pinterest youtube twitter instagram