The Year I Failed

This is that time of year people either love or dread. Or, I guess, both?

I’ve been dreading this for the past month. When you run a business and December comes around there is the inevitable “annual reflection.” Maybe it’s a business review, or collecting addresses to send gifts to your biggest clients, or starting to prepare your tax filings. Whatever the case, it’s here. 

2023 was a total bust. Woof.

I didn't come close to reaching my financial goals. 

Or, was it?

Looking back to the start of the year, I had one word on my mind: Evolve.

Not growth, but evolution.

Bank accounts grow, but they don’t evolve.

Exactly a year ago I was sitting in a conference in southern California, getting my recertification for High Performance Coaching, and I had the stroke of inspiration that would become Elemental Coaching. At this point, I didn’t know it was going to be called “Elemental Coaching” or what it would look like, I just knew I needed to move past Lift To Get Lean. 

In that conference I came up with the five pillars I wanted my business, my life, to build around: 

• Awareness

• Education

• Action

• Intention

• Ownership

I wanted the outside to match the inside. All of this was sketched out on that little notepad the hotel puts in your room - I still have it.

I sent a picture of this idea to Dave and Emily and Cathy and asked, “do you get it?” They did. It had been there all along, inside, subtly making the changes that needed to be made. Plus, no one on my team was resonating with the idea of “Lift To Get Lean.” 

A rebrand is tough. There are way more moving pieces than you initially think there will be. But it had to happen. 

This had to Evolve.

The brand, the business, took a 180 degree turn (and it’s still turning!) because I knew in my heart that Lift To Get Lean wasn’t strong enough, wasn’t sustainable enough, to do what I wanted to do. Over the span of a week we shifted into Elemental Coaching and ran full speed with it. I never really acknowledged how big of an accomplishment, or how big of a risk, it was.

Plus, I hosted my first ever live, in-person event. So that’s TWO HUGE risks I made this year, both of them successes. And here I am thinking the year was a bust because I’m not sleeping on a mattress stuffed with money.

Maybe this is a reminder for you to be careful how you measure success. It’s not always a number. Sometimes, it is about asking whether or not you are in the place you want to be and if that’s the place you SHOULD be? 

Sometimes, you have to measure your success in reverse. If you’ve participated in In Your Element or REVIVE (or Lift to Get Lean, from way back) you know what it is to Run from the Bear. Measure your success from where you start and build from there. Our brains are already hardwired to see the negative (negativity bias!), it’s how we are constantly perceiving our environments for threats and ways we could die. You have to consciously train your brain to see, and appreciate, the good stuff otherwise you may never see it at all. 

As we close out this year and start to reflect on the past 12 months, train yourself to look for the good stuff. See where you were last January and find ways to add to the outcome instead of finding ways you’ve failed. There will always be more money to earn, things to do, changes to make.

But for now, today, you’re definitely sitting in a great spot.

Good for you.