My Word for the Year: Review and Reveal

It’s my 7th year of jumping on the Word for the Year bandwagon!

I’m not sure what that says about me … perhaps that I am loyal and faithful to a fault? That I don’t like change? Or simply that I love anything to do with words?!

2023 Review

But first, let’s review my word for the year for 2023: Flourish.

So how did that pan out?

To be honest, I feel like my experience of 2023 was more about just “surviving” rather than “flourishing” 🙁 .

The year started with some uncertainty around my health. I had a procedure to remove suspicious cells from my left breast in February (happy Valentine’s Day to me … ).

This was quickly followed by the sudden diagnosis and death of my team member and friend Lisa, due to pancreatic cancer in March, and then the breakdown of our daughter’s marriage in July.

For a while there it was a matter of just putting one foot in front of the other. But if nothing else I’m proving to be quite resilient, and while it may not have been all round flourishing, I survived. I’m still grieving, but here we are in a fresh new year with fresh hopes.

On the upside? We did get to spend more time at our beach shack, a definite step in the right direction 🙂 , plus we took some time out in October for a holiday in Darwin – so definitely achieved some of my goals for the year!

In my business things kept ticking over as I worked really hard to put new software and systems in place, a time consuming and not inexpensive process – but it’s about getting ready for the next stage of growth.

And in the midst of the grief, and the challenges of adapting to new systems and processes, it actually turned out to be my most profitable year yet! So “flourish” definitely was the word for my business, Front Page SEO!

I’ve just put on two new team members, so it will be interesting to see how things go in 2024. Obviously there are extra expenses involved in having more staff, but it also increases our capacity to work with more wonderful clients and help their business flourish (as towards the end of 2023 I actually had to turn a couple away … or at least put them off til the New Year).

My job in 2024 is to go out and find those new clients, and train my new team members, as well as look after the ones I have now. (Because in much the same way as you hear the saying: “Happy wife, happy life”, I strongly believe that if you look after your team, they will look after your clients and your business – part of my secret to success!)

So now I’ve brought you up to date on things – what’s my One Word for the Year 2024?

My Word for 2024 Revealed!

It’s SOAR!

(Funny story: when I told the kids my word, I had to clarify that I meant SOAR, not saw or sore!!!!).

“Soar” came to me in a business planning mastermind workshop I took part in early in December.

I’m taking a bit of leap of faith with growing the business, but the foundations are there to help carry me on an exhilarating, yet much more effortless journey, in the months to come (that’s the plan, anyway!).

I feel the same about every area of our lives. The husbear and I have put the hard yards in, and now is our time to soar.

The husbear finalised his parents’ estate mid-year, which has been a bit of a relief after several years of actively helping them with downsizing, ill health, and then all the work that came with their passing.

On the weekend we were counting our many blessings – good health, good kids, a happy home, good cars, a holiday house, investments … life is good.

It’s time to SOAR!