5 Intentional Acts to Set Yourself Up for Success in 2023

A new year is a perfect time for a fresh start for you and your organization for many reasons, whether it’s a familiar milestone you celebrate with friends or the beginning of your organization’s fiscal year. Below, we lay out five ways you can welcome 2023 and make it your most intentional year yet.

1. Decide on a theme for 2023

Setting a theme for the year can help you refocus your efforts to align with your goal or mission throughout the year. Meditate on your progress in 2022, how you’d most like to spend your time in the new year, and any achievements you’d like to accomplish in the next 365 days. We’ve outlined a few suggestions to help get your creative juices flowing:

• Growth and improvements to your organization. Many business leaders want to see growth and improvement in their organizations, but it’s important to remember that there’s power in specificity. How do YOU want your organization to grow and improve? Quantify that statement; otherwise, you’ll be hard-pressed to stay focused on your theme.
• Downsizing, cleansing, or simplifying. Perhaps business has proliferated so much in the past year that you need to sit back, de-clutter, re-design, or even clean your office.
• Could it be time to launch that new service you’ve been dreaming of? 
• Giving back. If everything is humming along nicely, now could be a great time to start giving back to your community through your time, services, or financial resources.

Once you’ve decided on your overall theme, create a plan of realistic tasks and timelines that align with your chosen theme.

2. Attend a retreat

If you need to regroup and rejuvenate from a stressful holiday season (or even stressful year) then a retreat can do just the trick. A retreat is a time to step out of your day-to-day responsibilities in order to set goals for your business and make a plan. Often, a retreat can afford us greater clarity in our direction and concrete steps to implement them.

A retreat can be made on your own or with a group of specific team members. Typically, the events of a retreat include a combination of planning and brainstorming sessions, education, team-building, and social activities.

If a retreat sounds like too much work, then a quick vacation (or even a staycation!) might be in order so that you can enter the new year with a relaxed mind.

3. Learn from 2022

If 2022 was bumpy for your business, now is a great time to perform a detailed review. Consider your wins and losses, review your finances, and determine opportunities to improve your service, product, internal procedures, or work experience. Doing so will help you learn what went wrong and explore why. From there, you can brainstorm ideas on how to learn from any mistakes and avoid making them in 2023. Consider making this process structured in a way that affords you the greatest clarity, such as an after-action review.

4. Select a word for 2023

If setting a theme is too complicated, how about selecting one straightforward word for 2023? Here are some ideas:

• Abundance (think big, go after large contracts and big projects, etc.)
• Creativity (think outside the box, innovate, incorporate design)
• Community (hone relationships, support marginalized groups, give back)
• Gratitude (celebrate small wins, reward your team)
• Service (support the community with your talents, volunteer at a local nonprofit, etc.)
• Fun (encourage play, add spontaneity into your workplace culture)
• Prosperity (create an equitable work environment, align your spending with your morals, fortify your organization for future generations’ benefit)

Once you think of the best word for your year ahead, make it impossible to forget by writing it on post-its, setting it as your phone background, or even incorporating it into your email signature to reinforce your priorities. 

5. Make a profit plan (AKA forecast)

Making a profit plan for the new year will help you hone in on the profit amounts you want to achieve. Understanding how much volume you need to reach and what you can spend will avoid surprises at year-end. It’s good to reevaluate your standing on a monthly and quarterly basis, so you have time to adjust your deliverables, revenue, or expenses to meet your goals. 

Whether you do one or all of the ideas listed above, we hope you have an exceptional 2023 and that it’s your best year ever, whatever that means to you.