A Dose of Optimism for a New Year
In my home and in my business, a great deal of attention is focused on how the New Year starts.
That is because I believe that years are like the big projects of our lives, and as in all projects, a good beginning to a year makes a good end.
Because of that, a friend once told me I am a “bundle of beginnings,” lifting the term from the writer Ralph Waldo Emerson, and I suspect there is truth to that assessment.
Starting years, weeks, projects, adventures and businesses is always exciting. Birthing times of the year, like the start of the New Year, the sprouting seeds of spring, and nurturing, warm suns of summer all infuse us with optimism and ignite us to get started on a new and interesting journey.
We feel like we have it in our power to do the one thing we have always dreamed of, to be more than we imagined in the time period of the past. We know that things will change, and we will change, but in the end, we believe that we will both be the better for it.
We turn new pages and sometimes we start to write whole new chapters of our lives.
Life is richer and fuller when you are in the beginning of something, when your dreams are unchecked and your energy is high. As the philosopher Plato said, “The beginning is the most important part of the work.”
What will get started in my life this year?
I have a few goals for my business direction in particular, not the least of which is to move towards reaching more people and getting them exactly the kind of help that they want when they need it. That means offering more business on line, of course, and already some exciting meetings have taken place that show me the potential to do business even better by beginning a new venture.
I will tell you more about that as we move forward.
I will be writing a new book early this year that will be coming out in time for a summer reading market. This time I will be moving a bit away from the boldness of vision and dreams and into another field where I am inspired to go, and that is the boldness of selling.
It breaks my heart when I meet many talented entrepreneurs throughout the year who have marvelous abilities, great business concepts and brilliant execution of them, but whose sales skills keep them from being the real success that they can be.
I have talked to hundreds of people who preface every conversation about sales with “this is the tough part of doing business for me because I am not much of a seller.” I work with them, and slowly but effectively, I have developed strategies that are helping them emerge as confident sales professionals, able to share their remarkable skills, services and products with others in exchange for money.
These strategies will form the basis for my new book which I will tell you more about in the months to come as well.
Additionally, every year I begin by adopting a new character attribute that I promise myself I will develop further and practice wholeheartedly and authentically throughout the year.
This year my goal is to nurture my optimism. It is a strong seed within me under most circumstances anyhow, but deep in my heart I believe that it is a power that could be even stronger than I anticipate.
In every given set of circumstances I resolve to zero in on the most optimistic scenario and do my best to make it a reality.
I encourage you to share this experiment with me. I want to prove my hypothesis that optimism may be the most powerful force driving business and personal development in our Digital Age.
Won’t you join me by nurturing your own optimism this year?
Let’s look ahead with a conviction that this year we are all going to do better and be better than we could ever have imagined in the past!
Paula Morand is a leadership building, revenue boosting, strategy expanding keynote speaker, author and visionary. This dreaming big and being bold leadership expert and brand strategist brings her vibrant energy, humor and wisdom to ignite individuals, organizations and communities to lead change, growth and impact in a more bold fashion. 24 years, 27,000 clients, 34 countries, 15 books, former radio personality, 11x award winning entrepreneur and humorous emcee. Check out Paula’s bestselling books on Amazon: “Bold Courage: How Owning Your Awesome Changes Everything”, “Dreaming BIG and Being BOLD: Inspiring stories from Trailblazers, Visionaries and Change Makers” book series; and due to be released in January 2018 “Bold Vision: A Leader’s Playbook for Managing Growth”. For speaking inquiries email bookings@paulamorand.com or call toll-free 1-888-502-6317.