I hope it’s not too late to wish you all a HAPPY NEW YEAR. May 2024 bring you vibrant health, happiness, joy and fulfillment of your professional and personal endeavors. I’m curious what goals have you set for yourself for 2024? What do you hope to accomplish? Where will you put your energy and attention?
I have set some fearless goals for 2024 including finish building a new house (a dream project that my husband and I have been working on solidly for the past 2 years. Time to move in already!), launching a new book called Fearless Female Leaders, with coauthor Rosemary Paetow. This book will be the first in a series of Fearless Leader Books™. And of course, I want to expand my signature program, The Fearless Leader™. I will do that by building out my team of trained facilitators who can bring the program to move people around the world.
Personally, I would also like to resume traveling and see more of the world. I have my eyes set on Costa Rica and Portugal this year. And, I want to be there for my aging parents and in-laws. That’s primarily what has driven me to select SHOWING UP as my 2024 Word of the Year. I want to show up as my best self every day, everywhere. I intend to show up for myself and for my family. It’s a tall intention, and one that I will no doubt fail and disappoint often. But every morning I ask myself “How will show up today?” I even keep a daily journal to record how I actually show up. So far, I like my chosen Word of the Year and I believe it will serve me well in the remaining 349 days or 8,369 hours in 2024. I have plenty of time and opportunity to show up…and so do you!
What are your fearless goals for 2024?
You might be wondering what I mean by fearless goals? A goal is a goal is a goal, right? When I think of fearless goals I imagine something big and important, that really matters to me, that I really want to accomplish for me… and that scares the living daylights out of me.
When I think of my fearless goals for the future, I am reminded of a quote by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, “Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear.”
What is so important to you that you won’t let something like fear stop you?
Consider these areas of your life
When selecting fearless goals for 2024, consider these different aspects of your life:
- Professional/occupational
- Personal
- Health
- Family
- Travel / Adventure
- Personal Brand
- Leadership
- Other
I hosted a recent virtual event called Fearlessly Informal Coffee Chat and we had 23 people attend. In addition to getting to know each other through networking, we discussed two questions in breakout groups:
1. What’s your Word of the Year for 2024? Why did you choose it? How do you see this playing out? Who will help hold you accountable to this intention?
2. What fearless goals have you set for yourself in 2024? Why do these matter so much to you? What strategies will you use to overcome fear and ensure you make progress towards your goals (even if baby steps)
Formalizing your 2024 fearless goals
I invite you to give these above two questions some reflection before the New Year’s spirit gets away from us and we’re in the grind of doing, doing, doing. Why note write a passage of intention in your journal. Share your goals with trusted people in your life and ask them to hold you accountable. You could write a New Year’s Letter and share it with your network. That’s what my mentor and friend, Arthur Samuel Joseph did. And it moved me profoundly.
Who is Arthur? He is one of the world’s foremost authorities on the Human Voice. He is a 7-time author, Master Teacher and creator of the Vocal Awareness Institute. He has coached, trained, supported thousands of world-class athletes, artists, leaders and performers of all kinds, including people from the business world, like me. In fact, I am currently enrolled in his one-year Vocal Awareness Mastermind Group. It is such a privilege to be in the same room as Arthur, even if it’s virtually! With his permission, I am sharing with you his beautiful and inspired words about the importance of LEGACY – something we all need to be thinking about and doing more carefully.
LEGACY: Arthur’s Annual New Year’s Letter January 10, 2024
As I write this New Year’s letter, I approach a landmark in my life. I will be 78 this month. The landmark is that I begin my 60th year of teaching! Because of this, this year’s letter takes on even greater personal significance for me.
In preparation for this creative moment, I have done a great deal of reflection re-reading many pieces I have written in the past and thinking deeply about the future—not just mine—the future for all of us.
As a country, the U.S. is perhaps experiencing the most challenging time since our Founding Fathers created America. Wherever those of you in the world who will read this letter live, perhaps your country/your society is also struggling.
The ‘overarcing ‘purpose of this letter is to support each of us in being and doing our very best for our Selves, our families and as we choose, the societies in which we live.
In this regard, since the creation of Vocal Awareness, one fundamental goal has always been Personal Sovereignty: To help all those I work with to achieve their own enlightenment and enjoy their own empowerment.
As I continue deepening and evolving within my Self and within the Work throughout the decades, I have come to recognize and respect that of course, as I have always said, ‘Voice is Power’—that When we Own our Voice, We Own our Power’. In my evolution, I have come to grasp what this really means—beyond the obvious—Voice is vibration—it is energy. To enable us to live in the sovereignty of who we are capable of being—’our supreme excellence’—we want to be able to integrate our very vibration, the energy of who we are in full Conscious Awareness in everything we do, everything we feel; everything we say—as integrally as mindfully as honestly as possible within our Self, in our very thoughts and with whomever we speak.
As one of my favorite poets, Rainer Maria Rilke said over a hundred years ago, “I want to unfold. I do not want to stay folded anywhere, because where I am folded, there I am a lie.” Here is another translation of Rilke’s same poem: “I want to unfold. Let no place in me hold itself closed, for wherever I am closed, I am false.” Whatever interpretation/translation one reads, the goal is the same—to live in the truth of who we are—doing and being our very best every single day. Living in this way can enable each of us to truly fulfill our legacy, our promise and through the vibration and energy we carry forth—not simply feel empowered, but actually, be empowered. In turn, in this precarious time rather than being victimized by it, we can instead rise above and perhaps through our Voice, our vibration, our very energy, bring others along with us, enabling our Selves, our community, our families to be healthier, stronger, more compassionate and loving, making the world a better place because we are in it.
In preparing for today, one of my readings was to go back to my first book The Sound of the Soul from 1996. The following excerpt is from the final chapter: ‘Vocal Awareness: Creating a New Mythology.’ “…Vocal Awareness and the dissemination of its principles is my vocation, my calling, my lifelong artistic and professional passion. Why do I tell you this? Not because I think Vocal Awareness will be as central to your life as it is to mine, but because I would like you to see Vocal Awareness as fundamental to your life as breathing and communicating are…The practice of Vocal Awareness can be a bulwark against the changing tides of life. It offers a metaphorical, spiritual, and practical structure upon which, in your way and through your power, you can build a life of honor and success…I hope as you [finish reading this letter], you will see your Self as embarking upon the most exhilarating chapter of your new life…one that has brought you closer to your Self…
I so love living a life guided by and supported with the Conscious Awareness that Vocal Awareness shows me. I merely have to require my Self to surrender to its ethic because Vocal Awareness has taught me so well how to be the best of my Self possible at all times. I long ago recognized that there are no shortcuts, that, in fact, the only way out is through…Continue your ascent. Continue soaring. Feel the full investiture of your Self in every breath, in every sound and with the fullest integration of mind/body/spirit.”
The Sound of the Soul closes with a quote from a poem by the Nobel Laureate, Seamus Heaney. As this poem was so seminal in my personal evolution, I quoted it before and am passing the last stanza on once again as part of My Legacy as I begin my 60th year of teaching as it explains why God gave me Vocal Awareness at such an early stage of my life as my Journey was just beginning. “…I rhyme to see myself. To set the darkness echoing.” I was given Vocal Awareness to see, heal my Self, claim my Self, better serve God, the Work and by extension help others do the same.
May this year’s letter contribute to your legacy and be as a beacon that illuminates your path, your Journey, helping you in even some small way reach the fulfillment of your Deeper Self as you claim the life you deserve.
Here’s to a bountiful 2024 and beyond!
Sincerely,
Arthur
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