2022 was an amazing year.  I’ll bet you discovered abilities you didn’t even know you had. These last several years have required your strength, grit, determination, resourcefulness, intelligence, and all the internal resources you could muster.

Well done!

Now we look ahead to 2023.

Starting the first week of January, you’ll pick up your brush and paint the first stroke of color on your blank canvas that will, day by day, turn into the next year of your life.

How do you manifest a beautiful year?

First, you dream it into being.

This week is perfect for it, while you’re still in the glow of the holiday bubble.  Take 10 minutes or an hour and use this week right now for dreaming your 2023 into life.

2023 does not have to be more of 2022.  The new year can go way beyond, as far as your imagination can take you.

It can be the year that your dreams come true.

Don’t look to the world for permission or license to have the happiest year of your life.

You are your own licensing entity. You are the one who gives yourself a license to dream and to paint those dreams into reality.

Dreaming always precedes doing.  If it doesn’t, the “doing” has no imagination.  Life becomes a grind.

Your imagination shapes reality.

As the song “Happy Talk” from South Pacific points out:  If you don’t have a dream, how you gonna have a dream come true?

Don’t limit your dreams by what you see of other’s dreams.  Don’t restrain your dreams by what “reasonable people” think is “possible”. Don’t listen to any “Dream Police” who tell you to “face reality”.

You are the creator of reality. Always remember that.

Right before the holidays, I helped someone negotiate a difficult $4 million deal.  I helped another two give presentations that turned a difficult prospect around completely to close a $500 million deal. Now there was a celebration!  I also helped an executive inspire his team of 1,500 who were demoralized by too many reorganizations. Finally, I helped a mother repair her relationship with her daughter, reuniting them with both in happy tears.

I help people win.  

Far too many have losing as their default. They say things like, “Well, what can you do?  I don’t have big expectations.  I’m waiting to see what 2023 brings… the economy is uncertain and I hear there’s going to be a big reorganization, don’t know how it will affect me yet …”

Losing is their default.  They lose before they even begin.

I work with people to make winning their default.  Make winning your default.

Winning has everything to do with what you believe. The second you believe you can, it gets put into motion and winning begins.  That belief, that decision is powerful.  It’s the spark that ignites.

This is your week.  You are free.

You are free to dream.  And this is a beautiful week for reflection.

What would make you stupendously happy in 2023? What would be absolutely “impossible” but totally wonderful if it happened? What about your dreams in every area of your life, not just work? Dream it!  And let your imagination and your dreams fly.

Forget “reality” and imagine life as you want it, not as it is.  Who cares if it’s impossible if it makes you supremely happy?  Forget “possible” and go for happy!

Dream it rich.  Dream it bold.  Dream in color. Dream in all its dimensions.

Dream and dream and dream. Imagine, imagine, and imagine.

Dream until you can’t stop smiling.  Don’t stop a moment before.

Next week, you will pick up your brush, choose the first color and paint the first stroke on your canvas. Your dreams will create a magnificent palette with an enormous range of colors, as you start painting a beautiful year like no other, a year of being truly happy because your dreams are making your brushstrokes fly on a canvas of life that’s as wide as you like.

Your 2023 will be different if you do this.  And my wish for you is for you to live the life of your dreams.

Next year, I will get practical and write all about how communication is vital to making our dreams happen.  I’ll show you how to elevate your ability to communicate at a level where your dreams materialize, not just for yourself, but for the world to admire.

It’s going to be an amazing journey we will take together… We’ll make winning our default…

Be the cause!