When I was a child,

in late summer of every year,

my mother would take

me and my sister

to the local shoe store

to pick out our “school shoes”

for the coming year.

This was for me the start

of a new year.

I still feel that same excitement

each September.

Client projects are buzzing,

teams are gearing up for Q4,

the air begins to get crisp,

and my keynote calendar

moves into full swing.

Most people (at least in Western culture)

view the New Year as beginning in January. . .

but there’s a special boost of energy

that comes with the fall.

My friend Mary Olson-Menzel and I

have set aside an afternoon next week

to envision and discuss 2023. . .

not at our desks,

nor in a conference room,

with calendars, computers & flip charts…

but instead on a boat

looking out to the horizon.

If you’ve got a little window of time

in the coming weeks,

consider clearing an afternoon

to get into the open air,

“muse forward”

and reconnect with those

wisps, wishes and high-wattage ideas

that may have gotten buried

in the mountain known as 2022.

Risk Forward & Rock On,

P.S. If you missed last week’s message on The Importance of Showing Up, we received a slew of email responses from people who appreciated the story. The 1-minute video is worth watching. You can see it here.