Last year was a wild ride for our company. We launched our brand on 2.2.22, delivered our first product in June, published our own research in August, won Pitchfest at HR Tech in September and started deploying our first customers on the SPOTLYFE platform. Needless to say, we had much to celebrate over the past year and we are incredibly grateful for all of these moments and more.
If these headlines told the whole story, you’d think I saw nothing but sunshine and rainbows last year, but in reality, 2022 was really hard. Between being a first time CEO leading a company during economic turbulence that we haven’t seen in over a decade, juggling the needs of three daughters, and trying to prioritize my own health and wellbeing, it was downright overwhelming at times.
But if this last year has taught me anything, it’s that I don’t have to sit back and let overwhelm take over. Among the many lessons I learned in 2022, these are a few of my favorite lessons:
- WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH, SLOW DOWN: When things seemed to be the hardest, I forced myself to pause and take a couple of deep breaths to focus on me first. The SPOTLYFE product forced me to do it once a week and I’m grateful for that. The to-do lists are always endless so pausing helped me focus on what was most important.
- SELF CARE IS ESSENTIAL: I wish I could say I was great at this all year but that would be a lie. I got back into a running for a few months which was exhilarating. I also was in a push up challenge with my long time college friends that lasted most of the year. I felt the best inside and outside of work when I was paying attention to my self care…but if I’m honest, when things were really hard at work, my own care was the first to go and it should have been the opposite. Going to work hard on that in 2023.
- FIND HARMONY: This goes back to our product at SPOTLYFE, but finding that harmony between what I’m trying to do at work, how I’m living my life and paying attention to my own self care is achievable. Some weeks it was all about work…but many others work didn’t really matter at all. The key was to become more self aware about the intersection of the three…and being content. I found myself making a decision and then thinking through how that decision would impact each of those three categories. I’m really excited to dive deeper on this in 2023.
In 2023 I’m going to take these lessons to heart and keep practicing intentionality, gratitude and reflection. What will you make a priority this year?
