12 Quotes for a Positive Shift in 2023
Welcome 2023! By tradition my first newsletter of the year includes:
My intention for the year ahead, and
Twelve quotes to assist me with that intention while powering my positive.
It's easy for me to fall into the trance of doing. I now believe one of my earliest over indulgences was to the feedback that came from non-stop GSD. And that started long before my career began! It would be many decades before I learned that sometimes we have to practice "under-doing and under-achieving" to remind us of "the simple grace and humility of being human." (Big thanks to Richard Rohr for that reminder.) I'm learning meaningful moments often happen when I've created space to simply be. That's why my intention for the year is to create space.
At some point I'll find myself in the trance of human doing mode and will need to pause, pull up, and remember my intention of creating space. When I do that, I plan on returning to this list of quotes I discovered over the last year. Each of them fueled my tank, and I'm sure they’ll do it again. I hope they do that for you, too.
Finally, I would love to hear your intention for the year! If you haven't landed on one yet - and you're looking for inspiration - check out my Six Actions To Set Up Your Year. I recently ran through this exercise with a client who shared this praise-pile worthy feedback with me after our jam session, "Meeting with you was the perfect way to start the year. I was feeling a little adrift, but after we spoke I felt more focused."
"Everybody faces a blank piece of paper, no matter what they've written or painted or composed before. I can't imagine approaching every single new project without doubt."
Stephen Sondheim
Tony Award, Academy Award, and Grammy Award winning composer and lyricist
"Let me keep my mind on my work, which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished."
Mary Oliver
Pulitzer Prize winning poet and author of over 30 poetry collections
"Do not be afraid to disappear, from it, from us, for a while and see what comes to you in the silence."
Michaela Coel
Emmy Award winning screenwriter and actress
"Don't plan it all. Let life surprise you a little."
Julia Alvarez
Poet, novelist, and essayist
“The first way to develop presence is in living each day with great simplicity.”
Brother Lawrence
Seventeenth-century lay brother, Discalaced Carmelite monastery
"May our questions lead us to deeper questions so we just dwell in wonder and mystery throughout the day."
Craig Paschal
Pastor, Mancos (CO) United Methodist Church
"When we lack gratitude for how far we have come, we forget to relish the journey's thoroughness. We forget that we are here to learn and become the best version of ourselves."
Lynne Twist
Founder, the Soul of Money Institute
"Even our smaller actions have potential for great change, positively or negatively, and the way in which we all conduct ourselves within the world means something."
Nick Cave
Author, The Red Hand Files
"When we can become little enough, naked enough, and honest enough, then we will ironically find that we are more than enough."
Richard Rohr
Founder, the Center for Action and Contemplation
"There are so many good things that happened along my journey that I had nothing to do with."
Dr. Michael Parr
Constellation Behavioral Health Miracles Award Recipient for 2022
"When I need to make a decision, I try to look to the future. I look to the one-hundred-year-old version of myself -- the one who understands the importance and preciousness of time -- about how I should spend this hour, this day, or this week."
Matthew Dicks
Author, Someday is Today
"All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well…for there is a Force of love moving through the universe that holds us fast and will never let us go."
Julian of Norwich
Mystic and author, Revelations of Divine Love