Talent Trade host Stephanie Maas closes out 2023 with a fun exercise in year-end gratitude, and a unique way to frame your professional accomplishments as the calendar rolls over to 2024.
This is Stephanie Maas partner with Thinking Ahead, Executive Search, and welcome to The Talent Trade.
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Oh my goodness, can you believe we are launching into 2024?
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I don't know about y'all, but I know for me, 2023 went by like a blur.
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There were ups, there were certainly downs and everything else, which I think is just kind of par for the course now, but it went by so incredibly.
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Fast.
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So here we are on the cusp of a new year.
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I have mixed feelings about New Year's resolutions.
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I think that the spirit of them is incredible, but sometimes we put so much pressure on ourselves that we give up before we even get started.
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But one of my favorite traditions is to really spend time thinking about what was I thankful for in the last year?
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What did I learn from the last year and what do I hope for for the upcoming year?
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I also like to think about in the spirit of what do I hope for?
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What's my part?
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What can or do I need to be doing to really make those hopes and dreams come true?
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And I think about this personally as it relates to my family.
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I think about it from a search perspective.
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I'll share with you two things that I've done in the past that I love.
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I saw this one online somewhere, so I don't know who to give proper credit to, but basically they said, start a gratitude jar and put it somewhere super visible, put a stack of not quite sticky notes, but little, you know, square pieces of paper.
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And every time something good happens, write it on that note and put the date and put it in the jar.
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Do it for the entire year.
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And then on New Year's Eve, dump out the jar and read about all the amazing things that happened throughout the year.
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We actually did this last year.
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I knew it was going to be a challenging year for me and my family, so I wanted to do that.
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And it was so much fun reading those on New Year's Eve.
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It was amazing how much the kids had forgotten or how much they go, Oh my gosh, that was last year.
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It seems like it was ages ago.
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And it definitely sets the tone for trying to set up a proper next year at work.
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Some of the cool things I've done.
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Is you know, our firm is huge on stats and you know, we believe in managing the numbers and lead the people.
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I started setting goals in terms of not necessarily all my stats, but things like who can I bring along?
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How can I help develop X, Y or Z?
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You know, how many clients can I serve this year?
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or how many candidates can I help transition into a better situation and just started shifting how I thought about the job a little bit.
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Again, we still have to manage the numbers.
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They're still there, but I just did, I just did a little bit of a, of a mind shift and how I approached my work.
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And it was amazing how I just went into the year so much more relaxed and like, Hey, I'm here to serve.
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It's going to work out however it is.
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My job is to wake up every day.
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Get on the phone and try and find who I need to serve next.
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So with that being said, we here at the talent trade are super thankful for 2023, the introduction of this podcast and anyone who's ever given us a listen, whether it be for a minute or the entire podcast or whatever the case may be.
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So thank you for that.
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And we also share a commitment to 2024.
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And bringing you hopefully more hopeful content that makes you better at your desk and your craft and improves the executive search business as a whole.
