Lessons Learned…Wisdom Earned: 2022 Reflections and 2023 Expectations

It’s hard to believe that 2022 is coming to a close.

Being a Kata Geek to the core, it is my daily practice to reflect on lessons learned and regularly revisit my daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly strategic vision intentions and goals.

As 2022 draws to a close, I find myself standing in front of this year’s strategic vision board in complete and total awe of how my wildest dreams came to fruition. My strategic visioning theme for 2022 was “Faithfully Focused.” I made plans, prepared, prayed and ultimately trusted the UNIVERSE to lead and guide my path. And OH, MY GOODNESS…WHAT A WONDERFUL, WILD, WISDOM-EARNING JOURNEY 2022 HAS BEEN!

The top three areas of being faithfully focused included:

1. Embrace what makes me unique and wonderfully made. Instead of shying away from what makes me different, I embraced it and used my gifts, talents and experiences to help others celebrate what makes them special. Hence the #ShesDifferent™ blog series and other life-changing content created to help women embrace ALL of who they are!

2. Remember what my beloved Grandmother, Mary Rose Hardin, said about my business a few months before she transitioned “Dee, your business is like Oprah…and you’re in the business of helping people.” An essential part of my 2022 strategic vision was working with companies around the globe to “help them” by identifying solutions and actualizing strategies to elevate equity, inclusion and belonging throughout the organization.

3. Keynote and speak to audiences about the importance of identifying the big, bold, audacious dream to achieve, then how to take the first step toward that dream and keep moving #OnToTheNextOne!

I met so many marvelous people this year and experienced magical and miraculous moments like…

1. Co-hosting KataCon8 with my dear friend Tilo Schwarz and delivering a solid keynote sparked by my relationship with Coach Tracy Defoe about the importance of having a coach and being a coach!

2. Finally meeting my continuous improvement friends in person when I was blessed with the opportunity to speak at KaiNexicon 2022 (May), the Lean Frontiers Lean Coaching Summit (July) and the EPA-Office of Continuous Improvement Lean Summit (October).

3. Presenting a workshop and participating in a keynote panel at AME Dallas 2022- [see highlights video below]! I had always dreamed of speaking at the Association of Manufacturing Excellence Conference. Still, I believed that dream would come to pass after my book was published and was on The New York Times Best Seller list!!!

4. The awards, appointments and opportunities to lead and be of service to all mankind in Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.®, afforded to me by our International President, my Regional Director and Alpha Mu Omega’s Chapter President.

5. Spending time with dear friends and loved ones in the valleys and on the mountaintops and being constantly reminded to live in the moment.

Throughout the year, there were many lessons learned and wisdom earned. I’m beyond grateful for every experiment that went as planned and those that didn’t. Those experiences ultimately pushed me beyond my threshold of knowledge and helped me (and my business) grow!

I am sooooo excited about what 2023 has in store.

In the coming days, I will share more about **my** 2023 Strategic Visioning Theme: #FearNot and how you can register for the 2023 Strategic Visioning Experience™ Workshop. The 2023 Strategic Visioning Workshop will be different from any I’ve ever conducted; I promise you will not want to miss it.

In the meantime, Happy New Year to you, my friends. Let’s keep going from DREAMING to DOING and moving #OnToTheNextOne!!!