I was on my way to Santa Barbara for an in-person networking event, recording this newsletter as I drove. As I debated the merits of going back to “old school” networking, I tried to make good use of the drive time. Turns out, it’s great to meet people in live form and have actual conversations and even some hugging.
I’m considering this email to be the first of the year, because 2025 started with a wild and fiery beginning—literally. In January, my community faced a firestorm that left us without power and gas for weeks, creating uncertainty and making it nearly impossible to focus on work or much of anything. Thankfully, my home and my neighbors’ homes are still standing, but many friends lost theirs or have been displaced from their neighborhoods. Others lost their businesses. A sense of loss and quiet permeates the City still, along with varying degrees of grief and hardship for so many.
Because of this, February 1st was my personal New Year. I had been so excited to celebrate January 2025, only to have everything thrown into chaos by the end of the first week. In many ways, January felt like a gap year—as long as a year and a work/life gap. I’m ready to move forward.
In the spirit of a restart:
Happy New Year to you! I hope yours is off to a strong start. The world is changing rapidly, and even if you haven’t experienced fires or other natural disasters, we’re all navigating uncertainty. Whether it’s climate change, political shifts, or technological advancements, transition is everywhere, and it makes people nervous.
That’s been the core of my work for the last 15 years—helping people transition through change as successfully and positively as possible. Because while change can feel scary, it’s also inevitable, so let’s learn to navigate change well.
I’ve also noticed that change no longer comes in waves with long calm periods in between. It feels more constant now. The rapid rise of AI, for example, is reshaping how we work and live at an astonishing pace.
I remember feeling similarly when computers first emerged in the workplace. Looking back, I wonder how I could have ever managed my accounting career with just pencils, graph paper, and typewriters! Change can be overwhelming, but it often brings incredible progress. I hope that in 20 years, I’ll look back and marvel at how we once operated without AI (still skeptical, but hoping).
Change isn’t comfortable. It brings both opportunities and challenges. We can’t control much of it, but we can control how we respond and how we think about it.
As we begin this year, I find myself asking: How do we navigate uncertainty—our own and others’? How do we plan our finances and careers when the future feels so unclear?
I love planning, and recently wrapped up my annual “Planning for Success” course with Lorenda Phillips. I also attended my yearly “Scale It Live” conference, where we focus on visioning, strategizing, and planning for growth. I believe in planning, but also acknowledge that things may shift unexpectedly and we need to be ready. The key is to stay adaptable, open to learning, positive and grateful for what is working, and even where the opposite (what doesn’t work) can lead you to.
With that in mind, here are my top five, beginning of the year strategies for embracing uncertainty and setting yourself up for success:
1. Reflect on the Positive
We’re wired to focus on potential dangers—it’s a survival instinct. But it’s essential to balance and offset that by recognizing what’s going well. When your mind jumps to worst-case scenarios, pause and ask yourself: Is this fear I’m feeling based on fact, or is it just my mind filling in unknowns with fear based premonitions for the future?
Instead of blindly allowing your feelings or thoughts to dictate your way forward, go to your intuition, go to your past history, be honest about what you don’t know. Could the future bring something better than what you are anticipating? List out some positives in your life, did you expect these outcomes in the way they turned out?
When your beliefs and ideas are telling you that there’s only one way that this is going to go for you, check in and ask yourself, do I know this or do I think this? What’s making me feel this way? What if things actually were to turn out better than expected? And try to reframe your perspective to allow for better possibilities.
Because honestly, if you can reframe your thoughts to positive ones, that possibility exists.
2. Get Organized, Especially with Your Finances
Uncertainty is easier to face when you are on a solid financial and emotional foundation. We took some action on the emotional part above. Next, take this time to check on financial safeguards you’ve been neglecting to put in place — updating important documents, getting your beneficiaries right, reviewing your investments, ensuring your emergency fund is in place, adjusting the amount for lifestyle changes or inflation etc.
Be non-judgemental with yourself, just focus on awareness. Meet your money where it is and start making small, proactive improvements. Little by little, you can clean up money clutter, take care of financial “to do’s” while reacquainting yourself with your financial circumstances. It’s very freeing to organize in any area of life, especially money.
We need to organize in order to plan. If you need guidance, you can always book a call with me to help kickstart your organizing and planning!
3. Assess Your Career or Business
How is your career or business holding up in this shifting world? Is it sustainable? Is it future-proof? Now is a great time to evaluate whether you need to pivot, uplevel your skills, or explore new opportunities. Start researching, learning, and experimenting with AI to see how it might enhance what you do.
While AI is definitely the intern that has to be supervised, and you will have to review and edit whatever work it does for you, it can be useful. In the area of job search, there are many ways AI can be your personal assistant, making some tasks less daunting (like revising your LinkedIn profile).
If you aren’t using it at all, consider getting familiar with what’s currently out there. Reach out to me for resources on AI for various projects as I have been putting together a resource list for you. Reply to this email or schedule a call to discuss how you can use it in your career transition or business.
4. Focus on a Meaningful Project
Pour energy into a project that you care about. This was advice given on a podcast with a therapist who talks about midlife anxieties called: Creating Midlife Calm (coping skills for stress and anxiety in Family, Work & Relationships). She said that because so much is out of our control right now, focus on what you can control and dig in. Choose a project that you’re excited about, that’s meaningful to you and that you can enjoy doing. And focus on that.
Take the focus off the news media and off social media. Put all that energy and focus into a project like taking care of an ailing parent, artwork, building a new business, spending more time with your family, redecorating your house, your money, or whatever you desire.
Find something that you can sink your teeth into and get that done. Feel the successful, productive sense of wellbeing that comes from channeling your energy into something tangible and actionable, that can provide a much-needed sense of control and accomplishment.
You’ll know when you need this. When you are too distracted or need to get out of your negative thought patterns, focusing on something meaningful to you is great medicine.
5. Nurture Your Relationships
The world feels more divided than ever, and that tension, among others, affects relationships. Despite differing opinions, lead with love, empathy, and understanding where you can. Focus on strengthening the relationships that matter most. Spend quality time with loved ones, be present, and cultivate real connections.
I’ve been prioritizing community building, whether it’s joining a Mahjong group or attending workshops at “French General” to learn textile arts. Sitting in a room with people, working on a craft, chatting, and simply being present—is grounding and soul enriching. Humans have always shared deep connections through communal activities. Technology is amazing, but real human interaction is irreplaceable.
Moving Forward with Intention
While I didn’t start this list with “create a strategy,” I do believe that once you reflect on these areas, it’s time to make a plan. Each night, identify the three most important things to accomplish the next day. Start your mornings by asking, What would success look like today? Your answer might be as simple as taking much-needed rest or making progress on a big goal. Whatever it is, defining it helps create clarity and direction.
So, as we move into this new year—whenever your “new year” officially begins—embrace change with curiosity, take control where you can, and lean into the relationships and activities that bring you joy.
Here’s to a year of possibility, resilience, and growth!
With gratitude,
Michelle
xo
