10,000 steps. 10,000 words.

It’s a new year and this is what’s been on my mind.

In contrast to my business partner and super-smart friend Rena, I have an affinity for gold eye shadow and will indeed dye my hair a deep violet for my milestone birthday in October.

This year, I will also:

Walk.

My love of gadgets, technology and online connectivity means I spend way too much time in front of my personal computing devices – desktop + mobile.

Walking slows me down, quiets my monkey-mind and creates space for those big gig ideas and flashes of inspiration to emerge.

Miyamoto-san, the director of the Reiyukai Canada, introduced me to a pedometer and 10,000 steps a day to wellness, in my salad days. 

Now when I visualize 300,000 steps a month, I see super bouncing balls. I am hopeful my new fitbit ultra will remedy this.

Pay attention to the pause.

As a social business consultant, it’s my job to listen to our clients and then provide technology, training and organizational solutions.

Deadlines, financial constraints and complex operating environment means the work is never dull. It’s also important to deliver creative results in a compressed timeframe.

And, I do.

But amidst all this busy-ness, it’s important to pause.  

The pause holds power. It becomes a form of prayer or meditation.

And, it highlights the way forward.

Play more music.

Science confirms that we are hard-wired to respond to music. As William Congreve first told us: Music has charms to soothe a savage breast.

My best poetry comes when I’m listening to soulful Greek ballads.

My best business thought pieces come when I’m listening to NPR.

It’s time, once again, to befriend Tori Amos, Holly Cole and Loreena McKennitt.

Read more poetry.

The work of the poet

is to name what is holy:

the spring snow

that hides unevenness

but also records

a dog walked at lunchtime,

the hieroglyphs of birds,

pawprints of a life

tiny but resolute.

• Diane Ackerman

I am a poet at heart.

It’s what defines me and allows me to use simple, clear language to explain complex ideas to our clients.

It’s what makes me a good public speaker and trainer.

I believe a poem can be a catalyst for positive change – in the workplace, at home, in the community and society at large.

I am not alone.

It’s why over a dozen governments, including Canada and the US, appoint their own Poet Laureates to compose poems for significant events.

Write, more.

One of my good friends, now living and painting in the land down under, unearthed a small scrap of paper that held my wishes for 2012.

I’d scribbled my desires and placed them in her wishing well more than 5 years ago:

• to write creatively,
• to publish professionally,
• and, to speak, publicly as my full-time career.

That means sharing both my big gig and often, mundane, chicken scratches online. It’s a big hairy audacious goal: 10,000 words a month, 120,000 words a year.

Are you ready?