Celebrating Another Lap Around the Sun

SUMMARY

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Instead of our normal conversation around leadership that we're having right now, I want to encourage and thank you. I want to pop on in here and say (from my family to yours) that whatever this holiday season means to you, I just wish you a time of relaxation, joy, peace, and happiness.

Whatever it is that you've been doing this year, I want to encourage you to give yourself a pat on the back and say: “Well done.” You've achieved further progress. Not everything went perfectly, but you got a lot of things done.

You changed who it is that you are.

What I'd love to do is just give you further encouragement to take what you've learned out of this year (out of our time together) and look at where you could implement those things going into 2024.

TRANSCRIPT

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Hey everyone, this is Grant and I wanted to pop in here and do something a little different this week because this is the last week that People Builders and my other companies will be open for 2023.

Instead of our normal conversation around leadership that we're having right now, I want to encourage and thank you. I want to pop on in here and say (from my family to yours) that whatever this holiday season means to you, I just wish you a time of relaxation, joy, peace, and happiness.

Whatever it is that you've been doing this year, I want to encourage you to give yourself a pat on the back and say: “Well done.” You've achieved further progress. Not everything went perfectly, but you got a lot of things done.

You changed who it is that you are.

I also want to thank you for coming on this journey with me. Without you, there's no reason for me to get up in front of this camera every week and talk about all things leadership and emotional intelligence in a VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous) world and all the things I love to share.

If no one listens, watches, or reads, then I'm just speaking into midair for no value whatsoever. So, thank you.

If you joined the conversation years ago, or just recently connected, and you're coming on this journey with me, thank you.

What I'd love to do as well, though, is just give you further encouragement to take what you've learned out of this year (out of our time together) and look at where you could implement those things going into 2024.

Next week, I will put together a reflective process that I like to do every year.

I’m going to share that with you to help you sit down and plan what it is that you want to achieve in 2024 and then to be able to have a look at where you are now and reflect on the year that's gone so that you can go into the new year carrying a different baggage and only taking the resources with you that are going to serve you.

This year has been quite exhausting for me. You can hear by my voice that I haven't been well in the last few weeks. I've had the opportunity and privilege to travel all around the world again and to work with people just like you.

I've worked in some amazing organisations.

I've worked with some tremendously extraordinary individuals.

I've spoken on stages.

I've been involved in panels at summits and conferences.

I've travelled long distances on airlines, and I've also had some personal loss where I lost my younger brother just a few weeks ago.

So, this year has been exhausting.

And the reason I tell you this is not for you to go: “Oh, sorry you had a bad year, Grant.”

The reason I am telling you this is for you to recognise that even the “expert” that you listen to or read from on the screen, podcast, or website (or wherever it is that you and I connect), even he and other experts like him don’t have it all together either.

Life happens to me just like it happens to you and everyone else.

As I've always said to you, it's not what happens, though; it’s what you make it mean. Particularly, what do you make it mean about you?

What have you learned out of the year?

What are you doing with it?

The only value you can get out of anything you learn in life is implementing it moving forward.

Information alone is great, but it could be frustrating when you know stuff but don’t know how to do it or put it into action.

So, I want to encourage you as you go into this silly season (as some people call it) to recall some of that stuff around your identity, your personal power, and the boundaries that you set and take that into Christmas.

Even if you don’t celebrate Christmas — I’m just talking about the time of year — a lot of times, during the holiday season, people get together with people in their family or with people in their circle of friends who they don’t get on well with when they're together and this can be a not-so-joyous time.

So, I want you to recall the work we've done around your mini-me and your identity.

I also want you to recall the things I taught you on the following:

How you can set boundaries with people.

How you can take what they say as something that's through their lens, not yours.

How you can avoid taking that on as a negative meaning about you and enjoy being who you want to be in every area of your life.

I count it as an absolute privilege to do what I do.

I am the People Builder.

I get to build people.

(In fact, I've only ever had a couple of people over the last 15 years who thought I literally built people. I'm not sure where they thought I got the pieces from, but anyway, that's another story. I also get a lot of spam from construction equipment companies who think that People Builders is a construction company.)

Back to what I was saying, I want you to give yourself some space. Give yourself some time to relax. Give yourself some time to separate from all things business and work and from the things that you give to all throughout the year.

So that's really all I wanted to do: To pop in here, say thank you, and remind myself by telling you again that it's a privilege to serve you and to invite you to join me as we continue the journey going into 2024 where I'm going to get back into all things leadership and we're going to have some fun together.

If there are particular things that you've enjoyed about this year with me, I'd love to see some comments. If there are particular things that you'd like me to cover moving forward, get involved in the conversation and ask.

I'm here to serve you.

So, from my family to yours, Merry Christmas, and may 2024 be your best year ever.

I'll see you then.