In my last week’s post I promised to share my new year’s resolutions. I’ve established an effective habit of posting my personal growth resolutions for the year ahead, for three years now. There’s scientific evidence that proves making your goals public or sharing them with your friends significantly increases your changes of success.

I don’t actually make resolutions, I create what I call ‘personal growth concepts’, they are themes that help me find focus.

Last year for instance I announced that I’d stop being in a hurry for the rest of my life. Ah, it worked wonders! I haven’t been rushing around since. I was very focused on this theme every day. If there was a train to catch I kept telling myself, “Allow yourself too much time. Leaving in a rush is going to be worse than getting one more thing done.” As a result, I’m much more present, my daily goals have become much more realistic and I generally allow more time for everything so I’m not in a hurry.

When I choose my ‘concepts’ I tend to build on the positive rather than fix the negative. These three areas are something I do already and I have found they bring me great satisfaction and immediately increase my happiness.

So what’s not to like, let’s have more of the good stuff!

1) Impact

I’ve noticed that when I come into a situation as my unashamed, authentic self, wearing no masks and fully owning my story, I have a great impact on people. (We all can do this, by the way, but it’s hard as there’s a pressure to be perfect and appear likable and successful.)

I remember a resent dinner party catching up with old colleques from my corporate days. It would have been very easy to slip into old habits and simply tell them the superficial story of what I was doing. You know the one where you tell how great everything is, and yes, it’s going fine and so on. But I decided to show up and be seen. I explained the DrivenWoman concept in detail to these middle aged, all male, ex-advertising bosses, who on the outset probably didn’t think much of my ‘‘women’s groups’. I even made them do one of our core exercises! The result, a fantastic evening with very genuine and open discussions. One of them even revealed a personal dream I don’t think he has talked about to anyone.  Genuinity breeds genuinity!

We all can have this impact if we are ready to be fearlessly true to our own story.

This is what happens at the DrivenWoman groups as our authentic, personal stories have a great impact on others. I will keep pushing for that authenticity, both on a personal level, but also as a key part of the DrivenWoman concept.

I want to see what impact I can have on the world, the people I meet on a daily basis and through DrivenWoman on a more global level. In 2016 this will include the first steps in scaling the concept to new countries as we open DrivenWoman groups Finland in January.

2) Beauty

Aesthetics, beauty and great design are some of my core values. I have always been involved with beauty or design through my businesses; first through branding and design, then as a design coffee shop owner and lately as a start-up founder to an online jewellery concept.

However, I have compartamentalised design into companies or brands that can naturally use aesthetics as a key ingredient. I had a massive ‘aha’ moment recently when I realized I can use all my values and capabilities within DrivenWoman, also the aspect of beauty and design. A women’s network may not sound like a typical place but neither did people think computers should be beautiful before Apple came along!

You will see DrivenWoman grow into the most beautiful women’s inspirational concept in the world.

We will be using design in ways that will hopefully brake some new ground.

On a personal level, I’m integrating beauty into my everyday life with pride and resolve. I will be unashamed in my celebration of fashion, design and art. I will make time for going to art shows, for enjoying fashion and for making my home an oasis of beauty. This is not time wasted, this will be time when I can recharge and rejuvenate.

3) Connect

I have included this theme in all my public New Year’s resolution posts in the past. But as there are so many interesting people to meet and connect with this may simply be a concept I have to carry over each year as I don’t think I can ever fully reach this goal.

When I came to London I didn’t know anyone. When we started DrivenWoman I didn’t know anyone. Now I have a group of driven, energetic, fun and genuine women around me sharing their journey.

It’s one of the best things I have ever done and I’m immensely grateful for every relationship and every person who have come to my life.

Now it’s time for the next step. I want to connect with people who are ‘showing up and being seen’ on a global level, women (and men) who can help us take DrivenWoman up a gear. My challenge is to figure out how we can create an even better program for our members and group leaders.

These three themes will help me find focus during the year ahead. They are short reminders of what is important. And I’m excited to explore each and one of them.

What are your resolutions or concepts for this year? Share your thoughts and give yourself a greater chance of success! For more tangible help, check out our groups in London and Helsinki.

Miisa