2023 Year In Review

January 8, 2024

Written December 28th from the home I’m staying at in a tiny village in Austria, where my partner and I are with family for the holidays + ski season. Sending a warm hug to wherever you are in the world reading this!

At the end of each year, I like to reflect on some key accomplishments and learnings before I jump into new year planning.

Here’s how I break it down:

What Went Well

BIG EDUCATION YEAR

In 2023 I completed my most intense coaching certification yet, where I learned to work more effectively with the subconscious mind. For those of you who don’t know, the subconscious mind, sometimes otherwise referred to as the unconscious mind, is what controls 95-97% of your reality. For me, it made sense to study this even more since it’s what helps my clients produce faster results in my programs. I also learned new somatic techniques that work directly with your body and the emotions that tend to hold us back from taking action (mostly fear manifesting as overwhelm, trouble making decisions, and subsequently distracting yourself on your phone to avoid these uncomfortable feelings). All these new mythologies led me to revamp my signature program ATA and create Today not Tomorrow, which I am officially kicking off mid January!

I also went on a psychedelic integration training and retreat for coaches and therapists where I learned non-substance forms of psychedelic experiences, how they can create profound insights, and how to help clients integrate their learnings.

Outside of my work education, I started working with a German tutor regularly and am now approaching B1 level, I completely my Reiki 1 and 2 training, and I read 45 books (although many were fiction at the end fo the year once I discovered the Sarah Mass Universe). Two things I really loved this year were realizing how much energy I got from in-person spiritual trainings where I could nerd out with other “woo” people, and also realizing how fictional fantasy romance can be just as helpful for my “self-improvement” as self-development and non-fictional books are.

Aligned My Work and Life More with My Values

In last year’s review, I said I wanted to stay more local in Lisbon Portugal (where my residency is) to grow my community. And I did! But also took some crazy adventures like motorbiking through Vietnam mountains.

Play

Time and location are huge personal values of mine. It’s always been my dream to have enough flexibility in my business to take a month off and travel to completely different time zones without the worry of taking coaching calls at 3 AM. This was the first year I accomplished that, and my business and programs continued to run smoothly.

This year I also compromised my business growth for more work/life enjoyment. While I made the same revenue as last year, this year I worked an average of 15 hours less per week and changed all the things I REALLY wanted to change in my business (even if they did not make strategic sense). This year I had a lot more energy and far fewer motivational slumps, and I think this was a big part of it.

Lastly, I started running giving campaigns/fundraisers with my business, which I had always wanted to do in previous years but honestly had too much of a scarcity mind for. I won’t lie, I still had resistance to donating what I committed to in my campaigns but giving more away has helped me form less attachment to money. And it feels meaningful to support causes I care about!

Here’s a handful of various story shares from 2023

Lastly, I really honed in my New Year’s intention, which was to show up more authentically and openly online. I think showing up online AT ALL was a barrier I got over 2 years ago, but it felt like a whole new level of discomfort to open up vulnerable parts of myself that could lead to extra opinions, judgments, or unfollows. I talked about what used to feel like secret topics to me – like my business financials, loneliness, my past challenges with an eating disorder, my take on psychedelics, and my opinions on world events (I do most of this on my Instagram stories). I’m happy to say I care even less what people think, but I do still put everything through a ‘will this get me canceled or shadow-banned’ filter. If I am being honest with myself I still have some ways to go here, but I am happy I am showing up more imperfectly than I used to.

Challenges and Learnings

Relationship anxiety

Speaking of vulnerabilities! This is the longest relationship I’ve been in and WHO KNEW I’d have friggen sabotage thoughts out of nowhere. My relationship anxiety came in the form of intrusive thoughts, where for example, I would tell my partner I loved him, and my brain would shoot back “Liar!” These thoughts were just a product of an unconscious need for certainty, and some unhelpful conditioning I was not aware of until this year.

I don’t think I could explain the mental pain I went through without writing a whole blog article on this but I’ll spare you with a TL;DR – If you have a really solid partner and you notice intrusive thoughts and you’re having a hard time deciphering what is real vs what is not – see a therapist or coach if it’s within your means. I’m so grateful I worked with a somatic therapist in Lisbon who helped me clear all this nonsense out and it’s no longer a problem for me. If you’re looking for an online resource check out @anxiouslovecoach because she’s a gem.

Slower Social Media Growth

This year I was more consistent than ever with posting on social, but my following count only went up about 10,000. To be clear, I am still so grateful for you! You all mean the world to me. I thought I would care a lot more about this considering I’ve gained 100,000 followers in previous years, but considering my business made the same amount I was a bit excited to learn my income did not depend on viral videos. I did try expanding on YouTube and wrote a few blog articles, but I’ve decided I can be successful by just doubling down on 2 platforms and not spreading myself thin.

What I am putting my energy toward in the new year:

For the first time, I am going to publicly open up business coaching for service-based providers! However, I am not making a major niche pivot anytime soon. I will still be supporting creatives with lowering their procrastination, perfectionism, stress, and people-pleasing so they can create success that feels as good as it looks – BUT – recently I’ve been supporting some business owners behind the scenes with a larger focus on strategy, program creation, showing up online, scaling and systems. And I love it! I plan to open up a new mastermind in Q1 so stay tuned.

Outside of work, I want to continue putting my time and weekly commitment to hobbies that don’t come as easy, but I know I’ll thank myself for, such as:

Strength training for long-term health even though I don’t love it as much as I love yoga
Practicing German so I can better communicate with my partner’s family in Austria even though the grammar makes my brain melt
The art of writing so my voice online comes through with even more personality and the posts I do write carry further

Experiences on the near horizon: getting my first tattoo, seeing the northern lights (hopefully), and getting Lasik eye surgery as long as I don’t chicken out again like I did 5 months ago.

To wrap it up, here are some of my favorite discoveries this year.

Favorite book:

Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult

I like when fictional books can teach me about topics I would not usually read about and I love mysteries because I find they’re the easiest to read. This combined both!

Favorite app:

Wim Hof Method

Hopefully reading “Wim Hoff” doesn’t trigger you to group me with his borderline cult followers/ice bath junkies haha BUT I really love using his app for interactive breathwork and I do subscribe to cold water therapy. My partner Lukas and I are currently using this app each morning and it’s boosted the quality of my meditation.

Favorite trip:

Northern Portugal in the fall. If I were a season I would be fall (hence my brand colors are practically based on a pumpkin) and I was swooning at how much gorgeous foliage existed in northern Portugal. The hotel we stayed at for my partner’s birthday was my favorite I have ever stayed in. It was a fun surprise getaway.

Favorite purchase:

Luxury bedding. This is something I’ve been wanting to do for a while. But after visiting this ^^ hotel and loving their pillows/duvet I researched their brand, went all in, and will never go back.

Favorite song:

Summer of Luv by Portugal. The Man.

Wow if you read this far I’d love to know a 2023 highlight of yours! Send me a note @withcoachgrace on Instagram 🙂

If you’d like to read my year in review from 2022, you can check it out here!

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Hey there, I’m Grace!

I help people overcome procrastination, people-pleasing, burnout, and perfectionism so they can get out of their own way, build lasting happiness, and have the confidence to say, “I’m proud of my life.”

My goal is to hand you everything I’ve learned about emotional and time management and package it into an actionable system.

A system that will help you better understand yourself so you can become more efficient at work, manage your time and build habits that carry you toward your goals instead of waiting for motivation to come.