My 2023 was a year of liminality. It was a year of endings, and beginnings, and the spaces inbetween. I wasn’t who I was before and I wasn’t quite who I was going to be either but a lot of growth happened to move me between the two.

A word that followed me in 2023

At the start of each year I usually set an intention for the coming 12 months with a word to guide me. to focus on, or bring myself back to as needed. I didn’t do this for 2023 because personal circumstances (caring for and then dealing with my dad’s death in the first week of January) didn’t lend themselves to such reflection.

Looking back I can see a word followed me anyway: authenticity.

This word picked itself out and showed its importance in nearly every experience I had this year., personal and professional.

It was something I had to work at and sometimes compromised further than I should, or lapsed on my boundaries to make something more comfortable for others.

Being my authentic self showed me the best and the worst in people I crossed paths with. The biggest challenges came off the back of some of my goodbyes, and led to some others.

Authenticity is a value that gets talked about a lot, but when challenged a lot of us may find it hard to uphold. Bumping up against it so much in 2023 has shown me where I need to develop this attribute further in the times ahead.

2023 highlights

Conversations

Personally and professionally the highlights of my year have all been conversations.

There have been hard ones, enlightening ones, loving ones, and upsetting ones. There have been last conversations, and first conversations. There have been conversations saturated in kindness and some, sadly, which were anything but. Each conversation moved me forward in some way though, and for that I’m grateful.

I was especially grateful for both the counselling and the professional coaching I had in 2023. These structured and supportive conversations undoubtedly helped me find resilience and lean harder into being authentic.

Returns

I had no idea a change of job was on the cards at the start of the year but it’s been a wonderful surprise to be able to return to local government.

What could have felt like going backwards has instead felt like going forward by a familiar path. I’m super excited to get back to my new role and team at Birmingham City Council in the new year and be part of facing some big challenges.

Rest

One of the greatest things I did for myself, and allowed others to support me in doing, is resting.

Taking time off work at the end of 2022 into early 2023 didn’t come naturally but was more than necessary. Pausing Reckless Yes, the record label I co-founded, was hard but also entirely necessary (you should check out the last release we put out before our hiatus – dark electropop Truth Is The New Gold from Feral Five).

These experiences made it easier to realise and take the time I needed between leaving one job and starting my next at the end of 2023. In the downtime I was able to focus on letting go of feelings and behaviours not serving me well, and try to set myself up for the next step on my journey.

Shall we connect in 2024?

I’m already looking ahead to 2024 and one of the things I intend to focus on is connection and more of those awesome conversations.

If you’re in to UX, content design, local government service and digital design, music, writing or gardening then let’s please find time to chat. But whatever you’re into I’d love to have a conversation – because we all learn from each other whether we start with known common ground or not.

If you’d like to meet for a virtual coffee and chat let me know – you can get in touch in these ways, via the social networks where I share this (LinkedIn and Bluesky I expect), or drop me a comment here (I will try really hard to remember to check the pending comment queue).