2024 The Year of More Connection
My theme for 2023 was simple, “More sparkle”.
More sparkle in my writing, more sparkle on my nails, more sparkle in my eyes and with the people around me.
Most days, I felt successful. “More sparkle” was a personal reminder to include joy in my life after two (three) long years of work, toil, and serious grind, which was often done alone and in my basement office. I feel like I nailed it.
More sparkle was for me.
The theme for 2024, though, is for everyone.
More connection.
I am blessed to have meaningful, rich conversations every day.
Yet, in 2023 I worked with and talked to thousands of people and the theme was the same no matter where I went– people feel disconnected. Disconnected from their work, their friends and communities, and their own lives. They feel isolated. They feel lonely.
Something has happened in our already fragmented world, where many of us became even more comfortable being on our own and less comfortable venturing into the world and risking relationships with other people.
“Why bother to go out?” we started asking ourselves. Why bother trying?
At work things changed, too. Massive retirement, turnover, and absenteeism led leaders to question “How can we make people more accountable to each other and their work? How can we convince them to stay” and employees telling me “it feels like no one cares and I want to care but sometimes it’s easier not to care”.
Wherever I went in 2023, there was a sense of lethargy, often complacency, but you could still always find the earnest hope.
Maybe our world wouldn’t return to what it was, but maybe it could be something more compassionate.
Maybe it could even be something better.
In 2023 the US Surgeon General launched an Advisory on the Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation. The advisory called attention to the importance of social connection for individual health and community-wide metrics of health (p. 6).
As they show through empirical research, so much of our personal health and well-being is connected to..well… connection, so much so that lacking social connection can increase the risk for premature death as much as smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day (p. 25).
We know smoking is harmful, but do we understand what we are doing to ourselves and each other when we choose to be alone, or we choose to turn away from others who need us?
I know connection, and community matters. Most of us know this intuitively, but it doesn’t become a focus for us. We let it slide.
Both have always been important to me, but they are going to guide my work even more in 2024.
So here’s to a year of “More Connection”, improved well-being, and better health.
I look forward to all the connection 2024 has to bring.
~ Theresa
Theresa Bailey is the Founder of Starfish Synergies and exclusive provider of PlayDoh Power Solutions Corporate Training that focuses on connection and positive work culture.
To learn more contact Theresa.Bailey@starfishsynergies.com
