Happy New Year... No, I hate that phrase, it's just not right for this moment at all. Not with what's happening in this country with essential workers and healthcare heroes being thrown on the front lines and so much death and destruction happening and daily confusion.

But it is an opportunity for a hard reset. I hope you all took some sort of a break over the last few weeks—I did, and I know that this is a privilege. I know that there are far too many people in this country and around the world who cannot take a break and who cannot be more intentional with the way that they communicate and connect right now.

What I want us to think about is one small change. So many of us were thrust into this moment in March and we did our best to get through it and we are still going through it. What is one small change you can make in the way that you connect and communicate for this year? What is one adjustment, something that was set on by default in March, that was put on you or that you just started doing automatically, that you can change now?

This might be about changing some of your calls to be on audio instead of Zoom.  I can't do this much in my work but I am telling you that every personal call I have is audio only. I'm getting off video as much as I can and ideally taking a walk with that time.

Or how can you make your space cozier, more comfortable? What can you put around you to make you feel better to help you get through these incredibly challenging days? I'm going to be talking a lot more about that in the coming weeks.

For me, I'm also trying to put a solid end to my day. This is so hard when we're working out of our homes and our lives are being combined. It's also something that feels like a tremendous privilege to have work when so many people don't but I'm going to start defining my day and having a start and an end.

This is a big one: Can we practice putting less effort in on Zoom? We're nodding constantly and giving all of this nonverbal feedback because we know what it's like to be on the other side and to not receive that. But can we make one adjustment where we lean back (you know I love leaning back!), breathe and trust that that's enough to show that we're listening? This is something I have to counter constantly because us as humans want to give that validation but what's happening is that we're exhausted from all of the extraneous effort throughout the day on endless calls. Also, video conference software picks up our voices to a brilliant extent so I'm always recommending to pull your vocal volume back to about 75%.

How can you put in less effort and have more ease this year? Let me know—pick one thing, just one. I'm wishing you rest, health and growth this year!