A pigeon in Lisbon, Portugal, by Sunguk Kim at Unsplash.com.
If you’re like me, the New Year is a frenetic time. There are goals and ambitions and unfinished missions. You may have an injustice or two that you’re hell-bent on righting. Throw in a lofty resolution and it’s possible you’ll want to bring new zeal to your communications. I get it. I know this feeling well. I call it “the Januaries.”
I’m going to give you some hard-earned strategic communications advice, now. You may not heed it but you won’t be able to say nobody said it to you later. Take a breath.
That’s it. Relax. Yes, it’s early January. This is an election year in America and nobody can predict what the country is going to look like in 2025. But uncertainty is always part of life and if there’s one thing that my clients trust me for? It’s to help them look like they are confident navigating uncertainty. That their communities can trust them to be a safe harbor in any storm. It’s often a key part of their mission, actually. To engage people around a sturdy and evergreen set of dependable certainties. Especially in the midst of constant challenges.
As I was writing this piece, I broke…there…to meditate for 20 minutes. I try hard to practice what I preach. That’s because I have the Januaries, too. I’m not immune. But as the year gets started, this is a time to move slow. We must all try hard not to react to every impulse that arises. When we stop for the holidays we return to work with more energy. But it’s important that we channel the energy in a focused and strategic way.
With 2024 starting, I’ve already seen people and organizations reacting too fast. As news breaks, the tendency to want to have something to say about it is natural. But this is when I urge you to look at your deeper ambitions. Your longer-term goals and values. Consider your impulse to communicate something today. Ask how it might impact how people will remember you, long term. Patronizing though it may be to ask: What’s the risk of having a hot take on 2024?
Meanwhile, Headspace is offering 40 percent off to kickstart the New Year. That’s as good a place to start our strategic communications work together this year, as any. I enjoyed watching a Jesuit Priest’s “part time hermit” video this Christmas. He quoted the philosopher Blaise Pascal saying “All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” It struck a chord with me.
Thanks for reading, as always.
