2023 Year In Review

Putting the year into “focus”

No, the calendar didn’t turn over from 2023 to 2008. But here I am, starting a blog. Does it feel like everyone has a podcast, a vlog, a thriving thought leadership LinkedIn page? Of course — but I have decided to go old school, buck the trends and go ‘full nerd’ to start my own page for the stories, ideas and musings I think a handful of people may want to read. Or maybe just my mom? Shoutout Vicki! So hey, what’s the worst that can happen? I get ignored? Big whoop — I have a teenage daughter, being ignored is my primary job in this season of life. So why not do it digitally?!?

I’ve never been one to hold onto New Years Resolutions too tightly, unraveling sometime in Q1 from the ambitious habits I wanted to take hold. 2023 was different — I decided to pick a word for the year and see where it took me. I chose ‘FOCUS’ and went about my days trying to apply this word in whatever ways the wind took me. It was quite an evolution — the word turned into an acronym, where F.O.C.U.S became a rallying cry for my work, school, parenting and social life.

• F stands for Focus — I know, so creative. But I treated this first letter as focusing on myself — focusing on my daily to-do list, focusing on my habits and processes, even focusing on a sports team I root for. I know I am far from the only person to ‘focus on me’ last year, but doing so within a system definitely helped.
• O stands for Office — compartmentalizing all things career into a bucket. Whether it was goals, adjustments, or just keeping up with the flow of things, O was my lighthouse for all things work.
• C stands for Capital — if it involved money, it was grouped into C. As I grouped these together, I saw patterns and places that allowed for big changes and smart moves.
• U stands for United — big soccer fan here, so referring to all things Family as ‘United’ fits into my wheelhouse nicely. Whether it was planning the next dance completion trip or committing to coaching 2nd grade basketball, United was where all things Raybuck Family landed.
• S stands for Strength — you probably wouldn’t guess it by appearance, but a new gym membership and morning routine got me back on the fitness horse in 2023. Allowing all things in the workout world to stay close together, I was tracking metrics and sticking to habits better than I’d ever before.

F.O.C.U.S began to infiltrate all parts of my day. I used it to set up my daily planning, which turned into weekly, which evolved into a 2024 calendar with everything bucketed somewhere within those 5 categories. I found myself restructuring my Desktop folders in this way, which allowed me to clean 10+ years of files in a very boring, uneventful weekend. This is 40. Is this what my resolution started out as? No. Am I happy with how it grew into something transformative? Absolutely. Surprising myself with the F.O.C.U.S commitment and effectiveness is probably my favorite thing about the last year — well, maybe not as much as Season 2 of Winning Time, but it was close.

I really hate myself for writing this next part, but here we are…

Interested in what I’m choosing for 2024’s word? Come back next time to find out!

I’ll see myself out….