Welcome to 2024!

As we enter unchartered territory and prepare to traverse new terrain, I’d like to suggest that we create a map or a guide to help us to navigate through the year in a way that honours our hopes, dreams and heart’s desires and keeps us on track, despite the inevitable winds that will try to blow us off course.

You may be familiar with the ‘What 3 Words’ navigating system that pinpoints an exact location on the map. At the start of this New Year, I invite you to use a similar system to chart a path through 2024 – to choose three words that will orientate you to the sweet spot of your life, to that place where you feel happy, healthy, balanced, loved up, connected, aligned and fulfilled.

Three words to guide you towards your heart’s desires.

Three words to keep you on course to fulfil your dreams.

Three words to remind you, every day, about your priorities for this year.

Three words to alert you to the regrets you may have at the end of 2024 if you don’t prioritise your heartfelt intentions.

Here are my three words, in order of importance:

1. Health

I had to battle with myself to put health at the top of my list. I wanted to put my Number 2 choice (see below) as my Number 1 but then I realised that without my health, I cannot enjoy anything else in my life.

The importance of health hit me hard in 2023 as I lost a dear friend to cancer – a friend I met in my very first days at Oxford University (that’s 35 years ago); a friend I shared a bedroom with in my second year of uni; a friend I travelled around Spain with in my third year of uni; and a friend whom I lived with, at her home, with her family, during my holidays from uni; a friend with whom I had so many shared memories, so much shared history; a kind, generous and gentle soul.

As I write this, I’m looking at her smiling face in a photograph printed on a prayer card we were given at her funeral – a card that sits on the noticeboard above my computer, to remind me to be grateful, every day, for my health and for this precious life.

So, health is my first word.

I’m thinking primarily of my physical health – of taking care of my body, my joints, my gut health, my bones, my muscles – but also of my mental health, because the two are intertwined.

With this word as my guide, I hope, every day, that I will take actions or make decisions that prioritise my health.

For example, I hope I will get up from the desk and walk in Nature even when work calls. I hope I will remember to make time for my sea dips several times each week, even in poor weather. I hope I will make the time to build more muscle, to improve my posture and to keep my heart strong. I hope I will make food choices that honour my delicate gut.

On the mental health front, I hope I will make the time to meditate every morning, to exercise as often as I can and to connect with other human beings in real life as often as possible. I hope I will laugh more and dance more. I also hope to prioritise my other two words (below), because they are vital for my mental health.

What’s your top priority this year?

2. Relationship

My second word is relationship and by this I refer primarily to my romantic relationship, my marriage.

With this word as my guide, I hope to make choices every day to honour my beautiful relationship, to preserve it and to deepen it. I hope to find ways to have more fun times with my husband and to go on more adventures. I hope to be a kinder, more loving and more forgiving partner. I hope to commit to actions in my life and in my work that would bring more freedom to both of us so that we can spend more time together.

If I think into the future and to the end of my life, I know I will feel happy and content if I have invested in my relationship and prioritised it over work or achieving stuff.

Love makes the world go round and I’d like love to be at the centre of my world this year.

This guiding word also extends to my other relationships. I hope to prioritise connections with family and friends, acknowledging, as I wrote above, that life is short and incredibly precious and that healthy relationships and good connections not only enrich our lives but bring us joy and keep us sane.

What’s your second priority for 2024?

3. Purpose

It took me a while to locate this final word. I knew my third priority was something to do with my work but ‘work’ or ‘career’ or ‘professional life’ didn’t sound right.

Purpose does.

Soul purpose, to give it its full title.

Putting my God-given talents to good use rather than hiding away or procrastinating or allowing my fear to sabotage my work.

The word purpose encompasses everything I do. Although the novel I’m writing is a lot of fun to write and publishing it is a long-held ambition, it’s also connected to my purpose because I have created a lead character – a woman approaching midlife – who goes through the same relationship and life challenges that I have experienced and many of my clients experience. Through it, I hope not only to entertain but also to enlighten.

My relationship coaching and midlife mentoring is also part of my purpose. I see myself as a teacher and, dare I say it, an elder (yes, I’m getting on a bit) – someone with a treasure chest of life experience that can be valuable to others who might be navigating the same choppy waters, be they unwanted singleness, relationship pain, involuntary childlessness, bereavement, midlife crises, career dissatisfaction or a general sense of ‘how on earth did I end up here and what am I going to do about it?’.

My speaking work is also part of my purpose. I am committed to sharing my experience of an eating disorder and other addictions, burnout, breakdown, depression, trauma and so forth, along with resources to heal and grow, with audiences around the world.

I hope, each day, each week, to take actions and make decisions that honour this purpose and allow me to put my gifts and talents to good use in the world.

So these are my three words.

Health.

Relationship.

Purpose.

I have my guides, the markers that I can keep moving towards, the points on the map that I must keep returning to, even when I go way off course, if I want to arrive at the sweet spot of my life, feeling healthy, happy, balanced, loved up, connected, aligned and fulfilled.

There is one other word that I’m committed to this year – it’s a guiding principle, an overarching theme that connects and supports the other three words. That guiding principle is commitment.

I understand, now more than ever, that I must commit to actions and decisions in my life in order to reap the rewards that I long for.

Just as I had to commit fully to my partner in order to experience the wonderful benefits of a healthy and loving relationship (after many years of not committing to relationships, of being half-in and half-out), I also have to commit to actions in my business that enable me to serve others, make a difference and bring freedom and abundance to my life; I have to commit to steps to improve my health and wellbeing; and I have to commit to activities that will help me to build connections and deepen relationships with others.

If I don’t commit, I will miss out.

I cannot fully live if I don’t fully commit.

I can’t tell you how scared I am of commitment. I was so scared of committing myself fully to a relationship that it took me to the age of 43 to do so (followed by a commitment to marry him at 48).

My fear of commitment has now moved on to other areas of my life and to my business.

I am terrified of committing in case I feel trapped or suffocated (a legacy of childhood trauma). I am terrified of committing in case I miss out on other opportunities (also a legacy from childhood trauma and a feeling of lack). I am terrified of committing in case I make a mistake and make the wrong choice or commitment and can’t go back (again, a legacy of my childhood – a need to be perfect at all costs – and black and white thinking – I cannot make mistakes).

But just as I faced my fear of commitment in love and have reaped the rewards, so must I face my fear of commitment in other areas of my life in order to squeeze all the juice out of life and savour everything it has to offer.

Commitment will actually bring freedom, not take it away. That’s how I see it now. Without commitment, I am trapped, trapped in indecision and procrastination. With commitment, I can free myself.

So my commitment to myself and to you at the start of 2024 is to commit.

What are your three words, dear reader, or your guiding principle for this year? I hope you feel inspired to draw a map for yourself to help you to navigate this new terrain.

If you’d like some support to identify them or to achieve your heart’s desires this year, take a look at the resources section below.

Wishing you a wonderful 2024.

Katherine x

Resources to help you to heal and grow

Download my free ‘Create Your 2024 Vision Workbook’ here.

Explore my upcoming events here. They include a 14-Days of Love online experience, a Sauna and Share event in Dorset and the launch of my How to Fall in Love – Laying the Foundations and Date with Courage, Clarity and Confidence courses.

I also have a number of transformational online courses on finding love and self-love. You can find them here.

My first book, How to Fall Love, includes many tools to help you to connect to your feelings and overcome unhealthy patterns. It also tells the story of my personal journey of healing and finding a healthy and loving relationship.

I work 1:1 with clients who are looking to create a healthy romantic relationship and/or build a fulfilling life. Explore my coaching offerings and book a free discovery call on my website.

My TEDx talk on Finding Courage, Overcoming Fear and Breaking Free is here.