Good morning from Milano. Happy New Year and welcome to Season 2 of Dear Constance. Sheesh, I’ve been waiting so long to say those words. There was just something about getting to the end of 2023 and being able to say that I kept that promise to myself.

I guess the promise was that once I decided that I was feeling this genre – this way of self-expression, this way to forge the path to finding my voice – that I was really going to stick it out. Stick with the program to deliver three times a week, every week, no matter what. So that was the promise that I made and kept for myself. It has been a deeply personal thing for me. While many people have said, who’s going to notice or really care that you didn’t drop the episode, the answer all along has been  I do.

When I set out on this endeavor, the story I was telling myself (by the way, it’s one that has proven to be important) was that I wanted to think of the podcast as creative self expression, I wanted to bring a beginner’s mind, and I wanted to be unapologetically myself. That included being raw and vulnerable at time. Sometimes being nonlinear or having more than one apparently incongruent idea. In other words, it was all about getting it out there and, rather than say finding my voice, I’d say allowing my voice to emerge.

If you by any chance listen to my conversation with my friend Arielle Nobile on Friday, you’ll hear that the word voice has a lot of power and meaning to me. I am a big personality and I have a lot to say, but when the time comes to share my voice, even in a small intimate group of trusted people, I cry. It hurts. It is painful.   It physically hurts me. Dear Constance has been a way for me to, let’s just say it’s been a way to coax it out of me. I would say I have been tasked, by the universe. to trust myself, and to trust that the flow will come. So, yeah, that’s what the promise to myself was all about.

So here we are Day 1 of Season 2. It falls not only on a Monday and you know, I love my Monday mornings, and it’s also the first day of the calendar year so, Happy New Year. I read something yesterday that talked about dot connecting. I don’t remember where I read it, but whoever wrote it was talking about the fact that you can look back and see the clues of things in your life that you were missing – or weren’t aware of when they were happening – and easily connect those dots. I think they were asking the question what are the dots in your life right now that are going to connect you to the path that you need to be on or you want to be on this year? What is it that’s happening in your life? Or what clues do you have? It could be an instinct. It could be someone you met. A conversation you overheard. An article that you were drawn to read. What are those dots around you that may just be the dots that connect you onto the path that you’re supposed to be on?

It’s funny, I was talking to someone I’m working with yesterday and we’re talking about moving towards building a new business. This is someone who’s very established in their current business and they’re thinking outside the box. And it was interesting because he said to me,  I realized that I’ve been waiting for someone to sort of tap me on the shoulder and choose me. And this friend of mine who keeps asking me to do a business together, the one that is closest to me, may be that person. That’s what I mean by connecting the dots.

What are the dots that are right in front of you that perhaps you want to get more curious about? I’ll share one of mine with you. I got really excited when I published the conversations with my friends, Eric Egan and Arielle Nobile. That dot  – that conversations with friends or interviews or whatever it is dot –  is something that I want to pay attention to.  Right now I’m dedicating a lot of time to thinking about what happened in 2023. How did things play out and what are those clues that are sitting right in front of my nose?

Just like with my friend who told me that he’s been waiting for someone to call him and he realized that one of his closest friend is that person who’s been tapping him on the shoulder and saying let’s do something together, what are those dots that are the very clues to the path you’re meant to forge?

I hope that you are kicking off your year with good energy, and that if you aren’t feeling that good energy or you’re feeling exhausted spent uninspired, perhaps you think of that as the very clue that you need more self care. Just remember, not everyone is inspired at the same time. As I like to say, you can’t manufacture motivation and inspiration.  Our job is to create the conditions so that it can emerge. A lot of times that can mean silence. It can mean rest. Sometimes it can simply be cancelling dinner plans.

I’d like to end by thanking you for the gift of your time. Thank you for your well wishes, your encouragement and your beautiful messages. I’m so delighted you’re here with me and I’m so excited about Season 2 of Dear Constance. Yay!

Until next time, from my heart to yours.