“Ulrike, what’s your wish for 2024?” a friend asked me a few days ago. It’s funny, despite having a list of goals and a vision board, I’m not able to answer the question short and crisp. After all, how am I supposed to reduce everything that is important to me to a “top wish”? What is the headline of my life?
The year 2023 was not a sprint. It was a marathon: My brother Christian dies suddenly and unexpectedly. I try to navigate myself and my 89-year-old mother through the storm, which is exhausting. Three months later, two long-standing friendships fall apart. Fortunately, I manage to dedicate myself to my work even in emotionally difficult situations and focus completely on my coaching sessions and clients. Nevertheless, my business suffers: I don’t have the energy to position myself on social media. My visibility is decreasing. Customer care and new customer acquisition are lying idle. It wasn’t until September, when I realised that I have been fallen into a deep summer slump. And finally I’m in Tel Aviv on 7 October when the war breaks out.
My inner coverflow tries to grasp a word for what I want in 2024. The longer I look at my vision board, the more I realise how everything is linked: it’s all about connectedness.
For me, connectedness means being able to FEEL the other person. As neither my mother nor my father were emotionally available, I couldn’t feel them as a child. Therefore, I never felt connected. Now I know that connectedness is a sacred value for me. It is the base note of my essence.
No matter what 2024 has in store for me, it’s about having people around me that I can connect with. Because connectedness is the melody of my heart.
What melody does your heart play?