The start of the New Year is a good time to reflect on the year just gone and to make a new start - whether in our careers, relationships or health.
2017 flew by for me. Personal highlights included ticking off a few more countries from my bucket list – including partying in Ibiza, seeing the blue roofs in Santorini and the Cherry Blossom in Japan. These are all experiences I will cherish.
My learning from 2016 was to focus much more and do few things really well. I applied this thinking throughout 2017 at work and to that end, my year very much centred on disability. A highlight was launching our #WorkWithMe campaign with Scope (the disability charity) to support one million disabled people to get into and stay in work by the end of 2020. It’s a project and partnership that has demanded determination, creativity and quite frankly a lot of hard work. I’m excited to see what we achieve in 2018.
Linked to this, another highlight was showing disability discrimination in football the red card by donating our shirt sponsorship of Southampton Football Club to Scope for the Saints’ biggest game of the season against Manchester United. I had goose-pimples seeing our employees on the pitch at half time. It was the first time we had taken ‘sustainability’ to our customers. But perhaps what I’m most proud of is seeing and hearing about the disabled talent we are recruiting proactively into our business as a result of transforming the way we do things. It’s a sign that the culture is becoming more inclusive changing for the better.
2017 was also a year that provided me with inspiration. We saw a few females achieve firsts; Cressida Dick became the first woman to take charge as Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Preet Gill became the first female Sikh MP when she won the seat for Birmingham Edgbaston in June’s election, Lady Brenda Hale became the first female top judge and Paula Nickolds became John Lewis’s first Managing Director in the company’s 153 year history. These are just a few examples that come to mind. It’s a good reminder to support other females around me as I try to achieve my own goals.
As I pop the Christmas decorations away, my social media is littered with ‘inspirational quotes’ as people start the new year a fresh. Here are a few of my favourite quotes I’ve seen:
“Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” Steve Jobs
“Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadows.” Helen Keller
“You will never win if you never begin. ”R.H. Schuller
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Franklin D. Roosevelt
“It always seems impossible until it’s done.” Nelson Mandela
“I don't think of all the misery, but of the beauty that still remains.” Anne Frank
“Change doesn’t come in nickels and dimes. It comes in dedication and sweat.” Toni Sorenson
“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.” Desmond Tutu
“The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.” Vidal Sassoon
“Pessimism never won any battle.” Dwight D. Eisenhower
“If nothing ever changed, they’d be no butterflies.” Unknown
“I have a dream today.” Dr Martin Luther King
“Be the change you wish to see in the world.” Gandhi
“All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them.” Walt Disney
What inspires you and what’s your favourite quote?
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