Checking your branding, updating your contacts, and general planning are always good things to work on at the end of the year. As this is my last blog post of 2022, it’s a good time to take stock and share some of what I’ve been seeing in the hopes it may be helpful for you.
Plan Now
My birthday was on November 22, so that reminded me to check my Get It Together planner and update my plans in case of my death. It turned out that I needed to make some updates.
Get It Together is the name of a best-selling book by Nolo Press that helps you plan your estate and your wishes after your death. As someone with migraines and COPD, getting this book was a no-brainer (pun unintended).
But it should also be a priority for you as we close out 2022. Death is never fun to think about, but writing down your wishes and instructions — including where people can find your records — can put your mind at ease. You can also order the book with a blue planning binder so you can add your instructions all in one place.
Review the book, read the reviews, and order the book here: https://amzn.to/3F3f3Cw
Review Your Branding
If you haven’t done so, you may want to update your branding for 2023. That can lead to an examination of your existing assets such as your printed materials and your website.
For example, I changed my company font for 2023 and found that the fonts on this blog had defaulted to Arial. Apparently, a WordPress update borked the font plugin, but I still had to fix some CSS code even after I updated the plugin.
I’m not sure why the blog fonts disappeared without warning, but as the daycare kids say, “the mystery took them.”
Cull Your Contacts
The end of the year is a good time to review your social media connections. I find that it’s easy to let connections pile up and not review if those connections are good for you.
For example, I’ve found a lot of recent followers on Instagram are catfishers and crypto traders using various strategies to abscond with my money. When you look at their profiles, another clear giveaway that they’re scammers is that they follow far more people than the other way around.
It’s easier to reject new connections on LinkedIn because they’re usually people who say they’re website developers all over the world, so I’m very picky about who I connect with. And those requests always remind me to check my existing connections list a few times a year to see who I think is still a valuable connection.
Take It Easy
Finally, it’s important to remember not to be too hard on yourself, which is especially easy to do when you have the holidays and seasonal illnesses affecting us all in myriad ways.
I wanted to write this on the night of November 30 and send it out the next day. But I couldn’t because I was hit with withdrawal effects from Qulipta, a medication approved in 2021 for migraine relief.
After the second dose, it was very clear Qulipta provided anything but relief and I stopped cold. Doing so brought some serious withdrawal effects not listed in the documentation.
So, I had to pause for a while, and I’m not beating myself up over it as I would in the not-so-distant past. I hope you’re taking the time to pause during the holiday season, too.
Thank you for your patience and for your support throughout 2022. I hope you and yours have a happy and safe holiday season, and I’m looking forward to sharing more with you in 2023.