Over the coming days many of my friends will be observing the Lunar New Year. They, their families, and their people across Asia will be coming together to celebrate the coming new year, their togetherness and the symbolism of the year itself.

The hopes of newness, prosperity, good health and of course renewal.

Our business is slowly stepping into the new year with new partnerships and ventures which are exciting for us, and have occupied much of our time and willingness to continually look at ourselves anew each year. January it seems is a time where we might be forgiven to talk about renewal a few times to one another.

The term 'shedding our skin' is symbolic of the way I have approached the development, and evolution, of our business each year. A complete willingness to let go, and to put the past in the past, taking with us that which only serves us, our families and our mission.

Renewal though is difficult—in my thirty-plus years of a well-fought career, I have seen first-hand those who too wanted renewal for themselves and their organisations and yet, held their breath, held back or in some way, held on tightly as they reached the rollercoaster's summit.

Impact organisations seeking repositioning towards new markets, the financial institutions who had to embrace the change of disruption and a focus on the people that mattered most; the educational institutions, universities, academies facing stiff competition in need of finding themselves and their purpose — communities and government seeking to close the gap.

Renewal, it seems, has been a constant.

It is easy though to convince ourselves, as we read these words of a kind of confidence that comes with experience—a relative sense of FTW and to hell what people think!

It is easy to think that change is superficial—a coat of paint, some time spent developing a new vocabulary, going on a holiday and getting a tan, dropping a little bit of weight and feeling better about ourselves, fitting into a new suit, and away we go.

Change.

It is though, lazy to think that change, true renewal even, exists in the outer layers of our organisations, and on the surface of ourselves when in fact it lives so much deeper than that

It is still January, early in the year. In Australia the working year seems to begin towards the end of this month as our children return to school and our minds turn away from the question of gifts, walks on the beach and time with loved ones to other things however unfortunate that might feel, yet however real.

So let us humour ourselves for a little while longer and hold on to that feeling that we had a few weeks ago when every view of the year ahead lit sparks in our minds of possibilities so easily grasped, and so thoughtfully considered.

And yet, as the year unfolds before us, we must of course embrace the simple truth that renewal comes only through change, and change is frightfully scary at the best of times for the best of us. Which I imagine why each organisation our team and I have worked with over the last thirty-plus years has held tightly onto the edge of their seat, and sometimes my hand, as we walked through the door.

Just like our children starting school.

I read voraciously throughout the year and over summer I tend to fly through books and sometimes go back to those I've already read — those that lit me up.

I leave you with this from the great James Baldwin:

See you next week.