New Year’s is one of my favorite holidays. It’s a fresh start, a time of reflection, change and renewal. I have spent the past few weeks thinking about what I want to create in 2014, what I will be doing differently and how I will reach my goals.

Yesterday a friend asked everyone in a business group on Facebook whether or not they set New Year’s resolutions. Not one of them said yes. Everyone said they set goals, break them down, have a vision, ya know, the standard business stuff. What one very successful businesswoman said caught my eye. She said the past couple of years she has been choosing one word or theme to represent what she wants to create in the year ahead. I loved that idea, but what would mine be? I thought maybe bold, or powerful, empowered or fearless. Nothing was blowing my dress up, until I was catching up on an old episode of “The Sing Off” and one of the judges told a group they were “daring greatly.” “Pause the show!,” I yelled, “that’s it! Dare Greatly!” I grabbed my iPad and started frantically taking notes. You see, about a year ago I was introduced to Brené Brown, author of Daring Greatly: How the Courage to be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent and Lead, who talks about courage, embracing vulnerability to create more joy in life, and of course, daring greatly. (If you haven’t heard of her, look her up, she is a-maaaazing!!). Her work is incredible. I’ve had the strongest desire to incorporate her work into mine, so when the judge on “The Sing Off” talked about daring greatly, I knew that was going to be my theme of 2014.

Running a business takes a lot of vulnerability, courage and willingness to fall down, dust off and keep going. There will be people who don’t understand how hard the journey can be, who might even encourage us to give up, or aren’t supportive. Theodore Roosevelt once said “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.”

2013 was a pretty good year for me in many ways. It was a year of learning how to build a coaching business, find my footing and put myself out there in ways I had never done. Being a natural introvert and shy most of my life, it has not been easy. My learning curve was vertical, seriously! I started speaking to audiences full of (gasp!) strangers, I wrote for a magazine, I was interviewed for radio, was published in a co-authored book, and I put on my first live event, BY MYSELF! I spent a LOT of time outside my comfort zone. I mean, a LOT of time. Sometimes I didn’t have a clue what I was doing, but did it anyway. There was fear. There was vulnerability. There were tears. There was also courage.

We must be willing to show up and let ourselves be seen, good and bad, successes and failures. Sometimes we get out there in the arena and the biggest critic we face is ourselves. With all the successes I had this year, I didn’t even come close to what I was planning on creating, and that’s ok. I’m not criticizing myself for what I didn’t accomplish, but praising myself for what I did. I made a conscious choice to look at the past year, evaluate what worked, what didn’t and to come up with new plans for 2014. There is no beating myself up. No throwing in the towel. I stretched and grew tremendously the past 12 months and I am damn proud of that, whether I reached all my goals or not.

I still have a LOT more stretching to do. I have a lot more to create and a lot more people to serve. In 2014 I will DARE GREATLY no matter what. I will continue to shift, grow and love myself through it all. I encourage you to dust off the failures of 2013, look at all the incredible things you created, and soldier on, head held high and full of love for yourself and your journey.

Here’s to another amazing year of growth, success and standing valiantly in the arena.

Erin Summ helps women successfully transition out of their J.O.B’s into their own thriving, fulfilling business. www.erinsumm.com