Do you have a theme for yourself and your business for 2017? The first person I knew who chose a word for each year was Mari Smith. We met in 2009 while we were both speaking at a marketing event and I was taken by her choice of the word Influence for that year. Here are her word themes over the years:
2008 – Focus
2009 – Influence
2010 – Team!
2011 – Commitment
2012 – Growth
2013 – Abundance
2014 – Selective
2015 – Partnership
2016 – Order
2017 – TBA on January 1st, 2017
When selecting your one-word theme, it’s important to not beat yourself up if you didn’t adhere to the word verbatim throughout the year. Adopt the approach of “correct and continue.” Do your best to use the word as a mantra, an internal guide. Then let go of any attachment to how the outside world is supposed to show up for you.”
And in another post Mari adds…
Every January 1st, I love to pick just one word as an overarching theme for my professional and personal life that governs a lot of my goals and decisions throughout the year. I’ve done this practice for the past nine years and it’s always amazing how the word serves me so well throughout the entire year.
The word can be used as a daily mantra, or a simple touchstone to remind you to stay on track. Even if you pick a word, then “set and forget,” you may be amazed by the end of the year just how much your word was a thread throughout so many of your experiences and accomplishments!”
Never one to be satisfied with what is already out there, I decided to choose several words or a phrase each year as my theme. I started midyear in 2009 with a theme of “Connect, Communicate, & Create” and loved the alliteration so much it has continued.
For 2016 it was “Rethink, Reinvent, Renew, & Relevance” and for 2017 I have chosen “Exposure, Expansion, Expectation, & Engagement”. I will explain both of these years so that you may further understand my thinking and intentions behind these themes.
At the end of 2015 I realized that I needed a makeover for my online business. Many of my courses and products were outdated and I was reading my own books for guidance on how to move forward. In one of my books I had discussed the importance of looking at yourself as objectively as possible and being willing to make changes. So in December of that year I worked harder than I had since coming online to outline my courses for 2016. The result was a flagship training program called the Internet Marketing Six Pack, as well as ten online courses in my “Really Simple” series. This was a great success and worth the time and effort that went into implementing all of my plans. It also upped my work ethic, and that will be the topic of my upcoming book.
Now it’s time for me to share my body of work with even more people from more diverse business backgrounds. I hope you will follow me throughout 2017 to observe and emulate what I’ll be doing to expose my work to the world, expand my business into all corners of the earth, expect more from myself and from those I work closely with, and engage with you and the rest of my community in a way that will enrich all of our lives.
I’m Connie Ragen Green, online marketing strategist, bestselling author, and international speaker on the topics of entrepreneurship and inner game mind shifts. Let’s connect to see how I may best serve you in the near future.
