How to pick a one-word theme for 2021

“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s own courage” Anais Din

Welcome to my first blog post.

It’s nice to meet you digitally, wherever you are in this world — my name is Dan.

Full disclosure, there will be days when I will be blunt, deprecating and probably go off on all sorts of tangents like a crazy, senile grandparent. Much of what I publish will not be what I consider polished work. Some of it probably should belong in the trash, adding to the flux of meaningless content contributing to the digital carbon footprint. (yes really, that’s a thing and yes I’m aware I’m already laying it on thick with the deprecating comments).

But with that said, I hope this blog will not be put in the same bucket as crap content, as there are good intentions at the heart of it. This is my creative purge — my outlet for growing my writing skills, stepping out of my comfort zone and hopefully adding some value to strangers’ lives.

I’m still searching for this thing that everyone from the Dalai Lama to Oprah is calling purpose.
Is writing my future calling? Perhaps.
Am I the next Tolstoy or Dickens? Likely not.
But I feel there’s not much point in finding your purpose if you’re not willing to try things & fail to find it.

So here we are, but let’s digress…

On New Year Eve, 2019, I created a one-word theme to help guide me for 2020. That word was growth. It was my creed, a metaphorical compass to carry throughout the year as a constant reminder of which direction my true north was. My goal was to become a better version of myself. And I did.

I quit smoking full time. Growth.
I trained a minimum of four days a week, either at the gym or home during isolation. Growth.
I doubled the revenue in my business. Growth.
I let my hair go wild. Growth. (This was an unplanned lovechild of isolation)

All in all, as the months passed, I noticed having a theme helped me to wake up each day with a mission — a sense of this mysterious creature called purpose. I didn’t achieve every goal at the end of the year, but I surprised myself, giving me more confidence.

This year, my theme is courage.

I want the kind of courage to try and fail, and if and when I do to pick myself back up again. I want a surprising and abundant year. My theme extends beyond just me starting this blog, it’s applicable for my supporting goals in my professional and personal life too.

Creating a one-word theme for yourself isn’t a complicated process, but there is no one-word-fits-all for everyone. My advice is to identify your primary goal and your supporting goals and build your theme around it.

My primary goal this year is to take more risks. That includes saying “yes” more, being less complacent & putting myself out there, for example, with my writing. But underneath, at the root level, is a fear of judgement from others, so I always took refuge by retreating to my comfort zones. It’s always been there — my fear of judgment from others. But more on that in future digressions.

I chose my theme because I need to be more courageous to facilitate my growth and reach my desired goals. Pick a primary goal that you feel would make 2021 a great success for you. You can make it a broad theme like I have this year or you can make it very pointed, like starting a business or a new profession. Just keep it realistic — I would like to buy a boat that I could park inside my even bigger boat, but that might be a tad too audacious.

Once you have your primary goal and your theme, stress test it against some of your supporting goals for the year. One of my supportive goals in my professional life this year is to attract more clients for my business. To do so, I need the courage to do some of the things that might put me out of my comfort zone, like cold calling or attending networking events. Your supporting goals ideally should still help with achieving your primary goal. For example, if writing a book is the end goal, you might want to join a writing community or research different writing techniques. Jumping out of a plane and writing a book don’t make as much sense together, do they? Unless you’re writing a book on how to effectively jump out of a plane. Which would be ridiculous, but you get my point.

This is a great technique to identify if your theme works with your supporting resolutions or goals. If you find that your theme is not resonating, brainstorm a few others. You know when you can’t quite think of a word, and it’s right there — on the tip of your tongue, driving you crazy, making you want to hurl any nearby objects at the wall because you can’t spit it out? It finally comes to you and bam — euphoria! The same principle applies here, when you find the right word, you’ll know it, it will feel good and you will have your theme.

So you’ve done the mental juggling & have your new theme, congrats — use it as a lighthouse to guide you when your life meets choppy waters, or you lose your way. Help yourself out by putting reminders of your one-word theme where you would see it most. You could add it to your vision board, change your computer password, create a wallpaper for your phone or setting a daily alarm with a label. Great creative with it, but after a few weeks it will likely be hardwired in and you will start to see improvements in all areas of your life.

Thanks for reading!
If you enjoyed my first article you can follow me on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. All my writing features on my website digressnowdan.com

I have no idea where my writing will lead or where my thoughts will go.

I think we all now know how much one year can really change us.

But you can expect topics centred around my passions, including insights on life, love, marketing, business, relationships and self-development.

If you stumble upon this digression on Day 1 or Day 365 of 2021, I welcome any thoughts and comments.

What is your 2021 one-word theme, and why did you choose it?

Let’s be courageous.

Together.

“If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.” — Francis Bacon