Theme for 2022: Inspired Choices Lead to Joy

Theme for 2022: Choices… in a Creative, Confident, and Focused Way

As we go from one year into the next, I believe the practice of stopping, or at least pausing to review where we are and where we intend to go is a valuable one. My theme for 2022 is based on choices – ones that I alone make, those made in collaboration with others, and the choices that come about as part of the greater good of mankind.

I’ve now chosen a word or phrase or concept – all parts of a theme of the year – for well over a decade. It began when thought leaders I was following shared their word or phrase with others. Then it continued, at least for me when I observed first-hand the value of goal setting based on a theme that resonated and made sense for me at a specific point in time.

I begin thinking about a theme for the coming year sometime in the fall. This year I distinctly recall reading through one of my books (what, you don’t read your own books?!) and thinking about how far I’d come as an author, entrepreneur, and marketer since I began as an online entrepreneur in 2006. My success is directly tied to the choices I make every day, along with how I act upon them in the days that follow. My choices, my life. Your choices, your life.

My single word for the year will be CHOICES. My Theme for 2022 is I make choices that allow creative energy to flow and my confidence to grow. My Words in my theme for 2022 are Choices, Creativity, and Confidence. My Phrase is Choices lead to creativity and confidence. I also added the word energy along the way, but that word did not make the final cut to my Theme for 2022.

During the past year, I’ve been studying with someone who is a writer – of stories, screenplays, scripts, novels, science fiction, and television pilots. He continues to have great influence over me in terms of how I spend valuable time each day moving my stories out of my head and into the plots, log lines, and story beats of what I am creating. Story beats can be described as storytelling moments that move your story from beginning to end, with all of the sequences you will share in order to show the reader or viewer what is happening every step of the way.

The story beats of your life are similar, yet most of us neglect to give them the time and attention they need in order to take us from where we are right now to closer to where we would like to be. Let me share an example from my own life that may resonate with you in at least a small way…

For several years in a row, I wrote down during my end-of-year goal setting that I intended to lose a hundred pounds by the end of the following year. I was serious and sincere about wanting to achieve this goal. Yet, even as I was writing the words in long hand in my journal, I could feel that I had little attachment to their meaning. Looking back, I believe this occurred because down deep I thought this goal was too big for me to tackle, see through to fruition, and successfully achieve, whether it would be during a single year period year or over several years. I did not have the confidence to take on my goal. I was not focused on what I wanted. My creativity did not expand to include something outside of my wheelhouse, as this most definitely was at the time. The bottom line was that I had neither the energy nor the vision to get from where I was to at least closer to where I wanted to be with my life and health.

Then something shifted inside of me when I set this goal – once again, to lose a hundred pounds – in December of 2019. This time I fleshed out the goal. I would need a plan, along with guidance, resources, details, and a mentor. My goal was now a much bigger one and I had the beginnings of an outline as to what my plan could be. Then I sent it out to the universe like a boomerang; somehow, in some way, and with someone who could mentor me, I would have a plan that would make all of the difference for me.

This plan was set in place at the beginning of March, 2020 and my initial goal was realized by January of 2021, about ten months after I began. I’ve even written a book about my experience, titled In Pursuit of Healthy-Ness: How I Reinvented My Life with Intermittent Fasting. If you ever doubt the power of goal setting and working towards achieving your goals, my story is sure to inspire you.

I had never thought of myself as a creative person, but that all changed when I met Geoff Hoff shortly after starting my online business. He was a true creative in every way. Geoff had been a writer since he was a young boy and continued his writing throughout his adult life. We first met in a Mastermind hosted by Dr. Joe Vitale and Pat O’Bryan and neither of our lives would ever be the same again.

Geoff so insisted that I think of myself and act like a creative person, that it wasn’t long before I came aboard for his perception and began to believe it. When you believe in yourself and the possibilities that begin to present themselves in front of your eyes, you are much more likely to have success, I discovered.

Creative thoughts, entertained and nourished and encouraged soon lead to a phenomenon known as creative endurance. You become more than willing to try and try and try again, all the while honing your skills and developing your craft (writing, in my case) so that what you do each day becomes your personal art, a body of work and oeuvre that collectively makes up the fiber of your very being.

These days, I know that if I’m not feeling creative then I’m in an environment and/or with people who are not feeding my soul. I’m in tune with my inner self to the point that I can sense when a situation is right for me at a hundred paces in advance. This allows me to maintain high energy and a level of productivity that challenges even the most disciplined people I know to keep up with me. My Theme for 2022 would have to include creativity, as this area has become a mainstay for the goals I wish to achieve.

Confidence is the final piece of the puzzle that must be secured. While my Theme for 2022 has nothing to do with New Year’s resolutions, which I do not believe or engage in after decades of practice, choosing a theme of the year does require a commitment on your part. The concept of taking full responsibility for everything that crosses our path is one that truly set me free. Once I began to take responsibility my confidence began to soar.

My simple writing led to full length books on a variety of topics; I was asked to speak at events around the world, and others began to see me as a natural leader. My transparency about who I was and where I had started out gave me the credibility to live the life I want and deserve.

Hold your head high; move about with an air of joy; serve others as you would like to be served. Once we embrace our inner greatness, the world sees us as the person we truly are on the outside as well.

I’m author, publisher, and entrepreneur Connie Ragen Green and I would love to connect further with you. If you have an interest in finding the right JV (Joint Venture) partners to help you skyrocket your way to success, please check out my training at JVs Made Simple so you may get started right away.