At the beginning of each year, I pick a word or a handful of words that I want to focus on for the year.

Do you ever pick a theme for your year?

No matter what word you picked at the start of 2020, I bet it didn’t include, “catastrophe,” or, “global pandemic.”

I know mine sure didn’t.

It’s a little sour looking back to New Years’ and remembering how excited we all were before everything went to poo.

But I’ll tell you what my words were this year:

Productivity
Happiness
Abundance
Growth
Ease

They’re still sitting right there on my phone background screen.

And even though the world changed, my words didn’t change. They just looked a little different to what I expected. And that’s okay.

Here’s how each of my words for 2020 have still had an impact for me so far this year (and we’re only half way through!)

Productivity

When the world went into lockdown, thousands of business owners scrambled to take their businesses online and especially create online courses. Zoom became a household name and the company struggled to handle their sudden massive growth.

I happened to have been sitting on a course idea and putting it off for two years. I knew I wanted to release it this year but all of a sudden, people needed my help with this NOW and so I finally released and created a whole new program on how to create and sell online courses, The Online Course Journey.

Rona gave me the push I needed to finally get this idea out of my head and into reality.

Creating a whole course is no small task so productivity HAD to improve for this to happen.

Happiness

Travelling, eating out and all other social plans were now cancelled and it was time to stay home. As I already work mostly from home, my routine didn’t honestly change that drastically. But I did see one comment somewhere online where someone had said, “I’m coming out of quarantine with abs,” and I laughed at that, but I did decide that even though my routine wasn’t as affected as others, I was going to use this time to make sure I spent time on my hobbies and personal goals, including working out.

And while I do have abs, they’re still hiding right now. But I know they’re there!

Even though I love travel, something about having no plans did take a weight off for me.

These two factors made me feel happy. I have always been a home body so I actually thrived with this way of life. I could go for walks, take in nature, practice my hobbies, spend time with my dogs, exercise, play music, garden. Life at home was good!

Abundance

I always try to look around and feel the gratitude for what I have in life because I have an abundant lifestyle and have had this for a while now. This year I noticed that with everything going on, a lot of people got into scarcity thinking – worrying that there will be no work, their business will collapse, people aren’t spending money anymore. I was so proud to see so many of my clients make changes to their businesses so that they could survive where they otherwise might not have. These people proved that people are still buying, still spending, and there’s still plenty to go around, even if we have to change what we are doing or the way we do it.

I already had an online business which was lucky, but I still had moments of worry and doubt that people weren’t spending, they were holding onto their money tightly and therefore my income would suffer. But there will always be savers and there will always be spenders, no matter what happens to the economy.

I was happy to find the right people who knew they could put their faith to spend with me, and I did my part and kept spending too.

I’m a spender 😉

BUT I also had started working on saving at the start of the year, so I was able to have a more abundant savings account than ever before.

Abundance is everywhere when you’re looking for it!

Growth

This year’s challenges made me worry that my business would not grow as much as I hoped this year. But I realised that the best antidote is action, so even though some days I had to force myself together to do one tiny thing towards my goals that day, and even though I did have some down days more often than usual, I have exceeded my expectation with business growth.

I also grew my muscles and feel stronger than ever!

Ease

Business doesn’t have to be so hard. You don’t have to work twice as hard to make twice the money. I am such a firm believer in designing your business to suit your lifestyle, and doing it your way.

It doesn’t mean everything is easy all the time because if that were the case, everyone who ever tried would be successful.

But when I look back on the growth I have had so far this year, it wasn’t that hard. It took focused efforts on the key areas that need it, and a lot of leisure time to support myself in my work.

Even though I pick up my phone and see these words literally light up in front of my face every day, it can be easy to lose track of the big picture and forget what I intended to focus on and achieve this year. But looking at where we’re at so far, I’ve gotta say I am very happy with how these areas of my life and business are travelling so far, despite the challenges.

Whatever you choose, put it in front of you every day, because you’ll always get more of what you focus on, even subconsciously.

Did you pick a word for the year? Is it still relevant, or can it be in your own way? Or do you need to recalibrate and pick something new?