My theme for 2009.

Rather than coming up with a list of potentially broken and abandoned promises just after one month of having made them, in January of 2008 I took the advice from my friends Phil Gerbyshak and Pam Thomas to create a theme or an umbrella concept to guide my actions through out the year. My theme then was to connect with people, which for me meant to establish a bigger stronger network, establish new friendships and strengthen my current ones, empathize with those around me, open my heart and mind to others to share and collaborate. 
And I have to say it worked wonderfully!

I had very important achievements as a result of following this suggestion, like being a co-author/collaborator of the book The Age of Conversarion 2, deliver special keynotes at important conferences like Adictos a la Publicidad 10 (Addicted to Advertising 10) y Enlace Empresarial 2008 (Entrepreneurial link 2008) (both from ITESM), Empresas 2.0 (organizations 2.0) with Dattatec or delivering a great Marketing & innovation seminar for The Walt Disney Co. México.

Now the time has come to work on this task again. Time to meditate on the achievements obtained under this theme and on the challenges I’ve yet to conquer, and just like everything in life, evolve and take the next step.

So here it is, my theme for 2009 (Best year yet!)

DLC:M&C

Development, Leadership & Collaboration on Marketing & Communication.

This for me means to work helping develop great talented leaders in the Advertising and Communication industry mainly, but always open to work with other categories as well. Collaborating with different organizations and individuals who, like me, are convinced that the most important resource any company will ever have is it’s people who, with our talent, creativity, hard work and commitment make the companies we work for, the success they are.

And you know what? The best thing about defining a life theme for the year is that, not only do we set ourselves a clear direction, but we also can make sure we get to do what we like the most and are the best at doing, in my case things like:

• Participating as speaker at important events, conferences and seminars on digital marketing, advertising and communication, social media, personal branding, etc.
• Writing and sharing ideas (my own and other’s) with the readers who visit my blog and with whom I also connect and share at mekate.com, Twitter, Facebook, Linked-in, etc.
• Growing and strengthening my network so I’m able to collaborate with more people.
• Participating as teacher at schools and organizations like El Semillero.
• Providing great coaching and advice to clients, friends and colleagues on leadership, digital marketing and communication. 

Plus it also helps us clarify what are the things that matter the most in our life, like our family, our home, our health and following our calling.

Defining a life theme for the whole year, although it does takes some time to reflect and analyze, is easier than it seems. All it takes is being clear on what our passion or calling is, knowing our greatest strengths and areas for development and determine, based on the previous, how far we want to get.

So you haven’t defined yours, so what! This is the best time to start!

And to get the ball rolling I’d like to tag and invite my friends: @philgerbyshak, @themarketingguy, @whatswithinu, @DrewMcLellan and @mitchjoel to share their 2009 theme.

 Picture credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pixieclipx/3154655658/