It’s late January, that time of the year when you’ve set your goals and resolutions, and are already second guessing, regretting and adjusting after the first few hectic weeks of the new year. You’ve spent this first month trying to be better and do better — often resulting in frustrations and disappointment. For years, I’d set unrealistic goals and resolutions for myself only to find by late January or early February I’d be discouraged and either giving up or setting new goals and resolutions. Several years ago, I started to transform my New Year’s resolutions into New Year’s intentions.
The definition of a resolution is to set your mind to making a change in order to behave in a certain manner. The idea is to resolve a problem or something you don’t like about yourself with determination. The idea of intention is a kinder, softer version of resolution. Intentions are your goal, purpose or aim whether you meet them or not. Resolutions traditionally have been things like ‘I will lose 20 pounds to get healthy’ or ‘I will join the gym and work out every day to get fit’. An intention might be, ‘I will eat fruits or vegetables at each meal to reach my goal of being healthier’. Or ‘I will start that yoga class to feel better and increase my exercise and flexibility’.
In order to shift my mindset from resolution to intention, I needed to change how I approached the new year with hopes to see a more consistent transformation, rather than jumping to starting with resolutions on January 1st only to crash land by January 31st. What I did to support my shift was to adjust my New Year’s routine by adding three steps to my process: choosing a word or phrase for the year, creating a vision board with a very specific style and practicing a plan of kindness and self care.
The first step I adopted was to pick a word or phrase that would be my mantra and touch point for the year. I spent much of December and into early January trying out words and word combinations to see how they felt. A lot of it was opening myself up to words I’d hear during a meditation or podcast and allowing for inspiration. I chose a word or phrase that I felt would not only inspire direction for my goals for the year ahead, but would provide something I could come back to for direction and comfort. This year’s phrase is ‘receive joyous adventures’. This is a milestone birthday year for me and I wanted to approach the year with a sense of adventure. I’ve been working on being a better receiver over the past couple years as I tend to be more comfortable giving and guiding then opening myself up to receiving. As I thought about those two words, I realized I wanted a third word that would focus my year in a positive, fun way. The word ‘joyous’ felt like the perfect fit. There have been years where I have a single word or even a well known phrase but as I’ve done this process more, I have become more intentional about my choice.
Several years ago, I started to create a vision board for the year. I’m a visual person who learns and gets inspiration through vision. Seeing images, phrases and words on a poster board helps me to focus on my intentions. I’m a believer in the power of manifesting my goals and dreams. By creating a vision board with categories, it helps me remember where I want to go and helps my busy mind find focus. A vision board also provides a sense of reassurance when I’m overwhelmed.
The categories vary a bit year to year but often include- family, love, career/work, creativity, finances, health/exercise and spirituality. The spiritual author Colette Baron-Reid offers a course every January that I’ve taken to further understand vision boards. One of her helpful suggestions was to put in the center an image or phrase that symbolizes my personal faith and beliefs. For me, it actually helps ground all the busyness of the vision board to a focal point of inspiration.
This year I watched a video by Tiffany Aliche, the financial advisor, and I realized I needed to add more specific goals to my vision board. These goals would be out of my comfort zone and challenge my beliefs in myself to grow and reach for my dreams in a concrete way. I like to use magazine words, phrases, cutouts from note cards, books, printed images and even photographs from my phone to create my board. My goal is to have it created by February 1st.
My last change was to be kinder to myself through this whole process. I’ve learned to set goals that are easier to achieve as part of a bigger goal. I’ve set my intentions in ways that make me feel good about myself as I take each step forward. Instead of setting a goal to read 50 books this year I set the baby step of one book a month. I’ve set the goal to exercise 30 mins a day with yoga or walking or any combination instead of committing to a 45 min workout 5 days a week. I’ve included goals to meditate and write in my gratitude journal daily even if it’s a 5 minute meditation and a one sentence gratitude. These small steps allow me to steadily reach toward my intentions in a less harsh way and with a higher rate of success.
Most of us feel that sense of hope and excitement every January when the new year rolls around, but then often feel disappointment and frustration with ourselves by early February. I’ve discovered my shifts in behavior and perspective from resolutions to intentions, along with creating a freer mindset with new action steps, has made my New Year’s hope and excitement continue to flow throughout much of the year.
Happy New Year and may your year be filled with successful intentions, inspiration and growth, joy and adventure. <3 JF