I believe in making a New Year’s intention instead of New Year’s resolutions. I just think resolutions are likely to get broken before they’ve even had a chance to take root. Which makes you feel like a failure. An intention, on the other hand, is something you can get back to anytime you realize you’ve gotten off track. Or forgotten. Which, let’s face it, is bound to happen. But when you have a New Year’s intention, it’s like the bumper rails at the bowling alley–it can guide you back out into the middle of the lane.
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So, how you do you set a New Year’s intention?
It’s easier than it sounds. I’ve got one question for you to answer that will help you find it.
You ready? It is:
How do I want to be this year?
By which I mean, what energy do you want to guide everything you do this year? Or put another way, how do you want to feel?
In some ways, this is the most important question you could ask yourself about the year ahead, because this answer will inform every choice you make.
Let me give you some possibilities so this comes into a bit clearer focus:
You could want to be:
- Fun
- Consistent
- Inspired
- Brave
- Of service
- Sexy
- Grounded
- Present
- Intuitive
I mean, I could go on. Really, anything that pops in to your head that is appealing to you works.
If nothing’s coming to mind, a way to think about this is to figure how you DON’T want to be this year.
Whether that’s stressed (hello, that’s me), or overwhelmed. You know, something that feels yucky. You can probably think of that pretty easily thanks to the negativity bias, which is a tendency of the human brain to focus on problems and perils. Put that bias to good use by thinking how you don’t want to feel anymore, and then choosing a state of being that crowds out space for that negative feeling.
For me, a big piece of 2020 that I want to leave behind is that feeling of being behind, and being stressed about it. So how I want to be this year is at ease. No, I don’t mean lolling on a beach blanket eating frozen grapes–although doing that once or twice during the summer sounds pretty nice. I mean leaning even more into trust, and confidence, and using my talents, so that no matter what I’m doing, I can feel like I don’t have to ears perked up for signs of danger.
I practice Iyengar yoga, and my teacher often talks about finding the ease within the effort. And that’s really speaking to me now, after a year of feeling like so many of the circumstances of the year were fear-inducing and made it hard to focus. There wasn’t a lot of ease in what I did, and I am ready for more of that, please.
Set Yourself Up For An Amazing Year!
Allright. Thanks for coming with me through this process of answering 5 questions that help you reflect on the year you want. Remember to go download the 4 Steps to a Better 2020 from katehanley.com/better2021. Now that you’ve done your reflecting, it helps you take that insight and put it into action. It’s where the rubber meets the road, and I hope that it will help take you on an excellent journey.
