By Celeste Smucker
It’s the start of a new year, a time when many people are busy listing their top 10 (or 20 or 30) New Year’s resolutions.
Unfortunately, if this is you and you are like most people, you won’t stick with your resolutions long enough to bring real change to your life.
In fact, most resolutions do not even survive February.
Perhaps they should be called a New Year’s wish list; one that includes little or no motivation or power to promote real change.
Is there an alternative? How about intentions?
Intentions are powerful because they are holistic and align with your core values.
Let’s look at what a difference that can make.
Resolutions & Your Brain
In the West we tend to be left brain dominant and favor logic in response to a challenge or when making decisions.
It is this part of our brains that is the usual source of resolutions.
We also rely on input from our senses, as we are accustomed to putting faith in what we can see, hear, smell, taste or touch.
Solving problems based on logic has many obvious and practical applications.
However, the narrow focus of this approach overlooks or ignores holistic input that arrives via your emotions or your intuition.
And as resolutions tend to be a product of the left brain, they may not reflect a holistic view.
Accessing holistic wisdom requires that you first acknowledge its importance and then incorporate what it has to say.
Only then can you create powerful intentions.
Resolutions & Intentions: What’s the Difference?
Resolutions are often expressed logically as cause and effect.
For example, you notice you have gained a few pounds (effect) so you decide to change your diet (cause) to encourage weight loss.
Someone else may be tired a lot (effect) and decide the cause is lack of activity so they resolve to join a health club and work out regularly.
While both of these logic based solutions make sense, they are not holistic and may overlook crucial considerations.
Intentions, on the other hand, are holistic, starting with logic but also incorporating heart based and intuitive input.
For example, are there underlying factors that cause you to overeat, eat less than healthy foods, or forego daily exercise?
Maybe you eat in response to stress due to unresolved issues from childhood. If so, putting yourself on a restrictive diet could increase your stress and drive you to eat more.
Perhaps overwhelm (caused by your inability to say “no” when asked to do something for someone else) sends you running to the kitchen for a snack.
Maybe it’s stress associated with daily activities you take for granted, which, however, run in the background like a forgotten app.
Examples could be a long and frustrating daily commute or drinking too much caffeine, either of which can cause fatigue.
While working out may help, a more holistic approach could include ride sharing, getting a different job or finding alternatives to caffeine.
Sometimes, a holistic approach could also lead you to choose a gentle form of exercise like walking or yoga if what you really need is to to calm down.
But if lethargy is your issue, a stimulating daily workout may be just the thing.
The Power of Intentions
Intentions are significantly different from resolutions.
They may be motivated by similar issues, like a need to lose weight or have more energy.
However, creating them requires greater thought and a larger investment of time.
For instance, while exercising regularly at a health club may be appealing, a broader look at your life and your values may uncover other, more important factors to consider.
Perhaps in evaluating your personal relationships you realize you are not spending enough quality time with your partner.
While you both share this value, you find it difficult to resolve the issue because of your busy schedules.
Understanding this, you recognize that going to a health club takes you away from home and causes even more schedule conflicts.
An alternative may be to schedule time to walk regularly together.
Now your exercise routine coincides with the value you place on your relationship. It brings you together on a consistent basis and provides opportunities for communication that you may have been missing.
And, of course, walking together adds accountability, making it more likely you will keep it up.
It all starts with the intention to alleviate your fatigue, but in a way that aligns with goals based on deeply held values.
How to Create Powerful Intentions
To begin, list the things in life that are most important to you and why.
Clearly you need an income, for example, but what do you need it for?
What are you working for beyond paying your bills and buying groceries?
How about intangibles like feeling peaceful, calm and secure no matter what challenges life brings.
You may also long for a spiritual life that regularly reminds you of your connection to a higher power.
Or perhaps you may want to consider what you could add to your daily life that allows you to experience genuine fulfillment.
Asking how you can best make a contribution to your community and the world is another approach.
As you uncover things in your life you would like to change, avoid viewing them as either right or wrong, which can lead you to a negative place, dredging up old dissatisfactions and regrets.
Instead, ask yourself:
- What lessons can I learn from this situation?
- What small steps can I take today to see my situation in a more positive light?
- How can I live my life in a way that is more in alignment with who I really am?
Questions like these increase your understanding of what you value most. And this in turn leads to intentions that are in alignment with them.
Start Small
Writing intentions is exciting and can also feel overwhelming.
Instead of trying to do them all at once, start small.
Pick the most important one and schedule a doable (but small) amount of time for it, perhaps just 10 or 15 minutes a day.
Make sure it is something you enjoy doing and something you have been putting off telling yourself you just don’t have time to do it justice.
Maybe it's working in your garden, or an art project you’ve been telling yourself you want to do for months or even years.
Perhaps you just need to take 10 minutes a day to slow down, close your eyes, turn out the lights and catch your breath.
Over time, you may notice yourself gradually increasing time spent on activities that fill your need for greater fulfillment.
And, at the same time, releasing activities that are stressful or out of alignment with your values.
It all starts with a handful of intentions and the willingness to spend 10 minutes a day doing something you love.