New Year’s Resolutions or Intentions?

Make 2023 Your Best Year Yet

Are you someone who makes New Year’s resolutions or do you prefer to set yourself some positive intentions for the year ahead? Maybe you use affirmations or follow processes similar to those in the likes of The Secret, which is both a well-known book and also a movie.

There are so many books and courses available on the various different ways to manifest all that you desire, however, my main concern in relation to many of the teachings out there on manifestation and the Law of Attraction is that it has always historically leant towards the attainment of material goods rather than achieving the fulfilment of your hopes and dreams – for example, to enjoying a rewarding and fulfilling career, or having more harmony and bliss in your life generally.

Resolutions

When I was young, I used to make New Year’s resolutions, which were generally about giving up all the habits I perceived to be ‘bad’ for me and resolving to replace them with fresh, healthy behaviours. For example, wanting to lose weight and deciding to join the local gym for a regular exercise routine, only to break most of my resolutions within the first few days and weeks of the incoming year. This, in turn, generally meant that I was setting myself up for failure rather than opening myself up to the constructive possibility of fulfilling my hopes and dreams in joyful and wonderful ways.

It seems crazy now looking back over my words; the pressure I used to put on myself, and how my focus was perhaps somewhat misaligned, leading to frustration and being overly hard on myself.

Intentions

So, what changed? I now have a healthier practice for moving into and embracing a new year as I set myself intentions for the twelve months ahead.

For me, this is embodied in a fabulous five-step process which helps me review what I have and haven’t achieved in the year coming to its completion, which in turn helps me to set new intentions as well as building on those I already have in place and am yet to fulfil. This is part of a wonderful process I was guided through by David Shephard from Performance Partnership – one of the world’s leading coaching companies.

The five steps

I will share this process with you here so that you too can reap the benefits of it if you are looking for a different approach to starting 2023 on an optimistic yet purposeful footing:
 

  1. I begin by making a list of all my hopes and dreams for the future, not just for the year ahead. I like to think big, to reach for the stars as well as covering the smaller, more achievable goals and intentions; for example, I want to write some workshops and I want to complete a new training course as part of my continuing professional development, thereby helping to take my work to the next level, so to speak.
  2. Next, I like to review the year that is coming to or has come to its end (depending on when I’m completing the exercise), making a list of all that I have achieved. One of the great joys of this process is that the list is often longer than one might initially expect, as opportunities have come up during the year that I have been able to embrace that were not necessarily on my list to start with.
  3. I then make a list of all the things that I had intended to accomplish but that I haven’t YET done so. (I pause for a moment to recognise that there is no self-judgment here; it is just a list and it is shorter than the list of my achievements, phew!).
  4. I like to take a little more time here, comparing my list of all that I want to bring into form with my list of things that I have not yet achieved. I may tweak my new list, adding and/or removing things until I am satisfied with all that I hope for in the incoming year.
  5. I now feel positive about all that has been accomplished; all that I still hope and desire for myself for my soul’s growth and expansion as I take time to sit in stillness. As I sit in meditation, I allow myself to feel into how it feels to be in the blissful flow of achieving all that is still on my list; I feel into what it feels like to be and to do all that I want to be and do.

Finally…

If you decide to dance with these steps too, I suggest that you keep your new list of intentions somewhere safe so you are ready to begin the process again as this new year finally comes to completion. I hope that you find my gentle but powerful method useful and fun – do let me know how you find it!

If you would like my support on your healing journey please do get in touch, or call me on +61 4 2451 8884.

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