Hello 2021!
You’re probably ready to close the chapter on 2020, never look back, and just move on. Rightfully so, as it has been a tremendously challenging year. As we kick off 2021 with a mix of uncertainty and hope, I invite you to pivot your annual approach to a new year and switch from making resolutions to setting intentions instead. What’s the difference? A resolution is a specific goal to achieve your desired result. Popular resolutions include losing weight, eating healthier, and reading more books.
A resolution is very targeted to one part of your life and often addresses a flaw that you see in yourself. Conversely, an intention is an overarching idea of how you want to live a life that aligns with your values, and in turn, drives actions and decisions in various parts of your life.
It can be a feeling that you want to embody, such as being calm, productive, flexible, loving, or understanding. So, while a resolution can make a change in one aspect of your life, an intention has the potential to cultivate a bigger impact in the overall trajectory of your path.
How To Set An Intention
The first step to set an intention is to take some time for reflection.
Look back on this past year and reflect upon what worked well for you and the areas of your life that you want to nurture. Then think about this new year and imagine how you want to feel every day.
If there are any major areas in your life that you want to improve upon, see if there is a common underlying theme. This reflection is ideal to do within meditation as the moments of stillness and silence are conducive for looking deep within and formulating intentions. However, this process can also be done via journaling or simply setting aside some time for quiet thinking.
Using your reflection, you can now brainstorm possible intentions that are single words or phrases. Once you are done with your list, pick out two or three that really resonate with you in your heart, mind, and gut. Then think about how each intention could play out in your life over the year to pick the right intention for you finally. Some examples of new year’s intentions are gratitude, commitment, authenticity, compassion, and autonomy.
How To Apply Your Intention
Now that you have your guiding intention for 2021, the next step is to determine how to apply your intention towards big areas of your life. Having an intention doesn’t mean you can’t have goals; an intention allows you to have a bigger goal while also providing you with daily guidance on how to live your best life. For example, an intention of commitment can be applied to your career, health, and relationships. In your career, you can commit to achieving certain benchmarks over the year. For your health, you can commit to eating more vegetables. Within your relationships, you can commit to more positive interactions with your loved ones. On a daily basis, you will make sure you do something every day that is in line with your intention.
How To Stay Accountable
Like a resolution, setting an intention in the new year can prove difficult to maintain without a plan.
The best way to stay accountable and ensure that you stick with your 2021 intention is to begin your morning by thinking about your intention and how you plan to infuse it into your day.
To guarantee that this morning reflection happens every day, pair it to an existing daily ritual like brushing your teeth so that it eventually becomes habitual over time. When you introduce a new daily task into your routine, it’s essential to break down as many barriers as to make it easier for you to do. Then, throughout your day, as you achieve an application of your intention, make sure to celebrate it with something simple that makes you happy, like listening to music. By rewarding the achievement of your intention, you are creating an association of happiness in your brain that over time, will seek out this joyful experience brought about by your intention.
The current circumstances in our world have created a lot of added stress, so the pressure of meeting new goals brought on by resolutions can increase our feelings of anxiety and overwhelm.
Rather, setting an intention for the new year provides us with a road map, and the directions can be applied to the various components of your life. This new year affords us tremendous possibilities for change, perhaps more so than in recent years. Seize this wonderful opportunity to set the tone for 2021 by finding the intention that will nourish your soul and help you live your best life.
WRITTEN BY
Josephine Reyes Atluri