As a writer, when I cook up story ideas I often get inspiration from the time of year. Especially true of the health and wellness column I write for the Calgary Herald‘s Neighbours publication (it’s called Well + Good in case you are interested). For whatever reasons, the Neighbours content never really makes it onto the Herald‘s website, so the info is out for one day and then disappears into the ether. That is the nature of the news cycle, I suppose, but every now and then I write something that strikes a chord with readers and they send me notes to say they have cut the piece out to refer back to later. If the Internet is not designed to save things to refer back to later, then I don’t know what is? So, to that end, I’m posting New Years column below for potential future use. It’s not my goal for this week to become “Resolution Week” here on Grit & Bare It, but it does seem I have a lot of thoughts on the subject. It’s a good time of year. It feels like anything is possible—we just need the proper strategies to get where we want to go. Intentions (thoughtful ones, anyway), as Martha Stewart would say, they’re “a good thing.”
Intentions Instead of Resolutions for 2014
published Thursday, Jan. 2
“It’s never too late to be what you could have been.”
This George Eliot gem is tossed around all year, but it never strikes quite the same chord as it does heading into a fresh calendar year.
While Eliot believed it’s never too late, I say it’s never too early to develop a plan of attack that will set you up to flourish in the new year. Personally, I’m all about making resolutions; once I make the decision to make a change, it is a done deal.
Statistically speaking, though, New Year’s resolutions are made to be broken. According to the New York Times, four out of five people who make a resolution will break it within the following 365 days, and a third of those won’t even make it to the end of January.
So why do we keep setting these lofty goals when we know the majority of us will fail? It’s a question life and leadership coach Tammy Robertson often asks herself. It’s also the reason she encourages her clients to take a different approach to traditional resolution setting.
“We are notoriously bad at goals and even worse with resolutions,” Robertson explains. “Resolutions are too tight; they’re too rigid. Change is happening so quickly, we don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow.”
Instead of starting the year with specific goals, Robertson is fond of setting an intention. Robertson has found in her nearly 10 years of practice that this strategy is more effective in keeping people inspired and moving in the right direction over the long-term.
Robertson’s suggests sitting down and creating an overarching theme for the year to come. Next, Robertson recommends creating a vision board.
“Create a collage of pictures, words and quotes that express what you want to feel, experience and have in your life in the coming year,” she says.
The third and most important step, after setting your intention, is to write out a list of 10 questions consistent with what you would be doing when living your new desired lifestyle.
“For example, if your vision for 2014 is to be fit and healthy, your list would include questions like, ‘Did I get eight hours of sleep last night?’ or ‘Did I take the stairs today?’ ‘Did I pack healthy snacks for work today?'” says Robertson.
“Write the questions out, keep them in front of you and just look at them at the beginning of the week and then maybe again on Friday. You’ll notice if what you want to be doing and what you are doing are in alignment.”
The beauty of adopting an intention instead of making a resolution is there is no failure. “I believe this is how we move forward and create change in our lives,” Robertson says. “This way, rather than trying to push, force and drive toward a goal, we allow our life to unfold by noticing what would make it great and what we can still do and become.”
