Did you make resolutions this year? Or, after reading that so many resolutions go unfulfilled, did you not make any resolutions? Perhaps, there’s a different way to think about it. A way to take an intentional step toward a goal or desire.
Creative Intentions
Perhaps, instead of resolutions you set Intentions. Thanks to Orna Ross for that term. (See Orna’s explanation of Creative Intentions.) Her Creative Intentions are directed toward people striving toward creative endeavors but I believe anyone can use intentions instead of resolutions.
Intentions are positive and nonjudgmental. If you say it is my intention to lose twenty pounds. The goal is there but you’re also recognizing that it’s a process. There will be times of forward progress, slow progress, and perhaps no progress and backward progress. But if it’s your intention to do something and you have no progress, you have not failed. It’s still your intention. Perhaps you need to re-think the steps it takes to get there.
Stretch for High Goals
Setting your goals high doesn’t mean aim for the impossible. It means stretch yourself. And keep stretching yourself and you will reach farther than you thought you could reach.
At Your Speed
Life, especially creative life, is not a race. As Confucius says, “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” In other words, your steps can be slow with long rests between each step. It does not matter how slowly you go.
Comparing yourself or your progress to anyone else is comparing apples to hedgehogs.
Look in the mirror. Unless you’re an identical twin, no one else looks like you. No one has lived your life except you. Your path is unique to you. You know things, unique to you. Value your unique path by putting your foot forward each and every inch of the way.
To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don’t grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax, and float.
-Alan Watts
Don’t fight it. Don’t weigh yourself down with judgment.
Have trouble sticking to resolutions? Try following Orna’s Creative Intentions path. Write your intentions down. Share your intentions below. I’d love to hear them.
Take your first intentional step into the new year. You can do it. I know you can.
I’ve never done New Year’s resolutions, because it seems they always rely on doing something consistently – usually every day – and once you miss, the resolution is broken. That never works for me. Love the creative intentions alternative, and agree that it would work wonderfully for other areas of our lives as well.
Yes, that’s what resolutions meant to me, too. I’ve adopted the creative intentions idea and already think it’s been helpful for me.
I stopped making resolutions a few years back.
I used to work for a company that planned everything on a weekly basis. Every Friday there was a crisis. I remember my boss saying, “what’s so special about Friday?” We were the planners (job title) so it was our thinking that caused the Friday crisis.
He recommended a more daily approach. That really resonated with me. I have my annual lists and my monthly lists, because goals are important. But I try to face them as daily intentions.
May this year be a good one for you.
Daily intentions is great, Lisa. Thank you for your good wishes. And may this year be a good one for you, too.