I'm Not Making Any New Year's Resolutions
Every year around this time after the holiday shopping dies down, and the leftovers fade, the question come up…So what’s your New Year’s resolution? What’s your goal for 2019? What big, drastic change are you going to make? I’m not really comfortable with the word resolution, so I don’t make any. Instead, I create intentions.
The issue with resolutions for me, is that they are surface. I don’t feel like resolutions work because they don’t create a meaningful internal attachment. I prefer intentions. Intentions allow you to live your values out loud and energetically.
When I set an intention, the intention aligns with a value that is true for me and how I want to show up. Once I set an intention, I can set then a goal that relates to that intention. It becomes more real, more tangible, and more importantly it feels natural. Let me differentiate between a resolution and an intention. If asked what’s my resolution, I could say, I want to get a promotion in 2019 or I want to lose 10 pounds. Once I get that promotion or lose those 10 pounds, I feel great…for a few days, maybe a month, but then what? Then there is a constant stream of what’s my next goal.. what the next thing I need to do to be happy or feel great about an accomplishment. That’s not what I want from my life. I don’t know about you, but I want happy now, not playing leapfrog with goals to attain at most a temporary state of happy.
When I set an intention, I start with my values. This seems like an easy process but it might not be so obvious. Many of us think we know what our values are, but maybe not. Take an inventory of what naturally comes to mind…and ask yourself if the values that came to mind are truly your values or the values that you are expected to say. Were these things taught to you, told about you, or is it really a belief that is important to you? Is it really something you honor? What is true for you about your values?
Once you can articulate what you truly value, you can start thinking about how you want to show up in the world. You can align to those values by setting an intention. If my values are creating meaningful connections and living a holistic healthy lifestyle. I can then set an intention that allows me to live out my values. My intentions would be to seek out connections that are meaningful at work and in my personal life and to enjoy a healthy spirit life, a healthy body, and a healthy mind. From there I can create some goals, and those goals ladder up to the values and intentions. These “intentional goals” are more than temporary, they help to support your values and the way you want to show up, every day.
The thing is when you set an intention, it allows you to show up in life, more powerfully, and of course more intentionally. Imagine the powerful shifts you can make when you are focused on your intentions. These powerful shifts can bring you closer to your personal and professional goals. These powerful shifts are all about mindset and how you can shift from “I wish I could” to “I intend to”. I use a unique approach called Energy Leadership which helps leaders and executives to discover the tendencies, beliefs, perceptions, and values that they have adopted over the years. This helps them become conscious of how these tendencies have guided their decisions and actions and driven their business’s success (or lack there of).
Using the Energy Leadership Development System, leaders are able to re-create their ideal image of themselves and their role. They will then be able see themselves reemerge as an energetic, successful and balanced. If you want to hear more about a balanced mindset and how to shift from wishing you could to actually living out your intentions, let’s chat.