It’s Time To Ditch Your New Year’s Resolutions

If you’re fed up with setting new year’s resolutions that you neglect a few weeks into January and you’re ready to try something new, I encourage you to instead set an intention for the year. According to Inc.com, 91% of people who set new year’s resolutions will not succeed. It’s obvious that new year’s resolutions aren’t doing much to help us, so it’s time to try something new. I’ve personally been doing this practice for several years and I’m always pleasantly surprised at how much I can see my intentions woven throughout my year even during the years that I was not as deliberate in using my intention to guide my actions. I’ve yet to have a year where I felt guilt or shame for not sticking with my intention, which is a lot more than I can say for new year’s resolutions. 

Why set an intention for the year?

Let’s be real, when we set any goal or resolution, what we are truly trying to accomplish is to feel a certain way. For example, when we set the goal of losing weight, the reason we want to lose weight is to feel a certain way such as energized, confident, attractive, healthy, etc. It’s likely that there’s a general theme of what you’re trying to accomplish with all of your resolutions. Instead of making it complicated by trying to remember all of the different resolutions and having tons of things on your checklist, let’s make it more simple by determining your intention for the year instead. 

How Do I Choose My Intention For The Year?

Alright, so you’re ready to come up with your intention for the year. Don’t worry if it’s already mid-January when you do this, or even July. This truly can be done at any time, but I personally like to do this sometime in December or January. Set aside 30-60 minutes of uninterrupted time where you can go through the following questions to come up with your intention for the year. It’s important to make this a relaxing ritual so that you can pinpoint and get very clear on what you truly want. So, grab a pen, find a comfy seat, grab a soothing beverage, play some relaxing music, and light a candle. Make this fun and enjoyable because you are setting the tone for the entire year! Without making this too complicated, go through the following questions and write down your answers to the following questions. It’s best not to answer them in your head and to actually write down the answers because we tend to get more focused and clear when our ideas are out of our head and on paper.

Get Started Writing! 

• How are you currently feeling and how have you felt in the past year?
• What were the best parts or favorite memories of the past year?
  • What specifically did you love about them?
  • What feeling comes to mind when you think of those memories?
  • Take 5-10 minutes to sit in silence, close your eyes, and visualize yourself in that memory. Try to bring back the senses- what you felt, heard, smelled, tasted, see, etc – to fully immerse yourself in the memory. Then, journal about it.  
• What were your least favorite parts of your year? What feelings come to mind when you think of those memories? After you come up with those feelings you didn’t enjoy, try to come up with what the opposite feeling would be or a more desirable feeling would be? For example, if the negative emotion was “overwhelm”, the opposite for you may be “peaceful”. 
• What are your typical new year’s resolutions?
  • What themes do you notice when you look at all of these resolutions? Is there a certain feeling that you believe would come from attaining these resolutions?
    • For example, the most common new year’s resolution is to exercise more. But what are people really trying to accomplish by exercising more? What they are really looking for is to feel a certain way. Words that come to mind when thinking about how you would feel if you exercised more would be: confident, energized, vibrant, alive, strong, capable, sexy, attractive, youthful, young, etc. You can go through this exercise for each resolution or look at them overall and find the overarching theme. 

Choose Your Intention

Now it’s time to choose your word. Circle any words that spark emotion in you and that you may want to make your intention of the year. After you go through the whole list and circle any that resonate, try to eliminate until you find the one that fits best.   

• Authentic
• Adventure
• Balance
• Beauty
• Bliss
• Boldness
• Confident
• Courage
• Creativity
• Curiosity
• Energized
• Faith
• Friendship
• Fun
• Gratitude
• Happiness
• Hope 
• Humor
• Independence
• Inspired
• Integrity
• Harmony
• Joy
• Love
• Openness
• Optimism
• Passion 
• Peace
• Pleasure
• Self-Compassion
• Self-Love
• Self-Respect
• Serenity
• Spirituality
• Stability
• Strong 
• Trust 
• Vibrant
• Vitality
• Worthy 

Congratulations, now you have your intention for the year! Let’s go a little deeper in how to make practical use of your intention so it doesn’t go out the window like resolutions. 

Using Your Intention To Make Choices

Come up with some questions to ask yourself before making decisions to determine if it is in alignment with your intention for the year. This will help keep you on track. 

Every single choice is moving you in one direction or the other. It’s either moving you closer to your intention or further away. There is no such thing as a neutral choice. Even if a choice seems like it’s neutral, it’s moving you one way or the other even if it’s a small amount – but over time, small amounts add up (consider the power of compound interest with investing). 

Fill in the blanks with your intention word when making a choice to determine if it’s in alignment with your intention for the year. 

• Will doing this make me feel more _____?
• Which option would make me feel the most ____? 
• What is one thing that you could do to feel more ____ in the next week? Month? Quarter? 
• At the beginning of the month, write down the ways you believe you have cultivated your intention for the year in the past month? 

Maintaining Awareness Of Your Intention Word

Consider using some of these fun ways to remind yourself of your word of the year on a daily basis: 

• Get a bracelet made with your intention on it. You can wear it daily as a reminder of your intention. There are tons of options for this on etsy and they are very affordable. 
• Write, print, or make some other kind of artwork or way to display your word somewhere you’ll frequently see it. Put the word up around your home, office, or other environments as a daily reminder. 
• Make it the backdrop on your phone home and lock screen.
• Do a daily visualization exercise where you sit quietly with your eyes closed and imagine what it would be like to fully embody your intention.

I hope you gain as much benefit from this practice of choosing an intention word to guide your year. I would love to hear what intention will be guiding your year forward!