It’s the beginning of the new year and a whole new decade. As I have reflected over the past year, and especially over the past decade, I have been astonished by all that has happened. I entered this last decade as a 20-year-old and started the new one as a 30-year-old. Talk about a huge shift in perspective, lifestyle, and priorities. So many things have happened and changed for the better, but I am determined to have an even better decade than the last. Generally I am one of those people who sets resolutions each year, but then forgets most of them before January even ends, and sometimes just a week or so in. When I look back through my lists of resolutions each year that I have in my journal, they tend to be mostly the same things. Obviously, if I’m repeating them year after year, I must not be doing a great job at following through with them. As Albert Einstein wisely said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.”  So this year I decided to do something different. Instead of resolutions, I decided I was going to choose an intention word. 

An intention word is like a mantra or an affirmation that I am going to be keeping in the forefront of my thoughts and is going to guide my behavior. I am going to use this word as a compass to keep me on track with what I want out of the year. The word I have chosen is: INTEGRITY. One definition of integrity by Merriam-Webster dictionary is: “the quality or state of being complete or undivided”. This is the definition of integrity that I am specifically thinking about when I think of integrity as my intention.  What this means to me is being very intentional in all of my choices and only making choices that are in total alignment of who I am and what I desire at the deepest levels. This means consuming foods that are sustaining and replenishing to me in all aspects, not just ones that taste good but will make me feel bad or even just subpar. This means letting go of worries or fears of what others think in the decisions that I make, whether or not it affects them. This means letting go of beliefs and stories about myself that are no longer serving me. This means only making choices that feel 100% right in my heart, soul, body, and mind. 

We are already a couple of weeks into January and normally the resolutions would already be starting to disappear from my mind and my actions. This year I am actually getting stronger every day in sticking to my intention of integrity.  I am aligning with that intention on a deeper level every day. My habits and routines around it are also getting stronger. There is definitely something to this that is working for me.  

I challenge you to forego the tradition of a list of New Year’s resolutions and to instead think of a word to use as your compass for the year. Chances are you have already had a word pop into your mind. Don’t overthink it too much, if it came to you, it did so for a reason. However, if you have no idea what word to choose, a good place to start looking is to look up a list of values and choose one from there. Integrity is actually the top value on my list of top 6 values (I couldn’t settle at just 5, so I went with 6). I didn’t plan this or even realize it for a few days after choosing it, but I don’t think it is a coincidence. Our values should ultimately be guiding all of our choices in order for us to be in total alignment and get the greatest satisfaction from life, so choosing one of your values is an excellent place to start living with more intention. Once you’ve chosen your word, have some fun with it to keep it in the forefront of your mind. If you like to paint, paint it on a canvas or paint your representation of it. Or you could do some fun word art or decoupage or make/buy a bracelet with the word on it. Think of something that would be fun and meaningful to you to keep it on your mind. I would love to hear what your word of the year is and what it means to you- comment below or send me an email. Enjoy!