We all know the term “New Year new me” right? Well how many times has that actually worked? So you got a new haircut, or started going to the gym in January only to lose those extra kilos you keep staring at in the mirror only to have it fizzle out by well… now. Now is the time of year's resolutions and your goals for 2020 go to die along with your motivation for change. So how is it some people manage to stick with their goals? Or is the tradition of New Years resolutions merely too impractical to achieve?
There are many strategies which are said to work for people, putting ‘conditions’ or ‘rules’ on the goals by making them measurable and achievable. There's no use creating a goal to travel the world if it's not feasible or you aren't in a situation to actually achieve it. However there are some negatives to setting and achieving goals which can lead to either failure or a constant state of inadequacy and unhappiness. This is due to the idea that once you have achieved your goals, you're finished, done, finito and what then? Make a new one? Start again? As you can see, this whole concept of accomplishing your goals is very much destination driven so to speak. It's constantly focussing on accomplishing the end goal and feeling like a failure or beating yourself up if you don't.
This is where the concept of intention setting was introduced. Intention setting is all about focussing on the small victories and actively making everyday choices and changes to improve your life. I had heard of the concept of intention setting however I didn't fully understand it. To me it just seemed like a new aged, alternate way to setting a goal. A ‘boujee’ version so to speak. But when the new year rolled around I decided to look into the idea and what it was really about.
Intention setting is the practice of changing small habits or changes to achieve your goals as a whole. It's not so much about accomplishing the goal but instead about the things you're doing along the way. Focussing on the everyday rather than an end. For example, one of my ‘goals’ in life is to regain some of my flexibility I have lost over time. So one of my February intentions was to stretch more often, this will then result in greater flexibility as I practice this intention overtime, however it does not limit me to an end point as it would if I had said “I want to be able to do the splits' '.
So the past three months of the year I have tried out this concept and I can safely say it is one which I will be sticking to. You can approach intention setting anyway you like (which is the beauty of it). I like to set 3-4 monthly intentions as I find this breaks things down into more manageable short term changes for me, and prevent me feeling overwhelmed. However you could do yearly, weekly or even daily intentions. It's really all about your life and what works best for you. There are also various ways to set out your intentions. I like to use present tense (“I am...”, rather than “I will...”) as I find this helps trick my brain into believing I'm already doing it and that it's not actually something for the future, but in the now.
Its also important to check in with your own intentions. theres no point setting and forgetting so to speak! Write them down somewhere you can see them or make them you phone background. Even just remembering to check in with them every so often and ask yourself "ok am I actually putting these into practice in my daily life?"
So switch from goal setting to intention setting and see how it works for you! Below are my march Intentions to help give you an idea and guide your own intention setting practice.
I am going to a pole class once a week.
I am practicing yoga.
I am being more positive.