It’s that time of year again. The time of year where you start stressing out and mentally beating yourself up because you didn’t stick to your New Year’s resolutions… AGAIN. We’ve all gotten ourselves into this messed-up cycle before where we create all these resolutions and goals for the new year but by the time February comes around, we’ve forgotten all about them. At the end of the year we get super excited because we get a “fresh start” at the start of the new year and sometimes we even revert to bad habits since it’s the holidays and we can reset to healthy habits in January.
We spend a lot of time thinking about the resolutions we want to make for the new year. We think about all the amazing results that we want to achieve like weight loss, new relationships, more money, and maybe even a new home or job. We’re excited to get started and get the results we want ASAP. There’s just one little problem (okay big problem!) — resolutions don’t actually mean results. That means that even though we’re spending a lot of time thinking about the results we want, the resolutions just aren’t enough to get us there.
When we set resolutions that are focused on concrete goals, it’s really easy to to get discouraged when we don’t get immediate results. If we focus on how we want to feel in our lives instead, it’s easier to do things that allow us to experience those feelings.
For example, instead of focusing on our goal of losing 20 pounds, we set the intention to feel healthy instead. That way when we starting adding more exercise into our routines, we don’t feel disappointed when we don’t get immediate results. Instead we end up feeling pretty awesome about ourselves because we’re doing activities that align with our desire to feel healthier.
By focusing only on the end result as we do when we set resolutions, we skip over the entire journey that leads us to where we want to be instead and turn it into an overwhelming and stressful process. If you made a list of resolutions, now it’s time to take them out and connect your resolutions with how you want to feel instead. A big raise or new job may connect with you feeling successful and confident. A new relationship may connect with you feeling loved and connected. A new move may connect with you feeling adventurous. These are just some examples to get you started — remember that there is no right or wrong way to feel about any of your resolutions.
Once you have set your intentions for how you want to feel, the next step is to figure out what you can do so you can experience those feelings. Who can you spend time with, what activities can you do, what changes do you need to make so that you can actually fulfill your intentions? Then spend your time doing those things and stay mindful and focused on how you feel when you do them. This is what you need to be doing in order to get the results that you want because resolutions won’t do it for you.
Which resolutions can you revamp now that you know that you need to set intentions instead? Share your new intentions in the comments below!
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