I prefer intentions to resolutions. Intentions are small changes in practices or behavior that result from a dedicated awareness to change. Intentions are small vows for increasing awareness toward the areas of your life that warrant more attention. If we looked at our “resolutions” we would find many of them overlap significantly: to eat better, to exercise more, to get rid of X, Y, Z bad habits, to spend more time with certain individuals (and perhaps less time with certain others), save more money, reduce debt, etc. Resolutions require big and often abrupt changes to your behavior and/or lifestyle choices. And that is exactly why they fizzle out shortly after the New Year.
Intentions, on the other hand, require a quiet commitment to your growth and wellness. Intentions involve realigning first your heart and then your efforts towards the things you feel will help you grow as a person, professional, parent, significant other, etc. They begin in and with the heart and that is what makes them so powerful. They do not begin in the mind. They are your heart’s nudge for a better, more adjusted you.
So, on this last day of December in this last decade of its kind–I pray that you find time to sit with your hearts and take good stock of the content there. We often silence the heart in favor of the mind. But the true “know” always resides in the heart. I invite you to take a few moments today and tomorrow to sit with your heart so that through its quiet corridors, you may discover wellspring of intentions it has to offer.
Happy New Year, Thrive Global family! May this upcoming year and the new decade bring us closer to one another, to things of value and purpose, to healing in the world, and to intentions that restore us to our core.