Welcome to 2020!! A new year and a new decade. Have you consciously closed 2019? Have you considered your vision for this year?
We all have little rituals that we perform throughout our daily, weekly or monthly going ons. Perhaps your morning ritual is to have a cup of tea or coffee in bed or spend some time on your own before the household rises and the day moves forward at light speed.
What are your dreams and desires for this year? The coming decade?
‘If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy and inspires your hopes’ – Andrew Carnegie.
This is the exciting beginning of a new year and decade. We all have the ability to tap into our core intentions whether it is for this week, month or year. To be able to build our dreams each of us needs to build in daily practices to help us reach our desired dreams.
Let us consciously map out the coming year by setting areas of focus. These may be Career, Personal, Physical, Mind, Finance or other areas. You may wish to choose one area, a few or, if you’re feeling really brave, a wide range! I would love you to take time to sit still to reflect and consider your overall intention for this year. Break this down into actions to build on this intention.
‘Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.’ – Pablo Picasso
Within each area you have chosen, take time to list your key goals. You may wish to break these down into SMART focus goals. Be BOLD.
SMART goals are useful but need to be done properly:
- Specific (not vague)
- Measurable (so you know when you have achieved them – and it can be helpful to measure the following of a positive routine rather than focusing on your final goal, as in the second example below)
- Achievable (because there is no point in setting impossible goals)
- Relevant (focused on what you really want to achieve)
- Time-based (to help with motivation)
For example, you may want to read more or lose weight. As SMART goals, these might be:
- Read at least one book each month throughout the year.
- Stick to your daily calorie count and go to the gym three times each week.
At the conclusion of each month, take time to reflect on what you have achieved in your core areas of focus. This reflective process allows you to look at:
- inspiration;
- gratitude;
- bravery moments;
- learning;
- how you have changed;
- what is working or not working;
- belief systems; and
- how to move forward.
You may achieve your key intention faster or change your desires. This is very normal. To achieve your intention, you need to consciously work at it each day. Just like your daily ritual of a morning cuppa or coffee you need to invest time into yourself and your dreams. To build change you need to actively participate in your daily practice.
CREATING A HABIT
- 21 days to create the habit
- 21 days to strengthen your resolve and embed the habit
- 21 days to make your new habit a part of your DNA
Michelle House (Rich Living at michellehouse.com.au)
There may be challenges, changes and delays as you move into achieving your intention. Life is not a straight line, or perfect! This journey will have ups and downs, surprises and influences outside your control. Ask yourself with honesty, what is my first response to a challenge?
Some put their heads down and get going. Others see insurmountable obstacles (catastrophising), experience automatic emotional responses (crying, yelling, etc) or face negative self-talk. What counts is working out how you respond and moving forward.
If you find you are straying from your goals, consider:
‘You know, everybody has setbacks in their life, and everybody falls short of whatever goals they might set for themselves. That’s part of living and coming to terms with who you are as a person.’ – Hillary Clinton
Every little step moves you closer to your intention or goal. Even 10 minutes per day is better than nothing. Tiny steps are always better than no steps at all.
‘One of the lessons that I grew up with was to always stay true to yourself and never let what somebody else says distract you from your goals. And so when I hear about negative and false attacks, I really don’t invest any energy in them, because I know who I am.’ – Michelle Obama
Time to Have a Go!
One set of intentions for myself this year is to work on building on my practices and attitude towards gratitude, forgiveness, and kindness.
To get you started on your intentions journey, below I have given you some ideas for questions you may wish to consider.
- What would you do if you could not fail?
- What word or theme would you like to set for this year?
- Do you have a mantra, saying or quote that makes you feel light? If so, write this out.
- Are there words, images, poems, music, etc that help you connect strongly to your theme or intention? Write, cut out and stick, draw and listen to all the things that you find to support your theme.
- Can you identify activities that you enjoy and give you expansion?
- How can I improve to reach where I am choosing to go?
- How will I know when I have achieved an intention?
- Where do I want to be this time next year? Where do I want to be in 3 years’ time? What about five years?
- Are there mindset beliefs I need to let go of? E.g. not good enough.
- How will I nourish and be kind to my body?
- How will I consciously improve my mind?
- How will I consciously improve my relationships?
- How will I expand and grow my knowledge and learning?
- How can I be more creative?
- How will I incorporate self-care this year?
- How can I bring in more laughter and fun this year?
- How can I connect and be more present in nature this year?
Your intentions can be listed and broken down into smaller chunks using the SMART process explained above. We are all visual creatures so you may wish to create a vision board that incorporates all your intentions and hang it somewhere you will see it each day.
At the end of each month take the time to reflect on what you have achieved with your core areas of focus. This reflective process allows you to look at:
- what has inspired you;
- what you have been grateful for;
- how you were brave;
- what you have learnt about yourself;
- what you were most proud of;
- what you need to change to move forward;
- what did and didn’t work;
- are you hesitating to move forward – if so why?
Wishing you all a fantastic New Year and a new decade to build further dreams and realities. As Nelson Mandela said:
‘There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of.’