December is nearly over and January is almost upon us. New year. New start. Dreaded New Years Resolutions. Dreaded explosion of people at the gym. Blech. But I am glad for a new year. 2016 has been pretty much horrible, both publicly and privately, so the concept of a new year/new start is very appealing to me. I need that new start. I need that metaphorical closing of the book.
I don't know what 2017 will bring. But there's a lot I want 2017 to bring. I want 2017 to be the year of Fulfilled Intentions.
I sat down with a good friend the other week to catch up. She's a pretty amazing woman. I look up to her for so many reasons. She works full time, is completing her Masters Degree, and is also in the process of becoming a Yoga Teacher. But she's not your typical yogi -- she's got curves and attitude and she's driven as hell. She is a wonderful Christian who, like me, struggles with being properly disciplined in our faith. But we were talking about 2017, about Resolutions, about how they are pointless because we never actually live to fulfill them. And she brought up an excellent point -- that this year she wanted to approach resolutions differently. Instead of creating this super long list at the start of the year of what she wanted to accomplish for the entire year, she had decided to set weekly and monthly intentions. That way her goals change as her dreams and focuses change. It allows for room to develop yourself, because it's impossible to predict at the start of the year how you're going to develop through the year.
I loved her concept. It was refreshing. Approachable. Attainable. Setting weekly and/or monthly intentions was something I thought I could actually do. Small goals. Not giant, overwhelming, seemingly impossible goals like Resolutions.
I loved her concept so much that I'm going to change the name of my blog to remind me every time I log in what I'm working toward this year.
So instead of setting resolutions, I've decided to come up with blocks of my life that I want to spend some time and attention in the new year. To stay true to intention setting, I can't and won't decide where or how that time/attention will be spent. But there are areas of my life that I know already I will be setting different sorts of intentions for in 2017 (the real areas my life needs work in):
- Self Worth & Personal Development (this includes deep reflection and introspection about the truths of my life that I may or may not be ignoring; re-writing the stories I'm telling myself; adjusting my priorities; addressing the relationship I have with myself; working to address my feelings of unworthiness; etc)
- Spirituality (this includes prayer life, Bible Study time, involvement in/with the church, my Relationship with God)
- Discipline (this includes living with better awareness and being more intentional with the choices of how to spend my time and what I'm doing with my day to day life)
I pray most of all for improved health in my relationships, and I mean all of my relationships. With God. With family. With my husband. With my friends. With food. With work. With co-workers. With money. With free time. And most of all with myself. I think if I were to sum up my intentions into one overarching intention for the year, it's to work on my relationships. We have a relationship with everything in our lives. Whether it be human, animal, inanimate object (food, money, TV, internet, clothes...), emotion, status, etc. And I think it's clear that I need to readjust which relationships have priority in my life and which relationships don't; which relationships rule me now and which ones need to rule me going forward.
I don't know how you're choosing to approach the new start of the new year. Maybe resolutions work for you, and if they do, I am so happy for you! But if they don't, maybe it's time for you to find a new way to approach the new year. :) And maybe, just maybe, a whole new philosophy could begin by just getting some frozen yogurt with a good friend. ;)
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