Using Intent Statements to Chart our Paths

Choosing intent rather than resolutions:

New years resolutions are a tradition and breaking them is also a tradition. The idea of a resolution is pretty linear, it says “I will do this”. An intent is more non-linear, it’s about how you want to live your life and focus your activities and thoughts for some period of time. It’s pretty easy to make a resolution, just say I’m going to do this! It’s also just as easy to break it, just don’t do it and once you don’t do it, you’ve broken it and it’s done. 

You can try to go back and revisit it, but you’ve already shown that it’s not that important to not break it, you’ve probably said “I can always go back to it” but often that happens sporadically or not at all, we move on and leave the resolution behind. In a way, you have made and broken a promise to yourself and in another way it’s a small (or not so small) failure. We didn’t get it done!

When we intend to do something, it is not so much a requirement as it is a plan. It defines a path and a direction and a movement that can come and go, can be very powerful or sit in the background but it is always there to guide our thoughts and actions when we need it to. Our intent can be our blueprint for the year to come and more of a goal or set of goals to accomplish than a task to be completed.  

Intention can be a big part of change too. If you intend to change, your belief in your intent and your desire to see what the outcome is can help you to create meaning and direction in your life and give you a focus for growth that seems to me to be more gentle than a resolution. Your intent can lead you to learn or accept or find a more calm approach to your grief journey or your intent can be whatever you want it to be. It can be your guide and help you focus as you learn what you need to learn to find your hope and healing and let them grow to become wellness within you.

Working on ourselves: 

Whether we like it or not, we are now here in the world without our spouses or partners to share our days and nights with. We need to learn to grow and change and find new meaning and purpose to give our lives direction.

In many cases, that means working on ourselves, changing things about ourselves and becoming more by learning and exploring life again and using the time we have been given in a positive way. As we work on ourselves, as we craft the next part of our lives, redefining our meaning and purpose can be and often is challenging but can also be important things to consider doing. 

With the passing of our spouses we are often left with broken, damaged and maybe even destroyed meaning in our lives. As we consider how we will progress into the New Year, finding or creating new meaning and purpose can become a base we can stand on as we learn to build hope and healing moving forward.  By growing and learning, we can use our growth to honor our loved ones. We  can use our intent and the intent statements we craft to be our road map for a year of intentional changes we make throughout the year to come. 

Setting goals and expectations for ourselves for the new year:

So consider finding some goal and some expectation for the year ahead and defining it by our intent and letting that be your guide through out the year to help you find hope and healing and to embrace your grief and your opportunities to become more. 

Write your intent statement down and keep it where you can see it and repeat it as often as you need to throughout the year to help you remember what you intend to do.

Happy New Year everyone!