Using Intent Statements to Chart our Paths 12/31/24
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”. 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.
We can try to go back and revisit it, but we’ve already shown that it’s not that important to not break it. We’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.
But in a way, we’ve made and broken a promise to ourselves and in another way it’s a small (or not so small) failure. We didn’t get it done!
An intent is more non-linear than a resolution, it’s more about how we want to live our lives and focus our activities and thoughts for some period of time. 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 up-front and powerful or it can sit quietly 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 work on and accomplish than a task to be completed.
Working on ourselves:
Intention can be a big part of change too. If you intend to change, your creation of and your belief in your intent and your desire to see what the outcome is can help you to create and maintain direction in your life and give you a focus for growth that seems to me to be more gentle and more effective than a resolution. Your intent can also help you to learn or accept or find a more calm approach to your grief journey.
With the passing of our spouses or partners, we may find ourselves left with broken, damaged and maybe even destroyed meaning in our lives. As we begin to craft the next part of our lives, redefining some meaning can be an important part of our healing journey. We can use our intent to work on this part of our lives as well.
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. And whether we like it or not, we will have to build ways to learn, grow and change, to find new ways to give our lives direction.
In many cases, that may mean working on ourselves, changing things about ourselves, adding or removing things to or from our lives and ourselves. It may include learning and exploring life again in different ways and using the time we have been given with intent, in a positive way and with a positive direction.
Your intent can be whatever you want it to be. It can become your guide and help you focus as you learn what you need to learn on your healing journey and it can help to let those things you learn and work on grow to become wellness within you.
You can use your intent and the intent statement(s) you craft to be your road map for a year of intentional changes you make, in all these places and more, throughout the year to come.
Setting goals and expectations for ourselves for the new year:
Think about finding some goal and some expectation for the year ahead and defining it by your intent and letting that be your guide throughout the year to help you find hope and healing and to embrace your grief and your opportunities to become more.
Happy New Year Everyone!