Welcome to the new year! Are you feeling optimistic, or carrying the weight of the latest Covid wave? Whatever your mood, setting an intention for the year can be a balm for the soul, and helps clarify your priorities and focus for the next several months.
I’ve always been driven, optimistic, and ambitious. By age 12, I typically set 10-15 resolutions each year. I’m still a fan of goal setting. I love the rush of accomplishment I feel when I tick completed items off a list.
With the passage of time and maturity, I have relaxed considerably. My aspirations are now more holistic. Now I like to start the new year on the wings of a thoughtful intention, rather than just a list of to-dos. I exchanged my aspirational, goal-oriented resolutions for an annual intention several years ago. I have found this to be much more empowering, while still providing aspiration and a directional compass.
Over the years, I have set intentions of “creating space,” “healthy and strong,” and “expansion.” And each time, throughout the year, those guiding words or concepts garnered me what I intended to sow. What’s more, they continued to flow for me. While my aim was to resist the urge to fill newly available time with “activity,” a common trap of Type A overachievers, creating space resulted in greater calm, heightened judgement and problem solving, and greater joy from my relationships. I am more present. “Healthy and strong” led me to make dietary changes and revamp my workout routine, that still benefit me today. And “expansion” helped me increase my client reach and expertise, and led to the publishing of my two books, Feet to the Fire: How to Exemplify and Create the Accountability that Creates Great Companies and The 360 Degree CEO: Generating Profits While Leading and Living with Passion and Principles.
One year, I didn’t set an intention at the beginning of January and found myself floundering and feeling unmoored. It wasn’t that I didn’t have plans, but there was no overarching intention to set the tone and direction I wanted to travel. Eventually, I settled on curiosity, and chose to approach all that happened through a lens of curiosity.
Twenty-two months of Covid; our lives and businesses are forever changed. We will not return to a new normal, or to work practices of the past. Many businesses have, or will be, shuttered. Our buying patterns have changed. Offices of the future will not mirror the past. Healthcare has changed. Airlines and hospitality are facing a long road to recovery. Where we choose to live, and how we use our homes is already shifting.
What characteristics do you want to embody as you step forward? What will be required to be most successful in your work and life? Have your priorities shifted since March 2020?
Asking yourself these questions can help to define an intention for this brave new world and year.
Not only have I had much success with intention setting, clients and friends who have adopted this practice have also had success with it, and offer resounding positive feedback. I invite you to adopt it as well.
It doesn’t have to be complicated. Spend some time pondering what a few words could be. Go for a walk, grab a tea or coffee and a quiet spot to think and brainstorm, meditate, or do whatever you need to do to quiet your mind and get in touch with what you REALLY want. You could even go to sleep with the intention of finding your intention for the year. You may just wake up and know what it needs to be.
I encourage you to take the time, find your intention, share it with others, and let it be the guidepost for you throughout 2022. What is your intention for this year? What will 2022 hold for you?
© 2022 Lorraine A. Moore. All rights reserved. Permission granted to excerpt or reprint with attribution.
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