What’s the difference between an intention and a goal for the New Year?
Writing your list of intentions for the New Year can be an inspiring process—one that often happens from a deeper desire to be, do, or have new experiences in the coming year. The act of contemplating where you’re at in your life and envisioning what’s to come stirs a new energy within—an energy of curiosity, hope, and inspiration. For instance, when done with awareness and intention, it sparks a connection to something bigger that lights your path.
an intention vs. a goal
Yoga Journal explains,” intentions are not oriented to future outcomes. Instead, an intention is more of a continual aspiration, or a path, based on an understanding of what really matters most to you. In a way, establishing your intention is making a commitment to those values most important to you. Over time, your actions begin to align with your intentions, meaning those top-priority values.”
When setting an intention, imagine your highest vision for this area of your life as if it has already happened, and you are presently living in this energy. For example:
How do you look?
How do you feel?
What are you doing?
Who is there with you?
What is happening around you?
What are your daily practices to keep you anchored in this ideal vision?
Make the vision as compelling and as real as possible. Your vision isn’t something that needs to be created–it already exists within you. You just need to access it. With that being said, write your intentions as if they already are true – use statements like – I am, we are, I feel, I know, I trust.
Start by evaluating your state of mind – your present state of you – what’s going on in your life and be honest with yourself. Try not to rush this process. Spend time with it. After that, move on to setting your intentions and writing them down in an outline form.
So try this:
Quiet yourself down for a moment. Take a breath in and a deep breath out. If you feel safe, close your eyes. Feel your body in space as you take a deep breath in and a deep breath out. Allow yourself to settle. Take a slow, long, deep breath in and a slow, long, deep breath out. Contemplate the following:
** The awareness of your body – Accepting the way you look and feel.
** Accept your current relationships
** Accept your current level of spirituality
** Accept your current career, money, and finances
Accept it all as it is right now in the present moment. Take a deep breath in and a deep breath out. Keeping your eyes closed, contemplate one small action, something to work on perhaps in your health goals. Then do the same for your relationships, spirituality, and your career (finances).
Declare Your New Year Intentions Out Loud!
Once you have all your intentions, write them down and then type them out. Then declare them out loud. Maybe read them to yourself, or say them out loud by looking in the mirror, or share them with a friend. Saying your intentions clearly out loud will help you fulfill them. It lets the universe know what it is that you wish to manifest. It makes your intentions known. In declaring them, you release them and let them go. It’s a dandelion that you blow in the wind. The seeds scatter outward, just like your intentions.
For the past decade, I have had an annual intention ritual. After I have made my list of intentions, I type them and print the list. Then I place the list in my Christmas stocking (or a place that you will know and remember where it is next December). Then, the following December, I re-read them. For me, it has been a lovely ritual.
Happy New Year!
