setting intentions for the new year (2/2)
It’s time to reflect on the future and set some plans in motion. Here are three simple questions to help you clarify your intentions.
1. What do I want to do more?
How you spend your days is how you spend your life. Hence, you want to make sure that you’re spending your time on the right things. When you look back on the last twelve months, have you done things you’ve enjoyed? Have you made time for yourself? Have you had fun? Have you done what you truly wanted to do? These are all good questions to help you get clear on what exactly you want to do more of in the next 12 months.
2. What do I want to do less?
In the last twelve months, what has annoyed you, frustrated you, or felt like a waste of time? How can you spend less time doing these things in the next twelve months – or at least make them somehow more enjoyable or quicker to do?
3. How do I want to feel?
This is such a simple question but so easily forgotten. And it shouldn’t be this way. We, humans, are emotional beings. We are driven by our feelings and we are immensely affected by them. How we feel affects our mind, body, and soul. That’s why it’s important to take the time to reflect on how exactly you want to feel in the year to come. Try to get specific here. Visualize the experience of your desired feeling right now.
If you want to feel happy, is it about more laughter and smiles, or a calm sense of contentment? If you want to feel relaxed, is it about feeling physically looser or mentally more stable, or both? If you want to feel inspired, is it about feeling driven and motivated, or energized and focused? Whatever it is, set your intention for it right here right now. Setting that intention will help you to notice opportunities that will help you to feel more of your desired feeling.
Let your incredible vision remind you every day where you’re going and what you want to accomplish, and let your remarkable intentions help you write the story that you truly desire to live.
Did You Know?
Captious comes from Latin captio, which refers to a deception or verbal quibble. Arguments labeled captious are likely to “capture” a person; they often entrap through subtly deceptive reasoning or trifling points. A captious individual is one who might also be dubbed “hypercritical,” the sort of carping, censorious critic only too ready to point out minor faults and raise objections on trivial grounds.