How are those New Year's Resolutions going? - working with intentions rather than resolutions

January is done, so I want to check in with how your New Year resolutions going (if you set any)?

Research shows that often by February, just under half of people who set a resolution will already have given up. So if that's you, you're not alone! The thing with resolutions is that they are often 'all or nothing'. There's a sense that we either succeed in keeping them, or we fail and give up. If we give up, we might be feeling guilt or shame about it, or as if we can never change. But there's a different way...

Rather than setting resolutions, how about working with intentions instead? Intentions are more positive, more forgiving. Most importantly, they're more realistic, and therefore often more effective. So you might set an intention to "eat more healthily" or "look after your body better". Then you can make choices and decisions that are in line with this intention. For example, when you're deciding what to eat for the week, you can refer back to your intention and see whether it's in alignment with what you're putting on shopping list. The focus becomes not on what you need to fix, but on what you want to create: a healthier, happier you.

"The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new."

A lot of people approach their resolutions with an 'all or nothing' mindset, but once the resolution starts to slip (as almost always happens), they feel like giving up because they haven't allowed any room for life (or themselves!) not to be perfect. With intentions, if you slip up, you haven't failed. Instead, the very next moment you can decide again to make a choice that it is more in line with your intention. Every moment is a brand new moment. Every decision is a new opportunity to make a choice that brings you closer towards the person you want to be.

As Socrates said "the secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new." So with that in mind, how might you re-frame your resolution to be an intention for the days, weeks or months ahead rather than something that sees you give up in January?

Spend a few minutes now thinking about it, and then check in with yourself regularly each day to see how it's going. As always, reach out if you want to talk things through.

#intentionsnotresolutions #mindsetcoaching #healthychoices #mindfuleating #dontgiveup