Let’s be honest, setting resolutions on New Year’s Eve after a couple of drinks rarely sets you up for success. In fact, I will admit it – I have completely given up on trying to set resolutions.
Instead, I set intentions. Intentions are quite different from resolutions. They take a little more thought, self-awareness, and effort, but they are much more effective for creating momentum in our life.
Why? Before you can set an intention, you need to take a holistic view of your life and well-being (including mental, physical, social and financial wellness). Setting intentions requires you to approach yourself, your current situation and wellbeing with genuine interest and curiosity.
If you take a genuine interest in yourself, in feeling good, in finding balance, and in feeling healthier, then over time you’ll find your own flow that suits your life.
Chloe Thomas
Why set intentions for 2022?
Intentions act as a guiding principle for a given moment, be it a day, week, month or an entire year. They help calibrate your actions with the vision you have created for your life. And you can set intentions whenever. There’s no need to wait for the New Year.
Struggling to see a vision? Start as small as asking what you need at that moment. Nurture and be kind to yourself. Eventually you can begin to set intentions that focus upon adapting the wider areas of your life to feel healthier and happier.
In my darkest time, I couldn’t envision a future past the present day because I was out of touch with myself, my feelings and my aspirations. It was a time when I was just reacting to everything around me. Most of my waking hours were spent on autopilot, surviving rather than thriving.
During those low points, setting an intention slowly helped me begin to build a gentle dialogue with my inner world and (re)discover the things that sparked joy within me.
Setting intentions is a powerful practice and is the first step to embodying and envisioning your ideal life.
Our intention creates our reality.
Wayne Dyer
Alright, ready to dig in?
Reflect on the past year
Sometimes you have to look back before you can move forward. Taking a glance at the past year can help you grasp an overall picture of your lifestyle. Take time to recognize your small and big wins, your happiest moments, and, importantly, what you learned.
- What matters most to you?
- What would you like to build, create, or nurture in your life?
- When are you at your happiest?
- What makes you proud?
- What are you grateful for?
- What are your wildest dreams?
Ask yourself what went well and what didn’t, what aspects you would like to improve, let go of, or focus more on. They could be big or small and relate to any area in your life, whether that be your habits, friendships, physical health, finances, you name it.
Avoid ruminating on the past and use it simply as a reference point. What has passed is past, and now it’s time to focus more of your energy on the now and what you want to create.
Doing this exercise will also help you to seek out what values are important to you, guiding you towards the intentions that are in alignment with you.
Identify the biggest gap
As you reflect upon your values and the different areas of your life, identify the area that you would most like to see a change reflected within.
Is it your physical or mental health? Maybe you want to improve your friendships and relationships? Or take your career to the next level? Is now the time to set your personal finances straight and remove debt?
Be realistic though. You’ll have more success in implementing change if you go at it step by step. The key to seeing growth is to focus on one or two areas and give those your attention and energy. Then, you can begin to build on those and add in new areas to master. Like a puzzle, piece by piece, you’re creating, living and breathing your own vision.
For example, in 2020, my focus was on mental health. 2021 was about kick-starting my career and securing my finances. In 2022, I will build upon last year’s foundation by making more intuitive career decisions, following my creativity, and building financial wealth for future Lilli.
So, career and personal finances are again the two overarching themes for my 2022, which are very much aligned with my greater vision.
Set your intention for 2022 and create an action plan
Last year my intention was “Focus”, which guided me throughout 2021 in my job hunt as well as nailing my financial goals. By focusing on the essentials, I needed to let go of situations, people and things that felt like they were holding me back.
Essentially, 2021 was all about laying down the foundation for my day-to-day life, but also for muija by breathing life into this online magazine. Which, by the way, exceeded all of my expectations, as we closed the year with two inspiring contributors making us a team of three already! Say what now! Meet Chloe and Emma!
With a solid foundation in place, in 2022 it’s time to “Make it happen!”. This year will be about building on that foundation and setting bold career and financial goals. But, above all, launching the next stages for muija, so stay tuned!
What phrase is your intention for 2022?
Once you’ve found one that aligns with you, create a plan or a system for how you will embody it in your chosen themes for 2022 in the coming day, week, month or year. Break it down into clear goals, decide what steps are important to take, and how you will keep track of your progress.
This is a topic I love especially when it comes to finances, so we’ll cover this segment in more detail in an upcoming article.
Visualize
The final step is to tie your intention to a vision that you will be exposed to everyday.
Make your intention visible by writing it down on a sticky note on your wall, making it your phone background, or by creating a vision board. This way you will be reminded daily of what it is that you desire and it will plant the seeds in your subconscious for the long-term.
Multiple studies have shown us the power of visualisation. Even top athletes use it as a regular part of their training and preparation for achieving top performance. Cheesy as it is, if you can envision it, you can be it.
Give yourself room to explore and evolve
Just remember, intentions are not set in stone. You may revisit and change them as you learn more about yourself, what excites you or if you want to pivot and head in a completely new direction in life. Like I said, setting intentions is one way to recalibrate and have more clarity on the direction you want to head in – whether short-term or long-term, today or tomorrow. Whatever feels right for you in that moment.
Here’s to making it happen!
A marketing professional in tech by day, Lilli finds a creative release in exploring and writing about her perfectly imperfect human experience on muija. With heart and soul, she is learning how to navigate this life, and in sharing her stories Lilli hopes to inspire others to follow their curiosity, too.