Now that we are a little over a week away from bringing in 2022, I wanted to prepare, as I always do to set myself up for what I like to think of as success for the next year with regards to how I want my year to look.  As I’ve mentioned before in my articles, Tony Robbins always says, “where your focus goes, energy flows” so why not be conscious of what that will look like.  I have been doing this since 2015 and it’s interesting when the following year comes to a close and I look back on it, I find that I accomplish a lot more of what I want when I start the year off with intention.  In this article, I wanted to plant some seeds in hopes of nudging others who maybe haven’t tried this before or it’s been awhile and I am hoping this discussion will at least get you thinking in this direction.

As always, I wanted to see what others have to say about this and get some facts behind the theory.  The first article I read was on the AARP.org website, written by Melissa Locker called, “Scrap the Resolutions and Set New Year’s Intentions Instead.”  She says this, because with resolutions there seems to be disappointment when they don’t come to fruition, whereas with an intention it’s less about a specific goal and more about a shift in mindset to help achieve that goal.  If you look at it as a journey there’s a better chance of success.  I know when I started doing work on my mindset, that was when I had longer lasting results in all areas of my life so this idea of intentions rather than resolutions, makes a lot of sense to me.  The article goes on to quote Diana Raab, a psychologist and author who suggests that resolutions are often focused on smaller goals like trying to maintain good posture, exercising more or cutting down on sugar.  According to Raab, “an intention has a broader focus and often has to do with relationships, careers, self-improvement or a larger call to action, such as travel .”

Raab spells it out this way, “seek out a journey, not an end point.  Changing the conversation from an end point to a journey means there is a greater likelihood of being successful without the risk of failure.” For me, I’ve come to terms with the fact that we are all here to evolve and it doesn’t happen overnight. Letting go of an end point or feeling I needed to get this life stuff sorted now, was a big step in forgiveness with myself. It allowed for much guilt and shame around the choices I made in the past, that I carried around for years, to subside. As silly as this might sound, it was my reality last year and I’m blessed to have got it now. I believe our journey is our purpose and that’s why it can look so different for each individual and why we can have multiple purposes as we move along the the path. Taking the time to look back to move forward is key for living our best life. Being proud of moments we’ve had or looking at each misstep so we can own it, learn from it, communicate it and be better for it is what makes the world go round!

Here are some tips from this article for setting intentions:

1. Choose a broad, less specific goal for an intention than you would for a resolution.  For example, improving health, lowering stress or becoming more mindful or present
2. Get specific about ways to achieve that intention.  For example, using less technology, spending more time in nature or meditating
3. Plan how to incorporate those efforts into your regular routines
4. Use a journal to make note of your intentions and your successes as the year continues

I got in the habit a few years ago with picking a word or a phrase that will resonate with what I want to bring more of into my life.  For example, last year I chose  the phrase, “go with the flow” and the idea was not be so rigid and to relax and just let what was to come to me for opportunities come and be adaptable and stop forcing everything to look a certain way and let go of some control over what I thought life should look like.  I have to say as the year is closing, I expanded my experiences more this year than I ever have and I truly believe it’s because of the intentional phrase I chose for the year.  Some think of it as not a word but a mantra.  Whatever is easier for you to grab hold of, and it will require you to set aside time to reflect on what you want the outcome of next year to bring.

I found a great article at the Mountain Modern Life website called “5 Steps to help you choose your Word of the Year”.  The article reminds us that picking a word isn’t about crossing another goal off your list, it’s about creating a mantra to help guide your daily actions and become a better version of yourself.  I have done a similar process to what the steps are, it’s just that I’ve been doing it enough years now that I automatically know what I need to do to set myself up to carry on with my journey. 

If you don’t have a process or haven’t done anything like this before, here are the 5 steps from this article that may help you:

1. Reflect on these questions and review to have a better sense of the direction you’d like to go: What could I use more of in my life?  What could I use less of in my life?  What characteristics would I like to have?  By the end of the day, I feel (fill in the blank).  How do I want to feel?
2. Visualize and ask yourself what the perfect day would feel like.  Think about how you want your morning routine to feel, how you want to feel at work or throughout the day and how you want to feel right before you go to bed.  Meditate or sit in silence for a couple of minutes to ask yourself “What do I want to focus on in 2022?” This is simple but effective.
3. Create a List – spend 10 minutes creating a list of words that come to mind, no self-editing.  Here are some examples:
4. Review and Refine your list and narrow down your favourites.  Circle or highlight 3 words.  Chances are you will have a theme going on between the words you wrote down. Do any of the words jump out at you, make you feel excited, nervous, scared, uncomfortable, or at ease?  Sometimes the words that scare us most can mean we’re on the right track because change isn’t always easy.  Finding your word can also bring peace and empowerment.  Gently review the list and let the words pick you.  (this is my favourite part of the process)
5. Ask yourself this very important questions…now that you narrowed down your list to three words, there’s just one more question to ask – are you interested, or are you committed?  If you are only interested, chances are you’ll make excuses as to why you’re not putting the effort forward to actually make changes.  But if you’re committed to your word, you’ll do whatever it takes to implement that word and bring more of it into your life.  Out of the three words, which one can you say you’re committed to and that’s your word for 2022!

I’ve said this before, whenever I want to bring something into my life I create a vision board around it.  This might not always be applicable, but for the most part by having pictures or words up around my house, allows me to be reminded everyday of what I’m trying to accomplish or change.  Once you have your word or phrase around what you want to have for next year, see if it fits to create a space for it somewhere to remind you.  Even if you cut out your word from a magazine or type it in large letters on a word document and stick on your fridge or bathroom mirror, you will be reminded daily and will bring focus to it often.

This year I want to appreciate everything, I mean really appreciate and be grateful for the experiences, people, the world around me so my word will be just that appreciate as that’s how I want to feel this next year and from that and the gratitude surrounding the essence of that, will only bring positivity and good energy into my life to open up more opportunities…I want to feel that emotion all the time.  I have a good friend that doesn’t take pictures when she goes somewhere with beautiful surroundings, or a fun event she attends, she just appreciates it. Whereas I need to remember by photographing it and I feel sometimes this takes away from just enjoying the moment. I’ve always appreciated her for that and I noticed when my son and I were on vacation this year, that he doesn’t need to take pictures either to hold the moment or experience in his memory because he feels it and takes it all in with his senses. He’s very intuitive this way.  For years I thought this was because he got embarrassed when I took out my phone for a selfie of us in public but appreciate and recognize this for what it really is now.  For myself, being someone who typically avoids feeling anything, this is new for me.  Now that I’m aware of being like this, I have spent the latter part of this year practicing to get in touch with my feelings, staying in the moment when at big life events or experiences with loved ones, being more vulnerable and opening up to others and – well really being more open to life itself. I think that this will be a great way to support my journey in learning to do that.  It’s going to be a daily practice for me but I’m excited for the challenge. 

I subscribe to monthly newsletters with a few self- help folks and in one I recently received from Mel Robbins she mentions that manifesting is a hot topic this year and in fact the number of Google searches on the topic of manifesting is up 700% this year!  Essentially manifestation is bringing in something tangible into your life through attraction and belief, i.e. if you think it, and it will come…via your thoughts, actions, beliefs and emotions. According to Robbins, it’s the practice of preparing your mind, body and spirit to do the work to achieve the things that you want.  She goes on to say that manifesting has 4 parts to it:

1. Give yourself permission to have what you want. 
2. You must see yourself taking the steps and doing the work that will lead you to creating or having what you want.
3. You have to feel it in your body what it feels like to do the work and you have to feel pride as you see yourself doing the work as that amplifies your mind body and spirit with imprinting it and preparing for it.
4. You have to take the actions.  All of the other steps are preparing you to take the actions.

Robbins says, “the place where people get stuck is when they know what they want but then when they go to visualize it, the mind goes blank.  This happens to many people and then they usually give up and that’s the end of it.”  Robbins suggest doing this – instead of visualizing yourself, replace yourself with someone else.  She calls this the power of objectivity – insert anyone.  There is research around this from Harvard Business School.  They use thousands of participants and have proved this theory.  When you think of yourself, you doubt, or think you don’t deserve the life you really want and so you talk yourself out of it.  The mind plays the stories we tell ourselves that hold us back in life, whereas if you think of someone else, someone you love or admire, then it’s easy to visualize them getting everything they deserve.  We are funny that way, it’s like we don’t feel we deserve what we want but we feel others do. 

Something else I did this year was start a gratitude and extraordinary achievements jar.  I put a note into either or both jars each time something happened that I was grateful for and something I did that moved my life forward in the direction I knew would fulfill my goals for this year.  I will be looking through all these notes and emptying it for the new year in the coming days.  I’m very excited to go back over my accomplishments and wonderful experiences I had this last year.  I think it will help get the positivity going for when I set out all the intentions I will be planning for 2022.  I’ve talked to people over the years that have done a similar thing for a spouse or partner. Everyday they wrote something they were grateful for about that person into a notebook and at the end of the year, they gave it to this loved one and it really moved their relationship to the next level. As you know, it’s those closest to us that we can take advantage of with all they do and sometimes assume they know how we feel when in fact they see it differently. Imagine being on the receiving end of something so beautiful, knowing that someone took the time to remind you how much they appreciate you, everyday. I’m sure the daily practice for the one being grateful was the recipient of a more peaceful, and mindful day as well. I think this would work for children too…we get so busy that it’s difficult to to fit this in especially when we don’t see our grown up children as often as we use to, something to ponder for the coming year…   

There is so much on the internet at our fingertips these days, whether that’s just reading more into all of this or taking a class on how to practice manifesting, or intention setting. We are so blessed to live in a world full of knowledge that’s so easy to acquire and the possibilities for each of us is endless. The best part, is that it’s up to us to steer our own ship and destiny. Whether doing one of these, or a combination of a few, or even all of them will prepare you for success in the coming year, you and me, we are the captains and determine all of this and the outcome.  I really believe it’s important to set aside some quiet time either before January 1^st or within a few days after so you can allow thought, focus and clarity into your life.  After all, don’t we all deserve what we want? Doing this will bring in excitement, empowerment, creativity and ideas of where you want to be this time next year.  So many possibilities for everyone.  A new year, a new slate, a new opportunity to live life on your terms; however that looks for you.  I’m super excited for those of you that decide to take this time and I can’t wait to hear back from you on what your intentions are for 2022.  Happy holidays and all the best for this coming year, big things to come, I believe it and know it to be true!

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