Intention setting and up-shifting into the New Year

by on January 11, 2015

“You are the master of your life – you are the master of your mind – you have the power to change the way you think and feel. You have the power in you to achieve your goals, to become the person you want to be, and to live the life of your dreams.”

 

~ Zlatoslava Petrak, 
Author

Last year, I decided that instead of setting New Year’s resolutions in the typical way, I would choose intentions that would guide my actions and act as the grounding force for all that I was looking to accomplish. (You can see the post about that here).

By doing this, I found that I opened myself up to all kinds of lessons, helping me to see where I was having trouble truly embodying the intentions and the energetic resonance behind them.

I also really liked how instead of just choosing specific goals, I allowed these words to permeate all that I did, business or personal. While for some this could be overwhelming and not specific enough, I personally liked the flow and how the overarching goals I had for ways of being (and thinking) would be on my radar no matter what I was doing.

I said that I was going to share some of my experiences, so as promised, here are some of the things that I learned and some of the things that I will continue to work with as we move into 2015. I actually still resonate so strongly with the words I chose last year, that I’m keeping the same ones for this year!

Intention #1 – JOY

With joy, I wanted to shift away from fixating on the negatives in life and business and seeing the bright side of things. Quite a doozy.

For some of us (me most definitely included), I feel that this is a major undertaking. We are so programmed to go into pessimism. We are surrounded by negative energies and thoughts constantly wherever we turn. But despite this, we still have a CHOICE in how we think and feel. If we notice the negative nasties crop up, it is our responsibility to make a change. We must foster this accountability.

A big part of this for me is mindfulness and actually being aware of the negative thought pattern in the first place! Then accepting that it’s there and then making the choice to feel joy instead. Sometimes, a little meditation, a walk outside in the fresh air, or a session of counting my blessings can really help.

With this mindfulness focus, I came to realize that this endeavor of mine was not about perfectionism or embodying the intentions with perfect grace every single second. But taking the time to notice situations or events where I did not stay true to the intentions, gently assessing why and considering how I could redirect, without judgment or blame.

But actually doing it? A whole other different story. Where even that became a lesson and I came to realize just how critical I am of myself and how much it zaps the joy out of life and business.

Intention #2 – EFFECTIVE ACTION

I wanted to boost my productivity and efficiency overall, including prioritizing my own business as well and finding time for my own marketing. I made progress here – I finally updated my website after years of wanting to make some changes. But this is definitely an area I still need to improve upon.

One pattern I really noticed was how I’m super productive when my workload is heavy, but I find that I give myself leeway at other times. I also find that my productivity tends to be very client focused, but when it comes to my own business, it becomes a non-essential and I can procrastinate. So I really focused on shifting this mindset and making my own business just as important as any marketing work I had.

I shared some of my productivity tips in this post as well as explored the notion of going with the flow and productivity here.

Intention #3 – VITALITY

It’s been a pretty intense year for me – lots of travel, buying a piece of land outside the city and building a house, moving etc… I find that when things get a little hectic, the first thing to go for me is healthy habits. I stop exercising. I don’t eat as well as I normally would. I don’t find the time for meditation. So I definitely still need to keep working on vitality and not allowing outside forces to derail my health boosting efforts.

Intention #4 – TRUST

This intention was focused around trust in myself, in the process, in Source and in the perfection of things as they are. Shifting from worry and resistance to flow. I especially worked on trust in self. That I should listen to my nudges and intuitions. And that I need to cultivate the time and the space to do so.

Last year, I was faced with so many different situations, business and personal, where I got a nudge that I should do this or that (or not do something) and I would ignore it, deciding instead to power ahead without listening to that inner voice. At my own peril, as it turned out. The intuition was always right. And not following the nudge created so much unnecessary stress, worry and wasted time. This happened so often this year that it actually became laughable. I finally had to stop and say, “OK, OK, I’m listening! And I’m slowing down.”

Again, I ruminated on flow, and trust that things will get done at just the right time, here. I also wrote this post on accepting the perfection of where you are right now.

Intention #5 – PERSEVERANCE

One thing that’s super important about perseverance? Being able to see all challenges as lessons that need to be learned. Only by learning can you heal patterns. Otherwise, they will keep popping up for you again, often with increasing intensity, like what I was talking about above with nudges, until you face them. But if you don’t see them as opportunities for positive growth, they will continue to frustrate you and continue to overwhelm you.

Accepting that these challenges were positive forces instead allowed me to pick myself back up again (and again) and keep going. Rather than demotivate me, they actually propelled me forward in a higher direction. Shifting this mind frame has been huge for me!

Intention #6 – ABUNDANCE

With Abundance I wanted to really concentrate my business efforts on being of service, having this be the measure of success, not money.

I did not explore this as much as I would have like to last year, but I know this is a focus for this year. I have some specific goals and projects in mind for getting this done, things that I’ve wanted to do for years, but never have, for a myriad of reasons, some of which I touched on above. I feel like shifting away from focusing on money so much will be an epic step in the right direction.

I shared some of my thoughts around money and pricing in this post.

What worked and what didn’t

What didn’t

I had also set out some ways that I was going to make things happen. One thing that did not end up being very important was the setting of small weekly actions. I did not actually find this all that helpful in the end and I found that new actions and steps I wanted to take just flowed out naturally without me specifically saying, “OK this week I will do this” or committing things to paper. So as I talked about above, flow became a really important part of my process overall.

What did

I did find that journaling was a hugely cathartic tactic and really helped me to process and reflect on what I had going on. Writing down ideas also is something that I really need to do to help me organize things and keep my mind clear.

Seeing my intentions visually on the wall everyday was a great way to stay motivated and remind myself of what the greater purpose of what I was doing on a day to day basis was.

My goals WEB

And as for accountability, here it is with this follow up post.

What I’ve shared here is just a smattering of some of the things that I moved through this year. I would need to write a book to cover it all (hey, maybe I should), but I picked some of the things that were most impactful for me. I hope that you find them insightful and helpful on your own personal journey of entrepreneurship and this wild ride called life. I would love to hear some of your own thoughts, struggles, accomplishments or anything at all that you feel aligned with sharing in the comments or on social media.

May this be a year of healing, peace and joy as we up-shift into new realms of possibilities and expand into our eternal divine authentic selves. I wish you and your small business all the best for 2015!

If you had to pick words to embody your intentions for 2015 what would they be? Meet you in the comments.

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