The word “resolutions” has lost its weight. It feels like something that we’ll give up on by the end of the month.
I’d rather start the New Year with a few clear, important intentions.
A real, serious intention says that you care deeply about making something happen.
It has quality that is much weightier than “I will go to the gym” or “I will eat less sugar” because it sits at the other side of a specific, narrowly defined set of actions.
An intention can be a North Star. It implies an orientation, an attitude, a sense of purpose.
A strong intention gives space for improvisation and new decisions based on new information. This makes them resilient, flexible, and powerful. You can change behaviors and tactics while still holding an intention firm.
I can only hold on to two, maybe three, serious new intentions at a time.
But each of them has the strength and the elasticity to hold within itself a breadth of important, meaningful, careful, substantive, and joyful actions.
(It helps to write them down).
