COACH YOU BLOG

Resolutions or Intentions?
31/12/2013

 

Everyone’s a bit jaded with New Year’s Resolutions, I get that … we look back and say “well, that didn’t work!” But when I look back at my intentions for 2013 I find I did a little better.

My intention was to be healthy and get fit. I achieved both – lost two dress sizes and rowed three times a week!

My intention was to have lots of amazing clients. I did, in fact I had to restructure my business to facilitate working with all the people who wanted to work with me.

OK, this sounds a bit braggy but I just wanted to emphasise the difference between goals and intentions. When our gremlins set goals: “I must earn x by then …”, “I must have more contact with my extended family”, “I must lose 30lbs …” it all feels a bit overwhelming and onerous, as if we are punishing ourselves; not choosing to do it at all. If you choose to set goals think about the outcomes from those goals … what is it that you really want, what will achieving those goals give you?

So, this year I’m not setting hard and fast goals and I’m not allowing my gremlins to get involved. This year I’m inviting my Future Self to set my intentions from her perspective. To the uninitiated, let me explain. I take my clients through a visualisation where they meet their most positive Future Self. Now, I did this almost ten years ago and the first time she was a gremlin and it wasn’t fun … the second time was hilarious … I don’t know what this says about me, we coaches don’t analyse too much … just go with the moment and see what shows up! So, in my visualisation my Future Self is a large woman (no great surprises there … but I mean … er … large!), she’s blonde, wearing an electric blue silk kaftan and is called Crystal … blah! I know, really … but she was happy, filled with love and standing on stage making people laugh. I’d rather be her than the thin, embittered, industrious woman in the large, dark house that I first met.

No, I’m not planning to invest in donuts but my intention is to have more fun, laugh more, continue to bring more humour into my speeches. My intention is to let go of the fear of what may never happen and to enjoy what I have now. My intention is to trust myself to find those extraordinary clients and set them free to make a difference in the world.
Whatever your intentions for 2014 … make it fun!

See you next year!