Goals and intentions for the New Year

Happy solstice!  Here in the northern hemisphere, we can finally celebrate the return of the light.  (I, for one, am very ready to welcome it!  My bike commute will be brighter every day for the next six months.)  In the southern hemisphere, of course, it’s the beginning point of summer.  Around the world, in December, many of us take stock of our lives, and think about the changes we may wish to bring about in the year ahead.  I find the day of the solstice to be an excellent time to do this.

A big part of my work with my clients is helping them to set goals and intentions, and then to follow through to manifest them.  As I announced last week, I am excited to offer 30 free sessions in 30 days for this exact purpose, between December 14th and January 12th.  If you haven’t yet taken me up on this by scheduling a free, no-obligation hour-long phone call, I invite you once again to do so.  (This offer is good for existing clients, too; please consider it a solstice gift from me!)

Whether or not you schedule a call, I want to offer a few suggestions of how best to follow your intuition and passions to set intentions and goals for the coming year.

Intentions can come to us as yearnings, or nudges that we feel from life.  Examples of intentions might be, “I’d like to travel more,” or “I’d like to eat healthier.”  Specific goals might be, “I’d like to take one domestic and one international trip this year,” or “I’d like to make sure to eat five servings of fruits and vegetables per day.”

A good way to get in touch with your intentions is to sit in stillness for 15-30 minutes at a stretch. (Doing this daily is a great practice to stay in touch with yourself and what you most want in life.)  Afterward, journaling or making a list of them is a good way to make them more concrete, and begin to set goals.

Make the goals specific enough to be easy to follow.  For example, if your goal is to take the above two trips, you might think:  “I’ve always wanted to visit New York… and I’ve heard that flights to Iceland are very affordable right now.  I’m going to begin researching the best times of year (for weather and/or time off work and/or travel and accommodation prices) in those two places.”  Or, “I plan to eat a serving of fruit at the beginning of each meal,” or “At least once per month, I plan to try buying (or growing) a kind of produce I have never tried before.”

As you continue to sit in stillness and journal in the coming year, you can return to these intentions and goals to track your progress (you can always get back on track if you slip!) and to feel into new intentions and goals that may emerge as the year progresses.

Happy solstice, all!  I wish you all love and magic and exploration in the coming year.

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