What Are Your Intentions?

If you are like me, and I bet you are, the beginning of a new year often brings about thoughts of how and what you aspire to focus on for the upcoming months. Sometimes people make resolutions and other times people focus on a word that sets an intention. An intention is a method I am fond of as you can’t fail. What? You don’t have to be perfect at an intention to experience the rewards of knowing you take steps in your life to move toward an intention.

Let me give you an example. Let’s say you choose an adventure for an intention. An intention is a commitment to take action on a value that is important to you. How you take action is up to you based on how you define your value. Since each one of us brings a personal history into an understanding of what adventure means the actions you take will be unique to you. Translated – you can take small steps or big steps, lots of steps or a few steps, one step a week or a gazillion steps in a month. You get the freedom to choose

You can bring adventure into all or one life domain. The list below gives you an idea of life domains in which adventure can be brought to existence as a way of being in the world. How will you bring your yearly intention into existence and give it life? What actions are you willing to take?

• Family Relationships
• Friendships/Social Relationships
• Couples/Romantic Relationships
• Work/Career
• Education-Schooling/Personal Growth and Development
• Recreation/Leisure/Sport
• Spirituality/Religion
• Community/Citizenship
• Health/Physical Well-Being
• Life Domain

No Fail Intention

The surprise about setting an intention based on your values is it is hard to go wrong. That is because an intention can be engaged in with flexibility. It is not based on rigid behaviors or goal setting methods that hold you to a strict set of objectives such a losing 20 pounds. The value might be health and the intention is to live a healthy lifestyle. How you live healthily is up to you. Every day you have as an opportunity to be in alignment with your value based intention. This does not mean it is easy. It is hard to create new behaviors. It takes getting outside your comfort zone. Consequently, willingness and acceptance is part of the formula to living with value-based intentions. 10 Years From Now is a blog post about how time passes and life goes by.

Willingness

Willingness is an ability like a skill you can develop bu adopting an attitude of acceptance. Acceptance of what shows up in your mind, your body, your sensations when you begin to take actions on your intentions. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy/Training is ideal for developing your willingness ability and skills. I am thrilled to be facilitating workshops with three learning opportunities this year. I hope to see you and meet new people at the workshops.

Meanwhile, hop on over to my workshop page and take a look.