New Year's Intentions

I have decided to think about intentions rather than resolutions for the New Year.

I'm so full of intention right now I could burst! but each time I sit down to make a list (of what happened last year, or what I want to do this coming year, or what I have to do today), I feel overwhelmed by the idea that I won't finish it-- either the list or the actions on the list. How do people make Top 10 lists? Or answer the question "what is your favorite word"? I've discovered that it is better for me to rely on the people who like to do these things, rather than attempt to do them myself.

The psychological inventories I did this fall in the process of some work-related coaching affirmed something I already knew in a vague way: I'm an ENFP: my style doesn't always lend itself to conformity, follow-through, or completion. I've managed to learn over the years how to get things done--I know where my money is, the house is reasonably clean, I have a job!-- but it is easy for me to look around at half-finished projects and feel tormented by the undone items on my list.

I like big pictures, systems analysis, making connections. I was always good at the theoretical aspects of math, chemistry, biology, but when it came to the labs, I would lose interest and patience in repeating experiments to demonstrate things that were already known, get discouraged when my clumsiness meant I had to start over again. This is one of the reasons I did not major in physiology, although I still adore that branch of the life sciences, and turned to literary studies and teaching instead: because it is the student's job to follow through. I've gotten more patient and disciplined over the years, but inertia is one of my favorite states.

So, in the spirit of working with my strengths to address my limitations, I'm making it my intention this year to live more mindfully, to be aware of my intentions, rather than trying to make a specific list of resolutions to check off. I'm doing this because I know myself well enough to know that the lists WILL happen anyway, and that I will check things off, and that on any given day, I won't be able to do all of the things that I think I SHOULD do, and that THIS IS OK.

The paradox is that one must let go first in order to be able to receive.

And, as Stewart Smalley said, "I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and gosh darn it, people like me."


And here is a great round-up of the Top Ten Mind Hacks for Making Your Resolutions Stick from the wonderful site Lifehacker. Because our intentions need a little boost!