Intentions not Resolutions
A fail-safe way to dream up your new creative year!
New Years’s resolutions, I fall for them every time.
Hoping to become a completely new person with all my bad habits banished for ever, by February, not only is my old self back, but I feel like a total failure.
This year I’m setting intentions instead.
An intention is way more fluid, it’s an aim or a plan, it has more flexibility, more room for give, and is thus more acheivable.
It doesn’t have judgement and failure attached. It’s more of an aspiration, a wish, a desire for betterment rather than a command.
Whenever I begin a workshop or writer’s retreat I ask participants to set an intention. It’s something they write it down and keep to themselves, a private wish or desire that they can revisit at the end.
We can do the same for the year to come. If a year feels too big we can set intentions by increment — for a season or a month at a time.
You can set one intention or many. Once you get started you’ll usually have a few more wanting to tumble out.
I suggest writing them down in a visual diary or plain paged scrap book, A4 size at least. Use coloured pens and write big. Illustrate with line drawings and diagrams if you are that way inclined.
The more I do this the more do-able it all feels. I can review them at anytime, remind myself when I forget, add some new ones, tick off things I’ve acheived, add comments, start a new page and a whole new set!
I can take pleasure in sending my intentions out to the universe knowing they have a chance of becoming real.
There’s no beating yourself up when you forget, no self flagellation when you slip up. Slip up is not a concept in the world of intention.
It’s all about being kind to yourself and others. Taking the pressure off. Giving yourself a chance to bring a creative approach to everything you do.
After all isn’t that all we ever want to achieve?
© Jan Cornall 2020
Jan Cornall is an Australian writer/performer /mentor who leads international creativity workshops and journeys for writers and artists. A number of writers working with Jan have gone on to publish with major publishing houses.
Insta: @_writersjourney
www.writersjourney.com.au
