How I'm setting intentions for the year ahead

Happy Sunday, friends. I had a cheerleading chant going through my head as I wrote today's newsletter, and it went something like, "BE. INTENTIONAL. BE BE. INTENTIONAL."

It's because I think intention is one of the most important things we can bring to our own lives. So today, as we get to the end of the year, the end of a decade (WTF), we’re talking about intentions and goals and resolutions today. Fair warning, if you listen to my podcast, I am gonna be talking about exactly this same topic in the exact same way there, if you'd rather hear my thoughts and plans in audio format. If you haven’t yet subscribed to my podcast, what are u waiting for?! (Just search the Sunday Soother wherever you listen.)

Anyways back to goals, resolutions, intentions, whatever you want to call them. In a year of doing my podcast, and in nearly two years of writing this newsletter, anytime anybody gets in touch with me about a question or a conflict, the root at nearly each of them is this:

How do I listen to myself?
How do I trust my intuition?
How do I make decisions?
How do I know what decisions I want to make?!
...What do I actually want?

I think everybody wants to make intentional and conscious decisions that really reflect who you are, what you want, and then figure out how to take the steps to get there -- but we are never given the space to learn and practice how to do this.

I said in a recent podcast episode that we sleepwalk from point to point on autopilot and call that decision making. And then usually, at some point, we wake up and we’re like, you know… how did I get here? I don’t like this thing I’m doing, this career I’ve built, this place I’m living, this person I’m dating, I don’t like how I am being in the world right now... but it seems to take more effort to really change and get out of these patterns than just stay cozy and comfortable in them, and also, I don’t really know where to start.

Well, being intentional is a great way to move past that trap, and I do think the end of a year and the beginning of a year is a great time to take some space and reflect on what you want in the year ahead, whether or not you call it resolution setting.

Resolutions aren’t necessarily great or for everybody. In fact, yeah, they kind of suck. I think that’s because we’ve made a big to-do about goals being about doing the most, being the most, being so productive, hashtag crushing it, etc etc.

And that’s exhausting.

And that’s not what I am here to recommend you do.

But do I think it is worth it to reserve an afternoon or even a day or two to reflect on the year that’s passed and plan for how you want the year ahead to really be, to feel, to reflect on how you want to live in the world for the next 365?

That’s a hell yes.

In case you haven’t noticed, I am sort of obsessive about self-reflection and each and every year the way I do it has evolved and I think I really have it down to a good science. So today I’m going to walk you through what I do to plan for the year ahead and maybe some of it will resonate with you. Some of it may not. As the saying goes, take what you like, and leave the rest.

What follows is my formula for reflecting on your past year; learning about yourself, what you need more of, what you need less of; and taking the steps to get that in the coming 365 days.

Ready? Because it's so damn long, and I respect your inboxes and your time, I've actually put the whole piece up over on Medium.

So click through to read it there. I'll be talking more about my own goals, intentions and how to execute on them in the Sunday Soother Facebook group. Join here to listen in and share yours.

In coming newsletters, I'm going to share my advice on how to stick to your intentions throughout the coming year, as well as what my goals and intentions are for 2020 and how I came to them.