One Word for the New Year: Set Intentions That Stick
"All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.”
~ Walt Disney
Since we’re embarking on a new year, there’s no better time than right now to lay the foundation for what you want to build in the coming year.
For years, I created collage-style vision boards on a large canvas, and while they looked great, nothing much ever came of them. Then I realized that in my effort to fill an entire board, I had clouded my vision with countless words and images, rather than focusing my future on one singular intention. That realization changed how I tackled my personal “year-end” assessment.
As a result I did three things:
I chose ONE WORD to focus on and symbolize the year.
I started setting intentions rather than resolutions.
I replaced the cluttered collage for a short list of goals for the upcoming year. Ideally, each intention represented a different area of my life (personal, professional, travel, finance, community, etc.). I always keep the list between 5 - 7 actionable items.
3 . Every New Year’s day, I write a letter to my future self.
I’ve maintained this ritual for the past 10 years. Typically my letter summarizes the past year, the highs and the lows, and declares my aspirations for the coming year. I use a platform called FutureMe.org to send the letter to myself in exactly one year.
(Note: You can also use your email platform’s scheduling tool to do this, but a platform like FutureMe is great because it connects you to a community and keeps a private archive of your letters for future reference.)
As this year comes to a close, I’ll be spending the last few days of it focusing on my “one word” and defining my list of intentions for the new year. And I hope you’ll devote some time to envisioning the future too, because, as Pope John Paul II once said:
