New Year’s Resolutions (My Story)

Posted by Geraldine M. Brown MS, LPC, LIMHP in Goals, Happy, Journaling // 1 Comment

I personally have never been big on making New Year resolutions. If I plan to decrease something or start doing something new I do it on that Thursday. I know I am weird.

However, what I do this time of year is write out a list of intentions. This list contains all kinds of stuff. Things I intent to do like write four hours a week. Things I want to do like go on trips, take classes. Things I need to be better at like billing on time. Things I must do like renew my license. Redo the kitchen. Grow my own tomatoes. Clean out all the storage. Have a yard sale. Enter an art contest. Print some photos for framing. Make a new wreath for the door. Paint the bathroom. Buy a new computer. Get seat covers for the car. Upgrade my phone. Join a club. Learn the make my own spaghetti sauce. You get the idea.

A few years ago I made an intention list with 144 items on it! I did and accomplished the whole list. The more I checked off the more I was encouraged and the more energy and motivation I seemed to have. I knew I would get most of the little things done. I didn’t really intend to get the big things beyond started. My intention was more to do a little bit of each large time consuming item. Like start writing a book. Set up a new billing system. I thought somethings like getting a certification would be checked out and maybe sign up in the year. I was truly amazed at the end of the year.

If you came to me I said you had a list of 144 things. I would encourage you to pear it down. Which I was going to do, but never got around to it. Or make it your intentions for the next 3 years. Which I think was in the back of my mind. Because let’s face it — that was crazy on my part. I would not discourage you either, because I guess you never know.

I am glad I did that once up on a time. Today my intention lists run about 12 to 16 items. I suggest you make 6 to 20 item lists. We can always add to it later if we want to!