Three Strategies to Realize Your Intentions for 2022
Do you have your word? your intentions? your goals? or your declaration or resolution?
Take your pick – they all add up to about the same – different words to benchmark or express how you want to be different, grow or accomplish in 2022.
But rest assured, irrespective of the term or process you’ve mulled over in the last few days, within a few short weeks, your opus can easily be lying on the floor with the laundry.
Don’t get me wrong, this process of pausing, reflecting and defining is truly valuable. I’m all for it.
I, too, have a word: well, two actually “Consciously Continuing.” I have intentions: to listen deeply to all that is around me and to embrace clarity and release confusion. I also have some goals and declarations.
So, what then. How do you look back on December 31st, 2022 and say – “I have grown, I have transformed, I have become and accomplished in alignment with my vision set out on January 1st, 2022.
After many years of focusing on my own and my client’s growth, achievement and transformation, I have distilled a few of what I would call “Inspired Strategies” that, regardless of your focus, seem to keep you moving toward living a fulfilled life and accomplishing what you want.
#1 Develop a Healthy Sleep Routine
You may think this is odd as the first strategy. However, after over five decades of life in all stages of growth and development, particularly the last five years of focusing on what makes us thrive and find fulfillment in business and life, this number one strategy is at the foundation of everything else.
Develop, maintain and heavily guard a healthy sleep routine.
Yes, there are times that we have to push the boundaries of rest to get it done, but this should not be the norm. And if sleep eludes you for other reasons, do the work to make a change.
Sleep deprivation and insomnia should be avoided at all costs. There is nothing that will derail your confidence, undermine your determination, trigger your reactions and rob you of the ability to respond with curiosity and insight than exhaustion effectively. And if that isn’t enough – long-term sleep deprivation has been closely tied to premature death.
So. A few things that are worth practicing in stages and for an extended duration
Go top bed earlier
Meditate in the morning
Exercise regularly
Change consumption habits (food, drink, TV, Phones or other artificial stimuli)
Let go and forgive the past
Take action in the present
Give thanks and loving-kindness to yourself
Take a sleep aid (CBD oil or some other non-chemistry altering aid)
#2 Dig Deep
Its most desired to have a vision. It is what keeps you moving forward and, if aligned, evolving in the direction of fulfillment. So, spend a bit more time in the coming week to explore your intention for 2022. Ask yourself:
Why is this important to me?
How will my way of being and life be different as the year goes on?
How do I need to be and act today and tomorrow to make this happen?
What do I need to commit to – to make it happen?
What do I need to give up - to make it happen?
Know the why about what you want and then again reconfirm your commitment to your intention grounded in courage and clarity.
#3 Stay the Course
We have a natural tendency to abandon ship when the going gets tough, especially if we only have sight of the outcome over the journey.
If you put #2 into practice, staying the course will be easier than not. Write down your answers to the questions in #2 and review them regularly – reconfirming the source of your courage, the clarity of your purpose and the reasoning for your commitment. When confronted with a challenge – from boredom to serious choices and consequences, course correct or pivot when needed, but stay the course.
Learn the difference between whispers and nudges and the next shiny object. This is the distinguishing characteristic between being stuck and moving forward with intention or consciously continuing.
How will you know the difference? Ask yourself
“What does my heart want”
“Is this fear or purpose?”
Other ways to stay the course include:
Sharing and speaking up about your intentions and the path you are on.
Set in place structures and systems to keep on track.
Get support
2022 will be a year of promise if we regularly employ these practices to our goals and desires. Equip yourself with these Inspired Strategies to realize your rise.