Setting Intentions for 2021

Author: Colleen Woodward

As we get ready to flip our calendars to a new year, you may feel inclined to start jotting down your New Year’s resolutions. Maybe that looks like working out, eating healthy, traveling to all of those places that 2020 wouldn’t allow, or climbing the ranks at your job. 

And while setting goals for yourself is always a great thing, what if in this new year, we could just give ourselves a break? I too am a big planner and goal setter, I would probably laugh at the goals I wrote down for myself at the start of 2020 seeing as all of us were stuck indoors for the majority of it. I’m sure if you made a list of resolutions and were unable to keep any of them due to the pandemic, it may have felt like a huge letdown. In general, the concept of “new year, new me” can come with immense pressure. There is pressure to ‘be better’ and do bigger things with our lives - but I think we might all agree that after what we have gone through in 2020, we could all do with a little less pressure. 

We could write what seems like a never-ending list of all of the things that went wrong in 2020. The lives lost due to the pandemic or racial injustice, the legends that passed on, the political tension rising every second amidst rising cases of COVID-19. And, in the midst of all of that, you were all dealing with your own personal wins and losses. Because that is the thing, our personal lives did not stop just because of the pandemic. Even if you had many wins throughout the year, do not discount the collective trauma we’ve all faced during the pandemic.

That all sounds a bit heavy right? So, with that in mind, maybe we can allow ourselves to let go of the trendy resolutions that don’t add value to our personal lives. Maybe we can allow ourselves to let go of the need to achieve, produce, and race to the finish line in this new year. 

Let’s look at the definition of resolution for a second. A resolution is “a firm decision to do or not to do something.” So we make resolutions that we will eat better and not eat foods that are ‘bad’ for us in order to lose weight. Other resolutions people may make are to not drink as much (or do dry January) - the list goes on. And while these can all be helpful resolutions, we typically lose interest in them by February or March (and feel shameful when we stop). 

So, if you are set on creating a list of New Year’s resolutions for 2021, let’s try it a different way. 

First, I think the nature that comes with how society has coined “New Year’s Resolutions” can feel stressful, strict, and negative. I personally like to think of it as setting intentions, but call it whatever feels good to you. When setting these intentions, you can look at the following method (if your job has ever had you do SMART goals, this will feel familiar):

• Ensure that it adds value to your personal life

Jumping on the trends feels necessary to keep up, but if it’s not adding anything to you personally, you will be more likely to quit it within a month. You want this to be something that will either bring you joy or get you where you want to be in life, or hopefully both!

• Make it specific & time-based

When we set intentions or goals that are incredibly vague like, “I want to switch careers”, but have no actionable steps to get there, you are likely to feel so overwhelmed with the concept of switching jobs that you don’t do it at all. Instead, think of the small steps you could take. For example, “By March, I would like to have my resume updated and have made one connection in the new field I am pursuing.” These are small steps that you can take that both give you a time table to work toward while not feeling so overwhelming. 

• Make it attainable 

Especially now, given where we are in the world and the uncertainty of where we will be, you want to make sure that your goals or intentions are physically attainable. Maybe traveling to five countries this year still isn’t in the cards, but if traveling is important to you, is there another way you could do it safely while still achieving that goal?

Save this form if you need something to help get you started:

If you aren’t ready or interested in setting intentions, that is perfectly okay. One of the greatest gifts we can give ourselves sometimes is a break. We are all so used to being on the go, constantly moving from one goal to the next, from one task to the next, and I think that if 2020 has taught us anything, it could be that it is okay to slow down. If you are unsure about your next steps for 2021, or how you will get where you want to go, a great start can be reflecting on how you got through this past year. What are some positive coping strategies you used? What helped you stay resilient through a year filled with such turmoil? 

Write your skills down, reflect on them, and think of how you can take those with you into the new future that still seems uncertain at times. 

Save this form to write down what you want to take with you into the new year: 

Overall, whether you realize it or not, no matter who you are, you are probably a lot more resilient than you thought you were at the start of 2020. Whether you’re a frontline worker who risked their lives every day, a parent who juggled working from home with your kids doing online learning, someone who lost their job and managed to keep things afloat, an employer who continued to be there for your team, someone who battled anxiety every day, someone who had their big milestone moment canceled and still found a way to celebrate, to those who gave back, to those that dealt with the grief of losing a loved one, to those that battled their addiction in isolation, to those that felt helpless when the world felt like it was crumbling, to those who marched in the streets, and to those that created something beautiful in the midst of turmoil - no matter who you are, you are resilient. And I would say, knowing and taking that into 2021, is worth more than a new year’s resolution. 

I hope that 2021 brings hope, relief, joy, and peace to your life!