This year, don't make a New Year's Resolution

A new year! It’s funny how as humans we want to start new, reinvent ourselves, and change old habits (ones that have been with us our entire lives) all because of some arbitrary date. Interestingly, most parents will tell you that their new year begins in September when their kids return to school and not on January first. The Chinese New Year is the first day of the lunar calendar, which means it can fall anytime between January 20 and February 20. Regardless of the actual day, it’s a time for us as humans to reset, dig deep, review the past year, and set goals for the upcoming year.

In terms of business, I wonder if you see a spike in productivity at the beginning of a new year? I know gyms see a spike in membership in January, yoga classes are nearly impossible to get into, and weight loss programs have their highest enrollments. And in September, we think of back to school shopping. But all this trails off so quickly—right? I’ve heard in the past that something like 80 percent of people don’t stick with their resolutions past the first month and as far as I know (personal experience) resolutions don’t work.

They don’t work because you are resolving to do something without taking into consideration the circumstances around you. As humans, our resolutions are black and white, and once we “violate” our resolution, our mindset changes so that we can justify giving up on them and then we’re on to the next thing. By August, we don’t even remember our resolution—set only eight months earlier. Instead of setting resolutions (regardless if your timeline is September or January), why not focus on intentions for the year. Intentions give you the ability to start over every day. They are a way of being, they guide “the journey”, rather than dictate the end goal or “the destination.”

Last year was a remarkable year for me. I experienced a ton of growth personally and professionally. Professionally, I found myself stepping up in ways that I hadn’t before and dealing with brand new situations. Personally, I had a baby in November and learned more about myself through the pregnancy, delivery, and post-delivery than I had ever learned in my ENTIRE life.

While 2012 was great, I didn’t focus on any long-term intentions. By not doing so, I was left feeling a bit scattered and was posed with the dilemma of not really knowing what was most important. I didn’t have an intention, but I did have a long list of rules and things I wanted to stop doing. It’s obvious now how insignificant my resolutions were because I can’t recall even one of them.

Instead, this year, I am setting intentions to live by: aiming to create a lifestyle, a way of being. I’m sure I will fail over and over again, but that’s the beauty of an intention! You get to reset with yourself every day. My top three intentions are to:

• Live my life AWAKE! Be more present and love the ones I’m with.
• Do random acts of kindness to help those in need.
• Be healthy in my decisions.

What are your intentions? How will they show up in your everyday life?

Misti Aaronson is the Vice President of Operations at entreQuest who leads both internal initiatives for the company and external engagements with clients to ensure that every experience delivered by eQ is nothing short of remarkable.