- Melissa Mauricio
New Year. New Mindset.
It’s the start of a new decade! You’re probably setting some new resolutions for the year ahead. If you’re anything like me, you’ve set resolutions before, and you may have noticed that your motivation starts to fizzle out by about mid-February. Perhaps you’ve found yourself making the same resolutions year after year, and nothing really changes for you.
I have some good news though. You actually can set your sights on what’s important to you and do things differently in the year ahead. We just have to think of things in a different way. If you’ve ever worked with me, you know that mindset is about 80% of habit change. Once you have the right mindset, the rest follows. So, I’m inviting you to go after what you want, but think a little differently on how you’re going to get there.
Instead of setting a resolution, I invite you to set a vision and an intention. We’ll talk more about what that means and how to implement it in a second.
So, why is this important? The idea of a new years resolution focuses on an end goal, or accomplishing something by the end of the year. At the start of the year, you might feel really motivated. After a few weeks, the end of the year starts to feel really far away, and there’s nothing really pushing you forward on a day-to-day basis.
The motivation fizzles out really quickly and we fall into the routine of our lives. Things come up. We go on vacations, holidays come around, Summer, back to school, and we start to forget about the resolutions we set at the beginning of the year. On some level, we think we can just cram it all in toward the end of the year, but when has that worked?
An intention and a vision shift the focus from what you are doing to who you are being. Who are you being on a day-to-day basis? How do you show up in life and in the world?
If you dig deep enough, I’d be willing to bet that any resolutions you’ve set in the past have been because you think that when you accomplish that thing, you’ll be happy. My question to you is: how can you be happy now? How can you show up in the world as someone who is happy?
Who you are being is so important because the energy behind your behavior influences how you feel. If you are doing things to get you closer to your goal, but you’re doing them from a place of “I hate this. This feels like a struggle.” you’re not going to stick with it for very long.
Coming from the place of feeling good, feeling happy, and choosing to take action versus feeling like to have to take action, will promote more good feelings and you’re more likely to stick with things over time.
Consistently showing up in the world as this version of you will lead to subtle changes that add up. Reflecting back at the end of the year, you’ll realize how much has actually changed. You wont really notice the changes until you look back and see how far you’ve come!
So how do you set your vision and intention?
The very first thing to do here is to get really clear on what you want to be experiencing at the end of the year. Notice I said experiencing and not accomplish. In other words, we are shifting from doing to being. When I work with clients, creating this kind of clarity is the very first thing we do.
Get as detailed as possible.
How do you want to feel?
How does this version of you go about their day?
What sort of interactions do they have?
How are they thriving?
And yes, what are they doing and not doing on a daily basis?
Get really clear so that you can feel exactly how this version of you feels. This is your vision.
Your intention is going to be how you get there. Think of your intention like the baby steps to get you where you want to be. Connect to your vision and the feelings that the future you is experiencing. What intention can you set today to get you closer to experiencing what you want?
Make sure you connect to your vision often. You can set a new intention as often as you’d like. Give yourself some space to be intuitive with it, and allow it to ebb and flow. For example, maybe you’ve been glued to your phone for a few days and now you’re really craving connection. Your intention could be to be more present with friends and family. Show up with the intention to be more present, and your behaviors will follow. You might notice that you’re not looking at your phone as much, and you’re engaging more in conversation. Again, once you get the mindset piece down, your habits shift along with it.
Connecting to your vision and setting intentions is one small piece of changing your habits. Transformation is complex and requires the right system, support and accountability. It’s really helpful to have someone to guide you to take the right steps in the right order, to help encourage you when you’re feeling stuck, and to hold you accountable to what you truly want, especially when you start to fall off track. To take the first step in your transformation, click here to book a complimentary Food Freedom Breakthrough Session. You’ll get really clear on what having the health of your dreams looks like for you, know exactly what’s getting in your way, and by the end of your session you’ll know exactly what steps you need to take so that you can make this year different.
Have a wonderful year! I would love to hear about your vision and the intentions you’re setting. To share with me, email me at melissamwellness@gmail.com and I’ll be sure to cheer you on.