Setting your intention for 2024 and keeping your commitments to yourself

Happy New Year!  It's always so hard to fathom that another year has come and gone as we look forward to a brand new year.  What is so refreshing about the New Year is that it feels like a clean slate.  We can begin anew with new intentions and goals.  

In the previous post, we explored the importance of reflecting on your 2023 and setting intentions for 2024. If you missed that post, you can re-visit it here. As I promised in my last post, we are going to take our reflections from the past year and dive deeper into two powerful tools for personal growth: choosing a "word of the year" and keeping commitments to yourself.

Choosing a word of the year is going to change how you look at your intentions.  Remember, we are not making resolutions, we are setting intentions because they are more flexible when life throws curveballs at us.  Living your life by focusing on one particular word that you want to live by is extremely transformative.  Your word of the year can really become a guiding word that you live by, a touchstone to revisit when you encounter challenges or when you need to make an important decision.

As you can tell, choosing your word of the year is important.  You really need to give it some thought.  Here are some tips to get you going:

1. Think about the coming year and what you want to accomplish.  What are your deep down gut feelings when it comes to what is important to you?
2. Brainstorm words that resonate with your desires and aspirations.  Do a true brain dump. This is not the time to be shy.  Write the words that pop into your head with relation to what you want.  If you need some ideas, get my list here.
3. Review your words.  The word you ultimately choose needs to feel inspiring and motivating.  It needs to be a word that excites you.  Go through your list with this lens and eliminate the words that don't light your soul on fire!
4. With the words that remain, I want you to make sure the word is relatable and something you can take action on. Which of the remaining words can be a guiding light when you hit a rough patch?  Which word will best motivate you toward your goals, desires, and dreams?  Which word will get you out of your comfort zone to take action?
5. If you are down to two or three words, really feel into them.  Close your eyes and say them out loud to yourself. Does one spark an emotion or feeling into you more than the others?  That is your word for the year!
6. Write your word down.  Revisit your word often.  Put it on your vision board if you create one.  Save it as the wallpaper on your phone until you know without needing to look exactly what your word is.  This is your intention for the year.  At any juncture if you are questioning whether you need to make a move toward or away from something, check in and see if it resonates with your word.  When you have a hard decision to make, is the decision you are making moving you closer to or further away from your word?

Okay!  Great job!  Step one is complete. Now is the time to dig in deep.  This next one is REALLY important. 

Keeping Commitments to Yourself

Intentions are only as good as the commitments you make.  Sadly, even people who are good at keeping commitments to others fail to keep them for themselves.  Did you know that the #1 thing you can do to build confidence is just this:  when you make promises to yourself, you keep them. That is where confidence comes from.

You have to be steadfast in this as we go into the next year.  So, how do you make sure you remain true to yourself and to your commitments, large or small?  Here are some strategies to keep you on track:

• Start small and build gradual momentum.  Don't make commitments to yourself that are drastic.  When you have an agreement to start with small, achievable steps, that begins to build on your momentum and confidence.
• Celebrate throughout the process.  Every single time you keep a commitment to yourself, take a mental note of it and feel proud.  A big error most people make is to not appreciate the journey and the small stepping stones they are walking along the path to the destination.  Make it fun and feel proud of yourself.
• Be kind to yourself.  As humans, we make mistakes and we experience setbacks.  Take that lesson and learn from it, then keep moving forward.
• Have a support system.  This needs to be someone who will cheer you on, but also be honest with you if they see you straying from your path.  When you share your goals with people, it creates accountability which is incredibly powerful.  Sharing experiences with friends or family is just more fun, anyway.
• Stay flexible.  Life is rarely linear.  This is why we are setting "intentions" not resolutions, right?  Make adjustments to your goals and plans as needed.
• Refer back to your Word of the Year. Are you committed to your word?  Are the actions you are taking moving you closer to the intention you set for yourself?  

The more you keep commitments to yourself and place them in a spot of importance, the better you will get at it and the more confident you will feel in yourself.  I'm talking about ANY commitment.  If you told yourself you were going to have just one glass of wine tonight, keep the commitment.  If you told yourself you were going to go for that walk today, keep the commitment.  If you told yourself you would listen to your body when you feel too tired and say NO to things that don't light you up, keep the commitment.  You have the power to create the life you desire. 

One last thing that I want to point out that can be particularly powerful when it comes to enjoying positive impacts in life is to practice gratitude.  Get a journal or a notebook and at the end of each day write down 5 things you are grateful for.  This could be something that happened that day (you finished a project) or it could be more broad (food on the table).  You could also choose to BEGIN your day with your gratefulness practice.  The more grateful you feel for what you have, the more the universe wants to bring you to be grateful for.  It's a powerful practice that can quickly set your mind right.  I even encourage you to consider doing this when you are feeling grumpy or frustrated about something.  Stop the negativity in its tracks and think about 5 things you are grateful for and really FEEL grateful for them as you write them each down, say them in your head or out loud.  It will change the course of your day.

I will get back to talking about style next week, but I feel this time of year is such a powerful one to frame what we experienced over the past year and what we want to set intentions for in the coming year.  As a Personal Style Coach, my scope extends beyond just fashion but to what is on the inside as well.  It all comes full circle.

Wishing you a VERY Happy New Year!

Stylishly Yours,

PS - Did you find anything in the past 2 posts helpful?  I would love to hear from you in the comments!