Observations and Insights on the Nature of Things

A monthly blog by Eve West Bessier, Poet Laureate Emerita of Silver City and Grant County, New Mexico. Look for a new post every 1st Saturday. (Free stock photo)
Happy New Year!
It’s the first day of 2022, and the winds of change are definitely blowing this morning!
May a brighter and much less stressful year lie ahead for us, a year filled with renewal and the gradual return of a more normal reality. The past two years have been traumatic. We could all use a renewed sense of purpose and inspiration.
Making New Year’s resolutions is one way to engage with renewal and inspiration. Whether you make formal resolutions, or are just looking for a way to get back on track with your dreams, I’m offering some tools to make sure that any sweet promises you make at the start of this fresh new year turn into sweet realities rather than sour regrets.
Here’s an effective three-part formula that can help you enthusiastically stay the course you set for your brand new 2022.
The first part of the formula is based on a concept permeating the collective consciousness for some time now, the power of intention. The second part focuses on setting SMART goals, and the third part involves removing obstacles to success.
Part One: Making sure that your New Year’s resolutions are based on crystal clear intentions that inspire you, rather than vague wishes that leave you aimless or dutiful obligations that weigh you down, is the best first step towards a successful year.
As an example, let’s look at one of the most prevalent New Year’s resolutions: to lose weight. If this resolution remains an isolated issue of losing the weight itself, the weight loss might be achieved in an unhealthy, unsustainable manner with crash diets or other quick fixes that usually result in short-lived outcomes. Regardless of how much a person may want to lose weight, a resolution that only states, “to lose weight,” already has three strikes against its ultimate success.
First strike: it’s heavy, pun intended. I mean, how much fun is losing weight? Frankly, it sounds like a drag. Second strike: it’s vague. How much weight needs to be lost? How will it be lost? Why does it need to be lost? What will be gained by losing the weight? Third strike: it has no heart connection, other than the fact that losing weight is good for one’s heart.
What’s needed here is a core intention behind the weight loss. Such an intention could be phrased as, “to attain and maintain greater personal health and wellness, in order to live a more vibrant life.” Can you feel the heightened energy of that statement? It’s got juice and it’s got heart because it offers a view of a more enjoyable future, one worth working towards in the present. This intention is not just about losing weight, it’s about gaining enjoyment.
Part Two: With a core intention fueling our resolution, we are ready to set some goals. There are, of course, many behaviors that support health and wellness, like a healthy diet and regular exercise, but what we need is to create a series of goals that make reaching the finish line an exciting prospect, and we need to find some fun in the process.
Reaching the finish line is not only a powerful metaphor, in the case of our chosen resolution, it can be a tangible goal, one that supports the core intention and that puts some fun into the process. Here’s the goal. “To participate in a 5K fun run on April 10, 2022 and reach the finish line with joy and ease.”
Now we’re getting somewhere! We’ve set up a goal that creates a feeling of anticipation and excitement. Granted, running a race isn’t everyone’s idea of a good time, and not everyone is equipped for the task, but it serves well as an example because it supports the intention of health and wellness, is clearly defined, has a deadline, provides an outcome, and can’t help but result in weight loss.
This example goal is effective because it helps get us to the finish line, quite literally in this case, if we make it a smart goal. To do this, I recommend using a nifty time-tested business tool called the SMART goal approach. Here’s a quick overview of this effective technique.
SMART goals fulfill intentions and create success because they are:
S = SPECIFIC: clear and focused
M = MEASURABLE: quantifiable
A = ATTAINABLE: realistic and practical
R = RELEVANT: linked to your intention
T = TIME-BASED: include a deadline
Let’s create a SMART goal related to the intention of achieving personal health and wellness by training for that 5K race. There are certain steps required to get in shape. These can be a series of SMART goals. The first goal might look like this:
Specific = do an aerobic and weight training workout four times a week
Measurable = keep track of your gradual increases in workout time and intensity
Attainable = keep the training schedule and intensity realistic not overwhelming
Relevant = the workouts will have the energy of the intention behind them
Time-based = the April 10th race is the deadline, this is not an open-ended goal
Another goal related to this resolution will be to follow a healthy, nutritious diet plan. Again, making this goal smart will mean making it Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-based.
For your own resolutions, you will set as many SMART goals as are needed to fulfill the intention. Using this technique helps keep you on track while preventing overwhelm or burnout, which can sabotage your resolution.
Part Three: The third part of the formula involves removing the obstacles and booby traps from the field of play, or in the case of our example, the racetrack.
So you’ve got your clear intention and you’ve set SMART goals and suddenly all manner of chaos breaks loose in your mind. Long before you hit the physical racetrack, the metaphorical racetrack becomes filled with mental hurdles and it’s easy to get tripped up and lose faith.
Usually the hurdles or booby traps begin with words and phrases like: “But…!” “What if …?, “I don’t have time!,” “I’ve tried that before and it didn’t work!” “I don’t have what it takes!” You’ve heard them all before, they are the whiny remarks of the self-protective insecurities in your head which fear change and think moving forward is just too scary, too risky.
The amazing thing is that we are often convinced that these internal negative thoughts represent the truth about us, when in fact they do not. The truth about us is that we are courageous and possess all of the qualities and capacities we need to make our own unique contributions in life!
Recognizing that the never-ending stream of negative babble in our heads is not based in fact or truth is in itself liberating. If you can see the hurdles and the booby traps ahead of time, you can avoid them and continue on your path to success without getting tripped up or stopped in your tracks.
The US military devised an ingenious strategy to discover trip wires for explosives in darkened interior settings. They spray glow-in-the-dark Silly String into the space before they enter. The Silly String is not heavy enough to trip the wires, but it gently drifts onto the wires, exposing their location so that they can be avoided.
The third part of the formula to support the success of your New Year’s resolutions is like spraying glow-in-the-dark Silly String on your negative thoughts, exposing them as the natural fears and worries we all have about change and growth. This allows you to have compassion and even laugh at the odd, often twisted and obsessive quality of these thoughts. You can then shift the focus of your attention and energy back onto the SMART goal you’re working on in the moment, and move forward despite whatever complaints, negativity or fears show up. You will quickly start seeing that the negative thoughts are just an indication that you are ready to make big progress. If there are no negative thoughts surfacing at all, you’re either already an extremely enlightened being, or you aren’t creating enough of a challenge for yourself!
I invite you to try this three-part formula with your New Year’s resolutions. Discover the intentions that are close to your heart and base your resolutions on these intentions. Set SMART goals to fulfill your intentions, and take the specific action needed, despite whatever fears may surface. You have the tools and the power to make 2022 a brilliantly successful year!
I wish us all courage, strength and humor as we embark on this journey into our collective future!
Scroll down to About The Author for more information and check out Eve’s website at: www.jazzpoeteve.com