No 2011 New Years Resolutions for me. Coming up with a list of resolutions has been my annual practice in the last week of December. Kind of like that guy pictured to the right – a formal process where I contemplate where I want to be in the next year and I write a bunch of goals.
Instead this week I am pondering this simple quote from Angeles Arrien:
“4 rules of life:
Show Up
Pay Attention
Tell the truth
Don’t be attached to the results”
Resolutions seem to attach me to results. Like “I’ll feel better about myself when I lose 15 pounds”. Or “If I can make $200,000 in our business, then I’ll have it made!” The implication is that my life as it is right now, today, is somehow not OK, and only when I reach a desired goal or goals will everything be wonderful.
What I think Ms. Arrien is getting at is a recommendation to live life to the fullest in each moment, and in doing that the results will take care of themselves. And the “results” may not be what I expect.
So instead of specific goals this year I have replaced them with four intentions for 2011:
1. Be present. When I am with you my intent is to give you my 100% attention. Not be thinking about my next business deal. Not be thinking about how I am going to get our kids through college. Not be thinking about where we are going to eat for dinner tonight. Sometimes I have so much going on, so many thoughts in my head, it is difficult to focus on the present moment. The best gift I can give the people in my life is that when you are with me, you are the most important person in the World.
2. Be grateful. Life is good right now. I have my health, a wonderful family, a business where I can work from home setting my own hours, and more. My intention is to say “thanks” and appreciate what I have.
3, Step out of my comfort zone. #1 and #2 on my list does not mean stagnation. My intention is to try new things in 2011. This blog is part of that. I want to work on my writing, and blogging regularly will help me do that. I don’t know how many people are even reading these words but it doesn’t matter. Writing is another way for me to express who I really am. To be authentic. I will look for other opportunities to step out in 2011. No holding back.
4. Spiritual growth is my #1 priority. Ed Bacon, an Episcopal minister in California, in an interview with Oprah gave the best definition of spirituality I heard in the past year. “(Spirituality is) the experience of feeling unconditionally loved so much that you know there is some power greater than you are loving you,” says Reverend Bacon. “This love that you are experiencing is coming from a great power and, it is filling you so much that you want to love other people. That to me is the experience of spirituality.” [1. Oprah Soul Series Interview, XM Radio]
When I tune into the unconditional love of Spirit everything else in my life seems to work out. I get so busy I forget sometimes to take time to meditate, to pray, to journal, and to read spiritual authors who will challenge me. I do these practices intermittently now. My intention is to do these more consistently in 2011.
That’s it. No lengthy business plans or specific goals. Intentions still move me forward without setting up expectations of certain outcomes like resolutions tend to do. With these intentions I will be interesting to look back to see what this wonderful gift called Life has brought me in 2011 at this time next year. I have a feeling I’m going to be surprised.
image from Library of Congress
