One Power Word Resolution Revolution
Just Pick One Word To Guide You
It could be any power word you like, perhaps love, creativity, genius, abundance, effortless, freedom, change, health, transform, peace, listen, wealth, simplicity, courage, presence, trust, focus, wisdom, confidence, charity, strength, inspiration, energy, delight ...
I really love this idea! It’s so simple, and personally I find that simple ideas usually work best. It strikes me as a very powerful way to find a focus for the next year.
Now lets take a closer look at how this method works.
To DO-HAVE-BE or BE-DO-HAVE?
For example if you DO eat the right food and exercise, you’ll HAVE self-esteem and BE confident. But in this example, it’s a lack of confidence that often causes the whole plan to fall apart. Instead, try to start your goal achieving process by what you want to BE, then DO it and then HAVE it.
“Let’s say you want to make a resolution to lose 20 pounds, and to change jobs. Rather than say, “I resolve to lose 20 pounds and get a better job,” (which can be somewhat overwhelming) you might sit with this thought for a little while. Write in your journal. Maybe then you would recognize that you’ve been scared to look for another job because there might not be something out there, and maybe you’ve been overeating to stuff down the fears that come up and the feelings of insecurity.”
“Each day you focus on that word. When you don’t want to go to the gym, you don’t berate yourself with the threat of your resolution. Instead, you motivate yourself with your word. “Courage.” You say it aloud to remind yourself. And you go because learning how to not be scared of change is exciting to you. The word then builds on itself. You might find that you have a little more energy with each new thing you try. Maybe this energy motivates you to call an old friend in your field and let her know you are looking for another job. Courage becomes the guiding force, not the harsh standard.”
What a fun, flexible and inspiring way to start planning your life for your new year! It could also be a terrific starting point for making vision boards and setting the intent for your life.
Here is a complete list of Life Organizer Power Words.
Read more about the One-Word Resolution Revolution at Christine Kane’s Blog.
Revolting Against Resolutions
A New Year resolution could do you more harm than good, according to Britain’s Leading mental health charity Mind. Mind’s Chief Executive Paul Farmer says:
"New year's resolutions can sometimes focus on our problems or insecurities such as being overweight, feeling unhappy in our jobs or feeling guilty about not devoting enough time to friends and family throughout the year. We chastise ourselves for our perceived shortcomings and set unrealistic goals to change our behaviour, so it's not surprising that when we fail to keep resolutions, we end up feeling worse than when we started.”
- Being active - exercise releases endorphins, and is proven to be beneficial for your mental wellbeing.
- Going green - evidence shows that connecting with nature boosts your mood.
- Trying something new - it will keep your mind stimulated and give you confidence in your abilities.
- Giving back to your community - it can be just as rewarding for yourself as those you choose to help.
One Year Experiment In Creative Living
“A lot of people I meet are considering something different in 2009. Perhaps reorganising their life around what's really important to them or daring to tackle a big project that feels like a real risk. Could it be the economic downturn making people reassess what's important to them?”
Forget your goals and your career. Do the creative stuff you really want to do and make something of real value. Join the experiment in being a Creative Maverick by visiting the blog or jump straight into some of these first few posts:
- Let's take a year off - a challenge to think about taking the whole of 2009 off from your normal work schedule
- To play all day and get paid - the ultimate career goal for scanners and creative types
- There is no plan - how to have a great working life without a career plan
- It's not about you - it's not all about "self-actualisation"
- Your goals won't make you happy - so what will?
- Daily habit 1 - Take a cue from Apple CEO Steve Jobs on how to start your day
- Plus several posts on How to create a 4 hour work day and take half the day off
John Williams is a scanner and a careers and business coach. Here are some of his online projects:
Careers and business coaching - freestyle success
Creative Maverick the creative life experiment.
Creative Entrepreneur’s Club
Scanner Central - for “Scanners” and “Renaissance Souls”
Happy New Year!
This is a time when we can let go of the past and start over. Reset. Make a fresh start. I love that too.
So in anticipation of the New Year, I designed some new Life Organizer magnets that support some of the most popular New Year’s Resolutions.
- To Donate more to Charity or to Volunteer to help those less fortunate than yourself.
- Becoming more economically responsible; Savings, New job, No debts, Out of debt, Money.
- Get a better education or a more interesting life with Learn and Studies.
- Some ideas for living a more healthy life in the area of Fitness, Exercise, Cycle, Golf, Gym, Run, Swim, Tennis, Walk, Workout and Yoga.
- Become more environmentally responsible with Recycle and Eco.
- Reduce stress with Meditate, Yoga, Relax and find some time for yourself with Me.
- Spend more time with loved ones Family, Friends and Love.
Happy New Year!
How To Make Your Own Vision Boards
“I spent last night with my girlfriends, drinking far too much champagne, eating mountains of food and planning 2009. We went round the room and answered these questions and then created vision boards (lots of magazines/pictures/drawings) to create a 'vision' for what we want 2009 to feel like.”
Suzy Greaves goes on to suggest that you grab yourself a drink be it a glass of wine, or water, or a beer, or a cup of tea or coffee, gather your friends (or do it on your own) and today answer the following questions:
- What are you MOST proud of this year?
- What is the most powerful thing you have learnt in 2008?
- Complete this sentence: I will remember 2008 as the year of……..
- What was your big leap in 2008?
- Complete this sentence: For me, 2009 will be the year of…….?
- Set an intention: What are your big leaps for 2009?
- By January 1st 2010, what do you want to have created/achieved and how do you want to feel?
- What three baby steps do you need to take to be who want to be 2009?
- If you had to create a daily Big Peace practice to keep you focussed and inspired, what would it look like?
- If you were brave, what would you most like to do in 2009?
Related Links:
- Suzy Greaves’ Blog presenting objectives or exercises as well as interviews with top experts to help you change your focus and create your own daily practice for a peaceful mind.
- Suzy Greaves’ coaching company the Big Leap
- The Big Peace, a free 90 day coaching programme to find your missing peace and fulfillment when you’ve lost the plot.
- You can also follow her on Twitter.
Starting Afresh in the New Year
“It’s a stark irony of the Western calendar that the odometer turns over smack dab in the middle of winter—the one time of the year when most people can’t rouse themselves to clean their bathrooms, much less make an ambitious, life-changing, behavioral U-turn.”
Personally, I think it helps to remind yourself of your goals and dreams throughout the year. Interacting with them, rearranging them, visualizing them. Creating vision boards. Making our goals part of our everyday life. Living with them through our ups and downs. Reminding ourselves of what has gone well and trying to be okay with the fact that sometimes things don’t work out the way we had planned. And trying to make sure that we are following our hearts and our minds.
Make an appointment with yourself every month to establish which goals already have gone well and what you want to work on next month. To dream large and to keep it simple and fun.
Zen Habits have some excellent suggestions for How to Press the Reset Button On Your Life in several areas; health, simplicity, relationships, finance, fitness as well as some bonus tips. There are a lot of great ideas in this article. One of my favourite tips is to Vaporize virtual living.
“In the age of email, twitter, social media, instant messaging, text messaging and screen to face, it’s hard not to get caught up in living virtually. While there’s nothing necessarily harmful or wrong with these things, it’s easy to forget the value of real live interaction. You know, actually talking to someone in person. Whatever method you choose to connect, a good New Years resolution might be to simply connect more. Not in quantity, but quality.”
I’m a huge fan of reclaiming time from one’s virtual life and settling for quality over quantity! The fact that there is a constantly growing source of online channels for entertainment, news and socializing, unfortunately doesn’t mean that there are more hours to the day…
EDIT 29/12/08: Zen Habits is now hosting a New Year’s Challenge on their forums. The idea is that you can form a new habit in 30 days, if you only commit to 10 minutes a day. The forum gives you the chance to publicly commit to your new habit and to report your progress in order to hold you accountable and motivate you.
Related Links:
- How to Keep Your New Year's Resolutions by Bob Strauss, eHow.
- How to Press the Reset Button On Your Life by Zen Habits contributor Jonathan Mead from Illuminated Mind.
- The Power of Less New Year’s Challenge.