2022.01.01

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I personally haven’t made any New Year’s resolutions in about a decade. If I want to make big changes, I wait until spring to reflect and plan and then act from there. In my opinion the dead of winter is a terrible time to embark on behavior change. (But you do you, no judgement.)

If you want to infuse some intentionality into your new year, I’ll offer you this alternative.

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1. Assign each month a quality

I’ve taken the liberty of choosing 8 of them as a starting point and have left the remaining 4 for you*. (If you want to choose all 12, by all means do.)

January = curiosity
February = rest
March =
April = vision
May = authenticity
June =
July = levity
August = intuition
September =
October = reputation
November = agility
December =

As you play with qualities each month, feel free to use different forms of each word. For example, “rest” might turn into restful, resting, rest-filled, or rested.

*To choose qualities, you can go with whatever pops into your head or do an internet search for lists of personal values and start from there.

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2. Engage with each quality during its month

Beginning

At the beginning of each month, explore your current and past relationship to the quality.

How do you personally define [quality]? What does it mean to you? What associations or memories do you have with [quality]? What is the mix of positive to neutral to negative? How often do you use [quality] as a word when speaking or writing? Why do you think that is? On a scale of 0 to 5, where zero is “none” and 5 is “way too much”, how much [quality] do you have in your life? Is the answer different in your professional versus personal life? If you had more of [quality] in your life, what would that mean for you? What about if you had less of it?

During

During your daily work and life, start to notice when [quality] comes up. Either its presence or absence. In you or in others. Take a few moments to reflect at the end of each week.

You can also play with invoking it when you are stuck or in a challenging situation. For example, you might ask yourself “how would the most [quality] person in the world approach this task/conversation/issue/etc.?” or “my touchstone for the month is [quality], how might I apply that here?”

Some people like to phrase qualities as affirmations like “I am [quality]” or “[quality] is abundant in my life when I remember to look for it.

Be open to how [quality] may show up during the month, especially as your attention/intention is on it.

End

At the end of the month ask yourself:

How has your relationship to [quality] shifted during the month? Or if it didn’t shift, what are your thoughts on that? What from this exploration of [quality] do you want to take forward with you?

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3. Look Back Each Quarter

It can be nice to take a look back at the last quarter’s qualities. Explore how they relate to one another, complement each other, contradict each other, etc.

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Do yourself a favor and download the free pdf so you’re ready for each month and don’t have to hunt down this post.

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Sending good vibes your way for a wonderful year.

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