Accidentally in Code

Tag: intention

  • The Intention

    The Intention

    Credit: hoekstrarogier / Pixabay

    New Year’s resolutions are terrible because we are not a different person on January 1 (or 2) than we are in the last days of December, or November or June. They are also terrible because we over-estimate what we can do in a day, and under-estimate what we can do in a year.

    Today is the last day of January. Maybe all your “resolutions” have already collapsed. That’s okay, you have time: try setting an intention for 2022 instead.

    What is the one goal? The one thing you want to be different at the end of the year?

    Hope for many things, but choose the one thing that is most important to you, that will make the most difference to you.

    When we start the year with a list, we break it as soon as life gets in the way. When we start the year with an intention we can keep coming back to it again and again – and find that even if the specific goal was accomplished, there is still more depth to uncover. Or we can just pat ourselves on the back; that’s fine.

    First, ask why this thing is important to you? What will it give you? What will be possible once it is done that is not today?

    Then ask, what is most likely to get in your way? Make a list.

    How big are those things? Maybe one of them needs to be the intention for the year; you have more groundwork to lay for the original intention you came up with. That is okay. You have time.

    Next, ask who will support you? Who will you share this intention with? How can they help you come back to it? How can they support you practically? We need practical help as well as emotional support to achieve big things.

    Now, ask what are you willing to say no to? What do you like, or want to do, but are willing to make less important than this intention? What are you willing to continue as-is, imperfect but adequate, in order to create space for your One Most Important Thing?

    Finally, you’re ready to determine your next steps. Every big goal can be broken down, or if not, maybe the first step is figuring out how to break it down and where to begin.

    That’s okay. You have time.

  • 2021: Habit

    2021: Habit

    Shakey Bridge, Cork

    We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.

    ~Will Durant, paraphrasing Aristotle

    I used to be a fan of setting a word as an intention for the year. I fell off it at some point, or at least off documenting it, I think around the time that my word, in all honesty, was “survive”.

    If I was to capture 2020 in a word it would have been “restore”. I restored order to my life by tacking “life debt”. I restored myself – up to a point – through changing the aspects of my life that were causing disproportionate stress. As the year came to a close, I finally made progress on restoring my sense of creativity.

    Coming into 2021, of course I have some goals (complete my coaching certification, finish the second renovation – the attic), but generally I am more interested in building – or rebuilding – habits that support the way I want my life to be.

    Habits were something I struggled with in 2020, with the constant disruption of a pandemic derailing my “usual” things and background anxiety a drag on progress. I rebuilt my exercise habit multiple times under different constraints with varying levels of success. I struggled to rebuild my reading habit, read primarily novels, and probably less than any other year. I lost my habit of writing regularly, and despite much angsting about it, failed to make meaningful progress on repairing it. I lost my usual good habits around keeping in touch with people, was worse at reaching out, less good at responding…

    But then, habits also helped in 2020. One of the good things that started in lockdown and went on for most of the year was a regular movie night. For all I struggled with rebuilding my exercise habit (and anxiety around the gym I used to train at caused me to switch to a new one), I did exercise pretty consistently for most of the year, and I completed a kayaking certification. I embraced skincare as a hobby and cemented various habits there. My work habits remained pretty stable, and since switching jobs I now maintain pretty reasonable European work hours, which has been big a win for my overall quality of life.

    Coming into 2021, the focus for January is on two things that are daily habits. The first is the continuation of my 12 days of creativity, the January #MakeDontBreak challenge. The second is a course I’m taking with my coach, Positive Intelligence, which has me doing multiple things every day called “PQ reps”.

    I’m debating how I will fit the word “habit” into my life in 2021, maybe I’ll chose another daily habit for February, or maybe I’ll focus on overhauling my regular task lists to support a different assortment of things. I hope it will help ground me amid the uncertainty of living through a pandemic, of surviving the chaos of 2020-part 2.