How to Keep Up (And Attain) Your 2022 Intentions in 4 Easy Steps
The beginning of a new year brings excitement, happiness, and energy, especially when we set intentions about what is to come.
We might want to get rid of some of our habits or create new ones, both in our personal and professional lives. It's no secret that we speech-language pathologists have to jiggle between the challenging yet gratifying profession we have, home, kids, family, and all of the other things in the middle.
The question is, how can we not just set these well-intended goals but keep up with them to make them a reality.
Here are 4 easy and fun steps that might help:
1) Make them visual and easy to see!
Write down your intentions. The simple act of writing them down on paper is mighty as it creates a vision of what you want to attain. Once written down, your intentions feel way more tangible. Then find a place to post them so that you can see and refer to them regularly.
2) Are your intentions SMART?
Now that you have your intentions on paper, go ahead and check if they are SMART.
SMART is an acronym that stands for:
Specific. Make your intentions clear. If you intend to lose weight, make it specific. You can reframe it like this: I want to practice mindfulness …. For five minutes…3 mornings a week …. (fill in the gaps).
Measurable. Log your progress over time in a journal or make notes on your phone. That will help you reinforce the process you are making over time.
Achievable. Make sure your goals are achievable. Maybe becoming a billionaire in the next month is not as attainable as saving an extra $100. That doesn't mean that you cannot stretch your goals. On the contrary, we encourage you to do so but still be realistic.
Relevant. Ask yourself if the goal you want to achieve is relevant for you? Does it really matter, or is it something that a friend or a loved one told you it would be nice to do? If that particular intention makes your heart leap, then go for it 100%.
Time-bound. Set a realistic timeframe by when you will achieve the intentions you have. Suppose your intention should be attained by the end of the year; set yourself small intermediate goals along the way to keep track of your progress.
3) Make it a tiny habit
Tiny habits are powerful because the compound effect on the improvements you make is enormous. Think about it - even if you make a 1% improvement every day, you will be better by 30% by the end of the month. Set yourself a tiny habit that will move you closer to your goal - waking up 20 minutes earlier to work on your goals, getting a glass of water, taking a walk in nature…
4) Eat that frog
Don't worry; you won't have to eat real frogs! Eating a frog is a metaphor, which means to start the day by tackling your most challenging task first.
It's a simple three-way process that starts by identifying your frog, i.e., deciding which is the most important task of the day (usually, this is the one you would prefer not to do). Once you have identified your frog, eat it…do it (i.e., complete that task first thing in the morning) and repeat the process. This is an excellent method that will help you stop procrastinating and boost your motivation and self-confidence. We are so confident and passionate about the power of this method that we devoted a separate blog post to it. You can read it here.
As you can see, achieving your 2022 intentions can be fun and easy as long as you follow the 4 steps outlined above. And whatever you do - remember to take good self-care - you are a brilliant and remarkable person who can achieve anything. Still, you need to take good self-care for the most important person in the mirror- yourself. If you have any questions, we are here for you. And remember:
"The best way to predict your future is to create it." - Abraham Lincoln