Yes, I’m jumping on the non-resolution bandwagon. Let me tell you why and what I’m doing instead to inspire and focus my intentions for the New Year.
It all comes down to that word: Resolutions.
When I hear that word, it makes me think of solving a problem. It insinuates that there’s something wrong with me that I need to fix. Sure, I might do well to alter my eating habits or step up my exercise routine or line up my financial ducks a little more straightly, but it doesn’t mean that I’ve done anything wrong.
If you’re anything like me, you end up making variations of the same resolutions year in and year out. You start the year feeling like Sisyphus as you re-solve the problem of getting that boulder up the hill.
The sensation that arises when I think about resolving to do something is forced, like it’s coming from the dreaded shoulds. From outside of me.
I feel like I’m smacking my fist into my palm saying, “By gum, I’m gonna do it if it kills me!” Or like a kid who finally gives in to what his mom’s been harassing him to do for hours: “OK, fine!”
I prefer the word Commitment.
Commitment feels like a choice. It’s a decision to say Yes. When the handsome prince asks for your hand, you have a choice.
Commitment doesn’t guarantee happily ever after. Nor does it require perfection. As I said in a post last year, commitment is the glue that holds you to your decision.
Commitment says, “Things may not have worked out as I planned today, but I’ll be here tomorrow to try again.”
Commitment holds forgiveness.
Where resolutions try to rectify the past, commitment looks forward to the possibility of the future.
So, what am I committing to in 2015?
I’m committed to giving back: People, organizations, the Universe have brought me so much this past year – this past decade, really – it’s high time I return in kind more consistently. It may be a favour or a pay-it-forward consultation. It may be a donation – this year 25% of the Whole Health profits will go to organizations that sustain the earth, education and women in need.
I’m committed to Trust: my Word of the Year. I’ve discovered that for me, the opposite of fear isn’t love as many proclaim. It’s trust. Trusting myself as much as trusting others. Trusting Life. Trust is one of the tools with which we nurture and express love.
Update 2019: Having grown so much from committing to a yearly word, I’ve evolved that process by also becoming intimately familiar with how the word feels in my body, to better act as a compass or a touchstone as I navigate through all the year has to offer. Contact me to learn more. (This year’s word is Be your Self.)
Over to you. Did you make resolutions? Choose a word? What do you want to commit to in 2019? When you share in the comments, you open the possibilities for others.
Click on any (or all!) of the pretty green buttons at the bottom of this page to encourage your friends to commit to themselves this year too!