Resolutions or Intentions? How to achieve your goals in 2024!

I recently bumped into an interesting book by Deepak Chopra (https://www.deepakchopra.com/), where he explains the seven spiritual laws of success.

Deepak calls the fifth law, the law of intention and desire. In one of the paragraphs, I find his distinction of attention and intention quite interesting. He writes, thus: “Attention energizes and intention transforms. Whatever you put your attention on will grow stronger in your life. Whatever you take your attention away from will wither, disintegrate and disappear. Intention on the other hand, triggers transformation of energy and information. Intention organises its own fulfilment”

It is the last statement that captures my imagination in light of how many people make beginning-of-year-resolutions. Intention organises its own fulfilment.

Many-a-time, the word resolution is used to indicate decisions that one has made with the aim of making some change in their individual lives. For instance, one may say, I will stop smoking in 2024. Or I will lose weight in 2024. Or I will stop drinking. All these are legitimate. But the question remains, how many stick to their resolution till the last day of the year?

Deepak goes on to highlight another interesting aspect: Desire. And this is the reason I think that many of us are unable to make our new resolutions come to fruition. Our understanding of the resolutions and desire is limited. 


Deepak elucidates, “Intention is the real power behind desire.” Furthermore, he explains, “Intent alone is very powerful, because intent is desire without attachment to the outcome. Desire alone is weak, because desire in most people is attention with attachment.”

In other words, when we make an intention, we should not necessarily attach ourselves to the outcome. We should instead make room for (or detach from) the outcome - that we desire -  that it may emerge in its own best way. “Your intent is for the future, but your attention is in the present”, Deepak continues to point out. 

It therefore, seems to me that when we make New Year resolutions, we also attach ourselves to the outcome ie ‘This is what I must achieve, the way I want it to’... and when it doesn’t then we are disappointed, and eventually giving up on the resolution(s).

However, what would happen, if we tried another way of making new year resolutions by creating intentions (without attachments) - and at the same time being attentive in the present-moment as we make room for the outcome? 

As we end January 2024 and are set to begin the second month of the year - February 2024, what would you choose to pursue for the rest of the year? 

How do you really want to achieve your goals in 2024, via: Resolutions or Intentions?


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Doing it!

  What are you not doing that you should be doing? What are you doing that you should not be doing? What were you supposed to have done that you did not do? What do you enjoy doing that you have ignored for so long? Do you know what you are supposed to be doing now, at this point in your life? Are you happy with what you are doing in your life right now? When will you start doing it… that which you know serves you well, and brings out the best in you? Doing that one thing; that one must do to make a difference in one’s own life and the lives of the loved ones, is a challenge that many find themselves in. How come we find it a challenge to do that one thing, which could lead to our breakthrough? What stops us from being bold to take that very first step, especially when we are aware of that which must be done? Is it fear of success or fear of failure, or laziness? "You’ll never plough a field by turning it over in your mind," so says an Irish Proverb. In other w...
Read more

Let's do this!

  Today, 01 July marks the beginning of the second half of the year 2021. What a tumultuous first half of the year that many of us have experienced. In some cases, the traces of pain are still existing. We have witnessed, or heard of, families that have lost their loved ones in a matter of hours or within days and weeks. In some cases, a whole family is lost, especially due to COVID. As a COVID survivor, and having lost my mother to COVID, each story that I have encountered has made me re-live my own experience of fear, pain, horror, and loss. I sympathize and empathize. But for some reason, I have also come to realize that one can still find courage and hope amidst all the bad things that may be happening around one’s life. Living in South Africa makes me appreciate more and more about Mandela’s stance on courage and fear. One day he said, “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but h...
Read more

BOPA MOSADI – Build a Woman!

BOPA MOSADI – Build a Woman! During this past week, I had the privilege of interacting with twenty female budding entrepreneurs, through a Training and Coaching Session. The session was organized as part of an on-going business development project named as Bopa Mosadi a Setswana phrase that means to build or mold a woman. The purpose of this project is to empower the carefully selected young businesswomen, to bridge the economic gap by equipping them with relevant and practical knowledge and business skills. Consequently this aims at enabling them to penetrate and compete in the economy through their small businesses. The project is sponsored by the DO More Foundation under RCL Foods that operates in the Rustenburg area. NIYA Consulting ( https://niyaconsulting.co.za/ )     and AVO Vision ( https://www.avovision.co.za/ ) are partners in implementing the Business Development project, specifically for young female entrepreneurs.   Building a Woman especially from h...
Read more