What Are Your Intentions?

by Michele Boy | January 20, 2022

For the year 2022, I chose to set intentions rather than resolutions this year. Resolutions are firm and steadfast. That’s not me.

Life gets crazy, I get sidetracked and it just doesn’t work. I end up feeling like I failed. And that does little to inspire confidence.

Instead I chose intentions.To me, intentions say let’s head in this direction.

I chose trying to become more fluent in Spanish with my launguage app on my phone. I chose to read more, drink more water, pick one thing to organize in my home, get more exercise, take my vitamins, and the list goes on.

Spanish and reading are doing well. It’s five minutes here or there and I am seeing a difference. In just three weeks I have completed three books and am well into the fourth.

Now that I feel established in them, I am going to work on drinking more water. Oh water, you are so good for me yet the first thing I set aside.

Even as I write this I can choose to sip water or coffee and I am choosing coffee.

I also want to surround myself with good vibes. So I purchased some cheap beachy signs that remind me of the beach house we rented last month. I put them in my office next to a photo of my family in shorts catching fish.

I saw some cute vinyl waterproof inspirational stickers to add some spark  to our water bottles and notebooks.

Fluff? Silliness?  Maybe. But I can’t control the world. I can’t control what happens to me. I have to work on what I can control - me.

So my intention is that I use those small downtimes for better choices.

At the end of the day I look over all the things I have done for the day for my family, for my home, my work, my community. Now I am adding a me section.

Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE being mama and community member and all the other little things that interrupt my day. But I need a little me.

So at night I can add reading, Spanish, water, maybe a walk or a sharing a laugh with a friend to my list of things I did that day.

This life is going faster and faster. And I want to enjoy as much of it as I can.

So I am carving out a little place for me, sometimes, when I can.

I sent a text to an old friend and I felt like I was 25 again. I stopped to help someone. I got out of my SUV to walk in the house but stopped to feel the sun on my face and say, “Thank you God.”

What are your intentions? What direction are you heading in?

To quote Ferris Bueller in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”