The most popular thing to do at New Years (besides drinking champagne) is probably to Make Resolutions. You tell yourself, your friends and your family (and if you’ve overdone it on champagne, perfect strangers!) that next year you’ll do it DIFFERENTLY. Next year, you really are going to lose those extra 20 pounds, even if you have to starve yourself to do it. For a time you stick to your plan. You diet, you join the gym and you lose some weight. Somewhere between Valentine’s Day and June, you lose your momentum. Summer rolls around and you beat up on yourself for not sticking to the diet and you dread putting on a swimsuit. Somewhere between Thanksgiving and Christmas you realize you really did eat that whole plate of cookies and you swear to fast until New Years so you don’t end the year without losing a single pound! Now it’s New Years Eve and you hate the sense of failure to meet your “resolution”, so you try to muster up some confidence to try again next year. (Maybe this contributes to the amount of champagne consumed on New Year’s Eve!)

Instead of making resolutions, what if you Set Intentions for 2009? Intentions are the “purpose or attitude toward the effect of one’s actions or conduct.” When we set intentions, we give ourselves guiding principles by which to make choices in line with our values. It is a meaningful and powerful way to live. So rather than make a potentially doomed resolution for an arbitrary goal like losing 20 pounds, you may want to set an intention like “I intend to create and enjoy a healthy life style.” With this intention serving as your guide for moment-by-moment choices about food, exercise and self-care, you won’t feel forced to starve yourself or beat yourself up when you get off the plan. And the results may astound you. You’ll find you have a much better chance of losing those extra pounds because real success is a result of mindful choices in line with your intentions.

Sounds simple?  It is!  Living with intention is a mindful way of life, based in both commitment and gentleness. Treat yourself with kindness, compassion and love while staying true to your values and principles, and at the end of the year, or anytime, you will be celebrating true success – a life lived well!