Intentions versus resolutions

As much as I'm all about year-round consistency, I do love the start of a new year and the opportunity it brings to refocus on prioritising all the things that make us feel stronger, happier, calmer and more confident.

I’m sure we all use this time to take a moment to reflect on the last year and consider some habits we might like to change in the New Year. Some of our New Year’s resolutions might focus on losing weight so we resolve to complete X number of workouts a week and eat healthily everyday. We place lots of pressure on ourselves not to get knocked off course and when we do we feel defeated and tend to follow a path of ‘all or nothing’.

Intentions on the other hand are a more compassionate approach to implementing changes. They help us to be more mindful about our choices and allow us the space to try again each time we get knocked off course. They can help us see that tomorrow is a new day and a new opportunity to try again.

I heard a lovely quote by Socrates (a greek philosopher) in a recent meditation from the Calm app;

“The secret of change is to focus all your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.“

It’s a really nice way to help frame your resolutions / intentions as a way of enhancing your life rather than focusing on what you’re having to ‘give up’. You might find yourself thinking you have to sacrifice time for sleep to fit a workout in but if you can try and change that narrative to focus more on how moving your body will give you more energy and help you feel more awake for the rest of the day then you’ve managed to change your focus away from fighting the old and rather onto building the new.

I’m all about encouraging you to move away from an ‘all or nothing’ approach and focusing on consistency over intensity, and The Barre Coach online platform has classes, challenges and programmes designed to help you prioritise consistency. Discover more about my approach here.