Happy New Year, everyone!
As a yogi and someone who spends a lot of time reflecting, I thought I would share something that I have been thinking about a lot lately…
Goals vs. Intentions.
First, I am not much of a goal setter. I used to be the one who always set a goal to workout more in the new year but we all know how that goes. So for the last few years I haven’t set any goals. I might set a small goal here or there but not on the first of the year. I am more of the person who starts a new goal or routine on a random Wednesday, lol. But something I have done more this year is set intentions. And I wanted to explain why I think setting intentions is way better than setting a goal.
The definition of GOAL from the trusty internet is “the object of a person’s ambition or effort; an aim or desired result.” The definition of INTENTION is “a thing intended; an aim or plan.” The first thing I notice as a big difference is that in the definition of goal it says “object”, as if it has to be a thing you get, something tangible. With an intention, it’s more of the idea that you are going to to work towards something but not a specific THING. I like intention much better and I think it’s easier to not give up or feel like it’s a failure if it doesn’t happen exactly how you thought. Because you know what happens? Life. Life happens.
No matter what your philosophy on life is, fate, grand design, free will, you canNOT predict what is going to happen day to day. You can make a plan to go to the gym every single day because today your month looks free and clear, and then tomorrow a family member gets sick and you have to help. If you set a goal to work out everyday, already it’s going to be hard to meet that goal and it feels like a failure. If you intended to work out everyday, put the thought out into the universe, it’s still there, it just might take longer to achieve it and it doesn’t sting as much when it doesn’t happen the way you thought. See where I am going here?
Let me tell you about my own intention for this year. My word for 2019 was STRENGTH. I had every intention to workout more and get back into lifting weights because I was going to be physically stronger this year. By spring, I hadn’t lifted anything heavy but I was still intending to get stronger. For the spring equinox I went to the yoga studio to participate in completing 108 sun salutations. This is something I had done at the change of seasons, every season, for the last year and a half. It definitely made me feel physically stronger. On about salutation number 50 I thought to myself, “Yeah, totally NOT doing this again.” I ended up finishing but my thoughts for the remaining salutations were on the idea that at this moment, Strength was still my intention but it meant something different. I was strong enough to give up the 108. I was strong enough to let go of something I thought I needed to do every season to make me feel better. I was strong enough to realize this wasn’t my thing anymore and it didn’t mean I failed at being a yogi.
Strength has a different meaning in my yoga teaching as well. When I first started teaching I taught only vinyasa style, the kind where you leave sweaty even if it’s not a hot environment. But I realized that this is NOT the type of yoga that everyone needs. I started teaching a gentle class at a tea shop and I started subbing yin classes at the studio. I even subbed a meditation class that has no physical practice at all. I found that once I started to embrace the idea that strength could mean so many other things, I found the strength to change the way I teach. And not just slowing down in the gentle/restorative classes. The way I teach vinyasa has changed a bit, too. I still love to give people the opportunities to practice their physical strength, but I was able to let go of the idea that I had to teach like everyone else. I don’t have to teach an arm balance in each class and I don’t have to make you do 20 vinyasas in the first 15 minutes of class.
There is one last strong thing I realized this year. I found more strength to be the weirdo, hippie, yogi I keep telling people I am. And this is in part due to the people I surrounded myself with this year. I have fully embraced the “woo woo” side of yoga, as people at the studio call it, and I have been able to share it with people who may not have thought it was “okay” to also be a weirdo. I was strong enough to embrace the weird and realize it’s totally not weird at all.
To sum up, make goals, set intentions, do awesome things! Just remember that it’s 1000% okay to change them up as you go. It’s normal to “fail” or “fall off the wagon” or completely give up on something and start something new. But don’t forget to give shifting your perspective a try, too. Maybe your intention or goals are the same, but just have a different tune to march to. Or maybe life just gets in the way and you have to wait a little longer to start down the road. Keep going!
The Life of a Chrissy 