Not only does 2020 kickstart a new year but it also kickstarts a whole new decade. For those who groan in anticipation of keeping their New Years Resolutions, being at the trail start for a new decade will gift you the chance to spend a bit more time getting your intentions in order. Forget the five-year plan, it’s all about the ten-year plan. In-fact forget plans altogether and instead – set intentions.

Intentions allow much more fluid scope for change, they don’t hold you hostage, and are a much more mindful roadmap of getting where you want to go. Intentions come from a place of pure positivity rather than a place of not feeling enough in the world. Instead of feeling overwhelmed about the next lengthy chapter of your life, here are some tips for setting intentions…

Know Where You Are Now

Deciding where you want to go next is much easier when you take stock of where you are now. It can be easy to forever scan the horizon, but its often important to pay homage to the place you are standing right now. Sit down in a quiet space with pen and paper. Consider the last ten years of your life and let go with a stream of consciousness listing all the lessons you have learnt over the past few years. Write about your achievements, your efforts, and also your hardships. Write about the changes that took place, the unexpected and the expected. We often forget how far we have come and by putting it all down in black and white can help you to see the road behind you and to feel energized for the road ahead.

Release The Old

There’s little point setting out on the next decade with a bunch of heavy bags in tow. Time to make the effort to leave a few things that aren’t serving you behind. Take a deep-seated look at things you have carried with you that need to be left behind, this often includes self-limiting beliefs that you aren’t enough or you are too much. Write these limiting beliefs on a slip of paper, along with words that represent the pains you are carrying. To truly get rid of these limiting beliefs and to make a conscious effort to release yourself from old modes of thinking you can do a burning ceremony. Even if you don’t believe in the actual energy of burning ceremonies it can be a symbolic movement that stays in your mind.

Write a Letter

Tapping into your deepest intentions and knowing what is important to you sometimes takes a little sculpting. One of the most effective ways of weaving intentions in and finding direction is to write a letter from your future self to yourself now. Whether you choose to write it from the point of view of yourself in a year, in five years or in ten years, write the letter and tell yourself exactly what you have been up to using the past tense – allow your imagination to run wild. Try not to hem yourself in with only writing about reality, but let your dreams truly come into play. Saying things like ‘you wrote an amazing novel and it hit the bestseller list’ or ‘you gave up your job and traveled the world’. Of course, our dreams don’t always need to be mammoth sized and groundbreaking; maybe you want to garden more, or walk dogs every day, or just read more books. If you find yourself slipping into wishy-washy future tense – make sure to bring it back to past. There is great power in saying ‘I did this’ rather than ‘I may do this’.

Take Small Steps

Now you have a vague sense of what is calling you and what dreams are coming up, you can take the small steps into bringing them into existence. One of the best ways of doing this is to build a mantra around your dreams – it can be as simple as a word; creativity, joy, independence, etc. Or it can be an active statement ‘I give myself to possibility’ ‘I will get outside more’. Once you have your mantra, make an actionable step to breathe that into being. The step can be small and obtainable but it needs a time frame. Commit to taking an actionable step within the next seven days. For example, if your mantra is to be outside more, commit to taking a walk on Wednesday. Big changes don’t happen overnight and intentions aren’t supposed to be chains that weigh you down. An intention is a thing intended, also known as an aim or a plan. But plans evolve, aims change, and any good intention will grow like a glorious tree if watered regularly.

What intentions are you setting for the decade ahead? We would adore hearing your plans and goals – share in the comments.