Inviting the New Year

The technique I used for making one of my most elusive resolutions happen resulted in the actual manifestation of an opportunity (read that Post).

With such surprising success, I have decided to rephrase my intentions for 2018 the same way.

In the past my resolution list has looked something like this:

• Eat healthy
• Exercise
• Shop locally

They are goals in line with my values for well-being and sustainability. Yet, with all of them success was temporary or partial.  Somewhere along the way I walked back toward the old worn path of past habits.

But intentions are supposed to be life changing, action producing, miracle workers, right?

Yes, unless there is a secret backstory taking up all the room in the brain, causing me to remain on that same old path, doing the same old things, and seeing the same old world.

What do these backstories look like? “I am just going to go the old way because it’s: easier, comfortable, familiar, cheaper, faster…because I can do better: later, tomorrow, next time, next year…because I’m: tired, overwhelmed, in hurry, short on money.”

Looking at these backstories is like laying out a platter of keys to help me unlock some new doors. These are the real stories that need to be re-written in order for me to find success with my goals and intentions. It doesn’t matter how nicely I say shopping locally is, unless I can release the problems behind them that are creating resistance.

Pam Grout tells me in her book E Cubed that in order to invite real change I need to adjust the language I use, “[the troubles I have been seeing are] nothing but the harvest of words [I] spoke up until now.”

Using her suggestion to change my story into something positive, into what I actually want, my new resolution would go something like this (and meant to be spoken aloud on the regular so that I can find evidence of its truth):

“I have all the money necessary and am filled with enthusiasm to shop locally and cook with the fresh seasonal ingredients I find at Farmers Markets.”

This sentence not only affirms that I will shop locally, but it also rephrases two underlying stories that were keeping me stuck, 1. That it’s too expensive to buy local, and 2. It’s too stressful to shop at Famers Markets because I can’t find what I need to fit my recipes.

What is going to happen by shopping locally is that my spending habits are going to shift, as is the way I decide what I am going to cook this week. And by affirming I am filled with enthusiasm rather than secretly harboring stress I can open up to the possibility that shopping locally won’t be a sustainability obligation but a fun-filled, life changing adventure.

Are you ready to change your life? What possibilities are you opening up to this year?