When I was younger I used to make a list of all the things I wanted to do over the next year and call them my “resolutions” for the New Year. Invariably I wouldn’t do half the things on my list – or more – and it got to be very disappointing.

Over the course of time and growth I realized that setting a “resolution” meant that I was seeking to change something that “wasn’t working” in my life for one reason or another. Inherently in that resolution process I was acknowledging that I wasn’t happy with the way I was or what I was doing. In other words, I was saying I was broken.

Now, as a Life Coach I know that no one is broken – especially me. But sometimes we do get stuck in ruts or run up against a wall or tread too deeply in the muck….but that’s not broken….it’s just held back a little bit from how we’d like to be. So a few years back I dropped the word “resolution” in favor of the word “intention.”

While resolution meant “changing what I do” the word intention meant “choosing a way I wish to be.” That felt a lot cleaner and easier for me to manage. I wasn’t saying anything about how I was, but how I wanted to be in the future. I was looking forward instead of back…and we all know how much more effective that can be.

With my newly empowering word “intention” I promptly made another list of 10-15 ways I wanted to be over the next year. “Why act small when you can cover it all,” I thought! I actually had to limit myself to a list that size. About 3/4 of the way through that year I looked at my list and realized I’d done a fair job of moving towards some of them, a moderate job at others, and a lousy job at a few. Really it wasn’t all that better than before I started using the word intention. Hmmmmmm…..was I over reaching still? Was something still missing?

And then it hit me – 15 areas of focus?? Seriously?? When I’m working with my clients I ask them to pick 3-5 subjects of attention and most only choose 3-4. So why was I shocked that with that many items I wasn’t doing the things I wanted to do. So I reassessed what I was doing and what the point was.

The point of setting New Years Intentions was to guide me to become the person I wanted to be over the next year, to help me facilitate the ways of being that would bring about the results I desired, and to help me focus my intention on the creation rather than the change. “Ok”, I thought to myself, “So if all of this is about how I want to be why does it need to be complicated?” I tell my clients all the time to not worry about the details but to focus on the “being” part of what they want to accomplish because if you can create the “way of being” in your life the rest will simply fall into place effortlessly.

Think of it this way, if you focus on being “generous and giving” you’ll create opportunities where your talents are needed and desired. If you focus on “being positive and open minded” you’ll notice all these opportunities to enjoy life and the world around you. So I boiled down all the things I wanted to create in my life and I came up with one very simple yet very challenging intention.

My intention that particular year was “I will be fully present with myself.” Yikes! Fully present?? I wasn’t even sure I knew what that meant….but I did it anyway. Over the course of the year I simply kept coming back to how I felt, what I wanted, what was important to me, what I was noticing in my behaviors, where I was putting my attention….I just kept coming present with myself and focusing on the now. I didn’t worry about the details or the answers or what the results were, I just kept checking in and being present with the “now” rather than the past or the future.

And it totally worked! I had a great year….well, actually it was a pretty challenging year but I felt so much more aware, awake, and alive that even the challenges felt positive. Now, several years later that feeling of presence and attention to the now still remains. It’s become habitual and…..easy.

The following year I set the intention “I will be fully embodied.” I spent the year checking in with my physical self, noticing how my emotions affected and interacted with my body, I focused on my breathing and creating awareness of how my connection to my body affected my life. Again my life unlocked itself a little bit more. I felt a lot more comfortable and at ease with who I was as a person, what was important to me and what I was inviting into my life. Again it shifted everything and I became even more alive and engaged in my life than ever before. I was ecstatic! I began to notice all the little details of my life and how simply focusing on myself invited in the things I wanted to attract.

The next year my intention was “To have a healthy and pain free body.” Of course I’d spent so much time the year before becoming fully embodied I could now feel every ache and pain, creak and groan as if it were everything there was. Of course with this intention I promptly injured myself and took nearly the whole year to heal – but it was such an incredible manifestation of momentum and energy that I’ve come out of the end of the year with one of the healthiest bodies I’ve had in a decade and just getting better!

But this year? I almost didn’t think about it until just yesterday. But when I did it came to me simply and easily.

For 2009 my intention is “I will simply surrender into the flow and trust.”

Seems simple enough, huh? Yeah right!! I can’t wait to see what happens this year!

What is your intention for 2009? Here’s a hint: Keep it simple!