Setting Intentions

There is a old African proverb that says “The best way to eat an elephant in your path is to cut him up into little pieces.” While I have no intention of ever eating an elephant, I have been experimenting with this idea in relationship to accomplishing my New Years goals. The idea of breaking things down into smaller more manageable pieces makes it easier to accomplish something that might otherwise feel overwhelming. 

On New Years Eve, in an effort to stay awake till midnight, my son and I watched Joe Rogan’s podcast #1070 where he interviewed Jordan Peterson about his book, “12 Rules for Life”. This was the first I had heard of Jordan Peterson and was surprised when my 20 year old son disappeared into his room and came out moments later holding copy his book. He had already discovered Jordan Peterson a few years ago. The podcast was very good and I have since started reading the book. The part of the show that caught my attention was his reference to this idea of breaking things down into smaller pieces. Instead of suggesting how one might eat an elephant, Peterson told a story about how he had asked his students how much time they spent studying each week. Next, he had them break down what was involved in studying, like the travel to the study location, getting a coffee, getting distracted etc, to get a better idea of how much time was actually spent on  the studying. Then he suggested that they dedicate only 15 minutes each day to study. At first it sounds like it won’t work because it isn’t much time, but when you focus only on that one activity, without distractions, you can get a lot more done than when setting out to study for 2 hours and getting distracted along the way. Fifteen minutes is easier to stick to and in the span of the week you wind up getting a solid hour and forty-five minutes of work done. This was my first introduction to Jordan Peterson, but not to this concept. 

Years ago I followed “The Fly Lady”, Marla Cilley, who gives advice and support online to help declutter and reorganize your life. Along with setting routines to follow each day, she also had this method for decluttering your home in 15 minute segments of time. The idea is to take small chunks of time so that you gradually get things organized rather than face the overwhelming task of organizing your whole life all at once. Listening to the podcast reawakened in me this forgotten advice. Since it was the beginning of the year I decided it was a good time to take action and put this method to good use. Here is what happened this week. 

The first goal I set for the New Year was to get back to my yoga practice. Before the pandemic, my yoga practice consisted of four to five 90 minute hot yoga classes a week.  I have to admit that I have not had much success in sticking to videos and zoom classes since things have shutdown. I started out with a few one hour classes over zoom a week and a couple of outside classes, but at some point my practice just fell off entirely.  One of the problems was having a space where I could practice uninterrupted. Once I created a space where I could close the door as to not be disturbed, I made a commitment to practice 30 minutes a day. Each day this week, I rolled out my mat, set my timer for 30 minutes and did whatever yoga my body needed that day. 30 minutes, no more, no less. I resisted the urge to quit and also the urge to do more. My goal was to set the habit. Each day was different. Some days I had more energy and so I did more vinyasa, while other days I wound up doing more stretching and yin. I found it easy to  stick to, and have found myself looking forward to it.

In addition to the physical benefits of improved strength and flexibility, from the return to my practice, I have noticed a big change in my energy. The funk that I had been in for several months has lifted and I no longer feel like I am moving through molasses. I also find myself looking forward to my practice each day. The last two nights I decided to add 15 minutes before bed and noticed that my sleep is improving as well. 

Another goal I set for myself is to post one blog post every week for one year. To accomplish this goal, I set out with the intention of writing for an hour each day. It didn’t work out as well as the yoga. I started the week off well, but by the end of the week I didn’t write at all. Here I am, like a college student scrambling to write their term paper at the last minute.  I realized that the missing piece to accomplishing my goals for the year is accountability. It isn’t enough to set the intention and break it down into bite size pieces and following through. It is important to have accountability. Without accountability, it is easy to let things slide until you have lost sight of the goal entirely. After all, if nobody sees me eat the elephant then how do they know I did it? In keeping with the idea of accountability I am setting my intentions here on my blog. Today will be my second blog post of the year out of 52. I will call my intention “ 52 Weeks of Accountability”.  It officially starts today and I will post every Monday in 2021. I hope that you will follow along and support me in my goal. What are your goals this year?

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