How many times have you created a New Year’s Resolution only to drop it by January 14? Why put yourself through the pressure of beating yourself up and feeling bad? Ditch your New Year’s Resolution and try a more empowering approach to bettering yourself in the new year.

Why don’t resolutions work? For various reasons: we don’t know how to hold ourselves accountable, our fears clock in and we quit, we don’t see evidence of change fast enough and we quit, we don’t start with small steps and get overwhelmed quickly. We don’t have the proper support set in place.

Here’s my solution to stopping the resolution downfall: Create a yearlong-intention. This is a heart-defined purpose and focus for the year. For instance, this year my intention was to just be. That’s it. And I came back to it over and over all year long. When I was feeling overwhelmed, I remembered my intention to just be and it made everything more managable again. How do you get to an intention? Think about one thing you want (for instance: to eat healthier), then ask yourself “If I did this, what would I have” (if you ate healthier, what would you have?) Take that answer and ask yourself again “If I had this, what would I have?” (If I ate healthier, I would have more energy). Do this until you get to an answer that feels right to you (If I had more energy, I would have a greater appreciation of life. Having an appreciation for life would be your intention for the year).

You can still use resolutions, but make them your action steps to support your intention. If you want to embrace life more, there are all kinds of ways to do that. You’ll never get bored. And you can return again and again to your intention when you need a solution to a problem. For instance, if you’re scared to go to a party because you’re shy, you can remind yourself of your intention to embrace life and find a way to enjoy your soiree!

Coming from intention is easier than keeping resolutions. Resolutions keep you tied to an outcome. Intentions keep you in your heart all year long in various ways. No matter what you do to support your intention, your year will get better as you go along.

At the end of the year, write out a list of 100 ways you stayed true to your intention. Feel proud of your accomplishments and next year create a new intention to live by or stick with the one you’ve had all year!