Setting direction and intention (without the resolution)
At the start of every single year, particularly at the turn of the calendar, something happens. People set themselves a target. A resolution.
An annual promise and personal commitment to: lose weight, change job, move house, fall in love, change country, exercise frequently, talk less, listen more, or any other long-term, multi-layered and nuanced string of words that sound intelligently evolutionary.
Now, the idea of setting resolutions at the start of a new year is not a new one.
Variations of New Year’s resolutions have been around for thousands of years, originally rooted in reflection, accountability, and promises about how to behave differently going forward. From the Babylonians over 4,000 years ago making promises to their gods at the start of their new year, to the Romans making vows to Janus on the first of January.
Somewhere along the way, this act of moral obligation has shifted into something more familiar to what we now know and see today: ambitious (often unrealistic) personal pledges, made quickly, dropped just as fast, and rarely revisited.
January still follows this same pattern. Motion before thought. New plans, new initiatives, new targets. All layered on top of unresolved questions from the year before.
Over the years, I have found myself gradually shifting from making resolutions to setting intentions. From the expected (unrealistic) pledges, to a wish-list of what I want to achieve in the year. And from that wish-list, distilled down to a single word that helps shine a light, that guides me through the year.
One year. One word.
For me, my word of the year doesn’t arrive through a forced brainstorming session or a leadership workshop. It tends to surface gradually, showing up in conversations, in the challenges that keep repeating, in the thoughts that keep surfacing. The word itself is not chosen, so much as recognised.
This single word gives language to what is already in motion, and in so doing, creates focus and coherence. It helps to connect personal decisions with professional ones. Bringing consistency to how you respond to uncertainty, opportunity, or resistance.
Rather than forcing a new direction, it guides you to move more deliberately within one that is already unfolding.
That is why it transcends the annual resolution.
Resolutions are static.
They sit on a list that gathers dust and ages. A word, however, is dynamic. It travels with you throughout the year, resurfacing and evolving as you do.
A word acknowledges what is already vying for attention, and offers you the opportunity to respond to it thoughtfully and intentionally over the course of the year.
Starting the year with intent
When used in this way, this single word becomes less about aspiration and more about orientation. This is where its true value lies. Not solely in motivation and hope, but in its intention, direction, and purpose.
In business and for leaders in technical and scientific organisations, this may feel rather abstract. Perhaps unnecessary or non-applicable to a business context. A single word may sound overly simplistic when dealing with complex systems, processes, long sales cycles, and genuine commercial pressure.
However, when identified carefully and with intention, it can act as a surprisingly effective filter. It forces strategic clarity. It forces you to look at the overall direction for the year, exposing where strategy may be vague, where there may be gaps to fix, or where shiny-object-syndrome is derailing you from your path.
Rather than adding (yet) another objective to the list, it creates a reference point you can return to when priorities compete or pressure mounts. Framed in this way, intent becomes less philosophical and much more practical.
Which leads me to some thoughts worth pondering over at the beginning of the year.
If you can’t explain what matters this year in a single sentence, neither can your team.
The most useful plans are the ones that help you say no.
You don’t need more goals. You need a better way to decide.
Being busy is easy. Being intentionally deliberate, however, takes a little bit more gumption.
January isn’t testing ambition or what you want to achieve. It is testing how you will make decisions when things become noisier through the year.
A quieter, more deliberate start
As the festivities come to a close and this new year awakens, I invite you to be hopeful and aspirational, maintain your ambition, make decisions, and accelerate your pace.
But perhaps, rather than rushing to fill January with activity, try for a quieter and more deliberate start. Pay attention to the theme that emerges. Name it and use it. Let it guide how you choose, not just what you pursue.
A single word won’t give you all of the answers, nor will it manifest overnight success. It can, however, help you notice when you’re drifting, when you’re reacting, or when you are saying yes out of habit rather than intent.
Over time, that intention tends to shape outcomes more quietly, yet much more effectively, than any resolution ever could.
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