Intentions not Resolutions

Towards A Creative 2012. Part Two.

“A new year’s resolution goes in one year and out another”. Oscar Wilde.

A creative intention differs from a new year’s resolution in a number of ways:

• POSITIVE: New year’s resolutions are often framed as negative injunctions (giving up, never again) and based on self-judgements and -criticism. Creative Intention is framed as a positive proposal, moving towards something you’d like to see more of in your life.
• ACKNOWLEDGES THE UNCONSCIOUS. New year’s resolutions harness the conscious will only. Creative Intention acknowledges that our behaviours are driven by conscious and unconscious impulses.
• ACCEPTANCE: New year’s resolutions see you as flawed, in need of fixing. Creative Intention recognises that all is unfolding as it should.
• UNDERWRITTEN WITH PLAN: New year’s resolutions are made in a vacuum. Creative Intention requires a where-and-when plan.
• FLEXIBLE: New year’s resolutions are determined and fixed, aiming to control. Creative Intention is willing and open, aiming to allow.
• LONG-LASTING: Perhaps the biggest difference is that a creative intention is not a self-flagellating, half-held, resolution that goes “in one year and out another” but a lifelong commitment.

So what will you create in 2012?

RELATED POSTS: Towards A Creative New Year Part One: Ten Questions & A Why & Part Three: The Good News.

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