New Year’s resolutions.  Why do you make a New Year’s resolution?  Is it because the “Old Year’s” resolution went so well that you are now piling on more?  If the Old Year’s resolution worked so well, wouldn’t you just be continuing the practice of it at the next level?  Or are you repeating exactly what you did last year?

The word “resolution” is defined as “A firm decision to do or not to do something.”  Decision making… boy that’s dangerous territory, isn’t it?  How often do you decide not to get in a fight with your boyfriend?  How often do you decide not to eat that piece of cake?  How often do you decide to quit smoking?  What ends up happening?  You do what you’ve always done!

Why is that?  We are made up of habits and patterns that simply continue to run day after day.  Making a decision is the same thing as having an opinion.  The mind uses you to facilitate keeping you “safe.”  Risking something beyond what you already know works and practicing that new action will be canceled out very fast when you start making decision.  A decision gives the mind full reign to do what you’ve always done and to get what you’ve always had.  That means all you’ll get is more of the same.  Instead of a New Year’s resolution, why not set an intention?  Energetically, that is a very different ball game.

When you have an intention, there is no mind changing involved.  You say to yourself, I have an intention to work out every day.  Then your mind comes up and says, “But I have so much work to do.” or “I have so many errands to run.” or “I’m tired, I’ll do it tomorrow.” to keep doing whatever your pattern dictates.  As the mind comes up (and it will) you can then practice the observation that your thoughts are not serving your intention.

If you make a decision to work out, you can change your mind and make a decision not to work out in whatever rational works for you in that moment.  When you see the world through your mind, and your mind changes… so does everything you see.  There is no deeper tie than intention that brings you the movement of actually doing something different than what you’ve done before.  Intention lives in the heart, not the mind.

Transcendence happens in the double negative.  I understand that culturally we don’t see a double negative as proper English, but it’s a fantastic equation for transcendence.  Deciding to quit smoking is very different than saying “I cannot not quit.”  When people are pushed to the wall and a double negative equation appears, it’s usually because something else has become more important in the equation than the feelings associated with smoking, like staying alive.

Utilize the tool of double negatives in your intention this year.  Work out because you cannot not.  Quit smoking because you cannot not.  Make the intention to put yourself in situations where you meet people because you cannot not.

If you cannot not, and you actually do, transcendence occurs.  Life happens.