Resolutions Vs Intentions: What’s The Difference? | Setting Sustainable Intentions in 2024

With 2024 underway, it’s time to start working on our new year’s resolutions. Goals for the new year are often associated with failure because they are viewed as something we have to tick off our list, which is a reductive way to define success. That’s why rather than calling them resolutions, we’re talking about ‘setting intentions’. Intentions are less about concrete goals, and more about the motive behind your resolutions. 

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An example of the difference between a resolution and intention would be something like ‘I want to go to the gym more’ and ‘I want to feel more positive towards exercise’. Following through with the intention of feeling more positive towards exercise will have the same impact as the resolution, but in a healthier way that you’re likely to actually stick to. 

But where does sustainability come in? Setting sustainable intentions for 2024 doesn’t just mean thinking about the environment, it also includes setting yourself up for success with goals you can sustain throughout the year. It’s important to push yourself, but do so in a way which ensures maximum success. 

HOW TO SET SUSTAINABLE RESOLUTIONS

Let’s start with sustainability focused intentions, and how to set resolutions that will impact your life and the planet for the better: A lot of people are sustainable within their comfort zone. They make small changes to their lifestyle like buying a shampoo bar or going vegetarian, and stop there. This is all well and good, no one has to do everything, but if you’re interested in being more eco friendly in 2024, a good place to start is to think about the ways you’re already trying to be more sustainable and go beyond. 

1. List the ways you actively try to be more sustainable and how long you’ve been doing that for.
   
   
2. Think about sustainability related activities people you admire engage in, what’s stopping you from doing the same? List the activities (campaigning, compositing, volunteering, for example) and the barriers stopping you from getting there (lack of free time, no local organisations/actions near you).
   
   
3. Choose 1-3 new ways you can push yourself to be more sustainable. If it helps, learn more about the cause motivating you to go through with your new intention. Learning about climate change and all its repercussions is a good place to start. It’s Not That Radical by Miakela Loach has lots of useful tips on getting started with climate awareness and action.

HOW TO SET RESOLUTIONS TO IMPACT YOUR LIFE AND PLANET FOR THE BETTER

Let’s start with sustainability focused intentions, and how to set resolutions that will impact your life and the planet for the better: A lot of people are sustainable within their comfort zone. They make small changes to their lifestyle like buying a shampoo bar or going vegetarian, and stop there. This is all well and good, no one has to do everything, but if you’re interested in being more eco friendly in 2024, a good place to start is to think about the ways you’re already trying to be more sustainable and go beyond. 

1. List the ways you actively try to be more sustainable and how long you’ve been doing that for.
2. Think about sustainability related activities people you admire engage in, what’s stopping you from doing the same? List the activities (campaigning, compositing, volunteering, for example) and the barriers stopping you from getting there (lack of free time, no local organisations/actions near you).
   
3. Choose 1-3 new ways you can push yourself to be more sustainable. If it helps, learn more about the cause motivating you to go through with your new intention. Learning about climate change and all its repercussions is a good place to start. It’s Not That Radical by Miakela Loach has lots of useful tips on getting started with climate awareness and action.

Now that you have set your intentions, it’s time to think about how you can help yourself accomplish them throughout the year. There are lots of different things you can do to set yourself up for success.

1. Set intentions with friends or family to hold yourself to account. Completing a goal with someone else working towards it as well always makes it easier to stay motivated and get back on the right track when you start to feel yourself drifting back into old habits.
   
   
2. Start with one intention in January, add another in February and so on. Slowly develop new habits by entrenching old ones. It seems less overwhelming and more doable when you have just one thing to focus on each month. 
   
   
3. Write or record your resolutions where you can see them. Lots of us scribble intentions or new year's resolutions down in notebooks we never open - but it’s important to have them somewhere you can actually see them so you’re motivated to keep going. Add reminders to your phone, write them on a piece of paper and stick it on your fridge- whatever you need to do, keep your new intentions at the forefront of your mind for the whole year. 

New year’s resolutions should feel exciting, like a new project to get started on that will have a promising end result. If you’re dreading them, there’s no hope of you actually achieving them long term. Following these tips should help you set goals that push you to grow without feeling like a chore. Good luck!

+ Images: @ Unsplash

+Words:
Florenne Earle Ledger
Luxiders Magazine