“Keep fresh before me the moments of my high resolve.”

–Rev. Dr. Howard Thurman

What is your intention for 2024? I like to choose a word for the year ahead that sums up my intention. This year my word is “Peace.” The challenge I’ve set for myself is to let inner peace begin over again each day.

It seems laughable, doesn’t it, when the world is in turmoil? But what other sane choice is there? When I claim peace as the deeper reality in my life, no matter what’s happening on the surface, I can more easily share that peace with the world. The New Thought hymn “Let Peace Begin With Me” shines a spotlight on the necessity of starting the peace process within. The spiritual masters of the ages have urged us to approach peace as an inside job.

I gave up making New Year’s resolutions years ago, instead focusing on my overall vision for the year – the qualities I want to manifest more than the things I want to achieve. Nothing wrong with goal setting, mind you, but a vision or intention is more all-encompassing. It inspires my inner being at a deeper level.

Sun rising over Mt. Diablo

Growth and Change

To set my intention, I first have to let go. Sometimes, that is difficult. So, ritual can be helpful because it celebrates and consecrates the process. It takes it out of my imagination and makes it concrete.

I attended a Burning Bowl ceremony at the Oakland Center for Spiritual Living and wrote down all I wanted to let go of from 2023 on one tiny sheet of paper, and then all I wanted to accept for 2024. Participants put their sheets into a huge metal bowl and our minister intoned the magic words, “Poof! Wah-Lah!” (tongue in cheek) and lit the papers on fire.

There was something soul satisfying about watching that small blaze. It was freeing to watch 2023 go up in smoke as I fired up my intention for 2024. The last year was one of immense growth for me, and of tumult and transition. Perhaps like me, you’ve bought into the myth that later life is more tranquil. If we walk right up to our growing edge, that cannot be the case. With growth comes change, the twins of self-realization. With inner peace as an intention, I’m better able to handle the changes, to stay grounded in my cocoon of transformation.

Process versus Outcome

Besides setting intentions, another helpful concept I’ve heard a lot about recently is the distinction between process vs. outcome goals and how the two work together. Many of my writer friends follow Matt Bell, https://substack.com/@mattbell, who has a newsletter called “No Failure, Only Practice.”

He advocates that for every outcome goal you set, for instance, “Publish my book,” you then set a corresponding process goal like, “Write 500 words a day in 2024.” Outcome goals are static, and less likely to be in your control. Whereas the process goal is completely up to you and is ongoing.

Another example comes from the wellness world. The outcome goal, “Lose weight,” can cause us to subconsciously rebel. But the corresponding process goals look more like, “Plan healthy meals as least 5 days a week,” or “Walk 35 minutes a day.”

Step by Step

So, if my intention for 2024 is inner peace, my process goals look like this: “Meditate every day for 15 to 30 minutes,” or “Spend ten minutes a day gazing at Mt. Diablo,” or “Listen to calming music instead of newscasts.” I can think of many more. I take small steps every day moving steadily on my path.

Peace may seem like a grandiose vision, but I believe I can create more inner peace one small step at a time, day by day. I pray, as Howard Thurman says, to keep fresh before me the moments of my high resolve. That’s my entry point for 2024. Let me know your word for this year in the Comments section. What intentions are you setting? For more about intention setting see my post from 2021 here.

Thanks for reading and Happy New Year!

A different version of this article appears in The Rossmoor News