Each December, many of us begin making our New Year’s resolutions – lists of juicy and not-so-juicy goals we’d like to achieve over the year. We promise ourselves things like “lose 10 pounds,” “create a loving relationship,” “take a trip to Costa Rica,” or “eat less sweets.” Often we accomplish these resolutions, yet many times they remain nice thoughts that were quickly forgotten by the end of the first week of the year.

Does this sound familiar?

How many New Year’s resolutions have you made and broken – or worse yet – made and forgotten?

For the last few years I’ve found a fun, intuitive way to help create meaningful resolutions and stick to them. I do this by first creating a personal theme for my year and then by allowing resolutions to naturally flow from that theme or way of living and experiencing the world. This article focuses on creating your personal theme for the new year.

By creating a theme for the year, you will be able to feel more fulfilled and stay aligned with your deepest desires. Once you uncover your theme, you commit to approaching each day and each thing you do with that theme in mind. Examples of personal themes include love, acceptance, gratitude, self-respect, fun, connection, peace, laughter, health, creativity, and much more.

My first yearly theme, four years ago, was “abundance.” I had recognized a deep need in my life that stemmed from always feeling a lack of something: a lack of money; a lack of connection to myself; a lack of coaching clients; a lack of personal downtime; and a lack of feeling healthful.

While I could have simply made each of those things a separate resolution in my life, I was able to recognize that I needed to do some deep work around feeling like I was leading an abundant life – feeling that I had more than enough of what I needed and wanted instead of feeling like I was lacking in so many ways. I realized if I could approach my life with the theme – or attitude – of abundance, I’d be able to create more money, more connection, more business, more time and more health.

That first year, I approached each day and each task with an attitude of abundance. I thought abundant thoughts; I created activities for myself that helped me feel abundant; and I paid particular attention during the moments when I felt I didn’t have enough of something. Through that simple adjustment, I created more abundance in my life, achieved my resolutions, and learned some life-changing lessons along the way.

Creating a theme for your year will help you recognize what you want your year to be and feel like, and then your goals and resolutions will come naturally from that place. At the end of the year, not only will you have been able to accomplish your goals, but you will have incorporated and mastered the feeling of your theme in your life.

Here’s how you create your personal theme for the new year:

1) Make a list of what was missing from your life last year: Anything from “romantic partnership” to “enough sleep” to “financial freedom” to “exciting hobbies.”

2) Make a list of all of the things you’d like to accomplish this year: These can be big and small things, resolutions as well as baby action steps.

3) Describe how you would like to feel and be as you accomplish those goals: Take a look at everything you’d like to accomplish this year then ask yourself what you need to activate within yourself in order to accomplish those things. Perhaps you need patience, or courage, or a sense of humor, or positive thinking. Next, ask yourself how you want to feel as you accomplish these goals. Do you want to feel calm? Balanced? In love? Committed?

4) Determine your theme: Narrow down your list from #3 to the one feeling, idea or state of being that resonates with you the most for the upcoming year. This is your theme.

5) Try out your theme: Whatever theme you come up with, close your eyes and imagine yourself moving through this next year with that quality completely amped up and activated. Can you see yourself? How does it feel? If it feels good, you have your theme for the new year!

I would LOVE to hear from you – what is your personal theme for this year and why did you pick it?

Stay tuned for the next post on the Soulful Coaching for Busy Women blog where we’ll take your yearly theme to the next level and create heart-centered, juicy and exciting resolutions that will get you motivated for the new year.