The start of a new year always carries a particular kind of electricity. It’s the feeling of a clean state. The excitement that comes when a new possibility is present. At the end of every year or the beginning of a new one, we sit down with our notebooks, draft our vision boards, or fill our note-taking apps, and begin to ask ourselves the familiar questions:
What do I want?
What do I need to change?
What’s next for me?
These are important questions and the beginning of a new year—or new chapter, or job, or relationship, for that matter—is absolutely the time for this kind of inventory.
However, before the ink dries on that list of intentions, there is one final question to ask of each one: Is this intention coming from a place of lack or from a desire to share?
Any intention is as unique as the person setting it, which means no intention is neutral. For example, two people can desire the same thing—a relationship, financial stability, creative success—but be operating from two totally different states of consciousness. One may be trying to fix a wound, find validation, or achieve a certain level of status. The other might be seeking transformation, an evolution of their purpose, or an expansion of abundance, allowing them to increase their ability to give.
Big difference, right?
An easy way to root out the presence of lack in our intentions is to look for anything that sounds urgent, heavy, or self-critical:
I need to do this before I turn [insert age].
If I can just achieve this, I’ll finally be enough.
When I meet my soulmate, my life will finally begin.
If I get there, I’ll finally be happy.
When intentions are rooted in purpose, however, they feel spacious and alive:
I’m being called to this because it allows me to express more of who I am.
This helps me share my gifts more fully.
I want to share my joy and love with a partner.
I’m comfortable now, but I know that I can grow even more.
In essence, before we seal our intentions, it would behoove us to examine why we want them.
Here are three practical tools to help you examine whether your goals are coming from a place of fixing—or from a place of purpose.
Ask: “Am I trying to solve something?”
Many goals are born from discomfort. And discomfort, while not inherently negative, becomes problematic when we believe achieving something external will erase an internal feeling.
Notice if your intention is secretly trying to “solve” an emotional state like loneliness or insecurity.
There’s nothing wrong with wanting relief—but transformation doesn’t come from chasing a future version of yourself who just feels okay all the time.
Ask: “If this goal didn’t change how others see me, would I still want it?”
This question is a powerful mirror.
Many intentions are shaped, very innocently and unconsciously, by comparison. It’s a desire for approval and acceptance, and while many of us will fall into a comparison trap now and then, it isn’t a place to take action from—but it can give us valuable information about what we do want.
Pause and gently ask yourself:
If no one applauded this, if no one validated it, if no one even noticed… would my soul still feel drawn to it?
Intentions rooted in lack are usually about seeking validation. You may not even need to change your goals or desires, but you may need to assign a deeper meaning or a purpose to your motivation for them.
Ask: “How does this intention increase my capacity to share?”
Kabbalah teaches that fulfillment isn’t about accumulation—it’s about building our capacity to share. The question is never just what will I receive? But what will move through me to benefit others?
Soul-level intentions expand your ability to create, give, support others, inspire, teach, or love.
Even goals that appear personal—rest, healing, financial stability, a romantic partnership—can be rooted in purpose when they increase your capacity to be present and generous with others.
A new year isn’t about becoming someone “new and improved”; it’s about saying yes to your soul’s process of becoming who you’re meant to be. When our goals and intentions are built on wanting to share more and are co-created with the universe, unexpected support arrives, doors open, and we experience the Light working alongside us.
If we can enter a new year with intentions that inspire us and with a consciousness that welcomes (and even seeks out!) change and discomfort, I can all but guarantee that by December 31st, 2026, you will have experienced a year so transformational that you don’t even recognize your life—in the best possible way.
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