One of the most powerful practices you can learn throughout your self development journey is to learn to set intentions. It can really change your life. Intention is the starting point of each of your dreams, it is the power that fulfills your needs. It is a commitment to yourself.
It needs to be clear that it's more than just setting goals. Intentions are about being purposeful in pursuing your desires, they are in the here and now, while goals are static and set in the future.
Think of goals as the manifestation of success, the end result, while intentions as the state of being who you want to embody in order to achieve your goal.
Why is it important to set intentions?
By setting intentions, you are empowered to decide what you want, what you do and how you want to experience life. Intentions let you determine your mood and take control of your actions, they become your accountability system to achieve your goals. If intentions are aligned with your values and beliefs, they become a powerful weapon to experience fulfillment and success in your desires. When setting an intention, you set the basis for what you'd like to have, feel, and experience in your life.
Set your intentions in 5 simple steps
Identify your desires
Start by digging a little deeper to your feelings, to your needs to identify what is lying underneath. It is important to focus on your feelings, rather than on the final outcome. You might desire to travel more throughout the year, in order to achieve this you might want to negotiate the terms of your current job. The feeling underneath this desire can be to be more expressive and open towards your supervisors.
Be clear
Now it is time to clearly set the objective of your desire, what do you wish to achieve by this intention. You should put it in words and shape clearly and actionably your desire. This will help you to be transparent to yourself and focus your attention to the specific things to be done.
Keep it simple
Your intentions better be feasible, simple and actionable. This will help you on the setting action steps. You can achieve this by starting practicing daily intentions. Let’s say that you have a heavy day ahead with some energy-draining activities. Instead of overcomplicating your intentions, try to put it simply by “Today I intend to be more relaxed and observe my day positively.”.
Set specific action steps
Intentions can have ambiguous meanings, there are not one size fits all. Be specific on what and how you want to achieve your intentions. Specificity breeds success!! Set your actions by following the funnel shape. Start by the big and start digging into smaller and smaller actions that you can follow.
Shift your limiting beliefs
Limiting belief is any doubt that you may have is going to be a blocker for achieving what you intend to achieve. Reframe your mindset to ensure your beliefs align with your desire. If you intend to lose some weight, but you believe that losing weight is difficult or that it is not possible to control your diet to eat less sugar, then you are never going to cut off sweets.
Once you’ve set an intention, ask yourself why this intention is important to you. What bigger goal, value, or desire does this relate to? This will help you connect your intention to your greater purpose.
When to set your intentions?
Every day is a great opportunity to set your intentions, though it is considered very powerful to set intentions at the beginning of the month, or at the beginning of the week. The greatest timing is the period of the new moon. Try to go through the process during a calm and centered moment, you can try after a meditation, to be fully present at the moment without distractions.
Remember, intentions are commitments to yourself, treat them as gentle reminders, not as harsh rules and the most important part is to embody your intention! Now ask yourself "What are my needs?” and identify a group of like minded people like a coaching group or a retreat, to embark on that beautiful intention setting journey.