The Importance of Intention Setting

Life goals are all the things you want to accomplish in your life, whether they be short, medium or long term.   Personal or professional.  Large or small.  Goals are future focused.  A powerful tool in committing to, and achieving, our goals involves setting intentions. 

Intentions are in the present moment and provide us with a road map of all the steps along the way.  When you set an intention it provides accountability and supports us in being able to take control of our personal choices and life.  It enables us to be proactive in our lives by setting out choices & timelines in connection with achieving our goals.  I’ve set my intention to write this article in 2 hours.

So as you define your goals, intention setting becomes the first step to achieving them and is a powerful tool for positively moving forward.  Regularly stating &/or redefining your intention also helps to keep us on track, and can even help us to quickly recognise when the path to the goal needs to change, or indeed if the actual goal needs to change.  It can become clear very quickly when our intentions are no longer in alignment with the desired target.  

Intentions need to be specific and actionable – as I mentioned previously, I set my intention to write this article in 2 hours, and that intention has enabled me to remain focused and on target even though there are distractions around me such as emails arriving and texts which I could read, however, that would eat into the 2 hours and also cloud my focus.

Clear intentions make us more likely to achieve our goals.
Goals can feel very future oriented and far away – but when we set a defined path to achieving them and furnish it with daily intentions that are in alignment with what we want to achieve, then we can have a sense of mastery, achievement & satisfaction as we progress towards our goal.

Focusing on our intention keeps us grounded in the present moment and that invites us to be more mindful.
We can fulfil our intentions constantly and thus adopt a sense of gratitude & accomplishment and the accompanying feelgood emotions of what we have achieved, rather than what haven’t got yet.  

Positive intentions lead to a positive attitude.
Our subconscious mind always believes what we tell it, so if we infuse our intentions & our days with positive, encouraging emotions, chances are that we’ll begin to experience them in our lives and our body & mind will profoundly benefit from this.

Perhaps you have a huge workload and are finding your workday to be increasingly overwhelming?  Rather than focusing on a goal of completion, set your intention to work mindfully & patiently and allow this to transform your attitude about what needs to be done.  In this way you can feel a sense of progress & accomplishment regardless about how much you get done.  Also, this shift in attitude will likely inspire motivation and unlock creative solutions.

In summary – whether we’re conscious of it or not, everything we do, starts with an intention and by bringing our awareness to consciously setting intentions, we are enabling ourselves to reach our goals more mindfully & joyfully!