If you haven’t made a new year’s resolution yet (or even if you have), you may want to consider setting a daily intention instead.
Yeah, it might not sound like much. But unlike so many resolutions, setting an intention every day is an achievable task. It will make a sizable difference in your life and you’re not likely to get burnt out.
It’s important to understand the difference between setting an intention and setting a goal though.
Setting an Intention Versus a Setting a Goal
Maybe you’ve been told the importance of setting goals. And having goals can be beneficial. They can help you understand what you want, formulate a plan, and stay on track to achieve that goal. A goal is essentially a target. It establishes what it is you want to DO.
The problem is, when you’re always striving for a goal, it takes you out of the present moment and can keep you focusing on the things that you don’t have. It can create a sense of lack and limitation. Furthermore, when you don’t manage to achieve a goal, it can leave you feeling a sense of failure.
Meanwhile, setting a daily intention and then living it enables you to stay in the moment. It allows you to acknowledge your values and boost your emotional (and therefore physical) energy. An intention gives you a roadmap for the way you wish to live each day. It inspires and motivates you to achieve your purpose. Rather than homing in on “doing,” an intention instead clarifies who you want to BE.
So to get a sense of the difference, we’ll look at an example. So perhaps you have set a goal to “do yoga” four times per week. And that’s a valuable goal, to be sure. But if you don’t understand why you want to do that, it’s easy to start blowing off that goal.
Instead, you may set a daily intention to feel more peace, strength, and freedom of movement in your life so you can be a happier and more productive person. By clarifying what’s important and who you want to be, you’re far more likely to actively live that ongoing intention.
How Setting a Daily Intention Can Benefit You
By tapping into a daily intention, you keep coming back to that road map to remind yourself what’s important as you move toward your destination. And this can be tremendously helpful.
Here are just four ways setting a daily intention can help you in your life:
1. Helps You Cope with Self-Criticism
We’ve all formed beliefs about ourselves. Most of these live in the subconscious mind and have a say in our decisions. Unfortunately, some of what we’ve internalized isn’t in our best interest.
Nobody escapes self-criticism. And each of us has a story that brought us our own unique brand of it. But when self-criticism takes center stage, it results in a wealth of unproductive chatter in the head. This noise makes it very difficult to accomplish anything.
Setting and focusing on a positive intention every day can offset the negative repercussions of that unsavory inner critic who has nothing nice (or true) to say.
2. Opens Your Eyes
How much of your day is absorbed in thought? Does this keep you from noticing what’s happening right in front of you? How often are you totally present?
There are so many little wonders just awaiting your attention. And paying them notice can instantly shift your perspective. So perhaps you set an intention to keep your attention on the small details of life. This doesn’t mean that you’ll be constantly in a state of wonder. It simply means you’ll have a heightened awareness of the wondrous things that may often fall off your radar.
There are so many benefits to being present. By regularly tuning in, you may see a cloud, a flower bud, or a shade of blue that boosts your enthusiasm and energy for everything else in your life.
3. Leads to Better Decisions
When you commit to the small act of reviewing and voicing your daily intentions, you’re essentially priming your mind. This, in turn, aids your subconscious to point you toward the decisions and actions that are in alignment with the future you’re envisioning for yourself.
For example, if you’re setting an intention to love your body rather than a goal to build great biceps, you’re more likely to go to the gym on those days when you’d rather eat Cheetos and binge watch Netflix.
4. Decreases Your Feeling of Powerlessness
Two years into this pandemic (at the time of publication of this post), it’s clear there are some serious issues that go beyond our local scope. Yet, we can feel powerless to enact change on a national or global level.
But remember that even a small change can result in large differences down the road. Simply voicing an intention to remain open and receptive to opportunities that could contribute to such change can be empowering.
And it all starts with setting a daily intention.
Looking for More Intention In Your Life?
Once you get into the habit of setting a daily intention, you’ll be amazed at the huge difference this small act can make in your life.
If you’d like some help getting started, please contact us today. We can discuss bringing our mobile yoga and life coaching services to you and your company or organization so you can connect with your deeper purpose in life.
We also offer virtual services.
