Setting intentions

As someone who thrives on a routine with deadlines and tracked tasks, any practice that keeps me on top of my commitments is one that I will embrace. If you're anything like me, you might have heard of setting intentions and wondered how different it can be to goal-setting. 

If you find yourself in a similar boat to my past self, this blog is for you. Setting intentions is the conscious practice of clarifying the purpose of what you desire; whether that be a need, or want. Setting intentions is quite different to setting goals because it focuses more on the mental and emotional aspects of pursuing something, rather than the outcome. Let’s call this a process-focused practice. On the other hand, goal setting is what we call outcome-focused, a more rigid guide to achieving something that doesn’t take into consideration the external factors that may hinder such achievement.

There are no rules as to when or which area of life you can set intentions. In this blog, we will discuss daily, weekly, monthly and yearly intention setting.

Daily

Our days only have 24 hours in them and we’re better off accepting this truth rather than trying to pack in impossible tasks for a single day. Daily intentions should be small and achievable, but this doesn’t make them any less powerful. A nice exercise is to wake up in the morning and set your intention for the day. Ask yourself, ‘What do I want to prioritise today?’

Weekly

Weekly intentions tend to be broader, taking into account the upcoming events, commitments, tasks and mental loads. Weekly intentions help to guide the week and the daily intentions you make throughout it. Give yourself the beginning of the week to set intentions, and the end of the week to reflect on how well you embraced them!

Monthly

Monthly intentions are for a much larger time frame. Like yearly intentions, they cultivate long-term aspirations. Because you have much more time to focus on these intentions, you might want to set more detailed intentions. For example, instead of setting the intention to express kindness, you might want to specify how you will achieve this. Intentions applied to longer terms can be easy to forget or abandon, and that’s why I find it useful to be as conscious as I can be when setting them.

Yearly

Your yearly intentions are ones which you should never think to jot down as your daily ones. These are the intentions you set knowing how much more time, effort and commitment it takes. It is far more achievable to focus on career growth within a year than within a day or week.

Setting intentions and reflecting on past ones fosters mindfulness and alignment with our core values. It is easy to get caught up in the self-punishment and regret of not achieving something when you have set outcome-focused goals. Set your intentions strategically by having them easily accessible. Either have it written on post-it notes where you can see them or your device’s wallpaper.

With the beginning of October right around the corner, I encourage all of our readers to practice setting intentions.

Kindly,

Ruchi.

Madeleine Stone