What is your burning desire for change this year?
Tired of failing new year’s resolutions and looking for a proven way to manifest your wishlist of professional and personal desires?
Do you wish to interact with the world in a way that leaves you feeling energized and empowered?
Cultivate a new practice of intention setting throughout this year to effectively create positive change for yourself and others.
Let’s face it. Traditional new year resolutions tied to weight loss, saving money, quitting bad habits, etc. do not work. Do you know that four out of five people will eventually break their resolutions?
It’s amazing but true that 80% of resolutions fail by the second week of February! Not only that, a third of resolutions don’t even make it past the first month. People underestimate how long it takes to give up on the old habit and adopt a new one. Recent studies say that on average it takes approximately 66 days before a new habit becomes automatic.
Instead of a fixated goal, intention setting focuses on how you want to feel, to be, and to experience life every day and over the course of time. Intentions align powerfully with our purpose and what we desire most from a soul level.
You may have heard the expression “Energy flows where intention goes”. Setting a purpose-driven intention will help you approach situations and decisions in the new year with an energy that you can live in every day, regardless of external outcomes. Also, intentions can positively impact multiple areas of your life – finances, relationships, spirituality, love – yielding a higher return on investment.
The start of a new year, project or meeting is always a great time to set an intention. You can set intentions by yourself or with a group of others for whom you wish a new or improved way of working together. Intention setting in a group or community creates the spiritual agenda or how you intend to function, think, and behave together – a powerful move to get people on the same page and to open the space for meaningful exchange. Investing a few moments up front to set an intention will pay dividends for long-term success.
Follow these 3 simple steps to set your intention for a new way of being.
1. Craft a meaningful intention.
- Make it personal – First, connect to your “why”. What gives you passion and fills you with a sense of purpose? Listen to that inner voice for it holds deeper meaning and truth in pursuing what matters to us.
- Make it positive – Intention is much more powerful when framed from a place of abundance and positivity rather than from a place of lack or need. Be mindful of using positive thoughts and language.
- Make it simple – Identify a few words or a mantra that summarizes your intention. Be succinct and consider starting your intention with the words “I/we want,” “I/we intend,” or “May I/we,”.
2. Immerse yourself in your intention.
Once crafted, let your intention be a focal point and a daily reminder. Declare it out loud to others (also proven to be more effective than not saying it out loud). Write mantras that are easily accessible from your phone, in your planner, in your car, in your home, and at your workspace.
3. Let go of expectations for specific results.
Now that a well-crafted intention is planted, detach from expectations for specific outcomes and watch your intention grow. Trust that by living your intention, the results will unfold naturally as they are meant to be. Think of your intention as a trusted guide or a compass that navigates you through life’s uncertainty.
For inspiration sake, I’d like to share a personal example from my experience of setting last year’s intention which resulted in a meaningful shift beyond my imagination. Let me explain.
Through self-inquiry over the years, I’ve learned that I am a person who cares too much about what people think (well used to care!). That mindset usually played out in me appeasing others, not honoring my own desires, not exercising an assertive voice and thereby not being able to say no. Sound familiar?
For 2018, I set the simple intention to “do what Nicole wants”. I wrote these words in prominent places around my San Francisco apartment, recalled the mantra whenever or wherever needed and even dreamt about the concept. With the seed of my intention planted in my mindset, new behaviors and actions began to grow.
I politely declined requests that were outside my interest and bandwidth. I found that assertive voice to confidently express my needs and desires with family, friends and strangers alike. I also made a huge personal decision to geographically relocate myself to be closer to family and go travel for a few months in South America as part of the transition. I look back on 2018 with a big smile on my face because I lived my life exactly how I wanted!
So whether you’re seeking growth in money, relationships, spirituality, or love, intentions will help you to manifest your deepest desires. I wish you well in cultivating an intention setting practice throughout the year.
The start of a new year, project or meeting is a great time to set an intention by yourself or with a group – a power move to get people on the same page and to open the space for meaningful exchange. Download your FREE powerful intention setting guide by clicking here.
