How to Set Mindful Intentions — Make Your Goals Successful and Achievable

We all know that every year people set goals, yet relatively few of them actually make significant changes in their lives. Why is that? I’ll let you in on a secret…when you’re setting goals you’re not fully engaging your power. Learning how to set mindful intentions instead allows you to tune into your innate superpower! And here are the reasons why I say that…

Goal setting is often based on a negative premise…”I’m not skinny enough,” “I’m not rich enough,” or “I’m not organized enough”. Do you see how each of these thoughts tells you that you’re “not enough”? How could something that says you’re a failure result in anything good? It just can’t.

Besides emphasizing what you aren’t or what you don’t have, goal setting has another problem. It focuses on some future time and takes you out of the moment. You want to lose weight so you bolt down a salad every day. You deprive yourself of all the things you like. You rush through the workout just to get it done all because you’re focused on the future time when you’ll fit into your tightest jeans. As a result, you’re not living your true life – you’re not enjoying each moment you live.

Why Set Mindful Intentions

The only way you’ll create a new habit is if you enjoy living it! Otherwise, you’ll just revert back to what you were doing before you started this punishing cycle.

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t set goals. Goal setting helps you understand what you want and it keeps you on track to accomplish it. However, there’s something more powerful you can do to ensure you succeed at making lasting change, and that is setting mindful intentions.

Over time, intentions have been unfairly criticized. Usually, people have good intentions to do one thing like, “When I get home from work, I’m going to call and check on how Liz is doing since her mom died”, and then they get busy, forget and don’t follow through. These good intentions are like unfulfilled goals. What I’m talking about is setting intentions to be in a specific state or frame of mind that serves your purpose in life.

When you’re setting intentions you’re telling yourself and the world…

1) who you want to be,

2) what you wish to contribute, and

3) how you choose to touch the lives of others.

There are no limits if you consciously base your intentions on positive choices. In the process, you’ll find that you become much more productive, especially if you voice your intentions out loud to an accountability partner or coach. It puts the power of change back in your hands.

How to set mindful intentions?

Perhaps your intention is: “I want to feel nurtured today so I have abundant energy to fulfill my purpose in life.”

Therefore, you forgo your usual coffee laden with sugar. You eat a nutritious breakfast and pack energizing snacks for later. You plan on having a delicious salad at your favorite restaurant for lunch, but your co-worker says, “Why don’t you come with me and we’ll go to the local taco stand.”

Your internal dialogue connects to your intention to be nurtured by asking yourself, “Will I feel nurtured if I eat a meal that’s full of carbs and grease? No, it’s going to make me sleepy this afternoon and bloated. I’ll have a terrible time getting through that meeting. If I want to feel nurtured, I’m going to stick with my plan to get a salad.”

So you turn to your friend and say, “Why don’t you come with me to my favorite restaurant. We’ll grab something to go and sit in the park and enjoy this wonderful sunshine?”

Do you see how your intention empowers you to say “no” to what doesn’t serve you and at the same time you make a positive contribution to your co-worker’s health?

What are some of the benefits of setting mindful intentions? Setting and living your intentions allows you to:

• Focus on who you are in the moment.
• Get past your current problems and struggles by focusing elsewhere.
• Recognize and live your values.
• Raise your emotional and physical energy as you build momentum.
• Create a reminder for how you want to live each day.
• Live in harmony with your purpose at all times.
• Receive inspiration and motivation to achieve your purpose.
• See things you may have otherwise missed.
• Be receptive to new ideas and opportunities.
• Make lasting changes in your life.

Goals tend to be structured and one-dimensional. Intentions are as expansive as you want to make them. You have the freedom and the power to become whoever you want to be.

Doesn’t learning this make you feel empowered? Your energy and creativity will blossom as you see good results come from your intentions. This is the cornerstone for true change. As mentioned, it helps to voice your intentions, so feel free to come over to my Facebook page and share your intentions with me. I’d love to hear about them.

What helped me to firmly grasp this concept was when I invested in learning as many NLP skills as I could. Combined with somatic and embodied coaching, I’ve developed a proven way to make your desired outcomes a reality. Feel free to contact me and schedule a complimentary 30-minute consultation to see if we’re a good fit for working together.

Thank you for the photo  Xan Griffin.