How to Set Intentions to Achieve your Goals
Let’s chat about New Year’s resolutions and why so many people fail. Just kidding, let’s talk about how to create lasting lifestyle changes.
Start with something you love doing that you want to do more, set an achievable intention, you will have to pay attention but it’s possible for you to achieve it!
Create a plan for when you get off track so you can get back on track as soon as possible.
Okay? It’s that easy!
Alright, so it’s simple, but not easy.
So let’s look at two different examples of intentions I’ve set for myself this month.
First Intention I totally nailed it and I am exceeding my goal, the other totally failing.
Let’s talk about how to set intentions so you can totally nail it too!
Alright, so the one that I am shining on is I set an intention to walk 1000 miles this year, which means I need to walk an average of 2.7 miles per day.
I love walking.
I love getting out in nature.
So it meets that first step.
And it’s also an achievable goal.
There are some days that I’ve walked less than a mile and a half, and there are days that I have walked significantly more than 2.7 miles per day.
The thing is, I am so excited because I have gotten out and walked every day. So it’s something I want to be doing more of.
I’m not concerned about getting off track with this because it’s something I love doing and I feel great and walking daily gets me out in nature.
The intention that I’m completely failing at, drum roll please: I set an intention to make 50 videos this year.
So it’s Week #5 of 2020 and guess what I have made zero videos.
This is the first one. And it’s not done yet. But it’s still possible for me to get back on track.
What most often happens when people get off track with their goals or intentions is they go into a failure spiral and the inner critic comes and kicks their butt.
*DO NOT* ask why:
- Why isn’t this working?
- Why aren’t I keeping my word?
- Why am I failing again?
- Why do I never do the things I say I will?
Asking ‘Why’ in general in this circumstance is not a helpful question to ask.
The transformational questions to ask to get back on track are How & What:
- How can I reset and take one small step asap?
- What is slowing me down or stopping me?
- How quickly can I clear the path and get back on track?
- What can I do to meet and exceed my goals?
For my video intention it’s still possible for me to get on track with my videos… and it’s never helpful to beat myself up for getting off track!
I can make 50 video In 2020, it is still possible!
I don’t need to reevaluate my intention… I just have to give myself a talking to, “okay girlfriend, let’s get to making your videos!”
I do have to create and implement a plan.
I didn’t have a clear structure for the flow and system of creating videos.
I didn’t set myself up to achieve my goals…
Basically I set myself up to fail.
I’m not being hard on myself about it. I’m just here making a video. I am not upset, I am simply going to JFDI!
The key when people are in a habit of feeling like a failure is that then they stop trusting themselves, right?
Th inner dialogue goes: “Oh, I’m such a failure. I always set these intentions and I never do it.”
That’s the inner critic.
That’s the failure spiral.
Don’t Believe the HYPE!
And don’t feed the beast!
So the key thing is to recognize the inner critic and failure spiral in order to focus on doing what you need to do to get back on track.
ASK:
How do I get myself to take action?
What can I do to create success?
DO NOT ASK: Why
For my video intention, I do like making videos, but I didn’t have a clear plan for how I was going to do it.
So now, here I am making a video and taking about my failure and how to get it right, very meta, right?
So I hope this is helpful in supporting you to set intentions to exceed your goals.
Please comment, Share, Like this video and stay tuned for more soon!
