Importance of Intentions
As the new year and a new decade is born, we hear about goal setting and how the coming year is going to be perfect and different during conversations, at work and even in social media. As someone who had done precisely that in the past, I now rather have INTENTIONS with CLARITY aligned with my purpose and aim at persistently making PROGRESS than think of perfecting it.
Hence, I will be sharing my insights through a series of posts, articles, videos on intention setting and the tools and strategies I have used in the past which have helped me along with some new tools I have learnt and incorporated.
So why is it important to set an intention? The quote by Mark Twain says it best, “Plan for the future because that is where you are going to spend the rest of your life”. As the saying goes “failing to plan is planning to fail”. Everyone needs goals to live a meaningful life. Living without an intention (goal) is like running in circles; we get to the finish line only to realise we have reached the intention which doesn’t serve us well or doesn’t align with us, only to start all over again. Setting clear intentions with purpose presents you the opportunity to design your future, dreams and direct your destiny the way you want it. Sometimes, the destination is better than we could ever imagine. It enables you to expand, grow and be the best we can be.
So firstly, the most important thing about setting intentions is having one. Statistics suggest that only around 3-4 percent of the general population set regular written intentions (goals). Most of the time, the majority of us seem to be wanting to achieve things but get distracted easily. We forget dreams don’t automatically come true.
Create an intention where you aim to achieve an envisioned idea or result you desire individually or collectively make it a responsibility to accomplish with the knowledge it is a process, and the result is not a destination.
But if we don’t apply it with clarity, synthesise it with purpose and approach it systematically it will remain only an idea or a dream. There is something magical about writing it down, having accountability partners and devising an action plan to make the intention a reality. It is equally important to consider our past experiences, reflect upon them and learn from them.
So why is that only 8% of people achieve their goals according to studies by the University of Scranton (2014)? People set intentions (goals) many times, but they never come to reality. One of the reasons is that their goals are not electrifying or fascinating enough to keep them going.
So, is there a way we could eliminate this or reduce this happening?
Let us consider the factors to address before intention setting:
- Is your intention aligned with yourself, or are you trying to accomplish others’ purposes? If your intention is not aligned with your inner value/s, it will become challenging to show up consistently in particular when you hit roadblocks.
- Is your intention too radical? If you set intentions too far-fetched, you could get overwhelmed and derail quickly.
- Are you trying to set too many intentions and getting confused? When it comes to Intentions, multitasking is not the way to achieving them.
- Are you being overambitious? If you underestimate the commitment in terms of time and resources you might give up early when it becomes too demanding to sustain. As the saying goes, most people overestimate what they can get done in a day and under-estimate what they can get done in a year!
- Are you monitoring your progress? It has been established a lack of tracking the process, and regular review will be detrimental to achieving the set intention.
Originally published in LinkedIn on January 15, 2020
