Episode 383 | Author: Emilie Aries

Today I want to talk about the word “intention”, because setting intentions looks different than setting goals.

Before I go any further, I want to acknowledge that this blog post pairs nicely with episode 380 - which is all about reflecting on your year with the power of story. We can’t mindfully turn our attention to the new year without first reflecting on and being conscious of the stories that we're carrying with us about how the last year went.

The Difference Between Goals v. Intentions

Now let me clarify the difference between setting goals and setting intentions.

First, goals are outcome-oriented achievements. These are benchmarks on the road to success. They're typically focused on the future and describe where you want to be.

Intentions, however, are different. Intentions are not outcome-oriented, they're process-oriented.

For example, how do you want to feel throughout that yoga teacher training program? How do you want to experience getting a promotion at work? How do you want to go about building stronger relationships? These are more feeling-oriented. These are intentions about how you want to experience the road to your achievements - they're focused more on the present moment.

While goals are helpful when it comes to steering you forward towards specific benchmarks, they can feel like hollow achievements if you're not paying attention to how you're actually getting there.

I don't want anyone to suffer their way to success, which is why I constantly find myself saying, “We want to thrive while we strive.”

Goals are what you strive towards - and intentions are more about the journey than the destination.

Now, keep in mind you can either set goals first and then think about your intentions of how you want to achieve them, or you can do things the other way around. You can say, “Okay, I want to aim for freedom this year,” then ask yourself what goals would look like if your overarching theme is freedom.

How We Set Intentions as a Team

Here at Bossed Up, we are goal people. We find it easy as a team to come up with many to-do lists. We love the feeling of checking off a checkbox on our LifeTracker Planners.

We spent most of last quarter walking through a step-by-step strategic planning process for our 2023 year. We've had the luxury of finally having the time! After completely reinventing our business in 2020, to actually start strategic planning and goal setting in Q4 for the next year, we were able to create a solid plan for this year.

So we started out by first setting goals and then identified an overarching intention based on those goals. Our intention for 2023 is to keep it simple. We brainstormed how we can streamline and simplify what we’re doing and how it shows up in our roles throughout the year to feel calm, peace, and ease.

You don't know how 2023 is gonna go, none of us do. But even if the goals, the outcomes, the achievements change, we can control our inner experience.

Give It a Try

That’s the power behind setting intentions for yourself and for your team. Now, I want to challenge you to give it a try! Here's what it looks like:

Set aside time

This takes dedicated, focused, uninterrupted reflection time. I know how hard it is to come by, but you cannot do this right without first creating time and space, even if it's just locking yourself in the bathroom for 10 minutes!

2. Invite your community of courage

Take it one step further and do this in community with others. Do this with the boo, with the bestie, or whoever is in your community of courage.

This goes right back to mirror theory, which I talk about in the Bossed Up book, which is the idea that we surround ourselves with people who reflect back a version of ourselves. So, make sure you're mindful about who's reflections you like and make sure you’re choosing to be around people who make you feel like the best version of yourself. Invite those people to your intention-setting party.

3. Write it all down

As you start to talk this out, I also want to encourage you to write it down.

I'm a big believer in the power of putting pen to paper. In fact, episode 171 talks all about how a paper planner can really help achieve your goals. There's something very real about the lasting effects of not just brainstorming, but writing that brainstorm down.

Whether you use our limited edition 2023 LifeTracker Planners, or if you're just using a notebook, I'm a big believer in brainstorming freely, writing it all down, and then seeing what themes emerge.

4. Make it a habit

Finally, this last step is key: make it a habit.

Schedule check-ins with yourself and with the people you set your intentions with at least once a quarter. If you're a LifeTracker Planner, you're in luck because we have quarterly reflection exercises built into the planner for 2023.

I know it’s hard to wrap your head around a new year, especially if you haven’t fully processed the previous year - or the year before that - but following these simple, yet important steps in intention-setting can really set you up for a calm, happy and successful year.

Got a career conundrum you want us to cover on the podcast? Call and leave us a voicemail NOW at 910-668-BOSS(2677).

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