ARE YOU SETTING A DAILY INTENT FOR YOUR DAY?

“What’s your intent for the day?”

“To be excellent… To stay focused... To stay out of trouble...”

“Great, now go make yourself proud!”

This is the daily conversation I have with our nine-year old as I send him off to school in the morning.

Why? Because I want him to take control of his day rather than carry out a reactive role throughout it.

So, what does it mean to set your intention for the day?

It means that you decide at the start of your day to be in control of your mindset – the manner in which you will approach and think and/or react – throughout the day. Too often, we let life happen TO US rather than FOR US. What it entails, is that you keep going about each day reacting to the inputs being thrown your way. You are, accordingly, activating your actions towards manifesting what your heart, mind or body desire. You become a force of attraction rather one of reaction or deflection.

Does it have to be complicated? Not at all. Setting an intent merely allows you to shift your focus, and consequently the flow of your energy, towards what you want to achieve and/or happen in your life.

Setting an intention will also activate your reticular activating system (RAS) in your brain which zooms in your focus towards what you want, allowing you to notice and gravitate towards what you intended for the day.

For example, if your intent today is “I intend to stay happy today,” you could find yourself avoiding the energy-sucking co-workers in your office, or “I intend to put my health first today” could gravitate you towards ordering a salad for lunch rather than a burger and fries.

Your intentions are subjective and well, YOURS. So, you would set whatever intention you want to shift your mindset towards what you want more of in your life, such as:

I intend to…

- Remain focused during office hours.

- Disallow anyone from raining on my parade today.

- Block my negative self-talk today.

- Keep smiling no matter what today.

- Keep my promise to myself to take the stairs in the office building.

- Not get agitated by my kids’ mess today.

- Survive the team meeting without losing my temper throughout.

- Not crawl back into bed when faced with adversity.

Your intentions may be multiple per day (not too many though that you lose focus trying to stick to them all) and may shift every day as per your mood, events, or anticipated encounters. They just need to be clear, and infused with positive language to encourage yourself towards keeping them. These statements should not be complaints about your current status, they are to be empowering, positive affirmations.

Giving yourself the window to think about what you want to attract into your life, amend in your habits, thoughts you want to alter, facilitates your intention-setting efforts. You need to be clear (and honest) about who you are, and who you want to become. Beyond that, being conscious and mindful (AKA intentional & focused) of your actions and thoughts would help you set daily intentions to shift you towards ‘becoming’ that who you desire.

So, will you set a daily intention?

And, which areas will you tackle first?

#MindsetFundamentals #Intention #DailyAffirmations