05 Dec 3 Vital Steps to Setting Intentions
In the last post we explored what intentions are, and why they play such an important role in both your business and personal life.
In this post, although we focus on your business, they can easily be applied to your personal life. We’ll break it down into the 3 vital steps you need to take to set, visualise and manifest your intentions.
Step 1 – Get clear on your outcomes
Ask yourself what you want to happen in your business. Be as specific as possible when asking yourself key questions. To get what you want, you have to know what you want. Some examples could be;
- Where do you see the business to be in 12 months time?
- How many sales / new clients would you like?
- What turnover would you like?
- What profit / profit margin would you like to achieve?
- What % market share would you like to achieve
Do a mind dump of everything in your head and get it all out on paper. Use the video ‘Setting Intentions’ over on Youtube to help you with this part.
Step 2 – Pick your top 3 intentions
Write them down in a positive, present tense. Instead of saying “I want to increase market share by 20%’ say, ‘it’s only April and already we’ve increased market share by 20%’
Carry on until all 3 intentions are re-written as if they are already achieved.
(Feel free to do more than 3 but keep it achievable).
Step 3 – Visualise
Once you’ve set your intentions and said them out loud a few times then you need to really visualise what the success of the intention looks like. You can also write them out on post it notes and stick them where you will see them on a regular basis. I have them stuck on my dressing table and bathroom mirror, as well as next to the coffee pot – this is basically my morning routine!
Some people find it really easy to visualise but for those who struggle, start small first – just visualise something you’re very familiar with such as your front door. Really build up that picture; what colour is it? What does the handle look like? What is it made of? What does the lock look like? Is it clean? Does it make a noise when opened or close?
Using this as the basis, visualise opening the door and instead of seeing your path or driveway, build a movie in your mind based around the successful outcome of your intention. Go into as much detail as you did when visualising your front door. What can you see, hear, taste, smell? What are your wearing? What do the people around you look? Are they happy?
This step can take some time, but the more realistic you can make it, the clearer the vision and more likelihood of success.
Carry these intentions with you. Clear and personally compelling intentions will lead you to act in a positive way, respond to situations, create supportive opportunities and make choices in harmony with your intention. Essentially you will have a tendency to have the experience that you consciously determine is important to you. Setting clear intentions also helps you to course-correct and be more balanced if difficulties arise.
In the next post we will look at how to align your intentions with your business goals.
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