How I Harness the Power of Intention
How I understand it, how it fits into my frame, and a short guide to write your own intention statement
Try my FREE step-by-step guide, How To Live Your Authentic Life, for an in-depth and simple process to clarify an intention or values.
It only takes about an hour to do, and you can repeat the process again to go deeper.
It is the result of 2+ years of work with clients and 8 years of intense personal development work, and it is totally FREE. My goal with this is to deliver as much value as I possibly can for free.
Intention is a somewhat confusing thing to work with at times. It’s not always clear exactly what we mean by “intention” or why it is useful in our everyday lives. A lot of the time, we can feel connected to a sense of intention, but we don’t always have the words to articulate it. Is that enough?
Short answer: Maybe. And, articulating it will only make it stronger.
Intention can be approached from both a spiritual and practical place. They both end in the same place, typically.
It is wise and effective to clarify an intention by articulating it and working with it over time. Often, we see people “intention hop”. Their intention shifts daily or even weekly.
Let’s think about this first from a spiritual place, then practical.
Sankalpa
In Yogic philosophy, one way that we discern between the masculine and feminine is through the lens of Shiva and Shakti.
Shiva is the masculine principle; stillness, emptiness, total presence, and witnessing.
Shakti is the feminine principle and is the force of creative energy. It is a state of constant change. Yoga also discerns between different types of Shakti.
One type of Shakti is Sankalpa Shakti. This is the pure energy of intention that we can tap into and cultivate within us.
By clarifying and working with a well-articulated and heart-connected intention statement, we can use the power of our minds to bring more coherence to this type of Shakti.
The impact of this is that we start to steer clear of things that detract from our intention. By clarifying and programming our unconscious mind, we tend to align our actions with our intentions more effortlessly.
Things that don’t align become less appealing.
What makes for a clear and actionable Intention Statement?
When considering an Intention, it’s best to think about your goals. What do you want? How do you want your life to look? Imagine your dream life in a year. Goals that stretch your capacity but do not represent quantum leaps.
Maybe you want to get a new certification, clear more space for family time, or have money saved up for a big trip.
From there, work backward. What will this require from you? Assume you will get minimal help from the world around you.
Intentions are Seasonally Relevant Meta-Strategies
We want an intention statement to be relevant for 6-18 months, so consider goals that fit that time frame.
And think about, “What can you do to increase the likelihood that you actualize your goal?” What will I need to value to do this?
I’ll use one that has been helpful for me in the past.
In 2019, I recognized that I wanted to build a business around facilitating healing and growth. I had been studying Sound Healing, Yoga, Astrology, and Meditation already at that point, but I didn’t have any “certificates” to show for it.
I recognized that I had an educational deficit, so I created a general goal: Expand my Education.
The most natural place to go from there was my 200 Yoga Teacher Training. But, I didn’t have much money to pay for it and it was a pretty serious time commitment. I was working fairly unpredictable hours at times.
To expand my education (Goal), I needed to leverage the power of two forces: Commitment and Structure (Strategy).
So, I crafted an intention statement:
Commitment and structure create space for expansion.
Simple, but to the point.
This meant that I had to say no to a lot of things. It meant that I had to make tough decisions early on because I identified this as a high-priority goal.
I had to work more so that I could earn more money to pay for the training and I had to create enough space in my schedule for a fairly rigorous educational endeavor.
This was a strategy for a particular time in my life.
Clarity of Intention
The impact of this? I made the changes necessary to achieve my goal. Within weeks of this, I had signed up for Teacher Training and had a new role in my work that allowed me more structure and higher pay.
Having a clear intention based upon guiding principles allowed me to meet any decision-making crossroads with clarity. I knew what the most powerful levers were. I wasn’t guessing. I knew.
I used this intention statement in several ways:
I repeated it 3x before going to bed and upon waking up
I repeated it before and after meditation, sometimes during
When my thoughts strayed into unproductive territory, I disrupted it by mentally repeating my intention statement
I wrote it on my whiteboard
I used it to fill the space in my journal to finish the page.
Writing Your Intention Statement
An easy frame to apply is Rob Stryker’s The Four Desires. He identifies four main motivators:
Purpose (Dharma)
Pleasure (Kama)
Freedom (Moksha)
Material Means (Artha)
You can look at these and decide to work with one. Just one. Then reflect upon where you would like to be in the next year. Then ask yourself,
“Which of these would help me most in achieving my goals?” Again, pick one.
Draw the word on a piece of paper, then draw a circle around it. Then draw lines off of it.
Make associations. What do you associate with Purpose? What is an input that leads to more purpose? What is the impact of purpose in your life? What activities feel like purpose?
Just make the associations. Don’t think too hard, and don’t spend more than a few minutes doing it. Trust yourself.
Then, group them together. Maybe some of them are related, connected in obvious or subtle ways - ie. exercise and yoga are both forms of movement.
I did my first intention statement ever this way, and it was all about nourishment and connecting to myself. I identified self-care, yoga, and time in nature as my main priorities each day, outside of “work”. Those inputs resulted in clarity, allowing me to feel free and confident.
(This was useful to me because I had a strategy for navigating uncertainty: If I was unsure what to do, lean on self-care.)
Group the associations into inputs and outputs. A really simple and useful intention statement template is something like, “blank leads to blank”
Something like: “Daily journaling and being organized allows me to be more present so that I can be a more effective friend, coach, and husband”
This identifies tasks (journaling and staying organized) that develop a skill or trait (presence) and a desired outcome (more effective friend, coach, and husband).
Thinking Strategically
You can identify the skills that you wish to develop, and a strategy for developing them.
I made a very simple intention for 2023. I wanted to get better at group facilitation after doing a training last year. I identified that as the most useful skill for me to develop in 2023.
I created a goal to facilitate 100 groups in 2023. A very lofty goal (Progress update, I’m on track to do about 60).
What did I need to do? Be present. Connect. Facilitate.
If I found myself in a situation where I wasn’t totally fulfilled, I came back to this intention statement. Can I be more present? Can I connect more deeply to the moment and the people around me? Can I use this as an opportunity to become a better facilitator?
Try my FREE step-by-step guide, How To Live Your Authentic Life, for an in-depth and simple process to clarify an intention or values.
It only takes about an hour to do, and you can repeat the process again to go deeper.
It is the result of 2+ years of work with clients and 8 years of intense personal development work, and it is totally FREE. My honest goal with this is to deliver as much value as I possibly can for free.