Set Your Intentions

Remember Christmas Eve night as a kid when you couldn’t wait for the morning to come?  You were either too excited to even try to sleep or you would go to bed super early thinking that the sooner you go to sleep, the sooner the morning will be there.  You had a plan where you were going to open presents and have the most amazing day ever.  That was your intention.  And it came true!  Christmas morning would come, you tore open all of our presents, and you spent the rest of the day playing with your new toys.  It was amazing!  Why can’t every day feel like that?  News flash – it can.  Well, closer than you may think, anyway.

Now that you’re an adult, you probably dread Mondays as much as I do.  Monday mornings are the worst for me because I know they’re the busiest day of the week and I would MUCH rather be sitting on my back porch reading or out hiking than sitting in my office behind my desk.  I expect Mondays to be bad.  And because I set that expectation – that intention - Mondays usually are bad.  Had I set the goal Sunday night that tomorrow is going to be great because I’m going to do 5 of my most important tasks and feel really productive, Monday would have been a lot better.  And I know it would have been a lot better because I’ve tried this experiment before.  Rather than focusing on the things that make Mondays crappy, I focused on completing my tasks so I felt more productive and happier.  And it worked!  I was actually excited to take on my challenge for the day and woke up with more energy than I ever have on a Monday and ended it with a better attitude than normal.

Every moment is an opportunity to choose how you show up and make your day what you want it to be.  Setting your intentions before you fall asleep keeps that objective fresh in your mind so first thing in the morning you can start your day ready to work towards your goal.  I learned that trick from The Miracle Morning for Entrepreneurs, which is an awesome book that I highly recommend.  Even if you forget to set your plan for the next day at night, do it first thing in the morning.  It’s still powerful.  Make sure to add in some intentions around R&R.  In fact, I’m setting my intention for lots of relaxation and tons of fun now for my honeymoon starting this Thursday.  I’ll be out of pocket until the very end of the year and will be back with blog articles come the first Monday of January.  Have a relaxing Holiday!