Most of us know a lot about setting goals. There’s something you want to accomplish, you identify it clearly, set objectives, which are like building blocks to move you toward the goal, and then action steps. Having identified and written all that down, you can establish a time line and hold yourself accountable. You may know about SMART goals, which are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.

Goals define what you are going to do. They tend to be linear – you’re either progressing toward them or you’re not.

Intentions describe how you want to do things. Like an umbrella, they cover the goals you have and other aspects of your life as well. For example, let’s say I set an intention of being more present in my life, more in tune with each moment. That might mean that no matter what I’m doing, I’m checking in with myself from time to time to see how present I am. If I’m not in the moment (which is going to be a lot of the time) I just bring my attention back to the moment, gently, without being angry or harsh with myself. Just reminding myself that my intention is to be more present. And in the process of doing that, I become more present.

One of the intentions I’ve set for myself this year has been to bring more creativity to my life. So when I’m having a problem, I might ask myself, ‘how can I approach this with more creativity?” Or, at the end of the day, I might look back and just ask myself in what ways I showed up with creativity. Not to get mad at myself for failing, but just to remind myself of the intention. I might remind myself of it in the morning, that I intend to approach my day with creativity in all I do.

I have found that when I do this, my intention often guides me and I do more of whatever I intended to do. I have more I can say about this, maybe another time. But I want to add this –

Once upon a time, my heartfelt intention was to live my life with love – no matter what I was doing, to do it from a stance of love, in as loving a manner as I could. It didn’t mean I was going to be warm and fuzzy all the time or that I didn’t have boundaries. It meant that when I set and enforced a boundary, I did it in as loving a way as I could. I was in management back then, supervising therapists, and reminding myself that it took love to persistently guide and correct the people I managed. For example, love required that I be honest in feedback. That can be painful and not so pleasant, and yet love calls us to do difficult things.

I fell away from that specific intention quite a while ago. I think maybe that I felt like I had fallen short too many times to be able to claim that as an intention. I don’t know. I didn’t have the tools to recover without beating myself up for not being good enough back then. I’m a bit better at practicing mindful self-compassion these days. And that may be an intention worth re-visiting.

In any case, I also do weekly intentions, sometimes daily ones. Intentions help me live life in alignment with my values.

Do you set goals? Set intentions? Maybe both? Or what do you think of the idea?