We create our future in the present moment, so it is extremely important for us to be honest with both our current situation and what we are willing to do to achieve our dreams.

Intentions influence our actions and behaviors. If intentions are established with awareness, truth, and meaning, they help us experience a life filled with passion and personal fulfillment. Lack of understanding around our true intentions often causes frustration and confusion, which is one reason people oftentimes do not achieve their goals. Many goals are written; however, they are not established with honest intent. It’s time to get brutally honest about your true intentions so you can achieve authentic goals.

Honest intentions become even more important as we age; Our well-being depends on our ability to be authentic and true to ourselves.

Intentions have the power to strengthen your Inner Leader and help you move forward in a meaningful way as long as they represent what you truly want to accomplish and experience. Honest intentions, based on personal fulfillment and purpose, can also keep you motivated and focused while measuring progress and celebrating success.

What we truly intend will happen, so I encourage my coaching clients to create SMARTER Intention Statements that support their personal vision.

Create Your Vision to Guide Your Intentions

When working with clients, I encourage them to create the time and space to create what I call a Vivid Visual Vision.   Why?  When done with emotion and intention, a Vivid Visual Vision serves as a guide. It helps transform your mind and beliefs if it has the following elements:

Vivid:  Authentic, clear and powerful emotionally, physically and spiritually. 

Visual:  Imagery that clearly illustrates your wants, needs and desires.

Vision:  Your intentional and holistic dream of the future.  

This process can also help uncover what might be hiding below the surface of who and where you are right now —your personal truth and deepest desires. An honest vision also helps guide the SMARTER Intention process and goal setting. Your intentions and goals help create the present that supports your purposeful future – your vision.

SMARTER Intentions

So, what exactly are SMARTER Intentions? They are statements designed to help you achieve your vision while holding your accountable and having some fun along the way because they are Super Cool, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time Bound, Evolved, and Rewarded. Let’s explore SMARTER Intentions in greater detail:

What we intend will happen. Actions support honest intentions; therefore, all true intent is realized. Intentions become the outcome.

What we intend will happen. Actions support honest intentions; therefore, all true intent is realized. Intentions become the outcome.

Super Cool: Write SMARTER intention statements that clearly outline what you truly need and want to do to make your vision a reality. Make sure you think they are super cool! Personalize your intentions so they tap into your sense of personal fulfillment and passion. What does this mean? You should get totally jazzed about your SMARTER intentions when you read and revisit them. Being true to your passion and purpose will help you stay motivated and focused!

Measurable: Take charge of your progress by building in accountability. Use metrics, numbers and other fun ways to monitor your progress (I like to use stars and smiley faces . Monitoring progress helps you determine what works and what needs change. Great metrics also provide a feedback mechanism that super-charges motivation. Realize your progress so you can celebrate success!

Achievable: Create SMARTER Intention Statements that seem doable to you. Each statement is a step forward. Small consistent steps are the key to accomplishing big dreams!

Relevant: Intention statements should move you forward in a way that holds meaning to you. Make sure your Intentions are specific enough to keep you focused yet cool enough to inspire action. Great intention statements support your vision and build on one another. Relevance is focus combined with synergy.

Time bound: Each Intention should be completed in an established time frame. When will you accomplish your Intention? Set a date and establish a time line. Use time as an effective tool to build in accountability and to monitor progress.

Evolved: Your SMARTER Intentions must be designed to fulfill your life vision. Revisit them often (daily, weekly and monthly) to make sure they are still working for you. How do you feel when you reach a goal? If it feels right, you are on target. If something feels off, it may be time to make adjustments. These are your intentions, so be true to yourself and make them work for you! Performance based on passion equals success!

Rewarded: This is the best part of a SMARTER Intention! Celebrations help us realize our progress while building momentum and motivation. How will you celebrate achieving your Intention? Be creative and have fun with this one. Recognize your accomplishments and share your wins with others. Go wild with confidence and celebrate each success!

It’s Time for a Little Practice!

Find a quiet spot where you can still your mind and center your thoughts. If this is new to you, a quick and effective way to center yourself is: 1) close your eyes in a quite place, 2) take 3-4 full, deep breaths (a great way to take full deep breaths is by taking air in through the nose and releasing it out through the mouth making a constant “S” sound) and 3) slowly opening your eyes. Invest some focused time in honestly creating SMARTER Intention Statements that serve as a map on your journey to achieving your personal vision. Your SMARTER Intentions should be Super Cool, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time Bound, Evolved, and Rewarded.

Coaching Tip: Get Creative & Have Fun!

Pictures truly have the power to speak a thousand words. Use images, pictures, stickers, colors and whatever other images or visuals that move you. Using both words and images stimulates your whole brain and is an extremely powerful way to establish SMARTER Intention Statements. Your smarter Intentions may end up being a collage of images with a few words. Be creative and have fun!

The table below is a coaching tool designed to get you started. Remember, what we truly intend will happen. Have some fun with this exercise. Also, make sure you are true to yourself and find fulfillment and meaning in each statement. Write as many SMARTER Intentions as you need. The table below is only a guide with an example of one of my SMARTER Intention Statements for 2021.

	SMARTER Intention Statement	Due Date	Reward
1	I will create 52 posts based on the most common and profound client questions and challenges in 2021	December 31, 2021	Social media themed party with my family!
2
3
4
5

Final Coaching Tips on Setting SMARTER Intentions

Remember, this life is your journey. If you need to make changes to your SMARTER Intention Statements, do it. If something doesn’t feel right, fix it. Intentions should be set for you as an individual and based on personal fulfillment, not simply on what you think you should do based on the thoughts and influences of others or society. Your intentions serve as motivation and the source of actions and behaviors. Be brutally honest with yourself when setting SMARTER Intentions. Truly meaningful intentions are powerful and have the potential to grow your Inner Leader and your life.

What you truly intend will happen; therefore, your SMARTER Intentions must be based on your personal truth. Intentions become goals; therefore, honest intentions inspire authentic goals. The more genuine you are about experiencing your SMARTER Intentions, the more likely you are to stick to them. Setting and pursuing false intentions can lead to a lack of interest and motivation, which typically ends in goal abandonment and ultimately in feelings of failure and self-doubt. Feelings of failure and self-doubt can seriously erode confidence and our sense of self-empowerment and success.

My Final Coaching Tips: Set holistic SMARTER Intentions that recognize the importance of the mind-body-spirit connection for different areas of your life, including the areas of self-care, family and relationships, spiritual growth, finances and personal development. Different areas of life ebb and flow together like an ecosystem. Each area of life needs attention. Life should be cultivated and cared for like a plant or flower if it is truly to be enjoyed.

Keep your SMARTER Intentions in front of you; refer to them many times per day until they become part of your subconscious mind. Take inspired actions daily, change course when needed and enjoy the journey!