You’ve set some goals, made plans to achieve them and then taken action…you are out of the starting gate.  Supercharging this effort by having a strong intention of achieving your goals is what separates a lot of wishful thinking from results.

Being intentional in your actions breaks through stuck states and apathy, allows you to delay gratification and can even make your heart operate better!

This is the way it can work in goal setting.  Let’s say you plan to practice for three hours and then go to the gym for 90 minutes.  Before you begin, imagine yourself having completed the practice and playing, being proud of your efforts and noticing the benefits of the day’s training in advance.  Start the day by saying to yourself “I am going to practice for 3 hours and then go to the gym”.  This plants the seed of intention.  It is more powerful than saying to yourself “I should go and practice and then go to the gym”.

The same principle applies to longer term goals you set for yourself.  Imagine yourself at the end of a three, six or twelve month period having achieved all your objectives and notice how you feel about this; you will find yourself motivated to get to work bringing those goals to life.

We live in a world which craves instant gratification.  Video games provide us with outcomes very quickly, as does gambling.  This is part of their addictive nature.  Rarely does improving your golf game bring instant gratification.  When you hit a good shot, you do get instant feedback that you feel good about.  However lowering your scoring average takes longer, especially for good players.  This is the law of diminishing returns at work; the  better you are, the harder it is to improve further.  Holding the intention of improving and then deliberately working toward it can ward off the desire to slacken off your effort.

So how does it help our hearts?  When our hearts beat, there is a time gap between beats.  When this gap is inconsistent, our brains register that as stress and respond by releasing adrenalin and cortisol into our systems.  Our hearts are said to be incoherent when this occurs.  Bringing them into coherence can be done with regulating our breathing and also intentionally focussing our thoughts on things such as appreciation, care and compassion.

Try setting a strong intention for something that you may have been putting off – perhaps because you won’t enjoy it – and notice the power it provides for you to see it through.  Enjoy the satisfaction and then imagine if you lived your whole life more intentionally.