The Importance of Setting Intentions

In January, I decided 2014 was going to be a year of change. Being OCD, I had to make a list if I was going to start something new. So I sat down and figured out what areas I wanted to focus on for the year. And this wasn't about setting resolutions I knew I would break within two weeks. I needed to find systems to help me change my habits and approach to balancing work and personal life.

For the month of January, I wanted to focus on my health, so I started off with an annual physical checkup, upon which I adopted a Paleo diet and started my first Whole30. Despite its challenges, I was able to assess my relationship with food and adopt healthier habits, which resulted in a 15lb weight loss and an overall better feeling when I woke up in the morning to the time I fell asleep at night. This wasn't attributed to just diet alone; from January through February, I started attending barre3 classes religiously (5-7x/wk) and participated in barre3 Austin's barre-lympics challenge in honor of the 2014 Winter Olympics and won the silver medal, meaning I was the runner up to attend the most amount of classes in four weeks. If you've taken barre, you know how challenging and rewarding it can be! I absolutely love this workout, love my studio owners and instructors and highly recommend anyone who's interested in channelling his/her inner ballerina and athletic yogi for an hour. 

Then in March, I decided to re-evaluate my career goals and intended trajectory to see if what I was doing fell in line with my personal mission to help empower others. I decided to make the terrifying leap of faith to transition out of education and educate myself in the world of Public Relations. I knew that I wanted to connect with people and started to look into work at nonprofit agencies. I also enrolled in a PR Certificate Program through Rutgers University's School of Communication and Information to brush up on the marketing/advertising industry. I love a theme party and planning events in the past was enjoyable, so I wanted to find something that allowed me to connect with and help others in need and manage events at the same time. I am particularly interested in organizations that empower women's health and wellness, especially since I've struggled to find a reasonable work-life-love balance of my own. Since then, I've been working on creating press releases and crisis communications plans for my coursework in PR, and I love being able to apply the concepts in my classes to real-world situations that I will use as a PR professional. I'm looking forward to volunteering and interning with some local organizations to build up my knowledge base and skills set for the remainder of the year. 

That said, doing the research to find what I wanted to do this year served most beneficial to me, and I kept myself motivated by setting a weekly intention every Friday for the week ahead. Sometimes I would find quotes on Pinterest, or in an article from Flipboard, or sometimes they were original thoughts. I found that setting these weekly intentions helped me to channel my energy into these mini-mission statements to keep me focused. I find the Erada quote particularly relevant in my reflection of these past six months because of the changes I worked to implement in my lifestyle, and while the unknown is terrifying, the results can be absolutely amazing and life-changing. 

I challenge you to set a weekly intention--just try it for a month. (I've listed mine below.) Think about how you want to approach your week ahead and you'll find this focused energy will help you achieve your goals for the week. 

2014 Intentions (numbered by week)

1. Find a moment of joy each day.
2. Say YES to opportunity.
3. Take risks. Don't play it safe. 
4. Anything could happen.
5. (In February I instituted WOW (Word of the Week) 
• WOW: clean
• IOW: Make the most of each moment.
6. WOW: inspired; IOW:  Continue to maintain positivity despite adversity in everyday situations.
7. WOW: mindful; IOW: Do something each day that your future self will thank you for.
8. WOW: determination; IOW: Be proud of yourself! You are doing things everyday that surprise the hell outta me! :) 

I set my weekly intentions along with my implementation of my first Whole30, so that's why the example list has 8 weeks. I have a Maybook planner with weekly and monthly agenda pages, so as I would plan the next week's meals, I would write my WOW and IOW.