Momentum:
This takes discernment, as momentum needs to be differentiated from procrastination and avoidance (reaching for the phone to scroll for a bit isn’t the same as following momentum!).
For example, you’ve been putting off rewriting your website for some months now. It’s not urgent, but you know it matters. Today you’d planned to work on some admin and finance tasks, but you find yourself motivated and energised to get into writing.
We could say you’re procrastinating on the admin, but actually you’re following the energy for something more important that you hadn’t planned for. Ride the wave rather than sticking to the goal you’d set.
Intentions:
An intention is more open than a goal, and it often relates to what you hope to access within yourself.
Intentions are great if you’re working on relationships, or moving towards a different sense of meaning and purpose.
In these cases, specific goals can seem artificial or superficial. There’s something liberating about setting a sense of direction without trying to control the specifics.
For example, an intention to prioritise connection with yourself and others feels really different from a goal like “I will put aside three more hours per week for social events” or “I will get on a dating app and meet two new people each week”.
Visual reminders work well for intentions, so that you keep them in mind over time. Write them up on a post-it or whiteboard, or give them some quality attention by creating a painting or collage – it doesn’t have to be an amazing work of art!
Responding:
I like reversing the idea of goal-setting sometimes. Rather than me deciding what I want to happen, I think about listening for what wants to happen.
Goal-setting is a conscious, deliberate process – that’s what’s so good about it. But it’s also the limitation. Our goals get filtered through our beliefs, our self-esteem issues, our past experience.
By accessing the imagination through visualisation, creative practices or journalling, we can switch to a different sense of the future.
I might notice themes, ideas or dreams that I wouldn’t have thought of as goals. They might surprise me. I might not know what to do with them yet, but I can pay attention.
Similarly, I might decide to listen more carefully to what’s going on in my daily life, the conversations I’m having or obstacles I’m dealing with. What do I notice? What are the patterns, and what could they tell me about my next steps?
There’s nothing wrong with setting goals, but it’s not the only way of setting a direction or envisioning the future you’d like to create.
