A Powerful 3 Minute Daily Intention Practice

Create a guiding focus for your day.

How do we find meaning and joy in our lives, every single day? Many say gratitude — be grateful for all that you have and all that you are. Some say to find your purpose, or your Why, and align your life with this.

I advocate highly for both of those things, and every single day I practice gratitude and I revisit my reason for being.

But I think there is something else that is even more important, and a lot more practical to carry with you through your day, to achieve optimal levels of both happiness and health.

Intention.

In this article, I will explain why intentions are so powerful, and I will outline a simple daily practice of intention setting.

So what is intention?

Intention is essentially knowing why you’re doing something. It’s the meaning behind the action — the value, the purpose. Ideally, it aligns with your bigger purpose. Your mission. Your reason for being here.

An intention is powerful. It’s a commitment to something; a commitment to how you are going to do something, to how you are going to move through your day/year/life, to what you’re going to achieve.

An intention is a guiding principle, a filter through which you make your decisions.

Being intentional is the quickest path to being present, and to moving through life in a meaningful and purposeful way.

Intentions can be big, but they can also be small. I believe that a lot of the power of intention comes from the simple daily practice of setting small intentions. It need only take a minute or two, but the power of the intention will stretch far.

Intention will:

• Bring meaning to everything you do, so that you can lead a more meaningful life
• Align you with your purpose
• Provide clarity
• Facilitate growth

An intention can also be flexible — it can look like a lot of things. For me, intention is usually how I want to move through my day. For example, “Today I want to appreciate the little things.” Carrying this intention with me through my day means that I will make an extra effort to both notice and appreciate the little things — the birds chirping as I write this, the smell of the fresh coffee, the feel of the carpet under my feet. But remember, it’s the meaning behind the intention that’s important. Why do I want to appreciate the little things? Because I want to be more mindful during the day.

It can also look like a goal: “My intention today is to walk 6000 steps.” Again, this will impact how you move through your day — you’re likely to get up and walk a lot more if you have this intention. What is the meaning behind this? Maybe you want to live a healthier life, or get fit, or spend more time away from the computer.

But maybe it’s more task-oriented: “Today my intention is to finish writing my report.” Again, recognize the meaning behind it. Maybe you want to please your boss, or yourself, or maybe you want the freedom that will come from finishing this task.

Again, intentions are flexible. You can make them work for you and for your ever-changing context. But always recognizing the meaning behind the intention is what will make it so powerful. This is how it becomes purposeful and meaningful.

The daily practice

Daily intention

Now that we have a rough idea of what intention is, we can apply it.

Take some time each morning to sit and consider your intention for the day. You can write this in a journal, talk through it with someone, or just think about it.

Consider the following questions, and use the ones that resonate with you:

• How do I want to move through the day?
• How am I going to live this day?
• Why am I living this day?
• What is my intention for being here today?
• What do I have to do to be able to look back on my day tonight, and be able to say today was a success?

Now, consider the meaning behind your answer:

• Why do I want to move through the day like this?
• What is the importance of this task/goal?
• What is the end goal I am trying to reach?

For example, maybe your main task today is to get your kids to school. While getting the kids to school is important, it’s not inherently meaningful. Can you change the wording to something along the lines of, “To be the best parent I can possibly be and to empower my children to live the life of their dreams”? Can you find something that is meaningful and valuable to you, and incredibly motivating?

Ideally, make this as specific as possible. For example, another one might be, “I am living this day to become the healthiest version of myself, by eating 5 servings of vegetables and getting 10,000 steps.” Or, “I am living this day to empower others to achieve health and happiness, by coaching my clients with intention.”

Mini intentions

It is also sometimes helpful to create sub or mini intentions — smaller intentions that fall under your broader daily intention. I like to set an intention for reading a book or for doing a workout. I will expand on these two examples, and you can add more that are relevant to your life.

Reading a book, article, or listening to a podcast

Before you even start a new book, article, or podcast, write down why you are reading/listening to it. What are you wanting to get out of it? What do you want to learn? How do you want it to change your life?

Starting a book or podcast with intention will ensure that you are proactively learning. So often, we listen to a podcast or read a book, learn so many profound insights that we know we are going to apply to our lives, and then as soon as the podcast is over or we put the book down, we’re on to the next one and we forget everything. And we definitely don’t make any changes in our lives.

The simple act of setting an intention and intentionally listening and reading is so powerful. To go even further, at the end of the book or podcast and before you start the next one, try to answer your intention. Did you learn what you wanted to learn? How will you apply it to your life? Did you learn anything else that’s worth remembering?

Using this practice will increase how much you retain from books and podcasts, and can help you grow immensely if you proactively implement what you learn into your life.

Movement and exercise

I find this one particularly helpful and tend to be intentional without even purposefully trying to be. My family is an exercising family, so exercise has always been at the forefront of my mind.

Since my first day in the gym, I have voraciously been researching, learning, and experimenting with exercise and various forms of movement. This has led to me being very aware of why I am performing each movement, and what I am getting from it.

For example, when I perform a Romanian deadlift at the gym, I know I am working my posterior chain to benefit my core stability. I know there are benefits to lifting something heavy every day in regard to longevity. When I am out for a walk in the morning for my morning movement, I know I am getting sunlight on my skin which resets my circadian rhythm for healthier sleep patterns, I know the exercise itself is also resetting my circadian rhythm, I know that the fasted pre-breakfast cardio after a cup of coffee is mobilizing fatty acids leading to greater fat loss, and I know that I am counteracting the effects of our sedentary lifestyle. These are such small and simple meanings, but they bring so much more value to the action.

Being aware of why you are exercising will not only make it more meaningful, but it will make you more mindful during the process, with mindfulness having numerous benefits itself, and you will also perform the movements with better form as you are hyperaware of what you are doing.

Conclusion

The act of setting an intention is so simple yet incredibly powerful. This practice can be used in everything you do — from waking up in the morning, to the books you are reading. Setting an intention will push you to move through your day consciously and intentionally, bringing more meaning and purpose to your actions.

Each morning, take some time to consider how you want to move through the day and why you are living this day. Identify the deeper meaning behind these intentions. You can also apply intentionality to smaller tasks, like reading or exercising.

The point is to bring to your attention the deeper purpose, allowing you to move through your days in a more meaningful and valuable manner.

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