Hello beautiful souls!

Today is all about intention setting and its role in building confidence. By asking ourselves the right questions, we can easily feel confident and energised about ourselves and the future. The advice today is in the same vein as writing down ‘wins’, although I daresay, it is even more powerful.

Intention setting is the process of writing down an affirmation of; a) what you want to get out of yourself, b) what you would like to prove or achieve today or long-term or c) a short or long term goal. There is so much to be said about intention setting and the best way to do it. I’ll show you what works for me, through this story about one of my not-so-average days as a school teacher.

Last year and in 2012, in preparation for any significant karate tournament I would wake up and write on both sides of a piece of yellow cardboard. On one side it said, ‘I am the champion’. On the other, it said ‘Why am I a champion?’. I would fold the cardboard and put it in my pocket and head off to work. With the powerful question, ‘Why am I a champion?’ at either the back or the forefront of my mind, my behaviour changed to champion-like behaviour. I would subconsciously act in accordance with this question and sometimes would reshape the look of my whole day to align with this question. You see, I really wanted an answer to this question.

Here are some of the changes I made when this was my intention:

I prepared better for classes and was present and thorough
I ran up any stairs like a ninja (even if it was frowned upon by staff members)
I practised karate in my breaks.
I told everyone I was going to win the competition.
I ate raw capsicum (and struggled with raw broccoli) as a snack.
I visualised success and performing like a champion.
I changed my passwords to ‘world champion’.

At the end of the day, when I pulled out my card from my pocket, I would have legitimate answers to that question. I am a champion because; I eat raw vegies, I run where others would walk, I practise when other people rest, etc. In terms of confidence building, it was abundantly clear that I was making decisions that would give me the greatest chance for success. By the way, the above list is just what I did while I was working as a school teacher! The intention obviously had immense power when I was in the karate dojo (training hall) or at the gym.

When we ask ourselves the right questions through intention setting we notice was is already there and make better decisions while letting the universe add extra pep to the intention. (More to come on how things lined up when I set this intention on a daily basis.)

If you haven’t done intention setting this way before, then this is your official action step for the week. Intention setting makes every day happier and growth-oriented. Share your intention with me here. It should be one sentence only.

Advanced tip for people who already do intention setting: My personal struggle with intention setting is that when I write down my affirmation and powerful question I 100% know it will come true. This can be scary, and sometimes I catch myself avoiding the most powerful question I could ask because it would dramatically change my life. To get over this, I list everything that could be bad about getting this goal and affirm ‘Even though I will have to (move houses, lose friends, be a role model) I give myself full permission to (be happy, be a millionaire, tour)…’ One of my favourite parts of coaching is helping high performing people break through to the next level of success by identifying what is holding them back and then healing and intention setting anyway.

Tell me in the comments, which of the four ways to build confidence are you finding the most helpful? When are you making time for this? What could be holding you back?

Have a fantastic week!

Love Becky

PS. Many of my gorgeous clients are half-way through the 6-month Be Happy Mid-Year Boost Program and already getting amazing results in both business and personal success. If you want to work with me next year for six or twelve months, tell me a bit about you and what you are looking to achieve next year. Exciting times!

How to Build Confidence: Part Four