Enhance your business with intentions and affirmations
Using intentions and affirmations can enhance goal setting, give you a deeper sense of purpose, and boost self-confidence. So how exactly should you use intentions and affirmations in your business? By Haley Berryman.
Goals are great, and we need them to get places, but they can feel restrictive. When we fall short of our goals, we can often feel a sense of disappointment, and forget to celebrate what we learnt along the way or the progress we did make towards that goal, even if we didn’t quite hit it. That’s why I love to blend goals with intentions and affirmations. Plus there’s science to back that they work!
What are intentions and affirmations
Intentions go beyond rigid numbers and targets to add soul to your goals. You could set a goal to win 3x new clients, or hit a $10K within a month, but if you’re feeling stressed and saying yes to less-than-ideal clients, was it really worth it? Probably not. Piling into a heap at the end of the day in tears wasn’t on my wishlist universe!!
Intentions align you with the person you want to be and the kind of life you want to live. Ask yourself the question “What am I trying to accomplish?” And not just from a numbers point of view. For example “I want to do less with more focus today”, “I want to bring joy and enthusiasm to my client meetings this week”.
Affirmations on the other hand, are “I am” statements. They’re stated in the present tense to help you step into your power and ability. They retrain your mind to recognise, believe and be what you say. They help you behave in alignment with that so you can easily manifest a desired outcome.
Affirmations reinforce what is possible and boost confidence. Affirmations can be used to affirm your intentions. For example if your intention is to earn more money and attract incredible new clients, you might say “I am worthy”, “I am a magnet for incredible clients” or “I am a badass at making money”.
The science behind intention setting
There is scientific evidence to suggest that conscious intention can influence our unconscious actions or activity. By intentionally choosing our thoughts and feelings, we are firing new pathways in the brain that expand our awareness and change who we become. That’s neuroplasticity. Our brain doesn’t always know the difference between what is real or imagined and you can ‘trick’ it into believing all kinds of cool things if you want to.
How to apply intentions into your biz
There are many ways you can incorporate intentions and affirmations into your business. Here are three ways I use them to kick start my year, month, week or day on the right foot:
Create a vision board
Vision boarding is a powerful tool to remind you of where you want to be—your future self. Every year I create a work one and a personal one and keep them close to me as a constant reminder of what I’m working towards and what I desire. Dip into the feelings you will experience when you have achieved all of these things. When I look back at the end of the year I would say about 90% of it has come true! It’s like I subconsciously take actions that bring me closer to my vision.
Set a weekly intention
To start my week, I look at the calendar, tune into how I’m feeling, and write a short and sweet intention to guide me. This keeps me on track to feel and be a certain way. This is not a big task. It takes just a couple of minutes to pop it up on a post it, look at it daily (or even read it aloud to yourself a few times daily), and you start acting in alignment with that. And if a phrase feels too much, a powerful word can do the job too!
Journal your future self
Imagining your future self in full colour can help you move closer to your dreams. We do this exercise in our Dream Bigger workshop each year but you can do this for yourself anytime you want to. The more often the better. Simply set a timer for 5 or 10 minutes, pop on some inspirational music, and free write what you imagine your life or biz to look like in 5-10 years. How are you spending your days, who are you spending them with, how do you feel when you wake up in the morning, what are you grateful for? Creating a mental image of yourself in a certain future state, activates many of the same brain areas that actually experiencing these situations would. Make sure you load your story up with emotions and feelings for the full effect.
The rules
There aren’t many. All you need to do is make your intentions and affirmations positive, believable and personal.
Positive: Don’t ever write things from a negative point of view. Affirm what you want, not what you don’t want. For example, instead of saying “I won’t waste hours in my inbox”, instead flip it “I will be intentional with my time” or “I will check my inbox once a day”. The affirmation for this might be “I am focused” or “I am in control”.
Believable: For example, if you set an affirmation saying “I am a money magnet” but you don’t 100% believe it, just dial it back a touch to something like “I am learning how to attract and accept more money” or “I am open to receiving more money and believe in the value my skills offer”. It is a step towards becoming a money magnet that you can believe right now!
Personal: They should be something that feels good for you, not just something you say on Pinterest (but that can certainly help spark ideas). So think about the things you value in life and try to align your intentions and affirmations to those things that mean the most to you. And they can’t be for someone else.
Here are some intentions to borrow or inspire your own creations…
This week/month will be filled with gratitude and joy. I am abundant.
This week/month I will make space to daydream. I am more creative when I play.
This week/month will be a time of rest and reflection. I honour my journey. I am in control of my time.
This week/month I allow myself to go slowly. I am in no rush. I am on my own timeline.
This week/month I will pay attention to every wins and achievement. I am proud of myself. I am worthy of celebrating.
This week/month I will take risks to pursue my dreams. I am a confident and capable women.
This week/month, I will confidently raise my rates. I am worthy of abundance.
Over to you!
Have fun using intentions and affirmations in your business and share what you come up with with us over on Instagram @coolwowcollective.
Written by Haley Berryman
Almond latte drinking, nature lovin’, mama of two. Endlessly coming up with ideas for others. Hippy at heart. Says ‘babe’ way too much. Shares personal musings on topics including freelancing, marketing and wellbeing. Connect @haleyberryman__ or haleyberryman.com.