You’re feeling nervous about your upcoming presentation. Or perhaps you’re having your first Zoom meeting with a new client.
Even though you’re thoroughly prepared for it, you feel like there’s something else that can add even more certainty to your presentation. Something to elevate your energy and confidence without coming on strong or forced.
Another common situation is that you’ve had back to back zoom meetings and there isn’t a break to recalibrate in between. Zoom fatigue could be detrimental to your confidence for your next presentation.
Well, setting intentions is a very simple step that takes less than 30 seconds to charge you up in both scenarios.
So before you head into your next Zoom meeting, just set your intention.
What? That’s it?
Raise Your Vibe
Setting an intention and actually saying it out raises your own energy. When I verbalize it, I feel as if I’m tapping into an abundant source of motivation. That intention also gives your mind and body a clear objective to move in synchronicity and even your words will be aligned.
Dwayne Dyer, who wrote over 40 books including the New York Times best seller “The Power of Intention” said, “Your intention creates your reality”.
Let’s say you’re pitching to sell your product to a client. It’s not a good idea to go into the meeting thinking, “I really need this money” even if you do.
You’ll smell of desperation because your mind and body is in a “I need money” mode. Nobody is attracted to desperation.
Instead, if you say “I intend to be convincing and passionate about how my product can benefit the client” for example, that’s the energy you’ll project. And your intention of conviction and passion is an attractive energy that persuades clients to spend on you instead of your competitors.
It’s Different from Goal Setting
Intention setting is different from goal setting.
Goals are outcomes that you want to achieve and usually depends on other people’s decisions and actions to get you there.
Goals such as, “I want to get a promotion”, or “I want people to be amazed and applaud my speech” are reliant on what others do it, for you to achieve it.
Your goal is the “Where”, the destination and it’s for the future, sometimes even years ahead.
Your intention is the “How” as in how do you want to arrive. These are set just before you embark on the journey and it’s a powerful daily practice.
Some people want the scenic route, and others want the fastest way there. When you set an intention for your meeting or presentation, you give yourself that clear road map on how you want to show up.
Setting intentions affirm you in the present moment to get you in “the zone” state that manifests in actions which can raise your confidence to get what you want.
Intentions Manifested In Water And Food
I first became aware of how intentions could be powerful in 2001, when I heard about Masaru Emoto and his work with water. At first I was skeptical but as I read more about “Messages with Water”, I realized how intentions can affect personal energy at a deeper level. There were strong opposing views on his work but with the current widespread acceptance of mindfulness, meditation and consciousness, increasingly more well known figures agree with his work and share similar views.
It’s even more obvious when I cook a meal. If I’m in a good mood, it always tastes great. Once, I was consumed by unhappy thoughts as I made the same dish and it didn’t taste good. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t delicious. I couldn’t understand it as I had made that same dish so often. On another occasion, I watched a friend cook dinner when he was in a foul mood. That pasta tasted really bad.
I see how powerful it is in my coaching practice. It can shift my coachees’ energy and move them closer towards a mindset shift. That’s the first step to transformation.
Simple Steps to Setting Intentions
This is simple to do, yet so effective in determining your actions and energy.
When you set your intention before a meeting, start from a place of calmness. It’s important to bring your mind to the the present moment. If you’re rushing and stressed out, your energies are scattered and it’s hard to align.
Think about the outcome that you want, and the energy you want to project to achieve it.
Then, say to yourself, “For this meeting, my intention is to…”, or “For this meeting, I intend to…”
State your positive action in the present tense. That means you don’t say things like “I don’t want to stutter.”
Avoid telling yourself what you “should” “must” or “have to” do.
Just state what you intend to do.
It’s really as simple as that.
If you’re feeling tense, fatigued and rushed after those gruelling back to back meetings, take 10 seconds before you hit “Join meeting” to close your eyes and say “For this meeting I intend to be calm and quietly confident”. That will reset your energy, and could affect your behaviour for that meeting. A sense of calmness would override the usual feelings of being frazzled.
A Lifestyle Habit
If you want to take this further, daily intention setting helps you to stay on track on how you want to travel through your day and the general purposefulness of your mood. On the days that I forget to set an intention, I am far more disorganised and get distracted easily.
Setting an intention is about your own actions, thoughts and feelings, and not about what you want others to do. We can never control how others think or feel, even when we have done our best. Setting your intention is a purposeful action that you decide to take for yourself.
It is extremely empowering and liberating when you stop focusing or depending on external factors, and have an internal locus of control.