#20 Setting Intentions That Actually Create Results

Welcome back to the podcast.

Today’s episode is an important one—because this isn’t just about setting intentions for a new year.

This is about deciding who you are going to be, and therefore, what kind of life you’re going to create.

If you’re listening to this, chances are you don’t want this year to feel like a repeat of last year.
You don’t want more busyness with the same results.
You don’t want another year where time passes faster than your dreams.

You want movement.
Momentum.
Alignment, flow and ease.

And it all starts here.

My Story & Why This Matters

I want to begin by sharing a little context—because intention is personal for me.

After surviving breast cancer, something shifted in me at a cellular level.

Time stopped being abstract.
It stopped being something I assumed I had plenty of.

Time became sacred.

And I asked myself a question that I believe every person should ask themselves:

“If this is my one life… am I actually living it the way I want?”

And the honest answer was no.

Not because my life looked bad on the outside.
But because on the inside, I felt disconnected from my purpose.
I felt like I was moving… but not toward anything that lit me up.

That moment became a turning point.

I got my life coaching certification.
I started helping women set and achieve goals.
But it wasn’t until I began studying energy, identity, and manifestation—through the lens of physics and neuroscience—that everything finally clicked.

I realized this:

We don’t change our lives by accident.
We change them by deciding—on purpose—who we are becoming.

And we have to match that vision that identity by embodying that energy. 

This is why some of the goals I had previously set, I wasn’t achieving or I wasn’t manifesting. I was coming at them with the wrong energy, the wrong intention the wrong headspace and identity. I wasn’t a match for the person who had that result and therefore I did no accomplish those goals. 

Why Setting an Intention Matters More Than You Think

Here’s something most people don’t realize.

Just because you want something and you think it will make you happen, your brain won’t automatically go for that goal.

Why? 

Because most big goals require you to get uncomfortable.

Our brains are wired for survival. It’s motiavated by 3 things

-Conserve energy

- Keep you save

-And to seek pleasure.

It’s designed to keep you in the familiar,

Which means—if you don’t intentionally choose a direction, your brain will default to old patterns.

Same habits.
Same reactions.
Same identity.
Same results.

That’s why so many people feel like they’re working hard… but not moving forward.

They’re busy—but not intentional.

And neuroscience backs this up.

When you set a clear intention, you activate the prefrontal cortex—the part of the brain responsible for focus, planning, and decision-making. It’s the part of the brain that we use to over ride thoughts thoughts that we should just quit. 

Setting an intention also engages the reticular activating system, or RAS—the brain’s filtering mechanism.

In simple terms:
Your brain starts looking for evidence, opportunities, and choices that match your intention.

No intention?
No filter.
No direction.

That’s why intention is not fluff.
It’s functional.

The First Step in Manifestation: Clarity

Manifestation doesn’t begin with visualizing.
It doesn’t begin with affirmations.

It begins with clarity. This is one of the number one blocks I see when working with clients. They don’t really know what they want. 

I may have said this before on the podcast. Think of going to the restaurant the cheesecake factory. If you are from the US, I bet you know this place has a very long menu of tons of options. I did a quick google search and it said they have over 250 options.  So let’s equate the waiter to the universe. He comes and asks you what you want.. You say, “I’m not ready….” and he goes away. You sit there and study the menu another … 5 minutes… He comes back you say… “I don’t know what I want, there’s so many choices.”

At this point you are probably feeling a bit overwhelmed by reading all the options and  all the descriptions. If you have a perfection tendency 

• You may think there’s only one right option or what if I order something that is not good or I don’t like\

3 likely scenarios:

• 1. He comes back- you ask him what he likes and recommends and you go with one of those just because you feel pressure to choose
  
  
• This is analogous to you letting other people choose your life
• 2 . Or you order what you ordered in the past knowing well at least I know what to expect. 
• Analogous for you getting overwhelmed with choices in your life or business and shutting down and returning to what you have done in the past. This does not get you new results 

3. Sometimes people look at the price and order based on the cheapest option rather than ordering something that you would love.
   This is likely a sign you have a money scarcity or worthiness block.
   
   

Why did I bring this example up? How does this relate to manifesting

• When you don’t know what you want the universe doesn’t know what to bring you
• Get overwhelmed and people shut down
• You waste time
• You play small and repeat the same in life knowing you have done it before >>keeps us stuck and in a cycle of stagnation.
• We create more of the same. 

I want you to know that indecision is a decision. It’s shown that successful and wealthy people tend to be very decisive and make decisions fast. They don’t waste time overalyszing things, postponing decisions. They also don’t change their mind after they make them.

When it comes to manifesting, You have an infinite amount of choices of what you would like to manifest. 

Thay may sound overwhelming but what if it is just freeing instead. You may have whatever you would like. 

But you do have to decide what you want to create. It needs to be specific

A lot of people say things like….

They say things like:

• “I just want to be happier”
  
  
• “I want more money”
  
  
• “I want balance”
  
  

But that’s not clarity.
That’s vagueness.

And vagueness keeps you stuck. Indecision keeps you stuck.

An intention gives your energy—and your nervous system—a direction.

It’s the difference between drifting and navigating.

The definition of intention literally means to have an aim or a plan.

Why Intentions Change Your Results

Here’s the truth:

If you don’t set an intention, one of three things happens.

Either:

• 1. You let other people determine your choices in life.
• You are building their dream their vision. 
• 2. You recreate more of the same year, just with a new calendar
  
  
• 3. You stay busy, reactive, and exhausted—but without meaningful progress
• I’ve bet you have had days like that (wondering where the day went)
• Busy is not the same and productive and busy doesn’t necessarily move the needle on your goal 

This is how the year or years fly by and we look back wondering, where the time went, we feel guilt or regret for squandering it away. We start shoulding on ourselves saying that we should’ve done better, or we should’ve made more progress.

It’s part of why I created the make it happen project.  I refuse to be at the end of my life wishing I had done something different.

Let’s be honest, nobody is going to be on their deathbed saying I wish I had gone to more meetings.

This is my mission to help you realize this, to help you step out of this and into intentionally creating and living a life you love. 

Another analogy is setting an intention is like putting a location into the gps. 

Without a clear destination, without a map you will just drive random places.

Intentions do three powerful things:

1. They help you get clear
2. They help you set priorities
3. And they help you make aligned decisions

When you know your intention, decisions become simpler. Having some decision making frame works are a game changer if you identify as an indecisive or over thinker type person.

You stop asking, “Should I do this?”
And start asking, “Does this align with who I’m becoming?”

That question alone can change your entire year.

Your Results Are a Reflection of Your Identity

This part is important—so listen up and soak it in.

Your results from last year were not random. Life didn’t happen TO YOU.

Your results last year  were a direct reflection of:

• Your thoughts
• Your beliefs
• Your actions
• Your capacity
• Your energy
• Your self-concept
• The level of self-trust and taking responsibility for your life
• WHO you were being
• Ultimatly …..Your identity

We don’t manifest what we want.
We manifest who we are being. Your identity

Your next level didn’t automatically begin on January 1st.
It begins the moment you decide...

• to stop repeating patterns and
• and to start creating on purpose

If you want different results this year, then something has to shift internally.

And I’m guessing that’s why you’re here.

I want you to know you are not here by accident. 

There are no coincidences

Coincidences, and even luck, are terms that the uninlightend or non-believers use for synchronistic events that have come to us based on quantum physics. 

You are here for a reason. 

You have called this in. 

You have matched this energetic frequency and the universe has brought you here or put this in your path. 

Because people don’t seek this work when they’re satisfied with being average or ok with living on autopilot.  We seek help when we want to feel alive again. When we know we deserve more. That is your soul whispering, nudging, craving a change, or even sometimes yelling at you are out of alignment and it’s time to step up and step into your power to change.

Different Results Require an Identity Upgrade

Just setting an intention alone won’t bring you new and different results. 

Intention is to have direction and a plan

It doesn’t mean it will happen 

It doesn’t mean you are committed to it.

This is likely why we say: oh but they had good intentions.. When someone did something but it didn’t happen the way they wanted, or some other result came out of it.

That phrase is something we say after the fact to make a miss or a loss land more softly. 

This is why I feel like an intention is just the basis for the start of something more, something that requires more clarity and more dedication.

Intention-setting is just the start of identity-setting. 

The next step is taking that intention and setting a goal.

Just like declaring an intention alone doesn’t guarantee you results, New goals alone won’t change your life.

Let’s be honest, I bet at least once you have set the same goal for the next year that you didn’t achieve the previous year. Am I right?

I know because I’ve seen it and yeah, I’ve done that before myself.  But why?  

Well, if just setting the goal worked then most people would already be living their dream life by now. 

What a goal does is to help you narrow that focus and increase the clairty of your intention. It sets a course and a finish line. Remember that we need clarity. 

This next part is what so many people miss.  

What creates the results that we want is a transformation.

Namely an identity upgrade.

 A shift.
An elevation.

You don’t rise to the level of your goals.
You rise—or fall—to the level of who you believe you are, who you are being. Your floor of what you are tolerating, of yourself. Your thoughts, beliefs, your habits all of those things are part of what it takes to shift our identity our energy and to manifest a different result.

Extraordinary Goals

When I work with clients, I don’t ask them to set realistic goals.

I ask them to set extraordinary goals.

An extraordinary goal is one that the current version of you cannot achieve.

And that’s the point.

Because the goal isn’t just the outcome.

It’s about who you have to become in the process.

Extraordinary goals stretch your self-concept.
They invite growth.
They demand embodiment.

If your goal feels comfortable, it won’t transform you.

This is one way in which we can quantum leap and change our life. 

An extraordinary goal can demand the need for you to think outside the box. 

The small 2x growth strategies won’t cut it for an extraordinary goal. 

They help to shift your energy into bold action which then have a totally different trajectory. 

Choosing a Word for the Year

One of my favorite intention-setting practices is choosing a word for the year.

Not a resolution.
Not a to-do list.

A word.

A word that aligns your energy to your intention and your extraordinary goal.

Words like:

• Perseverance 
• Courage
• Faith
• Gratitude
• Embody
  
  

Your word becomes a compass.

Each day, you ask:
“How would the version of me who embodies this word think, decide, and act today?”

That’s how identity shifts—moment by moment.

I’ve already used my word of the which is unstoppable, several times to redirect my mind when my brain gave me thoughts of why don’t you just quit. I say no that isn’t embodying unstoppable energy.

Unstoppable doesn't mean I won't fail or I will have ease and success at anything I try to do. It means I get back up learn and keep going. 

From Autopilot to Deliberate Creation

Here’s what I want you to hear clearly.

You are not here to live accidentally.
You are not here to shrink, settle, or delay your dreams.

Time is not guaranteed.

And intention is how you honor the life you’ve been given.

Setting an intention is a declaration that says:
✨ I am no longer available for autopilot.
✨ I am choosing to create on purpose.

Closing & Invitation

As you move into this new year, I invite you to sit with these questions:

Who am I being right now?
Who do I need to become to create what I desire?
And what intention will guide me there?

Because this year doesn’t need more hustle.

It needs you—aligned, intentional, and embodied.

And if you’d like support with that…

Right now, I’m offering a free clarity call  where we look at your extraordinary goal, the identity shift required, and the aligned next steps to get there.

No pressure.
Just clarity, expansion, and intention ✨

You can find the link in the show notes or send me a dm or email.

Thank you for being here.
Thank you for choosing growth.
And remember—

✨ You don’t manifest a new life by wishing.
✨ You manifest it by deciding.

I’ll see you in the next episode.

Book your free discovery call here: https://tidycal.com/themakeithappenproject/60-minute-meeting