Goals vs. Intentions
I originally published this post two years ago (has it been two years already?). Since then, I’ve had a number of folks ask about the difference between goals and intentions.
As I write, I’ve printed my new ornaments to hang on my Tree of Life. It is a permanent fixture in my living room. My intentions hang all year long. I might glance at them from time to time, but they are intentions and then I build goals and steps to complete those intentions.
As I learn and grow, those intentions change.
Intentions
What is it about intentions? How are they different from goals?
An intention, to me, has always been something that has come from within. Something that is almost intangible but that I would like to see manifest in my life.
Intentions have no set date for “achievement.” But they bring me to the present. They remind me of how I want to live my life. I understand that not everything I intend is meant to happen right now, or even this year. But they are earmarks for my journey.
They are phrases that I utter (or write) for the universe. They are little secrets I whisper to set in motion the conditions needed to fulfill an intention. Except I don’t always keep them secret.
When it’s time for an intention to come to the surface, if I need to talk about it or do something, then others will know.
But an intention is also something that I “send out” with no expectations of when or how. I trust that my journey will create the conditions to fulfill an intention at the right time.
When to fulfill an intention
How do I know it’s time? When my heart, soul and mind tell me.
Because, sometimes, I have an intention and through living life, I realize that the intention needs to change. To be something else. And that’s okay: that’s the beauty of an intention. Intentions are malleable, subject to our own evolution.
One intention I had was to publish a visionary fiction book. In time I realized two things: my mind and heart are not ready to do this. I don’t know the reason exactly, but when I’ve sat down to write – over and over – a book with a spiritual slant, it always ends up being this frustrating project.
And so, I keep it as an intention, but I know it’s not yet time to fulfill that intention.
One Big Intention for 2019
In 2018, I got certified to teach meditation. But, I didn’t know much about running a meditation business. I hired a coach who helped me craft a meditation course and taught me how to release it into the world.
I am days away from launching the course. It was my intention to create a meditation business and coach people. I knew that 2018 would be the year for training and preparation. And patience.
2019 will be about bringing awareness to the power of meditation, and teaching online. But then I have goals attached to that. Goals such as teaching privately and creating a retreat center. Those are intentions, too.
For a lot of my online workings, I’ve played it too small. I’ve gotten in the way of my own growth. It was through setting intentions that I realized I needed to go bigger, trust my intuition, and do things differently.
It’s powerful stuff.
Goals
Goals, then, become the actions to fulfill an intention. I wait until it’s “time.”
For example, in 2017 I published a coloring book and a personal development journal.
I knew that I would complete those intentions by achieving specific goals to get them published.
The first goal was to publish the coloring book. I’d created a set date to do so. I then worked backwards for smaller, mini-goals of things I needed to get done in order to see the project to completion.
The Tree of Life
This part of the post is an update from 2017:
Years ago, when I was teaching Spanish to elementary kiddos, I taught a lesson about the Tree of Life as it related to Mayan culture.
Though the Tree of Life isn’t necessarily associated with the new year, I decided to have the students write their intentions for the new year on the back of various designs, and I hung them on a bulletin board as ornaments.
I chose to do that because a Tree of Life represents a journey. It’s recognized across cultures and what better time to celebrate the reminder of how special life is, especially in the dormancy of winter?
My Tree of Life in January 2017
Tree of Life Meaning
Across cultures, the Tree of Life is a recognized symbol. It may have different names, but it’s an iconic symbol for life and growth.
The Tree of Life in the Biblical Book of Genesis
The Tree of Life appeared in the Garden of Eden. There’s a lot of disagreement whether this is also the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, or if it’s a separate tree. Still, most agree that it symbolizes connectedness and the link between heaven, earth and the underworld.
The Tree of Immortality in Islamic Culture
The Tree of Life is the Tree of Immortality and, according to Islamic customs, was the only tree in the Garden of Eden. It’s also seen as a bridge to heaven.
The Acacia Tree in Egyptian Mythology
In ages past, Isis and Osiris (as a couple) emerged from the Tree of Life, or, the Acacia Tree. This tree represented life and death. It splits into East and West. It has more symbolism and meanings, but, as an interesting side note, the Acacia Tree has the chemical and psychedelic drug, DMT (don’t ask me what that means, haha) in it, which people have used to have “spiritual experiences”.
The Bodhi Tree in Buddhism (and Hinduism)
To Buddhists, this tree is sacred and existed long before Buddha put it on the map, where they say he achieved Enlightenment. Bodhi means “awakening.” Before the Buddha, the Hindus associated the trunk of the tree with Vishnu, who is one of a trinity of gods. Brahma – associated with the roots – and Shiva – associated with the leaves – are the other two.
The Kapok Tree in Mayan Culture
The Mayans believed that the Tree of Life connected heaven (which was hidden by a mythical mountain), earth and the underworld. It split into the four directions (North, South, East and West, all depicted by a cross) and was the source of life.
The Kabbalah Tree of Life
In Kabbalah, the Tree of Life is etched from the sacred geometrical form, the Flower of Life. According to Kabbalah wisdom, the tree symbolizes how all things came from infinite nothingness to a universe of infinite things. Each column and pillar represent ideas about equilibrium, wisdom, loving-kindness, and more.
Still, many other cultures share similar stories of the Tree of Life. In fact, this is all rather astounding to see the interconnectedness of cultural identities and symbolism here.
Why Create a Tree of Life Representation for the New Year?
When I first did this with my students, I chose the beginning of a calendar year to represent “rebirth” and a new time for recharging and getting in touch with oneself.
Since then, I’ve always wanted to create my own Tree of Life to represent a New Year with re-affirmations of my intentions and as a symbol of light in a rather dark time of year (with the shorter days and the full-on season of winter ahead).
So…I did. And on New Year’s Day, I created a little symbolic ceremony with the Tree of Life.
One of my ornaments.
Create Your Own Tree of Life
You Will Need:
- a collection of small branches, no more than 5-6 ft tall (alternatively, you can re-use a Christmas tree, or decorate some sort of tree-plant)
- two cans of white spray paint
- light-colored iridescent glitter (optional)
- twine
- thread (optional)
- hole punch
- scissors
- white lights
- print outs of Tree of Life ornaments, cut out with ONE intention for the year written on the back
Gather your branches
Spray with white spray paint
Don’t forget the glitter (if you like that sort of thing)
Get your twine and bind the branches.
Why I Chose the Color “White”
The color white is representative of all the colors of light. It’s a color of purity, of peace, and light itself. It’s also a color that represents illumination (enLIGHTenment), new beginnings and possibilities, protection, healing and spirituality.
How to Make the Tree:
- Select your branches and line them up over a tarp or cardboard so the spray won’t get on everything.
- Shake the spray paint for 1 minute and then go to town! Spray as much or as little as you’d like. Don’t worry about perfectly coating every little spot unless you want to. I went for a rustic, wintry look.
- While the paint is still wet, sprinkle it with the glitter.
- When the paint is dry to the touch, flip the branches over and spray the other side, following up with the glitter.
- Let dry overnight.
- Gather your branches together, and tie them off with some twine and cut to size as necessary.
- Get another piece of twine and a tack and secure the tree to a wall, near an outlet.
- Get your white lights and string them on the tree.
- Then, get your ornament print outs. You can color them or not. For this project, I did not color them; I wanted to stay with light colors in keeping with the white light theme.
- Write your intentions for this year, with each ornament holding one intention. You can also write for the future: 5 years from now, 10 years from now, 25 years from now. This is a good exercise for you to help determine the direction you’re going in, and if you’d like to change something.
- Hole punch the top of each paper ornament and use more twine or thread to secure your ornaments to the tree. (Sign up to get a download of the ornaments.)
Your Free Gift! A PDF of the ornaments…just click
All done and with ornaments.
For the Ornaments:
I printed out two copies of the ornaments and cut them out. I hole-punched the top of them and strung twine through them.
On the back of each, I wrote out one intention I had for 2017. I reserved four others to write intentions for ONE YEAR from now, FIVE years from now, TEN years from now, and TWENTY-FIVE years from now.
It’s a good exercise to help you see your “why” and what you want to be doing in 25 years. Amazingly, it allows you to see how the decisions you make today can all add up to where you want to be in 25 years!
What Each Ornament Symbolizes:
- The “eye”: looks within and peers ahead 1, 5, 10, and 25 years from now
- The Tree of Life: represents just that!
- The Swirly Tree of Life: also represents the Tree of Life, but also a reminder to be flexible
- The “leaves”: a reminder to commune with nature
- The “wheel”: a reminder to be moving forward
- The “dove”: a reminder to bring peace wherever I go
- The “yin/yang” swirls: a reminder to find balance, but also to not be too hard on myself by allowing for flexibility
- The “Celtic heart”: a reminder to spread love, hope, and a positive message
- The “Seed of Life”: not only is it the symbol I use for this blog, but it’s a reminder to be open, to growth, to being everything I can be
You Can Create a Tree of Life Anytime!
I chose the New Year to do this project. But, honestly, this doesn’t have to be done on Jan. 1. You can choose to do this project at any other time.
Perhaps you want to do a project like this sometime in January.
Perhaps you want to do it on the 12th day of Christmas, or the Day of the Three Kings on 6 January.
Or maybe you want to wait until Diwali, the Festival of Light in India.
Or perhaps you’d like to wait until your birthday. Or another significant-to-you day.
Whatever the case may be, intentions can be made at any time. Not just on January 1.
Have fun! And do come back and let me know in the comments how it went.
This is a beautiful idea Cynthia.. And your Tree of Life is fantastic.. loved your symbols and meanings of why to hang them.. And learned a lot through your various cultures of meanings of their interpretation of the Tree of Life..
Setting our intentions this way is adding energy to our manifesting our future .. What better way to start the new year than use this Tree of Life ..
Excellent post Cynthia..
Love and Well wishes for a Wonderful Peaceful Happy, Healthy and Fun filled 2017 xxx
Love Sue <3 xxx
Sue – aww, The Tree of Life – one of my favorite new things about the New Year. 🙂 I really had a lot of fun creating it and now I have the tree to use again next year. 🙂 Yes…those intentions. This exercise, I think, is a really good practice – at least for me. I love to write and using that natural expression, I think, cements the images of those intentions in my mind.
I love, love your feedback and comments, sweet friend! They are so full of wisdom and insight, I smile every time I see them.
Love and Well Wishes for a Peaceful, Healthy, and Wondrous New Year and 2017. Hugs and sending love to you! xo
This is absolutely a perfect idea to start off the New Year on the right foot. I honestly couldn’t love this better if I tried. I totally loved the symbolism behind the Tree of Life and how it relates to rebirth for the new year. Thank you for sharing with us and now wishing you once again an absolutely wonderful 2017!! xoxo <3
Janine – aww, hehe, you’re so, so, sweet! I could just hug you! Tree of Life – yes! Hehe. A little newness, intention…and it so fits in with so many walks of life – this is why I love it. 🙂 I’m wishing you an absolutely wonderful 2017 and sending you warm wishes for a fun-filled, healthy, prosperous year! Sending hugs and love, xo
Loved the updated here on the Tree of Life and all! Just wanted to stop in though and wish you a very, Happy and Healthy New year ahead now! Happy 2019, my sweet friend!!! Many hugs <3 <3 <3
Sweet Janine – thank you so much! I wish you, too, an incredible New Year. May you all be blessed with lots of love, life, health, prosperity and all the good things. Sending you big hugs and I am looking forward to continued blogging, writing, and sharing. xoxo
Thank you for that wonderful reply .. And my head is still awash filled with too much that will not settle into any semblance of thought right now.. The only thing that came was that poem of thanks.. LOL.. Been reading a whole lot.. And got a book for Christmas which I have nearly finished by Gyalwang Drukpa.. Everyday Enlightenment~walking the path of happiness in the modern world.. Very easy to read and full of wisdom
nothing we do not already know.. But put in a way to remind us what we are not doing everyday LOL which I needed to hear again 🙂
I will post my Harmony painting from your mandala.. I think it will be my first post of the new Year.. I Will link it back to here.. So others can share in your wisdom also..
Love and Mega Hugs.. Love my time here.. and All of your ideas..
Hugs Sue xx
Sue – aww, I hope you’re still feeling evermore-better. 🙂 A poem of thanks!? I should love to read that. And I’ll have to look into that book you mentioned: everyday enlightenment. I think I’d love to read that. I found myself thinking about all these great authors who write about meditation and what they’ve done with it: they’ve all seemingly spent lengthy periods of time in solitude and meditation. So, it’s always encouraging to read about how we can achieve our own meditation victories without being able to practically spend long amounts of time in a beautiful, foreign place to achieve enlightenment. Hmm…that gives me an idea, actually. Thanks for that! 😀 And you’re so sweet about the Harmony mandala. You know, I appreciate you and I appreciate the link and even if you didn’t link back I would still find such great bliss and happiness knowing that folks around the world are enjoying those drawings. It melts my heart! Love and hugs to you, sweet friend! And feel better soon!
Your Mandala is posted.. 🙂 I loved painting it.. xxx
Sue – and it is so beautiful and it warmed my heart sosososo much! I’m *so* glad you enjoyed it, sweet friend! You have helped make this a memorable New Year and I’m grateful to you! xo
To borrow from Monty Python, “who are you who are so wise in the ways of the Tree of Life?” LOL
I love how your mind, and heart, work, Lil Sis! Keep on being you, please. The world is better for it.
Happy New Year, and hugs from Olympia!
Happy New Year, Big Bro! Haha…you had me thinking about the last time I watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Ima gonna have to watch that again. 🙂
And thank you for that sweet compliment. I will keep on bein’ me. 🙂 I promise. And the world is better for you, too. Really. You’re someone I look up to.
Hugs from Cackalack.
A wonderful idea filled with creativity and light! Thanks for the idea Cynthia and Happy New Year. To a year full of love, light and creativity.
Brad – hehe, thank you! I wish you lots of hugs, light and wonderful tidings this year. May you have blessings of abundance and creativity. Happy, happy New Year to you! I also look forward to another wonderful year of blogging and connecting with amazing people. 🙂
very cool… (this post) is an illustration of the gift of teaching that some people (like you) have… to impart knowledge is fairly simple, to transform knowledge into a physical form a bit more difficult, to convey an enthusiasm that is transferrable is most difficult and, imo, the rarest of all gifts.
‘cellent work, yo!
Clark – haha, thanks! 🙂 Husby says that no matter what I do in this life, it has to include a component of teaching cuz…I’m wayyy to enthusiastic about everything. LOL. Thanks for your awesome feedback here and of course, HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Hi Cynthia. I’m still having trouble responding to your comments from my site’s notification menu. It’s only with your site. I hope you can figure it out.
Thanks for the wonderful wishes Cynthia. To a year of connecting!
Brad – ah, well. I have no idea, unfortunately, but I’ll keep checking (updates, fixes, etc.). In the meantime, if you need to refrain from commenting, I understand. I know how that stuff can be. In any case, thank you also for your wonderful comments and wishes for an awesome year. And to a year of connections. Have a wonderful day.
Dear Cynthia,
I’m grateful that you republished this – especially at this time of year, filled with hope and promise.
I love your Tree of Life and its rich symbolism. Thanks for the ornaments – this has given me an idea of a significant
date I would like to start mine own on.
You remind me (thank you) of the importance of being flexible and listening to our hearts, as to the timing of when to
make our intentions a reality.
Happy, peaceful, loving 2019 to one of the most inspiring people I’m blessed to call friend.
Love,
Maria
Sweet Mar – thank you for coming by! Happy early New Year! Hehe…I originally was just going to write about goals vs. intentions, and then I thought, well…since I need to do my intentions on my Tree of Life anyways, I thought it might be perfect to update this post. 🙂
Yes…the symbolism of the Tree of Life speaks to me so. I love everything it stands for – across cultures and eras. I can’t wait for you to create yours. I know it will be thoughtful and beautiful.
Happy peaceful 2019 to you, as well. Thank you also for inspiring ME with your big heart, wonderful smile, and zest for life. I’m also blessed to call you friend. Sending you lots of hugs! xoxo
These mid-week holidays wreak havoc on my job. I can’t seem to catch up. Whine whine,and whine.
My intentions for 2019 are the same as for 2018…to live a life of love for myself and for others.
And I wish, for you, a Happy, Loving, Productive New Year!
Thank you Lil Sis for your friendship!
Hugs,
bill
Big Bro – haaa, you’re too funny! Well…at least the work is always there, right? Hehe. Something to be grateful for, me thinks. And a little whine and whine is okay, too. It keeps you human. 🙂
You have a life of love, Big Bro. I’m so proud to know you and see all the things you accomplish. May you have an incredible 2019. Thank YOU for your friendship, as well. Here’s to writing, spreading the love, and making a difference. 🙂
Loved your video as I have said before.. Have a WONDERFUL New Year my friend, I know your Goals and Intentions will come to fruition .. Enjoy Life, Sending Love, Laughter and Happiness your way.. <3
Sue <3
Sue – thank you for coming back. You have made my day with your sweet spirit. Have a happy new earth year!! (Like I said…I’m going to have to adopt that, hehe.)
Goals and intentions…they are set. And the signs are picking up speed. I’m getting goosebumps and my heart is feeling more at peace. Sometimes I have to remind myself to trust, that all is as it should be. Hmm…I might need to hang another intention ornament. 😀
Sending YOU love, laughter, and happiness back to you. May you walk the tao…the highest path. xoxo
Thank you for clarifying the difference between goals and intentions. I also enjoyed reading all the different trees from different cultures. What a wonderful idea. Wishing you a new year filled with all the things your heart is hoping for and more. Happy New Year, Cynthia.
Sweet Marlene! Wonderful to see you. Years ago when I discovered the Tree of Life, I so enjoyed finding out about all the different cultures. Let me know if you do a Tree of Life. I’d so love to see what you come up with. 💜💚 Happy New Year to you ❤️🧡
OMG OMG your own meditation course… Awesome!! I cannot wait to read as you launch and get feedback 😀 Way to go! Happy 2019 my friend xo
Christy – hehe. Yes…I’ve been working on it for months. Alllmost finished. Alllmost ready to launch. I would have preferred January 1, but then again…what’s a week or two? Hehe.
Congrats on your podcast!! I wish you every success, my friend. Together, we can DO IT!! xoxo Here’s to a fabulous 2019!