Confessions About Intention Setting: Why They’re Hard to Choose, Why You Need Them, and How a Weekly Intention Can Change Everything

I’m guilty of thinking that setting intentions was too “warm and fuzzy” of a task for me to participate in. I first heard about their importance in a professional training I attended ~2015 and thought it seemed like a good idea at the time. Honestly, I didn’t need one more decision to make each day (or each night for the next day) when I could barely figure out what I was wearing the next day. I finally caved a few years ago and decided I’d give it a try, especially since I’d been suggesting the task to clients for about a year at that point😊. By the time I sat down to figure it out and actually pull an intention out of thin air, I was irritated.

Fast forward and I’m in a leadership role and needed the grounding that intentions provided more than ever. Leadership has always required clarity, focus, and emotional steadiness — but in today’s environment, those qualities are harder to access than ever. The pressure to perform, the constant stream of decisions, and the invisible weight of being the one others rely on can leave the strongest leaders feeling stretched thin.

This is where the practice of setting intentions becomes not just helpful, but essential. Intentions are one of the simplest, most powerful tools for recalibrating your inner compass, yet they’re also one of the hardest things to consistently create for yourself when you’re overwhelmed.

Let’s break down what an intention actually is, why it matters, why choosing one can feel surprisingly difficult, and how receiving a weekly intention from a sobriety‑focused leadership coach can remove the friction and help you stay grounded, aligned, and in control.

What Is an Intention anyway?

An intention is a deliberate, conscious direction for your energy, attention, and behavior. It’s not a goal, which is about achieving something in the future. It’s not a task, which is about completing something on your to‑do list. It’s a way to intentionally turn your attention to something where you’d otherwise be operating on “autopilot”. An intention is a guiding principle.

Examples of intentions include:

• “I choose focus over autopilot.”

• “I honor my limits today.”

• “I won’t be an a** to the person who knocks on my closed-door during lunch.” (why I’m eating at my desk during my “break” is another issue for another day!)

Intentions are powerful because they shift your internal state before you take action. They help you lead yourself before you lead anyone else.

Where goals ask, What do I want to accomplish? Intentions ask, Who do I want to be as I move through this day week?

For leaders navigating stress, burnout, or unhealthy coping patterns, this distinction matters.

Why Intentions Matter for Leaders Under Pressure

Leadership is a constant negotiation between what’s urgent and what’s important. When stress is high, urgency wins. You move fast. You react. You push through. You override your own signals. You operate from survival mode instead of strategy. I’ve been there; intentions helped me interrupt that pattern.

1. Intentions restore focus

When you’re overwhelmed, your mind becomes noisy. Intentions cut through that noise by giving you a single point of focus, a north star for the day or week.

2. Intentions reduce reactivity

Stress shrinks your cognitive bandwidth. Intentions expand it. They help you pause, breathe, and choose your response instead of defaulting to old habits.

3. Intentions strengthen emotional regulation

Poor coping mechanisms show up when emotional bandwidth is low. Intentions help you reconnect with your internal state, making it easier to regulate without reaching for [insert any bad habit].

4. Intentions support identity shifts

If you’re trying to drink less, lead differently, or break out of burnout patterns, intentions reinforce the identity you’re stepping into, not the one you’re trying to leave behind.

5. Intentions create micro‑alignment

You don’t need a massive life overhaul. You need small, consistent shifts in how you show up. Intentions create those shifts. What I realized was that intentions aren’t fluffy or abstract. They’re strategic. They’re stabilizing. They’re a form of self‑leadership.

Why Setting Intentions Is Surprisingly Difficult

If intentions are so powerful, why don’t more people set them consistently?

Because the very conditions that make intentions necessary, like stress, overwhelm, decision fatigue also make them hard to generate.

Decision Fatigue!

Research shows the average professional makes 35,000 decisions a day. Leaders make even more. By the time you think, What should my intention be this week?, your brain is already exhausted and choosing an intention becomes one more decision in a day full of decisions.

Stress narrows your perspective

When you’re overwhelmed, your brain prioritizes short‑term survival over long‑term clarity. You’re not thinking about how you want to show up, you’re thinking about how to get through the next meeting, the next deadline, the next fire.

High performers default to productivity, not presence

Managers are conditioned to focus on output. Intentions require you to focus on alignment. That shift can feel uncomfortable or unfamiliar.

Alcohol disrupts clarity

Even moderate drinking affects sleep, mood, and cognitive sharpness. When you’re tired or foggy, it’s harder to access the self‑awareness needed to choose an intention that actually supports you.

Many leaders don’t know what they need

When you’ve been in “go mode” for too long, you lose touch with your internal signals. You know what your team needs, what your clients need, what your organization needs, but not what you need.

Your brain is tired. It wants the path of least resistance.

Choosing an intention requires reflection, clarity, and emotional bandwidth. When you’re depleted, that bandwidth isn’t available.

This is why so many leaders want to set intentions but don’t follow through. Not because they lack discipline, but because they’re human beings operating under chronic cognitive load.

What if I did the work for you?

Receiving a Weekly Intention Email Changes Everything

This is where your FREE weekly intention subscription becomes a powerful tool, not just for leadership, but for wellbeing, and sustainable self‑regulation.

My gift to you: I remove the decision fatigue

You don’t have to think about what your intention should be. You don’t have to generate clarity from scratch. You don’t have to sit down and reflect when your brain is already overloaded. The intention arrives for you in your inbox, clear, simple, and ready to use.

I create a moment of pause in a chaotic week

Face it, you rarely pause unless something forces you to. A weekly intention email becomes a built‑in reset point, a moment to breathe, recalibrate, and reconnect with yourself.

I provide structure without pressure

You’re not being asked to overhaul your life. You’re being invited to anchor your week with one simple, powerful idea. That’s it. No perfection required.

I support healthier coping

Intentions help interrupt autopilot behaviors (such as winding down with a drink every night). When you start your week with a grounding intention, you’re more likely to make better choices throughout the week.

I help reinforce identity‑based change

Every intention you practice strengthens the identity you’re building: A leader who is clear. A leader who is grounded. A leader who is intentional instead of reactive. A leader who doesn’t need alcohol to cope.

Intentions build cumulative momentum; one intention won’t change your life, but 52 intentions over a year? That’s a transformation. That’s a rewiring. That’s a leader who has learned to lead themselves differently.

A weekly intention is not about restriction. It’s about reclaiming agency. It’s about remembering that you have choices even when life feels heavy.

The Bottom Line

You don’t need more pressure. You don’t need more tasks. You don’t need more decisions.

You need anchors.

You need focus.

You need support that meets you where they are.

You need intentions that help them lead themselves before they lead anyone else.

It’s not just an email.

It’s a recalibration. A reset. A reminder that they’re not alone, and that change doesn’t have to be dramatic to be meaningful.

Sign up for your Intentions here: Get your Free Weekly Intention!