This guest article from YourTango was written by Melanie Gorman and Donna Karlin.

In all the years that we have been saying to clients, “Intentions equal results,” the beginning of this year was the first time the concept of “setting intentions” really seemed to resonate with people. Instead of setting resolutions, sites like Facebook were ablaze with people setting their intentions for the year.

The difference?

One is about goals and the other is about mindset.

Consider how nutritionists and dietitians look for lifestyle changes to help people with optimizing their health (and losing weight). They look less at quick fixes like giving up carbs or cabbage soup diets, and more at long-term changes that make slow, meaningful impact. Using the dieting analogy, you’re going to have far better success in the long run if you make a lifestyle change than if you go on a “lose 15 pounds” diet. In fact, eventually, for most dieters, the lack of change to their lifestyle is why the pounds creep back or they fail altogether.

The same difference applies to resolutions vs. intentions. Setting an intention about your life encourages a change at more of a core level. When done correctly, intentions have the ability to create lifelong changes as opposed to “once a year” changes that often fail after the first few weeks.

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