Set Your Weekly Intention: The Simple Way to Improve Health & Energy in 2025
The start of the new year is the perfect time to slow down, reset and refocus your health and wellbeing goals. But instead of overwhelming yourself with overly ambitious resolutions, why not try a simpler more effective approach? Setting a clear intention each week can help you stay motivated, build and maintain momentum from small steps and create small habits that can be maintained all year.
Think of your weekly intentions as small steps towards a healthier more energised version of you. Imagine your big picture and in addition to your main health and wellbeing goal, write a list of everything you want to achieve in 2025. By anchoring your week with purpose you can make consistent progress with small steps removing the feeling of overwhelm.
Why Setting an Intention Works
Clarity and Focus
Setting an intention reminds you to prioritise what’s most important to you, eliminating distractions so you can focus your energy where it’s required.
Build Long Term Habits
Setting a weekly intention allows you to break your bigger long-term goals into smaller manageable and actionable steps that are easier to achieve.
For example ‘I want to lose weight and have more energy’ would become, ‘this week I will focus on eating well balanced meals with protein, vegetables and wholegrains at every lunch and dinner to support my goals. An exercise focus could be This week I will walk for 20 minutes after dinner every evening to support my health and energy goals.
Improve Motivation
Focusing on one to three goals at a time reduces the feeling of overwhelm and helps to maintain motivation, keeping you energised to take action. You will find some goals require similar steps to achieve. One step might be focusing on two goals.
Reduces Stress
Focusing on simple actionable steps reduces the mental load of decision making, creating more space for downtime and calm.
Develop a Habit of Mindfulness
Starting the year by setting your intention each week is an easy way to introduce a mindfulness routine. Mindfulness creates awareness around your daily habits and thought processes. A weekly check in by setting your intention each week helps you stay aligned with your values and priorities maintaining focus and avoiding distractions once life gets busy throughout the year.
Develop Consistency
Being consistent is the key to success. Small efforts daily are more effective than inconsistent bursts if you are relying on motivation. Committing to small consistent steps builds habits overtime, improving all areas of your life.
Start with something small and manageable to set a strong foundation for long term change.
How to Set Your Weekly Intention
Set your Intention for the Week with our FREE worksheet?
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Reflect on the Past Month
Self reflection can help assess your starting point and bring awareness around your daily habits and thought processes before you prioritise your goals.
Ask yourself what went well? What were the best moments of the month?
What were the challenges? What did you learn? What areas can you improve?
What could you do differently?
Reflect on your Vision for the Year
Write a list of things you want to achieve this year. Write down everything that comes to mind. Then choose 3 main goals and break them down into smaller actionable steps to repeat daily.
Start Small & Be Specific
Choose one or two intentions for each main health goal for the year. Start small and keep it simple, You might choose actions that just fill up your cup to help build momentum.
For example, I want to improve my confidence and feel more energised by March. Weekly intentions related to this might be
Start the day with a glass of water and a high protein breakfast
Swap out processed snacks for fresh vegetables a slice of cheese and a few nuts
Sit outside and read 5-10 pages of a motivational book
Write it Down
Did you know only 1% of people actually think about their goals, 3% write down their goals. Research has found that by writing down your goals you are significantly more likely to achieve them.
Write down your intention in a planner, on a sticky note or on your phone.
Get Started with Our FREE Self Reflection Worksheets?
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Know Your Why
Develop an understanding and the relevance of your goals and intentions. When you link your actions to a meaningful purpose it’s easier to maintain motivation particularly when life gets busy during the year or when winter rolls in. Questions to ask could be
Why is this goal important to me?
How will achieving this positively impact my life?
Weekly Intentions to Kick Start Your Year
This week I will start the day with a glass of water.
This week I will prepare a protein and nutrient rich breakfast every morning.
This week I will swap out processed snacks to include wholefoods such as fresh vegetables, nuts and high protein yoghurt.
This week I will progressively include more different types of movement each day, to develop new habits and build momentum.
This week I will start with 5,000 steps a day, progressively icreasing each day by 500-1000 additional steps. I will aim to build to 7,000 - 12,000 steps once I have developed a routine of being consistent.
This week I will practice breathwork and meditation with my positive self talk mantra every evening, to maintain my motivation.
Small Steps Daily to be Consistent
Develop a Sunday Routine
Set aside 5-10 minutes to reflect on the past week and set your intention for the week ahead. The reflection process is a powerful tool to learn from the previous week, make small adjustment and work towards your everyday goals.
Download our FREE worksheet here and follow the steps to set your intention for the week ahead.
Set A Reminder
Set alarms on your phone to remind you to follow your steps to build the habits into your routine.
Track your Progress
Celebrate the small steps forward as you build momentum. Maybe it’s increasing your daily step count, by 500 - 1000 steps or tracking your healthier wholefood choices and your daily water consumption.
Reframe the Challenges
Maybe you didn’t meet your step count, missed the glass of water first thing in the morning. Focus on the progress you’ve made since last week and reset for tomorrow.
Enjoy & Trust the Process
Start your intention with activities you enjoy. Choose steps and activities that help to improve your mood and motivation for an extended period of time, not instant quick fix like the sugar high from processed food that leads to low energy and a poor mood later in the day.
Think of the new year as an opportunity to create a healthier more energised you. Take one step at a time by setting simple purposeful intentions. You will not only build momentum but create long term habits that support health and wellbeing all year long. Don’t let your resolutions fizzle by March, focus on the process and take small steps daily to make positive change.
About the author: Jo Francou is an Exercise Scientist and Polestar Pilates Instructor and former Australian lightweight rower. With more than 25 years experience in the health and fitness industry, Jo has a special interest working with women and youth athletes helping to transform lives using a balanced approach to programming, developing healthy habits and including a combination of mindfulness, pilates and strength and conditioning.