Five Steps For Setting Intentions That Stick - by Beth Kurland, Ph.D.

COURSE

Five Steps For Setting Intentions That Stick

With Beth Kurland, Ph.D.

If you have goals that you are trying to reach but are having a hard time following through, are feeling stuck, or just want more guidance, motivation and support, this course is for you! I will walk you through five steps to help you shift the way that you approach goals so that you can follow through and move towards what matters in your life. You will learn how to dial down your stress response and get your brain and nervous system on your side to take steps forward. You will identify your deepest intentions, and what is meaningful and important to help motivate you and provide you the fuel to take actions. You will learn how to make an action plan that works. And you will learn how to work with common obstacles so that they don't derail you on your journey. This course will give you practical, hands on tools that you can start using today so that you can move toward what matters. DISCLAIMER: Please note that this class and any responses to questions in the classroom are strictly for educational purposes only and are not intended as medical or psychological diagnosis, intervention or treatment of any kind. If you are in need of such treatment, please seek the advice of your doctor or a licensed mental health professional. What people get out of this class will vary from person to person and there are no guarantees of what your personal experience will be. In using these recordings you understand that Beth Kurland does not have a professional relationship with you and you agree that Beth Kurland will not be liable or otherwise responsible for any decisions or actions taken due to your use of the information presented.

FocusPerformanceHappinessHealth & HappinessMotivationPsychologyScience

Meet your Teacher

Beth Kurland, Ph.D.
Norwood, MA, USA

Beth Kurland, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist, TedX speaker, mind-body wellness coach, and author of three award winning books: "Dancing on The Tightrope: Transcending the Habits of Your Mind and Awakening to Your Fullest Life"; "The Transformative Power of Ten Minutes: An Eight Week Guide to Reducing Stress and Cultivating Well-Being"; and "Gifts of the Rain Puddle: Poems, Meditations and Reflections for the Mindful Soul." Beth is passionate about teaching mindfulness informed practices and mind-body strategies to help people cultivate whole person health and well-being, as she has experienced firsthand the power of these practices in her own life and with her patients. She has been providing evidence-based clinical care to people across the lifespan for over 25 years. Through her meditations, courses, books and blogs, she offers others the opportunity to learn practical tools to move from stress to greater joy and ease, and to experience greater well-being.

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10 Days

5.3k students

4.9 stars

13 min / day

Focus

English

Lesson 1

Laying Groundwork

In this beginning lesson, I'll ask you to reflect on what common challenges you run up against when trying to set intentions for yourself that stick, and I'll share my own experience with my "old operating system" and my "newer operating system" when it comes to moving me toward what matters. This will lay the groundwork for understanding more about why moving toward our goals can be difficult, and why it's important to create an optimal inner environment for ourselves. We'll end with a meditation to help you connect with what your heart is calling you toward.

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Lesson 2

How to Create an Optimal Environment: It Starts in Our Autonomic Nervous System!

This lesson will provide a framework for understanding how our nervous system's wiring plays a critical role in helping us to move toward or away from our goals. We will explore our survival/protection circuits and our thriving/connection circuits and what they have to do with our ability to move toward what matters. You will learn a key ingredient for creating an optimal inner environment for yourself, where the "seeds" you plant can flourish. I'll invite you to reflect on your strengths, and to call up inner resources that have helped you in the past. This lesson sets the stage for the five steps to follow.

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Lesson 3

Turn Off Your Stress Response, Turn On Your Yes Response (Step One)

In this lesson, you'll learn and practice an important strategy for turning down your stress response, and turning on your "yes" response, so that you can move with greater ease towards what matters in your life. I'll invite you to use mind-body cues to differentiate your body's "yes" versus "no", and I'll suggest ways you can frame intentions for yourself to turn on your thriving circuits. By the end of this lesson, you'll create an intention that will stick, that you can take forward into the days and weeks ahead. We'll end with a short meditation to practice this.

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Lesson 4

Finding and Using Your Beacon (Step Two)

In this lesson, I will teach you step two of the five steps, which involves creating a "beacon" for yourself to help guide you toward what matters. Similar to a beacon of light that guides ships to safe harbor, our personal beacon can help us to connect with our deepest values, and these in turn become the fuel to help us move toward our goals and end up where we want to be. We'll work with short meditations and mini-exercises to help you create your beacon so that you can start using it by the end of this lesson.

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Lesson 5

How To Take Actions That Stick (Step Three)

This lesson will address a crucial third step of moving toward what matters: creating action steps. You will learn how to create actions for yourself that feel "safe" for your nervous system, so that you can access the energy you need to move you forward. I'll share a story of how using this step helped me to achieve something I never thought I could do. By the end of this lesson, you will identify specific action steps for yourself that are concrete and doable, and that allow you to feel empowered as you move forward.

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Lesson 6

Creating An Action Plan

In this lesson, we will explore how leaving things to chance (even with the best of intentions) can make it harder to follow through. As an antidote to this, you will learn how to create a specific action plan for yourself that will greatly increase the likelihood of you following through with your action steps (that you identified in lesson 5). Through multiple examples, you will understand how to create an effective action plan that you can start using and implementing by the end of this lesson. We'll end with a short visualization and reflection, to help bring this step in an embodied way into your life.

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Lesson 7

What To Do When We're Blown Off Course: The Obstacle Course (Step Four)

While many of us may think of obstacles as something "bad" to be avoided, creating a mindset that incorporates working with obstacles as part of our human journey can be much more helpful in moving us toward what matters and helping us following through with heartfelt intentions. I'll share with you a way to flip your thinking so that you don't get stuck when you come up against obstacles. We'll do a meditation to help you identify your challenges, so that you can begin to work with them in helpful and productive ways.

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Lesson 8

Working With The Inner Critic

One common obstacle that gets in the way of people reaching their goals is the voice of the inner critic. This voice, which can often be harsh, distorted, and inaccurate, can derail even those of us with the best of intentions. Having strategies for working with the inner critic can be immensely helpful, and that's what this lesson is all about. You will walk away with a plan for how to work with your inner critic, so that it doesn't stop you from moving toward what matters. We end with a short meditation to work with this strategy using visualization.

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Lesson 9

Working with Fear, Self-Doubt, and Emotional Discomfort

In this lesson, you will learn how to work with another common obstacle that can derail many people from their goals: the experience of fear, self-doubt, or other emotional discomforts. When we run up against any of these as we approach our goals, our inclination is to push them away or feel that we need to wait until the feelings go away before we can take steps forward. I offer you an alternative approach that is often much more helpful: learning how to be kind to whatever is showing up, relating to it in a new way, and taking it along for the ride with you as you move toward what matters. We'll work with a meditation and some guided imagery to help you do this, so that you will walk away knowing just what to do when faced with some of these unpleasant visitors (fear, self-doubt, etc).

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Lesson 10

Developing an Action Plan for Obstacles, and (Step Five) Using Mental Rehearsal to Move Your Forward

In this final lesson, we will talk about the importance of developing a specific action plan to work with setbacks, and you will develop one for yourself that you can start using by the end of this lesson. Rather than letting things fall to chance when you run up against inevitable obstacles, you will have a way to work with them that will leave you feeling empowered. In the second part of this lesson, we work with the fifth and final step, which involves using mental rehearsal and visualization to help your brain and nervous system learn in advance what it looks and feels like to use all of these tools and live the life that you most want, making the choices that align with your deepest values. In doing so, you can move toward what matters in your life with greater confidence, clarity, energy, and empowerment.

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Ask your teacher

This course includes 24 community questions and 7 audio replies from Beth Kurland, Ph.D.. The community classroom and teacher audio replies are only available via the app.

24

4.9 (106)

Recent Reviews

dee

July 11, 2025

I truly enjoyed the course and am practicing the techniques. I am finding them extremely helpful in my day to day life. Thank you.

Laurel

July 9, 2025

Spectacular! Just what I needed to hear and learn😄

Dawn

Dawn

June 5, 2025

This is a truly transformational course!

Kathryn

May 25, 2025

EXCELLENT! A transformative course. The insights and tools gained have already shifted my way of being and the way I navigate thoughts. An instrumental set of steps for someone who is in transition (which can be very stressful and daunting) and wanting mindful guidance. Much, much appreciated 🙏

Cathy

May 2, 2025

Thank you very much for a truly motivational course. The practical approach using 5 steps aligned with the science behind how our nervous system reacts and responds to stress was invaluable. I will use the 5 steps to move towards what matters.

Cadence

Cadence

April 19, 2025

That was a really helpful course, thank you ❤️

Terri

March 26, 2025

Very interesting and thought-provoking! I've learned a lot to help me approach seeking the life I want AND to deal with the inevitable obstacles that will arise. I feel better equipped and prepared to stay on course as I work towards my goals. Thx so much for sharing!

Rita🌈

Rita🌈

March 11, 2025

Great course with a clear, orderly progression of concepts and techniques. Well done!

Mike

March 2, 2025

This was a great course with several practical tips.

Bindy

Bindy

February 17, 2025

Thoroughly enjoyed this course. Thank you!

Judith

December 1, 2024

Exceptional for taking action steps, clarity in purpose, and I will repeat!

Terry

Terry

November 15, 2024

I appreciate the specific steps offered to anchor a plan of action to integrate a sticky focus of my intention. A practical plan that will be easily woven into my vision for my life.

Nicole

November 6, 2024

The cours was well structured and thought through. I really appreciated the focus on feeling safe in one's endeavors for growth. Thank you

Satya

October 31, 2024

Awesome 👏

Sandra

October 29, 2024

This is an excellent course. I have spent my life drifting from one thing to another with no sense of direction or purpose but this short course helps redefine my truest values. I love the idea of a kindly beacon that lights the way to what is important in life. Really is incredible how much you have fitted into to ten short sessions. Thank you x

Ros

October 12, 2024

Thought provoking & action prompting.Thankyou 🙏🙏

Karen

Karen

October 9, 2024

This was really a terrific course. Very practical usable tools. I hope to share this with my 18-year-old. I think they would really get a lot out of it.

Sioelan

October 4, 2024

Thank you for a very insightful and practical course to take steps to a more purposeful life! Loved each step, so beautifully delivered.

Courtney

Courtney

July 24, 2024

Thank you!

Lucy

Lucy

July 23, 2024

A brilliant course. So interesting and helpful with really useful advice and strategies. Also the sessions are a good length of time , so very accessible, even if you are a very busy person.

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