How to Set Goals and Intentions

arise women of god christian goal setting christian podcast for women finding your why habit stacking prayer how to set goals and intentions overcoming burnout sandy falter smart goals for christians spiritual intention setting Mar 12, 2026

Summary

Have you ever reached a goal only to figure out that you didn't feel any better about yourself once you got there? Most of us are taught how to set SMART goals, but we aren't always taught to set the purpose behind the goal—the intention. In this practical episode of the Arise, Women of God podcast, host Tamara K. Anderson joins advisory board member and certified grief coach Sandy Falter to answer the question: How to set goals and intentions.

We move from just checking boxes to truly changing our character by bridging the gap between the head (goals) and the heart (intentions). Tamara breaks down the exact difference between the two, explaining why you can fail at a goal (like a clean house when the basement floods) but still succeed at your intention (creating a peaceful home). Sandy shares a brilliant "Habit Stacking" hack from Atomic Habits, revealing how she anchored her morning prayers to the physical task of making her bed. Finally, we walk through a real-life example of how to write a SMART goal for personal scripture study that actually feels doable. If you are ready to solve the pain of hollow success and align your daily actions with your spiritual heart, this episode will teach you how to turn your to-do list into your to-be list.

Episode Takeaways

The Push vs. The Pull: A goal is a specific, measurable outcome in the future (the what). An intention is the heart-purpose behind it (the why). Goals require you to push yourself forward; intentions pull you forward with a sense of mission.
Intention Survives Failure: You can fail a goal due to circumstances out of your control (like sickness or a flooded house). But an intention (e.g., "to connect with God" or "to have a peaceful home") can survive any crisis.
Habit Stacking: Sandy shares how she used to feel guilty for forgetting her morning prayers. Now, she "stacks" her prayer habit onto a habit she already does every day: making her bed. When she makes the bed, she kneels to pray.
SMART Goals for the Soul: Tamara walks through how to make a spiritual goal SMART. Instead of a vague wish ("I want to read my scriptures more"), turn it into a specific, achievable plan: "I will study the New Testament for 5 minutes every morning before I check my phone for the next 30 days so I can connect to God."

Resources

Are you ready to set goals that feel as good in your heart as they look on paper? Download our FREE Guide to Goal Setting. It features the new "Vision to Victory" page with an Intention Anchor worksheet to help you find the why behind your what. 👉 Download the Guide Here: https://www.womenwarriorsoflight.com/offers/WyaLn2gS/checkout

Need accountability? Check out our Women Warriors Accountability Group for free for two weeks! https://www.womenwarriorsoflight.com/join-now

Reflection Questions

Look at your biggest goal right now. Is it a "push" goal (relying on willpower) or a "pull" goal (driven by a deep, meaningful intention)?
What is one daily habit you already do without thinking (like brushing your teeth or making coffee)? What spiritual habit could you "stack" onto it today?
If a crisis happened today and you couldn't complete your to-do list (your goals), how could you still fulfill your underlying intention (e.g., showing love, finding peace)?
Run your current spiritual goal through the SMART acronym. Is it Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound?

Host & Guest

Tamara K. Anderson @TamaraKAnderson

Sandy Falter @sandyfalter_coaching

Sandy Falter is a mother of six children and a proud grandma of 9. After experiencing tremendous loss and healing herself, Sandy found her passion and purpose in helping others who have experienced loss from divorce, death, or unrealized expectations. She believes that God turns all tragedy for our good and she has seen the beauty rise from the ashes in her own life. Sandy Falter is certified grief coach, trainer and speaker. You can find her on her website at https://sandyfalter.com/

Transcript

Tamara K. Anderson

00:00:00.400 - 00:04:19.660

Have you ever reached a goal only to figure out that you didn't feel any better about yourself once you got there? Most of us are taught how to set smart goals, but we aren't always taught to set the purpose behind the goal, the intention.

A goal is a result in the future. An intention is the reason behind why you do it in your heart. Today we are answering the question how to set goals and intentions.

And by the end of today's episode you will understand how to anchor your to do list in your to be or become values. Solving the pain of hollow success by aligning your daily actions with your spiritual heart.

We're moving from just checking boxes today, friends, to truly changing our character. Stay tuned. Ordinary Women Extraordinary Faith When God calls, we say yes.

The Arise Women of God Podcast hello and welcome to another episode of the Arise Women of God Podcast. I'm your host, Tamara K. Anderson, and joining me today is Sandy Falter of our Women warriors of Light Advisory Board.

She is an amazing certified grief coach who empowers women to heal from heartbreak by equipping them with practical tools, compassionate support, time tested principles and faith based insight. One of the things I love about Sandy is that she has proven by her own experience that you truly can heal from grief through Jesus Christ.

You can find Sandy on her website, sandyfalter.com and while you're there, be sure to check out her free healing workshop or book. A free coaching call with her. And today we're bridging the gap between the head and the heart.

First, we're going to break down the actual difference between a goal and an intention. Second, we're going to give you a great hack on how to habit stack your intentions into your daily system.

Third, we're going to revisit the smart goal framework and see how an intention really makes those meaningful and especially how to stay flexible when life's detours Mess with your goals but can't touch your intentions all right my friends, so let's kick it off with goals and intentions and defining them a little bit. A goal is a specific, measurable outcome that you want to achieve in the future. For example, I will lose 10 pounds or I will write five chapters.

Or for me, I will record five podcast episodes. An intention is the reason behind the goal. The reason in your soul for doing it, your heart purpose for doing it. Goals are about checking a box.

Intentions are about the direction of your heart. But here's the cool thing. You can fail at a goal because of circumstances out of your control.

Like for example, when our Friend Wendy Christensen's house flooded recently. She failed at a lot of goals that week, but she didn't fail at the intention.

Wendy's intention was to have a more organized home where God's spirit could be present and her family could feel peace. A house flood didn't change the intention. She can still have peace in her house, even though it looks a little chaotic there right now.

So it's important to look at the heart behind the goals.

Often it gives you more momentum when you have a purpose behind the goal, a mission pulling you forward instead of you simply pushing forward on your own. The difference is between the push and the pull. And sometimes that's going to look different day to day, Right.

Once you have set the intention, sometimes you need a hack or two to make sure the goal actually happens. We call this habit stacking.

And Sandy is now going to share with us a brilliant way of taking a daily goal, like saying her morning prayers and anchoring it visually to a physical task.

Sandy Falter

00:04:19.980 - 00:05:46.970

Well, I have done the whole set a million goals and fail not being able to do them or having a good goal, but just struggling. And so some, some hacks really, that I have learned from great people out there.

One of my favorite books for goal setting and really being successful is Atomic Habits by James Clear. I love that book because he teaches us systems.

So if I want to have a habit of going to the gym or I put my workout clothes right next to my bed, I get up, get ready, and I'm set up for success. So doing things to help you be successful is a big part of it because we're human and we get busy and we forget. And if it's a new habit, it's hard.

The other thing that I started doing, this is a sad, sad admission here, but I used to struggle with my morning prayers.

I'd get up early and be getting my kids out the door, and then this would happen, and this would happen, and then it'd be noon and be like, oh, forget, forgot to pray. And I would feel so bad about it. So now what do I do every day? I make my bed. I make my bed every day. It's just something I do.

And so now if I get up and I'm busy, I don't make my bed. And so when I have time, when there's quiet, I go into my room, I make my bed, and I kneel at my bed. And so I habit stack.

So what is something you already do that you can stack? I. I believe systems can help us be successful because it's hard. We have life and distractions. So that's what has worked for me.

Tamara K. Anderson

00:05:47.130 - 00:09:40.430

Sandy's intention was connection with God, right? And her goal was daily morning prayer. But to make sure we don't stay in simply wishing that this takes place, we do need to measure it.

That's where smart goals come into place. But remember, the purpose of a smart goal isn't to drive you to exhaustion. It's to give your intention a plan, place to land.

I'm going to now share an example of setting a smart goal and what that can look like. But we're not going to use the typical business goals or stuff like that. We're going to use a goal that every woman warrior of light can relate to.

Personal scripture study. A vague wish could be, I want to read my scriptures more. That goal usually fails because can you really measure it?

Here is how you would turn that goal into a smart goal. Smart is an acronym that means specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound. Here's how we're going to break this down.

We'll start at the beginning with S Specific. This is where you define the what of the goal. Instead of saying simply, I want to study my scriptures, say I will study the New Testament.

Let's go to the M measurable. How do you know when you're done with this goal? You add a metric to it.

So, for example, I will read for 10 minutes or 5 minutes wherever you want to start. A is for achievable. This is where you ask the question, is it realistic for my current season of life? So basically you're checking your capacity.

If you have four kids and a flood in your house, please don't aim for an hour of scripture study in the New Testament. Maybe five minutes is a doable goal. Now let's go to the ring. Which is relevant. Does it align with your vision and intention?

This is where you connect the goal to your heart. Why do you want to read your scriptures more?

And you figure out it's because I want a better connection with God and I want to be yoked to Jesus so that I can handle my daily stress better. Ooh. That is a powerful reason that makes your goal so very relevant. Now let's move to T time bound. When will you do it and for how long?

This is where you set the schedule of when you're going to fit it into your daily life. For example, I will do this every morning before I check my phone for the next 30 days. Okay?

So when we put all those pieces together, here's how the final goal will sound.

I will study the New Testament for five minutes every morning before I check my phone for the next 30 days so I can connect to God, God and His Spirit. Pretty great, right? Remember, the goal is five minutes, but your intention is the heart behind it.

If you miss the five minutes because of a crisis, your intention is to be connected and that can still happen with a two minute prayer. The goal serves the intention, not the other way around. So my friends, set the goal but hold the intention.

You're going to have days where things go crazy and your goals have to shift. The good news is that your intention to be a good steward stays exactly the same.

If you're ready to set goals that feel as good as they look on paper, go check out our guide to Goal Setting for Christian Women. It features a new Vision to Victory page with an intention anchor worksheet to find the why behind your what.

And if you want a community to help you stay yoked to God and your intentions, join our Women Warriors Accountability Group. The links are in the description so my friends, go set a holy intention for the next hour of your life. Right now and until next time, may you arise.

Do it God's way, God strong.