Intention bingo card

Someone in my private group had used  an ‘intention bingo’ card last year, and so a lot of us are making one this year. It is a great way of motivating yourself to take actions through out the year that might improve different areas of your life. Templates can easily be found on the internet. To be honest, I just drew mine with pencil and paper as I find that writing things down imprints ideas into my head.

To help me decide which actions I wanted to take I did a ‘wheel of life’

This coaching tool actually transformed my life in 2010. It was through this tool that I identified the areas of my life that were making me so unhappy. I therefore was able to take actions to change them. Working towards early retirement and giving up work at 54  (in 2015), were the result. I was in debt, burned out, physically and mentally ill, and my family life was suffering at the time. It helped me see that and make a plan.

The idea is that you fill in your bingo card with the actions or intentions for the year. To make it fun you treat yourself to a reward for filling in a line. These can be decided now or later. A line is a column, a row, or a diagonal (like noughts and crosses). The grid can be whatever size you want. Mine  is bigger and is 42 squares. (6 × 7 squares).

The internet calls it a goal setting bingo card, but I think it works better as actions or intentions that you mean to take. An example could be to declutter and take 2 bags to the charity shop each month, or list things and sell them on vinted. Goals need to be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, time framed).

One of my intentions is to do a tour of waterfalls in Wales. I will put it into my bingo card but it doesn’t totally fit smart goal setting criteria as I don’t know when I will be able to get away, or if I can afford to do it. However, if I set it as an intention I am more likely to do it. Goals can put a lot of pressure on us, sometimes. Intentions are more flexible.

If you think about the different areas of your life generally, or from doing the wheel of life, actions and intentions are easier to identify. Mine include holding 3 tea parties using my mum’s posh  tea service, holding a Simple Frugal Life event, and going for 3 nature walks a week with someone. This is because I want to improve my self care, and socialise more.

Some of my squares I will be able to cross out straight away, eg read a certain book, or attend a certain workshop. Other’s, like the decluttering one, I won’t be able to cross out until next December. It is therefore important to think about which intentions you are putting in which squares. If you can’t get any lines until next December, you will not be motivated to continue.

I am not going to put a picture of my card on here as some of them are personal, however, I will write a blogs later that includes some of these intentions being achieved.

An activity that I will be doing tomorrow, and I do around this time each year, is to do a vision board. I think that it really helps us to reach our goals and intentions if we visualise them. Looking at my vision board each day reminds my brain of the life that I want. It will then unconsciously look for it.

Are you making a bingo card, vision board, or setting yourself some new year goals? I am going to put a few really uncomfortable ones in there which will really challenge me, and get me out of my comfort zone. That is the only way that I will move forward in my life. Wish me luck. 😊