Setting the Intent
You don't need to know how — you need to decide that.
- Difficulty
- Starter
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 82%
Sokunbi treats intention-setting as foundational to financial success and success in any area of life. The key move is decoupling the decision from the plan: you have to set the intent of being successful, but you explicitly do not have to know how you're going to do it. Once the intent is set, it sits in the back of your mind as a standing priority and self-motivation follows — you start taking the actions almost automatically, the way someone who intends to lose 10 pounds starts working out and eating better. She uses everyday intentions (a summer vacation, weight loss) to show the mechanism, then maps it directly onto finances. The critical constraint is authenticity: the intention must be around something you truly want for yourself.
Origin
Asked by host Hala Taha whether change requires first deciding you'll be wealthy or debt-free, Sokunbi affirmed it and reframed 'deciding' as 'setting the intent' — the cornerstone she teaches before any tactical money work at Clever Girl Finance.
Core principles
- 01Setting the intent is the cornerstone — everything downstream depends on it.
- 02You do not need to know the how to set the intent; requiring the how is what stops most people.
- 03A set intention makes the goal a standing priority in the back of your mind, which self-generates action.
- 04The intention must be around something you truly want for yourself, or it won't hold.
- 05A slip-up doesn't void the intent — the intent is what brings you back.
How to run it
- 1
Declare the intent
State what you intend to accomplish in plain, present terms: 'I'm going to pay off my debt.' 'I'm going to save this money.' The declaration itself is the act.
- 2
Release the how
Deliberately do not require yourself to know every step. Sokunbi: 'you don't have to know how you're going to do it... but you have to set the intent of being successful.' Demanding the full path before committing is the standard failure.
Pro tip If you catch yourself researching before deciding, you've inverted the order.
- 3
Test that you truly want it
Check the intention is around something that genuinely matters to you, not an obligation. An intention around something you don't actually want will not generate the self-motivation the method depends on.
Watch out Intentions borrowed from parents, peers, or Instagram collapse under the first difficulty.
- 4
Let it run in the background
Keep the intention top-of-mind so it becomes a priority. Sokunbi's evidence that it's working: you start taking actions without forcing them — putting money in savings, checking hotel reviews, working out.
- 5
Return after a slip
When you falter, treat it as a bad day or bad weekend, not a revoked intention. 'Okay, you know what? That was just a bad day. I'm going to get back on it.' The intent is the thing that pulls you back.
In the wild
Sokunbi uses a deliberately mundane case: someone sets the intention to lose 10 pounds. They didn't map a training programme first — they set the intent, and because of that it became a priority, so they started working out and eating better. When they slipped, they returned to it.
→ Progress starts without a plan, driven purely by the standing priority the intention creates.
Someone sets the intent to take a vacation next summer. Without any structured plan, they start putting money in a savings account and find themselves on TripAdvisor reading hotel reviews — actions generated by the intention rather than a project schedule.
→ The intention self-generates the first concrete steps, which is exactly the mechanism Sokunbi wants applied to money goals.
Common mistakes
Waiting until you know how
The most common blocker. Sokunbi explicitly removes the requirement: setting intentions is not about knowing every step you're going to take. Requiring the map before the decision means the decision never happens.
Setting an intention you don't actually want
Sokunbi insists the intention has to be around something you truly, truly want for yourself. A borrowed intention produces no self-motivation, so the actions never follow.
Treating a slip as a cancelled intent
One bad weekend gets read as proof the whole thing failed. The intent survives slips by design — abandoning it after one is what actually ends the progress.
Is it for you?
Best for
Anyone stuck at the starting line of a financial change because the path isn't clear yet.
Not ideal for
People who have already committed and now need mechanics — this is the ignition step, not the engine.
From the transcript
“You have to set the intent of what you want to accomplish... you don't have to know how you're going to do it. That's one…”
“It's basically a cornerstone. It's foundational to your financial success and just success in any aspect of your life.”
“It has to be intention around something that you truly truly want for yourself.”
From the episode
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