The Sankalpa — Setting Intention at First Light
Sankalpa is the Vedic practice of forming a clear, resolute intention, traditionally set in the pristine mental field of the pre-dawn hour when the will is undistracted and the mind most fertile.
A sankalpa is a heartfelt resolve or vow, a seed of intention planted in the mind with conviction. The tradition teaches that the pre-dawn mind, calm and uncluttered, is the most fertile soil for such a seed, which then guides thought and action through the day. To begin the day with a clear financial or vocational intention — to act with integrity, to save, to serve well — orients the whole of one's energy toward that end. Without a guiding sankalpa, the day's currents scatter effort and dissipate fortune. The principle anticipates modern findings in goal-setting psychology: Edwin Locke's research demonstrates that specific, committed goals dramatically outperform vague aspirations, and that intentions formed and visualized in a calm state are far more likely to be enacted.
Man is made by his belief; as he believes, so he becomes.
Locke and Latham's goal-setting theory empirically confirms the sankalpa principle: clear, committed intentions formed in a calm mind produce markedly higher achievement than vague wishes.
Bhagavad Gita