The focus of this skill is just one Russian verb, «собира́ться». It means something between "to be going to" and "to plan/to intend to". The verb means that it is your intention to perform some action, and you are, most likely, taking some steps (physical or cognitive) to let it eventually happen:
It also has its plain literal meaning of "to gather" or "to pack your stuff, preparing to leave". Interestingly, when talking about going to some place where some "event" is taking place, its literal and mataphorical meaning work together, so the verb can be used directly with a place: «Я собира́юсь на ле́кцию».
The primary use of «собира́ться» is to show preplanned future actions of persons. Things and beings that do not have consciousness can only use this verb in its literal meaning.