Living With Intent

Think of yourself as an author, sitting down to write a book. You require a subject for your book. A compelling character to anchor the story. What are you going to write about? Here’s the answer ---your own life. Your story is very compelling. But everything that you have experienced so far in your life is back-story. It can inform and shade your character, but it will not be in the book you, the author, are about to write. Your new story begins right now. Page one starts with today. Now what are you going to write about?

As an author you will begin by talking your character and plotting out a series of events. Remember it should be plausible. Your character can’t be a secretary one day and a rock star the next. There has to be progression and continuity. But a secretary could evolve into a rock star. Plot out the way it could happen. You are going to take your character from this point in time until his or her death. It takes some planning doesn't it? It takes active imagination. It takes intent. This is the way we should all be living our lives. With specific intent. With a happy ending in mind, so that when you turn the last page of the book, you break into a warm knowing smile, maybe dry a small tear of heartfelt emotion and know it was a life well lived. A life accomplishment. A legacy of purpose.

Exercise

For those bold and brave souls who want to begin writing that book, it is a perfect way to begin writing in your journal. For everyone else, a method to begin plotting your course in life is to list 101 things you want to experience before you die.

1. _______________________________________________________

2. _______________________________________________________

3. _______________________________________________________

…

101. _____________________________________________________

It is necessary to put the power of thought into active motion. So many of us have deep whisper in our minds, but show no effort or intent to turn our internal thought into reality.

This outlines the most common thought process most of us follow. Start with belief. We all have beliefs. We acquire them through experience, observation and conditioning. They are the baseline upon which we operate, and we are conditioned to protect our beliefs. They do not change easily.

Our beliefs drive our actions. For example we have learned that by stepping on the gas pedal, a car accelerates. We believe that to be true. So when we need to go somewhere, what do we do? We get in a car and step on the gas. That action leads to a result. The car moves. We have just reinforced our belief.

Our thoughts process has now come full circle and here’s where the transition occurs. Most often we allow our results to dictate or revise our beliefs. Then the circular thought process starts all over again.

The problem with allowing results to modify our beliefs is that results can vary. There are any number of factors that can result, and many of them we may not be able to control, or even know about.

If you had never been in a car before and all you know was that stepping on the gas made it go, then you might be in for disillusioning experience. You get in, close the door and press the pedal. It doesn’t go! Well you may not have turned the ignition yet, or the car may be out of gas, or in need of repair. Still, you don’t know anything about cars. All you know is it didn't work no matter how many times you touched the accelerator. You come away from the result of your action with a damaged belief. Heck, you may never drive again.

In many cases the results of our actions are not what we anticipate. Sometimes things just don’t work out. So, imagine starting the process all over again but with a damaged belief. Maybe you think it's your fault. Or that all cars are unreliable. Or the whole driving thing is way overrated. Low self-esteem, lack of confidence and just a bad attitude are all common side effects from damaged beliefs.

Instead of a circular thought process, it can lead to a downward spiral. You become emotionally involved with negativity. It’s a steep and slippery slope.

Next thing you know, you are living a life filled with negativity, let downs and unhappiness. We see people like this all the time---grumpy, bitter old folks who never have a good word to say.

Don’t let it happen to you. By simply creating a new starting point in our thought processes, we can ensure an upward spiral instead. How? It’s done by adding goals to the flow chart.

First set your goal, outrageous goals. Believe wholeheartedly in them and you’ll find it very easy to add emotion to the mix. Let’s face it, your goals are going to provide a fun and exciting life. Goals are only the stepping stones, but they give you a sense that anything is possible.

Now make the decision to act on your goals. Keep in mind that your goals matter. Results of your action should never affect the belief in your ability to achieve your stated goals.

Now here’s the key. Chances are with vigorous and directed action, you’ll reach your goals. But even if your results are not what you expected, the goals are still what are important. Once you've achieved one goal, you move to the next passionate goal. It can even be a revised version of the first goal. Remember, we won’t let results affect our belief in our ability to achieve, but we can learn from our results. We can make adjustments and tweaks in our actions that will help us move forward to the nest goal.

This is a pattern of intent that can serve you for life.