My Intentions make my Life

Intentions are what create our life. Absent Intentions, life is a drift tossed by the waves of the stormy ocean of daily life. Tossed by the organization we work in, the boss we work for, the partner we live with or even just by our own ever-changing mind. Absent a compass that holds the true north, we remain completely lost or a slave of what’s happening around us. It all feels depressing or as if we were going round in circles.

But we have a choice.

A choice to live an intentional life that directs our thoughts, speech and action. For many of us this is a revelation.  Maura Thomas writes in Harvard Business Review (15 March 2018) 

“Your attention determines the experiences you have, and the experiences you have determine the life you live. Or said another way: you must control your attention to control your life”.

That brings us to the next question. How do I create intentions for myself ?

Here is a simple 5 step process:

1.   Imagine life to be a wheel of four balancing quadrants  – Your life journey (Personal growth), Your work journey (professional growth), Your Relationship journey (family/partner/friend), Your Service journey (towards the community/nature/spiritual).   These four quadrants are fulfilling for mind, heart and soul.

2.   Now write your intention for each of these quadrants. An intention being the positive impact  you create by using your natural gift on yourself, your workplace, your relationship or your community.   

3.   Now convert those intentions into a story. A story of your last 12 months written in the future. i.e. imagine it is Dec 2019 and you are reading your own story of the last twelve months.  How would story read?   Write it in past tense.

4.   Read the story to yourself or the Retreat leader to test if it feels complete i.e. if all of these intentions came true would this be your ‘Best Life’. 

5.   Write down the key emotions that you would associate with it.

That’s half the battle. Now how do we give attention to our intentions?

If you wish to know more about creating and living your intentions or your ‘Best Life’,  and setting up a mindfulness practice to manifest them, join us at the next LifeShop or Being 2019. 

reference: https://hbr.org/2018/03/to-control-your-life-control-what-you-pay-attention-to