Setting Intentions will Change your Life
Gregg’s Reflection
As I began my spiritual searching, I discovered Carlos Castenada’s The Teachings of Don Juan, a look into the spirituality of the Native Americans. Don Juan told Castenada, “For every warrior there is a path with a heart, and finding that path will lead to the most powerful life.” I set my first intention, to find my ‘Path with a Heart.’ It took me nearly 30 years to discern my true calling in life, and I have spent the last 25 living it out.
We came to my first vision for our lives when I was 28. We married just after I turned 21 and Genie was 18. When we were pregnant with Florrie, our oldest, I went to work in the family business. My father was a difficult man, and I knew I would not like working for him. So, I said I would give it five years, and then we would reevaluate.
As I turned 28, the five years had passed, and we evaluated, as we intended. I was in a sales territory, making decent money, setting my own schedule, and learning how to set goals and manage my time.
Andy came along two and a half years after Florrie was born, and we realized they would be out of the house by the time I turned 45. So we set our first vision, our first long range intention, to achieve financial independence by age 45 and walk away to do whatever we wanted with the rest of our lives.
I had been baptized with my son, and felt the stirrings of a calling from God in my soul. Not having heard a healthy theology of vocation, I thought I needed to leave the business to pursue a calling. I actually sold the business and walked away at age 48, twenty years after setting this intention.
My brother and I spent a decade working to build a learning organization in our heavy equipment business after our father died in 1990. We studied Peter Senge’s The Fifth Discipline, and particularly focused on two of these disciplines, Personal Mastery, and Building Shared Vision.
Dr. Charlotte Roberts was the Innovation Associates partner who came to Atlanta and led our company through visioning, and has informally mentored me since then. At the heart of the discipline of Personal Mastery is the Tension Chart:
Charlotte Roberts defines Personal Mastery this way: "Personal mastery is the discipline of employment and engagement of self to create desired results in a consistent fashion. What do we mean by employment? Employment means I literally take action. However, I can employ myself in my work and not be engaged. Engagement means I bring my passion, my energy, and my full self to the work."
While this definition might sound dry, it is the discipline that empowered my business success, my move to a second career, and my living into the Abundant Life Jesus promised in John 10:10. The tension chart is the tool that propels us towards our vision. And, a vision, as Olympic high jumper Dwight Stones says, “Is a dream with a deadline.”
After working with Charlotte, I studied for three years with Robert Fritz, who Senge credits with the development of the tension chart and Personal Mastery. I was certified as a structural consultant, and began my coaching work based on his method.
At age 73, I approach the stage of life where one of my mentors used to say, “I don’t even buy green bananas anymore.” But, I maintain two core intentions, to strengthen my relationship with God and with my friends and family. We built our cabin out here as a place for family and friends to gather. Every day, I spend time with God, time for spiritual writing and reading, and doing the Examination of Consciousness, thinking of the times I am aware of God’s presence, and times I was distracted. This is an excellent practice to become more aware of God in the mundane of daily life.
I have learned that ideas are like seeds. Only the seeds that we give enough attention and intention to will actually germinate and bear fruit. Come and see how setting intentions might change your life as well.
Blessings,
Gregg
Journaling Prompts
How has setting intentions changed your life? Do you have a clear vision of your next season of life? What intentions have you set in your family life, spiritual life and career?
Scripture
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.
Proverbs 3: 5-6
Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established. The human mind plans the way, but the Lord directs the steps.
Proverbs 16: 3, 9
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
Jeremiah 29:11-13
Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. 21 She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.” Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed at that moment.
Matthew 9:20-22. The woman sets intention and is healed
Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it?
Luke 14:28
Ancient Writing
The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
Lao Tzu
Modern Writing
An intention is more than a conscious purpose, it’s the congruence of that purpose. It requires an alignment of all aspects of one’s self. It’s a state of living in harmonic agreement with oneself.
Rick Rubin, The Creative Act, p. 94-95
Attention energizes, and intention transforms. Whatever you put your attention on will grow stronger in your life. Intention triggers transformation of energy and information. Intention organizes its own fulfillment.
― Deepak Chopra, The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success: A Practical Guide to the Fulfillment of Your Dreams
The secret to changing your life is in your intentions. Wishing, hoping and goal setting cannot accomplish change without intention. What is needed is a shift from the inert energy of wanting to the active energy of doing and intention.
We must become more proactive if we are to express God’s plan for our lives in such a way we impact our world. We each wrestle with what we should do, what’s right, who we should invite into our lives—how we should best manage, say, do any number of things.
…which of you intending…
This is the Law of Intention. The word “intending” here is the Greek word thelo, which means “to will, to purpose, to determine, or to resolve.” When it comes to making quality decisions, these are resolutions—intentions you resolve to fulfill.
Your future is an act of will, not an act of skill.
Too often we say we don’t have the education or experience or expertise—we tell ourselves we lack the necessary skill. However, making a difference, doing something better, or being able to improve the quality of your life is not a skill, it’s an act of the will.
“Which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost?” Luke 14:28
If you intend to do something, you will sit down and give that intention some thought—you will go from intention (motive) to thought (mechanism). People don’t have the future they dream of because they don’t put enough thought into it. They allow other people’s thoughts to determine where they are going.
As you think in your heart, so you will be. What you think about yourself—what you believe is possible for you to become, do, or have—is exactly what you will be, do, or have for no other reason than these are your thoughts!
When it comes to your life, this is how destiny is birthed; it flows from these three dimensions: Intention — Thought — Action
Destiny flows from the dimension of thought…manifesting itself as a product of intention…expressed as an action in obedience to the Word of God. These are three processes by which you make life decisions that either maintain or alter the path you take in life. Directing your destiny requires deliberate thought, intention, and action.
Destiny is a matter of intentionality; not your skill, but your will. I think about the woman with the issue of blood in Matthew 9:20-22. The Bible says she had been fighting twelve long years for her health. One day she happened across Jesus and said to herself, “If I may but touch His garment I shall be made whole”—an intention which produced the thought, “I will reach out to receive healing.”
Scripture says her intention led to an action—“she touched the hem of His garment”—and when she acted Jesus said, “Your faith has made you whole.”
Here we see the three elements clearly represented: Intention, Thought, Action.
When you intend to do something heaven conspires with earth to bring the necessary resources to bear for your plans to become reality.
When you intend to do something, God considers it done. At the very moment you intend to obey is when your blessing is activated. To live into the fullness of your divine destiny, align your will with God’s will concerning you.
Cindy Trimm, The Power of Intention
Jason Frishman, Psy.D. "Setting an intention is the initiation, the first step into your preferred story," he says. "Particularly if your intention is solidly aligned with your values, then you have a powerful tool for moving forward and achieving your desires." Regular statements of intention also allow you to change courses or adjust the path if needed, he says.
Intentions can be both large (think: lifelong) and small (think: for the next day or even the next hour). Either way, they need to be specific and actionable, says Frishman.
Sara Weand, L.P.C., a licensed counselor says, ""
How to Start Setting Intentions
1. State your intentions. "After gaining clarity on your goals and understanding your values, I would encourage taking the initiative by finding a small and repeatable action that moves you toward the goal and expresses a value," says Frishman. "Then, state your intention to accomplish that task. Making a statement is essential. Intentions are most powerful when they are shared or declared outside of your own head."
2. Be clear. The key is being conscious about where you place your attention — that's the only way to think what you want into reality.
3. Make sure your intentions are positive. An intention gives you a focal point to redirect your energy when it's inevitably pushed and pulled in different directions throughout each day. Just make sure that whatever your intention is, it comes from a place of positivity. Research shows negative emotions can overpower their positive counterparts.
4. Keep your intentions simple. Your intentions don't have to be rooted in lofty goals. Rather, they should be feasible and realistically actionable. As you get more accustomed to setting daily intentions, they become easier and simply part of your daily routine. From there, you can grow into setting intentions for your future, weeks, months, and years down the line. The same rule remains: Be specific about what you want, envision it for your future, and feel it deeply. With time, you'll achieve your goals.
5. Shift any limiting beliefs. Limiting beliefs are convictions you believe to be absolutely true and that have a negative impact on your life by holding you back in some way. Any doubt that you may have is going to be a blocker for achieving what you intend to achieve.
Setting intentions is more than just setting goals — it's about being purposeful in pursuing your desires.
Annamarie Hollis, Experts Share Why Setting Intentions May Change Your Life, AnnaMarie Hollis, Shape Magazine, 9/15/24