What’s Behind An Intention?

Originally Published December 20, 2018

I bet you have heard all about the importance of setting an intention, and I bet a lot of you do that on a fairly regular basis - especially at this time of the year. You've probably heard that the intention is what is behind the manifestion of  your goals and dreams. It helps to create clarity in your life, and can be the GPS getting you from point A to point B. Which is why you probably make an intention, to create the life and the outcome that you want.

So intention is important, isn't it? After all, we all have good intentions and we want the best for all concerned. Right?

Sometimes when we set an intention, we expect things to magically happen. Create the intention, sit back and wait - BRING IT ON UNIVERSE!  That is magical thinking, and magical thinking is not the same as purposefully working with, being aligned with and being answerable for the impact your intention has on others. So let's dig a little deeper.

What’s Behind An Intention

Yes, intention is important, but there's much more to it than setting it and passively waiting for the outcome. That approach is naive, and frankly often speaks more to priviledge than working consciously and deliberately with intention.

In order to properly work with our intention, we need to take a deep dive into the purpose behind it and explore what lies beyond the motive for creating it. We also need to explore our feelings about why we created that intent and to go beyond how it can (and usually does) make us feel good about ourselves. AND whe need to be aware of the impact our intention has on others.

It's not enough to simply have an intention, we need to know and be answerable to the IMPACT our intention has on others.

If your intention is to have a beautiful garden but you don't take the time to care and nurture it, the impact of your intention will cause the plants to struggle, if it doesn't outright kill them.

If your intention is to volunteer at an animal shelter but you keep calling to cancel or reschedule your volunteer time, the impact of your intention affects the well-being of the animals and staff at the shelter. After all, they were counting on you to follow through with your intent.

Yes, set your intent, but always, ALWAYS be attentive of the impact it has on others and be willing to alter or even abandon it as needed.