I was talking to a businessman recently who, even though it is the very beginning of the year, already felt behind. In fact, he was telling everyone around him that he was behind on the year’s plan he had just devised.
His focus on a specific goal instead of the big picture was creating an unconscious intention.
His behavior was focused on his not reaching his goal. Yet, if you asked him, he would be emphatically clear that he was focused on making his goals, but his attention was on not making them and he directed the attention of his staff to being behind and not making them.
We all slip here and don’t realize that we have substituted a different intention than what we desire. What we focus on, our attention, is what feeds intention. That is what is meant by intention creates reality.
Intention is the basis or vision that gives framework to an organization’s mission and vision, and provides a reference point for the leader. In 1994, Leadership expert Margaret Wheatley said that intention shapes reality by shaping perception. Prior to that, Gary Zukav said, “What you choose, with each action and each thought, is an intention, a quality of consciousness that you bring to your action or to your thought.”
An intention is a guiding principle, one that is used to make daily decisions, over and over again. Intentions can be conscious, unconscious or both, but our true intention is the one determined by our behavior.
With repetition intentions gain strength, lock in and become a habit. Most of us don’t think about how we became who we are, or how our organizations became what they are. Yet there is a clear path that created both. And there is a clear path that will change it.
Do you know what your actions and behaviors reveal as your true intention? Does it line up with where you want to be?
-Jan
