The Best of Intentions

It’s been a nice, quiet holiday season in my household; the first time in many years that we didn’t travel.  Taking a bit of time off meant more opportunity to watch the morning news shows and sit down with the newspaper and a cup of tea. I was struck by the number of times I watched or read stories about “making your New Year’s resolutions.” 

Is it any wonder that people give up on resolutions shortly after they make them?  After all, think about the word itself.  Resolution.  It sounds so... well, resolute.  It’s such a left-brained word - dry, linear and confined.  You’re enveloped in a shroud of claustrophobia as your resolutions form a box around your life.  It’s a Chinese water torture that drips guilt on your forehead each time you stray a bit off course, till you finally can’t stand it any longer and abandon what you set out to accomplish because it’s just too difficult.

I gave up resolutions years ago.  Instead, I create a short list of intentions at the beginning of each year.  Ooooohhh, intentions.  Let that word roll around inside your mouth for awhile and see how different you feel.  Very right-brained, full of feeling and freedom.  To have an intention is to give yourself permission to live a fuller life, with plenty of room for growth.  Intentions have been intimate, loyal and forgiving friends and helped me grow far beyond what I could have imagined. 

This year, one of my intentions is to “start striving for imperfection.”  I’ve been known to either work something to death in order to make it perfect or let the fear of imperfection stop me from even getting started.  While I know it’s difficult to break old patterns and there will be setbacks, an intention stays with me far longer than a resolution.  I actually view it in a positive light rather than the dark shadow of “what I should be doing.”

What if, in business, you took a break from thinking in terms of mission statements and started focusing on intention?  If you wanted your business to grow this year, what might  be two or three of your intentions?  Can they be worded in the language of the right brain, full of imagination, emotion and spirituality (not religion, but spirit)?  How easy would it be to deliver the message of those intentions to your staff instead of a useless mission statement or strict list of rules?  And how easily would that feeling to spread to your female customers who are very right-brain oriented? 

Intentions are warm and genuine, radiating authenticity.  You will attract customers looking to fulfill similar intentions, and will keep them coming back.  Your customers will also cut you a little more slack in the case of the inevitable screw-up.

Give intentions a try and see how they work for you.  Start climbing out the traditional box before it closes in on you... isn’t it time to think from a new perspective and live the business life you always intended?   Happy New Year!

Comments

[Juliet]

Thanks for sharing this. I always had a hard time with the word "resolutions" as it pertains to the New Year. "Intention" works much better and is what I realize I have been doing for several years.

[Lisa T. Davis]

O so beautifully written, as always!

The road to Hell may be paved with them, but intentions are what make us human. Resolve is the treaty clause. Intention is the exploratory journey that mates our desires to a universe of possibilities. Intentions keep us flexible, persuadable, open to options we may not yet have understood or even identified. When we understand this in our own lives and in the lives of those on whose behalves we direct our efforts, we influence hearts *and* minds.

[Josia]

I know you don't do it *intentionally* Michele and I don't want to freak you out - but you always say things that have a very profound meaning in other realms - our 'intention' - meaning what is truly in our hearts - is the most important concept in kabbalah:

"Therefore the methodology of changing the intention (something that no one can see and that is hidden from everyone) is called the secret Science of Kabbalah. It is the methodology of how to receive by changing the intention. The important thing is what I am thinking when I perform any given action, and what goal I am pursuing when I act. All 125 levels are degrees of gradual correction of the soul’s intention, from receiving for one’s own sake to receiving for the sake of the Creator."

Excerpt from http://www.kabbalah.info/engkab/talks_with_the_beginners/talk3.htm