Setting Your Own Intention
SUMMARY
Do you just let the year happen, hoping you get closer to where you wanted to be last year at the end of this year?
Well, that's what most people do.
They spend more time working out where they will go on a weekend away than they do planning their life.
Now, I know why we do that.
The reason is that we feel like we are out of control anyway, because nothing seems to go the way we want it to go, and so many things are happening around us.
Well, stick with me because this week, I want to help you shift that thinking and make sure that you stack everything in your favour to be where you actually want to end up at the end of this year.
In this volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world that I keep talking about, where the speed of change is so fast, there are so many challenges, roadblocks and things in the way. You may feel that it is pointless to try to work out where you want to go because you are not in control.
You can shift that.
This is all about setting an intention.
Intentionality is about doing things on purpose rather than just Groundhog Day, getting up, going through the same motions, then coming home and going to bed.
To have this Intentionality, what you need to:
Have Clarity
Work on your Limiting Beliefs
Start the year by setting your intention.
Sit down and have a look forward.
Use that R4 method that I’ve taught you before and go:
“At the end of the year, what are the results that I want to have in those particular areas that are important to me?”
One of those could be your career, but there are many other facets of your life as well.
Then go:
“Well, what's my current reality? How does it look different to that right now?”
Do that in a forward-focused reflection way where you're not looking to see that it's a gap that's too big or showing you what you can't do and what you haven't done.
No. It's just setting a starting point.
Then, have a look at the roadblocks:
“What are the things that are getting in my way?”
“What are the things that I am doing or not doing that are holding me back?”
Then, look at the resources that you need to add so that you can overcome those roadblocks and get to where you want to go.
Set your intention; either keep it to yourself or let those who are closest to you know.
Your intention becomes your filter for the year, and one of the things I love to do is give that intention a one-word name.
The name is special for you. It doesn't matter what anybody else has as their word.
This word is a rudder; it’s a guiding light that shows you just with that one word:
“This is the overall intention I have for this year.”
When you set a destination and intention, you realise that it's an incremental journey from where you are now to where you want to go, step by step, day by day.
When you have your values and priorities as a filter to make sure that you are investing your energy towards the things that are going to move the needle towards that intention, then you'll start getting the results that you want.
That intention also serves as a vision board to inspire you on those days — and they're going to be there — when you don't feel like doing it anymore.
Set your intention. It's your intention.
Instead of letting the world dictate to you where you can end up, and stifle your own dreams and abilities, you decide where you're going to be.
Well, that's it for me for another week. Join me again next week as we continue this conversation and look at some of the areas in your Professional Leadership.
I'll see you then.
TRANSCRIPT
Do you just let the year happen, hoping you get closer to where you wanted to be last year at the end of this year?
Well, that's what most people do.
They spend more time working out where they will go on a weekend away than they do planning their life.
Now, I know why we do that.
The reason is that we feel like we are out of control anyway, because nothing seems to go the way we want it to go, and so many things are happening around us.
Well, stick with me because this week, I want to help you shift that thinking and make sure that you stack everything in your favour to be where you actually want to end up at the end of this year.
Hi, this is Grant Herbert, VUCA Leadership and Sustainable Performance Coach, and today I want to continue our conversation around personal leadership by helping you set your own intention.
When we go off on a journey we need to know where we want to arrive. We need to have some milestones along the way, some things that we need to do, and some resources that we need to add so that we turn up on time where it is that we want to be.
Unfortunately, most of us don't do that.
Years ago, I would go on a family road trip, and I was a very “organised” person who normally had everything down-pat. When we stopped at the service station (the gas station) to refuel, everybody knew you had enough time to go to the bathroom and get what they wanted to buy until Dad had finished filling the car.
As I got older, wiser, and mellower, I changed some things.
I remember going off on road trips where I just thought:
“You know what, I sort of know where I want to go, but I'm not going to plan; we're just going to wing it.”
Now, unfortunately, on more than one occasion that, “winging it” meant that we didn't have a hotel to stay in, that we didn't eat when we were supposed to eat, and we had unhappy children in the back of the vehicle who had to be in there longer than we needed to be because we had to drive all the way home because dad hadn't done the planning.
That's what happens to most of us in our everyday lives.
We just take off, “wing it” and hope that everything falls into place.
The reason why most of us do this is that we feel like there's no use planning where it is that we want to be because life happens.
In this volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world that I keep talking about, where the speed of change is so fast, there are so many challenges, roadblocks and things in the way. You may feel that it is pointless to try to work out where you want to go because you are not in control.
You can shift that.
Instead of letting it happen ‘to’ you, you can navigate the journey that you are going on and roll with the punches because you've set up some contingencies in your own plan.
Not everything is going to go the way that you want it to go. Life is always going to be like that.
However, instead of throwing out the baby with the bath water and going:
“Well, who cares? I won't bother planning anything because I'm not in control anyway.”
Why not do what you can to make sure that you at least get the needle moving towards where you want to go and (in fact) arrive, even if it's a little bit closer than what you would've if you just left it to seat-of-the-pants crisis mentality.
This is all about setting an intention.
Intentionality is about doing things on purpose rather than just Groundhog Day, getting up, going through the same motions, then coming home and going to bed.
To have this intentionality, the first thing that you need is CLARITY.
Clarity around where it is that you want to end up. Even more than this, it’s about: “Who do you want to become?” Not just: “What do I want to do?”
To get there, you need to understand your own values and priorities.
Most of us invest all of our energy in other people's priorities.
If you're not clear on what your priorities are — in fact —what your values are, then it's easy for you to be blown around towards other people's priorities.
So, the first thing to do is to get this clarity around:
“Who am I?”
“What’s my purpose?”
“This thing called ‘my career’, where does it fit into where I'm going?”
And not having a career that dictates everything and limits the results that you can have.
Every single one of us has the ability to be a greater influence, to make the income that we want to make and to be the impact that we can have in the world. We just need to do things a little bit more intentionally.
So, sit down and work out exactly:
“What do I stand for?”
“What are my values?”
“What is it that I want to achieve?”
I always get my clients to do this little exercise where I ask them:
“If you were on international television where every single person in the world who had some sort of a device that could see you across the internet was watching you, what message would you like them to hear?”
I bet your answer would not be about your work.
It will be about your overall purpose: Who you are and what you care about.
And that’s where you need to start getting your purpose together to set the intention for 2024.
OK, you may have forgotten that purpose. The day-to-day of everything you're doing may have overtaken it, and you're not giving it any thought. In fact, you may have pushed it down so that you don't even recognise it anymore because it hurts to see what you want to be and not feel like you're going to be able to get there.
So, the second thing you need to do is WORK ON YOUR LIMITING BELIEFS.
Work on that identity that we've talked about, and take back control over where it is that you are going, not just in 2024, but for the rest of your life.
I know that this is not easy.
Nothing that brings the greatest results ever is.
I know in my own life that I've previously cast aside dreams, goals, and ambitions because I was stuck in the day-to-day experience that I was going through at that particular moment.
Remember, it's not what happens to you; it's what you make it mean. Further to that, it's what you make it mean about you and your own ability.
When you've tried before, and you haven't made it, what have you believed about yourself?
What have you made that mean about you?
That internal dialogue, which gets way too much airplay, can be reprogrammed.
You can start thinking about these things again.
So, we are in early January. Let's not wait until the end of this year to look back with regret at what we could have done.
Start the year by setting your intention.
Sit down and have a look forward.
Use that R4 method that I’ve taught you before and go:
“At the end of the year, what are the results that I want to have in those particular areas that are important to me?”
One of those could be your career, but there are many other facets of your life as well.
Then go:
“Well, what's my current reality? How does it look different to that right now?”
Do that in a forward-focused reflection way where you're not looking to see that it's a gap that's too big or showing you what you can't do and what you haven't done.
No. It's just setting a starting point.
Then, have a look at the roadblocks:
“What are the things that are getting in my way?”
“What are the things that I am doing or not doing that are holding me back?”
Then, look at the resources that you need to add so that you can overcome those roadblocks and get to where you want to go.
Set your intention; either keep it to yourself or let those who are closest to you know.
Your intention becomes your filter for the year, and one of the things I love to do is give that intention a one-word name.
The name is special for you. It doesn't matter what anybody else has as their word.
This word is a rudder; it’s a guiding light that shows you just with that one word:
“This is the overall intention I have for this year.”
When you set a destination and intention, you realise that it's an incremental journey from where you are now to where you want to go, step by step, day by day.
When you have your values and priorities as a filter to make sure that you are investing your energy towards the things that are going to move the needle towards that intention, then you'll start getting the results that you want.
That intention also serves as a vision board to inspire you on those days — and they're going to be there — when you don't feel like doing it anymore.
Set your intention. It's your intention.
Instead of letting the world dictate to you where you can end up, and stifle your own dreams and abilities, you decide where you're going to be.
Well, that's it for me for another week. Join me again next week as we continue this conversation and look at some of the areas in your Professional Leadership.
I'll see you then.
