The importance of creating intentions

I woke up this morning and I had no idea what day of the week it was so when I recognized it was Monday I thought “Yay, it’s Monday, I’ve got NOT a lot to do!”(As I am writing this, we were experiencing a pandemic and everyone is asked to stay home and be in self-quarantine. It is a time of uncertainty and disruptions to many) And then I thought I would put the challenge, the same challenge I put out to my clients often, I would take that challenge onto myself and say “What is my intention for today?” And so, I have been thinking about the routine that I have established over the last few weeks and decided that I need to be honest with myself and keep on doing that.

So I’m wondering how you are going with your intentions because at the end of last week I had a bit of a down patch because I was thinking that I am so used to having such high interaction with people and the energy that I get from the everybody that I interact with, I think that’s what feeds me.

Acknowledging what you are grateful for

I am really grateful for having people around me that I love, enjoy their company and have great robust conversations with. I am on the phone daily with people that I care about and I’ve kept in touch. There’s quite a bit of face to face on the screen but I was just feeling a little bit sad because what is normal for me, what feeds me, I wasn’t getting. I was a little bit down about that but I allowed myself to ‘pony’ for the day. So I stamped my feet, I wore black, I DIDN’T go for a walk and so I let my emotions, I let my feelings take away from the intention that I have of creating a routine for my day and moving forward with action consciously towards the outcomes that are important for me.
So, I thought I would talk a little bit about what is this process and how do we do that.

The first step is to create the intention – what do I want this to be about?

Once I have created the intention it allows me to then decide about the action or the actions that I am going to take. Then I need to check my attitude and what’s going on in my head about what I’ve decided, so that’s the thoughts that I have, the self-talk that’s going on, the stuff that’s there, is it encouraging me to do what I am wanting to be doing.

Decide about the action

Is it taking me forward towards the outcome or is it limiting me and keeping me away from what it is that I want to achieve?

As I thought about that I listened to Jacinda Adern the other day when she was talking about moving to this next phase whenever this happens and I started to think about the language that she was using and I thought

“What is the language I’m using? Is it encouraging me forward?

Recognising the language we use

So, I listened to her talk and probably in the first 3 or 4 sentences she used the word ‘TRY’ half a dozen times. Now I have a real aversion to that word because when I say ‘I’m going to TRY…’ to do something, it automatically gives me an out because I can say “At least I tried!” I started to think about what is the alternative to using the word TRY and it is to change my language to say “I will WORK towards…” and then I put the action in, “by doing…” A, B, C, D or E so start to think about the language that you are using in this crazy (pandemic) time.

Check your attitude

Are you giving yourself an out to NOT be doing something or are you really encouraging yourself to keep on moving forward towards what it is that you want and the outcomes that you want to achieve?

What WILL you do and want today to be about?

So, my challenge to you is, what will you do today NOT what will you TRY to do today but what WILL you do today? What do you want today to be about? What is your intention around it? And as you set your actions towards achieving the outcomes, doing the things that are going to keep you moving forward, I have a feeling that you are going to feel a whole heap better about some of the confinement that is going on because it is crazy! So, lots of loved to you all, keep safe and recognize that you are in charge of the self-talk and your language is hugely important.

So, create your intentions, decide on your action, check your attitude (the thoughts that are going on), look at your language and then get on with making today magnificent.

Take good care and let’s see what’s happened by this time next week. See you later, bye.