Creating Powerful Intentions
This post contains edited excerpts from COMPOSURE: The Art of Executive Presence, available now wherever books are sold. Order your copy today!
As the Indian physician, author and philosopher Deepak Chopra reminds us, "The sages of India observed thousands of years ago that our destiny is ultimately shaped by our deepest intentions and desires. The classic Vedic text known as the Upanishads declares, 'You are what your deepest desire is. As your desire is, so is your intention. As your intention is, so is your will. As your will is, so is your deed. As your deed is, so is your destiny.’”
Intentions are the foundations you lay and the seeds you plant to create a compelling and inspiring future. There is no better time to lay down powerful intentions than the start of a new year. What can you do to make your intention more likely to come to fruition?
Create a Powerful Intention
In my book COMPOSURE The Art of Executive Presence I identify three important factors that make for powerful and effective intentions.
First, state your intention in the positive. Negative intentions are statements of what you don’t want, while positive ones are statements of what you would actually like. Let’s say you desire to spend less energy trying to be perfect and second guessing yourself. How might you otherwise state that in the positive?
To turn around a negative intention, ask yourself the question ‘What would I like instead?’ In this case it might be that you desire to feel more confident about your work so you don’t feel the need to over prepare or overwork. Or perhaps it’s that you’d like to become comfortable with "good enough" rather than striving for perfection.
Second, powerful intentions are independently achievable and sustainable. Creating outcomes that are solely in your control can be challenging, but without them you’re not in control of getting from where you are to where you’d like to go.
Let’s say your intention is to get a promotion. That’s a laudable intention, but it’s not entirely in your control. Regardless of your performance, there may be other factors in the way, like your company may not have the headcount or budget available to offer you a promotion.
To turn this around ask yourself what “would I like that is completely within my control?”
One alternative may be to do what it takes to be promotion-ready. You might meet with your boss and HR team to determine what’s needed for you to be eligible for a promotion and create a personal development plan to elevate your performance and visibility. You might even invest in developing your professional network in the event that your company can’t provide you with the upward movement you desire. That way you’ll be ready to look for a new opportunity outside of your current employer.
Third, your intention is more powerful if you identify specific experiences and outcomes that will result. If you desire to feel more confident about your work, perhaps you will know you’ve achieved that when you send emails immediately rather than reading them and agonizing over them before hitting send.
Take Your Intention Higher
With your intention formed and clear, you can make it even more powerful by anchoring it into a high, positive emotional state such as inspiration, passion, joy, peace, excitement or flow.
If your intention involves becoming more fit by exercising regularly and developing healthy eating habits, you might identify the high-level emotions that will come to you when you fulfill your intention. Perhaps you could rephrase it as an intention to develop eating habits that make you feel healthy and energetic and find joy in daily physical exercise.
Envision
A final step to make your intention even more effective is to use all five of your senses to imagine a scene in the future in which you’ve fulfilled your intention. You can do this frequently - at least once a week - as you move toward your intended outcome.
With the example above you might imagine yourself walking down the street to meet a friend for lunch. It’s springtime, the air is clear, the sun feels warm on your skin, and you can smell a faint scent of flowers and fresh grass in the breeze. As you walk to the restaurant you catch a glimpse of yourself in a store window and notice how you are standing tall and walking with lightness and high energy, and that you look fit and fabulous in your favorite red dress. Your friend comments on how strong and healthy you look. You’ve naturally chosen a salad for lunch and it’s delicious, and you know it will nourish you and bring you good energy for the rest of the day.