Committing to clear intentions

By James Kyle

I have learned many different life skills from attending various seminars, such as Insight, over the years. For me, certainly one of the most key concepts was learning when to make things important.

One aspect of this is having clear intentions. As Steve Pavlina says:

Hold your breath and put your head underwater. Notice that a clear intention begins to form within a matter of seconds.

Now take a nice big bite of a habanero pepper and begin chewing it. Again, notice that a clear intention forms within seconds.

When you are sick, notice that you gain clarity in your health intentions. When you lose your job, notice that your financial intentions become clearer.

If you want to bring more clarity to your intentions, get off the sidelines of life, and get onto the field. The field is scarier. The sidelines are safer.

Without clear intentions you will not have clear objectives and the path to achieving your goals will lose focus. So make it a priority to have clear intentions. Do you want to increase your income? Have a clear intention to do so. Do you want to have a more meaningful life? Have a clear intention to do so. Do you want to improve your relationship? Have a clear intention to do so.

In terms of relationships, as well as making intentions important, another lesson I learned was how crucial it was to make keeping commitments important. Breaking commitments sabotages relationships through destroying trust. So even if it was a promise to your partner to walk the dog, if you find you "can't be bothered", think again. Constant breaking of little agreements erodes trust with the consequence that those in relationship with you start to question the value of the relationship. Make it important because it is important.

As I was preparing this post, in a very timely comment on a previous post, Malcolm Ross on LinkedIn drew my attention to "Executive Toughness: The Mental-Training Program to Increase Your Leadership Performance" by Dr Jason Selk. Looking at the reviews on Amazon it is certainly one to add to the reading list. With a bearing on the ideas in this post, notable extracts from the reader's comments include the fact that the book discusses "Relentless Solution Focus" and also contains a very apropos Jack Nicklaus quote: "I never hit a shot, not even in practice, without having a very sharp, in focus picture of it in my head."

Finally for those that live in the UK you might like to know that the first Insight seminar for several years is happening in London later in the year. Details can be found here.