- Are you focusing your attention on your intention?
- What are your intentions?
- Do you have any intentions?
- Is your attention in focus?
Before we can set our intentions, we need to identify where our attention lies and check we are being attentive in the right areas to do the right things. Then we can determine what our intentions are and aim to keep them.
But first we need to determine what the difference is between intention and attention.
Attention usually is observing or listening on something or someone, paying close attention and taking in what we are seeing or hearing. Intention is usually a course of action taking us from where we are at present into something we picture as being our future, where we might see ourselves.
An intention is our goal or aim, our purpose, something we intend or mean to do, determined not to put it off and not to let anything stand in our way. To do this we need to make our intention a priority so we can keep it front of mind.
Our intentions, therefore, should be constructive and positive. We need to see that there is going to be a benefit for us and be able to ‘see’ ourselves having achieved our intention to be able to ‘feel’ what that looks like.
We may have personal intentions, these may be something to do with health or fitness, or it may be a work intention, where we want to set our own goals or plans to improve the way we are currently doing things. Alternatively, if they are business intentions, we might develop a vision board or a big goal which will be our main intention to drive our business forward or take it to the next level.
However, these are all well and good, if we focus our attention on our intention(s) and never stray. To do this we need to be able to focus, and keep the focus, remembering where we are going, why and what things will look like when we get there.
To help us keep focused we can do the following:
- Carry out a self-check to determine where you are and where you are going, picture the path you want to take and the end result, feel what it feels like to have ‘arrived’
- Consider if this is what you really want, ask yourself why you want it and what it’s going to ‘give’ you in terms of fulfilment and achievement, what is your emotional benefit and keep this front of mind
- Determine your positive intention, word it in a way that is SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound), keep saying it to yourself as a reminder and check in with yourself if this is making you feel good, feel positive and feel inspired
- Now you need to focus your attention on your positive intention, train your mind to set time aside to do certain tasks or actions to enable you to achieve your main goal or intention
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