With Good Intent - The Enigma Of Achievers

As a Coach I am probably what some other coaches may consider a bit out of the ‘norm’. I certainly subscribe to the common, proven coaching formats, ethics and practices but also have a publicly declared interest and an open mind in other areas of science and discovery that may help facilitate personal change in my clients.

So what does any of this have to do with intention – well, prior to every coaching session I always take time to prepare and, excluding the usual administrative duties I also set an ‘intent’ for both myself and the client. I have done this now religiously for the past five years and the technique has always produced amazing results.

What is an ‘intention’ – it could be likened to a set of “rose tinted sunglasses” maybe, a mechanism to help you see all good things but I like to think about it more as a filter – something you can put in place to either keep out stuff you do not want and, at the same time allow you to be receptive to the stuff that you do. Have you ever brought a new car or item of clothing and, once you have them suddenly start seeing other people driving the same car as yours or wearing the same clothes – this is how powerful the filter process is – once installed it can draw your attention unconsciously to anything – either more of what you want or don’t want!

The reasons why I find this so fascinating and important is that everyone, no matter of their background or ethnicity has these filters in place all of the time. However, the majority are not aware nor do they choose the characteristics of these filters, allowing them to be influenced by the beliefs of others or to change subject to events and experiences in their lives. Another important issue to be wary of is that these filters can be either for our good or to our detriment, allowing us to identify opportunities in our life or condemning us to a life of mediocrity.

How is any of this relevant to the Entrepreneur? I have found in working with all of my clients that the ‘filters’ they installed appear to be very significant in their personal success. I have coached many clients who appear to have similar family backgrounds, skills and education yet where one will be at the pinnacle of their success the other is struggling for some reason and unable to identify opportunities not take action to move progress. For the uninitiated it would appear that one has a different outlook on their life and business than the other, some coaches may put this purely down to beliefs and values but I have discovered that ‘intention’ is the unspoken code, routed deeply in our unconscious that guides us from moment to moment, influencing our ultimate success.

You need to be able to believe in your intentions in order for them to materialise as it is no good just stating “I intend to be happy today” when in the back of your mind you are running a host of negative thoughts or building a massive to-do list for the day that does not inspire you. The good news is that you can learn how to create effective ‘intentions’ in minutes and, with a little practice will start to get amazing results – with your intention miraculously coming true. The truly successful Entrepreneur sets intentions many times a day, they largely do the process unconsciously and, above all, they have a strong belief that what they are asking for is realist and achievable for them.

You can start to do this today, firstly by thinking of an activity you have to do or an interaction you may be having with another person – if can be something you are looking forward to doing or maybe even have some trepidation over (but please do not do one that maybe traumatic – not yet!). When thinking of this consider how you want to feel or behave while doing it, what will enable it to be a win-win situation if others are involved, what you would like to learn from the experience, how you would like the other person to feel before, during and after.

Then, 15 minutes before doing the activity just sit down quietly and undisturbed, either writing it down on a piece of paper (preferred) or stating it allowed to yourself say “In doing (the activity) today my intention is to (feel, allow, be open to, act, learn, understanding, listen, grow, be receptive, acknowledge, be passionate, be confident, be congruent, help, support etc....) put your intention here”

You can put a couple of intentions together in one go if you wish, just make sure they are not too specific. This process will immediately install an unconscious filter that will make you receptive to what you have asked for and similarly will influence your behaviour and capability throughout the task – just remember to be careful what you wish for!