Road To Intention

Conversations, silence, thoughts, and responses. It is so important to have conversations and make decisions yet people say we have to watch what we say or do. Then we think about what we said and we make up our own stories in our minds, which then evokes a response of regret or ‘should haves’. This could lead us down the silent road, alone with our thoughts caging our minds and rattling our confidence. Why do we do this to ourselves? We humans are incredible, aren’t we. How amazing is it that we can mess up and then try again? However, how tragic is it that our own minds can convince of a story that may have never existed in the first place and therefore never move on? Our perceptions and stories that we tell ourselves can be a powerful thing.

Writing down my intentions each day has been a practice that I have started that has helped me with the stories my mind conjures up. I found for the longest time these stories were holding me back from taking risks because I was so concerned with what people thought of me. Through writing my intentions each morning, I chose one to focus on throughout the day. That intention began to surface multiple times to remind me to stay on track with my purpose and goal for taking the risk in the first place.

Another intention that I set for myself was to be purposeful during transitions in my day. While I was traveling from one conversation to another or one place to another, I needed to set my intention for what I wanted to say or why. I decided to play it in my mind before it actually happened. I learned this from a podcast I had heard from Brendon Burchard. It is amazing how our minds can take over if we let them. But it is also incredible how powerful our minds are if we set our intentions and than carry on through it all.

Reflecting, being grateful, and meditating each day has also helped to calm the storms that brew in my mind as well. Being aware of what is happening at that moment and letting it pass like clouds in the sky rather than fight it came from my intention to be more aware of what I was thinking in the moment. I found that I fought my stories and replayed them again and again only to stir up that gut wrenching moth that bangs against the bones of my rib cage. I am not talking about the beautiful butterflies that flutter in the meadows of your stomach that come from an exhilarating ride or a kiss from your spouse, I am talking about that feeling of regret that can take you down so fast. What I didn’t realize before was that regret was actually my own doing, not anyone or anything else. I tortured myself by playing it over and over in my mind instead of letting it pass through. It will always be there but my intention now is to gently acknowledge it and then let it go. We owe that to ourselves. We all know that we misstep sometimes but we also get right back up if we let ourselves.

As leaders, we often have to make quick decisions or have those hard conversations and that is where the conversations, thoughts, responses and silence can really affect our day through the stories we spin into the threads of our mind. However, by practicing every day how to calm the hangovers that play out in our mind due to a tough spot in our day, we can start to bring the bright spots back more and more. We are worth it. We owe it to ourselves and to the people whom we work with every single day. We are here for a reason so let’s not waste another day.