Intention: The Secret to Happiness & Success!

Let your intentions be good – embodied in good thoughts, cheerful words, and unselfish deeds – and the world will be to you a bright and happy place in which to work and play and serve.  ~Grenville Kleiser

If you’re out there growing, learning, and improving, you have likely come upon the topic of INTENTION. Often the word pops up in conversations relating to getting what you want in life by setting an intention to have a particular “thing” or “happening” show up for you. In such discussions, intention is usually tied to someone else’s definition of “success”, or at least the idea that reaching success has a great deal to do with possessions, money and wealth.

I believe that when you are HAPPY, you are SUCCESSFUL. Now, what makes you HAPPY is another discussion entirely, but as human beings with great potential for depth and purpose, it is not likely we will ever be HAPPY, and therefore successful, without setting the right intentions in our lives, no matter how much money or wealth we accumulate.

This is why I know the CORRECT concept of INTENTION must be addressed and embraced if we want to be fulfilled in life. So today, let’s look at the concept of INTENTION a bit differently than you may have looked at it in the past.

According to the online Merriam Webster Dictionary (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/intention), the definition of INTENTION is:

1: a determination to act in a certain way
2: significance
3: what one intends to do or bring about

These are three great definitions, but the first is of primary importance, because without a determination to act in a certain way (one that is authentic to you AND good towards others), you will likely bring about what you DO NOT WANT in your life instead of what you do.

Intention is a Law of Motives and Related Outcomes!

Your intentions determine your outcomes. Your intention IS what creates the effect. What you put into life comes out. How you treat yourself and others determines your happiness. What you are thinking, wishing, believing, holding to, and intending (being motivated toward) in all of life’s scenarios will determine what you get in your life (what you experience).

Intention is not about eyeballing something and setting your mind to getting it. It has nothing to do with material things. Intention is about acting in a right way AND with good MOTIVES (or MOTIVATION) in life’s situations. Right intention brings happiness and success.

You can act in a “wrong” way and get undesirable results, and you can also act in a “right” way but with wrong motives and still get an undesirable result.

Just because we go to the right workshops, follow the right marketing strategies, have clever success goals, join the right mastermind groups, and gain plenty of money, does not mean we interact, act, and respond from good intentions or motives, and with the Law of Intention, your motives count!

Rotten Motives

You know what I mean! Have you ever done the right thing but with a rotten motive, or done the right thing but with unkind feelings in your heart as you did? Let’s say hypothetically you are asked to introduce the speaker at an event, but this is a person you are jealous of. You know introducing her will make you look good, so you accept the challenge, and with a smile on your face in front of others, and at the same time with jealousy and ill-will in your thoughts, you introduce her, and you secretly hope that she messes up during her speech. You think you acted right by your career and you think this will help you gain success, but the Law of Intention says otherwise. This behavior and motivation will NEVER bring you to your authentic self, and will never lead to your happiness (success), no matter how much your career explodes!

A better way is to take a moment before the introduction and get your intention and motives right. Speak to yourself that holding these feelings is detrimental to your happiness and will work against you being your full, authentic self. Once you align with good intention, you are open to happiness and true success.

You Have More Power Than You Know!

If you knew how powerful and creative you really are, I think you would never fear or stress again!  You would never be jealous or worry about what others think of you, and you would jump boldly out of bed each morning just so you can live another day being fully authentic, fully YOU. You would be happy, really happy. This is true empowerment, which comes to you in large part through the gift of intention.

Your Happiness Level Today is from Your Intentions!

Everything we have, are, do, experience, and become goes back to intention. The results you see in your life right now are directly tied to the actions and motives that you have put out there. If you are frustrated, annoyed, jealous, resentful, stuck in emotional pain, keeping company with contentious, unhappy, negative people, it is because you have set that intention in your life, and focused on the wrong things. Perhaps you have set the cart before the horse and sought material success without aligning your intentions first, thinking that would make you happy. It won’t!

It’s sobering, I know, but it is also the best news you have ever heard! It means you can re-set your intentions starting now!

My Power to be Intentional

When I think about my own power to be intentional, it’s not to manipulate some big “cosmic waitress” to get me what I want, or to conjure up and collect a bunch of material things (although I do enjoy material things).

For me being intentional is about who I am at my core, and what kind of person I want to “be” in every moment and every area of my life. My power to be intentional is more about living a truth that makes me feel alive and connected to life, to self, and to others everyday. Raking in piles of money can’t hold a candle to that kind of net worth. Intention to me means I meet the world with kindness and gentleness, with no intent to harm or undermine the success of others. Just the opposite! I want to fully support and serve others so they can live their authentic lives too! What a grand trip that is!

Not Always Easy, So Here’s What to do:

Having good intention is not always easy, and staying aligned takes awareness and determination. Of course there are times we will feel annoyed, defensive, fearful, or envious, and it is easy to react.

Here’s a simple formula to help you practice good intention. In every moment, and particularly in those moments when we are tempted to react from our raw feelings, we need to:

1. Be Courageous

Have courage to look inside, to look outward, to not be swayed, to not live in ego, to not abuse or misuse your authority, and to always be kind to others!  Be brave enough to listen to YOUR heart, to live YOUR truth when it’s not cool or popular, to say no to the rat-race, to define success on YOUR terms, and to be utterly authentic!

It takes courage to walk YOUR path and to help others! Yet there is no other way to happiness!

2. Be Aware

Live your life as an active participant, but at the same time as an astute observer. Don’t be so caught up in your emotions and so tied to every circumstance that you lose your objectivity and your ability to be fully aware.

3. Allow Space to Align with Desirable Intentions

Don’t ever act on something without giving yourself the space to consider your intention before acting or reacting.  When someone accuses, annoys, or offends you, or when you want to react negatively to something, give yourself some space between what just happened and your reaction to it. You may need four seconds, twenty seconds or more, but give yourself that space to align with good intentions.

It may feel awkward, uncomfortable, or painful to take that space, but if you don’t, the consequences of reacting will be even more painful.

I once had a family member get mad at me for taking about ten seconds before I reacted to them. I needed this space so I could align and be in a more loving mindset, but this person wanted me to react. When I didn’t take the bait they got very angry and accused me of bad motives, but my motives were actually to be more loving! Can you imagine how angry they would have been if I had just reacted?

Even if people around you are up in arms, give yourself that space. If you don’t, you will say things that hurt and speak from wrong intentions, which will attract more undesirable results.

4. Act with Authentic Intention

So much of what we “want” is really what we think we need to be happy, but what makes for happiness is living a fully authentic life that resonates in the heart.

Ego is all about “me”.  Authentic living is about aligning with good intention, showing kindness, enjoying simple abundance, and respecting the gifts and lives of others.

When you are in a good place, get still and set your life intentions. These have to do with how you treat others and how you live in the world. Decide in advance the person you want to be.  Then, in life’s happenings and circumstances, with space allowed, you can act from the most loving, caring place, from the intention that will result in your very best life!

Have a Wildly Intentional Week!

Margo