Intentionality, Desire, and Outcomes
Day 2
More thoughts on intentionality today, triggered by a few things while reading last night and scrolling through Instagram. Let’s start with the card:
Gonna break this down into a couple parts..
“Once we have our intention, based on what we desire, we need to define the outcomes associated with that desire.”
A couple key things in this.. the first is about desire. Is desire the same as intention? I would say they are probably cousins but not exactly the same thing. Where a desire is a strong want or wish, the intention is the aim or plan. Again, close but not exactly the same thing. The second is about outcomes. How will we measure success against our desires and intentions? How will we know when we’ve arrived? How will we know when we’ve travelled enough down that path, and can perhaps turn focus elsewhere?
What you want | how you want to get there | how you know when you’re there.
“Once we start to work toward those outcomes, with that intention, with the desire behind it, that drive needs to move us toward the outcomes. Do not get dissuaded from those outcomes.”
I started to read “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill, and the first chapter starts alluding to having a certain tenacity toward the outcome you want. It talks about tenacity of a man who wanted to work as a partner with Thomas Edison, and lengths he went through to make it happen. I think this has sometimes been talked about more recently as the stick with it attitude, or sometimes grit. Once you know the outcomes you’re working toward, you resolve to keep working toward them.
“If you start taking action and don’t get the outcome, you don’t change the outcome, you change the action you take to get to the outcome you want.”
This part is on the back of the card. This is the last part of staying focused and is critical to getting the outcomes you desire in the way you intend. When things fail, and they will at some point, you don’t change the outcome you’re working toward. Don’t be fast to fold on the outcomes you want. Don’t be quick to abandon your desires.
One bonus thing that came up with this: That luck looks a lot like putting in the time and working at it consistently at something over time. I’ve heard this concept time and time again from people who have been successful. The constant they talk about is that they stuck with it, that they kept doing what they were doing and when a moment of opportunity arose, or something “went viral”, it was because they stuck with it that they were there for that opportunity or viral moment to happen. Yesterday, I saw this video from Seth Rogan, talking about not quitting, and it resonated with me.
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