What Are Your Intentions?

​January is named for the ancient Roman God, Janus. He is usually depicted with two faces as he simultaneously looks to the past and the future. Janus symbolizes transitions as he looks in two directions. This January, the myth of Janus asks us to self-reflect, forward and backward on what we desired, accomplished, and left undone last year to set our intentions for the New Year. 

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Intentions give us direction
New year’s resolutions, or other promises concerning how we will change or what we would like to accomplish are popular this time of the year. We often frame our wishes with words such as, “ I want to, or I should do something.” These statements look to the future from the present without an idea of how to achieve our desires. Because our wishes often lack specificity and tactics to accomplish our ends, we have given ourselves permission to fall short of what we truly want. For example, if we say, “I would like to have more friends or I should have better relationships,” we have set a goal without a strategy to reach our objective. Goals without direction are usually not achieved.
 
Intentions, on the other hand, are statements about the future from the perspective of the future. Intentions speak as if our desires have been achieved. For example, if we phrase our January intention from a future perspective we would say, “It’s December and I have five new friendships which are meaningful and bring joy to my relationships.” Because this intention has specific statements of what we will have accomplished, we are able to visualize who or what we need to be to achieve our intention.
 
Being supports intentions
To achieve our relationship intention, for example, we might consider activities such as join a club to meet new people, spend more time on social media, or broaden our circle of acquaintances. However, because these activities lack specificity, such as when we will do the activity or how much time we will spend, these activities are unlikely to support our intentions without consideration of who or what we need to be to accomplish our desires. Thich Nhat Hanh, in “Interbeing,” advocates mindfulness toward being as an essential part of what we do in our lives
 
Being enables doing
Goals are difficult to achieve when they are based on doing without attention to who or what we will need to be to accomplish the goal. Therefore, we would ask, “To have meaningful relationships, who or what do I need to be to develop five new friends?” This question is specific and addresses our attitudes and beliefs, which drive our behaviors, our states of being.
 
If we ask ourselves, for example, what states of being are necessary to support our relationship intention we might include being present in conversations with others.  We may have determined this state of being through feedback from others or by self-reflection on prior conversations. Recall the myth of Janus, to simultaneously reflect on the past while we vision the future.
 
Examine our current states of being
If we continue self-inventory of our actions of the past (what we desired, achieved, and left undone) this process will help us vision the future and identify multiple states of being, which will be needed to achieve our intentions.
 
Choose states of being to support our intentions
Once we have inventoried our past and identified our intentions for the future, we pick appropriate states of being to support our intentions.  For example, the following states of being were described in articles I posted on last year. Pick from this list or identify applicable states of being to support your intentions for the New Year:
 

• Be inquisitive through open-ended questions to understand core issues in personal and business conversation. – Four Steps to Discern Employee issues, January 2015.

 

• Be curious to avoid judgmental thoughts for fortified personal and business relationships. –  Are you Judgmental? February 2015.

 

• Be courageous when fear of success voids achievement of positive results. When we change how we think about success we move toward our intentions. - Is Your Thinking Holding You Back From Taking Action? March 2015.

 

• Be inventive to redesign work based on our strengths and values. When we align our intentions with others we achieve personal fulfillment and business success. - Ten Ways to Reinvent Your Job for Greater Personal Satisfaction, April 2015.

 

• Be self-aware to move out of our comfort zone, choose creativity, and find new pathways to achieve what’s authentic for us. - Move Toward Your Authentic Vision, May 2015.

 

• Be intentional to question our states of being instead of merely doing more. When we are intentional we find inner resources to accomplish more. - Being a Successful Leader, June 2015.

 

• Be purpose driven to have and hold a vision, compose an idea, and produce a composition for others to provide meaning in their lives. - Three Steps for Creative Thinking, July 2015.

 

• Be present in conversation with others to strengthen personal and business relationships. Listen with head, heart and gut for meaning. - Be Present for Meaningful Conversation, August 2015.

 

• Be a lifelong learner in an environment, which supports growth, with tools to engage our creative selves to achieve innovative results. - Release Your Innate Creativity, September 2015.

 

• Be a pioneer to discover what is good in our next new idea. Determine how to make it happen and give the idea a unique twist for feasible results. - Three Imperatives for Business Innovation, October 2015.

 

• Be patient when stuck in career or life. Use slow time for self-reflection and personal growth. Choose self- knowledge instead of advice for creative outcomes, which are right for us. - Cherish not Knowing, November 2015.

 

• Be balanced to integrate intuition and cognition through pause and movement to achieve our desires. - Pause and Move to Create, December 2015.

 
Like Janus, reflect on the past and look forward to choose appropriate states of being to achieve your intentions. 

If this essay is meaningful, please like or tweet below or leave a comment. Thank you for your interest and possible action you may take.
 
Richard Wilberg, MS, PLCC, ACC 
Life Coach for Personal Fulfillment and Career Success
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