Setting your intention is deciding on an outcome in advance – simply put, making choices that will direct your future. Setting your intention from desire will fuel the achievement of your goals.
Why is desire so important?
If you don’t have a strong desire for a particular result, you will likely not stay focused on your goals. You will find obstacles and roadblocks to be increasingly more challenging. Or if you get knocked down, you may find it harder to get back up.
When you have a burning desire, you’ll still experience obstacles and challenges, but the desire will be the boost that gets you back on track and pushes you forward.
If there were a straight and easy road to success we would all be on it. It would be crowded. But the way to success isn’t crowded; the top isn’t crowded. Why is that?
Because people aren’t driven by their desires and don’t set their intentions from their desires. They may also lack focus and are not aware. They are too easily thrown off course and do not engage the tenacity and the determination required. And the biggest barrier is the fact that they lack faith: faith in themselves, and faith in others.
All of these things are important:
drive
focus
awareness
determination
faith
When you have the desire for the goal, you’ve got to follow through, and you will more likely follow through when you set your goals from your desires.
Choose Your Outcomes
When you choose your desired outcome, you set your intention based on a desire.
Why do this? Having the desire gives you the clarity to approach your outcome with an intended result, and thus you are likely to achieve that result
You are already aware that you have the gift of choice. You choose how to respond to what shows up for you in your life, for instance. You choose what you will do with this valuable material that is now within your hands. And you can choose your intention.
As the saying goes:
You are at choice always, in all ways.
Achieving goals is not an accidental occurrence. Achieving goals is the result of a pre-determined choice.
You see, you have unlimited opportunities and these opportunities are everywhere.
When you believe this, and know this to be true, new opportunities will be revealed to you. If you do not believe this, you will be blinded to new opportunities, even though they are likely directly in front of you.
Throughout my home I have a number of reminder statements. One of them, which relates to setting your intention from your desires, is “If there is something you wish to experience in your life, do not “want” it, choose it.”
In this article you will choose your outcomes by setting your intentions. But before we do, let’s consider one of the reasons people never achieve their dreams.
Most people look at their own results for proof and validation of whether they can or cannot achieve a goal. When they can demonstrate that they were not able to create their opportunities in the past, or achieve their goals, they do not even bother to consider new possibilities.
People also look at other people’s results and validate their own decisions by other people’s negative results.
If you are looking for something, you will find it. If you are looking for an example to prove you can’t do something, you’ll get that answer. If you look for someone who has tried and failed, you will find the example.
On the other hand, if you open up your mind to new possibilities, and even though you may not have accomplished the goal in the past, you look for the example of someone who has accomplished incredible things, you will find it.
If you have an idea, then inherent within you is the ability to create it. You wouldn’t have had the idea if you were not able to manifest it.
It is important to reject the belief that if something has not been done in the past it cannot be done in the future. If our inventors had believed that, we would not be able to communicate via cellular telephones, the Internet and computers. We would not be able to fly across the country in a matter of a few hours, and we would certainly not be able to travel to the moon and return safely home.
Therefore, do not look at last year’s results or any other previous result to determine your outcome as you move forward. Decide in advance where you would like to be. This will begin the creative process.
Do you know what you want in your life? Are you already fully aware of your dreams? Do you know for certain what you would have, do or be, if you could have, do or be anything?
Discover Your Passion
Before you set your intention it is important to know what you are passionate about. Do you know what you are truly passionate about?
If you do, GREAT! Do this next exercise to confirm your passion. If you do not know what your passion is, pay particular attention to this next section.
Discovering what you are passionate about is simple to do. Simply think about what you love to do.
Think about what gives you the most pleasure.
How do you know you are passionate about something? Just recognize how you feel when you think of that thing. What do you talk about most of the time? What are you thinking about even when you shouldn’t be thinking about it? Which book section do you go to at the bookstore or the library? Which magazines do you buy or look through? What subjects were most appealing to you when you were in school? What do you do research on? What are your hobbies? What are the things you really enjoy spending time doing?
Start to think about some of the things that you’ve done in the past that you became passionate about.
Think about a time in your life when you were the happiest and the most peaceful and remember what it was that you were doing, having or being.
Ask yourself the appropriate questions. You will get the answers. If you do not have answers to the questions immediately, ask again and again until you get the answers. Try doing different activities – drafting, gardening, public speaking, lecturing, a sales profession, writing – and use your gut instinct to determine your level of passion.
Here are the questions to help discover what you are passionate about. Record your answers as you ask the questions and review them later. Keep these questions for future reference.
Your passion may change as you get older, or your passion may change when circumstances in your life change, so you may want to keep these questions handy for future reference.
You can also use these questions to determine your continued level of passion after you have set your goals, to decide whether the goals you have set for yourself are true for you.
Here are the questions to determine your passion:
What do I really want to do with my life?
What am I passionate about?
What do I love?
Where would I go if I had the freedom to go anywhere?
What would I do if I could do anything?
What would I have if there were no limits?
Who would I become?
What gives me the most satisfaction in my life?
What do I really enjoy doing in my spare time?
What motivates me?
What inspires me?
What excites me?
What drives me?
When I have had the experience of jumping out of bed with excitement, what was the cause?
What have I done in the past that has given me the most pleasure?
How do I want to contribute to the lives of others?
What would I like to give to others?
How would I like to be remembered?
If I were granted one wish, and I knew that that wish would be granted, what would I wish for?
You’ll know what your true passion is by the way you feel when you answer these questions.
When you reread your answer you will feel the blood rush in your veins. You will feel excitement and energy. You will feel inspired. You will want to get up and go!
Know your passion before you move on to the next part of this lesson.
Setting Your Goals
Are you a ship without a course? Have you decided clearly where you want to go with your life? If not, you need to get clear on what you would like to create in your life. Otherwise, you may float aimlessly around in an ocean of infinite opportunities.
When you choose to set your goals, you are setting the direction of your life. You are moving in a purposeful direction, with a clear understanding of the ultimate destination.
“I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.”
William E. Henley
Do you have your goals clearly written down?
Do you have goals for all areas of your life?
Do you feel inspired when you read them?
Most people do not set goals. Why? For many reasons:
they don’t know how to set goals
they don’t know how to achieve them and therefore do not bother setting goals
they are not prepared to do the work
they are afraid of what they’ll have to sacrifice
they don’t believe in themselves
they don’t invest the time to really think about it
Now you will become increasingly more creative and play an active role in the creation of your goals as we get into one of the most important exercises you will ever do: Goal Setting.
“Cherish your visions and your dreams
as they are the children of your soul,
the blueprints of your ultimate accomplishments.”
Napoleon Hill
When we decide on a goal, it is usually not the goal that we want, but the feeling we’ll get when we have achieved the goal. Ultimately, what goal setters truly strive for is a feeling, a state of being, such as happiness, peace, joy, or ecstasy.
Goal setting involves making a decision about an outcome and writing it down; we could call this “a dream with a deadline.”
How Do I Know My Goal Will Be Achieved?
Desire is the starting point of all achievement. When you set a goal, you are planting a seed. When you provide the seed with the proper nutrition and attention, the seed will grow. Everything that is required to manifest your goals is available to you through the energy and the natural laws of the universe. The ability to choose is one of our greatest gifts. We have the freedom to dream, to choose to have, be or do anything we desire. This is our birthright.
Inherent within everyone is the ability to achieve any dream we conceive. In order for the dream to become a reality, we must believe we can achieve it. When you set a goal, your mind behaves like a guided missile. Once a missile is locked on a target, even if the target moves and changes direction rapidly, the missile will adjust to stay locked on the target. Similarly, when a plane is locked on autopilot, it will stay on course and automatically adjust if knocked off course.
When you set your mind on a goal, and keep your mind on the goal, even if you stray from your course, you will put yourself back on course when you utilize your power of concentration. So set your intention from your desires and reach your goals through your intentions.
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Mariano M. Jauco has been empowering business professionals and individuals by sharing his knowledge to produce positive change in the world. His personal development techniques and methods will allow you to reach your goals and achieve the success and prosperity you deserve.
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