Behind Every Action Lies Intention

I remember the days when I was in grade school and I would do something to disrupt the class and the teacher would always ask me "Tony, what were you intending to accomplish by interrupting the class?" Of course my answer was, I didn't have any intention, I just wanted to say something funny." This misunderstanding of my actions went on for years and I never really understood what the teacher meant by her questions. I always thought, I didn't have any intention rooted behind my actions. Well, was I wrong. I have now come to realize that every single action we take is born from some seed of intention that we plant. Some times those intentions are valiant and well meant, other times they can just be our ego trying to get attention.

The lesson I learned in all this is that in order to control our actions we must first understand our intentions. No matter how diligent we become at writing out our to-do list of critical actions, we will never completely follow through with them and complete them with ease if we don't first realize what each action is intended to accomplish. Let's look at the following example.

My Action Items for Tuesday:

1. Call Jack at YZX Company to let him know his shipment of new product has been delayed.

That action, by itself doesn't seem like something I want to do. I will probably find several reasons to avoid making this phone call. I will probably put this action off for a couple of days and when I finally get around to it, I will probably say to myself, I'll just email him so I don't have to hear him get upset with me. When Jack finally finds out that his order is delayed he will probably not be very happy. That fact will not change by waiting and by not talking with him directly he doesn't understand my disappointment in the delay.

Now let's look at this through the Focusing on Success method. Before you start to write your daily action items, you would review your intentions. So looking at the above example you might have an intention like:

• Develop and nurture client relationships through prompt and honest communications.

When you read this intention before writing your actions can you see how easy that action now becomes? Since my intention is to develop my relationship and provide open communication I will want to call Jack as quickly as possible. Even though I know he will be upset about the delay I know he will respect my honesty and that is my intention.

Putting this concept to work in your daily routine is an easy process. Each morning or evening when you sit down to plan you day, take the time to first write out your current intentions. The best way that I have found to do this is to use an index card. The first thing you want to do is on one side write out your Current Focus (intentions). This might be 3 or 4 of the main things you want to accomplish. After you have completed writing your intentions, turn the card over and start working on your critical action items. With you intentions fresh in your mind, you will understand the intention behind each action item. Also, keep in mind, if you write out an action item and it doesn't fit your intentions then it doesn't belong on your Critical Action Items list. Give this method a try and you will be amazed at how easy it is to complete your action items.

Cheers to Success

Tony Booth