Intent, Behaviors And Personal Success – Part 1

Hey…thanks for stopping by!  I hope you find this post will be helpful in creating the life you desire.

What is Intent?

Encarta describes intent as “with full attention or effort concentrated or focused on one thing, showing great determination to do something.”

One of the challenges with intent is that we are not always consciously aware of what our intent is; as such we may not achieve our personal goals or personal success.

If we look at the definition again, we can see that intent is about focusing on one thing. Intent is the driver behind what we are doing or thinking.  You must have intent to achieve personal success!

It is the belief driving our thoughts, words and actions. We always have intent when we are doing something. It is knowing what the intent is that enables us to unlock the driver behind our actions and makes it clearer for us to see.

Intent is the fuel that helps move us towards out personal goals.

Many times we are working with people who have exactly the same intent as ourselves but their behaviors are different to our own. By observing their behaviors we may be lead to believe that we are not aligned with one another.

I love stories to make a point so here’s a story about Billy-Jo and Bobby-Sue…Hey they sound like they should be in a song 🙂

See Billy-Jo

Billy-Jo’s role in an organization was to collect data to support the sales team. He gathered as much information as was possible and spent a great deal of time transferring this information into wonderful colorful spreadsheets. He loved his job, valued integrity and enjoyed working with the sales team. He worked very hard and diligently. He was greatly motivated to support the sales team so everyone could achieve great results.

See Bobby-Sue

Bobby-Sue was a sales person, one of the top ones on the team. She prided herself on achieving goals, working diligently to achieve them. She recognized the importance of the sales reports as compiled by Billy-Jo and greatly relied on them to achieve her goal. She loved working for the organization and was committed to achieving success for the whole team. She highly valued integrity and worked hard at ensuring this.

See Bobby-Sue and Billy-Jo Working Together

Each week when Billy-Jo released the reports Bobby-Sue would go over them with a red pen, looking for any errors or discrepancies. If she came across an error she would immediately email Billy-Jo about it. She needed precise figures to achieve her goal and thus the team goal.

Each week Billy-Jo feared the release of the reports. He always felt unacknowledged by Bobby-Sue and thought she was critical of everything that he did. Bobby-Sue would respond to this by saying she had high standards and wouldn’t settle for something not being right. Every week Billy-Jo did his utmost to ensure the reports were perfect. This however started to place a great deal of stress on him.

See Bobby-Sue and Billy-Jo NOT Working Together

Overtime his motivation dropped and Bobby-Sue and Billy-Jo started sending aggressive emails to each other.

We have all experienced some sort of this type of situation before.

The main concern for both Bobby-Sue and Billy-Jo was that they both believed that the other person was out of alignment with the team and organization goals. They both believed that the other person was trying to undermine their intent.

But if we observe their driving beliefs as written above, they actually have the same driving beliefs. Both people believe in integrity, both are committed to the team, both value high levels of work standards.

Yet why do they see each other so differently?

It is because their interpretations of their beliefs are acted out through different behaviors.

But their beliefs or values are aligned.

Imagine sitting down with Billy-Jo and Bobby-Sue and explaining to them that they are both aligned and that their intent is the same. They both want the same outcomes.

No doubt this would shock both of them initially.

Knowing our intent greatly supports us in our relationships, both personal and work related. If we know our intent is to have integrity, as was the case with Bobby-Sue and Billy-Jo, then we can explain this when our behaviors are not looking the same and thus not appearing to reflect the same intent.

By understanding someone’s intent you can see past the behaviors. We can also apologies for our behavior if it didn’t align with our intent. We do sometimes get these confused. Our main source of confusion is when we are unsure of our intent.

Self-Application

Intent is extraordinarily powerful. It determines an outcome. We always have intent, consciously known or not.

Imagine a world where you decided to create an intent that was always about honoring other people.

How would an intent like this play out in your behaviors?

Every time you entered into a conversation or carried out a task, you were consciously aware of your intent – to honor people. Having this as your intent will change your behaviors, your approach, everything that you do. It will open up the way that you think and work.

Imagine now having the intent of always being right. Every thing that you do will be designed to create this intent. Your actions will reinforce it. Your motivation will be to achieve it. Your intent becomes your goal, it becomes your focus. Every behavior you carry out will be to reinforce this intent.

OK.,..I think there’s enough here to contemplate for a while.  Next week I’ll wrap up this subject and for now, be consciousness of your intent for at least 5 actions you take on a daily basis and see how this intent supports your personal goals and vision for your personal success.

I’d like to hear from you about this, please share your thoughts in the comments below.