“We hold the power to make things happen
through our intent –
to the extent that we use our intention
with compassion and without ego.”
– Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The Webster-Merriam dictionary defines intention as “the thing that you plan to do or achieve: an aim or purpose,” “a determination to act in a certain way.”

How often do we move through life, playing a role, doing our part, following someone’s lead, never stopping to ask ourselves, “what is my intention here?” “Where am I going?” “What’s the point?”

How often have I heard in sessions with divorcing couples that they never considered NOT marrying? They can remember falling in love, feeling a love at some point for their partner, but so many of the subsequent choices they would make came more from an unconscious place, a repetition of what their parents, teachers, community had told them and expected of them. Much suffering has been produced by living this way, but we’ve all done it.

What a different start it might have been for many couples, to have had a conversation early on where each person’s INTENTION for being in relationship was declared! And their intention for staying in a relationship for the long-term was explored.

I often wonder, without regret for the choices I have made, how I might have chosen differently if I had had a clear intention for how I wanted to live my life when I first married in my 20’s, and then again in my 30’s. And for that matter, if I had had clear intention of how I wanted to live my life in general?

“A determination to act in a certain way.”

How often did I blame someone else for my reactions? My behaviors? My failures? I suppose – I add this with a sardonic smile on my face – that I did have an unconscious intention – to live my life such that other people were responsible for my happiness, my well-being, my peace of mind, my failures…

So if you’re with me, on a journey to live life from a more personally responsible stand – I invite you to ask yourself the following:

• How am I living with intention? And where are the places I’m asleep?
• Do I have a 10-year plan?
• Do I have one or more values that guide me in my daily life?
• Do I have a relationship philosophy that guides me when I struggle with my significant other?
• Am I parenting intentionally? And if I’m not, how would it look differently if I were?

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So as you design the “guidebook” for your life, move forward with clear intentions, recognizing that living with intention has the power to move your life in the direction of your dreams…

“The thing always happens that you really believe in; and the belief in a thing makes it happen.”
– Frank Lloyd Wright