Align on Your Intentions

This past New Year’s Eve, I declared that 2016 is going to be a great year! That sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? Then I started to wonder: What was going to make 2016 a great year? Was it just going to happen because I said so? How would I know?

I recently picked up a book by Pam Grout, called E-Squared. In her book, she reminded me that it works to be crystal clear about my intentions if I’m going to have what I want in my life. Well, it dawned on me that, while I have many hopes, plans and dreams, I’m rarely “crystal” clear about what I intend.

I sat at my desk early in January and started to write down my intentions for 2016. As I did, I got more specific. I also visualized what my life would look like when I realized each intention. I wrote down intentions for my business ventures, my personal income, my health and my leisure time, to name a few. I wrote my intentions using the format, “I intend to (verb) (a specific result) in 2016.” For example, “I intend to lead three The Partnership Marriage Webinars in 2016.”

As I wrote down my intentions, several things started to happen. First, the little voice in my head said things, like “That won’t happen,” “I don’t know how to do that,” or “I don’t have time for that.” How many times in my life have I said to myself, “I don’t know how to do that,” then taken no action to learn how to do it, thus proving to myself that I don’t know how to do what I say I intend to do? As I got clearer and clearer about what I intend for 2016, I could see that such thoughts were counterproductive and not true! I made a new list called “misaligned thoughts and actions.”

Then, what started to emerge was a third list of affirmations and assertions that I declared for myself, which are in alignment with what I intend to manifest this year. For example, “It is OK not to know what to do or how to do it,” “I am fully capable” and “I will ask for help if I need it.” I made a third list, which I called “aligned thoughts and actions.”

Pam Grout also recommended that I put my full attention, energy and awareness on my intentions. So I’ve been regularly reviewing them each morning. I find it is a wonderful way to start the day.

Lastly, I shared my intentions and my lists with my wife, Martha. She has taken on a similar practice of clarifying her intentions and we’ve been meeting Sunday mornings for the last month sharing our individual intentions for 2016 with each other. Being aligned in our individual intentions has given rise to something much more powerful: That sense of partnership for creating what we each want in 2016 together. She’s 100% committed to what I intend and I’m 100% committed to what she intends.

We are now sharing what we intend to have together in 2016 in the areas of financial well-being, home improvement, health goals, vacations, family gatherings, plans with friends and special dates we want to schedule. We have committed to meet every Sunday morning for an hour or so to share and align on our individual and joint intentions for 2016. On New Year’s Eve, 2016, we’ll see how it turns out! I’m pretty confident that 2016 will be a great year!

Reference

Brown, D. (2013). E-Squared: Nine do-it-yourself energy experiments that prove your thoughts create your reality. New York: New York: Hay House, Inc.

Posted in Partnership Marriage