State Your Intention

Stating your intention is always the first step in accomplishing anything. In your personal life, stating your intention is like developing a very, very brief strategic plan. There is an old saying that if you don’t know where you’re going, you’re certain to get there. In other words, you’ll get nowhere quickly if you don’t develop a game plan.

Stating your intention focuses your attention on a specific issue, behavior or attitude. It reminds you that “this” is what you want to do today. It helps channel your thoughts much like the alignment of light waves creates a laser.

When you state your intention, you invite the Universe to help you in accomplishing your goal. This is a piece of what Christ meant when, in the Lords prayer he said, “Give us this day our daily bread.” In other words, teach us and help us to do what we need to do today.

Here’s how you do it. When you wake up in the morning, before you get out of bed and you’re still in that hazy state of awakening, very gently think about what attributes you want to demonstrate during the coming day. Don’t try to force it. Just let your mind drift in that direction. When you’re not quite fully awake, there’s less of a chance that your analytical mind or ego will wrest control of your thinking and try to “force” a specific direction on you. When you are in-between sleep and full wakefulness, your mental state is less defined and more malleable to impressions of the spirit.

Certain words or short phrases may come to mind. They represent the attitudes or attributes that would best serve your needs during the day. They may be issues you need to work on or outlooks that would help you deal with certain situations. When you settle on something, insert it into the following sentence. “I want to be (blank) today.”

Some possibilities are flexible, attuned to others needs, forgiving, confident, decisive, diplomatic, good-natured, level-headed, understanding, helpful or open-minded. But there’s an almost endless list of others.

Then simply fix the completed statement in your head by repeating it several times and letting it sink into your consciousness. Remind yourself of the statement a few times throughout the day.

Something interesting often happens when you do this little exercise. You will find that circumstances arise wherein you will need to exhibit the very attributes that you selected. For example, if you chose “flexible”, your plans may have to suddenly be altered. If you chose “decisive” you may be called upon unexpectedly to make an important decision. If you chose “level-headed” you may need to mediate a conflict.

It may also be that you receive an impression to select a word that describes something that you need to work on in your life. If you chose “good-natured” it may be the Universes’ way of suggesting that you need to lighten up a bit. If you chose “helpful” it may be that you need to become more aware of the needs of those around you and to put a little less emphasis on yourself.

The advantage to this practice is that it greatly accelerates your development. You will probably notice themes among the words you select. The themes will be opposite of the words you choose. In other words, the words you select are designed to help you deal with the issues in your life that you need to work on. Some examples of themes might be self-centeredness, fear, selfishness, hard-heartedness, indecisiveness or a lack of tact. You will make much more progress in addressing these themes by focusing on them in a positive way by using this technique on a daily basis.