Intent Is The Momentum Builder

You become what you think about most of the time, and you are the sum of your habits. One of the greatest challenges with maintaining any form of desired change is that you have to be intentional. So many people know what they should do to improve the quality of their life. New Year’s resolutions are a classic insight into changes people desire to make: from eating better to exercising more, bingeing less, keeping in touch with loved ones more, spending less time on screens, journaling daily, or meditating more.

Can you relate to setting many of those as regular resolutions? I can. In reflecting where I fall short, it is usually because I am aiming for an end outcome ideal based purely on willpower rather than building change into my routines. A lot has been written on goal setting and relying too much on willpower. Willpower is a limited resource. Over the long term, your habits and routines will win out. When under pressure or in your flow, you will always default to habit; therefore, your habits need to serve you well. Creating clarity on who you want to be allows you to consider what patterns of thinking, habits, and routines the ideal version of yourself has. (A great way to get clarity is to think about all the things you don’t want and list these out. What you do want is usually the opposite of that list!)

Goals alone rarely work. To be successful, you need excellent systems. Systems allow you to focus on the immediate activity. This can give a sense of achievement and create a pattern of winning. As you achieve, you feel a sense of fulfilment. Your brain releases dopamine and endorphins, which reinforce your forward progress. Goals alone risk predominantly feeling like you are not ‘there’ yet or are too far away from achieving, which can be discouraging. Being intentional in both a vision of the future and the steps in that journey can pull you forward and systematically keep you on track. This is key to maintaining growth.

Creating systems is simple but not necessarily easy. It is easier to put off doing the hard work of thinking and delay deciding. This is deceptive because, in reality, it is a decision to not do something. Many people choose not to invest in the hard upfront work of intentionally deciding who they want to be, what they want to do, who they need around them, or how they will resource themselves.

In reflection, I realised that I spent many years buying and reading books to appease my conscience. I knew what I should do but found it easier to get busy finding out more stuff. My focus now is on applying what I read. I meet with a colleague monthly to share what we’ve read and what we have applied. (I still love buying books and have a collection that I want to read. I plead guilty to what the Japanese call "tsundoku" - a person who buys books with the intention of reading them and then lets them pile up!)

If you are to achieve personal excellence and, in your leadership roles, draw this out of others, it will take intentional effort. A counterintuitive indicator that you are facing the ‘right’ kind of intentional drive is the appearance of increased initial friction or resistance. This is seen in an increased temptation to procrastinate and delay decision-making. It is the time to choose your ‘hard’!

The premise is that life is hard, and you need to choose your hard. It is a way of looking at an action and the short-term pain presented and then weighing it against the long-term consequence of not acting. For example, it is hard to do the work to keep a relationship vibrant and flourishing, but it is also hard to deal with a breakup or divorce.

Choose your hard. Take the necessary actions. Once you have decided who you want to be and take an active first step, then you need to be intentional in your habits and systems. When you make changes, you will inevitably experience growing pains. This can come from a challenge to your mindset, physical challenges, changes in dynamics with friends, or forming or breaking habits, to name a few.

Intent is the momentum builder. It provides focus and fuels the drive to make the next decision and next action step. Examples abound in sport and business. Visionary CEOs and coaches share their vision with intention, and it is inspirational. It is far more than a ‘nice to have’. They did not say, ‘It would be nice if we could,’ or ‘We think we might try for this.’ Their intent is definite, clear, and non-negotiable. It is active and gives the entire team clear direction. It prioritises energy, time, and resources towards achieving the outcome.