Gratitude Challenge Day 24 of 30

Challenge Day 24 of 30 – Gratitude for Intention

If you’re anything like me, you grew up with the expression, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.” Then, a few decades later “The Secret” turns us on our heads with the idea that “what we believe we conceive.”  All of a sudden those very intentions ARE the core ingredient to success. What’s more, if we have good ones, we may not end up in hell after all!  So, what gives?

This was one of the conflicts I wrestled with before I could accept the “law of attraction” in my life.  I grew up learning to take responsibility for my actions.  The point my parents tried to get across wasn’t – you are what you think, it was about what you did.

As I thought about it, I realized that when you decide what you want in your life and get clear on your goals, it is easier to get rid of what doesn’t work.  Just by focusing on what you want relentlessly, you reject by default those things that don’t support your vision.  As you think about what you do want and really concentrate on it, you naturally take actions to achieve your desires. The better you get at linking thoughts and actions, the more efficient the process becomes.  Your life becomes a snowball of your thoughts leading to actions which create results.   

So, if your intentions are negative, even if they are rooted in a less conscious belief system, your actions will create the results that match your thoughts.  Ultimately, our brain wants things to make sense.  It is how we move through the world without constantly feeling shocked and panic by every new thing we encounter.  We try to organize the data we receive and normalize it.  So, if it makes sense for you to have a negative outcome, you will think and do what makes that possible.  Same story if you believe that the outcome should be positive.  You will do what it takes to achieve that result.

When I came to realize this connection, I saw that thought is very important, but alone (intention) is not enough. You need to take action when opportunity arises in order to get a result.  So it seems that the best thing we can do is some prep work to get our thoughts straight and our belief system aligned to the results we want.  Otherwise, we’re just spending a lot of time and money fooling ourselves that anything will change.

In summary, I am grateful for 4 things related to intentions:

a) the road to hell is NOT in fact paved with good intentions, it is paved with inaction
b) we can change our lives whenever we make the decision to do so
c) what we believe determines our range of actions 
d) intention + action changes your life

—— With gratitude from aneternaltraveler 😉