The Hinterland Beyond Desire
The Winners Code
GEORGE CHIGARANDE
| Monday August 6, 2007 00:00
You may desire, pray, wish, visualise and make positive affirmations but that alone will not guarantee you all the success you need. The first station in the hinterland beyond desire is intention.
The Webster dictionary defines intention as the aims that guide action. Encapsulated in this definition are two very important ideas. Firstly, it suggests the existence of aims and secondly it introduces the idea that actions can be and should be guided. We will focus on the second idea for now.
There are two kinds of consequences or results that people get in life. There are intended consequences and unintended consequences. Over the long haul, losers in life suffer from the effects of the law of unintended consequences. They desire and pray for one thing, however, they never seem to get what they desire but the opposite of it. They get what they did not aim or desire to get.
They are like the proverbial man who hopes to reap sweet fruit from his field but only harvests thorns and thistles. Unfortunately, most people find themselves identifying with this.
On the contrary, winners benefit from the law of intended consequences. This begins with assuming responsibility. This assumption of responsibility is a trait that all winners possess in abundance. No one but you is ultimately responsible for your success and the success of your projects, not even your managers, associates, colleagues or well-wishers.
It is very important to realise and accept this fact and take absolute ownership for your success agenda. You may not be wholly responsible for how you got where you are today, but you are fully and personally responsible for staying there.
You may have been born poor, and certainly you were born uneducated, but if you are poor and unschooled in any art today you are fully responsible for staying that way. Your parents are culpable as far as bringing you to the earth is concerned, but they are not responsible for making you into what you are today. Likewise, the government and other agencies may have obligations, but personally making you someone of note is not the primary one.
If you are in an abusive relationship, you may not be responsible for the torrent of abuse that you get daily, but you are personally and absolutely responsible for staying in that relationship. Whatever the results, consequences, or conditions you find yourself in today you are fully responsible for perpetuating them or terminating them. It is one thing to find yourself in a situation and it is another to stay in there. The choice is all yours. Nobody but you is responsible for the outcomes or consequences that you get out of life.
Beyond desire and assuming responsibility, the power of intention takes over. The question that arises is what do you intend to do about your current situation. Yes, you have a fervent desire for success but what do you intend to do about it? In simple terms what are your intentions, if any? Let me reiterate here that desires, prayers and wishes are necessary but not sufficient. Below are a few important things to remember about the law of intended consequences.
Clarity of Intention
Your intentions must be very clear. When it comes to clarity of intentions most people are like blind drivers trying to find the way on a foggy evening. Most people never get to their desired destinations because they lack clarity of purpose and intention. Ambiguity is an enemy of success.
There is a difference between intending to be filthy rich and intending to be a billionaire in US dollar terms. The first is an ambition that is not measurable, but the later is a succinctly expressed intention. At every major juncture, and certainly at the beginning of every week the super achievers take time to clear their minds and clarify their intentions. They have a strategic hour, which is time that they set aside regularly or even daily to think about their intentions.
Declaration Of Intention
If the intentions are clear they should be easy to declare. As a rule-of-thumb, a clear intention should be describable in less than a dozen words. Winners have a catalogue of intentions, which they declare openly. This has a two-fold effect. It continuously reminds them of their intention thereby reinforcing it, and it also serves as an accountability mechanism. Once you have declared openly your intentions failure to see it through puts your integrity on the line.
Intentions Guide Action
There is an intention behind every purposeful action. The difference between the common man and the successful one is that the latter's life is filled with one purposeful action after another. His actions are guided by his intentions in the same way that a missile is unerringly guided to its target by a computer.
The actions of the winner are intention guided but the actions of the average are chance or circumstance guided and those of the loser are emotion guided. Intentions are not meant to remain intentions but they are a precursor to action. For progress to be possible, intentions and actions should be aligned.
The actions should be seen at least to have a reasonable chance of producing the intended and desired result.
This week take time to clarify your intentions, identify the actions that are likely to give you the desired outcomes and act as if your entire life depends on it. winningmantra@yahoo.com