Happy Monday everybody. Well, the Mad March Hare is charging around the countryside 
leaving a gale force wind in its wake and throwing heavy drops of rain that sound like small rocks hitting the windows as it passes. As always, nature intends to move forward and nothing will halt its progress.
If we ignore thoughts about things that can affect the weather for a moment, the weather has free will with a mind capable of making choices and setting intentions to rain or shine.
Are We So Different?
Free will gives us choices in how we act and accepts that we are free to choose our behavior. In other words, we are self-determined. We have a choice to develop success if that is what we choose, we can make a choice to have a wonderful day or allow challenging events to drive us off course. It’s entirely up to us to decide on what we desire and set intentions to realize those desires.
A Bull in A China Shop
Intention is not about having a powerful desire and charging through the china shop, smashing everything on the shelves as we go. “I will do this, whatever the odds, I’ve got this”, is an admirable mantra but eventually the wind will drop, and we will find ourselves drifting on a windless sea, in the doldrums. Mantras like this don’t connect us to intention because as psychologist Benjamin Hardy argued, “Willpower Doesn’t Work”. Our past experiences will spike and tell us that our intentions are doomed to fail. The magpie takes flight in search of the next shiny object.
It’s Tough Being Human
We are blessed with powerful imagination but, what happens when we try to do something that our ego doesn’t want us to do? We might make an enthusiastic start but eventually, the wind drops and our intention fades. Desire has been claimed by the ever-persistent ego which has diligently collected all our life experiences and packaged them into parcels of reasons to quit or seek the safer option.
To Be, or Not to Be
“To be, or not to be that is the question, whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer. The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles!” (William Shakespeare – Hamlet)
In this speech, Hamlet was trying to decide whether living or dying is best and compares death to a little sleep that might not be as bad as taking up arms against a sea of troubles. The thing is, if we decide not to take up arms, the sea of troubles will drown any intentions we might set.
Intentions Need Imagination
In a Finnish study, 180 people were divided into three groups. All had osteoarthritis of the knee that affected movement and caused pain.
One set of patients received an arthroscopic procedure, the second had the painful area internally cleaned and the third group were led to believe they received the surgery. They received an incision, but the procedure was only implied.
Those that had the procedure did no better than the patients that had no surgery. They all improved the same amount. We might argue that doctors set the intention of the placebo patients, but their own imagination led to improvements.
Hypnotic Effects
Attending an entertainment event, I saw a hypnotist effectively hypnotize a large group of people. I’m not going to offer the details although suffice to say that the results were extraordinary and clearly not faked by the hypnotized. Yet, it didn’t work on me. Why not?
I decided that I really wanted to see the results of this hypnosis and my intention was so strong that I remained hypnosis free as did a few others in the audience. If my imagination had said, “resistance is futile”, I would have been hypnotized.
Willing Success
If I will myself to be successful, this is an idea born of the ego because the ego wants me to feel good, feel safe, feel successful, be wealthy . . . The problem with this is that when the seas get rough and challenges present these ego born ideas don’t allow me to feel peaceful; off I go after another shiny object. Success takes another hard knock and the ego stores the data for next time I see a potential success idea. Willpower didn’t work.
Use Imagination
Before starting any project, I decide on the outcome. Before starting this post, I set an intention on what I would achieve. I used my imagination to decide how to reach my goal and how I would feel when I reached it. Even when I wrote the title and the first paragraph, I saw myself as already having completed this post. My actions to this point have been guided by a clear end-point.
There have been a few stormy seas along the way, and I acknowledged before I started that I would not be able to fully develop this subject in 1000 words or less. Yet my intention has given what I expected to manifest.
After just a few more words, I will take my leave of this post and set to work on a particular project. I see myself as already completed it and it will be successful. I started from the end point and worked backwards. I imagine myself “to be” rather than “not to be” there are no doubting questions and the ego is silent.
Imagine how you will feel on Friday after this incredibly successful week. It really doesn’t matter what the weather is doing, you can create your own sunshine if your intentions are clear.
Focus Your Inner Speech
If all your inner speech is focused on everything good, your inner speech will mirror your imagination and your desires will become your reality.
Tools That Help
Relating to these there are plenty of tools that can help with intentions and setting inner-speech even on the stormiest of days. If you would like a free 20-minute consult on some of these, please leave your contact details in the comments and you will receive a prompt response.
Toolbox
There are many ways to effectively explore and advance your Personal Development in any area of life that matters to you. A box of tools to challenge the boundaries and move forward toward realizing success is extremely beneficial.
If you feel that you may benefit from help in any area with more than a 20-minute consult, please leave your contact details in the comments section below and you will be contacted by your preferred method. Please understand that your contact details will never be published, and your privacy is assured.
More Information
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Comments and Questions
Leave yours below. Your thoughts or questions may well ignite a positive spark in other readers thinking. You will always receive a prompt response to your questions and there is no such thing as a bad question; only the one that was never asked.
Namasté
I bow to the place in you that is love, light, and joy
Peace & Light
Steve Costello is a British Community & Youth Studies and Psychology honors graduate with over 30-years theoretical and practical experience in the Personal Development public and private sectors. He founded ExGro in 2018 with business partner, friend and clinical psychologist, Leo Faerberg.