Focusing your intention and purpose




There is an experience I have had that most of us seem to have at some stage. I am at home, downstairs and I think to myself, “I left my watch etc. upstairs in the bedroom, I must go up and get it.” I am halfway up the stairs and someone calls to me, “are you going upstairs could you bring me down my ipod,” (cardigan, keys, wallet or a multitude of other things). I go on upstairs and I get the Ipod, or whatever for the person who asked for it. I then either go back down stairs having forgotten my watch or I pause up there and wonder what I came up for in the first place.
If I had consciously kept both things (valuing both) at the front of my mind I could easily have remembered the two but instead one stepped in and replaced the other.
This reminds me of the relationship we often have with our deeper values or sense of purpose; we do not keep them at the forefront of our minds and they get shunted for other things. I am not saying those other things are more or less important than our values. However, it is very difficult to be true to our values or stay connected with our purpose if we,
1.  Are not clear of what they are.
2.  Keep them somewhere in the back of our minds.
3.  Allow other more immediate things slip in and override them all the time.
I believe that if we keep our values and our guiding purpose and intentions clear and at the front of our minds they will help us to make more beneficial short and long term decisions. We can even choose when it may be necessary to set them aside so as to put others first. Clear values and clear intentions help you to realize how you, ultimately, can best add value to the lives of others.


Exercise: To get into the habit of aligning your behaviour with your values at the beginning of each day ask yourself,
“What will I do today to show that I hold my values dear?”
And at the end of each day ask yourself.
“What did I do today that showed that I cherish my values?”
Then ask yourself how you need to alter your behaviour so as to keep your focus true.

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