The Power of Intention

I've been thinking about intention lately and how practicing it can fuel your day, work, life, and every aspect of your world. When someone says "Well, that was not my intent.", it only tells me that there was no clear thought-out purpose behind their actions and/or words. Being intentional means having a specific reason for doing something. Where most people miss the mark is not paying attention to the true significance of their words/actions, which is where misperceptions begin.

The Importance of Clarity?

Simply put, the power of intent is to influence your life. According to an article in Forbes Magazine by Fariba Rahimi, there are three factors that go into intention:

1. Decide what you want and be specific.
2. Know your why to connect to the power of your intention.
3. Visualize your success as a reality.

Though it may sound simple, this isn't always easy. The power of our intellect is divine and at our disposal, yet we often question, doubt, and overthink the basic truths that we can call into existence what we seek the most, especially when coupled with a clear intention.

Scientific Findings

In 2007, William A. Teller, Professor Emeritus at Stanford University, wrote a book called The Intention Experiment which drew on scientific research conducted at MIT, Stanford, Princeton, and other universities, to find that intention does, in fact, affect our physical reality.

For the last 400 years, an unstated assumption of science is that human intention cannot affect what we call physical reality. Our experimental research of the past decade shows that, for today's world and under the right conditions, this assumption is no longer correct.

- Quoted from an article written by Vineet Nayar in Harvard Business Review

Therefore, it is so important to revisit old assumptions and beliefs and reevaluate them for what and where you are in life currently. Does it still apply? If not, then it may be time to update your beliefs.

The findings of these scientists, and their willingness to question the old, shine a fresh light on possibility and the power of intention. When applied to business, the benefits are equally as powerful. In Rahimi's article "Is Intention the Key to Achieving Success?", she notes that two skills every entrepreneur must develop in order to crisis-proof their business are intention and sales. Entrepreneurship is hard enough as it is, and going into it without clarity and intent is like getting on the road to an unknown destination.

The Relationship Between Entrepreneurial Intention and Action

I recently stumbled upon an article surrounding entrepreneurial intention, a psychological state that guides our attention toward specific business goals in order to achieve entrepreneurial results. In The Relationship Between Entrepreneurial Intention and Action: The Effects of Fear of Failure and Role Model – Fronteirs.org by Fangzhu Kong, Lily Zhao, and Cheng-Hung Tsai, the authors uncover findings from a research conducted in China with college students who were pursuing the world of entrepreneurship. The curiosity behind the scientists was to determine if there are key factors which make someone more inclined to achieve as an entrepreneur over someone else.

In the article, the authors state "It is undeniable that entrepreneurial intention is a necessary condition for the development of entrepreneurship." One of the scientists who conducted the study expounded on this further in his findings. The authors note the following in their article: "DeNoble, et.al. (1999) holds that entrepreneurial intention is the entrepreneur's intrinsic cognition, preference, and behavioral tendency to create a new business."

The Benefits of Intention

Not only is intention a requirement for success in business, but it also exists and manifests in certain individuals who truly want to create something that is unique, of value, and has a clear benefit to the world; these individuals are YOU! The entrepreneur with the idea, the drive, and the intention to launch a business with their biggest, scariest, and brightest ideas into the world.

This week, think about where you may not be clear on your intentions and how that could be cleaned up. Does your team understand you and where you're going? Do your outcomes often not align with where you began? I think of intention as a course correction, coming back to what and where you were aiming and seeing how close to the bullseye you landed.

Clearing up any uncertainty, doubt, and fear will help to realign your arrow and when you do hit the bullseye, you'll know that's exactly what you intended to do.