Intention Won't Get You There
I’m working with a coach to help me intelligently navigate a time of transition in my business. As I’ve been answering her questions about what I want my life to look like in one year, five years and ten years, I was again struck by how flimsy an intention is in getting you to a destination.
Yeah, I said it: intention is flimsy.
That’s sacrilege to the part of me who was a yoga teacher for twenty years and routinely started class with asking students to set an intention. I think of all those years I hung my hat on the import of intention in everything one does!
But the reality is intention is a product of the mind. And the mind on it’s own doesn’t tend to make very great products.
I’m not saying throw out intention. Knowing what you want to shift, create, move into, transform is great. I’m just saying that intention alone won’t get you there.
The good news is what will get you there is doable. And frankly, more fun and more practical.
It’s called embodied commitment. (Allow me to pause here and give a big shout out to Mandy Blake, a somatic leadership coach, author of the book Your Body is Your Brain, and the woman who taught me about embodied commitment.)
Here’s the equation:
Embodied commitment= intention + love + action
The reason why it’s different than simple intention is that it employs all of you. Intention is your mind. Love is your heart. Action is your body. Another way to write the same equation is:
Successful completion of a sustained goal= head + heart + body
Which makes me think of grit. A word I’m quite partial to. And a word which I’m thrilled is getting more attention, especially through the research of Angela Duckworth, a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania.
She’s studied school children, West Point cadets, spelling bee competitors…all with the intention of answering the question, “Who is successful, and why?” And what she’s found is the greatest predictor of success is grit.
Duckworth defines grit as passion and perseverance over a long period of time. Stamina. Sticking with your future for years. Living your life like it’s a marathon, not a sprint.
Duckworth’s research shows talent doesn’t make you gritty. Intelligence doesn’t make you gritty. Your ability to follow through on your commitments makes you gritty.
In her 2013 Ted Talk, Duckworth shares her data on grit. She closes her talk by saying that the work that stands before researchers is how to grow grit.
Well, talk to the embodiment folks. Because I would argue that if grit is the ability to be successful when a sustained commitment is necessary, then grit equals embodied commitment. And if grit equals embodied commitment, then you could also say that:
Grit = intention + love + action
So how do you grow grit? You learn how to hold a commitment in your body.
How do you do that?
Set the intention. I’m getting my PhD. I’m building the house. I’m starting my own business. I’m being the best parent I can be, as often as I possibly can.
You feel the love. What is it about that intention that makes your heart swell? What is the passion that inspires you to persevere? Where does this commitment live in your heart? Let yourself feel it.
You take action. Choose one embodied practice that invokes your intention and your love. What is the movement or shape that represents your commitment? Do it. Over and over and over again. And then again.
When you learn to embody your commitments, you open up a whole new world of possibility. (She said to her readers and to herself). You get to lay out what your heart desires and what your mind dreams is possible, and then make it happen.
Want more tools for embodying the life you want? Check out Yours Truly.