Becoming More Intentional

SUMMARY

Intention is going from being scattered (just having everything come across your desk, day, or year and not really going beyond knowing what's happening at the moment) to being planned.

It is all about doing things on purpose. It's about setting a goal, sticking to it, committing to it, and moving towards it.

This week, I will talk about the three shifts in the area of personal leadership by talking about the shift of intention.

When you have more intentionality, you can pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and keep moving forward.

So, where do you need to be more intentional in your life?

TRANSCRIPT

Do you tend to run by the seat of your pants and just work to deadlines when they're almost there?

Well, I did that for many years, and I've worked with lots of people who do that too. So, stick with me because in this week's episode I want to help you understand how you can be more purposeful and end up getting more done and the desired results.

Hi, this is Grant Herbert, Emotional Intelligence Master Coach Trainer and Sustainable Performance Coach, and today I want to continue our conversation around the 9 crucial shifts that every leader needs to make by helping you to be more intentional.

For the last few weeks, I have been talking to you about the 9 crucial shifts you need to make in the areas of personal, professional, and people leadership. Two weeks ago, we talked about your identity, which is about shifting from being incongruent (feeling like a fraud) to being congruent with your values and who you truly are.

Last week, we talked about your intelligence which is about going from singular to multiple intelligence and realising there's more to you than what you know and can do. Your emotional, social, and creative intelligence has so much to give and adds so much value. So, this week, we want to finish the three shifts in the area of personal leadership by talking about the shift of intention.

Intention is going from being scattered (just having everything come across your desk, day, or year and not really going beyond knowing what's happening at the moment) to being planned.

I work with many people who tell me: "Well, Grant, I'm not an organised person.” I want you to know that we are not just talking about organisation alone; we are talking about a mindset shift first. I bet most people already have a plan for what they are going to do during the week. In this shift, I want us to go beyond that: I want to help you to become more planned and intentional in your life.

Now, you could take this for today and look at it in terms of your career. However, I want to give you as much value as possible. So, let's expand that so it's not just about the part of your life that you earn an income with, but it’s about having a plan for your entire life.

I understand why some people don’t have a plan.

I understand why some people who used to plan and have a plan have let their plans go.

I've been there, too, because life happened.

Even though we’ve all heard of the saying: “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail,” and all those other great sayings about planning, life has somehow gotten us to a point where we go: “What’s the use of planning when our plans are going to change.”

So, to go from being "scattered" to "planned" is to realise that having plans changed is okay.

Last week, we talked about your emotional intelligence. Part of that is the competency of personal agility. There's also resilience, which is having the skills you need so that if things change, you can just change with them.

Therefore, the shift in mindset is the first thing you want to do in this crucial shift of intention.

Intention is all about doing things on purpose. It's about setting a goal, sticking to it, committing to it, and moving towards it.

The first step is for you to realise what it is.

There are three things that I really want to work on when I'm helping people to build the competency of intentionality, and that is to look at your purpose.

If I were to ask you these questions right now:

What is your purpose?

Why are you on this earth?

Some of you may find them pretty deep.

Those questions are what most people don't have certainty about.

So, invest some time reflecting on them.

And I'd love to help you with that.

One of the questions I ask people who would like to know what their purpose is:

“If you are given one opportunity to simultaneously speak to every person on this planet for 15 minutes, what is it that you would speak to them about?”

If you can answer that question, you know your purpose. But if you can't, then invest some time thinking about that.

To do this, you need to have a high level of personal power operating.

You need to have that internal dialogue (that mini-me) quietened because you could be thinking right now, “I don't want to speak to all those people to start with, and what would I say? I don't have enough to say.”

Therefore, when you're looking for your purpose, you need a strong identity.

Now you can see how these shifts all go together. That’s why when I work through the leadership programs I run, we start from the very beginning and then incrementally make a change in each of those shifts as we go through.

So, the first thing is knowing what your PURPOSE is.

The second thing is knowing what your VISION is and what your VALUES are.

What is it that you can see out in front?

What is it that you are longer-term aiming towards?

Vision statements are not just for organisations; they start with individuals.

When every individual comes with a vision for their future and the collection of all those visions comes together, and people are working towards their vision by working in an organisation that's helping them to resource that so that they can get there, then people have a purpose of being at work. Therefore, they get more done.

The third area is your PLAN.

This is the area where you use a simple process (I taught you before) to help you incrementally go from where you are now to where you want to go, whether this week, this month, this year, or beyond.

This process is called the R4 Method.

It is a simple process I use in everything I do, and I will give it to you as a gift.

I want you to use it for yourself and with your team.

The first part is the RESULTS.

Results are working out where you want to be in the important areas of your life – your career, relationships, finances, family etc.

So, it is asking yourself: “Where do I want to be _____ months/years from now in my [insert important area of your life]?”

Knowing what areas are important to you comes from your vision, values and purpose.

Then you return and look at your REALITY (where you are right now).

Then, ask yourself:

"How do those things look different to where I want to go right now?”

For instance, if it's your career, you visualise where you want to see your career go and look at how it looks at the moment.

So we've now got a continuum between the results you want and your current reality.

The third element of your plan is to look at the ROADBLOCKS.

Roadblocks are the things that are currently in the way or could get in your way and stop you from going from where you are now to where you want to go.

When you look at these roadblocks, I want you to look internally. The reason is that, as humans, whenever asked what our roadblocks are, we tend to look externally. We tend to blame external circumstances, like the economy or other people, as our roadblocks.

However, most of the roadblocks that I'm talking about here are your thinking, your belief structure, and your own behaviour that are keeping you back in your current reality.

The fourth R in the R4 method is for you to look at RESOURCES.

"What are the resources you need to add to overcome your roadblocks and go from where you are now to where you want to go?"

When looking at RESULTS, I want you to look at it as if it's already happened. Come up with a statement that is in the present tense narrative.

For example:

“It is the 21st of January, 2024, and I have done this [write down the things you have done]. This is what it looks like [write down in present tense how you would like it to look like]. It feels [write down what you think you would feel after you achieve that].”

By doing this, by putting it in the present tense narrative as if it's already done, the brain thinks that that's already there. Therefore, you can move towards making that happen.

When you come back to the reality and the gap that you have between the two, what you want to do now is you want to look at them and go:

“Well, that's what it's going to be in a year. Where do I need to be three months from now?”

Then, I want you to focus on that three months only. Because you've already got the overall picture that's taking you forward, that's a part of your vision, values, and purpose, and it's there to inspire you because that's where you're going. However, sometimes a year is too long; three months (90 days) is a big enough gap to stretch you, but you can still see the end result or the finish line.

Focus on who you need to become in these 90 days and what you need to do so that you can go from the current reality to the results you want in 90 days.

What are the roadblocks that you're going to work on?

What are the resources that you need to put in there?

The resources could be getting some professional development. It could be enrolling in a course or training program. It could be getting a coach or working with someone or a group of people to give you support and accountability so you can do what you need to do.

The R4 method is there to help you to plan where it is that you want to go.

When working towards your purpose, vision, and values, little things that happen can fall by the wayside.

When you have more intentionality, you can pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and keep moving forward.

So, where do you need to be more intentional in your life?

Let's make the shift from being scattered to being planned.

Well, that's it from me for another week. Join me again next week as we continue this conversation around the 9 crucial shifts every leader needs to make by moving into the professional shifts.

I'll see you then.