Increase the heat of your intentions
A friend of mine gave me a lovely compliment yesterday. We were having a conversation about a business strategy I was implementing, and he told me that he loved my intentionality. I asked him what made him say that, and he said “I just love the way you always have a clear purpose, and when you declare your intentions, you always follow through”.
I thought about this, and I must say, I will take that as a fair and honest assessment of my character (along with many flaws, such as an inflated ego and being rather fond of talking about myself!). I am quite intentional. I am the type of person that if I tell you at dinner on Saturday night that I will send you a link to that article, on Monday morning you are highly likely to receive the link. If my partner Vera asks me to call the plumber, the plumber will be called in a timely way. If I say I will get it to you by Thursday, I will, or I will put my hand up and renegotiate.
For me, intentionality is a part of my brand. People judge me on my actions, and it is so important to me that I follow through on promises, both to others to myself.
How good are you at being intentional?
Do you make purposeful commitments, and then ensure you follow through on them?
Do others see intentionality as a part of your brand?
To help you to be more intentional, I have created a rating scale that you might find useful when reviewing your intentionality. I have based it on the heat scale used by my local Thai take away, with chillies describing the heat level of your intentions. Think about which level you tend to operate at most of the time. Of course, the scale below can be situational, but I reckon we all can identify a level that we tend towards most of the time.
Being intentional has two components:
- An internal value that you live and work by to do what you say you are going to do; and
- An external system or set of strategies that you use to ensure the action does not get forgotten or lost in the busyness and noise of our hectic lives.
Being intentional is not that hard. But it creates a good impression on others, and it feels good to follow through on your promises, even if you don’t like chillies!