Intentions & Temptations

This blog is not for everyone.

It’s for those of us who are brave enough to admit that our actions don’t always match our intentions. This blog is for the people who are done making excuses and avoiding the discomfort that comes with change. In the following few minutes you’ll read about a simple concept with practical suggestions that can help you make the change that you want to need to make in life. Let’s jump in.

“Taking absolute personal responsibility over our actions and the consequences that flow from them demands that you wage war against your dragons and do battle with your demons. This requires extreme courage and profound wisdom – which few are willing to develop.”

Robin Sharma

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Pursuing Full Potential

One of my biggest fears is that I’ll get to the end of my life and realize that I could have given so much more, loved so much more and been so much more. It sounds crazy, but at 27 years old I am afraid of future regret. I know that our full potential is limitless but I’m scared that I won’t even get close. If you share that sentiment, you’re in the right place and if you don’t, you might want to keep reading anyway.

How I See It: Two Options

When to comes to the pursuit of full potential there are many variables to consider but in this simplified thought process, we’ll look at two opposing forces that most of us know well: intention and temptation.

Intention is often described as the conscious ability to make deliberate decisions and is associated with things that are morally “good,” pursuits that are challenging and long-term endeavors that are meaningful. Temptation is often described as a desire associated with things that are morally “wrong,” paths that are easy and short-term actions that are superficial.

We can either rise to the level of our intentions or fall to the level of our temptations. It comes down to actions and it’s up to us.

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As human beings, we all have intentions and we all have temptations – that will never change. When it comes to pursuing our full potential, we can either rise to the level of our intentions or fall to the level of our temptations. The deciding factor has less to do with what we want and more to do with what we do. In other words, both intentions and temptations mean little if we don’t act on them.

Practical Suggestions

I would hope at this point that you realize that setting intentions and then acting on them is imperative if we want to reach toward our full potential. Temptations are never going away and so let’s talk about some ideas to act on intention more often than temptation. Keep in mind that these are just ideas and you can take them or leave them at your discretion. These are all practices that I use in my life, work on with coaching clients and I would be more than happy to help you implement should you want that.

• Tell other people what your intentions are
  • accountability is a powerful thing
  • this is where coaching can be a great option for some people
• Journal firs thing in the morning and set your intentions for the day
  • the physical act of writing intentions will help make them more solid in your mind before distractions and temptations flood in from the world
• Write our your intentions on an index card and put in in a place that you frequent during your day
  • a tangible version of your intentions can serve as a nice reminder of how you want to show up – the bathroom mirror and refrigerator are both great places to start for those working from home
• Set reminders on your phone to provide notifications with your intentions throughout the day
  • most people are glued to their phones and so, what better place to remind you of your intentions
• Sign an actual contract with yourself promising to follow through on your intentions
  • while this sounds excessively cheesy, it’s surprisingly powerful
• Pretend like there is a film crew following you around all day
  • we give in to temptation because we know that nobody else will see how weak we are… news flash, we’re all human beings and we all fall short… however, if you can live your life like it’s on film, you’ll notice that temptations aren’t as tempting and intentions feel more appealing (live life like it’s on film)

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I hope that some or all of the suggestions above can be useful for you in your battle to choose intention over temptation. Before we part, let me just remind you that every decision (public and private, big and small) are shaping you into the person you’re becoming. The best part about that is you get to shape that person with your choices and actions. Make the commitment to yourself to pursue potential with intention.

“Commitment is doing the thing you said you were going to do long after the mood you said it in has left you.“

Inky Johnson

Thank you for reading!

Joe Rinaldi

IG: @joearinaldi

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