I received the following question this morning:
Dear WII, I lie way too much. It ends up alienating people I care about, especially when my lies get malicious, which usually happens when I get drunk. I also drink too much. What should I do?
This immediately brought to mind an area in which I have
special expertise: intentionality.
Let's start with the basics. What is intentionality? I define it like this:
Intentionality, noun: The power of a certain conscious mental-heart-based [interconnective] quality of belief, desire, or hope, or despair [in more melancholic types], in conjunction with clearly defined [see Merriam Webster] purposivity, which indicates outcomes in the direction toward some kind of object or property, or perhaps a state of affairs or other entity.
The word derives from the Latin intentio,
which in turn derives from the verb intendere, so it's a very cultured word with a historical background.
The main thing to keep in mind, though, is that "intentionality" means the exact
same thing as "intention." Basically it's a deeper, more professional way of talking about goal setting.
I have been setting intentions personally for more
than forty years and professionally for a long time as well, so I am really
good at it. They don't call me "well-intentioned" for nothing. When clients come to me with problems, intentionality is the first
tool I pull out of my nonliteral toolbox.
In the case of the question I received this
morning, here is my advice:
What you need is more intentionality. If you intended to tell the truth it would be much easier to avoid lying. Once you stop lying so much, your drinking should ease up as well. You might consider setting intentions around your drinking too, though.
As you can see from this example, intentionality is about creative problem solving. I've been setting intentions almost every day for many years now, and as a result my problems are much more interesting and creative.
If you don't believe me, I suggest you try it for yourself. How creative are your problems? How might intentionality better serve those problems and lead the way toward greater abundance? Food for thought.
