State Your Intent – Guest Blogger

I am excited to share this post with all of you. This is my first guest post! This guest holds a special place in my heart; as my best friend, business partner and seeker of all things positive. My husband supports me in the best and even the worst times. I am blessed to have him along side of me through this journey called life.

The topic is one often discussed around our house. Rather than stealing the thunder, I am going to let you dive right into my husband, AO’s first blog entry.

How many of us start the day with intent?

I would guess not many. Let’s take it a step further…Who wakes up in the morning and states their intent to the world?

I’m not saying to yell it from your roof top, but who says the words out loud so that you can hear them when they leave their lips? I’m guessing the number is drastically lower, and I used to fall into that category.

For the past seven mornings I have been waking up and stating my daily intent out loud. It has been a game changer for me. I’m not going to go into the details of what I say, but the results have been incredible.

I have an amazing wife, two young daughters, and two puppies, who I will admit, don’t always get the best of me.

Like most people I have a stressful job, and it seems like more and more is expected of me. I expect a high level of execution from my team, and I strive to provide an even higher level of execution for my customers. This has been a successful formula for business, and we have been doing extremely well. However, it is exhausting when you strive for perfection!

When things start to go wrong, and they inevitably do, finding a solution is exhausting and that’s when the stress is high. This leads to me being distracted and not present, my patience runs thin, and I expect more from those around me, especially my amazing family. Thankfully it doesn’t happen daily, and I’m relatively conscience of my attitude and actions. I will admit there are times when life gets the best of me.

So, what I have learned by starting my day with intent, is that I am even more aware and in control of my emotions and reactions (being reactive is not the best state to be in, but that’s an entry for another day). For example, when something doesn’t go as planned I don’t feel like I’m carrying a backpack full of rocks the rest of the day. I simply remember my intent and it instantly grounds me. I find myself smiling more, I feel myself exhaling deeply and releasing tension, and best of all I stay present and patient.

Luckily, at least for this week it seems like the challenges at work have been minimal, or my new morning routine has changed my outlook. Time will tell.

My homework for you, is to start your day with intent. First thing in the morning, instead of reaching for your phone and checking Facebook, twitter, email, etc., state your daily intent. When you feel yourself in an unhappy state or the stress is building, remind yourself of your intent. If you have kids (we have a toddler), have them state their intent and when they start to veer from their intent, remind them of it.

Just try it, if your intent is positive and from the heart, what’s the worst that could happen?