Intention is the Difference that Creates the Difference!

Intention is the difference that creates the difference.

Same information creates two different meanings for two people viewing the same information at the same time. Their intention differs.

Same information creates two different meanings for a person over a period of time. This is because the intention towards the information changes over time. Therefore the difference is created.

Same poem can evoke two different responses from two different personas. The intention makes the difference.

Two persons speak the same sentence in two different ways. Intention makes the difference.

Same lecture is understood in two different ways by two students. Their intention towards the lecture, lecturer, content and subject differs. And that creates the difference.

A student says, 'I am not able to memorize anything. I must first understand something very well before it gets under my skin." It is her intention that would determine whether she would remember or fail to remember or remember after a lot of struggle and time.

Plain looking Jack loves a plain looking Jane. A plain looking Jane suddenly turns into a beautiful princess in the eyes of a plain looking Jack and not to other Jacks. They are suddenly transformed into Cinderellas and Hamlet. Their intention towards each other made the difference. Their intention towards each other creates the attention and determines the quality, nature and form of attention. 

One single photo posted on Facebook generates 31 different comments. It is the intention of a commentator towards the photo, photographer and other commentators that creates the difference. The intention that creates the difference is out in the open for others to feel. Palpable!

People enter a 'brain-storming' session already knowing what the management wants of them and they storm their brains or think accordingly. The output of such meetings is determined by the intention of the management. If the management's intention is to force people to buy-in something people would buy in. If the management's intention is to create an open creative environment to foster creativity and innovation then the output would be creative solutions and innovation. The intention of the management creates the difference in the outcome.

No one can possibly sell anything to anyone unless the intention of the buyer allows for that. Sales figure of different regions differ by the intention of the customers from different regions.

The win or losing of a political party in any democratic election is a result of voters' intention. The intention makes the difference between a winner and a loser.

Intentions create memories. Intentions create actions. Intentions create results. Intention creates beauty. Intention creates chaos and complexity.

But intention is a highly emotional response. It is not subjected to rational thinking, rationale, logic, or this theory or that. It is created from direct experience or direct perception of a person or influenced by others whom one trusts and respects. It is influenced by the environment (physical, mental, spiritual) one lives. It can't be influenced or modified or changed by force or by battering one with any mantra. It is sudden. It is emergent. It is chaotic.

Intention is also the glue that binds collaborative efforts.

Intention paves the way for a heart to heart dialog to create meaning and evolve into higher consciousness.

Intention creates love between two persons.

Intention creates the environment that determines whether an employee would give out his/her heart for the work or leave an organization.

Intention creates the relationship between the teacher and her students helping a student to love and master a subject.

Intention helps us find things and be happy about it.

Intention helps us link two distinct memories, words, thoughts, ideas, images, solutions, people into something more than any one of the original items. Intention is the source of creativity.

Intention creates a brilliant business or a failed one.

Intention helps us achieve seemingly impossible tasks.

Intention restores our health or destroys it.

Intention would determine whether a problem would be solved or would it remain unsolved.

But for creative flow to happen Intention must be matched by intention. Then only creativity flows.

Intentions can be felt or understood even in silence, without a word passing between persons.

Intention determines whether one would express in poems, prose, mathematics, scientific rationale, speech, art, stone,... etc.

Intention works like magic to create the differences that we see around us. There would never be a world where everybody thinks and behaves alike or can be forced to think or behave alike.

In others words intention is the cornerstone of personal development and creative leadership.

In simple terms, intention is, "What do you want?"

Those simple words must be the first words of a leader to his/her followers.

Are we clear about what we want?

Have we made it clear?

It hardly matters whether it is explicit or implicit. But it has to be there. Once there, the rest happens automatically and effortlessly.

It is the difference that creates all the differences.

 

 

Effortless Changes

We all want to change something or the other all the time.

Many men want to look and feel like 22 year olds when they are almost over the hill and touching 50. So they try hard to change and behave like a youth sprinkled with a liberal dose of self hypnotism that age is only a number and try hanging around with women half their age. It does not work.

Similarly many women would love to hide their ever growing imagined wrinkles and sagging skin to look like a sweet sixteen through application of costliest available cosmetics till men can no longer read between the lines. That does not work either. 

We imagine the trauma of cancer and do our best to avoid the disease by supplementing our breakfast with anti-oxidant capsules and make bold public declaration of giving up smoking, drinking and probably sex. The chance of having the disease might in all probability be decided by the flip of an unbiased coin. 

We also don't want to remain poor. So we try with great effort to change our thinking and action by copying the richest people on earth with well concealed hopes pinned onto their rag to riches stories only to find at the end that we were left running on an endless conveyor that leads nowhere. 

Lot many are crazy about going up the very oily and slippery corporate ladder. So we gather around us all types of self help books that promise 101 ways to reach the top in less than 5 years. We all know what might happen. The authors of the self help books get richer by the day and we continue to remain where we were or might even slip off the ladder to break a bone or two.

As human beings we are all afraid of death. Some take it to absurd extremes by changing their lifestyle and probably their inner lives in 8 predictable ways like a) give up smoking b) give up drinking c) moderate love making d) moderate exercise e) trim the fat around the waist f) take cholesterol lowering drugs for life g) take aspirin for life h) change the nature of work. Risk assessment studies show the worth of such careful interventions and changes to be +/- 2.5 years than one would have normally lived. It isn't worth the effort.

Most of our lives we try to deal with changes the hard way with lot of pomp and fury signifying nothing. The reasons for such changes are a) Fear b) Social pressure c) Pleasure d) Self aggrandizement. Changes in these lines are always fraught with inherent danger of not working out well enough resulting in wasted effort, time, money and a big dent on the self esteem. Moreover, these are all superficial in nature. We think we have changed the inputs but the outputs don't change in any significant ways. It might at times, deteriorate instead.

That leaves us with very little precious time and energy to go for real changes. Changes that follow our natural instinct to do something very well. Changes that calls upon us to take real life changing initiatives for others. Changes that allow us to live more authentically. Changes that allow us to discover ourselves through play. Changes that spring from our intelligent insights and responses to ever changing reality and engaging in something more meaningful and humane. Changes that are based on the lessons learned from the dynamics of nature. Changes that are based on the reflection of reality. Changes that can bring about quantum effects. And changes that can be done almost silently.

These, fortunately, are all real big changes where a small change in the input with the right initiative and thought can bring about dramatic and long lasting changes in output.

Surprisingly, such changes call for the minimum effort, minimum time and minimum resources. Moreover, such types of changes can be brought about in any human activity that we are passionately engaged in. The other good thing is such changes are effortless and easy; devoid of fear, anxiety, pressure to conform and egos, which in turn release endless creative energies enabling us to make the right moves to live life more authentically, just as it was meant to be.

Are we game for effortless changes?