Sole Intent

“I don’t know how to move forward. I feel stuck.”

Meet Mary—or we can call her that for the sake of withholding identity.

Mary is like most people. Mary is an amazing person living ‘A’ life—but is it her life, is it her best life? The life she is eking through does not feel right. Mary feels stuck—her life feels void of forward traction and upward mobility. Mary feels weighed down. Mary feels like a failure. Mary, is not a failure by any stretch of the imagination. Mary is stuck.

Stuck.

Sticky, crappy, pinned, fixed, bound, tied, constrained, jammed…stuck.

The feelings are amplified because there is a deep vision of MORE on the inside.

Dreaming in color while living in dark murky grey.

Stuck.

“Mary, what are your goals for this year, this quarter, this month, this week, or just today?”

The answer makes her eyes light up. The explanation of her imagination has a schematic of artistic prose, the dimensions of an accomplished illustrator—Mary is transformed in her moment of describing her soul-intention.

“There is a difference between your soul-intention and your sole intention.”—A.S.

Goals. Well crafted, carefully structured, strategically studied, written in pencil…goals.

Mary, like most of us do not understand the art of designing goals. Rather, we vomit our intestines—I mean intentions. We spit out all of these well-meaning, potentially explosive…wishes.

You mean what you say in the moment. Then the moment passes. You are left feeling stuck.

Stuck.

Over time you distrust ourselves because you are not showing up as the person you see in your soul. Over time you begin to feel like what is in front of you is all there is to you.

Soul has many parts. Sole is one part.

Take ONE from the many and design a methodology (goal) around the sole—around the one.

Intentional Design vs. Incipient Intention

SMART GOALS

S–specific

M–measureable

A— achievable

R –results-focused

T–time-sensitive

When you write out your intention properly using this simple framework—you have an intentional goal. You should be able to look at your goal and create objectives and benchmarks needed to ensure your goal actually materializes.

Let’s practice.

Start a business. (missing; S, M, T)

Start a baking business. (missing; S, M, T)

Start a baking business in the next six months, specializing in cupcakes, to be sold in ‘mom-pop’ restaurants in a 15 mi. radius from your home address.

Assuming you know how to bake this would be acceptable. Achievable and realistic is subjective to the environment of the individual.

If you work 3 jobs totaling 80 hours a week; your timeframe of 6 months may not be realistic or achievable. When will you have time to bake? When will you have the time to find restaurants willing to take on your product?

Often times we are good at something but lack passion. If you start baking and you hate it—STOP it. I don’t care how many of your family members love your cupcakes—if you HATE it you will become embittered with your skill-set and expend energy you need to actually do what you will LAST at.

Just because you love it, and you are good at it, does not mean it is going be easy or an automatic success. All it means is you will stand the test of time when frustration, fear, and freak-of-nature life events happen.

You- I mean; Mary is not stuck. Mary just needs to intentionally design her sole purposes with clarity.

Most goals are not goals.

Goals are designed.

Well-designed goals equal a well-designed life.