Intent and focus

One of the great puzzles of my life’s journey is why some of my intentions are not realised. I consider myself a possibility thinker – where all things are possible, nothing is impossible. But as I observe instances in my own life and others of stated intentions not realised, I ask myself “when does possibility thinking become foolhardiness?” When does “all things are possible” not pan out? Is there really such a thing as “reality” which intervenes and stops or hinders our intentions?

We observe and say that those whose intentions are manifested want the thing “badly”, they are “hungry”. Sometimes we just consider them lucky. Whatever it is, they are doing something different to what we are doing. We all state our intentions, but they do something else.

The real issue for me with intent is focus. Focused energy creates movement, and movement means action. When we create an intention, we start a stream of energy or movement towards it. However, if we don’t focus our energy on our intent, then that stream of energy will become dispersed. We can say that we intend anything, and that everything is possible, but making it happen requires constant, unwavering focus. Otherwise, our intent becomes a wish, and a wish has little power. There is no focused energy coalescing behind a wish.

In geology, the focus is the point of origin of an earthquake. We know that this is where most of the movement, or energy is. And we know how powerful an earthquake is and the type of shifts it creates! We can also consider mathematics, where the focus is the tip point of a conical shape. If we visualise it, we can literally view focus as a funnelling of our energy to one point. How powerful, if we could focus all our energy to that one point of our intention – we could, like an earthquake, move mountains!

Now we are told, and we know deeply, that we create our universe by our thoughts. And we create the life we desire by deliberate intent. But can our desires happen by simply sitting in a lotus position and meditating all day on the intention? Perhaps. For that type of energy would spread and galvanise someone, somewhere to the desired action.

We sometimes hear people say that “someone stole their idea. Perhaps what really happened is that they declared an intent but did not maintain focus, and therefore energy, towards it. Having put the energy of the intent out there, it is now free to “float” to others who have the same or similar intent and focus.

As we think about the possibilities in our lives, we want to be very clear what we are willing to focus our energy on consistently. Yet in this focusing, we must be careful not to become attached and tied to our way. It is a real balancing act – consistent focus on our stated intent, yet openness to the movement of energy to get us there.

If we are not realising our intentions, then we need to ask ourselves how focused we are on our intention. Where are we spending our time (energy)? Are our actions (energy) in alignment with our intentions? Are our words (energy) in alignment? Are our emotions and beliefs (energy) in alignment? For when all these things are aligned, then our intentions have no choice but to be realised. Energy flows where focus goes. And when we maintain our focus, energy flows easily and gracefully.