Setting An Intention

Trending Towards the Good

One of the benefits of my mindfulness practice, of sitting with myself daily (or almost daily), is that I see my complexity. I have things that I do well, and there are other areas where I fail miserably and repeatedly. I have good days and bad.

My intention is to trend toward the wholesome. This means I have to understand what is wholesome or good for me. I have to know where I want to go and how I want to be when I get there. If I don't set this intention, this vision, then I will flounder. I will go wherever the currents of the day take me. That might be the negative or positive winds of social media. The mood and tenor of a client having a bad day and seeing me as an easy target. The sometimes all-consuming drama of family. To be the way I want to be and meet my vision of myself, I have to have intention, conviction, and practice. I need to get up every day and see myself and my actions with clarity and keep trying to be better-- and understanding that I will fail most of the time. But I still try.

Businesses have the same complexity. They are full of contradictions. In the same company, you can find both wholesome and unwholesome trends. Very few companies are all bad--or all good. As a leader, it is your job to determine the direction you want your group and organization to go. You can establish the values that shape the work you do. And you can model and demonstrate what it means to uphold those values. This isn't a protest. It's an action. It isn't shouting. It's a slow and steady practice that can, over time, help to shift the tides in an organization that might be heading in a harmful direction.

Do you have a clear vision of what is good and wholesome for your team? Do you regularly measure your adherence to these values?