What is your Intention?

With so much demand for our attention, how do we prioritize this scarce and valuable commodity?

Through Intention...Intention describes a specific purpose or motivation, such as answering, “why am I here?” “What do I want to accomplish?” “What do I REALLY want?”

Attention describes what we are focused on. “What am I observing?” “What is filling my awareness?” “What am I experiencing?”

Our attention is valuable, not because it is in high demand, but because it is powerful. Attention gives substance to our experience of reality. When we focus on something it comes into the foreground and all else recedes. We are unconsciously making choices directing our attention… and those choices, conscious or not, directly affect the moment-to-moment experience that is our life.

Think about watching a movie. The director shapes your attention through music, editing and lighting – mostly we are drawn into the story and we are not aware of how our attention is being manipulated to create the desired effect.

Or consider a magician, who creates illusions by directing our attention left, while the sleight of hand is pulled off on the right. While surrendering to a magic show is a wonderful experience, filling us with wonder, we are given the choice to do so willingly. However, troubles begin when our unconsciously directed attention results in illusions.

We are the directors of our lives and our attention, yet we are not necessarily conscious of all the choices we make that direct our attention and thus shape the story being experienced in real time.

What we need is a different, more wholesome INTENTION. The tools developed by social media companies are not bad per se. We can connect with friends and family who don’t live nearby. We may encounter ideas and articles that illuminate and expand our perspective, rare gems that otherwise might have remained undiscovered in obscure corners of the internet. The newsfeed, composed largely of trusted friends and sources, provides an automatically curated source of articles and videos that are of interest to each of us. By being clear about our specific intentions for using social media, we can develop personal guidelines to keep us focused.

Intention brings purpose, motivating us to use our attention with awareness and conscious choice. Ultimately, this dictates how we respond to life’s moment-to-moment circumstances, shaping how we feel and ultimately how we behave.