Be Intentional. Always

It's summer in the Rivers household, which means travel. For past several summers, my clan of five adventurers have set off on preposterously long roadtrips of escalating ambition. We've camped in national parks, dingy hotels, visited far-flung relatives, and dipped our toes in both oceans. Together, we've been to each state in the lower 48, the easternmost and westernmost points, and have under our belts thousands upon thousands of miles of Interstate highway. The childrens' tolerance for windshield time approaches even their father. Soon, we depart for the Canadian Rockies and the adventures to be found there.

This didn't all happen at once. We've grown into it over the past 15+ years. Early on, my wife and I decided that we wanted to get out and see things and share those sorts of adventures with the kids. So, our preparations often start in the fall as we reserve campsites and plan out what the following summer's trip will look like. All of this takes focus and intentional decisions around what we think we might want to do.

I tell this story to partially explain a longer-than-desired hiatus from Pioneer Blue articles this month, but also to dovetail into what I've been thinking about a lot lately: intent.

Intent is an important word in the Criminal Justice world, but also in our personal lives. It describes purpose, or a resolve to do something. Determination. One of the ways I encounter this idea a lot lately is actually in music performance. It is a high responsibility for a musician to carry the composer's intent to the audience. Their ability to do so depends upon their proficiency, but also their interpretation of that intent. That successful transfer of idea is built upon the composer's ability to communicate, the musician's ability to translate, and the audience's ability to receive and understand.

This linear progression of an idea is certainly not unique to music. Think about how many times you've seen an idea germinate and a board room or briefing room. The idea might be great, but as the quote goes, dreams die in execution.

One of the great ways to help an idea along and reach its goal is to specify intent. Put another way, tell the people WHY. Often times, when I could conduct briefing training for my officers before our shift, we would review department policies as part of our regular rotation of material. The reaction to this sort of training is probably universal, accompanied with groans, eye rolls, and disinterested "just get it over with-ness." On occasion, a policy was written in a way that was confusing or seems counter-intuitive. It was at these times that I would explain to my team the "spirit of the policy." I was able to understand the reason for the policy and why it was written the way that it was, but carrying the intent of the policy-writer, or our Chief, was up to me.

It's a nice thing to say "I have purpose and intent behind everything that I do." The truth is, there are many things we do that don't carry that weight, and that's fine. Sometimes we're just on auto-pilot, or we're in a mode of "I just don't care." That happens. My point is this: The more you can cluster your actions into areas of intent and purpose, the more effective you will be with your time and work.

I'm not going to list a "here's 10 ways you can inject INTENT into your day." You get the idea. Intent can be packaged into many applications:

How you spend time with loved ones

How you relax

How you train physically

How you perform at work

How you engage with strangers

The list goes on. I encourage you, wherever you find yourself today or tomorrow, to act decisively, with intent, and fully leverage the moments you are presented with. Communicate your intent to others. If you lead a team, convey that intent and empower them. L. David Marquet does a fantastic job of talking about this in his book Turn the Ship Around!

Finally, a quick update on the "coming soon" front. The Lighter Shade of Blue podcast will debut in Fall 2024. You can expect light-hearted and funny stories from Law Enforcement on the show, as told by the people who lived those moments. If you've got stories to tell and would like to participate, send me an email at [email protected].

More to come on that, and soon.

For now, enjoy your weekend. Live with purpose, always.

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