Live your intentions

By Gustavo Seijas

Every day, each one of us, have something to live for, someone to love, someone or something to admire. This can be either personal, it can be material, it can be spiritual, but the main thing is that it’s yours. Each one of us has something unique in which we believe and act daily on a belief that it will only represent a benefit to us.

This is because I act, behave and think in something that I truly believe. One of my favorite authors, Jay Shetty describes this as: “Your intention is something who you pretend to be to act with purpose and feel that what you do has a “why”.

Knowing this, everyone should know what’s the motivation behind everything that I do every day. The best way to know my true intentions in my life is to look at them as seeds. With each seed that is planted, we may see two results, either a beautiful flower or tree, or weeds. The result depends on the care you give to those seeds, the water, the sunlight, even the wind.

The same is with us, we are responsible for every little piece that makes us. Is my objective planned for a positive outcome? Does it come from envy? Does it come from anger? Or, does it come from love? Does it come from growth? The answer only depends on us.

But as many of us know, you have to work to make those seeds grow; it’s not sufficient to only wish for it, to “manifest” something. We cannot wait for something to happen, to fall into our lap in the hopes that someone realizes how awesome we are and offers me a place in the world. As Martin Luther King said: “Those who love peace must learn to organize as effectively as those who love war.”

Many people, including myself, rely on the “I wish that...”, “I wish I was more organized”, “I wish I was more athletic”; we don’t verbalize what it really takes for us to accomplish any goal. “I wish” is just a synonymous of “I don’t want to do things in any other way”.

There’s a little story about Picasso that expresses our inability to recognize the work and perseverance behind an accomplishment. According to the story, a woman sees Picasso in a market, she comes up to him and says: Do you mind drawing me something? - Absolutely – Picasso replies, and that in about 30 seconds he hands off an extremely beautiful drawing to the lady - It’s thirty thousand dollars – he says. But... Mr. Picasso – the lady replies -, how come you want to charge me that much? You have only taken 30 seconds! - Madame – Picasso says -, I have taken 30 years to be able to do that drawing.

The same goes with any work anyone has done. The effort behind it is invisible. When we are asked, who are we, we usually reply with our achievements; “I’m a lawyer”, “I’m an accountant”, “I’m a CEO”. This may be useful if you’re speaking with someone you just met, but life has more sense when we are defined by our intentions instead of our achievements.

If you really are defined by your job, what will you be when you lose that job? Losing a job shouldn’t destroy what we are, our identity. Instead, if we live intentionally, we have a reason to be and a reason that is not linked to what we achieve, but who we are.