Intentions Define Your Experience
"If you want to build a ship, don’t assemble a team to do tasks and tell them what to do, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea. " - Paraphrasing Saint-Éxupery
The Buddha taught that all life, including our thoughts, feelings, and actions, arises from our intentions.
Right Intention is a core tenet of traditional Buddhist teaching. Right Intention refers to cultivating the correct motivations or mental attitudes that lead to ethical behavior and spiritual growth.
Intentions play such a central role in the perspective from which we experience reality. Sometimes intentions are formed clearly; sometimes they remain unspecified. By being actively mindful of their intentions, founders set up the proper frame of mind for a fulfilling journey.
Be intentional about your intentions
As we explored in the section on cultivating agency, framing a challenge as your own deliberate choice can make all the difference.
Being intentional about embracing discomfort, lack of control, and reversals will help you suffer less and grow more. Great founders are willing and able to take on the hardest challenges because they understand how to harness their own intentions to realize their potential.
Filmmaker James Cameron exemplifies this principle through his intentional focus on tackling only the most difficult challenges that no one else dares to take on. Doing the hard things has enabled him to achieve what has never been done before, securing his status as the most commercially successful filmmaker ever.
I believe Cameron understands a powerful truth of the human mind: With time, your ability rises to the level of your intentions. If you focus only on what you perceive as feasible today, you end up selling yourself short in the future.
In fact, your intentions can be harnessed for growth. As an example, Cameron worked on Avatar for 15 years and Avatar: The Way of Water for 12 years. (Most movies take two to three years.) It took him that long because he chose to do things only his future self and future team could accomplish, working persistently over the years to close the gap between present inability and future ability.
By deliberately choosing projects that push the boundaries of technology and storytelling, Cameron has continuously set new standards, each movie made possible with technical invention. Thanks to being highly intentional, Cameron is more than willing to embrace the discomfort of the monumental tasks that scare other movie directors away, resulting in unmatched achievements, both artistic and commercial.
Cameron has made three of the four biggest box-office successes ever, each bringing in over $2 billion in sales.
Cameron has inspired countless others he has worked with to approach challenges with a similar mindset. With a reputation as someone who takes on big things, he’s been able to attract other like-minded people to contribute to making near-impossible movies. He harnessed intentionality for himself, but also for the pursuit of a group endeavour.
And that’s where most of his leverage comes from—channeling the intentions of a small army of talented, bold, and determined people to make impossible movies together.
Cameron taught them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.
Mindful intentions insert meaning into your actions.
Meaning is what keeps you going when reason tells you to quit. Meaning keeps you going when others give up.
Mindful intention sharpens the blade of your mind, cutting through each challenging moment with finesse and precision. Intentionality lets you assert what you want to experience and position yourself for it.
Harnessing intentions is a skill in itself. Like Cameron, founders can help others define their intentions too by encouraging the team to take on the harder, most meaningful challenges. Your role as a founder and leader is to help others identify and express their purest intentions.
Simple Acts Done with Deep Intention
Japanese tea masters set a good example of intentionality in the smallest of actions. As part of the ritual, the tea master selects each utensil with care. Each movement is deliberate, calm, and steady.
Through the ritual, the tea master creates an environment of calm and clarity, allowing his guests to fully appreciate the moment’s purity and tranquility. This ritual, steeped in centuries of tradition, serves as a daily reminder that intentionality can transform even the simplest of acts into a profound and meaningful experience.
Lastly, cultivate good intentions toward others.
Buddhists call this act metta, loosely translated as loving-kindness.
The simple act of wishing good to others can have a surprisingly positive and powerful effect on the person having the thought, even when no words are exchanged.
Make kind action a part of your intention.
“Dark intentions lead to dark results... bright intentions lead to bright results".
— The Buddha
Have a nice week end 🌕✌🏼