I have made a decision to run a half marathon this year on Father's Day. This decision was made on the spur of the moment, without much thought. My bad.
Had I thought about this decision at any length, I should have come to the realization I would not have enough time to train properly, and get into shape for this marathon.
Yes it's only the half marathon......but it's still a WHOLE HALF MARATHON!
Am I crazy? Quite possibly.
Will I run this half marathon? You betcha!
A while back I had been trolling the blogosphere (first time using that term - fyi), and came across an interesting article about
cause-effect vs intention-manifestation (IM). Good reading. In fact, to be somewhat off topic, I highly recommend reading a lot of the articles at that site, some are quite good.
So if you break down the idea of intention-manifestation to it's basic principles, it is telling us the most difficult part of getting something accomplished.....is making the decision to do it. Sounds pretty simple, and when you really think about it, it is indeed fairly simple.
But, how do we normally get to the point of making any decision. Like most people we will weigh the good against the bad, possible jeopardies, benefits, drawbacks, possible conflicts, etc, and it takes a while to make decisions. Think about any decision you consciously made, and ask yourself honestly whether you made the decision based on what outcome you wanted, or after the above mentioned decision making process we all use? I am betting you had to weigh a few things first (abd this could have been done fast), and then you made a decision.
The intention-manifestation model says not to weigh anything, just make the decision first, based on what outcome you want, and then figure out afterwards what needs to be accomplished to achieve the target.
Easy as pie.
If you use this IM model, you are so much further along in achieving the target, than you would be if you weighed out everything before making the decision.
Think about your workplace. If you are working in an environment where you are given sales targets, service level agreements, or any expectations at all, you are practicing IM already.
For instance if your boss tell you he wants you to make 500 sales by the end of the month, what is the process for you hitting that target?
Well first, you hear the target. The decision to make that target is next, and you will usually make that decision because your job is on the line otherwise.
So now all you have to do is plan how to reach that goal. Simple.
Apply that strategy to decisions you would normally take a long time to make, or have weigh and weigh numerous items before making the decision. You will find making decisions much easier, and then your focus can be on the plan to reach the goal, rather than whether or not you are even going to make the decision to create a goal.
My two examples are quitting smoking, and running the marathon.
I used IM, and made the decision at work one day, that I was quitting smoking that night. I then figured out how to get there and stay there. It will tell you this, after making the decision, I was so happy. I didn't think about the stress I would have from meetings later in the week, and maybe I should delay quitting until after the meeting. No sir, I made a decision and that was that.
Today - still smoke free. Been 8 months. Yay me!
Example two is the marathon. I decided to do it, and now have to figure out how I will achieve that goal. I know I will do it, but I fear my procrastination on training will hurt me badly in the end.
I think ultimately the move towards IM is a positive thing, and part of me working on me. I am committing to myself to keep promises. I used to break them all the time, and took the promise itself out of my life. I would not promise things at all for the longest time, knowing I was bad at keeping a promise.
I am slowly bringing the promise back into my life, and IM is helping. It's my own private contract with myself. I know I've made decisions, and I can't fool myself. I have to make good on my own decisions now, since I am the only one accountable for me.
And I won't apologize for my run-on sentences, and my explanations which take far too much time to get to my points. That's the way I write. But do check out the article I linked earlier, As Steve Pavlina does a far better job of explaining it all in his article than I do.
And that's all I have to say about that.
Laterz.
AH
