This principle will make you more flexible than you ever thought you could be

We all have goals, targets, outcomes, or whatever you want to call them. We are constantly striving to reach our outcomes in different areas of our lives. However, sometimes we find ourselves too caught up in the content of what we are doing, and we forget what we are doing things for. In other words, we forget our intention for having a particular outcome.

Intentions matter

It is important to know what function that outcome plays in fulfilling your needs at a higher logical level. Otherwise, we end up just doing things for the sake of doing them.

Having an intention is something most of us do. What happens is that we are not necessarily aware of them at all times, and that can lead to confusion.

It happens way too often. You see people trying to get an outcome just for the sake of getting it and they don’t even know what they are getting it for. Before they know it they’re stuck and start behaving in stubborn ways. They forget that the outcome is nothing but a vehicle to meet a higher intention.

Having clear intentions leads to flexibility of behaviour

For example, let’s say that you want to buy yourself a hat. If your intention is to buy a hat with the intention of protecting yourself from the sun, you will go about finding that hat with a different mindset than if your intention for wearing a hat was to look fashionable.

I’ll give you another example from my own experience.

I train martial arts practically on a daily basis, and I like to compete. During competition season, my outcome is to win whatever tournament is ahead of me, although my intention for doing this is at a higher logical level. My intention this year is put my mind and body to the test against the toughest competitors out there in the circuit and, ultimately, to get out of my comfort zone so I can consistently improve my game.

Last year, I suffered a couple of injuries and could not train for a period of about three months, which also meant missing out on about four main tournaments as well.

Given that I had clear intentions, I found multiple ways to still put my mind and body to the test, get out of my comfort zone, and keep improving my game. Even while being injured.

One of my injuries was on my right shoulder, so I decided to still train and spar at the gym using only my left hand (I would tie my right hand to my hip using my belt), and I would consistently ‘lose’. However, if at times I felt like I still needed to give my shoulder a rest, I would just sit down and coach my training partners while they were sparring. Another activity I would engage in when I couldn’t make it to training was to watch videos and study moves that I could then model and memorise by using some powerful visualisation techniques I’ve learned.

The result was that when I came back to training full-time, my game had not only improved, but I was fighting better than ever. It was almost as if I never took time off to compete or train.

I could have sat down and just said, ‘I’m injured; I can’t train or compete, so I’m just going to sit at home waiting until I get better’. But having clear intentions led me to find other ways in which to fulfil my higher intention.

Give it a go

Having clear intentions can help you develop flexibility of behaviour to a point you couldn’t even imagine. It can help you be more creative and generate alternative behaviours in order to surpass any obstacles that may come your way, and ultimately, it can lead you to live your life at a higher logical level than before.

So next time you find an obstacle in your way, remember to ask yourself: What do I want this outcome for? You’ll find that keeping your intentions in mind will help be generate more options and become more flexible in the way you go about achieving your outcomes.

Remember, this is practical advice, not just another theory, so do go out and try it, and let me know how you went.

Learn more about NLP by reading our Ultimate NLP Compendium of NLP

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