Foundations 2
PART 2
6-Minute Read
pages xxix-xxxiii
LANGUAGE
Throughout Intentional there are certain words and phrases that are used differently within the context of conscious choosing from how they are often used or defined in ordinary life. So to make sure we’re on the same page, here is a brief glossary to reference as needed:
Come from: The state of being the source—the creator—of the experience one is having in every moment with their life circumstances, whether they recognize themselves to be the source or not.
Disempowerment: The state of not having access to the necessary power for acting effectively on behalf of oneself or another. It is often experienced as stuck-ness and helplessness.
Empowerment: The state of having access to the necessary power for acting effectively on behalf of oneself or another. It is often experienced as liberation and capableness.
Judgment: A determination that someone or something is good/ bad, is right/wrong, or should/shouldn’t be a particular way. Humans superimpose our personal judgment onto most situations.
We then perceive the judgment to be inherent truth about the situation rather than a subjective condition we added to the situation.
Example: “Losing my job is bad, wrong, terrible, and shouldn’t happen.”
Meaning: An implication regarding someone’s or something’s past, present, or future derived from a judgment made about it. Human beings superimpose the meaning we’ve created onto most situations based on the judgment we’ve made. We then perceive the meaning to be inherent truth about the situation rather than a subjective condition we added to the situation.
Example: “Losing my job means I’ll never be successful.”
Resource: Anything that holds the potential to benefit, advance, or generate increase in one’s life (e.g., time, money, energy, skill, talent, imagination, ambition, creativity, knowledge, vision, relationship, community).
Show up: The manner in which, through intention, perception, language, and action, one engages with life to generate a particular result. It is composed not only of how one presents oneself but also the way one perceives what is and isn’t possible for themself or others in a particular moment.
VALUES
Whether you have identified them or not, core values are actively impacting the quality of your life right now. Core values are, simply, the things that are most important to you. Examples of core values are love, family, power, money, health, pleasure, fame, and freedom.
The quality of your life will increase or decrease in direct proportion to the alignment of your choices and core values. When your choices and values align, you’ll experience your life working. When your choices and values misalign, you’ll experience your life not working. It is incredibly useful, then, to get clear on what your core values are so that you can intentionally make choices consistent with what matters most to you.
GOD
Full disclosure: The pages in front of you rest upon the assertion that “God is.” While Intentional is not a book about God, nor is it meant to change your view of God, it is biased toward the existence of God.
It is my assertion that the existence of God makes the human capacity for consciously choosing in life possible. It is also my assertion that there is power and support available to human beings that cannot be accessed through the physical or visible world alone; it must be accessed through the Spirit.
You do not need to subscribe to my assertions in order to be greatly served by Intentional. However, being informed of them may be useful to you as you choose how or whether to proceed with this work.
RESPONSIBILITY
Conscious choosing raises two fundamental questions that each of us gets to confront in life:
Who or what is responsible for how my life turns out?
And
Which choices do I make in light of who is responsible?
Who is responsible? Is it my parents, the government, my employer, my spouse, my friends, my skill and talent, the economy, my education, my circumstances, luck, the universe, or God? Am I responsible? And which choices in life are mine to make, if any?
Intentional will return you to wrestle with these two questions often. You’re welcome.
PARADOX
The paradoxical nature of a deeply satisfying life is that if you treat it as a goal contingent upon external circumstances in the future, it will elude you. Deep satisfaction must come from you and through you in order to come to you. In other words, a deeply satisfying life is produced by being deeply satisfied. Hence, the paradox.
Deep satisfaction obeys the natural law of sowing and reaping; its nature is to come forth from your life like the multiplied return of cultivated seed. Choosing to be deeply satisfied right now is the seed that must be sown to reap the deeply satisfying life you desire.
As with other paradoxes, the validity of this assertion will become evident as you act on it rather than merely think about it. It is to be discovered through working it out, not figuring it out.
REPEAT
It will serve you greatly to revisit this section—Foundations— periodically as you progress through Intentional. Definitely do so anytime you experience yourself wrestling with concepts or ideas. It’s also helpful to revisit from time to time to experience the Foundations principles at a deeper level as a result of who you have become along the way.
PROMISE
Some choices will generate immediate benefit, other choices will require persistent practice over weeks and months before you materialize the result you desire. My promise is that when you put this body of work into action, you will see new possibilities for your life. And when you see what you’ve never seen before, you will create what you’ve never created before.
Now is the time to consciously choose your own way.
Now is the time to bring forth something new.
Now is the time to create the deeply satisfying life you desire.
Now is the time to be Intentional.
May you prosper in every way!
Becky & TPL Team
52 Maxims of Conscious Choosing To Create the Deeply Satisfying Life You Desire.